Sunflower Elegance

With this creation for Sunday Stamps, I have started down a new path:  working with a vivid background of cardstock, emphasizing something in the pattern by embossing or fussy-cutting.  Lisa Somerville who designs for Divinity Designs, created a sunflower card recently from the company's "Vintage Sunflowers A2 Card fronts."  It was so striking and then I learned that the card fronts are available in packs.  (I bought 2 packs!)  Dry embossing the image and emphasizing a pattern feature by fussy cutting is a new technique for me, but I am going to work with it for awhile. Deciding on the next one will require some thinking.

 

Flowers Squared

 In order to meet the Monday deadline for Freshly Made Sketches, I spent some time in my craft room in the afternoon heat (it was 98 degrees at 2:30).  When I looked at the sketch, I thought about what I could do with the four squares.  The paper of bright flowers caught my eye, especially the orange flower in the center.  I knew what I could do with the center piece of the sketch! This card has more color than any other card I've made recently. The sentiment and fussy-cut flower are popped up on foam adhesives. 

 

Without Flowers for a Birthday Card

Seize the Birthday asks for a birthday card sans flowers....it's a challenge but a good one. To create my card, I dug into the remaining stash of wood-mounted stamps for this American Art Stamps image (my wood-mounts are really ancient).   Black and white seemed the right choice, with just a little bit of color added.  (Oops, there is a handful of flowers, but very tiny.)  This card would be appropriate for the right adult.  

 

A Freshly Made Tricky Sketch

I think this might be the first time I've worked with a die cut circle in a card. I modified it slightly for this Freshly Made Sketch.   I pulled out the dies for the flowers and used them to complete the card.  Yellow and black...dry embossed card front and a simple sentiment die cut. 

 

Summer Petals for Sunday Stamps

This was truly one of those "10-minute cards"!  I just had to get started after a month of no crafting and this 3-color challenge for Sunday Stamps worked.   I had just opened a couple of packages of stamping supplies, and the "hello" die was one of them. I have stacks of paper packs and a rainbow one worked beautifully for this particular challenge.   

Embellishments Galore

It's been a month since I've made a card and I am determined to get back into the swing of things. This particular card for The Flower Challenge, turned out as a real challenge for me.  (I wish detailed stamps all came with matching dies!) This card allowed me to use my favorite bright colors and add some jewels and a dimensional butterfly.  

 

Color Hues in Red and White

Red and white are great "firecracker" colors for summer.  In this case, I dug around in my over-filled collection of paper pads for the zigzag pattern.  A 3-D embossing folder created the floral center for this Color Hues challenge.