As You See It 106

This week's sketch challenge at As You See It got me thinking Christmas cards. Or maybe, I was thinking Christmas cards and that's the way it worked out!

Since Christmas in New Zealand is right in the middle of summer, I seldom do Christmas cards with cold weather elements but my exception to that is holly. Especially when it goes so well with this lovely die.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, gold foil card

Stamps: SU Embellished Ornaments and Endless Wishes

Inks: Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Other: Gold embossing powder, Delicate Ornaments die, gold embroidery thread, Kaisercraft red rhinestones, Certainly Celery marker pen, Lucky Stars embossing folder, dimensionals.

Paper Players 264 and JAI 281

The Paper Players sketch has been calling to me all week, yet I've only just got myself organised for it. Last week I was on a very clean and simple tangent, but that approach wasn't really going to fly with Claire's lovely sketch.

Seeking some more inspiration, I went to Just Add Ink, where the challenge was to add your three favourite colours. Well, that's a bit like asking me my favourite book...  a question with an ever-changing answer and depending on which genre you're thinking about! So I settled on my current favourite combination from this year's in-colours: Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder and Tip-top Taupe.

And the real story is that I shouldn't have been card-making at all. I have an empty suitcase and plane tickets to Australia. That case won't pack itself...

Ingredients
Card: Whisper White, Mint Macaron
Stamps: SU Butterfly Basics, Kind Eclectic, Hardwood; Hero Arts Thank You
Inks: Tip-Top Taupe, Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder
Other: Martha Stewart Lace border punch,  SU Elegant Butterfly punch, SU Beautifully Baroque embossing folder, brad base and candy dot, linen twine, Tip-top Taupe ribbon, dimensionals, sponges.

As You See It 105

This week, at As You See It, we've been given a fabulous sketch challenge. I love it when you look at a challenge and you just know what you want to do with it and that's what happened here. I got to use my new favourite stamp set, Awesomely Artistic, so it was even better.

Lost Lagoon and Pear Pizzazz just go so well together, it's unreal. I couldn't resist using them together again for this card.

I created the background using ink and water on an acrylic block, then built it up using a mix of stamping and embossing. I don't usually fussy-cut but that dragonfly was asking for it; so much so that I gave him double-layer wings.

Go over to As You See It and see what the rest of the design team have done with this sketch and join in yourself!

Ingredients

Card: Lost Lagoon, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Winter Wonderland DSP, Smoky Slate

Stamps: Awsomely Artistic, Perfect Pennants, acrylic block.

Ink: Lost Lagoon, Pear Pizzazz, Tuxedo Black, versamark

Other: White embossing powder, Square Lattice embossing folder (retired), dimensionals, Lost Lagoon marker, rhinestone.

Cas-ology 165 SIP15

I do most of my crafting at the weekend and this weekend, we're going away to Wellington to WOW - The  World of Wearable Arts - so I didn't expect to make any cards this week. A couple of things happened to change this. One is the weather. Despite it technically being spring, and daylight saving starting this weekend, the weather is foul. Which meant I was not inclined to anything outdoors this afternoon. The second was being inspired by the challenge at Cas-ology, which I'd seen this morning.

By the time I got home from work, I was itching to get into my craft space. I had the plan clear but not the colours when I remembered the new colour challenge at Stamp, Ink, Paper, which had appealed to me.

Since I don't have any Daffodil Delight, I had to use the closest match: So Saffron.

The butterfly started out black stamped onto yellow but he was upgraded to a new model using black embossing powder on yellow which gave him just that much more zing. I like that the curves of the font echo the circles in the focal point.

I was very pleased with this little glimpse of summer when all I can see outside is rain and grey skies!

Update: So pleased that this card was a winner at Stamp, Ink, Paper 

and got an Honourable Mention at Cas-ology.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White, So Saffron

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

Ink: Pool Party, So Saffron, Black, versamark

Other: MFT Circle Stitch Dot die, Circle framelit, Bitty Butterfly punch, Black embossing powder, black rhinestones, dimensionals, sponges, black marker pen to colour cut edges.

Just Add Ink 280

Just Add Ink's challenge this week is perfect for those of us thinking about Christmas already. This is theme week and it's "Just Add Glimmer." I've been experimenting with my one and only purchase (so far) from the holiday catalogue, Embellished Ornaments and co-ordinating Delicate Ornament dies. Just perfect for a bit of glimmer and glitz. Even though they are things I don't usually use, they're just right for Christmas cards...

Unfortunately, I could not get the silver embossing to really look silver. It kept picking up the light and looking gold. So, just for the record, the sentiment is embossed in SILVER not gold!

Ingredients

Card: Night of Navy, Whisper White, silver glimmer paper (Bella)

Stamps: Embellished Ornaments

Ink: Night of Navy, versamark

Other: Delicate Embellishments dies, silver embossing powder, black pen

As You See It Challenge 104: Design team

I feel deliriously excited today, as this is my first post as a member of the Design Team at As You See It, which is also my first DT membership! I also feel very honoured to join such an innovative challenge team and look forward to the very exciting weeks they've got lined up for the rest of the year.

This week's challenge is an assortment challenge: a kind of grab-bag of elements that must all appear in some way in the finished card.

The knot element got me casting my mind back to the dim past and my Girl Guiding days, and from that nostalgia trip came the idea of using the friendship knot as the focus for a friendship card. Thank goodness for YouTube because the finer points of knot-tying have long since been expunged from my memory!

So, back to the assortment bag:

Negative space in the cutaway of the white panel, the circles are in the die, the ombre in the shaded background of the cardbase - the lightest colour in it is Pool Party, and the knot is in the Friendship Knot.

Ingredients

Card: Whisper White

Stamps: Clearly Besotted Say it in Style

Inks: Island Indigo, Coastal Cabana, Pool Party

Other: SSS Confetti Circle die, Coastal Cabana thick twine, dimensionals, sponges.

Paper Players 262 SIP 14

Here I am, once again on a Friday night, trying to get something together for another super challenge at The Paper Players. Into single figure hours left! This time, an unusual yet delicious, colour combination.

I'm pairing this up with a very appealing sketch from Stamp, Ink, Paper.

And in a real departure from my normal modus operandi, I'm going to enter this card into a third challenge. Usually, I make one card, one challenge and occasionally one card, two challenges but only once or twice have I entered three: you get to make more cards this way! But I've been following Darnell  at djkardkreations for a while now and she's having an NBUS challenge - Never Before Used Schtuff. 

In June, I took the plunge into becoming a Stampin' Up demonstrator. When I did so, I mentally said to myself that I wouldn't buy "other stuff" for a while. But.......

.... along came PaperTreyInk with a Bibliophile stamp and die set. Well. What can I say? I'm a recidivist reader. I'm a librarian. I'm a stamper. Book stamps don't pop up every day. No brainer buy up. And then it just sat there looking at me, begging to be used. For a couple of months...

Can't wait to try the author's quote stamps from this set. It includes two of my favourites: John Green and Jane Austen!

Update: Pleased to have this card picked at Stamp, Ink, Paper.

Ingredients

Card: Lost Lagoon, Whisper White, Tangelo Twist, So Saffron, Black

Stamps: SU Dictionary background stamp, PaperTreyInk Bibliophile

Ink: Tuxedo Black

Other: Bibliophile dies, SU Pretty in Print embossing folder, Lost Lagoon marker pen, dimensionals