Paper Smooches April Guest Designer, week 2

Hello, everybody! I'm here to share the cards for the second week of my guest designer term at the Paper Smooches blog. This week, Kim chose to feature these two cards, which were both made using the Get Outta Town stamp set. It's SO crazy cute! Lotsa great images and sentiments!

For the first card, I created a little island scene. My"island" is actually the oval around the cameo in the Pretty Momma set (which I used in last week's cards). I love finding other ways to use stamps! And if you'll look closely here, you'll see another example: the bird up in the sky is what I used to create the waves below. I just stamped him a bunch of times in succession, and fussy-cut each layer. I love the way it turned out. Now for the paper yummies:

So I've never really used watercolor paper, but I had some in my stash. So I pulled it out, and used it to make my sky background. But instead of using watercolor pencils, I used Tim Holtz distress ink and a blending tool to apply it to the paper. Then I went in with a water brush and randomly added some "clouds". I also used the cloud stamps from Paper Smooches Metropolis set. I stamped them in white ink, then colored them in with a white gel pen. I stamped and second-hand stamped the bird so one would look further away. Here's a closer view:

For my other card, I just HAD to use the cute luggage stamp. And it begged me to paper-piece it. The stamp itself is three stacked suitcases, but I just kept stacking them. First I stamped the Hip to be Square background onto the natural colored cardstock (very subtly - it may not be visible in the pictures). Then I stamped the luggage stamp three times, and fussy-cut the right edge of the cardstock along the lines of the luggage. Then I paper-pieced each suitcase using patterned paper from the Echo Park This & That Charming 6x6 pad. I colored the clasps and handles using Prismacolor markers. More paper yummies:

For the sentiment, I die-cut a ticket from ledger paper (from the same pad as the luggage) using a Papertrey Ink ticket strip die. I stamped the sentiment onto the ticket, and tied it on with baker's twine. Close-up:
I still can't believe I'm actually guest designer for Paper Smooches...although I am on a bit of a roll here lately with all kinds of exciting news coming my way. Stay tuned... :)

Card 1 is playing along with these challenges:

Lawnscaping Challenge 31: Coloring

Little Red Wagon Spring Colors Challenge

The Ribbon Carousel Sketch challenge

Card 2 is playing here:

Crafty Catz Challenge #127: CAS

Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge PWC201: 2 or more designer papers (I used 10!)

The Pixie Cottage Challenge 116: paper piecing

Lawnscaping Challenge: Inspired by (A+ teacher thank you card)

Happy Wednesday (wow - I totally just had to suppress the urge to make a hump day joke. LOL)! I hope everybody's week is going well so far. Today I have a cute card to say thank you to a teacher. Originally, I started making this card for the Hero Arts 90 minute scramble on Flickr. But, since I joined the scramble over half way through, and then my lovely laptop decided to freeze every time I inserted my SD card, I missed the cut-off to upload my card. (I think Donna allowed my card even after the cut-off. So sweet.) Anyway, I went back later and added some finishing touches that I didn't have time to do the first go-around. I love the way it turned out. I'm playing along with several challenges with this card. One of them is the Lawnscaping challenge. I don't have any Lawn Fawn stamps (yet!), but they're not required. Maybe I'll win the challenge, and get my first set! LOL! I love their challenge this week:

You can see my inspiration at the bottom of this post. Now for the paper yummies:I found this really cute alphabet patterned paper at Michael's last week (and they were 6/$1.00. Score!), and it looks super with these patterned papers by Echo Park, My Mind's Eye, and Recollections. I paired them with some really cute stamps from Hero Arts, Papertrey Ink, and Mint Motif:
I am loving this natural-color quilting thread right now - it's so nice and thick. I used it to straight stitch along the top of the thank you banner. I also zigzag stitched down at the bottom of the card. For a fun button treatment, I stamped a star in a pale blue ink on natural cardstock and cut it out. I adhered it to the middle of this green wooden button, and filled it with Glossy Accents. I love the way it turned out. Here is a close-up:

I'm playing along with these challenges:

Creative Inspirations Challenge 155: Anything Goes

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge 161: Sketch

Lawnscaping Challenge: Inspired By

The Shabby Tea Room Week 106: Pennant Party

This is the card that inspired mine (from Kristina Werner - LOVE her!)

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: cardstock: Core'dinations (blue), Recollections (natural); patterned papers: Echo Park (yellow, green), Recollections (alphabet, red), My Mind's Eye (cream/graph); stamps: Hero Arts (ledger, thank you flags), Papertrey Ink ("notes", A+, star), Mint Motif ("teacher"); ink: Tsukineko (black), Recollections (pale blue); Ribbon: Hobby Lobby; wood button: Michael's; Glossy Accents: Ranger; sanding block: Making Memories; sewing machine: Kenmore; quilting thread: Americana