Blank Canvas

This week we are trying something new at Tuesday Morning Sketches. Instead of giving you a sketch to use, we are giving you some specific ingredients for your card and allowing you to use any sketch you want to. The three items your card MUST have are listed in the box above.

Each month, we will have one week called our Blank Canvas Challenge. The requirements will change each time, but you will be allowed to make your card in any fashion you like as long as you use the three required features, whatever they may be for that month, on your card.

The first requirement is to use watercolor. As you can see, it states that I can "fake" it if I need to. Although I do have watercolors, I chose to "fake" mine to save time. I have used a piece of paper from We Are 3 Designs "April Showers" collection. This paper reminded me of watercolor with its soft hues and "runny" appearance. I am using a piece of blue card for my base.  I have created a panel using another piece of the April Showers digital paper and matted it with the blue. I then used one more image from the Marianne Designs bird image sheet which I also matted with the blue. Last of all, I printed the sentiment from my computer, cut it into a fishtail and then matted it with a piece of the blue card.

I have a girlfriend who has been going through chemotherapy for cancer. She is a positive, sweet and wonderful lady whom I love. I have tried to send her thinking of you cards every week or so to try to let her know she is not alone in her journey. This card will be going into the mail to her.

Let us see what you decide to do with our new challenge format, and also let us know what you think of our new idea. Do you like it? I think the DT had a lot of fun with it based on the wonderful array of cards they have created. We'd love for you to stop by the TMS blog and/or the DT's individual blogs and let us know what you think.

Thinking of You

It is time for another Tuesday Morning sketch, and I have once again combined it with another sweet birdie image from Marianne Designs and a lovely patterned paper from We Are 3 Designs. Here is this weeks sketch:

For this card, I started with a beige/taupe colored card base. I added a layer of pretty aqua flowers from the We Are 3 Birthday Party Collection (full pack). I then matted the bird image with the same beige/taupe that I used for the card base. I added some flowers (Wild Orchid Crafts) and punched leaves to the upper right of the image. I stamped my sentiment using SU ink. I cut the sentiment out with a Spellbinder nesting oval die and matted it with the same beige/taupe as the card.

I hope that you can join us this week at Tuesday Morning Sketches with a card of your own. We enjoy seeing how you all use our inspiration and sketches.

Pretty Princess

I believe I mentioned in my last posting that I had almost finished one more card with the We Are 3 sale papers. As it turned out, I was called into work on Saturday, so I ended up not getting my card finished until today. 

This little card uses three papers from the Happy Birthday mini collection (the heart background, the striped piece behind the image, and the butterfly piece used as a strip across the card). 

I used an older Magnolia stamp which I colored using my Copic markers. 

This would make a sweet birthday card for someone's own little princess.

Remember, the mini-package are on sale through today. This is a wonderful opportunity to pick up nine lovely sets of coordinated papers for your spring time card making. Don't miss out!

Friday the 13th Good Luck Sale

We Are 3 is running a Friday the 13th sale from now through the 16th on nine of the beautiful mini-collections in the Etsy store. These are wonderful samplings of beautiful digital papers that have been put into mix and match sets for your crafting pleasure!

Here is a card that I made using three of the papers from the beautiful Shabby collection:

 I have once again used one of the images from the Marianne Designs bird sheet. (I love that sheet and have been using it quite a bit lately.) This card turned out beautifully and the papers from the Shabby collection matched the colors in the print perfectly.

 This card was made using one of the sheets from the Happy Birthday collection (the burgundy) and one sheet from the Shabby collection (the floral). The little fairy image is from The Paper Shelter, and the sentiment is from Just Rite clear stamps. The fancy oval behind the sentiment is a Marianne die.

I have one more card almost finished which I will try to share with you this evening or tomorrow. Because the papers all coordinate with each other, the cards go together quickly and beautifully. I got these two and (almost) the third one done in one afternoon. If I had not had to stop to go to work, I would have been able to finish up all three.

If you haven't given digital papers a try, you really should go over to the We Are 3 Etsy shop and just look at all the beautiful papers available.  

A Little Birdie Told Me

This week we have a fun little sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches. I've actually created two cards using this sketch. It was fun putting papers together to get different looks. Here is my second card:

Have you figured out the sketch yet? I'm sure you have, but here it is:

I am only going to tell you about the first one since that is the one that is showing on the TMS Blog as this week's example card. The second one was fun to make, but I think you can figure it out by simply looking at it.

You should also be able to figure out the first one, but I did want to mention that I have used a pre-printed image from Marianne (yes, the die company) as well as  some We Are 3 digital papers from the Rainbow Gingham Collection.


 The matting under the green and under the yellow gingham appears red in the photo, but is actually a rust color that matches the colors in the bird image (dirt in flower pot and some of the bird's feathers.

This is a fun sketch to use. We really would love to see what you can do with it. Give it a try and then post your work on the Tuesday Morning Sketches blog.

Lilacs and Butterflies

It is Tuesday again, and I am running behind. No sob story. I just can't seem to get things done in a timely manner any more. Let's look at this week's sketch:

A nice, classic sketch -- don't you just love the ones that are quick, easy and fantastic looking? We've been having a lot of those lately, and this week is no exception.

I have, once again, turned to the beautiful papers by Heartfelt Creations. This is from the Lilac set. I am totally in love with all the Heartfelt Creations papers, rubber stamps and dies, and have now put quite a dent in my crafting budget buying the beautiful sets as they come out. 

I did not add any dimensional flowers to this card, but the set does come with a wonderful set of dies for making the Lilac flowers. Anyway, I started with a white card and layered a deep solid purple card on it then a piece of the patterned paper from the HC paper pad. I used another piece of the paper, a light purple, which I matted with dark green to create my two strips that are under the image. I then cut a circle from the light purple using one of the Spellbinder nesting dies. Using a smaller circle die, I cut out an image from one of the papers. Lastly, I printed the sentiment onto white card, cut it and matted it with a piece of the solid green.

I feel as if I totally cheated making this card. It is all done with the gorgeous papers from Heartfelt Creations. I do miss my coloring, but I am also very thankful that there are beautiful papers or cute precolored images that are available to me which allow me to continue to be semi creative right now while my time is being, otherwise, taken. I think we often put pressure on ourselves to be original in our crafting without stopping to realize that we can use available supplies and items and still make something that will be special to the person who receives it.  We've taken the time to put a bit of ourselves into something.

Have a wonderful week.  I am hoping that I will be able to get a little more crafting done this week. If I do, I will share. In the mean time, visit the Tuesday Morning Blog and have a look at the wonderful cards the DT have made this week. I always get a joy seeing what my fellow teammates have put together. 

P.S., I am still looking for a photo editing program that is simple to use but will produce the nice results that I used to get with my old one. Thus far the one I've been trying does not allow me to straighten my image or to adjust the colors the way my old one did. I get highly frustrated trying to produce a nice photo each week of my DT project. The key word is simple (I've tried Photoshop and just couldn't get it). Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!