French Riley

This is SplitcoastStampers (SCS) sketch challenge for this week. I am telling you - this being creative on my own is going to be hard!!! I think I spent about 5 hours getting this figured out! I need to get a little faster at this, don't you think??? (Truth be told, I was doing laundry and surfing the web during that time too). But I have to get up and move around during MY creative process, just to get the juices flowing again!

I also followed SCS's Color challenge for the week, which was Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, and Real Red (CC169). That was very hard for me as these are not colors I would normally use. I like this having to think out of my little "box"! Just don't expect these posts more than once a week until I can gain some speed!!! You can go to the links I posted to see what others have done with these challenges. And please try them on your own! I think these are really helpful (for SOME of us more than others!!). I envy those truly creative people - I will never be one of those who can look at a blank canvas and come up with beautiful art! So the sketches and color challenges are very good for me!

Here is my card:



I wanted to make a card for my French tennis partner and coworker. His birthday is in June. But we are both facing layoffs this coming week, so we may not still be together when that day arrives, and our tennis days may be over. He and I have been partners for about 10 years now. We know each other so well on the court that we don't even have to talk. He calls me "Gazelle" and I call him "Frenchy". We laugh so hard together sometimes during tennis that we have tears in our eyes! I have learned most of the French curse words over the years, thanks to him! He is honestly one of my best friends, and I will miss him dearly if one or both of us are laid off. My tennis group is meeting for a "goodbye" lunch on Monday and I want to give this to him then.



I know this isn't a Stampin' Up! stamp, but they don't have a tennis-playing moose, or I would have used that!!! This is Riley. He is the creation of Hanna Stamps. She has lots of Riley's - check them out!!

I stamped him using black ink and colored in with markers. Then I used my Marvy punches to punch him out and I also punched out a scallop circle in Real Red to frame him. I used Blue Bayou ink for the Canvas background on Blue Bayou cardstock. The Mon Amie stamp comes from Stampin Up's Carte Postale set. I stamped this using Blue Bayou ink and then used the Word Window punch to create my greeting. The silver star brads are from the Silver HodgePodge Hardware set found in the Occasions Mini catalog (good until the end of June - LOVE this hardware set!!). (I put those stars on there because he is a star - just don't tell him I said that!!!). I think that's about it for my card for the week - hope you liked it!

Recipe:
Stamps ~ Riley tennis player (Hanna Stamps), Carte Postale (SU!), Canvas Bkgd (SU!)
Ink ~ Basic Black, Blue Bayou, Markers
Paper ~ Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Real Red, Whisper White
Accessories ~ Marvy punches, Word Window Punch, Silver Hodgepodge Hardware

One last thing to note - Stampin' Up! has announced that they are launching a "new line" of products to the demos later this month. I have no idea what it could be. There is a lot of speculation on the demo side of SCS, but I will not bore you with "what if"s". I will let you know as soon as I hear anything! How exciting!!