some craftiness

I've been surfing a lot on one particular scrapping and stamping website recently... two peas in a bucket is the name ( http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/default.asp ). It's based in Madison; they have galleries for posting cards and layouts, product for sale, and message boardsfor "talking" to fellow crafters. I've been hanging out on the stamping board, where there are a lot of very talented people! I'm not sure if my cards are up to some of their work, but I'm trying some new techniques, and am getting a lot of good inspiration. They post some weekly challenges, relating to card-making, and I've actually made a couple cards based on the challenge ideas. I need to make a couple more, too... Here's what I've been doing so far:

This card is for a weekly sketch challenge- someone posts a template showing the basic placement of the elements, and you make your card using that template as inspiration. The basket with leaves is a stamp; the flowers were made using a tiny paper punch. I glued on the flowers and used 3D foam tape on some extra flowers and leaves for added dimension.

This card is based on "card recipe" #23 from a special magazine issue The Joy of Card Making, a Second Helping. Again, there are templates to inspire your card-making. The original template had three pockets on the card- I couldn't for the life of me think of anything to do using pockets, so I changed them to vases. The flowers were stamped and cut out; glitter glue was added for the centers. I drew the pattern for the vases and cut them out of patterned paper, then added freehand leaves and stems. I don't like the freehand part of it; I'm just not good at drawing anything- that's why I stamp, instead!

This card was for an earlier sketch. Much brighter colors than I usually use, but it turned out okay. I saw the knotted ribbon on another card somewhere; turns out it's much harder to do than I thought it would be! That's because I'm so picky, and wanted all the ribbons to lay at the same angle after tying the knots (doesn't work quite that easy!) This card was sent to a friend of ours who gave us a hummingbird votive candle holder as a housewarming gift.

This is actually 2 halves of one sheet of paper. I saw this on 2peas, too... there is a stamper from Belgium (her 2peas ID is stampingmathilda) who does the most marvelous things with watercolor inks, so I thought I'd try my hand at it. I wet the entire piece of paper, then brushed on a mixture of two blues, a green, and yellow watercolor paint. After coating the entire piece, I set it in the backyard to dry. It turned out pretty nice, but a little bright, so I cut it in half and brushed the right half with a thin coat of gesso to tone down the colors. This paper can be stamped on, or used as background paper. I think I'll try this again, for sure. And, if I do make a card out of it, I'll be sure to post it, too.