Paisley Wishes

Do you have a stamp or set that you turn to time and again? The Paisley background is one of those for me. As my Mum commented when looking through all the swaps I got from convention, it's a versatile stamp that can look very different depending on how you use it. On this card (my SIL's birthday card) I have inked Paisley with VersaMark and stamped it on the River Rock card base. Subtle, but it adds interest. I then turned to a new favourite set, Wanted, and stamped the large circular image on the card base using River Rock ink. I punched the center of the image out with the 1 3/4" circle punch to create a window. I cleaned the stamp, inked it with Rose Red, Perfect Plum and Bashful Blue markers, stamped it on Whisper White, punched it out and mounted it to the inside of the card (using dimensionals) so it would show through the window. For the main image I randomly stamped images from the Wanted set in Bashful Blue on Whisper White, then stamped the horse over top using Perfect Plum ink and the sentiment (from Take Three) using Rose Red ink. The edges of this, and the Rose Red and Perfect Plum layers, were then distressed using the cutter kit, stuck together and mounted over some more Beachfront ribbon (I'm finding the neutral tones of that pack very useful!) using dimensionals yet again. The ribbon has been tied through a piece of pewter hodgepodge.

Best Wishes from the Beachfront

This card was for Grandma who has a thing for sailing and the beach. So for her card I decided to draw inspiration from the "Beachfront" Ribbon Originals pack, adding a bit of Bashful Blue to brighten the colour scheme a bit. For the main image I stamped a flower from the hostess set Oh, So Lovely on Whisper White using Basic Grey ink. I then watercoloured the image using an aquapainter to pick up colour from the lids of the inkpads, and layered it on Basic Grey. The large Whisper White background piece actually has En Francais stamped on it using VersaMark, I know it is hard to see in the photo but in person it looks great. The sentiment is from Take Three, also stamped in Basic Grey, trimmed to size and then one end shaped by sliding it through the back of the Word Window punch, accessories are Sahara Sand ribbon from the Beachfront pack, a Bashful Blue brad, some white cotton thread, and it's all mounted on a River Rock card base.

Beautiful Beate's Sketch

It's been a while since I have done one of Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenges, though I have quite a few marked to go back to. This card was a response to her latest sketch (number 35). The colours for this card were going to be quite different until it came time to stick it all together and I decided it just didn't work. I haven't been a fan of the yellow and grey line of clothing that has just come out at Pumpkin Patch, but realised Sahara Sand was just the thing for this card. I've used the sentiment off one stamp in the Take Three set (inked with Elegant Eggplant marker) for this card, all the other images come from the Beautiful Life set. Other colours are Summer Sun, Old Olive and Barely Banana.

See Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft Volume 11 number 13 for full details.