A jungle cat in his garden

 Today I am showing the card which has already gone off to its recipient (go meet Julia and view her great blog). We both participated in the Daisy Chain card exchange - perhaps you will, too? (here)

 

The card started with a brand new embossing folder ('Enchanted jungle' by Craft Consortium). After having watched a bunch of YouTube videos on how to apply multiple colors on an embossing folder, then pressing it and calling it a day, I wanted to try it too. However, I got very disheartened as I just didn't get this technique to work for me.

I resorted to easier means. I swiped the debossed side of the folder with black in and pressed it through. This gave me a blotchy background (which was easy to correct later), but it also gave me me outlines. I painted the figures in with my Gansai Tambi watercolors.

The result reads like a wonderful painting of a leopard sitting in his jungle garden.

 I am showing this in these challenges:

Craft Rocket: #138 Animals

SUYP: #125 Summer

Critter Crazy: #112 AG w/a critter 

CYHTP: AG w/a twist of Purple  - I am playing AG

NBUS: #88 AG never before used schtuff - the item being my embossing folder

 

 

A lucky duck - ahem, goose

And then I just had to make another one with three of something. (Such a great challenge!) The goose and beets were staring at me...

 

This time I wanted to make a clean and simple card. I grabbed some paper snippets, stamped the goose and the beets, then colored them in slightly.

  

 

 I am entering this in the following challenges:

CAS on Friday: #336 Birds

Sparkles Monthly: #200 Trios (Three of something) 

ElliBelle's Garden Party: #16  Anything in (or from) a garden 

FarmQuest General Store: # 41Anything farm/ country (rural, outdoors)

 

Critter Crazy: #111 AG 

  

Three curious hen

 Today I took a sketch, and instead of creating the perfect geometric shapes I wanted to go loose on them, more natural. Browsing a while in my stash and through the challenges I found some great matches.

I picked colors, a stamp set that had farm fencing in it and a wooden stamp of a stylized hen that I love. I also used a small leafy stamp and the stitched edges stamp which are not on the picture - at that time I didn't yet know I would need those.

 

I am entering this in these challenges that inspired me in my creation:

Try a Sketch on Tuesday: TSOT #697 Sketch

 

HSS: #490 Color challenge 

Sparkles Monthly: #200 Trios (Three of anything) 

Little Red Wagon: #862 O is for outdoors 

Critter Crazy: #111 AG critter  

Cute cats and a cherry tree

Some serendipitous themes have fallen together in this birthday card. 

Firstly: cute little cats. I have no recollection where these stamps are from, most likely from a private sale on FB. They are just too cute. Secondly: the background is a deep indigo jeans print. These two things made me think of kawaii and Japanese aesthetics and gave me an idea to take the card even more into more Japanese leaning territory. Enter leaves and cherry blossoms.

 

I also really liked a sketch prompt and tied it in. There is a fair split between stamping and die-cutting. The background circles and the stamped leaves have been die cut, wheras cats, flowers and leaves have been stamped.

 

 

Together they make a rather busy card. But for a birthday, why not? Plenty to look at.

 

 Entering this into the lovely challenges that inspired me today:

Try a Sketch on Tuesday: TSOT #695 

and Double Trouble #216, where the #2 option features TSOT#695 prompt

Die-Cut Divas: Let's celebrate! - I am celebrating a birthday. 

Critter Crazy: #110 AG as long as there's a critter

 

Simon Says Wednesday: Cute critters 

 

I Love Promarkers: Special occasions 

 

Crocodile greetings

 I can offer you guys no explanation for this, but I find crocodiles fun as Christmas critters. I picked my color scheme from a lovely challenge and added die cuts and some stamping.

Entering this card in the following challenges:

Die Cut Divas: All about holidays

Crafting Happiness: #149 Turkeys or any animal

Critter Crazy Challenges: #80 AG with a featured critter 

Crafty Animals: #78

Just Us Girls: #706 Moodboard 

Also entering in this fun challenge:

 Christmas Kickstart Challenge: #80 It's Christmas, Jim, but not as we know it!

Something CAS

The starting point for today's card was a sketch. I had the hardest time interpreting it in a way that felt like "me".  Second inspiration came from a challenge that wanted to see only one other color with black and white. I toyed with pink, but that didn't sit well with my chosen bird stamp. The idea to use the bird came from the prompts "Let's go" and "Look up in sky". The sky is huge where I live and I enjoy watching birds fly.

Here is the result, this is how my brainwaves chose to work with these limitations.

 

Entering it in the challenges that inspired me:

CAS Colours and Sketches: #516 sketch

Fab' n Funky Challenge: #577 Monochrome with a pop

TGIF Challenge: #tgifc430 Let's go

Cut It Up: #282 Look up in sky

Critter Crazy: #76 AG with a featured critter