Saturday 31 October 2015

Colour Me Playful 95 FMS 210

Today I've been a little experimental and a little playful, in keeping with the Colour Me Playful challenge at Colour Me this week.


For further inspiration, I used this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.


I bought the No Bones About It dinosaur set because it was a bit playful and because my own children had a dinosaur obsession going on for much of their childhood, as did I. So, it seemed a good chance to use it - I've been a bit too attached to butterflies of late!




Ingredients
Card: Cucumber Crush, Whisper White, Real Red, Tangelo Twist, So Saffron
Stamps: No Bones About It
Ink: Cucumber Crush, Real Red, Tangelo Twist, So Saffron, Tuxedo Black
Other: Circle Framelits, Letter Thinlits, dimensionals.


As You See It 110

I can't believe how close Christmas is - it seems last Christmas only just happened. So I couldn't help but see a Christmas card in this week's sketch challenge at As You See It. Please join us for this wonderful sketch challenge.


I've flipped the sketch and simplified the shape of the central panel but made up for that by using a lot more patterns than I usually go for in a card. Love those rich colours though... just delicious.




Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Merry Moments DSP, Crumb Cake, Mossy Meadow, Cherry Cobbler, gold glimmer card
Stamps: Festival of Trees, Holly Jolly Greetings
Ink: Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake
Other: Circle framelit, Scallop thinlit from Circle card set, Christmas Greeting thinlits, dimensionals

Friday 30 October 2015

Paper Players 268

I've spent most of this week without any kind of creative juice but as it rolled around to Friday night, the hint of a smidgeon of an idea wormed its way out. I'd been interested in the sketch at The Paper Players ever since I'd seen it on the first day and now, when there's only hours until the deadline, I finally got it working for me. It's such a great little sketch, that I'd like to use it again sometime.


I have been in a Christmas card frame of mind lately and although I usually avoid snowy scenes, since Christmas is a summer event for us, this one just formed itself. 

The white tree was resist embossed: white embossing powder then sponged with Lost Lagoon with the snow line masked out. The white embossing powder had a tiny bit of Iridescent Ice mixed in, which gives it a hint of a sparkle, in real life. The other trees were added using Lost Lagoon that had been stamped off to various degrees. The 'peace' was die-cut and stacked but I trimmed the long ends of the 'p' and 'e' so the sentiment was more proportional to the rest of the design.




Update: So delighted to have this card selected as A Cut Above at The Paper Players.

Ingredients
Card: Heavy weight Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, scrap of Lost Lagoon, Winter Wonderland (2014) DSP, Silver glimmer paper.
Stamps: Festival of Trees
Ink: Lost Lagoon, Versamark
Other: Christmas Greeting thinlits, circle framelits, silver trimming cord, Something Borrowed embellishment, dimensional, white/iridescent ice embossing powder.




Monday 26 October 2015

CAS Colours and Sketches 147

One of the many advantages of a long weekend is the chance to spend more time in my craft room, so I've taken the sketch challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches on.


I guess Christmas trees was the obvious choice but the early arrival of summer on this Labour Day holiday put Christmas thoughts out the window temporarily and butterflies came in instead!




Originally, I intended to make the front butterfly Watermelon Wonder on White with a Watermelon Wonder under-butterfly, so I stamped the other butterfly off first to make it paler. However, the difference in colour just wasn't enough to make them stand out from each other, so I clear embossed onto Watermelon Wonder and this worked much better.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Watermelon Wonder
Stamps: Butterfly Basics, Summer Silhouette
Ink: Crumb Cake, Watermelon Wonder, Mint Macaron, Tip-top Taupe, Versamark
Other: Clear embossing powder, dimensionals, Butterfly thinlit, pearls, Early Espresso Stampin' Write marker.



Sunday 25 October 2015

In{k}spire me 221

I had to make time this week for the challenge at In{k}spire Me because the colours on offer are favourites of mine. Blackberry Bliss and Mossy Meadow are divine together.


It's a long weekend here - four days of holiday. We've had one day of summer, one day of rain and now another day of summer. Hopefully tomorrow does not complete the pattern! But with the promise of summer just around the corner, I've been having a bit of a love affair with Summer Silhouette for the last couple of weeks. Today is no exception.




The background is sponged with Blackberry Bliss and Mossy Meadow and then I flicked it with water then quickly mopped it up. Then I stamped some flowers in Blackberry, built up the leaves with Mossy Meadow and Blackberry. Then finally added in some gold embossed flowers and leaves.
I'm pretty happy with the overall effect.

Ingredients
Card: Blackberry Bliss, Whisper White, Gold foil, watercolour paper
Stamps: Summer Silhouette, Crazy for You
Ink: Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow, Versamark
Other: Gold embossing powder,  Blackberry Bliss satin ribbon, die from Circle Flip Card framelit, dimensionals.


Saturday 24 October 2015

As You See It 109 - Colour

This week's challenge at As You See It is an interesting colour combination. The warm days we've been having this week are making me think summer's almost here and that I should be out in the garden combatting those burgeoning weeds. As tempting as the garden might be... I compromised and got out my Summer Silhouette set instead!


I thought I'd be bold and make my white space, black space for a bit of drama. I made my sky like this because I recently observed a sunset from a plane and thought how pretty that moment just before the sun finally disappears is.




And I also really liked the inside of this card too.


Ingredients
Card: Black, Whisper White
Stamps: Summer Silhouette, Happy Birthday Everyone
Inks: Tangelo Twist (don't have any Pumpkin Pie), Lost Lagoon, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark.
Other: White embossing powder, dimensionals, rhinestones, Itty Bitty Butterfly punch, Tangelo Twist baker's twine, White gel pen, sponges.


Monday 19 October 2015

Connie and Mary 377

Really, I should be in bed asleep as it's a work day tomorrow but I wanted to finish this card!
At first, I didn't like the sketch at Create with Connie and Mary this week but it must have struck a subliminal chord because by the time I got home from work and got the chores done, I knew what I had to do.


Earlier in the year, I experimented with a faux metal technique and I wanted to try it again. So I created the background paper using that technique and used the colours in the metalwork for the strips. It possibly worked better with the Beautifully Baroque embossing folder, but this is a nice change that also works well. It is quite difficult to photograph to show the lovely metallic glimmer over the faux metallic surface that makes it a lively card in the real world. 








Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Early Espresso, Lost Lagoon, Pear Pizzazz
Stamps: Crazy for You, Summer Silhouette, Petite Petals
Ink: Sahara Sand, Pear Pizzazz, Lost Lagoon, Early Espresso, Versamark
Other: Gold embossing powder, Elegant Dots embossing folder, sponges, Lost Lagoon ribbon, Petite Petals punch, Early Espresso candy dots.


Saturday 17 October 2015

Casology 168 Colour Me 93

This week's challenge at Casology is an unusual one, being a celebration of 'you' to celebrate the new look at the site and three years of challenges.


I thought it would go well with the colours this week at Colour Me Challenge. 



Autumn colours are everywhere in the challenge world, which is a bit odd for me since it's coming into summer here. Even without the autumn connotation, they are still rich, warm, inviting colours to use and I couldn't help but use the leaves from French Foliage as a backdrop for the sentiment. The die cut 'you' is stacked and the bottom layer is black to give a very subtle outline/shadow that highlights the word.



Ingredients
Card: Cajun Craze, Whisper White, scrap of black.
Stamps: French Foliage, Crazy for You
Inks: Cajun Craze, Hello Honey
Other: Hello You thinlits, sponges



Just add a Fancy Fold

One of the things I like about the Just Add Ink Challenges is the variety of challenges and the fact they often make me think. This week, the challenge is to add a fancy fold to your card.

I've been playing around with a card/gift card holder using my circle flip card die, that I haven't used anywhere often enough.

All closed up with a belly band...


Open...


Opened to reveal the flip side of the central circle and the gift card holder...




Ingredients
Card: Old Olive, Merry Moments DSP, Cherry Cobbler, Smoky Slate, Whisper White
Stamps: Festival of trees, Holly Jolly Greetings
Inks: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler
Other: Circle Flip Card thinlit set, Tree punch, circle framelits, dimensionals.





Lola's Challenge

This week the design team at As You See It are running a special challenge for Lola, Tara's niece, who is only nine but fighting childhood cancer. Since she immune-compromised after a bone marrow transplant and can't receive actual cards, we're running a challenge to make cards for her that she can see on-line instead. Please join us this week, for Lola's challenge.


I wanted to use butterflies because they are such an image of hope and change for the future. I also wanted to include beads because so many childhood cancer patients collect Beads of Courage in their journey.

I hope you like this card Lola. Thinking of you.




Ingredients
Card: Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Gold foil
Stamps: Butterfly Basics, Papillon Potpourri
Inks:  Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar and SU Pretty in Pink, Versamark
Other: Butterfly thinlit, Gold embossing powder, Honeycomb embossing folder, Peel off black letters, letter beads, Blushing Bride bakers' twine, pink enamel dots from Paper Vine, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery stamp'n'write marker, sponges.





Sunday 11 October 2015

Freshly Made Sketches 207 CCMC 376

What better way to finish off a lovely weekend than with a card challenge? This card is a mash up of the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and the colour challenge at Create with Connie and Mary.



I'm still having my little love affair with Awesomely Artistic, which seemed to suit Connie and Mary's colours beautifully. And I'm still loving playing with acrylic block backgrounds. So, here it is....



Ingredients
Card: Lost Lagoon, Whisper White, scrap of Tip Top Taupe
Stamps: Awesomely Artistic, sentiment from Wetlands.
Ink: Perfect Plum, Lost Lagoon, Tip Top Taupe, versamark
Other: White embossing powder, rhinestone





Saturday 10 October 2015

CAS Colours and Sketches 145

I've just had a lovely week's holiday in Australia. It was beautiful...the only negative was that I couldn't take my scrapbooking stuff with me!

So, just back and I had all the week's blogs to check over and still a couple of days before school goes back. The sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches brought an idea to mind straight away. The ornaments die and stamp set I got from the holiday catalogue is endlessly versatile and I'm glad I got it.






Update: So pleased that this card was chosen as a weekly winner at CAS Colours and Sketches.
Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Gold foil
Stamps: Endless Wishes, Holly Jolly Greetings
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Other: Delicate Ornaments die, Gold thread, Gold cord trim, dimensionals, Cherry Cobbler marker.

As You See It 107

For this week's challenge at As You See It, I've made a thank-you card using my current favourite stamp set, Awesomely Artistic. The challenge was another interesting sketch by Amanda.


I got myself into a bit of trouble with this, as having masked and sponged the focus panel, I was reluctant to cover it up with a sentiment! Having decided to use vellum, I then had the problem of how to attach it without showing. One problem solved leads to another... who knew that card-making was a metaphor for life?





Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Moonlight DSP, vellum
Stamps: Awesomely Artistic, A Dozen Thoughts
Ink: Black Stazon, Lost Lagoon, Blackberry Bliss
Other: MFT Circle Dot die, rhinestones, sponges.