Love and Basketball

The snow has stopped--at least temporarily--but the stamping hasn't. With the long holiday weekend, I had time to check out what's going on at StampTV and tried out two different challenges.

The Heartily Yours stamp set from Gina K Designs is much more than a Valentine's Day set. Here, I used the set along with this week's StampTV sketch challenge to create a sweet birthday card.

I stamped the set's wishing well image on white cardstock and colored it with Copic markers. One of the hearts in the well's base is colored a contrasting red and highlighted with some Stickles. I carefully cut the image out and set it on a softly sponged background with foam tape.

I paired two papers--a striped and a dotted one--from the My Mind's Eye Bloom and Grow line for the panel on the card front. The papers are divided by an embossed green strip, wrapped with an aqua satin ribbon. The top edge of the birthday sentiment from the coordinating Heartily Yours Additions set is slid underneath the band.

Materials Used:
Heartily Yours and Heartily Yours Additions stamp set, white cardstock (Gina K Designs); Tuxedo Black ink (Memento); markers (Copic); Aqua Mist and Spring Moss cardstock, Aqua Mist satin ribbon (Papertrey Ink); Soft Sky and Certainly Celery Classic inks, sponge (Stampin' Up!); designer paper (My Mind's Eye-Bloom & Grow line); Swiss Dot embossing folder (Cuttlebug); Ruby Slippers Glitz Stickles (Ranger); foam tape

When I saw that this week's Blast from the Past challenge was woodgraining, I knew I wanted to give it a try. This is such a fun and easy technique. With the Olympics going on now, I guess I have sports on the brain, so I decided to make my woodgrain piece a basketball court. Yes, I know that basketball's a summer sport in the Olympics, but it's still an Olympic sport--and it's only about a month until March Madness begins.

Anyway, I did my woodgraining on a piece of More Mustard cardstock with a combination of cream, caramel, and mustard inks. The panel is layered on a contrasting red card base. I used images from Melanie's Sporty Accessories stamp set for the image panel. The pennant is paper pieced with a scrap of red cardstock. I stamped the basketball image on a scrap of paper, colored it with Copic markers, then cut it out and added it to the panel with foam tape.

I placed a strip of Gina's Tan Leather cardstock across the cardfront. This paper has a fabulous texture. It's held in place with a row of zig zag stitches and a copper brad. This one's going in this month's Paper Craft Planet DT gallery, too. Our theme for this month is stitching and the gallery's filling up with some fabulous samples. Be sure to stop by and check them out here.

Materials Used:
Sporty Accessories stamp set, white and Tan Leather cardstock (Gina K Designs); Tuxedo Black ink (Memento); markers (Copic); More Mustard and Creamy Caramel Classic inks, More Mustard, Riding Hood Red, and Very Vanilla cardstock (Stampin' Up!); circle dies (Nestabilities); red grosgrain ribbon (Michaels); copper brad (Making Memories); sewing machine; foam tape