Old and new ....

.... and shades of orange and green.  That sums up this card; it's been made for three challenges.   The first is for Sketch 'n' Stash SSC53 - I used their sketch for the card design, then on Crafty Cardmakers their challenge is to use only pencils for colouring - no inks, paints, etc and finally the colours are from this week's challenge at The Play Date Cafe - PDCC65.  I am getting better at mixing and matching challenges!! 

This is a large 7" x 7" card and I've made the backing with silver-grey fibre paper, it has a metallic shimmer through it.  The orange paper comes from Papermania (new stash) and I've punched the border with a Martha Stewart deep-edge border punch.  The central tulip comes from a stamp set that I got from QVC.  I've coloured it using Prismacolour pencils - and this is my "old" stash.  I've had these pencils for ages, but I'm not very good at colouring with them, so they tend to stay in their tin box!!  And the Crafty Cardmakers challenge was perfect - it made me dig them out and have a go!  I've actually used two shades of orange (although it's hard to tell) and blended them with sansodor.  I edged the tulip with a very light grey pencil and pulled that out to create a halo effect.  My trusty Spellbinders dies were used to cut the plain and scalloped circles.  I made the pale green flowers from a sheet of vellum which has a subtle silver flourish on it; I coloured the back of the vellum with a few shades of green prismacolour pencil and blended.  When dry I used Woodware flower punches in three sizes and made up some flowers, with gems at the centre!

Stamps: Large tulip from QVC

Spellbinders:  Large Circles (S4-114) die #7, Classic Scalloped Lg Circles (S4-124) die #6

Papermania: Capsule Collection - Sunshine

Accessories:  Martha Stewart - deep edge punch; Woodware punches; Ribbon, gems and vellum from stash

I've had such fun today catching up on challenges.  And we still found time to go out this morning - got some books and craft magazines.  Jonathan has been working on some photos he took in Chester in December and Kathryn decided that the card making session could wait until tomorrow!  She's been playing on PC games instead!! The joys of technology!

That's all for this evening.  Don't forget to check in tomorrow for the new CR84FN challenge - more lovely colours and cards to see from the team.

Sketch challenges ....

.... are sometimes just what I need to get going.  Sometimes my brian is rather frazzled and I just can't think of a layout - and sketches make life that bit easier.  I came across the Sketch and Stash Challenge - SSC52 - while blog hopping last week and I rather liked the sketch and the idea of using something either new or neglected from your stash. 

I've kept pretty much to the sketch layout, but instead of a circle I've opted for a scalloped oval.  The backing papers, which I found during my craft room tidy, are part of the neglected stash.  I've had them a while and I like the bright, funky flower design.  The image is by Pink Petticoat, and I suppose this falls into the neglected stash too - I love the images and paper patterns, but I tend to forget to print them off.  I've coloured the image with promarkers and coloured the edge of the shape with my trusty distress inks.  I've added a bit of bling to the flower centres and the dot on the "i" in friend.  Really pleased with this card - so bright and happy!!

Image:  Pink Petticoat digi-image
Promarkers:  Tan, Cinnamon, Bright Green, Orchid, Cerise, Canary, Warm Grey 1
Inks:  Distress - Tumbled Glass, Broken China
Spellbinders: Big Scalloped Ovals (S4-251) die #5
Accessories:  From stash

I can tell that we're now properly back into everyday routine - I have a planning meeting for my Scouts group this evening.  We're going to decide on activities from now to July.  It should be a fun evening - working out when we have our first camp.  If that was up to the Scouts, I think they'd go this weekend - but I prefer to wait for slightly warmer weather !!  I think I'm a fair-weather Scout Leader :)

Do come by again tomorrow - I should have a few more challenge cards to show you.