Inspiration in Action

Here's a fun sketch I found at Gretchen Barron's Inspiration in Action Blog:

Here's my DEEsign:

DEEtails:

1. I adore the bird from my Always stamp set and really wanted to get use of it today. I selected Bordering Blue card stock for this little guy. I stamped him with VersaMark and used clear embossing powder. Then I patiently cut him out. I feel like I'm missing the trick in cutting things out. It's so painstaking for me. If you know the trick, please let me in on it!

2. I love the retired Bella Birds DSP and selected four papers that would help showcase my bird. I chose 2 blue papers and 2 pink papers. I was worried that the color combo would make it look like it was a baby card, but I really liked it!

3. Here's my favorite part. I found this pink recycled paper in my stash that just so happened to be the perfect color! It's just a shade lighter than Pretty in Pink. I used it to back my patterned paper and for my large diagonal square. I'm really into tone on tone lately, so I cut two squares out of Bordering Blue card stock to layer on my large pink square. Then I placed my cute little birdie on top, using 3-dimensional foam squares.

4. I cut a slit in the layered squares and carefully slipped some new Pretty in Pink satin ribbon through it and tied a cute little bow. This was probably the hardest part, aside from cutting out that bird! Thick satin ribbon is hard to tie into a cute little bow!

5. I love the technique of cutting thin strips of paper for faux stitching on the ribbon. It's a perfect solution when I don't have the right color floss. Plus it stands out a bit more. I used strips of Bordering Blue threaded through some pink buttons from my vintage-ish button stash plus one from SU!'s Button Bouquet. I couldn't use all SU! buttons because the Pretty in Pink color was just a shade too bright.

And there you have it! Hope you like it!

Clean & Simple

The Clean & Simple Stamping blog has some really nice layouts, so I thought I'd try out the current Fall-To Layout:

I adored the sample on the blog and didn't realize how much my DEEsign looked like it until after I started to post (My colors are almost identical - oops!):

DEEtails:

1. I loved the idea of a tone-on-tone look. I'm liking that lately, so I picked two very simple colors - SU! Kraft and Melon Mambo.

2. I started out by using my Cuttlebug and my Sizzix Heart #5 die. I adhered the heart to a 2 1/4 inch square, then cut it into 4 smaller squares.

3. I used my Pinking Hearts Border Punch and some hemp twine for my ribbon embellishment.

4. I added the sentiment from SU!'s A Happy Heart stamp set.

5. So simple!

Monkeying Around

The EtsyInspired Challenge this week is too cute! We were supposed to find an inspiration image from Elie's Happy Hats. Here's mine:


I'm not totally thrilled with this card, but I think it turned out pretty cute. I think it just wasn't what I was envisioning when I saw the cutie pa-tootie in the photo. Here's my DEEsign:


DEEtails:

1. I've been wanting to use my new Fox and Friends set, but just wasn't sure what to do with the cute little critters, but when I saw this adorable hat, I knew just where to start!

2. I'm sorry that the photo is not so great. The colors aren't showing up too well. I wanted to use Barely Banana to match the monkey hat in the photo and it doesn't seem to be picking up the pale yellow color. I stamped the little monkeys and punched them out. (hehe sounds funny!)Then mounted them on scalloped circles punched out from Real Red and a random pink scrap that I had (it's not an SU! color).

3. I gave each of my monkeys a DMC needlepoint floss bow in red and pink to match, of course!

4. I used a Very Vanilla ribbon and embellished it with red and pink buttons from my stash and coordinated needlepoint floss.

5. I mounted the monkeys on Very Vanilla paper, then layered my card stock - pink scrap, Barely Banana, Real Red, and more Barely Banana.