The Beauty of Using Sketches

Last Friday, DaddyDude's colleague asked me if I'd be willing to make seven cards for their office staff and - oh, could I make them by the following Monday? I was looking forward to a reason to use up more paper (I had purchased a ton of Christmas paper before Cropcholate.com shut down) and knowing I could find some great card sketches on Pinterest, I said, "Sure!"

As most of you know, I'm a big fan of Unity Stamp Co. So, I used one of their most recent releases as the cornerstone of my cards... Everything Christmas. I searched and pinned from Pinterest and whipped out these cards Sunday afternoon. All of the patterned paper is from Echo Park's "Seasons Greetings" and the brads are from Making Memories.

I don't know about anybody else, but I had to practice A LOT before I could get the images where I wanted to within the frame. There were times when I was just about to put it where I wanted, and then my hand would jerk slightly. And it'd been hours since my last cup of coffee! Does anybody have any advice on perfecting the "stamping within" technique...?

Inspired by this pin...

Inspired by this pin... and I'm linking it up to Deconstructed Sketch 130. Love this site that I just found - check it out!

 Inspired by this pin...

Inspired by this pin...

 Inspired by this pin...

I don't scraplift a card so closely, but I really loved this card... (you should check out her blog!), that I almost made a carbon-copy (different papers and I had no bell/ribbon). This Echo Park sticker is PERFECT for holiday cards and well, so is their paper! Simple but sweet!

And finally, I decided to tackle one of this month's "Be Inspired" challenges at Unity...based on the card sketch... you can check out the details here! Washi tape is from Pick Your Plum. :)

A couple of days later, I went to clean up my craft room and can you guess what happened? I decided it was easier to make a couple more cards than to clean! Ha ha! So, here are my final two cards...

 

Based on this pin (one of my favorites, because it's a fantastic way to use scraps!)... you can find the Unity stamp here.

And here's another one for Deconstructed Sketch 130. LOVE this stamp from Unity Stamp Co!

In case you were wondering why I didn't craft Saturday night... the girls and I participated in the city's first annual 5K Glow Run.

DaddyDude has been having fun with the new camera  - it'll take me awhile, I still need to read the manual! It was a fun run, but man oh man was it DARK! We were near the head of the pack to run (most walked it), mainly because the city's Christmas Parade (re-scheduled from the previous week because it rained) was going on at the same time - and she wanted to join her summer All Star softball team on their float. What a commotion - I was texting her coach (while running) to find out where their float was (it took almost 45 minutes for their float to start rolling in front of the crowd, since they were #71). With each update, Marika would run faster (we let her set the pace), which upset her big sister (who had eaten a bunch of food before the run, not smart!), who was started to freak out on me. By the end of the race, DaddyDude took the final picture... two of us are very happy and one is crying. :( I was just glad I didn't fall down and hurt myself (a couple people did - darn potholes!).

Anyway, it was a fun weekend. It's finally Thursday evening (late) and I've finished writing all of my Christmas cards so they will go in the mail tomorrow. I feel very relieved. :)

Hope you all have a marvelous weekend! Thanks for visiting!