Michael Strong's May challenge

This month Michael gave us a digital image to use on our card and the challenge to use only black, gray and white. The red is just a paper on which I photographed the card for some contrast. The digital image is the central rectangular image on the card. You can find it here- http://strongstamps.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-card-making-challenge.html I added some Spellbinders die cut circles, the sentiment Spellbinders ovals and the Sizzix heart eyelets. There are clear gems for bling. The sentiment is a Cornish Heritage Farms stamp. The gray printed paper circles are cut from envelope liners. I do love using those!

Simple and masculine

This is my sketch card for May's enjoyMichaelStrongStamps group. My Easter card was selected for April's home page image and included with the honor was a new Michael Strong stamp, his Cloisonné Fleur De Lis set. I used the smaller of the stamps as the focal image on this card. Love how classic the image is! The printed background papers are actually wallpaper samples. They have just the right look to go with Michael's stamp.

Easter is coming!

The eggs and dish are created with Michael Strong stamps. The nice egg shapes were cut using Spellbinders dies. The sentiment strip was heat embossed and the edges punched using a Martha Stewart border punch. It was fun to create an Easter card that isn't quite traditional colors but definitely says "Easter".

Outlines sketch challenge #42

This is a pretty soft colored card. Blue and yellow is one of my favorite combinations. The floral band across the card was created with an Outlines border stamp used twice, once on each side and black embossed. I'm still on a Twinkling H2O run so that is what I used along with a bit of white acrylic paint. The sentiment is a Stampendous sticker. Somehow I don't seem to use those very often this was a good opportunity.

Lisa Silver's sketch for Outlines is square but I stretched it into a rectangle. You can see it here-

http://outlineswithkathy.blogspot.com/2012/03/challenge-42-march-sketch-challenge.html

Outlines St. Patrick's Day challenge

Not being a sender of St. Patrick's Day card I had to think a bit about my stash of Outlines stamps to come up with something for this challenge. It isn't precisely a card for the holiday but I hope it is close enough! The shamrock is made from a heart stamps printed & embossed 4 times, painted with Twinkling H2Os, and trimmed out. I used the stem stamp that hasn't gotten much use over time. This was a good opportunity.

The sentiment letters are die cut and the gold shamrocks are punched. The shamrock center is punched, dry embossed, sanded and inked with gold. I wanted a flatter card than using a button would give me so I made an embellishment instead. You can't tell in the photo but there are Gloss Gel gems on the shamrock leaves.

http://outlineswithkathy.blogspot.com/2012/02/challenge-41-st-patricks-day.html

Stars & Stamps sketch #110

Before Valentine's Day I had been playing with this cool stamp from Purple Onion Designs. Hadn't made a card with it but when I saw the sketch this week on the Stars and Stamps blog I knew right away I was going to use the panel I'd made. The ribbon and silk cording have been in my stash for ever. The faux heart buttons are thick watercolor paper die cut using the smallest Spellbinder heart die. Usually it takes me forever to make a new card but this one came together in a snap.

Outlines' Make it Square challenge

It is unusual for me to make a square card although I love how they look. Mostly my cards are going to me mailed at the US first class rate and square cards are at a higher rate. Outlines' challenge gave me the excise to just go square anyway!

I particularly love this stamp. It is fun to layer and can be made into a masculine card or a feminine one. I heat embossed the image 3 times. As I am on a roll with the Twinkling H2Os I colored with them. Cutting carefully I managed 5 layers popped up.

http://outlineswithkathy.blogspot.com/2012/02/challenge-40-make-it-square.html