from my ink pad to yours

Amazing Color Challenge

I've been putzing with a few pieces I started for this week's color challenge: Night of Navy, Cajun Craze, and Soft Sky with making it a masculine card as the dessert option. Here's what I ended up with:

• For both cards I started with a quarter sheet of Ivory Naturals card stock and did some random stamping and sponging with the color challenge colors and the Stampin' Up!'s You're Amazing stamp set and the coordinating Take a Ticket wheel.
• I applied Soft Sky ink to one side of the Alphabet Press embossing folder and embossed the first piece. I ended up with the letters being backward but I guess we'll just say that is part of the card's charm.
• The outside greeting is clear embossed on Ivory Naturals, cut with an Apothecary Accents framelit and heavily sponged with Cajun Craze.
• Since I ended up sponging over much of the Soft Sky I added a Soft Sky Candy Dot for good measure. 

• Here's a better shot of the inside. The splatter stamp is from the My Paper Pumpkin Welcome Kit.

The second card was even simpler:

• The Take a Ticket wheel was clear embossed.
• I inked the embossing folder with Cajun Craze before embossing my stamped piece and then added a little sponging before attaching it to the Ivory Naturals card.

I must confess that there is a third piece where I got the letters to come out straight. But, my attempt at adding drips of Cajun Craze (Today's Mixed Media challenge) to a Soft Sky and Night of Navy piece ended up looking like there was dried blood that had dripped down the card. That piece is going to take a little more work...

Homespun Pansy

 I saw this card by Bronwyn Eastley,  which was so simple and cute with an off set flower over the negative space from the Pansy punch that I just had to try it myself with some of the Afternoon Picnic DSP.  My card took off in more of a Shabby Chic direction:

• I layered a couple of different Coastal Cabana colored papers from teh Afternoon Picnic Collection, playing around with the shading around the edges a bit adding Crumb Cake where needed.
• The Delicate Designs border is sponged with a bit of Crumb Cake ink.
• I curled the petals of the Flower Shop posie with a pencil after punching it out with the Pansy punch. The flower center which is made with Simply Pressed Clay and mold is sponged after it is dry, also with Crumb Cake.
• The leaf is cut out of Ivory Naturals card stock that has been embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder.
• Though you can't see it under all the Afternoon Picnic DSP, the card base is Ivory Naturals.

Keep Staying Cool out there...

 

 

 

Sunflower Quartet

This week's Technique Lover's Challenge on Splitcoaststampers is to stamp and color on patterned paper. Though I was also somewhat inspired by some images that I had pinned on my Sunflower board on Pinterest I wasn't real sure which direction I was going to take this. So I embossed Stampin' Up!'s Sunflower twice each on two patterns of DSP.  I finished the first card yesterday but decided to wait to write this post until I had managed to do something with all four images. Thanks ta change in my schedule at work I came home earlier today and finished them.

This is the first card that I finished and posted for the challenge. I'd done some testing of colors on the other pieces so in a way they are derived from this.

• The newsprint pattern is from Modern Medley though the retired First Edition dsp would be great if you have some.
• This sunflower is embossed in black and colored with Crushed Curry and Crumb Cake markers.
• I used a sponge dauber to lightly color the background with Soft Sky.
• I started with  4.25" x 5.5 piece of DSP and trimmed it just a bit so that I could mat it with the same sized piece of Basic Black.
• The Ivory Naturals card base is 5.25" x 6.75".
• Greeting if from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

I'm not sure I should post this one even though I enjoyed playing around with it. I really like the colors but the unless you look at the sunflower at  just the right angle the shine of the gold embossing doesn't let you see the great detail of the sunflower image.

• The gold embossing didn't seem to let the detail show through but that kind of gave me license to get a little more playful with it.
• I layered several colors of ink over the dsp including Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi, Crushed Curry, and Baked Brown Sugar.
• The message is from Really Good Greetings.
• A few of the images that join the Sunflower in the background include Viola's Lace wheel, Music Notes wheel, a corner of Ex Libris, and Distressed Dots ("vintage" SU stamped with Tangerine Tango craft ink - also "vintage").
• There is also an odd assortment of washi tape scraps in the lower right corner.

The other two Sunflowers were embossed on the Daffodil Stripe pattern from Gingham Garden.

• This landscape oriented card was embossed with Black powder.
• It is layered on Basic Black and mounted on a So Saffron card.
• The Petite Pairs "so many smiles..." seemed perfect for the greeting with "...begin with you!" stamped on the inside. The card front greeting was stamped on vellum and embellished with a black candy dot.

I pulled out the Early Espresson embossing powder for this one. I think it worked pretty well on the Daffodil paper. I colored the petals with So Saffron and the center with Soft Suede and a sponge dauber. The bow is 7/8" Cotton (really nice finish on this stuff!). The little tag image is from Label Love and is embossed again with Early Espresso on So Saffron and punched out with the Artisan Label punch.

Whew! The stamp studio was a good place to spend this afternoon though. One of my neighbors grows real sunflowers and this afternoon they are soaking up 93 degrees worth of sun:

                       

Stay cool!

 

A Blushing Bride take on an Inspiration Challenge

I checked out the Inspiration Challenge yesterday over at Splitcoaststampers and chose this pretty Leila dress to get this card started.

• I applied my Crumb Cake ink pad direct to the the Flower Garden embossing folder before embossing a quarter sheet of Blushing Bride card stock.
• I trimmed this piece down to 3 7/8" x 5 1/8" and attached it to a Blush Blossom card.
• The sentiment, from Blooming with Kindness, is also stamped with Crumb Cake. It is trimmed to about 7/8" x 4 1/4".
• The Crumb Cake comes out a little darker so the Soft Suede ribbon looked better than the Crumb Cake. I tied a double Taffeta bow around the front of the card.

Indigo Island Gingham Mats

I was just cleaning out some photos on my computer and found a few I haven't posted yet. So I'll post a few summery cards as I veg out after a hot but fun day at the Minnesota State Fair.

I did these back in May during a few days of stamping with Liz and Jeanne, members of my downline. Aside from having a great time, I always do some of my best work when my downline are around. Both of these cards feature the darling diagonal gingham from Gingham Garden:

• For this first card I wanted to find a way to play up the birght and playful flower print. Doesn't the skinny gingham frame set it off perfectly?
• Just a little White Organza ribbon and a easy greeting: "Happy Birthday to you" is from Label Love set. It is embossed with white embossing powder on Island Indigo card stock and punched with the coordinating Artisan Label punch.
• What you can't see: The DSP layers are mounted on a piece of Whisper White to make these sturdy enough to be popped up with dimensionals.
• I love how fresh and summery this looks.

• This card uses the same idea for the frame but brings the gingham back again with some dry embossing with the Petals a Plenty folder.
• "I MISS you ALREADY" is from the stamp set Really Good Greetings.
• The greeting shapes are cut with the Labels Collection framelits.
•  The dry embossing lends this card all the texture it needs. Without bows or buttons it's a very easy card to mail. Perfect for that freshman you might be sending off to college soon!

More Wonders of Washi

This simple, masculine birthday greeting shows how you can get different looks with Washi tape depending on whether you overlap it or not. I love the semi-transparent nature of this stuff!

• The Washi tape is from both the Season of Style and Epic Day This and That Designer sets.
• This is the first time my You're Amazing set has seen ink and it was applied with the My Paper Pumpkin Basic Gray ink spot and the Cherry Cobbler marker.
• Candy Dots are in Basic Gray, from the Neutrals Collection.
• As usual, the greeting is popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals.
• Card Stock: Very Vanilla and Basic Gray!

Did you know that if you sign up for a My Paper Pumpkin Subscription before August 31, 2013, you can get the first two kits for only $10 each. The Welcome kit would arrive in September and you'd get your first surprise Paper Pumpkin in October. Read more about it here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

August Paper Crafter's Sampler

It's been busy around here with kids making last end of the summer trips back home. I almost forgot to post about the latest Paper Crafter's Sampler: Prelude to Fall. There are lots of creative fall themed cards and projects so I'm sure that you will want to check it out! Here's a lil' peek at mine:

Happy stamping everybody!

 

Love & Joy Pair

Last week I showed you a 5x7 card with the Love& Joy image. Today I have a couple of regular or A2 sized cards with the same stamp:

The first is another Christmas card using the same polka dot pattern from Season of Style, from Stampin' Up!'s holiday catalog.

• Doubled dimnensionals give a little extra height.
•  Just a bit of color from the chevron pattern paper, also from Season of Style.
• White candy dot.

The second card was inspired by a card I found on Pinterest.

• I adapted the layout a bit with paper from Afternoon Picnic and added the little flags and pearls.
• I only only decided to add the Love and Joy and make it a wedding/anniverary card when everything else was done. 
• The little bit of ribbon is White Organza that has been colored with Crushed Curry re-inker.

Have a good week!

More Afternoon Picnic: Clean and Simple

Last week I posted a group of projects that I did with Afternoon Picnic for the Creative Crew Challenges over at Splitcoaststampers. I really liked working with the papers and stamps that I used for that project so I decided to get them out again - or actually, just not put them away quite yet.

So simple:

• I just applied a 1 inch strip of patterned paper from Afternoon Picnic next to the fold of  my Very Vanilla card before adding a 3/5" wide panel flush with the open side.
• A skinny strip of the polka dot pattern goes on before adding the canvas style flower from Flower Shop.
• Bling is a pearl and the greeting is from Apothecary Art, another set that I used in the ensemble.

Here is a close- up shot of the other card from the ensemble:

Have a wonderful Friday!

Love and Joy

I made this for one of the Dare To Get Dirty sketch challenges over on Splitcoaststampers last week. We were traveling out to Washington state during the whole week of challenges but I had a little time once we got home to put a few cards together before the gallery closed for entries. I did enter a few that I had created earlier but never shared before, but this and the sympathy card I showed you a few days ago were some that I designed in my head while the rain and fog were covering up the mountains. 

  

• This is a 5x7 card so it uses almost the whole sheet of designer paper that you get in the Season of Style Paper Stack.
• I hand cut the curve out of the polka dot paper and then used that as a guide to cut the Cherry Cobbler card stock.
•  Ribbon is Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding.
• Love & Joy is embossed with Whisper White embossing powder on Cherry Cobbler before being cut out with an oval framelit. It is attached to the card with dimensionals.

Have an excellent day!