Die Cut Dreams and Birthday Wishes

I caught up on my November Viva la Verve sketches last night after work and I have the first two to share today.  Both cards feature a great sentiment with a coordinating die cut piece as the focal image.

Here’s the first one. I made a super simple encouraging card using some scraps from the Pebbles Seen & Noted paper pad and one of the sentiments from Verve's Words of Wisdom set.  I love the mix of fonts in this set--and in the set I used in the second card, too!

I started off by arranging the two coordinating patterned paper scraps on a light blue panel. Each one is matted to set it off from the background. I stamped the sentiment in gray ink on a white panel and layered it on a teal panel, again to set it off from the rest of the cardfront. I accented the sentiment with a green die cut curved arrow, left over from another design. It was a perfect fit for the card! The panel is set on a teal card base for a final pop of color.

Materials Used:
Words of Wisdom stamp set (Verve Stamps); Memento Gray Flannel ink (Tsukineko); Soft Sky, Taken with Teal, and Whisper White cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); Simply Chartreuse cardstock (Papertrey Ink); Seen & Noted 6x6 paper pad (Pebbles); oval dies (Spellbinders); Die-namics Lead the Way dies (My Favorite Things)

And, here’s my card for this week’s sketch. I made a birthday card in a primary color scheme.  At first the diagonal panel across the center flew me for a loop, but once I came up with a good mix of patterns and an idea for a sentiment, the card came together quickly.

Most of the cardfront is covered in a dotted pattern. For contrast, I used a yellow chevron patterned paper for the diagonal panel, matted on a coordinating yellow.

I used the "happy birthday" sentiment from the Treasured Words set as the focal image.  It's stamped in dark blue ink to coordinate with the card's primary color scheme.  For an accent, I die cut a party hat from primary colored cardstock scraps and added it to the top of the panel with foam tape.  So fun!

Materials Used:
Treasured Words stamp set (Verve Stamps); Memento Nautical Blue ink (Tsukineko); Brocade Blue and So Saffron cardstock, So Saffron grosgrain ribbon (Stampin' Up!); Playdate 6x6 paper pad (My Mind's Eye); party hat die (Lil' Inker Designs); foam tape