Sympathy for Can You Handle the Pressure?

 The OPTIONAL TWIST for today's challenge is:

SYMPATHY

Anything goes with a twist of Sympathy

When I was digging in a drawer of stamps on sheets, this embossing folder popped up.  Sympathy!  I've had it for years but have never used it...until today.  I embossed a piece of patterned paper and then highlighted the embossing with matching color of ink on a blending brush. The die cuts in cardstock matching the card base were applied below the embossing. Can You Handle the Pressure?

Stencils and Dies for Just Add Ink

 

For this Just Add Ink challenge, I die cut the butterfly from a piece of slick patterned paper from my bottomless stash.  The piece behind the butterfly was stenciled in metallic gold and Distress Vintage Photo ink. The card is a yellowish-colored heavyweight cardstock. 

The Wonky Shape Sketch

 A "Wonky Shape"  wasn't difficult for this Freshly Made Sketch but deciding what to put on that shape took more thought.  As it was, I dug out an unused die and then an unusual quote to finish it off.  (I'm an old stamper with many wood-mounted stamps; in spite of a major "clean-out" I kept many quote stamps that I just don't find in stamp companies now.)

  

The Goddess for Just Add Ink

The sketch for Just Add Ink is really a simple one, but I spent a lot of time deciding what to do; I'm still not certain that I stayed with the sketch.  I decided on the image first because I'm digging through open drawers of old and new-unused stamps.  I settled on The Goddess from Lost Coast, a simple piece of rubber that is now 20 years old.  She's one of a handful of dramatic images that I used to use two decades ago.  I stamped the goddess on a piece of ombre colored paper; choosing the background took more time.  Finally, I decided on another ombre piece and pulled out a huge wood-mounted script stamp to create that background.  One piece of black cord coordinated with the black borders of each layer. 

The Pressure of Dance

Can You Handle the Pressure?

where our challenge is all about embossing folders.
You can use heat/wet embossing but you MUST use
an embossing folder to enter our challenge.

We have an OPTIONAL theme and it is

Die Cuts! 

This card has a very simple design...a ballet dancer pose.  The image is cut of iridescent metallic cardstock and adhered to an embossed card front.  My granddaughter will be 9 in April; she has taken ballet lessons for 3 years (in addition to at least 3 other types of dance)...and she says ballet is her favorite.   I believe she might dream of dancing in ballet performances. 

Coffee for Freshly Made Sketches

The saucer shape on Freshly Made Sketches had me confused for a minute, but looking at the DT cards, I got my idea.  I haven't made a slim line card for more than a year, so it was fun to complete.  I have had drawers of old stamp open and I started digging.  Coffee-themed images and sayings were high on my list a year or so ago, so I decided to go with caffeine. 

 

Strips for Sunday Stamps

 

This was a bit of a challenge for me, but such a great chance to choose patterned papers for those strips in the design for Sunday Stamps.  My first card didn't have enough contrast, so I went for black and white.  I have always liked this combination because there are so many things you can do with it.  This particular paper pad contains two-sided pages with different designs per side.