Wednesday 29 July 2015

Paper Players 255

I've been playing around with the sketch at The Paper Players for a couple of evenings now, which just goes to show that a holiday is not always good for the brain!


Such a delicious sketch, yet I kept changing my direction and changing my mind. Perhaps I was still in frame mode of thinking from last week's challenge! Anyway, here is the finished product...



It started out to be a masculine card but I'm not altogether sure that's how it ended up! But, I like it anyway.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Marina Mist
Stamps: SU Butterfly Basics, MFT Eye Chart
Ink: Black, Night of Navy
Other: Scallop Tag-Topper punch, corner-rounder punch, MFT Geek is Chic Glasses die, Marina Mist ribbon, SU Square Lattice embossing folder, dimensionals to lift the tag, Night of Navy marker pen.

Sunday 26 July 2015

Match the Sketch 82

I look at the Match The Sketch Challenge blog every week and have seen some lovely things here but have only entered once before. A friend asked me to make a silver anniversary card and I'd been a bit stumped for ideas but I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea using this week's sketch.


I liked the overlapping shapes and for this anniversary card, I liked the idea of using a lot of different textures, rather than DSP, to create a sense of opulence. Since the card is to be posted, I wanted to avoid using too much height. I decided to stick with elegant combination of white, plum and silver for colours.




Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Perfect Plum, Silver glitter paper
Stamps: SU A Dozen Thoughts
Ink: Perfect Plum, Versamark
Embossing Folders: SU Elegant Dots, Beautifully Baroque, Provocraft Swiss Dots.
Other: Silver embossing powder, Heart punch, sponge dauber to distress edges, Provocraft Olivia dies for the numbers.




Just Add Ink 272

I've made a lot of butterfly cards this year, so I was pretty happy to see that the theme this week at Just Add Ink is.... just add butterflies.

Turns out that you should be careful what you wish for because this turned into a hard challenge. Part of it was post-holiday lack of inspiration but then it was a case of trying to find something that I liked but hadn't done before. Quite often a card just makes itself in my head and I do it but in this case, there was a lot of trying, moving, altering, changing and occasional mild swearing before arriving at this...




I replaced my original ink-smooshed background with a band of semi-distressed I Love Lace in So Saffron. The butterflies are sponged with three inks, highlighted with silver gel and then have a coat of glossy accents applied, which has given them a deeper colour as well as a shine.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, So Saffron, scraps of Elegant Eggplant and Coral Calypso.
Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, I Love Lace
Inks: So Saffron, Coral Calypso, Tangelo Twist, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant
Other: Elegant Butterfly punch, dimensionals, silver gel, W&W Big Bold and Party die

Saturday 25 July 2015

Freshly Made Sketches 196

It's amazing how soon after you get back from holiday that it seems as though you've not been away at all. It's all feeling like a dream now - a warm, relaxing dream after a week of winter and work!

Since my box of Stampin' Up goodies arrived the day before we left for Hawaii, they have languished in my craft room for a fortnight. So, the first outing for Summer Silhouettes was today with the lovely inspiration sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. I've wanted this set ever since last year's catalogue and can't believe I waited so long as it's an exciting set to use.






Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Tip Top Taupe, Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes
Ink: Mint Macron, Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush
Other: Linen twine, Hello You thinlit dies, silver gel pen to add flower centres, Early Espresso marker to colour cut edges.


Thursday 23 July 2015

Paper Players 254 and In{k}spire Me 208

It's been quite hard to get time to get back to my craft room after a week's holiday in Hawaii. Between jet lag and going straight back to work, time's been a premium this week. When I finally got there, I discovered that it was quite hard to get back in the groove! But the holiday was great... so warm... it was a shame to come back to more winter.

Anyway, I've created a card inspired by both the challenge at The Paper Players and the lovely colour combination at In{k}spire Me.



Frames is such a cool challenge! Lots of possibility - layered frames, breaking the frame, spectacle dies and stamps.... In the end, I decided to play with film frames. I used the square frames of a stencil from 13Arts to lay down a background, using Mint Macaron at the centre, bleeding out into Lost Lagoon. Over that I stamped the flowers from Awesomely Artistic in Tip Top Taupe but coloured in the part of the bunch that was within the film strip frame. I was going to add in the dragonfly on top of the frames but it was just a bit too much, but I did add rhinestone centres to the coloured flowers within the filmstrip frames to give some bling zing. Then the whole panel is framed by the Lost Lagoon base.




Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Lost Lagoon
Stamps: Awesomely Artistic, Happy Birthday Everyone
Inks: Mint Macaron, Lost Lagoon, Tip Top Taupe
Other: 13 Arts Square stencil, MFT Mini-filmstrip die, Lost Lagoon marker, rhinestones, sponges



Saturday 11 July 2015

As You See It 95 CAS 132

Ok, so Saturday is usually my big card-making day - but not today. Today was to be devoted entirely to packing our bags for our overseas holiday to somewhere warm and relaxing, along with sending the son back to university. Still, I didn't see the harm in checking out the challenge sites over a leisurely Saturday morning coffee. Big mistake. For what did I see at As You See It but a speed challenge... surely I could find ten minutes for a speed challenge????


So in amongst digging out the suitcases, sorting the togs, getting the passports etc I kept planning in my head. What could I do in ten minutes? The other thing that kept at me was the wonderful sketch this week at CAS Colours and Sketches.


Then, as fate would have it, a big box of stuff arrived from Stampin' Up - and all I could do was open it and promise to play with it next week... but the Zoo Babies were looking out of the box at me.

Eventually, I gave in to temptation. So here it is ...




The time: 9.09

Update: Delighted to be a top pick at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Ingredients
Card: Blushing Bride, Whisper White, Blushing Bride DSP
Stamps: Zoo Babies, heart from Banner Blast.
Ink: Blushing Bride, Rose Red
Other: Blushing Bride twine, Oval scallop punch, Oval punch, Chevron embossing folder, sponge, dimensionals.

Thursday 9 July 2015

Colour Me Striking 79

Today is freezing cold. It's the first week of the school holidays and it's nearly snowing where I live. Which is saying something, because I've lived here for 30 years and it's never snowed before. The closest it got was a light sprinkling on the tippy-top of the highest hills on the edge of town once or twice. So, after completing a card this morning, it was so miserable I went right on back to my craft room... where I found the stuff from this morning's card that I made for Casology. It got me playing with the stamp set I had out, the retired Hello Lovely, and the idea of repetition.



The challenge at  Colour Me this week was Bermuda Bay, Marina Mist and white. Making another card was meant to be, because Marina Mist was also out on my desk. Well, perhaps it wasn't meant to be because I don't have Bermuda Bay - but Coastal Cabana is a close match!



It's not the kind of card I usually make but this morning's playing got me thinking about repeat stamping and how hard it really is to get a number of stamps lined up, spaced and perfectly stamped so I wanted a bit of practice at it. The mathematician in me enjoyed the ordered design and there was quite a lot of satisfaction in completing my goal of a 3x3 grid of stamps without major mishap and on the first attempt.

Looking out the window, the weather is not showing one iota of improvement, so I'm extra glad that next week, we're off for a holiday somewhere warm!

Update: Delighted that this card was chosen as the Challenge Winner at Colour Me!

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, Marina Mist
Stamps: SU Hello Lovely, Hero Arts Thanks
Inks: Coastal Cabana, Marina Mist
Other: Marina Mist ribbon, Marina Mist candy dots, dimensionals.

Cas-ology 154

I don't often play at Cas-ology, although I look every week since the design team cards are so masterful, because I'm always kind of awed by the clean simplicity of the cards there. I like clean and simple but playing here always make me think very carefully about what to put in and what to leave out. When I play here, I always work on the theory that it's best to plan your card then take one thing out!  It's a real challenge for me.

I had a few ideas around the idea of repetition, so gave it a go.



It's very clean but not really so simple: even with a stamp-a-ma-jig, it's pretty hard to get the stamps all lined up and stamped perfectly each time. I actually had to call one a prototype and make a second!

I added a pearl to the centre of each motif, just to add a bit more interest in a subtle way.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, scrap of Marina Mist
Stamps: SU Hello Lovely (retired) and Hero Arts Thank You 
Ink: Marina Mist
Other: Pearls, corner rounder punch, stamp-a-majig.

Wednesday 8 July 2015

AAA Cards 43 Paper Players 252

A bit of experimentation today for this card for AAA Challenge Game 43: Starry Night and Paper Players 252: The Great Outdoors.




I used some peel off stars as a mask. I put them in the formation of the Southern Cross, the constellation I always find first when I'm outdoors at night, and the constellation on the New Zealand flag.

Then I used a circle mask and two colours of ink to create a vortex effect, so it looks like the sky can swallow you up into a world of possibilities. I used Gorgeous Grunge with silver ink to simulate The Milky Way in behind the Southern Cross. Finally, I stamped in some tree tops with Black Stazon so that it looks like you're lying on the ground, looking up at the night sky.



Although it isn't so obvious in the photo, I've backed the front of the card with Night of Navy, which is peeking through the circle die dots.

Update: So delighted that this card was A Cut Above at The Paper Players.
Really delighted that this card won first place at AAA Card Challenges.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Night of Navy (backing)
Stamps: SU A Dozen Thoughts and Gorgeous Grunge, unnamed tree stamp found at the Church Fair
Inks: SU Marina Mist, Distress Ink Stormy Sky, Stazon Jet Black, silver
Other: MFT Circle Dot Stitch die, sponges, circle framelits

Monday 6 July 2015

Onesie Baby Cards

A young couple that we know just recently had their third baby girl, five weeks premature. They are lovely people and I wanted a baby card for them. It was then that I realised I had a big gap in my card box! I don't even really have much in the way of baby stamps either but I found this cute little tutorial for a baby onesie card here at Beckie Jensen's Stamp That site, from 2009.


One piece of A4 card is enough for 2 cards and I reckon the next ones will be even better. I embossed  chest down on the second one and I like it better. I also discovered that the Whisper White candy dots look grey when put right next to the white card so used pearls to simulate the snap fasteners on the plainer card.

JAI 269 and CAS(E)130

I managed to fit in one more card last night. Another combination card with colours from Just Add Ink and a sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch.



The colours are indeed delightful, so soft and dreamy. It perhaps hasn't photographed quite so well but the large flower is in Pool Party, stamped with Lost Lagoon which, in real life, makes it pop a bit from the Soft Sky background.




Update: Delighted to be Top Pick at Just Add Ink with this card!


Ingredients
Card: Tip Tip Taupe, Soft Sky, Whisper White, Pool Party
Stamps: SU Flower Shoppe and Petite Petals, Clearly Besotted Leafy Accents, Hero Arts Thank You
Ink: Lost Lagoon, Tip Top Taupe
Other: Lost Lagoon satin ribbon, Soft Sky candy dots, brad base, linen twine, Kaisercraft nested frames, Pansy punch, dimensionals, Lost Lagoon marker pen.




Sunday 5 July 2015

FMS 193 and In{k}spire Me 205

It's the first weekend of the school holidays today and mid-winter to boot - so I've been very happy to get into my craftroom. Much to my husband's disgust, that time included last night when most of New Zealand was watching the Hurricanes and the Highlanders battle it out for an all-NZ Super Rugby final. Prioritising, I call it. (OK, I confess - I watched the second half.)

I've combined two challenges, since I'm starting to get over my aversion to combining challenges, with the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches and the colour combination at In{k}spire Me.


The purples are such moody colours, they called out for a whimsical, romantic kind of treatment.




The interesting thing about Blackberry Bliss, which I've noticed before, is that when you sponge with it, it changes colour quite significantly and goes a kind of magenta colour. The butterfly was stamped in Blackberry, then I sponged on Wisteria, Eggplant and Blackberry with a cotton bud before covering it. I highlighted parts of the wing with a white gel pen then covered it with Glossy Accents, which deepened the colours and gave it a gloss.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, scrap of Blackberry Bliss for the under-butterfly
Stamps: SU Butterfly Basics, Papillon Potpourri.
Inks: Blackberry Bliss, Elegant Eggplant, Wisteria Wonder
Other: Wisteria Wonder seam binding, Elegant Butterfly punch, sponges, glue dots, dimensionals, rhinestones

Saturday 4 July 2015

Try Stampin' on Tuesday 225

I've been looking at Try Stampin' on Tuesday for a few weeks now and even more so since I started following them on Facebook. This week's sketch looked an interesting one (although I've declined the option of Baby.)


I'm still having a bit of a love affair with Stampin' Up's new colours so have based my card around them. And I found that I haven't quite abandoned my butterflies yet either  - they just seem to get onto my desk and beg to be used!




Ingredients
Card: Mint Macaron, Whisper White, Watermelon Wonder
Stamps: Hardwood, Kinda Eclectic, Butterfly Basics
Inks: Sahara Sand, Tip Top Taupe, Watermelon Wonder, Mint Macaron
Other: Circle framelit and punch, Elegant Butterfly punch, sponge, dimensionals, brad base and Crumb Cake candy dot, linen twine.