One Card Sketch, a Little Mystery & Two Cutest Crew Cards!

What happens when you start with a card sketch, hide it from everyone else, and turn it into a Mystery Stamping challenge?

You get a whole lot of creative fun! 🦄

For our latest Team Unicorn meeting, I decided to do a little Mystery Stamping using the adorable Cutest Crew Stamp Set.

But here’s the fun part…

My team didn’t get to see the sketch!

Instead, I gave everyone clues ahead of time to prepare their supplies. They chose:

• A Designer Series Paper
• Two coordinating cardstock colors
• Basic White cardstock
• Cats, dogs OR birds from Cutest Crew

They cut their circles, cardstock pieces, banner and other elements according to the clues—but they weren’t allowed to start putting anything together.

Then we created! Want to learn more about how you can be part of TEAM Unicorn?

Here’s the Card Sketch That Started It All

The sketch itself is actually pretty simple: large circles coming in from different edges, a focal point, some horizontal elements and a greeting.

But that’s exactly what I love about a good card sketch.

It gives you a starting point without telling you exactly what your finished card has to look like.

My Cutest Crew + Brushed with Beauty Cards

For my samples, I paired Cutest Crew with the gorgeous Brushed with Beauty Designer Series Paper.

And I couldn’t make just one!

For the first card, I used the sweet floral pattern with Petal Pink and chose the cats from Cutest Crew. The soft colors and florals give this version such a pretty feel—and then those three little cats bring in all the personality!

For my second version, I chose that fabulous bright yellow floral pattern and the birds from Cutest Crew.

Same sketch.

Same stamp set.

Same Designer Series Paper collection.

And look how completely different they feel!

That’s one of my favorite things about working from a sketch. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you sit down to create. Change the paper, change the colors, move something a little, choose different stamped images—and suddenly you have an entirely new card.

Don’t Forget the Inside!

Of course, I couldn’t leave the insides completely plain!

I used coordinating cardstock and little pieces of the Brushed with Beauty Designer Series Paper to carry the colors and patterns from the front of each card to the inside.

It’s a simple detail, but I think it makes a handmade card feel extra special when the recipient opens it.

Mystery Stamping Makes a Sketch Even More Fun

What I really loved about using this sketch for our Team Unicorn Mystery Stamping is that everyone started with the same basic instructions, but they were able to make choices along the way. Here’s what I gave them….

Which DSP?

Which colors?

Cats, dogs or birds?

And because they hadn’t seen the finished card—or even the sketch—they couldn’t overthink it. They just had to trust the clues and CREATE.

Sometimes that’s exactly what we need!

A card sketch doesn’t have to be a set of rules. It’s simply an idea that gets you started.

And this one sketch certainly gave us plenty of possibilities!

Now I Want to Know…

🐱 Are you Team Cats?
🐶 Team Dogs?
🐦 Or Team Birds?

And here’s another question…

Would you like to Mystery Stamp with me sometime?

If enough of you say YES, we might just have to make that happen! ❤️

Happy Stamping!