Global Design Project 76

Now that school is back, and in full swing, it's been difficult to snatch some crafting time. I'm very pleased to have found the time to do something for the current challenge at Global Design Project.
This week, the challenge is to CASE a card from the wonderful Kylie Bertucci.

I love this card. For my inspiration, I took the raised and off-centre panel filled with repeated images, the shaped but relatively plain sentiment, the top fold and the mat behind the panel. I liked the way one of the colours became the colour of the base and originally intended to do something similar but you will see that that was not what happened!

I started with a piece of Whisper White and sponged it in Real Red, Flirty Flamingo and Emerald Envy in order to give the impression of a field of vibrant flowers. After embossing the flower images and inking the panel in black I had my field of flowers, which were also a bit like fireworks - both celebratory images. I like that the oval sentiment is a quiet spot in the riotous background and so draws attention to itself.

Originally, I'd intended to use the Emerald Envy as a card base but really it looked a bit like a misplaced and mutant traffic light! After some experimentation, black looked the best.

The enamel shapes add to the party feel and help bring out the Emerald Envy since it had been sacked from being the card base colour after all.

Thank you Kylie, for such a wonderful card to work from.

Ingredients

Card: Basic Black, Whisper White

Stamps: Sunshine Sayings

Inks: Real Red, Flirty Flamingo, Emerald Envy, Tuxedo Black, versamark

Other: Clear embossing powder, sponges, stitched oval framelits, 1/4" Real Red cotton ribbon, dimensionals, Enamel shapes in Emerald Envy and Flirty Flamingo.

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