Colour Combos Galore #222 - Friendship Card!

Its Card week over at Color Combos Galore, so I decided to play along using their Inspiration Board #222 and also combined a few other challenges with this to come up with today's card.

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Vintage Vogue, French Script and Tiny Tags

Paper:  Stampin' Up and Echo Park

Other:  Sizzix Die, Button, Rhinestones.

The colours on my card were the closest I had in my scrap pile to match this challenge and the inspiration part of the challenge was to use the initials from your name to decide which elements to use on your card.  For mine I used:

D - Die Cut Large Ric Rac (Sizzix Die)

A - Alphabet Letter F

N - Nine different pieces of paper/cardstock (not including the card base)

I - Ink and if that's a bit too obvious then it can stand for International Flair (required for the other challenge I used)

E - Embossing (Dry embossing used on the Ric Rac)

I used this week's sketch - Day 18 Super Sketchy Sunday from 365 Cards and by using the French Script Background I am playing along with the CCEE Stampers current challenge CCEE1211 which is to add some international flair to your card by using language, image or element.  I sort of loved the idea that Friendship is a universal language particularly now with all the different social media applications such as Facebook.  Staying in touch with your overseas friends has never been more easy.

I have to apologise for the quality of my image, I may take this photo again in the morning.  It was another   wet day here and it was late in the day when I took this, so the lighting wasn't the best.

A little bulk - A 365 Card Challenge

I spent the morning over at our other house today.  We have had the fireplace and flue renewed and I had arranged also to have a company come and give us a quote on carpets for the 3 bedrooms.  The new stainless steel flue and revamped fireplace look great but disappointingly the person coming to quote on the carpets didn't show, nor did they phone.  This sort of thing really annoys me, especially when I allowed them a four hour period in which they could come.  So needless to say I was needing to make a card this afternoon just to calm down.  I decided to play along with the Day 351 Adding a little Bulk Challenge over at 365 Cards in which you are required to use chipboard as the base of the decoration piece of your card.

For the bulky part of my card, I covered a die cut chipboard heart with a piece of die cut paper and layered this slightly offset over another heart cut from pink cardstock.  Some twine, a felt flower and my sentiment finished this decoration piece.

Love must be in the air given its was Valentine's Day earlier this week, and yesterday's post was a Wedding Card.  Today's card could be suitable for an engagement, anniversary or wedding celebration.

The cardstock colours are Stampin' Up's Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Pear Pizzazz and Pink Pirouette, the papers which are a great match are from Echo Park's Victorian Garden Collection.  I have to say I am really loving the Echo Park Range of Papers.

Well taking time out in my craft room this afternoon did help me calm down and it was probably a good thing to be thinking of a love themed card.  I will now have to ring and organize quotes for next week from some other companies.

I hope you are all having a great day whatever it is you are up to.

Sketchy Sundae's Topped with Cream

Today's card is combining the Day 349 Super Sketchy Sunday's Challenge over at 365 Cards and the Paper Sundaes Sundae Bar Challenge #107 where you have to use at least two of the following to create your card -  Cream, Blue, Distressing and Pearls.

I thought the four options from the Paper Sundaes Challenge together would make a wonderful wedding card, and I got to use these cute as a button cream ribbon flowers I purchased a while back.  The Cardstock is Stampin' Up!'s Very Vanilla and Baja Breeze whilst the paper is from Echo Park For the Record Collection.  The Dove Stamp is from Paper Pleasure Plus, the Sentiment is from Stampin' Up! and the Brackets Stamp is from my stash of lots of different clear stamps that I no longer have the packaging for.  I have lightly distressed all the paper/cardstock edges with my scissors and inked with Tattered Rose Distress and what every combination of darker colour was left on my sponge.  I have used Not Quite Navy and Marina Mist inks from Stampin' Up to stamp my sentiment and sponge the background of my die cut oval and brackets.

Thanks for stopping by.

.

FWF - Sweet, Kind, Nice, Wonderful

Boy has this week flown, I've literally been all over the place this week both physically and mentally and didn't get much crafting done apart from attending our Terrific Tuesdays Craft Group's first day back for the year and making a Baby Card for a last minute order yesterday. Following a morning of shopping and because I am on dinner duty tonight I wanted to get a quick card made and catch up with all my Unity Friends for their Friday Friends With Flair so I have another CAS Card for you this week using the Inlaid Embossing Technique.

A QUICK HOW TO - IN LAID EMBOSSING

For my Inlaid Embossed Card I started with 3 Die Cut Hearts, a  Piece of White Cardstock (as my backing piece) and the "Entangled" embossing Folder.   You can use any punched or die cut shape, paper scraps or even stamped and coloured images to create your inlaid piece with your chosen embossing folder.

I simply positioned and stuck down my die cut hearts where I wanted them onto my white cardstock piece, and then ran this through the big shot machine using my Entangled Embossing Folder.

My 3 Die Cut Heats cut from floral paper positioned on the backing piece

Placing my piece in the embossing folder ready to emboss with the Big Shot

  

That completes the inlaid part.

To complete my card today, once embossed I took some red ink on a sponge dauber and highlighted the embossed pattern on my hearts, this covers up any white showing from the  papers core that I used for my hearts that  has been exposed by the embossing process.  I then simply mounted this white piece to my red cardstock base and added my stamped sentiments.

The circular words for my sentiment - 'You' and 'Are' are from my Unity November 2011 SMAK Kit whilst the 'Sweet, Kind, Nice, Wonderful' is from the January KOTM which I just received in the post yesterday.

There has been some exciting new stamp releases over on the Unity Site lately including some just being released today, so be sure to take a look and for more Unity Inspiration be sure to visit their blog and view the other FWF Creations this week.

I also created this card with the following challenges in mind.

365 Cards - Day 346 Spread the Word Challenge
Paper Sundays - #106 Clean and Simple
Cards for Men - Seeing Red

Crayons, Colour and Challenges

I love making my own backgrounds so today I got out my white crayon and used a resist technique to create a quick and fun background to use for a card I made combining a couple of different challenges.

This card combines Day 335's Super Sketchy Sunday, Sketch over at 365 Cards and the current colour combination Challenge #177 at Colour Throwdown of Melon Mambo, Black and White.

I used lots of my Stampin' Up Items for this one.   Its been a while but for my background I used one of their Wheels, along with their square punch, heart punch, and scallop trim punch.  The inks and cardstock are also Stampin' Up.  The sentiment is however from Unity Stamp Company.

I love how it all came together and I love playing with my stamps and this fun technique.

A QUICK HOW TO - CRAYON RESIST BACKGROUND WITH STAMPING

Firstly stamp a design on a piece of cardstock, this can be gloss or normal cardstock.  For my stamped design I used a Stampin' Up Wheel.

Once your design is stamped and dry, take a white crayon and randomly draw/trace over parts of the design.  I couldn't show this step as white crayon doesn't show easily on a white background.

Once you are happy with your crayon design take a sponge and ink pad and sponge colour over the entire piece.

You will see that where you have used the crayon the colour does not cover.  This is the crayon resisting the ink.  It works perfectly with alcohol inks also.

Once you have covered entire piece take a soft dry cloth and rub over your design like you are polishing to remove the excess crayon and reveal your design further.

The above photos show the resist done one a piece of gloss card on the left and normal white cardstock on the right.

Your background is now ready to use as desired.  

This ATC was created using the Crayon Resist Technique with Alcohol Inks, 

for my background, I added further colour over the top using my Tria Markers and some Kindy Glitz.

So why not try this fun method for yourself.  Try stamping in different colours and then coloring over the top, use different stamps, use alcohol inks or forget the stamps and simply draw on the surface of your cardstock with your crayon and sponge with different colours to see what happens. 

Everywhere to be seen is masses of Red & Green!

Have you noticed that because Christmas is just around the corner,  there is masses of Red & Green everywhere you go.  I have to say I love using these traditional colours on my Christmas Cards and today I have done just that making two cards with lots of red and green.

The first one is using none other than Unity Stamps and the second is a card made with no stamping but using one of my Favorite Paper Brands - Echo Park. 

For this card I have used a stamp from the Unity Set - Generations (not a Christmas Set) and the Sentiment is from the Set - Christmas Bough.  The papers are from the Echo Park Merry Christmas Collection.

The design was inspired by this Sketch which is one of this weeks Sketchy Sunday Challenges over at 365 Cards.  I have flipped it on its side and the tab was inspiration for the half flowers I added to the card, instead of a scallop I have used a Ric Rac Die Cut Strip.  The Holly Leaves and Brad are from Making Memories.  Because I have used some Unity Stamps for this project I have also included this in the Unity Stamp Co Christmas Project Challenge on their facebook Page.

My second card is one not using any stamps simply papers and elements from the Echo Park Merry Christmas Paper Collection and a button and some paper cord from my stash.

I have slowly been making a dint in my Christmas Card List, and will be back to share lots more Christmassy Projects over the coming weeks.

Until next time Happy Stamping!

You Melt my Heart!

Good morning, well its a beautiful late winter's morning here and I was up bright and early so I decided to play along with a couple of challenges to kick off my week.

Digi:  You Melt my Heart from Paper Cupcake Stamps

Paper:  Christmas Days Digital Paper Collection by Shery K @ Mygrafico

Ink:  Tria Markers to Colour in Image

Cardstock:  Stampin' Up!

Other:  Heart Brad

The cute penguin digi image is one I received as a prize from a previous challenge I participated in for Paper Cupcakes, whilst the coloured snowflake papers is a digital paper from a Christmas Collection I purchased yesterday from My Grafico.  I haved used the current sketch challenge from 365 Cards Challenge Blog.

The two challenges I have played along with are:

Paper Cupcakes (TIMITA) - Let's Get Wild

365 Cards - Day 166 Super Sketchy Sunday

Now & Forever - A TUIC Challenge Card

This month our TUIC Blog Group is hosting two Challenges, the first of which is being hosted by Lynn and I shared my card and all the details with you in last Friday's post.  The second challenge for June is being hosted by Monica on her blog Gardner's Basket.  Some weeks ago Monica posted us all two pieces of patterned paper cut to A6 Card Size to use in our creation - this was to be her challenge to us all.

I decided for this card to also play along with the Super Sketchy Sunday Day 111 Challenge over at 365 Cards.  I rotated the sketch from portrait to landscape and blinged it up a little.

I used one of the pieces of patterned paper which was sent to us almost in it's entireity whilst the other piece I cut into the three small strips that I paper pierced and then did some faux stitching to connect the holes.  I mounted the paper on Very Vanilla Cardstock and Gold Metallic Paper and Embellished with a beautiful Gold Flower from Prima and some Olive Rhinestones, The gold and olive tonings I thought really coordinated beautifully with the colours in the papers Monica sent to us.

The Sentiment Now and Forever I stamped with Brilliance Pearlescent Olive Ink which I also used to ink the edges of my patterned paper.  I thought being quite elegant, this card would be suitable to use for a Wedding or Anniversary Card.

Be sure to check out all the other entries to our second TUIC Challenge this month by visiting Monica's blog.

Do all things with love!

I had so much fun playing along with all the challenges last week at the 365 Cards Blog, and I had a nice surprise when I checked in this morning on this weeks challenges.  I was chosen as one of their Spotlight Designers from the entries last week.......I am totally chuffed.  It was for my Lucky Thirteen Entry.  So I guess what they say is true - 13 is Lucky for Some.

Sadly I am off to Brisbane for a few days tommorrow so I probably wont get a chance to play along with all the Challenges on their Blog this week however I have done one card - for their Sunday Sketch Challenge. 

Here is a copy of the Sketch

And here is my card,

I have rotated and tweaked it a bit.....it evolved as it went along, I knew what sentiment I wanted to use and I made my rose to match but played around with a couple different sccenarios of placement as well.  I also added a fringed paper pleated ribbon down the centre.

The Do All Things with Love Sentiment is one of the Stamps in the Unity May Kit of the Month, and the Pretty Pink Floral Paper is from Basic Grey whilst the cardstock and other papers are from Stampin' Up!.

If you have time you should check out the challenges this week as it is Mega Movie Week at 365 Cards, where each day the latest Movie Releases will be your inspiration to create.

Also if you are looking for some scrapping fun this weekend, why not drop in to the Scrap Lounge for their Cybercrop.  It kicks off Friday Night at 5.00pm Australian EST.

I'll be back Friday to share my creations for the Cybercrop and one of this Month's Tangled Up In Creativity Challenge Cards.

More Challenge Card Fun this Cold & Wet Long Weekend

THIS IS A LONGER THAN NORMAL POST AND IS FOUR SEPERATE CHALLENGE CARD ENTIRES. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW EACH CARD FOR THE 365 CARDS CHALLENGES FOR DAY 99, 101, 102, & 103.

Remember my goal this week was do a full week of the daily Card Challenges on the 365 Cards Challenge Blog well today being another totally cold and miserable day.....was the perfect day for me to complete this weeks challenges.  Here are my cards for the last four challenges I had still to complete this week.

Day 99 - It's My Party Challenge is to create a birthday card you would like to recieve using favorite colours, brand,  papers etc.......

Pink and green is my favorite colour combination so I had to use this colour duo to create this card using the fun Cupcake Card Template from the Cutting Cafe and my stamps from my Stampin' Up! Birthday Bakery and After Thoughts Stamp Sets.  I also can say I got flowers as well with this card by including the beautiful rose buds.

Day 101 - Words of Wisdom Challenge is to create a card using our favorite quote/sentiment. 

One of my favorite quotes which I have used heaps is from the Stampin' Up! Heard from the Heart Set - "Kindness comes in many forms but always from the heart".......and the key to this card creation was teaming it up with my new Unity Heart with Keys Stamp from the May Kit of the Month.

I am also entering this card into the Papercutz Challenge #95- Anything Goes with a Twist which was to use the colour combination of Pink Black and White.

Day 102 - Keep your Distance Challenge is all about using as many different design elements as you can with them overlapping as little as possible.  

This one was a challenge and I don't know how I went.  I tried to seperate my card into sections and then embellishment inbetween the sections etc.  The butterfly background and sentiment are stamps from my Unity April Kit of the Month.  A punched border, flowers, small green rhinestones and ribbon were all used for this card.

Day 103 - Imagine This - Frosting Challenge is to use the given word (in this case frosting) to inspire your creation.

When I think of frosting I think of decadent cakes which makes me think of Melbourne where I saw the most decadent cakes ever and chocolate, heaps and heaps of chocolate.   I think you can see by my card this was exactly what I was thinking of.  I have added my own frosting to my main image of this card with a bit of glitter and gloss from my Red Kindy Glitz and Crystal Effects.  My sentiment for this card is a favorite too - as when you are faced with such a delicious selection of mouth watering cakes in front of you it is definitely no day for just a sliver.  The background images and sentiment are from Stampin' Up!'s Birthday Bakery Set whilst the main cake image is from the Unity May Kit of the Month Set.

Now looking at these cards is making me hungry so its a good thing dinner isn't to far away.  I had lots of fun and was definitely inspired by the great challenges this week on the 365 Cards Blog I will definitely be back there to play again.

Thanks for looking at all my creations this week.

My Happy Place and Creating my own background with my new Unity Stamps!

Today it is wet miserable and cold so it was the perfect day to be inside crafting and the perfect time to be thinking about my Happy Place which is one of the 365 Cards  Blog Challenges this week.

A bit less than 2 months ago we moved out of town to a one and a half acre property which has lovely views over the hills and countryside as well as beautiful gardens.  So my happy place in our new home is sitting outside in our outdoor area with a coffee and just taking in the beauty of nature that surrounds us.   So using our new garden as my starting inspiration today I than wanted to play along with both the My Happy Place Challenge on 365 Cards, and the Make Your Own Background Challenge which is over on the My Unity Place Forum.

There are some beautiful flowers in our garden at the moment.  On one side of the property we have a soft pink camilla hedge which is currently in full bloom.  The softness and lack of uniformity in their petals kind of reminded me of the patterned flower images in my new Unity May Kit of the Month Stamp Set, so I just knew I wanted to reach for this stamp to create my own background,.

I stamped the image randomly in alternating tones of brown and then coloured in with soft pastel like colours.  I water coloured in the white space with yellow.  On part of this piece I than stamped the larger flower in a darker brown and cut it out to use as my embellishment.  I layered this onto the same flower stamped in the dark brown onto a piece of pink cardstock.

To create my background panel for the card I cut a piece to size and than proceeded to fold and scrunch up my design and than flatten back out.  To this I spritzed with a little water and than smooched with a Pearlscent Olive Ink.  Finally I ran this through my Big Shot with an embossing folder to have gain a debossed surface on my design piece.   A spellbinder cut scallop circle was than stamped with the circle frame and sentiment.  My pieces were than layered onto the pink cardstock panel and brown base card and than the ribbon and Antique Brad were added to finish.

Back with a couple more Challenge Cards!

I have been playing along with lots of challenges lately and discovering lots of wonderful new blogs.  One blog I found called 365 Cards posts a new Card Challenge Daily, so this week it is my goal to play along with each one.

They start their week every Sunday with a Sketch Challenge and then various challenges daily.  So far I have completed two of their challenges the ones for Sunday and Monday.

This card follows their Sketch and I have also played along with the Current Colour Combination Challenge on Splitcoast Stampers - CC326 which was to use the Colours Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette and Melon Mambo for this card.  I have used the debossed side of the centre panel and apart from the embossing folder all items used to create this card were Stampin' Up!.

My second card today follows the Challenge from 365 Cards Day 98 Challenge (Monday) which is called Lucky 13.  You have to include 13 of something on your layout.  For this card I have stamped 13 small flowers onto the background of my card.

I also have played along with the Sketch Challenge SC335 over at Splitcoast Stampers for this Card and this weeks Colour Combination Challenge #114 on the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog.  The stamps used to create this card are from one of my new Dark Room Door Viva La Flora Collection Set.

I am off now to play along with some more challenges and to get some washing done making the best of this beautiful fine day before the rain settles back in tommorrow.  Thanks for dropping by and looking at my new challenge creations.