Almost done with Rachel's cards

I think I'm going to do one more card for Rachel - exactly what, I'm not sure yet, but here is #7, which I just finished.

The challenge today was to be inspired by the artwork shown here. I decided to use a patterned paper that I thought of on seeing the artwork, even though the colors are quite different. I tried a few different directions with it but ended up here. The gold of the card and the blue of the background both came out of the paper. I thought the center stamp (by Hero Arts) was a nice complement to the flower images on the paper, and I mirrored the scrolls with the background stamp (from Stampin' Up's Carte Postale), using Versamark to get a watermark look. I mounted the center panel on foam tape to pop it up a bit. I glued on the ribbon and then punched holes through to add the brads. I have to say, I think it turned out beautifully, and it was pretty quick once I figured out what I was doing! Ribbon and brads by Making Memories; cardstock by Bazzill; sentiment by Savvy Stamps; patterned paper by K & Company.

I also wanted to share this card that I made early this morning. There are some biweekly pre-challenges going on leading up to a special event at SCS in a couple weeks - Virtual Stamp Night, where there will be hourly challenges Friday evening and all day Saturday. All cards for the pre-challenges and the VSN challenges have to be done in 45 minutes - that is a true challenge for me! Last night's challenge was to make a Christmas card in fall colors. I thought these two patterned papers would work well together, and for the stamp I needed a third color so I brought in the green. The stamp (from SU's Take Three) was inked with Tombow markers and then accented with Gelly Roll glitter pen. I learned about this tool at a stamping class I took on Thursday night, and I don't know how I ever lived without it! The grid paper is by We R Memory Keepers and the yellow is by BoBunny. Most of the panels have inked edges in Versacolor bamboo ink. On the red strip I used a paper piercer to do faux stitching, which involves piercing holes and then connecting them with a pen, in this case the glitter pen. Then I added the gold ribbon on top and put it all on a green card. This might be one of my Christmas cards to send out - it was really easy to do (it really did take less than 45 minutes) but I think it looks so pretty, and lots of color combinations would be possible.

It's been kind of a strange day - very hot, for one thing, which is horrendous after the really lovely weather we'd been having. And we're a bit worried about Sarah - she is looking really wobbly on her feet and she has been falling down a lot today. One possibility is an inner ear infection, which there is nothing to be done for, but we're not sure at what point we need to be concerned about something more serious. So we're just keeping our eye on her. I've been trying to restrict her interest in climbing today, just to be sure she's safe, and that is really not making her happy at all. We just hope this is something that will resolve itself, and quickly.