The Color Throwdown #394

Hello!. Thank you for dropping by.
Today I have cards for The ColorThrowdown #394. I love the inspiration image and the colours, but I must say, I didn't find the challenge an easy one.

This is the second card I made.

I can't tell you how many flower and leaf stamped die cuts I have for these cards. There are four layers to the flowers, with stamped button (two sizes) or stigma centers. So many combinations. I felt like a complete cot case when they were finally together. I wanted to move to another stamp set but I felt I would have been 'giving up' so persevered.

This is what I used.

The stamp and die set used is clearly Besotted Fancy Florals. 

'THANKS' is an old Hero Arts sentiment stamp set.

I have used Hero Arts dye inks for the stamping.

This is the first card made. The twine should have been cream, or none at all,  and is the base a bit pink???????

I used the same stamps, dies and inks as the card above.

The circle is from a Lil' Inker set, 'Dual Dotted Circles Dies' 

I swirled (with the Mini Blending Tool) two Versa Magic Chalk inks on the background. I find these perfect for this technique as they don't grab the card and they blend nicely. 

That's it from me. Until next time.

Stay warm!! Or cool if you are in the middle of Summer.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Fun with Felt

Hello there. Today I am joining in with the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge -  Fun with Felt.
The designer felty's are so gorgeous and very inspiring.
I wanted to join in because I come from a quilting background, so anything that is fabric, especially wool, makes my heart sing.

Here is my take on the challenge.

The only suitable felt colours I had were the brighter pink and the darker green. So, I raided my dyed felted wool (it's boiled in the dying process hence the felting) stash for the other colours. I love dyed wool, it's a joy to work with.

The dies I have used to make the flowers are Spellbinders Rose Creations set. I love their wobbly edges. There are six flowers and three leaves in the set. 

The green paper leaves are an Elizabeth die set.

The banner is MFT Die-namics Fishtail Flags Layers STAX.

The sentiment is Avery Elle.

The centre of the flowers are enamel dots. They seemed a bit stark so I used a tooth pick to dot them with acrylic paint. They kind of look as if Lady Birds have rested there!

Must post. It is the last day of the challenge.

As always, thank you so much for dropping by. 

MFT Color Challenge 45

Today I have a card for the MFT Color Challenge 45

This, very uncharacteristic, CASish card is the result of much pondering. 

I decided to use the MFT Abstract Art stamp set. It has so many pieces to it. The temptation to use more than one piece was HUGE!! I wanted to layer, add and add again but the card wouldn't let me!

Not one bit. So here it is, repeat stamping of one stamp in pigment ink, a sentiment, and three wee dots.

I played with the stamps for some time but this configuration 'spoke' to me.  

The 'Hello' was cut with the Silhouette. 

Placing the 'there (PTI)' took some time, thank goodness for the Misti and an acetate overlay, I was able to trial positions before stamping. Yay for the MISTI!!! 

Once the card was together I played with dots, both size and placement. I placed them on the card, many more at first, but three seemed to be perfect. Then I applied a wee piece of advice from my quilting days. I took them off and asked myself, "Do I miss them?", and I did.

Thank you so much for dropping by. I hope you are having a creative and happy week.

ColourQ challenge #342

I am joining in with the ColorQ Challenge today. Here is the gorgeous inspiration photo.....I love the large sploggy flowers.

Once again I have used MFT Rose Bouquet stamps and dies. It has been a totally enjoyable experience trying different techniques and colours using one stamp set. I know I have bearly scratched the surface of this set's capabilities. I could happily continue to play with it, BUT, I guess it would very boring for anyone visiting my blog on a regular basis. (Not sure if that person exists but thank you if you do. :-))

The sploggy flowers screamed watercolour to me. This is what I came up with.

The flowers were inked with Distress inks, then lightly misted with water before stamping. 

The Stitched backgrounds are all from a MFT Stax set. 

The lovely sentiment is from Avery Elle. I love the elongated shape and the size of the font. See the set below. I have embossed it in white on ink navy card.

The sequins show up more in the photograph than they do IRL so they are more subtle than shown.

 Have a great week.

Two Floral cards using MFT Rose Bouquet Stamp and Dies

As mentioned in the last post, Stormy weather kept us inside this weekend, so some of the time was spent stamping.
I stayed with one stamping set, MFT Rose Bouquet Stamp and Dies, just to see what I could do with it.
The last posted card used Memento Luxe Ink for the Roses. With these roses, I have used Distress Inks.

I have a real passion for grayed off colours, so for the roses, I inked with a combination of Mustard Seed and Weathered Wood. I lightly misted the stamp, stamped gently on scrap paper, then stamped on the die cut. I love the colour. 

The wood grain in the card immediately above is a White Woodgrain Card Stock purchased from SSS. I have lightly inked the surface with two distress inks, Pumice Stone and Mustard Seed.

With the help of the  Paper Playful blog (great lists of challenges, including the current theme for each) I found two 'Anything Goes' Challenges to join up with.

Brown Sugar Challenge Blog

Southern Girls Challenge

Happy creating......

The Card Concept #55 You Are My Sunshine

Today I am joining in on The Card Concept #55 - You Are My Sunshine Challenge. Here is the very sunny coloured inspiration image.

This weekend we were meant to be on a fabulous 11 hour train trip to the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand (I live near the top half.), with a flight home the next day. But, the weather forecast was so revolting, with gale force winds and rain, we decided to postpone the trip. 

So, when the weather is yukky outside, what better way to spend your time than making a card, or two.

I am such a night owl and love the wee hours. Two wonderful films kept me company....(and one furry), 'The Spirit of St Louis' 1957, about Charles Lindbergh, and 'The Story Of Louis Pasteur' 1936. I have seen them before, many years ago.

Here is one of the cards I made. Roses, butterflies and the colour yellow all remind me of summer sunshine.

I have used MFT Rose Bouquet Stamp set and dies. Lots of stitched surrounds also from MFT. The well used 'hello' and the wee butterfly are both from Papertrey ink.  

The yellow background was the result of swirling yellow Distress Ink straight from the bottle onto a piece of Neenah card stock. I don't know what possessed me to do it but I like how it looks. I embossed five lines on the background using my scoring board and flicked a bit of ink on the card. 

Once I had taken the photos, and the daylight had run out, I have discovered a tiny black dot at the top of the rose in the photos, a weeny piece of dust that just brushed off.  I also discovered that my photo editing program has a 'Heal' function. I had a play and swiped the brush across the extraneous tiny dot and it disappeared. You can see the dot in the angled card and removed in the other photo. You click on the area immediately beside the offending object and drag that colour over it. I think that is how it works??

Must post.

Have a great week.

Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge # 205 Add a Snow Globe to your card

This week I have the honour of being guest designer for Merry Monday. :-) The theme for the challenge, as mentioned in the post title, is to place a Snow Globe on your card. This is Linda's challenge and here is her gorgeous inspiration photo.

I have seen some lovely Globe cards done in 'true' shaker style. I believe my style of card is called a 'faux' shaker card. Everything is fixed in place, and it doesn't have a clear front.

I didn't have a Snow Globe die or stamp, so I did a Google search and found the digi globe below (linked if you click on the image).

I printed the image on card stock, coloured the base with copics, then cut around the base only.

Optional:- I made the Globe in Publisher. I created an 83mm diameter circle, with a 3pt black line perimeter and printed it out on cardstock. I felt the outer black line helped contain the scene and make the globe look like it had been stamped. 

The back of the globe was cut using the Spellbinders 83mm diameter circle die. 

The outer ring was cut with two dies together, the 83mm die and the next size down, one inside the other.

The Snowman is from MFT's Christmas Cuteness set. His hat is cut from designer paper. Simply stamp the Snowman on lightweight note paper and cut around the inner part of the hat without the stamped lines. Glue stick the RIGHT SIDE of the hat to the back of the designer paper and cut around it. Glue in place on the stamped Snowman.

The sky background is sponged Distress Ink. The base (land) is white glitter board. The sky is embossed with wee white snowflakes, I applied dots of glue to catch sprinkled glitter, and attached various sizes of sequins and stars.

The sentiment, from a W Plus 9 Silver Bells stamp set, is white embossed on black card stock.

The large snowflakes are from Lil Inker 

Thank you for dropping by.

Have a lovely week.

Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge #204 Woodgrain, Kraft and White

 This week at Merry Monday Deanne's Challenge is to use kraft, woodgrain and white on your card.
Just love the inspiration image and working in those colours.

I decided to use Papertrey's Bells and Bough's stamp set. It is so pretty and has so many pieces.

I popped a little pink in the mix to make it look a little perkier.

The woodgrain is a white woodgrain embossed card stock purchased from SSS 2 or 3 years ago.

I swirled Frayed Burlap and Iced Spruce Distress inks very lightly on the surface.

The kraft foliage is a Cottage Cutz Die 'Greenery' that has three different, lovely fine branches on it. 

That is it from me.

Have a great week.

Merry Monday #203 Ombre and Glitter

The challenge at Merry Monday this week is 'Ombre and Glitter'.

There were so many ways to tackle this challenge. In the end, I decided to do my 'ombre' (sounds like I am dancing) with a die I haven't used before. Rainbow Stripes from Papertrey Ink. The glitter 'merry' (also Papertrey) was purchased glitter card. The wee snowman is from MFT's Christmas Cuteness set. The snowflakes are Lil' Inker.
Here is how the card turned out.

Thanks for dropping by.

Have a great week.

ABC Christmas Card Challenge - I for Ink

I am joining the ABC Christmas Card Challenge today. The theme is.... I for Ink. Until recently, I only had one cute Christmas Stamp and it is very old. The cutest kitten, it is still a favorite. You can see a card using this stamp Here.
I thought I should have a new set, so I ordered MFT's Christmas Cuteness. It has lots of wonderful characters, two snowmen, two reindeer, one Father Christmas, a lovely Christmas tree and about three sentiments.

Here is my card.

The blue background is a DP, it made the perfect backdrop. After embossing a piece of card, I freehand cut the rolling snow hills with a rotary cutter.( being a quilter comes in handy sometimes)

I edged them in a bit of ink to define the edge a little more. I stamped and coloured the trees, FC (a little Stickles here and there) and the wee reindeer. Once the reindeer was coloured....I lopped off his head!! I thought he looked cute carrying the sentiment. He is a bit taller with his head off but I think he looks OK. The top of the card looked a little odd, empty, so I added a cloud. This seemed to help contain the wee scene.

That's it for now.

Hope you have had a productive and happy week.

As always, thank you for dropping by.

Winter Wonderland -White on White Challenge

Today I have a card made for the Winter Wonderland Challenge Blog. The challenge theme is White-0n-White. The cards are so pretty.

Here is my card for the challenge.

I have used a favourite Memory Box poinsettia die, a very old punch for the fine foliage, and a Die-namics Stitched Oval Frame. The herringbone background is a Spellbinder embossing folder I think?? I added a bit of Stickles and A Wink of Stella  to the Poinsettia (doesn't show in the photograph).

I have made white-on-white before and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, so I was very happy to participate in this challenge, my first for Winter Wonderland.

You can see my other two cards here and Here.

This week I also tried a technique presented by Jennifer McGuire on her blog. Such a great technique. She made it look so easy to get a good result in the video. Working with what I had, I got and awful result...well not totally awful, but fairly. Not sharable anyway. My sticky paper wasn't sticky enough to hold the glitter for the Copic markers, so some of the glitter came off. It just looks a little patchy. 

I had an 'Ah-huh' moment! I tried the technique on purchased white glitter board and it worked perfectly. I haven't made a card from the resulting panel yet. 

I loved the idea of adding Glossy Accents to pop the sentiment. See her gorgeous cards by clicking on the link above.

Have a great crafting week and thanks for dropping by.

Merry Monday #202 {Let it Snow!}

Kathy's challenge at Merry Monday this week is 'Let It Snow'. I didn't have any stamps relating to snow so I decided a little white splatter on the background would do the trick. And it did, but, I am so pleased I didn't have visitors at the time......when I passed a mirror a while later my face and glasses could also have been entered in the challenge. What a hoot. It took some scrubbing to remove it as I had used acrylic paint to get opaque splatters. I really need to refine my splattering technique!! Perhaps a splattering booth is required, with protective gear. LOL

Here is the inspiration photo.

 I chose very non-traditional colours.  I used Winsor and Newton Watercolour paints for the background. The stamp set is W Plus 9's 'Woodland Wreath' with a few pieces from other sets.

W Plus 9 Woodland Wreaths

Happy stamping.

Karen