Sketchy Saturday at Paper Issues!

hey there, chickens!  it's SATURDAY!  i'm in Canada right now, taking care of business (there's still SO much to do for my Dad's estate and getting the house ready to sell), but welcome to a Sketchy Saturday, on the Paper Issues blog!

we've got awesome sketches for both scrappy pages and cards today, and while i've been doing a LOT of scrapbooking, today i'm going the card route because i knew i HAD to use this paper and saw the speech bubble in my mind.  the card practically made itself while i was sleeping!

here's my card, featuring the gorgeous Pinkfresh Studio paper, a label (cut in two) from the Fancy Pants Office Suite collection, the speech bubble die-cut from this fun Jen Hadfield set for Pebbles, and sentiment from Snarky Stamps (it's two of the sets mashed together):

i went for a pretty LITERAL translation for the sketch, but there's a lot you can do with it!  rotate it, flip it, change the shapes, as long as we can see the sketch!

and here's the layout sketch:

want to play along?  want to win this:

CLICK HERE and join us!  i promise you'll be RIDICULOUSLY inspired by the Paper Issues Creative Team and what they've done with BOTH sketches, in case your mojo just ain't goin'!  have fun!

a sketchy Saturday CARD for Paper Issues today!

hey there, chickens!

you know we do this thing at Paper Issues where we throw down a sketch and ask you to make something based on it, yeah?  well this month, our girl Jennifer Chapin has whipped up a sketch that I LOVED in a serious way and totally challenged myself because it's totes outside of my comfort zone.  GRIDS.  i don't do 'em.  i struggle with boundaries and symmetry for the most part, so when i saw the March sketch, i knew i had to jump in.

so.  in all its griddy goodness, here's my card, featuring some disguised goodies from the February Swag Bag (the March one is coming - stay tuned, or grab a subscription so you don't miss any!):

YES.  grid.  but i transformed it into a card, because that's what you do with sketches!  you use them as a starting point for your crafty endeavour, and you go to town.  here's the sketch for you to try on for size:

well?  fab, right?  if you get in on this sketchy action, link up your project by March 20th and you might be the lucky winner of a $10 gift certificate to the Paper Issues store!  annnnnd, you know you can get lots of awesome stuff for $10, right?  but it goes even further when you use this:

that might come in handy when you stock up on some of the brand new Bella Blvd stuff that's just arrived... 

sketchy goodness at Unity!

happy MONDAY, chickens!  yep, i'm a little excited to have a 3-day weekend, so last night i was up VERY late and totally got my craft on.  lemme tell ya - it felt GOOD and i'm inspired to keep going today!

i decided to join in the fun at Unity for their challenge this month...  there are THREE to choose from - a colour challenge, a card sketch and a scrapbook page sketch.  i may actually dig through some papers to try the colour challenge, too, since i have all this fab natural light to enjoy today and no place to go until dinner time!

i used my favourite tree from the Eco Chic set (an oldie but a goodie!), and paired it up with a sentiment and the bird from Birdie Inspiration:

picked out some earthy looking patterned paper and sprayed with Heidi Swapp's Color Shine in Navy using a dotty little stencil/mask...  coloured the image with my Prismacolor pencils, added a tag for my sentiment, a smidge of twine and popped up the birds...  LOVE this tree.  LOVE this birdie set.  i have used the simple greetings for SO many cards.  wish you could see the fun shimmer on this card - Heidi does good work!  ;)

here's the sketch on which my card is based:

annnnnnnd with that, OFF TO THE CRAFT CAVE!  :)  hope you're all having a fabulous day.  the sun is shining here, there's a kitty snoozing behind me, and Sondre Lerche music playing to inspire me.  life is good!

(added to the Paper Issues link party for the Mix Tape issue - mixed media is fun and i need to do it more!)