Retro Rubber Challenge 57 - DT Card

This week at Retro Rubber we have a colour inspiration photo to get your creative juices flowing.
Use the colours from this photo to inspire you, making sure that you use at least one stamp that's more than a year old. Don't forget to tell us how old your stamp is in your post.

This was tricky at first because I couldn't get past the science experiment look of the photo but, of course, once I focussed on just the colours things got a lot easier. Such bright, vibrant colours: primary colours plus green and including two shades of blue... a sweet combination to work with.

When I first discovered internet shopping for stamps in 2015, I discovered Clearly Besotted. This balloon birthday celebration set,  Make a Wish, was the first I bought from them.

I pieced together strips of paper in the colours matching the balloons to make the side panel and I'm happy with how that turned out.

So please, dig out your old stamps and give them a turn with this colour challenge. Don't forget to tell us how old your stamps are. You have until 10 March to join us and we'd love to see what you do.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy, Tempting Turquoise, Cucumber Crush.

Stamps: Clearly Besotted Make A Wish

Inks: Cucumber Crush, Tempting Turquoise, Night of Navy, Real Red, Daffodil Delight.

Other: Black 0.5mm pen, Real Red twine, dimensionals

FMS 276

The weekend is rapidly drawing to a close and I've only just made it to my craft room! I've squeezed in an entry for Freshly Made Sketches, using Beautiful You  which I bought on preorder. I got it because I liked the image of the woman dancing for herself and yet, although I've used the other images, I've never used her. Until this afternoon.

Here's the inspiration from Freshly Made Sketches.

Here's my interpretation of it.

Given my time shortage this weekend, this came together quickly. The dancing woman I stamped then paper pieced her dress and hat. Fussy cutting her took a while! 

For the background, I embossed the firework bursts from Balloon Celebration and sponged the sky in Island Indigo getting softer towards the masked off horizon line. I worked the ground in Pool Party and Mint Macaron, added in the shadow and the greeting and finished with some rhinestones to accentuate the sentiment.

I like the way it feels as though she is dancing with joy in the starlight.

Ingredients

Card: Island Indigo, Mint Macaron, Whisper White, DSP from Seaside Shore

Stamps: Beautiful You, Balloon Celebration

Inks: Tuxedo Black, Island Indigo, Mint Macaron, Pool Party

Other: White embossing powder, sponges, rhinestones

As You See It 144 - DT card

This week, Amanda has given us another sketch to play with.

I like the diagonal orientation of her design and have taken a fairly loose view of the three lines: it's become for me something above and something below the sentiment, which has grown to be a row of its own.

So, please show us how you see the sketch by joining us during the next fortnight. You have until 11.55 p.m on Wednesday 8 March PST.

Ingredients

Card: Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Saleabration Resist embossed paper (retired), Basic Black

Inks: Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz

Other: Sponges, Blushing Bride baker's twine, Hello You thinlits

Freshly Made Sketches 275

Fantastic sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I'm so glad I made the deadline. It was a near run thing with family issues and a blown light bulb!

I'm very fond of this hexagon honeycomb embossing folder. The embossed gold on the vellum is a stamp from Best Birds.

The Altenew Peony Bouquet stamp is glorious and I love it plus there's a sense of achievement in getting all four layers of it in the right place!

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black,  Whisper White, vellum

Stamps: SU Best Birds and Thoughtful Banners, Altenew Peony Bouquet

Inks:  Tuxedo Black, Rose Red, Flirty Flamingo, Blushing Bride, versamark

Other: Gold embossing powder, Burlap ribbon, Blushing Bride cotton ribbon, dimensionals, circle layering framelits, Peony Bouquet dies, honeycomb embossing folder

Global Design Project 74

I thought I'd use the sketch at Global Design Project to add to my masculine card stash.

By far the trickiest part of the card was to gold emboss only the 'VERY' in the greeting but I got there in the end! I like the neutral colour scheme with gold accents; it feels clean and classic.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, Carried Away DSP, Gold glimmer paper.

Ink: Tuxedo Black, versamark

Stamps: Big on Birthdays

Other: Gold embossing powder, Lots of Labels framelits,  dimensionals, Stars cut from elements in Circle Card framelits and Mini Treat Bag framelits, narrow gold ribbon.

Retro Rubber 56 - DT

This week at  Retro Rubber Challenge, we're all about birthdays. Dust off your stamps that are older than a year and show us a birthday themed card.

For this challenge, I've used the set that was my one of my bonus free sets when I signed up with Stampin' Up in 2015. No Bones About It came out in the 2015-16 annual catalogue. As as kid, I was fascinated by dinosaurs and I managed to create the same love in one of my children, who was even more obsessive than I was.  Even so, I haven't used this set as much as it deserved and am pleased to have a reason to get it off the shelf.

It's essentially a one-layer card but the layering of the stamps makes it seem quite playful and lively and all of them are from the one set. 

You have two weeks to join us on this birthday challenge and we'd love to see what you do.

You must use at least one stamp that at least a year old, but there's no restrictions on anything else Don't forget to give us an approximate age for your stamp.

Ingredients

Card: Dapper Denim, Whisper White

Stamps: No Bones About It.

Inks: Dapper Denim, Delightful Dijon, Emerald Envy

Other: Morrocan designer washi tape

The Paper Players 331

There is a very pretty, but quite difficult, colour challenge at The Paper Players this week.

Such a soft and dreamy colour palette lead to this creation, featuring the new Special Reason bundle and the Sale-a-bration set, Delicate Details.

I'm very happy with the result, but it's hard to go wrong with such lovely sets to work with.

Ingredients

Card: Smoky Slate, Copper Foil, Whisper White, Blushing Bride

Stamps: Special Reason, Delicate Details, Touches of Texture, Timeless Textures

Inks: Smoky Slate, Blushing Bride, Versamark, Tuxedo Black

Other: Stylish Stems thinlits, Blushing Bride baker's twine and enamel shapes, Copper embossing powder, dimensionals

FMS 274

I needed a 21st birthday card and nothing in my stash seemed quite right for the young lady I wanted it for. Inspirational rescue came in the form of the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

The balloons were a bit of an experiment with watercolour pencils. I wanted to get the effect of light hitting the balloon, so I stamped them on shimmery white cardstock, coloured them with pencil and used a blender pen on them.

It's got a celebratory feel to it, so hope she will like it!

Update: She did like it and especially liked the envelope which had matching balloons!

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

Ingredients

Card: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Shimmery white, silver glimmer paper, Basic Black.

Stamps: Balloon Celebrations, Banner Blast (retired)

Inks: Bermuda Bay, versamark, Bermuda Bay watercolour pencil

Other: Large Number framelits, Sparkle embossing folder, Balloon punch, Banner punch, Silver embossing powder, 0.5mm black marker pen, Mini treat bag framelits (for the star).

Global Design Project 73

It's a bright and breezy colour combination this week at Global Design Project.

I thought they were such cheerful colours, that they'd make a good basis for a card of encouragement when someone, for whatever reason, was feeling down. Kinda Eclectic is a favourite set of mine and I've not used it in a while, so it had an outing today.

Ingredients

Card: Emerald Envy, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, scraps of Watermelon Wonder

Stamps: Kinda Eclectic, Beautiful You

Inks: Emerald Envy, Daffodil Delight, Watermelon Wonder, Smoky Slate

Other: Stampin'Write markers: Watermelon Wonder, Emerald Green, Basic Grey; Layering circle framelit, Emerald Envy twine, Daffodil Delight enamel shapes, brad base (from my post-retirement hoard), Elegant Butterfly punch, Bitty Butterfly punch, dimensionals.

As You See It DT - Challenge 143

Welcome to another challenge at As You See It. This week, we have a colour challenge for you.

Such pretty colours that I'm afraid I got carried away with them. Usually, I like my colours to be subtle but having seen some glorious sunsets of late, I decided to go all out. Firstly, I sponged the clouds in Flirty Flamingo, Sweet Sugarplum and a touch of Dapper Denim. Clearly, that sky was just waiting for a hot air balloon!

Then I tried out creating an acetate card front, which turned out to be easier than I thought. I think the secret is give the acetate fold a really good score and burnish. I tucked in a few more clouds behind the sentiment on the front because I wanted the illusion of more depth.

The Elegant Dots embossing folder looks a bit like wind gusts behind the sentiment too, just to help the theme along some more. The colour is all a bit in your face but sometimes, a good sunset is just like that. This is how it was in Havelock North a couple of nights before I made this card, which was inspired by this sunset.

We'd love to see what you do with these colours and you have two weeks to join in with us.

Ingredients

Card: Dapper Denim, Whisper White, Acetate window sheet, Sweet Sugarplum, Flirty Flamingo

Stamps: Lift Me Up

Inks: Dapper Denim. Sweet Sugarplum, Flirty Flamingo

Other: Up and Away thinlits, Elegant Dots embossing folder, dimensionals, rhinestones, scallop punch to make the cloud mask, sponges

Fab Friday 105

There's a fabulous sketch at Fab Friday this week.

I was tidying up my box of glimmer papers when I came across this Blushing Bride heart, left over from a class last February. It ended up being the basis for this card.

Ingredients

Card: Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Blushing Bride glimmer paper, Falling in Love DSP.

Stamps: Floral Phrases, Bloomin' Love, Delicate Details

Inks: Sahara Sand

Other: Bloomin' Hearts thinlits, dimensionals, rhinestones.

Just Add Ink 345

So lucky that at the end of the first week back at school, we have a long weekend. I'm spending today between my craft room and the television, which is tuned to the Black Caps vs Australia ODI. Cricket and cards - what a combination!

First up today was the challenge at Just Add Ink.

Last night, when it was too hot to sleep, I spent time thinking about this sketch and was very pleased when things that made sense in the middle of the night still made sense in the light of day!

Underneath the large flower is a piece of watercolour paper that I've coloured with watercolour pencils and aquapainted. I built colour near the centre. The small flower I stamped after colouring it with Stampin' Write markers then touched up with ink and a blender pen to give some shading. The yellow centres have a touch of Wink of Stella.

I have to apologise for the quality of the photo of the embossing. After several attempts, I just can't get the light right. It is actually smooth and glossy and copper!

I wanted a very clean finish to this card and like the final result.

Ingredients

Card: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Garden Green, Watercolour paper.

Stamps: Special Reason

Inks: Versamark, Stampin' Write markers Rich Razzleberry and Daffodil Delight, Watercolour pencils in Rich Razzleberry and Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry

Other: Copper embossing powder and Metallic thread, dimensionals, Wink of Stella,  Stylish Stems framelits. aquapainter, blender pen.