Colour Me 66

The colour combo at Colour Me this week is Daffodil Delight, Marina Mist plus neutral, aptly named Colour Me Striking. Last night, as I lay awake listening to a massive lightning storm, this idea came to me -perhaps it was the forked lightning that got me on to the idea of chevrons!

I don't have any Daffodil Delight but this AC cardstock Lemon seems a pretty close match.

After I constructed this card, it just needed a little something extra. I didn't have any enamel dots even close to the right colour so necessity being the mother of invention and all, I made my own by punching some tiny circles and covering them with Glossy Accents. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.

So, a bright and cheerful birthday card, good for guys too.

Update: Delighted to be picked as a Colour Connoisseur at Colour Me.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Black, Marina Mist (all SU), AC Lemon.
Ink: Black
Stamps: Altenew Label Love
Other: Couture Classic Chevron die, MFT Happy Birthday die, circle punches, Glossy Accents, dimensionals (for the label),

Sketchabilities 136

It's been a while since I've played at Sketchabilites: I've been too carried away with card making in the last six months. But a wet day in the school holidays has bought me back to my scrapbooking stuff. This photo was taken at my son's 21st birthday dinner and is of his grandmother with her three grand-daughters, two of whom are mine.

As always a lovely sketch, which forces me out of my comfort zone.

Ingredients

Paper: Bazzill White, SU Best Day Ever DSP, Heidi Swapp Dreamy paper stack and project life cards, SU Pool Party and Pool Party DSP, SU Coastal Cabana, Vellum, Teal doily from Paper Vine.

Inks: SU Coastal Cabana, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Soot Noir

Stamps: SU Gorgeous Grunge, SU French Foliage

Dies and punches: Square framelits, Couture Classic Chevron, SU Scallop Topper punch.

Other: Tim Holtz embossing folder, TCW Chevron mask, Bo-Bunny Mama-Razzi alphabet stickers, Bo-Bunny jewels, wooden hearts sponged in Coastal Cabana and covered in Glossy Accents, Ruby-Rockit flower, sponges

CAS 118 and Paper Players 239

As much as I'd anticipated a long weekend of card-making and scrapbooking, the creative mojo had fled. Still a great weekend with family dinners and catching up with people and odd jobs but not much creating.

This morning everyone else is back to work and it's school holidays for me so it was with great pleasure that I checked my Feedly for new posts and felt the stir of excitement about some of the challenges.

First up was the unusual colour challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Although initially not overly excited by this combination, things changed when I saw the challenge at The Paper Players.

The two things came together in a Big Bang kind of moment to this:

This is the first time I've ever used Pear Pizzazz and it's wonderful! It looks so good next to the Certainly Celery. I'm hoarding my last three pieces of CC but pleased I liberated a bit for this card. I'm really happy with the 'Alice down the rabbit hole' kind of effect going on down into the butterfly garden and am once again delighted with every cent spent on the dictionary background stamp; it's just so useful!

I dithered around about whether to centre the circles but now I've seen it finished, I'm pleased I went with the off-set circles instead.

"Happy" I cut twice, once in Garden Green and once in Certainly Celery and it gives just the faintest dark outline that, in real life, gives a bit of pop to the word.

And I'm pleased to say that lots of green and lots of dies were used in the making of this card!

Update: So pleased that this card was chosen as A Cut Above at Paper Players and was also a Weekly Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Garden Green, Wild Wasabi, Pear Pizzazz, Certainly Celery
Stamps: SU Dictionary background stamp, SU Crazy About You, Clearly Besotted Leafy Accents
Ink: Certainly Celery, Mossy Meadow, Garden Green (but I had to use a marker pen and huff on it)
Dies: MFT Stitch Dot Circle stax, Circle framelit dies, Hello You thinlit dies
Other: Bitty Butterfly punch, brad base, Pear Pizzazz candy dot, linen twine

Sketch~n~Scrap 78 April Challenge

I've gone crazy on card challenges in the last six months, which has been a lot of fun but this whole papercraft thing started with scrapbooking so I've decided to devote some of Easter to my photo pile.

In my on-line wanderings, I've found Sketch~n~Scrap which amazingly do both card and scrapbooking challenges! Best of both worlds and here is the intriguing sketch I found there.

Here's my take on the sketch, using some photos from my son's 21st birthday dinner at a local winery.

And some details...

I thought about glittery paper for the "21" but in the end went with white - glittery was out of keeping with the masculine, down-to-earth feel of the layout. So I made white my accent colour and carried it on with the luggage tags and "The Details" stamp.

Ingredients  

Papers: from Close to My Heart Skylark collection, CTMH Lagoon and Soft Leaf, SU Whisper White.

Stamps: SU Dictionary background stamp (the lagoon was too plain so I randomly stamped it using Lost Lagoon), Close to My Heart Charming Chevrons and True to Life.

Ink: SU Soft Suede, Lost Lagoon and Certainly Celery

Other: SU Linen twine, Close to My Heart resin bluebird, circle framelit dies and dimensionals to raise the circles, Provocraft Olivia dies to cut the numbers, JAC paper.

Paper Craft Crew 138

Ok, so I wasn't going to buy the Butterfly Basics bundle. Nope, already had butterflies I love. Nope, already spent enough on special occasions/sale-abration. Nope, already spent all my Christmas loot on stamping stuff.

But.... it looked so versatile, it looked so me and the end of March was coming up so fast. So yes, I caved in and got in an order last week and it arrived, just in time for Easter holidays. This is its first outing and where better than on this week's delightful sketch from the Paper Craft Crew?

I still got in two of my favourite stamps: Dictionary and Kinda Eclectic. But that fern frond might start rivalling my Kinda Eclectic leaves for the position of favourite foliage! I also went back to a favourite colour combination: Blackberry Bliss, Crumb Cake and one other - in this case, Mossy Meadow. I was also very pleased with the distressed effect I got by blotting the background stamp with a baby wipe first. Like all good ideas, so simple you wonder how you never thought of it sooner.

So, I forgive my weakness in the coveting of yet more stamps. I only wish I'd given in sooner!

Ingredients

Card: Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Blackberry Bliss

Stamps: Butterfly Basics, Kinda Eclectic, Dictionary, Crazy for You

Ink: Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake

Other: Square framelits, Elegant buttefly punch, Bitty butterfly punch, linen twine, brad base, crumb cake candy dots, dimensionals, black marker pen to colour cut edges.

All products Stampin' Up.

Freshly Made Sketches 180

Yesterday was Good Friday and also the first day of the school holidays so I was anticipating lots of time to play in my scrapping room but somehow, the inspiration just wasn't there.  As I was putting everything away off my desk, in preparation for a clean start today, an idea hit me and I didn't want to go to bed. Didn't quite get it finished last night, so it was an early start this morning.

Here is this week's delicious sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

And here is the crazy idea that hit me last night.

I've had real problems getting a decent photo of this card. It's such a glorious autumn day that everywhere is so light the DSP keeps washing out and looking pasty instead of quite vibrant.

I've always thought how striking cards on black look but usually don't quite pluck up the courage to to do it but I'm pleased with this result.

Ingredients

Card: Coastal Cabana, Black, So Saffron, Calypso Coral, Best Day Ever DSP

Stamp: Clearly Besotted Say it in Style

Ink: Versamark

Other: Bitty Butterfly punch, Coastal Cabana thick baker's twine, White embossing powder, Orange enamel dots from Paper Vine, dimensionals to lift the twine band and the butterflies.

Techno Stamper Sketch Challenge 359

I for one am very pleased that this challenge has gone fortnightly as I wanted to do last week's sketch but ran out of time! I've noticed that quite a few challenges are fortnightly now and I quite like it as it gives me more time to play.

I'd spent quite a bit of time thinking about this card but even so, when it came time to make it, I kept changing my mind. Anyway, for better or worse, here it is.

The lotus bloom is stamped with Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum and half strength Wisteria Wonder and the stem in Mossy Meadow. Everything is SU except the sentiment and the lace, which I found in the bargain bin of The Warehouse for $2.97 on clearance, 4 patterns x 1 metre. A pretty good find, especially since they are cotton and will take colour.

I could have made this card anything but the colours seemed a bit sombre, so made it a sympathy card. I was perhaps a bit hasty, because looking at it in the photo, it doesn't look so sad!

Update: Delighted to have this card make the Top 3 Pick at Techno Stamper Sketch Challenge.

Ingredients
Card: Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder DSP
Stamps: SU Lotus Bloom, Clearly Besotted Many Mini Messages
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Wisteria Wonder, Mossy Meadow
Other: Beautifully Baroque embossing folder, Linen twine, circle framelits, dimensionals, lace.