Floral Friendship Card for AHSC #194

Welcome, crafty friends!  My project today is inspired by this week's 

sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.  I admit, this multiple-paneled kind of sketch is the most challenging to me and over the last few days I've taken several different approaches with it before I finally found one I felt satisfied with.

details:  I tweaked the sketch size a bit to give it a 6" square rather than the rectangle shown in the sketch so that I could incorporate this stamped image in the center panel.  The two patterned papers are both from last year's La Vie En Rose kit.  The panel on the left is cut from Pixie cardstock and trimmed with decorative scissors.  I used Pomegranate ink and a dauber to touch up the edges and to stamp the sentiment, which is from the retired "Someone Special" set.

The center panel is done on watercolor paper and features the retired "Candlelight Garden" stamp set.  I used black Memento ink to stamp the flowers/stems image and a silver ink pad from ColorBox to stamp the jar, and then I used the watercolor paints set to fill in the images.  The final touch was to tie a bow around the card with a length of Pixie-colored thick twine (retired).  And that's all there is to this one!

We'd love to see your take on this sketch too!  You have until 10 pm Central time on Sunday, 1/15/17, to link your creation HERE.  We are also having a Design Team member call for the upcoming term, and you can find more information and how to apply by following the same link.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette

Happy Times for a Friend

Hello, again!  I went "old school" and spent a lot of time on this layout featuring the Happy Times paper kit for this week's challenge at Between The Folds.  This paper is so versatile and so much fun, but don't forget that it's only available for the month of May in honor of National Scrapbooking Month!

Basically, I used the diagonal barn board looking paper in this kit and cut it into strips which I reverse dovetailed for the picket fence look, along with a pair of 12 x 1/4" strips placed horizontally behind the fence for a realistic look.  I backed this with the lovely multi-colored floral paper.  The photo mat measures 6 1/2 x 4 1/2", cut from the variegated magenta piece.  I initially tried to use the   pale yellow/diagonal pinstripe piece for the sentiment but it didn't stand out enough, so i used the top piece of that same variegated paper instead.  The sentiment is from the Someone Special stamp set, done in Pomengranate ink.

So, I thought I was done with this one but I just wasn't satisfied with it.  I decided to enlarge the photo mat, overlap the sentiment/title a bit, and add a little "bluebird of happiness" from the March Stamp of the Month "Sunshine Birdies" and a happy little kitten from the Friendly Pets set, both of which I stamped on scraps from the Happy Times papers and fussy cut.  I'm not sure if it would look better to anyone else, but it's much more my style.   Isn't it fun what a few little changes can do to a project?

And that's all there is to this one.  Now, I just have to get a good photo taken of me and my best friend of 35 years!  Don't forget to check out all the amazing projects featuring this lovely paper over at the BTF challenge blog and I hope you will share your artwork with us as well.

Happy crafting!  ~~  Annette