This Week’s Sketch:

And here’s a little something to get the thoughts going on how to use it:

For my card I used Zorana a dancing gypsy for my card and I LOVE how adorable she is and she was tons of fun to color. I should also add that I used an embarrassing amount of markers to color that dress so I’m not even gonna share them but it was easily around 40, lol. I used MME’s Love Me paper for this (my current FAVE) and PTI white and kraft cardstock for the rest. To dress is up a bit I added Vintage Photo distress ink and a bit of doodling and distressing here and there. The sentiment and dies around the sentiment are from Verve and the border die is from Taylored Expressions.

Now, I have another AMAZING announcement that I know you are going to be so excited about cause I know I am! We have the AMAZINGLY TALENTED and insanely creative Amy Sheffer joining us for the next three months!

So there’s a little something to get you started and now it’s time to hop around and see what everyone else on the DT has been up to and leave them a little love.

• Amber Hight
• Amy Sheffer, Guest Designer
• Arielle Gordon
• Donna Wardle
• Jen Shults
• Jessica Diedrich (sitting out this week)
• Kadie Ensley
• Lori Boyd
• Pam Varnell
• Sheri Gilson

How do you store your dies?

For my Valentine today I used Wryn and Wren and colored them up with Copics. I used some super cute MME Love Me designer paper and this week’s Sweet Sunday Sketch (SSSC151) for the layout.

I added just a bit of distressing and doodled around the edge of the image with a Sharpie pen. The cute little sentiment is from Paper Smooches and the heart stack is made of Heart Nestablilites that I die cut, I ran the kraft heart through a paper crimper and layered on twine and a button.

Be sure to head over to the Challenge blog to get the details and see the other design team member projects!

By Vicky
(No I didn’t pick this one because she used the same image I did, I picked it because I just love how bright and cheery it is! Go figure. )

By another Vicki
(This one just makes me happy, I think it’s that adorable little bird.)

By Nancy William
(In general I’m just a sucker for anything distressed, vintage and brown… together I think they are particularly yummy.)

I hope that gets your mojo going! I’ll snag a few more in a day or to and share em on Facebook! Have a great Monday!

What: CHA Clearance Sale

When: Now through Wednesday, February 1st

Where: Taylored Expressions What’s the Deal Department

Details: Use coupon code CHASALE2012 for an extra 10% discount on all of the already discounted merchandise in the What’s the Deal department. Get over 50% off some of your favorite products!

Once these products are gone they will not be re-stocked so shop early for the best selection.

This Week’s Sketch:

My Sample:

For my sample I used one of Christy’s gorgeous Wryn images called Wryn New Nest. I have actually had her colored up for a while and I colored her without using designer paper as a reference so I spent a little bit of today digging for matching paper and ended up using one of my favorite paper pads… My Mind’s Eye Lost and Found 2 Rosy.

I got pretty lucky with this paper as it matched pretty perfectly. I added a sentiment from Verve, it’s one of the Thank You gifts you sometimes get with an order. I added a bit of jute twine, two Prima flowers and a bit of distressing using a distress tool and Tim Holtz Bitty Grunge stamps.

Design Team News:

I’m so sad to say that it’s time to say good bye to our two FANTASTIC guest designers this week. Andrea and Tracey have both reached the end of their term and I can’t even begin to say how happy I have been that they spent the last three months here playing with the sketches. It’s just been amazing and so inspiring to see what they come up with each week. Please, if you have a moment, stop by their blogs and say hi today! Here are their last AMAZING Deconstructed Sketch projects.

Andrea Ewen:

Tracey Pickersgill:

Aren’t they FANTASTIC! Now for MORE inspiration you can hop around and visit the rest of the design team using the links below!

• Amber Hight
• Andrea Ewen – Guest Designer
• Arielle Gordon
• Donna Wardle
• Jen Shults
• Jessica Diedrich
• Kadie Ensley
• Lori Boyd
• Pam Varnell
• Sheri Gilson
• Tracey Pickersgill – Guest Designer

Today was the wrap up day for the CAS card class I’ve been taking but I still have quite a few days worth of lessons to practice. Tonight I made a set of birthday cards using a single layer card technique.

I used two Taylored Expressions stamp sets: Rosy Posey and Labels of Love. I started my cards with a Snow White Choice Cardstock base and rounded two of the corners. Next I stamped out the large roses using the darker of the two colors I had chosen for each card. I stamped these diagonally across the card. Next I used the smaller filled rose from Rosy Posey to fill in around the big roses in a lighter ink. I used the Birthday Wishes sentiment from Labels of Love to stamp the sentiment and on the inside of each card I used the open large rose to stamp a rose in the corner of each card. It took me about an hour to knock out six birthday cards to have on hand at work. You can definitely never have too many.

Supplies
Stamps: Rosy Posey and Labels of Love, Taylored Expressions
Paper: Choice Snow White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Grape Jelly, Lulu Lavender, Cantaloupe, Tangelo, Bahama Blue, Summer Sky
Accessories: EK Corner Rounder

(Please excuse the wonky colors on this… the bulb for the lamp I usually use to take indoor photos blew out tonight and I didn’t have the proper replacement.)

Alright, I’m off to bed. I hope you have a great night!!

My Sample:

For my sample I used one of Arielle’s Wax Fruit Company digis, Dogwood and colored it with Prismacolor Colored pencils. I used a combination of pencils blended with odorless mineral spirits and a burnishing technique (heavily applied pencil). I took a little artistic liberty with the colors on the dogwood blooms.

The designer paper I used is from Country Drive by Echo Park and the embossing folder is Seeing Spots from Cuttlebug. The sentiment is Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler.

Please be sure to hop around and visit the Deconstructed Sketch Girls samples. They have made some AMAZING creations and I know they will get your creativity going!

• Amber Hight
• Andrea Ewen – Guest Designer
• Arielle Gordon
• Donna Wardle
• Jen Shults
• Jessica Diedrich
• Kadie Ensley
• Lori Boyd
• Pam Varnell
• Sheri Gilson
• Tracey Pickersgill – Guest Designer

My card is based on one of the sketches from the class. I used a Spellbinders Label 3 Die to cut out the window in the white panel. After embossing it I outlined it with a black Sharpie Pen to make the stitching. The designer paper is Echo Park Yours Truly. The sentiment is from Bugabee by Taylored Expressions and the hearts are die cut from the Jumbo Heart Border die also from Taylored Expressions. After all of the elements were created I used 1/8 foam tape to pop up the white paper and hearts.

This card took about 15 minutes and most of that time was me picking out supplies. LOVE how clean it is and how fast it went! I can’t wait to make more creations from this class.

Taylored Dies used on this card:

It’s time for a new challenge at Tiddly Inks and this week we have a color challenge for you. I loosely followed it. We’re going to use our imaginations and pretend that kraft paper is ‘yellowish’ because I have all the other colors, lol.

For my card I used Wryn Close to my Heart and colored her with Copics. I am just loving these new Wryn images. They are just adorable! For my layout I used Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #149, the challenge is closed but the sketch is still awesome! I embossed the back panel with a Cuttlebug Houndstooth embossing folder and then layered that with paper from My Mind’s Eye Lost and Found 2 Breeze paper (another favorite!). I did a little doodling around the image and then added a bit of twine and a button and it was all done. I really like how it turned out.

Be sure to head over to the Tiddly Inks Challenge blog to get all the details on this challenge and to see the rest of the design team samples.