Freshly Made Sketches #274

Hi all! Hope you had a good weekend. I'm back today, participating in the Freshly Made Sketches challenge #274. I've had to take a break from cardmaking for some life things going on lately, but I'm thrilled to be back at the craft table and joining in today!

You know how some sketches come easy and some take FOREVER to create? Something about this design just "clicked" with me. I'm meeting some friends next weekend to make birthday cards together, so I knew this sketch would be perfect!

After a trip to Hobby Lobby yesterday, the card come together for me pretty quickly today!

Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I was a little indecisive with a few decisions about this card, so I made two designs to see which I liked better - and I don't have a clear favorite! The orange and mint blue card bases play off the cupcake paper really well. Just got lucky with finding coordinating colors at Hobby Lobby this weekend! I also wanted to experiment with having the small flags line up and be different sizes. I like them both! I'll show my fellow cardmaking friends both designs next weekend to see what they think. Do you have a favorite? I'd love to hear your take on it!

Have a great week, and thanks for dropping by! :)

Simon Says: Party! #ssswchallenge

To begin... Thanks to everyone for all of the views on my first post! I am just so excited to be sharing more of my cards through this blogs, and the early traffic has been so great to see!

Today, I'm participating in the Simon Says: Party! Wednesday Challenge. I loved the party theme because there were so many possibilities. I have several January birthdays coming up for family and friends, so I let that be my inspiration. Here's the final product...

I knew I wanted to use the word "party" in my design, so I used one of the stamps from an old Card Kit from Studio Calico (these kits have since been discontinued). I stamped it in Caribbean Coast Ranger Dye Ink. I fussy-cut the circle out and set it aside.

Directly stamping on the card on a diagonal, I used the cute party hats stamp from PTI Caution: Another Year Older. I also used the Caribbean Coast ink for this stamp. I then used pink, yellow, green, and purple markers to randomly color in some of the stripes from the hats. I will admit that this took a bit of time, but I really like the fun and festive look.

I then used a tape runner to attach the pale yellow graphic paper to the card. I pulled out washi tapes in similar green and pink colors as the hats and taped them to the yellow paper. I stamped a line and then, the "party" circle was adhered to the card using some small pop-up blocks. I wanted this to look like a balloon - what do you think? Mission accomplished? Lastly, I also added a few fun turquoise sequins from the December SSS Card Kit "Gifts of Love." (Sidenote: I have to say - I LOVE these Jillybean Soup Sticky Sequins. The kit included red and turquoise. They are so quick and easy to use with the adhesive on the back, and they stick right where you put them! No need to wait a few minutes for wet glue to dry. I would take a sheet of these in so many different colors!!)

There's a lot going on for this card, but I think it's okay for a birthday celebration. The colors really bring it all together, and this was a fun way to participate in the challenge!

Thanks for the inspiration, SSS! Look forward to future Wednesday challenges!!