Month of Cards: Part 3: Sketches

I used a couple of sketches as inspiration for some of my cards- it just so happens they were both for my grandmas who celebrate their birthdays this month.

The first was a sketch from Sketches: Creatively Yours, which is normally a sketch site for layouts, but they had a card sketch this time. I also tried a technique that was on Practical Scrappers not too long ago. The technique was called embedded embossing which is to emboss more than one layer of paper together. I tried it with the background paper and three panels on this card. The embossing wasn't as pronounced as I would've liked, but I have something I will try next time. Overall, it is a cool effect though. I also used a cut from my "Botanicals" Cricut cartridge and then used water color pencils to color it. The colors were not as dark as I wanted after I wet them so I went over it with the pencils while the paper was still damp and it turned out great! The pencils colored so smoothly on damp paper! Anyway, here is the sketch and the card.



Next is a sketch from Card Patterns. This is their current sketch. I stuck pretty close to the sketch, the only difference was that instead of a ribbon across the top, I hand cut some elements from scraps of the patterned paper and pop dotted them over the same elements for some depth and interest.



Finally, here is the anniversary card I made for my husband (we celebrated 7 years this past Sunday). I got the idea for the stamping on the right side from flipping through a Stampin' Up catalog. Keep your old catalogs because there is so much inspiration to be had from just flipping through them. You can use the cards in there as a sketch or they can just give you an idea for an element- try it next time you are stuck!