Coral Potpourri for Freshly Made Sketches

Well, I had a great weekend! I hope you did, too. On Friday night we went to see a tribute concert.

                                        

It was a pretty good show overall, with impersonations of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Bill Haley, Elvis, Roy Orbison and Brenda Lee. But the guy that stole the show was Lance Lipinsky, who played Jerry Lee Lewis and one of the Everly Brothers. His piano playing skills were off the chart, and his energy was just amazing, not to mention a pompadour hair do that defied gravity. It was great fun to sing along to all the classic oldies.

On Saturday night we had some friends over and I finally got to watch Inside Out. I've been wanting to for a long time, but just couldn't get it together.

                                       

What a great portrayal of the way your mind works, making it understandable for even children. Well done, Pixar!

Then Sunday afternoon, I got down to business, in a fun way, and gave my own creativity free rein. I've been wanting to do the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #211 ever since I first saw it and I combined it with the new Paper Player's Colour Challenge #270 - Black and White, Gold or Silver and one other colour of my choice:

I chose Calypso Coral as my fourth colour and gold rather than silver, and decided to take a break from Christmas cards to make a Thank You card with watercolouring and butterflies. Here's how it turned out:

• I embossed the butterflies from Papillon Potpourri with Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder on Shimmery White Cardstock then watercoloured over them with some Calypso Coral ink using an Aqua Painter. I'm happy with how that turned out. I added some Gorgeous Grunge splatter with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder.
• The flower was made using the Pansy Punch and this technique. Don't you love the Metallic Foil Doilies?
• For the greeting I used the Greetings Thinlits and die cut one in Gold Foil sheets and one if Basic Black cardstock. I glued them together off-setting the black to form a shadow effect.

Hope you like this one!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

Papillon Potpourri Clear Stamp Set [123759]	Papillon Potpourri Wood Stamp Set [132058]	Gorgeous Grunge Wood Stamp Set [130514]	Gorgeous Grunge Clear Stamp Set [130517]	Shimmery White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101910]
Gold Foil Sheets [132622]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Calypso Coral 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [122925]	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045]	Metallic Foil Doilies [138392]
Versamark Pad [102283]	Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad [126983]	Aqua Painters [103954]	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder [109130]	Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder [109129]
Embossing Buddy [103083]	Heat Tool [129053]	Builder Bird Punch [117191]	Pansy Punch [130698]	Greetings Thinlits Dies [138275]
Big Shot [113439]

Posies and Papillons for The Paper Players

Okay, I'm reaching the point where I need to do a big order of new products from the new 2015/16 Annual Catalogue! I know that I am really lucky to be able to order a few products from the Sneak Peek pre-order, but I've kind of exhausted them now and I've psychologically detached myself from most of the retiring products, so it's time for something new! Especially, DSP! I felt bereft of inspiration when it came time to create something for The Paper Players' Challenge this week, but I got out a combination that I previously really liked with the In Colour Envelope Paper and Tip Top Taupe, I used a stamp from I Think You're Great to stamp a Watermelon Wonder Posie and good old Papillon Potpourri to add some butterflies, and Boom! I had a card!  Here's The Paper Players' Challenge #246:

It's a great sketch from Anne Marie Hile! This is my take on it:

• I had butterflies on the brain with this one. Papillon Potpourri is a stamp set I haven't used in forever, but the bitty butterflies were perfect for the three small elements on the left in the sketch and they looked so much better with a stamped image than just punched out of cardstock with the Bitty Butterfly punch. The same with the larger butterfly punched out with the Elegant Butterfly Punch. All the butterfly images are stamped in Tip Taupe Top on coloured cardstock.
• The sentiment is from Butterfly Basics stamp set.  I just love the scripts used in its sentiments. It turns out that it shows up well stamped right onto the Mint Macaron striped Envelope Paper with Tip Top Taupe ink.
• The flower is from one of the images in I Think You're Great. I stamped it on Whisper White with Watermelon Wonder ink and trimmed the sides off so that it would look even in a square. I matted it with a larger rectangle of Tip Top Taupe cardstock and a narrow border of Watermelon Wonder cardstock.

We are in the midst of a redecorating project at my house. It was decorated with dark, warm colours in a Tuscan villa kind of look for years. We've decided to go with a beachy decor with light cool colours, except we don't want to change furniture because our leather couch and chair are in next-to-new condition, so we'll see how they fit in. I'm excited to finally get the time for this project. I'll have some before and after photos when we're done.

Thanks for your visit! Come back soon!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the Stampin' Up! products used to make this card today!

Sneak Peek Products from the new 2015/16 Annual Catalogue, available June 2, 2015:

I Think You're Great Stamp Set, 2015 - 17 In Colour Envelope Paper, Tip Top Taupe Cardstock, Mint Macaron Cardstock, Watermelon Wonder Cardstock, Tip Top Taupe Classic Stampin' Pad, Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad

Product List

Butterfly Basics Clear Stamp Set [138816]	Butterfly Basics Wood Stamp Set [138813]	Butterfly Basics Photopolymer Stamp Set [137154]	Papillon Potpourri Clear Stamp Set [123759]	Papillon Potpourri Wood Stamp Set [132058]
Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Pearl Basic Jewels Embellishments [119247]	Bitty Butterfly Punch [129406]	Elegant Butterfly Punch [127526]	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]
SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]	Glue Dots [103683]

Back Home Again to a Card in a Box!

No matter how terrific your vacation is, it's always good to get back home again! Right? The older I get the more I appreciate my own comfy bed and pillows and having my things around me again. So that part is good. The part I don't like is all the catch up I have to do as soon as I return from a week off! There's the unpacking. There's the laundry that accumulated on holidays. I have two classes and a workshop this week, so after getting home Saturday night, Sunday I hit the ground running!

My workshop hostess had a specific request. She wanted me to do a Card in a Box for her crafters. That was the first project I designed yesterday. Here it is:

• I used Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper for the panels and the same colours for all the flowers, leaves and butterflies, mainly Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana, Pistachio Pudding, and Summer Starfruit.
• My hostess loves butterflies, so my design features lots of them, using Papillon Potpourri images and the Flower Shop Stamp Set, but adding a sentiment from Label Love. I wanted images that could be punched out, instead of die cut or hand cut to save time at the workshop, so with these sets I used the pansy punch as well as the Elegant Butterfly Punch, the Bitty Butterfly Punch and the Artisan Label Punch.
• I made good use of the Bird Builder punch as well, to create leaves from Pistachio Pudding cardstock. I used the branch for this as well as the bird's wing, which is a great shape for a larger leaf.

• The back side has the greeting with matching sentiments from Petite Pairs and some more flowers, from Petite Petals stamp set and small butterflies from Papillon Potpourri.

• The cool thing about these Card in a Box projects is that they fold flat into a standard sized card shape, 5 1/2" x 4 1/4", and will fit into a medium envelope if you don't make the embellishments stick out too far from the edges.

I haven't got time to post a whole tutorial right now, but I am planning on doing a video and making a photo tutorial available as well. If you would like to have the photo tutorial, please send me an email with your email address and I will send you the PDF file. The video tutorial will be posted on-line when it is completed.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!

Product List

130939	132058	130619	133152
128706	120953	131298	100730
131294	131297	133521	101406
131176	131175	131177	126991
104294	117191	130920	130698
127526	129406