Pals Paper Arts 256

It's been a little while since I played at Pals Paper Arts but this week's sketch was just too appealing for me not to make the time for it.

So much did I like this sketch that I decided to take a classic, literal approach to it. One of the first things I got when I started scrapbooking about six years ago was a little pad of DSP from Basic Grey and it's been so useful that a few of the scraps got used for this card. I always seem to go feminine, so in this card tried for masculine.

Ingredients
Card: Black, Very Vanilla, papers from Basic Grey Little Black Dress.
Stamps: W&W Big, Bold and Party
Ink: Black
Other: CTMH Honeycomb embossing folder, Black marker to colour cut edges, Buttons from my mother's button box (probably Vintage by now), linen twine.

Colour Me 76 and Freshly Made 191

The colours at Colour Me are so enticing this week, I just can't resist them! It was a great chance to try out one of the Artploration stencils that I won at Casology, which arrived in the mail this week. Thank you, Shery from Stamplorations - they are wonderful!

Aren't they lovely colours? They fitted in with an idea that I had for this week's Freshly Made Sketch too.

Last weekend, I accidentally used clear embossing powder, thinking it was white. I liked the effect it made, so repeated it this week - on purpose!

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Coastal Cabana

Stamps: Clearly Besotted Say it in Style

Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Coastal Cabana, Pear Pizzazz (closest match to Old Olive), versamark

Stencil: Artploration Retro Circles

Other: sponges, dimensionals, Coastal Cabana twine, old button (maybe Certainly Celery), clear embossing powder

CAS Colours and Sketches 129

This week is colour week at CAS Colours and Sketches and, continuing on from the last colour challenge, this one picks up the other colours from Stampin' Up's 2015-17 new In-colours. Delightful Dijon and Cucumber Crush are teamed up with Basic Grey.

I kept hoping that my new stamps would arrive in time for me to use them with this challenge. They did and I spent quite a lot of the weekend playing with these colours and the playful little set No Bones About It.  I'll share the best of those attempts later in this post. I liked it, but not enough to put it in as my guest designer offering.

I woke up on Sunday morning with this idea and I think it shows off the colours well.

I intended to emboss the words in white embossing powder, but accidentally grabbed the clear instead. I liked it that way and left it as it was. The butterfly was stamped in Basic Gray and coloured in shades of Delightful Dijon, highlighted at the wingtips with silver gel pen, then given a coat of Glossy Accents, which brought out the colour more.

And here's my effort using the same colours and No Bones About It. I also used the new embossing folder Elegant Dots, to make a faux reptilian pattern on the grey cardstock. I like the ink-smooshed background - it's kind of reminiscent of primordial forest and sunlight, I think.

Ingredients for Butterfly Card

Card: Basic Grey, Whisper White, Delightful Dijon

Stamps: Clearly Besotted Leafy Accents, Clearly Besotted Say it in Style, SU Papillon Potpourri

Ink: Delightful Dijon, Crushed Cucumber, Versamark

Other: Clear embossing powder, Basic Grey candydots, Silver gel pen, Glossy Accents

Just Add Ink 266 FMS 190

This weekend has flown by and although I've done lots of good things, I haven't spent a lot of time in my craft room. Partly it was because my mojo deserted me. Usually when I look through the week's challenges one or two pop out with an immediate idea. But this week - nothing. Fortunately, this morning I got the glimmer of something that morphed into this effort for two challenges: the colour challenge at Just Add Ink and the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

Not having any Pink Pirouette, I've substituted Blushing Bride. Although not obvious in the photo, the front panel is split and the white part raised on dimensionals.

After stamping the navy leaf, I masked it and used a circle mask before stamping the pink music. The sentiment is gold embossed and this is echoed with the use of the gold metallic thread on the butterfly.

Update: Delighted to be Weekly Winner at Just Add Ink.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Night of Navy DSP, Blushing Bride.

Stamps: Heidi Swapp Music, Clearly Besotted Leafy Accents, SU Papillon Potpourri, SU A Dozen Thoughts

Ink: Night of Navy, Blushing Bride, Versamark

Other: Gold embossing powder, Elegant Butterfly punch, Brad base, Blushing Bride candy dot, gold metallic thread, dimensionals

CAS Colours and Sketches 128

I'm very excited to play at CAS Colours and Sketches this week, in my second week as Guest Designer. The sketch is wonderful - lots of room for interpretation - but I took a fairly literal approach to it. 

Last week's lovely colour challenge, utilising the new In-colours, got me looking hard at my paper stock and I realised how much I liked last year's In-colours too so I've given them an outing this week. Unfortunately, I'd used up all my Blackberry Bliss but have remedied that by ordering some more!

I did get a little carried away with the circular motif so the squares ended up as circles.

I also had an experiment in that I coloured the centre of the blooms with a silver gel pen. It looks a lot nicer in real life!

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey, Moonlight DSP

Stamps: Eastern Blooms (retired), Lotus Blossom (for the sentiment)

Ink: Lost Lagoon

Other: Lost Lagoon stitched ribbon, silver gel pen, circle punch, circle framelit, Lost Lagoon marker pen, Decorative Dots embossing folder, Crushed Curry candy dots, dimensionals.

Less is More 227

Tonight, I got home from work and discovered that my husband was going to be working late and would not require tea. So, straight to my craft room for me. I had an agenda of things to do there but what actually happened was I got distracted by the colour challenge at Less is More - the challenge is 'Sunset'. For such a simple looking card, it required a lot of thinking!

I really wanted to use the Oriental Painting stamps that I got second-hand recently and this challenge seemed a good opportunity. The panel for the stamp is sponged using So Saffron, Calypso Coral and Tangelo Twist.

Ingredients
Card: Black, watercolour paper
Stamps: Oriental Painting (retired), A Dozen Thoughts
Inks: So Saffron, Calypso Coral, Tangelo Twist, Versamark
Other: Gold embossing powder, sponges.

Blue Skies and Smooth Sailing

I recently found out about a great challenge site called Fusion. What I liked about it, apart from the great cards I saw there, was the set-up for each challenge: a photo and a sketch. You get to choose to do either, or both. This week's challenge was exciting...

I really like it when I look at a challenge and an idea comes straight to me. That's when I just have to make the time to play it. I'm going with fusion this first time playing and will use both.

Thanks Fusion team, for such a wonderful photo and sketch to work with.

Ingredients
Card: Pool Party, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Stamps: SU Hardwood, Butterfly Basics, Wetlands, By the Seashore; W&W Big, Bold and Party for the sentiment.
Ink: Black, Night of Navy, Pool Party for stamping; Sahara Sand, Pool Party, So Saffron for sponging
Other: SU Square Lattice embossing folder, linen twine, dimensionals, sponges