from my ink pad to yours

Halloween Trim

A few weeks ago the theme of Splitcoaststampers CAS (for Clean and Simple) challenge was shoes. I knew exactly what I would do and then... I didn't. I did water color the "Happy Halloween" image intending to add a simple mat and apply it to a card. But I couldn't leave it alone. I just had to add more of those fun Halloween colors and it was no longer CAS! Here's how it ended up:

Tips:

• I used the white gel pen for the "N" made of bones and then watercolored the shadow with basic Gray to make it stand out a little more.
• Rich Razzleberry shadows added to the bat.
• Dazzling Details added to several of the "letters".
• Sahara Sand is one of my favorites for adding shadows.
• The Basic Black trim is actually the area between two of the intended trims.
• The textured Rich Razzleberry and Lucky Limeade textured layers are sponged for added character.

Jolly Color Challenge

This card is made with the set Festive & Fun, from the Holiday Mini Catalog. The color combination, Pool Party, Cherry Cobbler and Early Espresso is from this week's Splitcoaststampers Color Challenge.

Festive & Fun is the perfect stamp set if you like a little bit of coloring. Non of the spaced are too big, making it very easy to color with markers.

Some hints:

• I always start with the lighter colors (Pool Party) and finish with the darker colors.Shades of red are considered among the darker colors. For some reason they have a high propensity for smeaing.
• It is quite subtle but you might notice I shaded the left side of each letter/portion of the image with a light swipe of my Sahara Sand marker.
• Think of thirds when you divide your design area. The Cherry Cobbler portion is roughly 1/3 of the area covered by the Cherry Cobbler/Early Espresso layer.
• Repeat colors or elements whenever possible to help create a sense of rhythm: I added the punched white trim. I also repeated the dots and stripes in my textured backgrounds.
• The stripes in the Early Espresso piece are sanded for a little more worn look.

 

I repeated the striped look of the stockings by drawing a stripe border on the inside of the card:

Playing with DSP some more

I was lucky enough to be the guest designer for Splitcoaststampers CAS (Clean and Simple) challenge this week.  The theme this week is paper piecing, which was perfect for me since I had a few packs of dsp that I needed to break open. Though I posted another for the challenge because I thought it was composed a little better, I think this one was my favorite. The flower is from Flower Fancy, one of my favorite sets. I also love the use polka dots, here they are from the In-color dsp. The leaves are from the same dsp pack, Lucky Limeade text pattern.

The reason I wasn't happy with the composition is the the image and the greeting seem to divide the card in half and thirds are supposed to be more pleasing to the eye. So, does the saying "rules are made to be broken" apply here?

Here is the card I posted for the challenge. It uses my old standby, cereal box stencils . The stamp set is Ain't Love Grand which is a hostess set this year. I used Spice Cake dsp from the Holiday mini catalog. I don't know if you can tell but even the raindrops on the umbrella are pieced.

 

Ah, Chipboard

I've forgotten how satisfying it is to play with chipboard and DSP! One of the challenges on Splitcoast yesterday was to cover chipboard with paper.  I cut some leaves out of chipboard and covered a bunch of them with Well Worn DSP. Here is the first that ended up on a card:

I don't think I've done many chipboard diecuts with my Big Shot though I've saved many a piece from specialty paper packages with the intention of doing so. You can use the regular sandwhich to cut the chipboard and you should be able to cut the paper with the chipboard. My particular Big Shot, however seems ever so slightly tighter than most and I had trouble getting the sandwich with DSP included through so I cut mine separately. This did let me play around a little with which side of the DSP I preferred.

I had planned to stamp a message just above the wood, but on a lark, or maybe it was a foggy mind from outpatient surgery I'd had done earlier in the day, I ran the front of the card base through the Square Lattice before stamping. So, the message was attached with a tag instead. I do love those tags!

Here is what the inside looks like:

The inside oak leaf and border show a couple of other patterns in the Well Worn paper pack. The sentiment is, I think, from the set Full of Life. I'm being too lazy to get up and check it out for sure in the catalog.

***A hint about the using the Square Lattice embossing folder - or any other detailed embossing folder. Though I love the look, the detailed embossing really tends to soften your cardstock, sometimes to the point of making it wavy or decreasing the stiffness of the card. I frequently reinforce the cardstock with another plain piece a attached to the back - in this case the inside of the card.

I hope your stamping is happy!

 

 

Harlequin Collage/4A Fabulous Friend

This is the first card I made for the CAS Fall Challenge. It is based on a pillow which you can see by looking at the challenge here

I liked the color scheme plus the Harlequin (aka Stampin' Up!'s retired Print Pattern background stamp) pattern included in the collage patterned fabric. The Print Pattern stamp is stamped over a piece of newsprint designer paper. After that I added a few more images, including the dahlia like flower from Creative Elements and a few small images from the oh, so useful, Tiny Tags. The inspiration pillow had an ivory flower with a witch on a broomstick as the center of the lfower. I used the Triple Treat Flower to emboss the layers of my flower on Very Vanilla card stock.  As a nod to the Halloween theme in the pillow, I added a tiny flower punch out of the word BOO! from the Tiny Tags set.

Since I'd already use a few retired images etc, it didn't seem like too much of a stretch to add some retired black lace.

The second challenge was to use a favorite television show to inspire our card. Well, the only show that I really make a point of watching besides movies and new programs is The Big Bang Theory. There are plenty of clips from this show on youtube if you would like to get a taste of it. In fact my DH watched a number of them with me while I looked for further inspiration.

The first images that come to mind are things like take out food,  super hero costumes and models of molecules. Not typical stamper fare like, well, flowers. 

Since the story is based on a couple of physicists who live acoss the hall from a waitress I used features of the physicists' door as my card front. The doors to each apartment are gray with what appear to be bolts around the perimeter. Though they appear to be painted they also like metal. To mimic this look I used  my crop-a-dile to dry emboss a series of circles to mimic the bolts. It was pure luck that the apartment number was 4A  (For a). I started through my stamp cupboards to look for a greeting that could follow 4A and there it was in the Oval All box. Fabulous Friend with ...  FLOWERS! I used the Fabulous Friend image for the simple inside of the card. I like the way that the flowers contrast with the grunge look of the door, kind of like the contrast amongst the apartment neighbors the show features. Oh, yes. I colored the flowers in red and yellow, the colors of one of the super hero shirts one of the characters frequently wears.Even the partial ellipse of seems to have something to do with physics, right. Well, maybe that's a stretch.

So here's how it turns out:

(I lined the inside of the front to cover the brads.) Even though this probably won't appeal to many people, I think it was my favorite because I feel there is a lot of symbolism about the show. It was also fun because I think it's the most involved my DH has been in creating any of my cards. He did work really hard watching youtube clips with me! I think I'll be remaking this card with a few tweaks for our upcoming anniversary ;).

I had committed myself to do the challenges before I saw any of them. Looking at any one challenge I might not have wanted to follow through - they rarely led me to any of my comfort zones in stamping. But by the time I had finished each card I was really glad to have gone through the process of interpreting the challenge. It was a. lot. of. FUN!