Challenges galore!

Hi all! I decided to take part on Amy Rysavy's sketch challenge #64 which looks like this

I've been itching to silver emboss the stamps from The Snowflake Spot ever since I first saw them, and Amy's sketch was perfect to try it. I'll probably be disqualified though, as I didn't use any ribbon along the bottom, but I couldn't bear to cover up my snowflakes! I used Night of Navy and Bashful Blue cardstock, along with non-SU! silver paper, silver brads and silver EP. I also used Versamark and Itty Bitty Backgrounds. I love love LOVE the look of silver EP on Night of Navy cardstock! It looks sooooo good in real life, if I do say so myself. Guess what my Xmas cards will be looking like this year. It's rather ironic (the snowflakes), considering it's summer and usually blazing hot over here during Xmas!
And next up is Keesh's latest inspiration challenge!

I thought it was coffee in them mugs at first! But apparently it's soup.

I always think of leaves when I think of autumn, and when I caught sight of the leaves stamp from Itty Bitty Borders, I couldn't wait to try and watercolour it. I stamped the leaves several times on Very Vanilla cardstock to create a wavy border, and watercoloured them using Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Summer Sun, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red and Chocolate Chip. I had a "Now what???" moment after I finished the border, as all I thought about was the watercolouring! Luckily for me Stem Silhouettes came to the rescue and I inked one of the stamps using More Mustard and Choc Chip. I finished off the card with a strip of Pumpkin Pie DSP, More Mustard cardstock and Old Olive card. I'm happy with how it turned out, considering I hadn't even a rough idea of the finished product when I started.

I was invited to Julia's catalogue launch party over the weekend, and was given free rein to use whatever she had to make a card. I tried out her Good Friend set and stamped the adorable bird using Pacific Point, Choc Chip and Summer Sun. It's a shame my bird ended up slightly blotchy, though. I cut the bird out and stuck it onto Kiwi Kiss cardstock using dimensionals, and added strips of Rose Red, Summer Sun, Pacific Point and Pumkin Pie cardstock. The "Tweet Tweet!" was stamped using Rough Edges Alphabets on Pumpkin Pie cardstock and I used dimensionals to pop them up on the card. Kiwi Kiss is really starting to grow on me, as well as Pacific Point!

I wanted to make a card for a friend's birthday and when asked what her fave colours were, she answered blue and yellow. So Ballet Blue and So Saffron it is! The Ballet Blue looks a lot brighter in the photo due to the crappy lighting. This card came together before I could say 'yea' or 'nay' to anything! I had to try embossing the Reason to Smile set (can you tell I love embossing?) to see how detailed it would be, and it turned out great! I tried it with both clear and white powder, and both looked really good. The white EP would've stood out better on the Ballet Blue cardstock, though. I was too focussed on So Saffron that it didn't cross my mind to swap the colours over. Still, I think it didn't turn out too badly and I hope she liked the card!

Well, it's been a really productive card making week for me! Hopefully inspiration will continue to flow!! Thanks for looking!