One, Two, Three

Here are my cards for this month’s first three Viva la Verve sketch challenges. I had the first two done and ready to share on Thursday night, but Blogger’s outage kept them undercover until now.

This card is for week one’s sketch. I made a pretty birthday card by combining the flower image from Verve's Kind Words with a sentiment from Hope Blooms. The flowers were inked with Memento tear drop shaped pads—their shape makes it easy to cover just parts of an image with ink and works great when you’re using different colors on the same image. I stamped the sentiment over the flower stems in a light blue ink. Tiny pearls sit at the center of each flower for a delicate accent.

I took the colors for the card from the ones in the Sweet Nectar patterned paper I used to cover most of the cardfront. I cut a solid blue oval to set the image panel over. A strip of celery cardstock, covered with a piece of bright pink grosgrain ribbon is layered over the oval and underneath the image panel.

Materials Used:
Kind Words and Hope Blooms stamp sets (Verve Stamps); Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, and Whisper White cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); Memento Rose Bud, Pear Tart, and Summer Sky inks (Tsukineko); Sweet Nectar designer paper (K & Company); oval die (Spellbinders); pink grosgrain ribbon (Michaels); self-adhesive pearls (Mark Richards)

My card for week two combines the sketch with the colors from this week’s Color Throwdown challenge—So Saffron, Rose Red, and Aqua. I went a bit more “vintage” looking than I usually do on my designs for this one.

I started with a panel of My Mind’s Eye paper that features the three challenge colors. After edging it with rose strips, I machine stitched along the edges and layered the panel on a So Saffron card base. I attached a white paper doily, inked with some distress ink, over the patterned paper. A strip of grosgrain ribbon runs across the top of the card, covering part of the doily. I added a bow to the ribbon to anchor the die cut tag on the cardfront. The tag was die cut with Verve’s Sweet Scallop Tag die and stamped with the matching frame and a sentiment from the Hope Blooms set. I used a pair of the flowers from the same set to make the layered flower embellishment that sits at the bottom of the tag.

Materials Used:
Hope Blooms and Sweet Scallop Tag stamp sets, Sweet Scallop Tag die (Verve Stamps); Rose Red and Bermuda Bay Classic inks, Rose Red, So Saffron, and Bermuda Bay cardstock, So Saffron grosgrain ribbon (Stampin’ Up!); Tea Dye distress ink (Ranger); My Mind’s Eye Stella & Rose-Gertie 6 x 6 paper pad (My Mind’s Eye); Harvest Gold button, twine (Papertrey Ink); self-adhesive pearl (Queen & Co.); paper doily (Wilton); sewing machine; foam tape

I finished this one last night after work, combining this week's sketch with this month's Get Your Diva On challenge to use fabric on your project. I went with a pretty pink and cream gingham that I die cut with Verve's Jotted Heart die. The die cut piece is machine stitched onto layered kraft and pink circles.

The panel on the cardfront is done in coordinating shades of pink. I used a pink on pink dotted pattern on the top of the panel and more of the gingham fabric at the bottom. There's a strip of lace along the bottom of the panel with some matching pink satin ribbon knotted around it. To set it off from the kraft card base, I matted the panel on a piece of dark brown cardstock. The "you touched my heart sentiment" from the Thankful Hearts set is stamped directly on the fabric panel with brown ink. I used a hybrid ink--I've found these work the best for stamping on fabrics without bleeding or blurring.

After setting the panel in place on the kraft card base, I added the heart panel. A pink button, threaded with twine and placed at the bottom of the heart, adds a little interest to the simple design.

Materials Used:
Thankful Hearts stamp set, Jotted Heart Die (Verve Stamps); Dark Chocolate ink, Sweet Blush button, twine (Papertrey Ink); Crumb Cake, Dark Chocolate, and Pretty in Pink cardstock (Stampin' Up!); patterned paper (Lily Bee Designs); pink satin ribbon, lace (Michaels); sewing machine; fabric