CCMC391 and ColourQ326

Well, it's almost the end of the summer school holidays and alas, the end of largely unlimited crafting time. This afternoon, I made the most of the time left and played around with my new stamp set, Timeless Textures and came up with this card. It was inspired by the sketch challenge at Create with Connie and Mary and the colour combination at ColourQ.

Update: Delighted with a Top 3 Pick at Create With Connie and Mary Thursday Challenge.

Ingredients

Card: Old Olive, Whisper White, Wild Wisteria

Stamps: Timeless Textures, Kinda Eclectic, Crazy For You

Inks: Early Espresso (sorry, have no Chocolate Chip), Old Olive, Wild Wisteria, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight.

Other: Linen twine, Elegant Butterfly punch, Bitty Butterfly punch, Brad base, Old Olive and Daffodil Delight candy dots, a dimensional.

As You See It 121 - DT

This week, we have another sketch for you to play with. That lovely white space at the top gave me lots of options, as did the three layers - so many, that it was hard to settle down to one idea.

Anyway, this is what I settled on in the end, even if I have now done balloon cards twice in a row. The Balloon Celebrations set is SO useful and SO versatile, you'd hardly recognise the same set if you compared this card with last week's DT card.

So, come play this week's challenge with us. You have until 11:55pm PST on Wednesday February 3rd 2016, which is  8.55 pm Thursday 4 February New Zealand time, to join us.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White (heavy) for the base, Whisper White for the panel, Coastal Cabana, So Saffron, Calypso Coral, DSP from Sale-a-bration 2015.

Stamps: Balloon Celebrations

Ink: Early Espresso

Other:  Couture Classic Chevrons die, Balloon punch, Early Espresso baker's twine, dimensionals.

All products Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted.

Less is More 260

I wasn't going to play challenges this week - too many things to do before school goes back next week - but, what can I say, I love to make cards and the challenge at Less is More was just too wonderful to keep ignoring! I think I will sneak in before the deadline.

The challenge this week is to make a card that includes a silhouette.

First I masked off a column and sponged in Blackberry Bliss, Elegant Eggplant and Perfect Plum to create a twilight sky. I used Blackberry Bliss to stamp the leaves, flowers and dragonfly. As I wanted to add in some gold, I stamped off the versamark before adding in the leaves as I wanted a light coverage of gold. I highlighted the flowers with a gold gel pen.

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Awesomely Artistic, Wetlands (sentiment)
Inks: Blackberry Bliss, Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Other: Gold embossing powder, gold gel pen.
All products Stampin' Up.

The Paper Players 279

I know that there is massive snow in the USA this week but here, it's a heat wave. The second week in a row of high temperatures has seen the swimming pool and the barbecue getting lots of use. Despite the heat in my craft room, I had to brave it for this week's wonderful sketch at The Paper Players.

I've been continuing my watercolour experiments with Flowering Fields from the Sale-abration catalogue, which is a set that I hadn't anticipated liking so much until I started playing with it.

I used an acrylic block to stamp Lost Lagoon and Old Olive onto watercolour paper. I white embossed the images then used inkwash to colour them in. I dried it with a heat tool because, in this case, I did not want to have a bleeding effect. I also stamped a few images in Old Olive to give the illusion of depth.

Ingredients

Card: Lost Lagooon, Whisper White, Blackberry Bliss, Wildflower Fields DSP, watercolour paper

Stamps: Flowering Fields, Balloon Celebrations, Papillon Potpourri

Inks: Old Olive, Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon, Versamark, Tuxedo Black

Other: White embossing powder, honeycomb embossing folder, circle framelits, Itty Bitty Butterfly punch, Blackberry Bliss marker to colour cut white edges, dimensionals

Time Out 48

Today is another scorching hot day and I've been driven from my craft room by the heat yet again. I've retreated to the living room and the air-con to do some posting and catching up on blogs. But before I was driven out, I was determined to finish my card for the challenge at Time Out. The challenge was to CASE this beautiful card by Marika from Me and Minime Crafting.

I loved the composition of this card - so why change perfection? I liked the soft sponging too. I got to thinking about black tie celebrations and fancy events: maybe weddings or 21st birthdays or graduations. Maybe the Oscars were in the back of my mind but I got to thinking about glamour and that's where I've tried to go with this card.

Update: Delighted to get an Honourable Mention at Time Out Challenge.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Silver glimmer paper

Stamps: Balloon Celebrations

Ink: Smoky Slate, Tuxedo Black

Other: Botanical Builder framelit dies, 1/8" silver ribbon, silver cord trim, rhinestones, sponges

Try Stampin on Tuesday 293 plus Fusion

When I first saw this sketch at Try Stampin' on Tuesday, I wasn't interested because it called for a detailed background and I'm more of a clean space kind of girl. However, while I was away for a few days - which meant I could only think about crafting - I saw it had possibilities for a masculine card.

And, like many of us, masculine cards don't always come easy. Today, I also saw the inspiration photo at Fusion Challenge. What interested me in this photo were the colours: blues, browns, white; the circular shapes in the polka dots and the wreath, and the rustic element that comes from the weathered boards and the distressing on the flowers. These have translated into the colour choices for this card, the retro circles and button, and the use of linen twine and distressing around the main panel.

I love this little Retro Circles stencil from Stamplorations, which I won through their sponsorship at Casology. The little button is from my mother's button box, which I inherited some years ago, so I estimate it's at least 40 years old. Hoarder or what?! The die-cut is stacked to give it some depth.

And an inside peek, using my new Timeless Textures set...

Update: Happy to be a Top 3 Pick at Try Stampin' on Tuesday.

Ingredients

Card: Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Whisper White

Stamps: W&W Big, Bold and Party, SU Timeless Textures (inside)

Inks: Night of Navy, Island Indigo, Crumb Cake

Other: Stamplorations Retro Circles stencil, sponges, button, linen twine, W&W Big, Bold and Party die.

As You See It 120 - DT

It's hard to believe another week has rolled around already. The summer school holidays will soon be over and then it's back to school for me. So, I'm making the most of my crafting time and was delighted with the sketch that Amanda has for us at As You See It this week.

I've mentioned before the big box of Stampin' Up stuff I got last week. Well, I'm still working my way through it and the sketch for this week seemed a good chance to give the new Balloon Celebrations (and co-ordinating punch) their first outing - literally straight from the box!

Here's the sketch for this week.

It was really the way the image goes upwards moving from larger to smaller that made me think of the balloons and of moving the colours from dark to light as well.

To get the gradients of colour, I used diluted Elegant Eggplant ink onto water colour paper in various concentrations then stamped and punched the balloons from that. The top balloon is made from diluted Perfect Plum on water colour paper.

The greeting, also from the Balloon Celebrations set, is gold embossed to match the balloon bling. The little gold star outlines, stamped in gold ink, are also from the same set. The background is Island Indigo using the grunge dots from the new Timeless Textures set. They're a pleasing middle ground size that will fit well with the fine dots and large dots in Gorgeous Grunge.

You have until 11.55pm Wednesday 27 January (PST) or if you are in New Zealand, you have until 8.55pm on Thursday 28 January to get your entries in, so why not join in the fun this week at As You See It?

Ingredients
Card: Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, scrap of Perfect Plum, water colour paper
Stamps: Balloon Celebrations, Timeless Textures
Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Island Indigo, gold versacolour, Versamark, Tuxedo Black
Other: Balloon Celebrations punch, gold embossing powder, dimensionals