Catching Up With Di's Sketches

This first card was my DT entry for Di's Sept #1 sketch ... but was in fact, my third attempt: The first one I hated, the second batch were, I thought, too simple & this one , I really like. I used Noteworthy scraps from the last layout I posted, with just a li'l ink & stitching to give a 'country charm' sorta feel to it ... v. feminine but I love it! All it took was a couple of odd paper flowers & some buttons (odd ones, same size ... they don't need to match!) ... finished!
This is such a versatile sketch & although the new one is up now, I can see me using it a whole bunch more! Especially as that sentiment stamp was a magazine freebie that came as a set of three (just as soon as I find where I stashed the other two! LOL)

The 'playtime' card was my first attempt at the sketch & at first I hated it. The problem was that I had the proportions all wrong (see, you can go wrong with a sketch, it seems) ... I added the ribbon in an attempt to sort it out, which didn't work - & then I added the flourish in the top corner. Still not my favourite card, but I like it more now than at first - live & learn! LOL
I have tons of these papers that are around a year old now & it was a case of either using them or chucking them out ... & I hate to throw things away! They are actually Christmas papers but I think they are pretty enough & not overtly Christmassy, so I've used them a lot of late.

As you can see in the next pic, I used the same sketch in it's simplest form & a bunch of toning 4" square card blanks to whip up a whole bunch of 'thank you' cards. These are the same 'Christmas' papers with the same stamp & a bunch of the co-ordinating artwork cut outs that came with the papers. A whole load of paper punched flowers secured in two layers makes for really easy cards. I have more than enough cards now for all the lovely birthday stuff I received & even to pop a blank one in with every webstore or etsy order. In fact, I've even listed a bunch of these on Etsy for others who might need a number of inexpensive notecards in a hurry. This was my first attempt at batch making cards - can you believe that I have never done that before???? I'll certainly do that again tho'. Some nights when I'm just too tired to think, it's nice to just cut a bunch of paper strips or make up the flowers, or if that is already done, I can just assemble them without thinking about design or whatever. Cool!
The last couple of cards were made for Di's August #3 sketch (totally missed #4!) but I forgot to e-mail to her DOH! Scraps again, this time Cloud 9 Design's Sunrise Smoothie ... & a few odd Flowers/Buttons (I really want to buy some more flowers but kinda thought I should use some of the old up first???). The rub ons are DCWV ... about 4 years old, so it's all about using up not just the scraps but all that old stash too - I'm seriously trying not to buy a whole bunch of new stash & to work thru what I have - it's an obscene amount of stuff really! The second card was really just to use up the scraps left from the first one ... did I mention I hate waste??? And I'm definitely into stitching right now too!