AVS Sketches

I have 5 cards to share with you today!  I just finished the 5 sketch challenges for Verve's third anniversary.  Last year was the first time that I participated in the AVS challenge, and what can I say, I'm hooked.  The sketches were challenging but fun to complete.  Here's a photo of my 5 finished cards, and then I'll go through the details on each of them. 

The first sketch was a little tricky for me.  I made one card that was 6" square (my favorite size to make) and it just did not work at all with the sketch - at least not for me!  So I came back to the sketch later in the day on Friday, decided to go with pink, black, and white, and I finally was able to create a card that I liked.  I made this first card 4" x 6". 

I used an EK Success border punch for the edges and I just assembled the various other layers.  The white rectangle is embossed with a flower image.  I used circle Nesties to cut out the sentiment from Verve's set Just for You.  The dp is by Cloud9Design.  I added a sparkly ribbon that I gathered along with a few flowers as finishing touches. 

I also used dry embossing on the black panel of my second card.  It just seemed so plain otherwise.  I added more flowers including 2 of the flowers I dyed to hide the writing (they are the bottom 2 petals of the big flower), a few small roses, and a very old blingy button from my stash.  There's also a little sheer pink ribbon hiding under all of the flowers.  The leaves were done using a MS leaf punch and lightly inked with Vintage Photo Distress ink on the edges.  The sentiment is from Verve's Forever in Our Hearts.  The dp is the same Cloud9Design paper used on the first card.  This card is an A2.

As soon as I looked at the sketches, I knew that the third one would be the most challenging for me.  It just looks really complicated to me.  I don't have a huge scallop punch either, so at first I was thinking about cutting circles in half to make that border.  Then I thought I'd take it another direction that would be less complicated and that was to use just a portion of one of the MS deep edge border punches. 

As you can see in the finished card, I just used the very outer part of the design.  It was just way too big for my particular project otherwise.  I put pearls on what would have been the flower centers as it was hard to not have some of the holes showing through where the dp met the white border.  The image is from Verve's One Person and the sentiment is from Verve's Fairy Tales.  I cut out the sentiment using circle Nesties.  I colored it with Copics (G14, RV09, and B0000).  The dp is by Cloud9Design and The Paper Studio.  I used pearls for the three dots in the sketch and some black and pink satin ribbons from my stash.  This card is an A2.

For the fourth sketch, I decided that I could use my new Magnolia wedding couple stamp that (gasp!) hadn't been inked up yet!  I used Copics to color the happy couple (E000, E00, E01, C1 to outline the clothes, E33, E35, E37, RV09, Y35, YG03, and B0000).  The border punch is my favorite MS doily lace punch.  The ribbon is a velvet ribbon I found at JoAnn's.  The sentiment is from Verve's Fairy Tales.  I cut out the sentiment and mat with oval Nesties.  I used dp by The Paper Studio.  This card is an A2.

For the final sketch, I used Verve's Fairy Tales again for the sentiment.  I just added some black and pink satin ribbons, a flower, and a black 1.25" silk ribbon bow that I tied using my Bow Easy.  This card is slightly smaller than a standard A2 as the remaining scrap of Cloud9Designs paper I had left was only 3.75" x 5".  So I just cut the white card base down to 4" x 5.25" so that it wouldn't have quite such a large white border.

Whew!  Marathon post, huh?  :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Sarah