The dog ate my adhesive...

Well, ok, he didn't actually eat the adhesive, but earlier this week he got bored and decided to shred.  Along with a box full of magazines he pulled out two new adhesive refills and rendered them useless.  This did provide me with a craft shopping opportunity since I used the last of my adhesive on the gift cards in the previous post.

After buying myself some more adhesive refills I played with the Dude Time Doodles sketch challenge and I'm just squeaking it in under the deadline.

I inked up another of my new Lili of the Valley stamps, and paired it with design papers from the TPC Studio Paws and Claws Dog cardstock pad.  As usual, it's colored with my Tombow markers via a brush.  I pulled out some stickers for embellishments - the paw prints are from an ekSuccess sheet, and the sparkly bling in the top right corner are Stampendous class a'peel vinyl stickers.  I also added a scalloped border with a new ekSuccess border punch picked up on the unscheduled craft store shopping trip.

Thanks for stopping by!
~Kathy

Lili of the Valley gets some ink!

I've had my new Lili of the Valley stamps for a couple of weeks, and I finally found the courage to cut the sheet and ink up the Big Present stamp!

I also used the Lili of the Valley Challenge 77 sketch, which was trickier than I had anticipated.  I made three similar cards (one for each nephew), but in the rush to get out of the house and visit them yesterday I only got a good shot of this one.  The image was colored with my trusty Tombow markers, and I used scraps of DCWV winter mat stack design papers for the stripes.  The sentiment was stamped using individual letters.

I added a couple of pockets on the inside for their gift cards as well.

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

Supplies:
Paper:  Recollections card stock, DVWV winter mat stack design paper,
Stamps & Ink:  Lili of the Valley Boy oh Boy Big Present stamp;  Archival Jet Black Ink;  Individual letter stamps
Other:  ekSuccess wavy border punch;  snowflake punch;  circle punches;  pre-embossed card base;  Tombow markers and water brush

Dude Time Safari Sketch - Triple Challenge cards

Working on challenges seems to be sparking my creativity.  With some crafting time this weekend I picked three challenges and attempted to pull them all together into one card.  Not only did I meet my goal, but I actually created two different cards for the same set of challenges.

I LOVE the colors in the Dude Time Doodles inspiration challenge, and I seem to be different than most of the card makers whose blogs I visit, since masculine cards don't overwhelm me.  (maybe it's because I'm not a frilly, flower person myself...)

The Truly Scrumptious Challenge 45 sketch looked interesting, and I tend to struggle with multiple layers so I figured this would stretch my thinking a bit.

And last, but not least, going on a safari is on my dream list; so how could I pass up the Pixie Dust Studio challenge of a safari theme?  I have a few stamps that fit the bill (of course) - is it possible that someone dreaming of an African safari would not have such stamps??

I wanted to try another in the vertical format, so I used the scraps from the first card on a second one:

My camera seems to be acting up - couldn't get it to stop cutting the edge off of the second card... 
Thanks for visiting~
~Kathy

Supplies:
Paper:  Recollections Cardstock;  DCWV neutrals mat stack;  Bazzill basics earthtone mat stack
Stamps & Ink:  Archival Jet Black Ink;  Magnolia Savanna;  Inque Boutique safari (elephant);  Stampendous everything happy sentiments
Other:  ek Success wavy border punch;  circle punch

Monochromatic Wonder

It's amazing what a few tools can do to bring a simple card to life!

With a little more crafting time this week, I ventured over to the Feline Playful blog to look through the challenges for some inspiration.  Gradually I fell upon one that spoke to me (and didn't require elements that don't exist in my stash).  The Everybody Art Challenge #117 - Monochromatic Brown.

I didn't think this looked too hard - that is until I started sifting through my supplies and noticed that I don't have a lot of browns in my paper supplies.  I was able to find a couple of pieces of brown cardstock, and a piece of Kraft paper that I saved from a recent package I received. 

Next up - find an image to use.  Another Mo's digital image to the rescue - Jack and the beanstalk looked like it would work pretty well in shades of brown.  I used my trusty Tombows and water brush to add the shading.  And used a portion of a hand-me-down rubber stamp from my mom for the sentiment.  I did mask off several other words on the stamp to keep just the one word for my design.

Growing tired of plain rectangles, I love my new ek Success border and corner punches and used them both (along with what I think is called the out of the box technique) to spruce up my card design.  It's still pretty simple, but that wavy border adds just a bit of character.  Oh - and that thin brown stripe along the right edge - it's the left-over scrap piece from the wave punch. 

Since the card base is dark, I also added the wavy border to the inside white...

Thanks for visiting!
~Kathy

Supplies:
Paper:  Recollections cardstock, kraft paper up-cycled from package filler received in the mail
Stamps & Ink:  Mo's Digital Pencil - They Grow So Fast digital image;  Archival Jet Black Ink;  hand-me-down sentiment stamp
Other:  Tombow markers;  water brush;  ek Success wavy border punch;  ek Success corner rounder