Anything Goes and Balloons!

 Good evening! Tonight I'm featuring two different challenge cards.

First up- Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge- You've got the Edge

I started with the blended background scalloped stitched edge (by MFT). I still kind of laugh whenever I use these dies. These are not actually the ones I meant to purchase, but I love them all the same. Really, how can you go wrong with scallops and stitching, right??

The colours I used for the background edge were Picked Raspberry, Carved Pumpkin, Squeezed Lemonade,  Twisted Citron, and Peacock Feathers.

My process for this card was actually deciding on the sentiment first. I figured, it's a SSS Challenge, why not pull out some SSS product. I keep some of my stamps in the Avery Elle style pockets, and i fit two in each pocket, so what do I have  tucked in with the Wishing and Sending set? The Adult Beverages set. I saw it and thought, Perfect!

I stamped two of the glasses and pulled out a few coordinating Copics and got to work. Once that was all done, I cut them out. I also added a touch of white gel pen for the little "shine" and Wink of Stella over it all to give it a shimmer.

Here's a close-up of my Copic colouring and the shimmer on these.

Next up is the Casology 5th anniversary challenge- Balloons. I had all sorts of lofty ideas, but I wanted to keep my card clean and simple, and I also didn't want to let all my recently pinned balloon cards influence me too much. It's also very hot here right now, and without central air conditioning, it can be a bit tough feeling motivated to be another more than a "blump" (that's blob+lump by the way)

I used another SSS set- Birthday Balloons. I love the simple balloon images in this set, and it has some really wonderful fonts. I stamped and fussy cut the balloons and then added a few sequins for interest. I was originally going to do this as a white card, but I liked the idea of balloons floating up against a sky-coloured backdrop.

Inks used were Hawaiian Shores, Limeade Ice, Summer Sunrise, Hibiscus Burst, and Amethyst Allure (form PTI)

Thanks for stopping by!

Colour Blocking

This week's Make it Monday challenge was Colour Blocking. There were a few different styles features. I decided to combine colour blocking and watercolour backgrounds.

I started off with some watercolour paper. Next I got our my 3x4 clear block and decided on 3 PTI colours.

I was in the mood for oranges-red, so I pulled out Berry Sorbet, Orange Zest and Summer Sunrise. I inked up the block, each colour getting about a third of the block. Then I spritzed it with water and held it on the watercolour paper. To get better transfer results, be sure to hold it there for 30-60 seconds or use a heavy object to press the block down.

I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I decided to bring out Tropics. Sure, these leaves aren't typically orange, but it's a fun bright card, so it works! I stamped and die-cut two of the leaves and added a greeting from the same set.

I had so much fun, I decided to do another version with more "realistic" leaf colours. My palette this time was Tropical Teal, Hawaiian Shores, and Limeade Ice

Supplies:

Stamps: Tropics

Ink: Berry Sorbet, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise, Tropical Teal, Hawaiian Shores, Limeade Ice, Black Onyx

Paper: Black,  Watercolour, Berry Sorbet, Tropical Teal

Accessories, etc.: Tropics dies

MFT Colour Challenge 73

Hello!

Welcome back! Today I have a colour challenge card for MFT. As soon as I saw these colours, I thought flamingo! I have not used this set nearly enough since getting it, so I figured now was the perfect time!

Sadly, I do not own any of the MFT inks or papers, so I made do with what I had, making sure to feature all sorts of other MFT goodies.

I started with my teal background- just one shade of teal wasn't enough, so I decided to bring in three tones to make an interesting wavy sort of sky. I cut each piece from one of the Stitched Snow Drifts dies and then kind of puzzled them together.

Next, the stars of the show- the flamingos! I die cut those out of a coral card stock and inked up the wings with the coordinating ink for added dimension. I decided to bring in the lighter gray of the challenge by giving them some ground. Once I had that all together, I decided that it needed some clouds, and stitched clouds to go with the rest of the scene were perfect!

I finished it off with a sentiment from Tickled Pink! Definitely love all the flamingo-centric fun sentiments in that set!

Simon says STARS!

I know, I know. Two posts in one day?!?  Yeah. It's been a long time since I've blogged twice in one month nevermind twice in one day!

But I've been meaning to put more of my projects out there. So many don't make it to the internet at all or only to Instagram. My latest goal is to keep up with various challenges in the community. So when I saw that Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge was stars AND the featured company was My Favorite Things I knew I had to find the time to get a card made. 

Here's my card. This one was totally inspired by my stamping friend Fran. She showed me this "happy accident". Basically blend a background, add a stitched border die and then flip it! So you get a lovely frame but the contrast of the colours. Love it. I also used her colour suggestions- Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron, Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin and Picked Raspberry. I loved how vibrant this palette is! Originally I was going to try and water stamp with the stars, but that was a fail, so spritzed it with water to cover up the fail spots and stamped with white pigment ink instead. I add a few rhinestones for a finishing touch!

I have to say though with the hand-drawn looking stars, black text, and almost neon colours, it has a bit of a 90s vibe. What can I say, I'm a child of the late 80s-90s!

Supplies
Stamps:Count the Stars (as I'm typing this, it appears that this set is on sale, being retired, so you may want to snag it and the coordinating dies if you love it!)
Ink: Peacock Feathers, Twisted Citron, Squeezed Lemonade, Carved Pumpkin and Picked Raspberry, Fresh Snow, Archival Black
Accessories, etc: Stars & Wishes die, Rhinestones, Stitched Rectangle Scallop Edge Frames

Papertrey July Blog Hop Challenge

Almost every month the 25th sneaks up on me. Yesterday, I was browsing my usual card blog list and realized that it was the 24th! It wasn't too late to play along with this month's PTI blog hop challenge.

The inspiration piece is quite soft and beautiful.

Photo source: Once Wed

I was inspired by all that softness. I was thinking vellum, rich luxurious white paper, watercoloured leaves and a metallic touch.

I think I achieved what I wanted, but it does not photograph easily. I took a few different shots so you could get a better idea.

First of all- the interior (since that's actually what I started with): I brought out some of my cotton paper because I just love it for watercolouring. I inked up two of the leaf images from Turning a New Leaf with distress inks. I knew these would not stamp crisply, but I didn't want them too. Next I used the same inks and made a little palette and got to work painting. I used Evergreen Bough and Pine Needles for the greens and Brushed Corduroy for the brown. Once that was done I took just a touch of silver reinker and watered it down to add little sparkly touches to each leaf, which you can see better on the next photo.

I waffled a bit about just placing my embossed greeting directly on the watercoloured panel, but I decided against it. Instead, I adhered the panel into a vellum card base and embossed the word from  the Pen & Ink set using Platinum embossing powder. The final touch was some white organdy ribbon and some silver cord.

Thanks for stopping by, can't wait to see what everyone else made!

Supplies:
Stamps: Pen & Ink, Turning a New Leaf
Paper: Cotton, Vellum
Ink: Versamark, Evergreen Bough, Pine Needles, Brushed Corduroy, Silver
Accessories, etc. Platinum EP, Organdy ribbon, silver cord

MFT Sketch Challenge 342

Now that I've returned to the Clean and Simple Stamping card sketches, I've been reminded about just how much fun card sketches are.

I didn't even realize that My Favorite Things stamps had a challenge blog, but now that I do, expect to see semi-regular participating from me. Challenges are such a great way to jump into a card, especially if you're not sure where to start.

Here's the challenge sketch:

And here's my take. I knew I wanted to make a little bit of patterned paper, but I have a lot of line art from MFT. So I decided to pull out Winter Warmth for a bit of "Christmas in July" fun. I was feeling earthy tones and went with Kraft, Dark Chocolate, Olive Twist, and Americana (from PTI).

I used the coordinating Winter Warmth dies, as well as one of the Stitched Scallop Basic Edges dies to match the interesting angled panel at the top.

One more detail shot- I just love the perfect white frame these dies leave with the images!