Viva La Verve Sketch Challenges Week 1 and 2

Hi Everyone!

So sorry I haven't blogged anything crafty lately! I have been very busy crafting, however...just haven't had the time to get anything posted. I have been working on Christmas cards which I will be sharing with you in December.
I also decided to play along with this month's VLV sketch challenges. So today, I have two cards to share with you.  For the first week, I also decided to use the optional color challenge of Ocean Blue, Orange and Yellow.
I started with a standard sized card base of Canyon Clay and then added a layer of Ocean Tide. I stamped the background image on Vintage Cream card stock using my new "Eastern Delights" stamps from Clearly Besotted. I stamped them alternatively with Iced Spruce, Rusty Hinge and Scattered Straw Distress inks. I used my blending tool with the inks to add some color to the edge of the paper as well. More layers of card stock and then I ran another piece of Vintage Cream through my cuttlebug with the swirls folder. I used Scattered Straw, Rusty Hinge and Iced Spruce with my blending tools here as well.
The butterfly is from Verve's Blue Sky Set and I cut it out using the "All Aflutter" die set and then colored it in with distress markers. I added a coating of shimmer with my Wink of Stella clear glitter pen and then added the sequins.

Challenges for this card:

1. Crafting at the weekend: Anything Goes
2. Treasured Times: Anything Goes
3. Vandicrafts Artistry Challenge: Anything Goes

Well, if you're still here with me, let's move on to the second card for today. This is for VLV week 2 as well as the October Diva Dare Challenge "Pink Power" This was a harder sketch for me; but I finally put together something I liked. I chose a palette of pinks and greens for this card, with the focus on the pink obviously. I used my Inkadinkado Polka Dot background stamp and embossed it with versamark and white embossing powder. I used the Geometric Rings embossing folder for the circle. The banner across the top was cut using Verve's "Award Banner" die cut. I also used Verve's "I heart U" die set and "you and I " stamp set.
I added some sparkle to the heart with some star dust stickles and some white acrylic paint dots to the embossed area of the circle to finish the card.

Since this post is already really long, I'm not going to link this card to any additional challenges.

That is all for me today. Thank you so much for visiting with me. Have a wonderful day, and I will see you all again soon!