New month, new toys!

Wow, July? How did that happen? I've been busy with my kids since they got out of school and we've been having a lot of fun. But since the first Blendabilities markers are available to purchase today, I felt like making a card to focus on them. I haven't had a lot of time to play with them yet, so I'm looking forward to more coloring in my future. So far I think they are fabulous!

I found a bunch of great challenges to play along with. I used the tic-tac-toe challenge at the Paper Players (I picked twine, patterned paper, and embossing); the color challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments (although I cheated a little since I wanted to use the Blendas); and Friday Mashup (hello plus sequins - hey, I used one!). The main image is the single stamp Vivid Vases - I used a post-it note over the sentiment when I inked it up so I could just use the flowers.

So, more on the Blendabilities and the colors I used. HSS's colors were Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey and Tangelo Twist - all new In Colors for 2014-15. The Blendas I used are officially Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight, and Pumpkin Pie, but I found that by focusing on the darker shades in the marker sets, I could match the orange and yellow. The vases are a bit more green than Lost Lagoon, so it's not a perfect match. But by blending the darkest Coastal Cabana marker with the lightest (the middle one has a lot more green, so I avoided that one) I was able to come close. I finished off with the polaroid die from On Film, the "hello" trimmed from the sentiment in the new set Hello Darling, a couple punches, one of the new sequins (I think it's officially Baked Brown Sugar, but it seemed to work), and a little twine looped behind. I've seen a lot of stampers doing this with twine, but this is my first go at it... I'm not sure if I did it the "right" way but I like the result!

Two sketches, two cards

Working on my two cards for club this week, I ended up using two sketches that look kind of similar. The first is Freshly Made Sketches and the second is Seize the Sketch. That's the order I made the cards in - first this one for FMS (oriented horizontally instead of vertically).

 

This card demonstrates three ways to use washi tape that I found on Pinterest. The rosette is a 1 1/2" x 11" strip of Whisper White card stock. Just attach the washi tape to the paper, turn over to score (I did every 1/4"), then fold and put together with hot glue. I covered a retired button with washi tape too - just cover the button with tape and trim the sides. To get the holes open again, use a paper piercer - make sure you move the piercer around inside the hole to flatten down the tape. Just piercing a hole won't make it big enough to thread the twine through. Last I folded over pieces of the washi tape for the little banners. The washi tape and paper are both the retiring Gingham Garden collection, and the stamp comes from Chalk Talk (in Melon Mambo) with the corresponding die.

 

Here's the second card, which I made for Seize the Sketch, but it turned out to kind of work for FMS as well.

On this card I wanted to feature all the new In Colors and the Work of Art stamp set, which I got for free at the catalog premiere event last month. I used generation stamping and also added in the dots from Gorgeous Grunge. The stamped Very Vanilla panel is framed with the On Film framelit. I added the pansy punch flower, a little tab of Tangelo Twist ribbon, and gold sequins - you can pull them off the sequin trim and use them individually. How fun is that? Also, this is really hard to see in the photo, but I tried Sylvia's technique of using a hammer with the Decorative Dots embossing folder on the vanilla background. It seems more subtle on my card for some reason. Maybe because I used the flat side of a meat tenderizer instead of a hammer? LOL. I couldn't find a hammer but I knew right where the meat tenderizer was. I put some foam under the card stock to soften the blow on the table - my stamping table is wood and it came from my grandma's house, so I didn't really want to bang away on it. Anyway, if you have done this technique (or if you try it out after reading my post) I'd love to hear what you did and how it worked for you. We'll see what my club ladies think tomorrow night!