Here is this weeks sketch challenge. I have used a lot of squares and straight lines in my sketches lately, and decided I needed something a little different, so this week I threw a circle in there too. (Thanks to the wonderful ladies on A Shade of Blue and their inspiration.)
The little cowboy card uses the new "Wild West" set from The Angel Company's spring supplement, and the saying set "Wishing You." There paper is Die Cuts with A View and TACs Rustic Chic.
The baby card uses DCWV paper again and the "So Silly" stamp set from TAC. On this card I also used my corner rounder and a circle punch to make my own scallop. (See yesterdays post for more on that.)

No Scallop Punch?? No Problem!!!

I have loved the wonderful cards I have seen all over the web that use a scallop punch. There was only one problem...it is almost impossible to find a place to buy those punches. They are sold out as soon as they come in. Then I found a wonderful blog, through SCS, that showed how a very creative person had made her own scallops using a corner rounder and Coluzzle. What a great idea. I found my little EK Success corner rounder (the only rounder I have that the guide will come off of), and being lazy, and not wanting to pull out my Coluzzle, I instead grabbed the Mega Circle punch I had sitting near by. It worked!!!! Here is the card I came up with using this cool idea. I still want one of those scalloped punches (I did mention I can be lazy, right?) but in the mean time I can still get the great effect that I want, even without it. I have another card in progress using this "technique", stay tuned

Beary Orange

Here is another card that I did for a challenge that was issued on A Shade of Blue. The challenge was to have orange as one of the main colors on a card that you create. Orange is not one of my favorite colors, so I had to really work to come up with a card that I liked. BIG thanks ro Maria for yet another image that I have to play with. The stamp sets used on this card are More One Liners and My Honey.

Better Late than Never

I didn't get this weeks sketch challenge posted on time...I know, I know, I am a real slacker. So, with no further ado, here it is.

This cute little cowboy is from a new set in the Spring Supplement called "Wild West." I do not own the set yet, but another sweet angel, Maria, stamped some of the images so that I could play with it. THANK YOU MARIA! I am having so much fun with this little guy. The paper is from one of my favorite TAC Wing It collections, called Rustic Chic. This paper just screams to be used with this stamp set.

I have to get some pictures developed so that I can use this cowboy on some scrapbook pages from when my family went to visit the Will Rogers Memorial Museum.

Never Sleepy!

I had so much fun with this weeks scrapbook sketch challenge that Katie posted on A Shade of Blue. It worked perfectly with the paper I had been hording from TACs Pop Rockz collection. I have SUCH a hard time using a paper that I love, I would rather just stare at it LOL! Then this sketch came along and I knew it was the perfect match with this paper.

These pics are so old (I am still catching up) that I am not sure of the exact date...but they were taken about two years ago. I tried my hand at doodling (just a tad) and have to say I need more practice.

A MOJO Card

I was talking with my friend, and down-line, Diana about not having any good MOJO lately, and decided to challenge both of us to create a card. The challege was to choose a patterened piece of paper (with two or more colors in it) and create a card using ONLY those colors and a nuetral.

I used TACs stamp set "Precious Girl", DCVW paper (Periwinkle 2 and Green 2), and some patterned paper I have had for over a year from Michaels. I love the soft results, and the way everything matches. Having the paper to choose colors from made the card so much easier to create.

I can't wait to see what her wonderful, creative mind comes up with.

This Weeks Sketch and Cards

Here is the sketch I came up with for this week. I have had a lot of fun playing with it, and I hope you will too.

The Fishing Card was done using TAC's stamp set "Everything Nice" and their paper pack "Hip Hop" that came out in the Fall Supplement. The ribbon is from SU!

The Ship card uses all DCWV paper and TACs stamp "Ship Collage" I colored this using both colored pencil (for the ship, water, and land) and chalks (for the sky).

Closer Look

I decided, after coming back and looking at my blog that the pictures on the Apple Picking page were not clear enough, so I am poting them individually, so that family who come to look and see the people in the pictures. I LOVE some of these pictures, they seemed to capture the day so well.

Apple Picking

Every week on A Shade of Blue Katie posts a wonderful scrapbooking sketch for inspiration. I try to do it every week, so that no matter what, by the end of the year I will have at least done 52 different scrapbook layouts. The only stamping on this page it the title. I used TACs wonderful set, Alpha Grunge, stamped onto patterened paper, and then cut out.

As you can see I am way behind in my scrapbooking. This one is from the fall of 2005 and are not the oldest pictures that I have to scrap. I scrapbook in no particular order, but instead scrap the pictures as I feel like it, or as they fit a sketch that I am working with. I don't know if this is the best way to do it, but it works for me.

This page captures a wonderful day in our family's trip to Maine to visit my parents. I always loved going to the apple orchards and picking our apples as a kid, so I made sure it was of the things on the agenda when we went to Maine in the fall. The kids LOVED it, riding on the tractor drawn wagon was probably their favorite part, but eating such wonderful tasting, fresh off the tree apples again, was mine.

Stamp of the Month

Each month The Angel Company offers us the opportunity to earn a great new stamp set at an incredible price. This months set is this cute flower set called Be Curious. For some wonderful samples made with this set visit http://www.theangelcompany.net/sotm.html Contact me for details if you are interested finding out how to get your hands on this adorable set.

This is the sketch challenge for this week. It uses a central image, backed by 2 strips that are 1 1/2 x 3 1/4". I think it is just packed with possibilities.

The card on the left uses the stamp sets called "Happy Trails" and "Running Stitches from The Angel Company. (TAC), The paper is from Joannes.

The card on the right uses the set "A Warm Hello" also from TAC. The solid paper is from DCWV, and the patterned paper is from TACs exclusive paper "Vintage Holiday" I LOVE that paper. It is so fun.

Sketch Challenges

Every Tuesday on A Shade of Blue, I post a sketch challenge. These are for inspiration and fun in creating cards. I have decided to also post the sketch, along with the cards I create from it here on my blog. Feel free to joing in the fun and make a card using the sketch as well.