Wednesday Sketch Challenge Card

I have SO much fun with punches and I really like this 2 Step Bird Punch. I wasn't sure where I was going with this card. All I knew is that I wanted to play with the Pussy Willows from the Summertime Splendor download. I was SO excited when I saw that in the downloads and I had to buy it right away. I played with one of the other images but have not had time to play with anymore until today. I originally printed it out on #30 white copier paper. It's very important to print these out on nice paper to get the best effect of the colors as you can. Regular #20 copier paper will work but it absorbs the ink more and the colors are not as vibrant and true to the original image.

Anyway, after I printed the image on white I didn't like how bright it was against teh Newsprint decorative paper so I printed it out on Very Vanilla card stock. I sponged all the edges in Early Espresso. On the #1 layer I used the Smooch Spray after I ran the Crumb Cake ink pad across the decorative paper. Then I sponged the edges. The "hello" is from the "Hello Again" set. It's the only stamping on the whole card, the rest is punches and layers. And don't forget the Embossing Folder on the small green #2-a piece. I also sponged that and then I dragged the sponge lightly over the top so the raised parts took the ink. It gave it a nice dirty look.

I wasn't all that thrilled with my spritsing technique. I got a bit too much on the "hello" circle. I'm still up in the air about adding an eye to the bird. What do you think? Does it need one or is it ok as it is? I think it's buggig me that the bird doens't have an eye!! LOL

The card turned out ok but grungy stamping is really not my thing. I do like the layout and hope I can use it again sometime. I can't believe that this is sketch # 288. I started playing back at # 126 and I think I've only missed a couple of weeks in there. I have never gone back and done 1 thru 125 and maybe one of these days I will. I did print them all out and put them in the album. And when I'm finished with this post I'll be putting this one in the album too. It's SO great to have them all in one album. Anytime I have an image I'm not sure what to do with I just take it over to the album and flip pages until I find one that the image fits on and I run with it. Such a time saver!

So, if you have some time, play with this layout and see what you can come up with. You can also head on over to SplitCoastStampers and see what everyone else has done with this layout. I love the different takes on it. I flipped mine a quarter turn. I wanted to use that bird and had I kept it the other way the bird's tail would have had to have been cut off and I didn't want that at all.

Thank you for visiting today,

Wanda