Lots of Love

If you're following Inking Aloud on Facebook, you probably know that I spent a lot of time yesterday cleaning up my stamping space.  I did take a little break to stamp and put together these two love themed cards for the last two weeks of Viva la Verve sketches.

Here's my card for week 3's sketch.  I combined the sketch with Verve's current Diva Dare to use an uplifting sentiment and to incorporate distressing or a shabby element in your design. 

Distressing's not something I usually do, but I managed to fit some in on my card.  Here, I used a distressing tool to rough up the edges of a pink patterned paper panel.  I even curled up the top left corner of the panel when I adhered it to the card to emphasize the distressed look.  I edged the panel with a strip of berry colored cardstock before attaching it to the pink card base.

I stamped the sweet Winnie the Pooh sentiment from Verve's Hundred Hearts set in pale pink ink on a cream oval for my focal image.  The oval is layered on a light pink panel and edged with a pair of paper doily pieces on the top and bottom.  I adhered the panel to the cardfront over a gray patterned fishtail flag strip.  In an effort to incorporate a shabby style element, I used my Bow Easy to make a double looped bow from some rosy pink seam binding.  It's attached to the bottom of the sentiment panel as an accent.

Materials Used:
Hundred Hearts stamp set (Verve Stamps); Bubblegum ink, Die-namics Fishtail Flag Stax die (My Favorite Things); Very Vanilla cardstock (Stampin' Up!); Sweet Blush and Berry Sorbet cardstock (Papertrey Ink); Uncommon 6x6 paper pad (Authentique); Head over Heels 6x6 paper pad (Lily Bee Design); oval dies (Spellbinders); paper doily (Wilton); seam binding (Martha Stewart); Bow Easy


And, here's my card for week 4's sketch.  The decorative edge in the sketch was a fun change from a regular cardfront.  I used the Take Note set to put this one together.

I stamped the set's envelope image and used that as my image panel.  It's attached to a piece of patchwork patterned paper that I layered on a coordinating turquoise mat for contrast.  To go with the homespun feel of the patchwork pattern, I found a piece of red stitched grosgrain ribbon in my ribbon scraps and tied it in a knot, then attached it to the top of the envelope as an accent.  The set's "I love you" sentiment is stamped on a red fishtail flag strip that extends out from underneath the envelope. 

I used a long border die to cut the decorative edge on the right side of the cardfront.  The inside of the card has a strip of patterned turquoise cardstock attached to it so that you see the pretty pattern instead of the kraft.

Materials Used:
Take Note stamp set (Verve Stamps); Memento Tuxedo Black and Lady Bug inks (Tsukineko); Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, and Whisper White cardstock (Stampin' Up!); Desert Storm cardstock (Neenah); Handmade and This and That 6x6 paper pads (Lily Bee Design); Die-namics Perfect Bracket Edge die (My Favorite Things); red stitched grosgrain ribbon