CC&S201 and JAI338

After a bit of a drought on the ideas front, it was great to finally find some inspiration tonight after work, especially when it was brought about by two of my favourite challenges.

Just Add Ink has an inspiration photo this week.

I love the colours, especially the rich blues and purples with the touches of metal from the brushes.

I paired it with the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Here's where it ended up...

After sponging and blending the masked vertical column, I sprinkled it with water to get some spots of lifted colour. This not only gave some interest but it helped to suggest rain or tears, which goes with the sympathy sentiment.

After stamping the images in ink, I added in some copper embossed leaves at the bottom and some copper splatters at the top, adding to the rain effect.

And on the inside...

Update: Delighted to get an Honourable Mention at Just Add Ink this week.

Update: Delighted to also be a Weekly Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches

Ingredients

Card: Rich Razzleberry, Watercolour paper, Whisper White (inside)

Stamps: Awesomely Artistic, Butterfly Basics, Better Together

Inks: Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay, Rich Razzleberry, Versamark, Tuxedo Black

Other: Copper embossing powder, Sponges, water, masking tape.

All products Stampin' Up.

Freshly Made Sketches 264

Sometimes, when you buy a stamp set, you just get obsessed with it. That's what's happened with one of my recent purchases, Altenew's Peony Bouquet. I've used it several times of late and here it is again in this card inspired by the this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

The aspect I like the most about this sketch is the way the round element breaks out of the panel it's in and nudges into the card base. That's what I wanted my flower (round element) to do.

I like the way my SU stuff fits so well with any stamp set.

Ingredients

Card: Hello Honey, Old Olive, Whisper White

Stamps: Altenew Peony Bouquet, SU Timeless Textures and Sunshine Sayings

Inks: SU Old Olive, So Saffron, Delightful Dijon, Wild Wasabi, Memento Tuxedo Black.

Other: SU Softly Falling embossing folder, Hello Honey satin stitched ribbon, Altenew Peony Bouquet dies, dimensionals.

Paper Players 322 CCMC 434

Today's card is inspired by the Clean and Simple challenge at The Paper Players and the colour challenge at Create with Connie and Mary.

This card turned out to be an exercise in enforced restraint. I was aiming for simple and almost home-spun so fought a constant battle with myself to NOT do things. So, I've considered and discarded several techniques, embellishments and bits: gold emboss the sentiment, sponge a Dijon background for the trees, layering the panel, colouring the hills, adding a curlicue to the sentiment.... Each and every one I talked myself out of doing  - and I'm pleased I did. I like the cleanness of the result which lets the homespun warmth of the paper carry the weight and warmth of the greeting.

I could have hand cut the trees but to make sure they all had the same angle I punched a normal sized tree, then punched the cut tree to make a smaller version. Then I trimmed the trunks to match the hill lines.

Update: Delighted to be a winner to Create with Connie and Mary this week.

Ingredients

Card: Delightful Dijon, Whisper White, DSP from Warmth and Cheer stack

Stamps: Oh What Fun!, Thoughtful Branches

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake

Other: Tree punch, Gold metallic shapes.

CAS Colours and Sketches 200

CAS Colours and Sketches is one of my favourite challenges and I've played it a lot since discovering it way back at Challenge 96. Congratulations team, on running such a great challenge for such a long time.

The 200th challenge hit colour week and the challenge is this:

Lucky I like blue!

Dapper Denim has become a favourite blue. The butterfly's top lacy layer is Dapper Denim on white and the underlayer is plain Dapper Denim.  The Soft Sky banner is embossed using the Softly Falling folder. I did include four blues: Dapper Denim, Soft Sky, Marina Mist and a touch of Night of Navy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAS Colours and Sketches!

Update: Delighted to be a Weekly Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches.

(but not, I think, for my photography this week!)

Ingredients

Card: Dapper Denim, Whisper White, Soft Sky

Stamps: Butterfly Basics, Playful Backgrounds

Inks: Dapper Denim, Marina Mist

Other: Softly Falling embossing folder, Night of Navy solid baker's twine, brad base and Soft Sky candy dot, Dapper Denim stamp'n'write marker (to outline the cut edge of the butterfly), Butterfly framelits.

CAS(E) this Sketch 197and CCMC432

I've been doing a spot of tidying up in my craft room, sorting retired and non-retired stamps. So today's card uses a couple of retired stamps. The colour combination at Create with Connie and Mary has been calling to me for a couple of days, it's so lovely.

In my tidy up, I was reminded of the first background stamp I ever bought which was Beautifully Baroque. Handling this stamp gave me an idea for the current challenge at Cas(e) This Sketch.

I masked off part of the stamp and used a stamp-a-majig so I could have better control over which part of the stamp was used. After embossing it in copper, I coloured the central medallion with a Stamp'n'write marker. I like that it makes this part seem to be 3D, even though it isn't.

I'm also happy with the stamping of the same stamp on the card base in Night of Navy. It's subtle but just adds a little bit extra detail and unity. I like the way this card turned out, so thanks to both challenges for getting me started on it.

Ingredients

Card: Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, Copper foil

Stamps: Beautifully Baroque, Happy Birthday Everyone

Inks: Night of Navy, Versamark

Other: Copper embossing powder, Night of Navy Stamp'n'write marker

Fab Friday 100 FMS 261

There is something special about 100. Possibly it's because I come from a household where cricket is an important sport - or maybe not - but it was hard to pass up a challenge with 100 in it. Added to that, the fact that the colour challenge at Fab Friday is absolutely gorgeous made this challenge irresistible!

I've teamed this up with the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, because I liked that too.

This colour combination was recently used at another challenge. Nice for me that it's appeared again, as I had two ideas the first time round. It's been very satisfying to have a reason to develop the second.

The dragonfly has a vellum underwing that I've coloured Delightful Dijon and then applied Wink of Stella to the front side, although that is quite hard to see in the photo. I added the gold metallic shapes, instead of the rhinestones that I'd originally planned, because they picked up the Delightful Dijon better.

Update: Delighted to be a Perfectly Made Princess at Freshly Made Sketches.

Further update: Happy to be in the Fab Four at Fab Friday.

Ingredients

Card: Mint Macaron, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, vellum

Stamps: SU Summer Silhouettes, W&W Big, Bold and Party

Inks: Mint Macaron, Delightful Dijon, Rich Razzleberry

Other: Spellbinders Dragonfly die, Gold metallic shapes, Clear Wink of Stella, Delightful Dijon Stamp'n'write marker, sponges

Global Design Project 61

Just recently, I challenged myself to use the new in-colours in another challenge entry, because I'd been neglecting them of late. This was partly because I wasn't sure I liked them. That challenge went well and now this week, the colour challenge at Global Design Project uses some of those colours too. Clearly, it was a sign that I should get onto it!

So I got out a set I have a lot of time for, Wild About Flowers.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Sweet Sugarplum, Emerald Envy, Whisper White, DSP from Pop of Pink

Stamps: Wild About Flowers

Inks: Tuxedo Black, Sweet Sugarplum, Emerald Envy

Other: Layering Oval framelits, Emerald Envy solid baker's twine, Emerald Envy enamel shapes, dimensionals, sponges

Connie and Mary 431

I came home from work tonight in the mood to make something pretty. The sketch at Create with Connie and Mary was just the thing.

I felt as though I'd been ignoring this year's in-colours. And I have, because I'm just unsure about how much I like them. So, for a challenge-within-a-challenge, I decided to make myself use them.

In the end, it turned out to be so cheerful, that I just had to make it a get well/cheer-up card.

Update: Delighted to be a Top 3 Pick at Create with Connie and Mary this week.

Ingredients

Card: Emerald Envy, Flirty Flamingo, Sweet Sugarplum

Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Playful Backgrounds, A Dozen Thoughts (retired)

Inks: Emerald Envy, Flirty Flamingo, Sweet Sugarplum

Other: Elegant Butterfly and Bitty Butterfly punches, Enamel Shapes, Rhinestones, dimensionals

FMS 261 TGIF80

I really like the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week.

Despite the attraction, I struggled to get started until I saw the colour challenge at TGIF today. The colour combo is just divine!

I've made a lot of Christmas cards and held a lot of Christmas themed classes lately, so I was looking for a break. This took me back to an old favourite, Butterfly Basics.

I wanted more depth of colour behind the lacy ribbon, so I stamped the long strip stamp from the set underneath the ribbon zone.

I used the Softly Falling embossing folder to give the impression of falling rain on the nature scene and to repeat the dottiness of the Dijon splatters.

Update: Delighted to be the winner of the colour challenge at TGIF this week.

Ingredients

Card: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, scrap of Delightful Dijon

Stamps: Butterfly Basics, Timeless Textures

Inks: Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaron, Delightful Dijon

Other: Sponges, pearls, Butterflies thinlits, dimensionals, Mint Macaron dotted lace ribbon.

Global Design Project 60

Brian King is a designer and card maker whose work I have a great deal of admiration for, so I was delighted to see that this week's challenge at the Global Design Project is to case one of his cards. It's quite intimidating to try to case such a talented person but I decided to focus on the expanse of designer paper, the centred panel with an off the frame element and a simple colour scheme.

I've not used Seaside Shore for a while so gave it an outing on this card. Cute bear, cute fish. The orange fish is masked from the seaweed while the blue fish is fussy cut so he can hang off the frame.

Sadly, the clear Wink of Stella on the seaweed does not show up very clearly. It gives a nice bit of shine that complements the metallic bubbles. The small circle metallic shape is just the same size as the open bubble in the stamp set.

And, a little peek inside...

Update: So delighted to be a Winner at Global Design Project!

Ingredients

Card: Dapper Denim, Very Vanilla, DSP from By the Shore

Stamps: Seaside Shore, Thoughtful Banners

Inks: Calypso Coral, Dapper Denim, Soft Sky, Stazon Black, Mint Macaron (inside)

Other: Mint Macaron Stamp'n'Write marker, Clear Wink of Stella, silver metallic shapes