Colour Me 74

I'm very glad that I found some time this weekend to participate in this week's challenge at Colour Me. It's something that I find quite scary - being limited to just one colour - but when that colour is white, it's a whole lot more scary!

It's not like you can stamp off and get variations in tone with just white, so I went for variation in texture to get some differences: impression embossing, shiny ribbon, glittery embossing powder. To get some definition in the gerbera, I went for adding some height by separating the top layer with a dimensional. I might also add that it's jolly hard to get a good white-on-white photograph!

It's a bit hard to see in the photo but 'celebrate' and the centre of the flower have been embossed with SU Iridescent Ice embossing powder, so have a matching glittery sheen to them.

It was only when I was taking the pictures that I realised that there was no stamping on the card! 

Update: Delighted that this card was picked as a Colour Connoisseur at Colour Me

Ingredients

Card: Whisper white

Dies: MFT Gerbera Daisy, W&W Big, Bold and Party.

Other: Honeycomb embossing folder, SU White organza ribbon, SU Iridescent Ice embossing powder, dimensionals.

Case this Sketch 126

I've spent a bit of time wondering why it was that I was immediately, and strongly, drawn to the sketch at Cas(e) this Sketch this week.

Clearly, it's a beautiful sketch and the design team examples are inspiring. While looking back over previous cards I've made I see that, without realising it, I seem to be drawn to designs that favour a left to right downward diagonal and I seem to always be looking for opportunities to place an image on more than one level. At least, looking back, that's what my favourite cards do! So, in this case, I went with the flow...

I started with stamping the little Perfect Plum butterflies from Butterfly Basics on the card base, then masked them while I stamped the leaves from Kinda Eclectic in Lost Lagoon over both card base and centre panel. The centre panel is matted onto Blackberry Bliss and raised on dimensionals. The focal butterfly's underlayer is punched from Blackberry Bliss and the top butterfly stamped in Blackberry Bliss using the butterfly from Kinda Eclectic. It is finished with a Lost Lagoon button and twine, then popped up on a dimensional.

The sentiment, in black, is from Wetlands.

As beautiful as this year's in-colours are, these two from last year are still hard to beat.

CAS Colours and Sketches 127

It was a great pleasure and delight to be offered a chance to guest design for the month of June at CAS Colours and Sketches. It was even more exciting when I saw the challenges and the wonderful colour palette for this week's challenge. The new catalogue at Stampin' Up came out this week and three of the new in-colours for 2015-17 make up this week's challenge.

These colours were just so amazing to work with; they look even better in real-life than they do in the catalogue!

I've played at CAS Colours and Sketches quite a few times since I started playing at challenge blogs, about ten months ago now, and the challenges there are always interesting and alternate between a colour challenge and a sketch challenge. If you've never played a challenge before, this is a good one to start with. Head on over and visit the blog to join in the fun!

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Tip-Top Taupe, Watermelon Wonder

Stamps: Butterfly Basics, Kinda Eclectic, Crazy for You

Ink: Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder, Tip-Top Taupe

Other: Square framelits, Elegant Buttefly punch, Bitty Butterfly punch, Brad base, Crumb Cake candy dots, dimensionals, linen twine, Tip-Top Taupe marker to colour cut edges.

Paper Players 247

 I like to play at Paper Players but it's been a few weeks. I couldn't bypass the Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge, though.  I really enjoy these - choose a line and play it.

I've played the bottom line: die-cut, patterned paper and any shade of yellow, although now I'm coming to write up my blog post, I see I've inadvertently done the middle line as well: birthday, embossing and flower! Oops.

The daisy petals have been cut in So Saffron and sponged at the edges with Hello Honey. The under layer of the 'happy' is cut in Pear Pizzazz and slightly offset to create a shadow outline.

Ingredients
Card: SU So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White, Subtles DSP So Saffron
Stamps: SU Crazy for You
Inks: SU Hello Honey
Dies: MFT Gerbera Daisy, MFT Birthday, SU Leaf sizzlit
Other: SU Square Lattice embossing folder, dimensionals, Teresa Collins brad, Garden Green marker to outline the leaves.

As You See It Challenge 89

Another challenge blog I always look at is As You See It and this week there was an adorable sketch, for which I actually had an idea immediately and because of the long weekend, got a chance to do!

I've turned into such a blog follower that I've had to set up My Feedly to keep track of them all, but one where I often learn things is at Kwerner Designs, where a few days ago there was a great little video tutorial on the Ink Smooshing technique. I was pretty keen to give it a go and that's how I've done the coloured background for the filmstrip.

I'm also going to enter this card at Showcase Your Style because my card matches the inspiration board there.

And also at Colour Throwdown because it was the beautiful colours on their board this week that made me choose the three colours I did for this card.

This feels a bit strange because usually I only enter a card into one challenge, occasionally two but I've never done three before!

Update: Delighted that this card was picked for Featured Artist at As You See It.

Also delighted when this card was picked as Style Queen at Showcase Your Style.

Ingredients

Card: Watercolour paper, SU Blushing Bride, Early Espresso, Whisper White.

Stamps: Heidi Swapp Mini-stamp Together, Camera stamp from Typo.

Ink: Distress inks Spun Sugar, Scattered Straw, Evergreen Bough, SU Early Espresso, Versamark.

Other: Clear embossing powder, MFT Mini filmstrip die, SU 1 3/8" circle punch, dimensionals, pink enamel dots from PaperVine, Early Espresso marker.

Freshly Made Sketches 188

It's been a while since I've played at Freshly Made Sketches but when I saw Karren's sketch this week, I really wanted to have a go at it. It was such a lovely sketch and it had endless possibilities.

Despite it being a long weekend here, for Queen's Birthday it has not turned out to be quite the craft-fest I'd hoped for since one of my children ended up in hospital with appendicitis. But she's home now, is on the mend and I haven't missed the deadline!

I cut a window into the Hardwood stamped panel and made a frame for the window using square framelits. This panel is raised on dimensionals and the sponged and stamped scene is attached to the Early Espresso card base.

Ingredients - all Stampin' Up Products
Card: Early Espresso, Pool Party, Whisper White
Stamps: Hardwood, Wetlands, Banner Blast.
Inks: Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Other: Banner punch, Early Espresso baker's twine, brad base, Early Espresso candy dots, dimensionals, Early Espresso marker, sponges, square framelits

Try Stampin' on Tuesday 220

I've been following both Try Stampin' on Tuesday and the Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge for a couple of months now, and I'm not sure why, but I keep confusing them. Perhaps it was because I discovered them at the same time or some of the same people are involved.

Anyway, last week I posted a message on the Try Stampin' Facebook page and later in the day, realised that I had publicly confused the two of them! Which really goes to prove that you should not post a comment on Facebook until the first cup of coffee of the day has had a chance to kickstart your brain! So, in atonement, my first task this weekend has been to play the challenge at Try Stampin' on Tuesday.

A pretty straight forward interpretation of the sketch. My first plan had been to use my beloved SU Dictionary stamp in the background but since I'd gone to a 15cmx15cm card to better accommodate the sketch, that wasn't a go. So I had to turn to my discarded library book, first butchered for a Paper Players Challenge earlier this year. Dismemberment gets easier each time you do it, I have discovered and I cut the index page to make the background for this card with hardly any guilt at all. Which, for a librarian, is really saying something!

The result is a quite masculine card and I really love the little glasses die cuts.

Ingredients

Card: SU Black, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White. Book page

Stamps: MFT Eye Chart

Inks: Black

Other: MFT Geek is Chic Glasses die, black marker to colour cut edges, dimensionals