The Card Concept Challenge 76 - Romantic Roses

 The theme for this week's challenge, at The Card Concept, is 'Romantic Roses'. The bold black and red bunch of flowers are so striking against the white, slatted wood background. I particularly love the damask wrapping paper. Have fun with this gorgeous image.

Sadly, this will be my last challenge as a team member. I took on a part-time, volunteer office position in January and it has taken much of my spare time. I have loved being a part of this talented design team and wish them all the best for the next term (starting in September). 

For my card, I really focused on the wrapping paper, the roses and the wee touch of green.

The black die cut is from Kaiser Craft - Damask.

The flowers and sentiment scroll are from Verve.
The leaves are Simply Graphic.

Here are the links to the design team's blogs:-

Becca Cruger

Karen Davis (you are here)

Vicki Finger

Julie Gearinger

Michele K. Henderson 

Kim Heggins

Nancy Penir

Maureen Plut

Susan Powell

Angel Rivera

Mackie Robertson

Julee Tilman

 Veronica Zalis

Come and play along with us at The Card Concept   

Have a great week :)

The Card Concept Challenge 75 - Boldly Graphic

 The theme for this week's challenge, at The Card Concept, is 'Boldly Graphic'. I love the black and white graphic print teamed with the beige, pink and dark wood. The diffused light from behind, the crystals and the mirror all add a translucent quality to the scene. I am so sure you will be inspired to make a card for our gallery :-D

This week's Mixed Media card really developed from the pattern on the chairs. To represent it I chose a chevron pattern embossed with white Hero Arts powder. I then sponged it with Distress Ink - Black Soot grading it from dark to light.

The mirror was introduced using mirror board and a decorative die from Spellbinders.

The flower is from the Clearly Besotted 'You are' stamp set. I stamped it with black Versafine then embossed it with clear embossing powder. I watercoloured the petals using watercolour paints.

The black leaves are  from Simply Graphic 'Openwork Foliage' 

The white leaves are a die from Verve's 'Beautiful Things'.

The sentiment is a Hero Arts stamp set. I created a cut file for the stamp using the Silhouette machine.

Here are the links to the design team's blogs:-

Becca Cruger

Karen Davis (you are here)

Vicki Finger

Julie Gearinger

Michele K. Henderson 

Kim Heggins

Nancy Penir

Maureen Plut

Susan Powell

Angel Rivera

Mackie Robertson

Julee Tilman

 Veronica Zalis

Come and play along with us at The Card Concept   

Have a great week :)

The Card Concept Challenge 74 - Freshly Elegant

 The theme for this week's challenge at The Card Concept is Freshly Elegant. The 'oh so elegant' inspiration has so many colours and items to inspire a gorgeous card. I hope you will take the time to join us.

For my Clean and layered card, I really wanted to keep it very simple. I ended up missing out the gold element in my card but did pick up on the woodgrain '&', or what looked like woodgrain, but now I look at it, is it gold??

I used MFT's die cut scallop elements with an Old Hero Arts stamp. The hello is chipboard from a packet of words by Rosie's. There you have it! :)

Here are the links to the design team's blogs:-

Karen Davis (you are here)

Vicki Finger

Julie Gearinger

Michele K. Henderson (Taking a break this week)

Kim Heggins

Nancy Penir

Maureen Plut

Susan Powell

Angel Rivera

Mackie Robertson

Julee Tilman

 Veronica Zalis

Come and play along with us at The Card Concept   

Have a great week :)

The Card Concept Challenge 73 - Vintage Notes

The theme for this week's challenge at The Card Concept is Vintage Notes. The inspiration is chockablock full of elements to inspire you. If vintage is not your thing, take the elements and use your own colour palette. Have fun!!

As I have said many times, I love vintage, and layers, and distress ink, especially Walnut, the original.
Every element on my card is old. The doily is one of my mother's op-shop finds from many years ago. The background paper, flourish (at the top of the card), branch, buttons, and sentiment are items purchased several years ago. The butterfly stamp is at least 10 years old.

I started by adhering the background paper to a piece of card. 
I then subdued the design by brushing White Golden Fluid Acrylic paint around the edges. I like this brand because it flows beautifully, and it dries clean and transparent. If I want something more Opaque I use standard acrylic paint or Gesso.

I treated the edges with Walnut Distress Ink. The previous layer of acrylic paint stops the distress ink from absorbing into the paper, so it sort of slides around the surface. I liked the softer effect.

As I wanted a clean shabby card, I decided not to distress (as in mangle :) the edges.

I mounted the background on foam tape then proceeded to add the elements as you see them on the card. 

The butterfly is coloured with chalk, my 'go-to' when I want a really soft, transparent, blendable, non-absorbant colour.

The sentiment and butterfly have walnut ink edges.

Here are the links to the design team's blogs:-

Karen Davis (you are here)

Vicki Finger

Julie Gearinger

Michele K. Henderson

Kim Heggins

Nancy Penir

Maureen Plut

Susan Powell

Angel Rivera

Mackie Robertson

Julee Tilman

 Veronica Zalis

Come and play along with us at The Card Concept   

Have a great week :)

The Card Concept Challenge 72 - April Showers

The Card Concept Challenge this week has the theme 'April Showers'. A vibrant wee arrangement of flowers in the cutest polka dot gummies :) So many gorgeous elements to inspire you.

Way beyond the flowers and the boots is the most delicate background. It's obviously pictures on a wall, but it's smudged and lovely.
I took a piece of watercolour paper and sponged squares of Golden Fluid acrylic paint, with hints of the colours I used in the flowers and leaves. It's really lovely but hard to pick up in my photo. (click on the photo for a better look).

The scallop circle was also made using Golden Fluid Acrylic. Many years ago I made several big stamps using precut foam shapes. I glued them to a piece of wood with PVA glue. Back then they were used to stamp fabric. I used one with dots attached in a grid pattern to stamp blue Bazzil card.

The flowers and leaves are Tim Holtz Flower garden. I have made a Silhouette cut file for the stamps.
I used Versamark ink to stamp (not really recommended for watercolour, it runs if you leave it wet for too long) and watercolored the flowers and leaves with Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese Watercolour Paints.

The yellow fronds are from  MFT Leafy Greenery.

The Sentiment unknown.

Here are the links to the design team's blogs:-

Becca Cruger

Karen Davis (you are here)

Vicki Finger

Julie Gearinger

Michele K. Henderson

Kim Heggins

Nancy Penir

Maureen Plut

Susan Powell

Angel Rivera

Mackie Robertson

Julee Tilman

 Veronica Zalis

Come and play along with us at The Card Concept   

Have a great week :)