Stamping

The lovely Kristina has another colour challenge up and today I had some cards to make AND some time to make them!  PLUS, I have had an idea buzzing around in my head for some time now that I just had to shake outta there, so I combined all these factors and bring you a real live post!  It’s been a while, I know…

Firstly, here is the colour inspiration picture…

And here is my contribution to the challenge….

I do love these colours together, and as is often the case with Kristina’s challenges, I would never have thought to combine them unless prompted in this way!

The idea that I have had for some time and only just brought to life here is to use what remains of the 12×12 sheet of die cut blooms, once all the blooms have been used, which mine were quite shortly after getting them.  LOVE those things!  The sheets left behind are effectively great big stencils/masks of all sorts of funky, different sized flowers and I have been meaning for some time to use them as such!

For this card, I chose a few of the different flower stencils and sponged through them onto Ruby Red cardstock using Ruby Red ink.  Then with the mask still in place, I took my paper piercing tool and pierced around the edge of the shapes to further define the flowers.  It actually looks quite funky on the back too, with just the holes in big flower shapes -an idea for another time perhaps….

After I had filled the piece of Ruby Red, I took a variety of circle punches and the two other colours of the challenge and made flower centres for them all.  The rest of the card is quite simple, so as not to be too busy as the flowers are busy enough on their own!

Kristina’s colour challenge #28
Stamps: Basic Phrases
Paper: Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Sage Shadow, Whisper White
Ink: Ruby Red, Sage Shadow
Accessories: 1″, 3/4″, 1/2″ and 1/4″ Circle Punches, Pumpkin Pie striped grosgrain, Stampin’ Sponges, Tool Kit, Die Cut Blooms

The next card, which I actually made first before I decided to have a go at the colour challenge, uses the same masking idea, but this time I took a card-front sized piece of Certainly Celery and sponged through the flower shaped stencils using Versamark, then embossed with clear embossing powder.  I made similar flower centres, this time a bit funky and off centre, then the rest of the card kind of evolved from there.

You can tell that there was no colour challenge involved here as I reached for my well-worn colour path of Rose Red, Regal Rose and Certainly Celery!  The So Saffron is a tiny variation on the theme

Enjoy!!

“Die Cut Masking”
Stamps: Life Definitions
Paper: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, So Saffron
Ink: Rose Red, Versamark
Accessories: 1″, 3/4″, 1/2″ and 1/4″ Circle Punches, Regal Rose wide grosgrain, Certainly Celery thin grosgrain, Stampin’ Sponges, Clear Embossing Powder, Die Cut Blooms

I love the school holidays, I really do.  The chance to hang out for that little bit longer in your jammies, the small poppet having the big one around to play with and all the other fun stuff that goes along with two weeks off school but BOY am I exhausted!  These school holidays, although we didn’t start out with a full schedule of planned activities and outings, just seemed to be jam packed with STUFF and I’m pretty well exhausted!  Today is the first day back at school, so I have the chance to share some stuff I have had lined up for some time!

Back in July, one of Hannah’s little kindy friends from last year welcomed a new little sister into her family - sweet Phoebe Elizabeth (which coincidentally is the same name as Shelli’s newest bundle of grand-baby!).  We managed to finally catch up with them in the first week of the holidays and I took along a little gift that I had in my head for AGES and brought to life for little Phoebe’s bedroom wall….

I just LOVE the On Board chipboard and covered in pretty paper and popped inside one of these 3d frames, it makes the perfect gift for a little person’s bedroom :)  I used the Lots of Letters pack to make the flower personalised with her initial and glittered it up a bit with some Dazzling Diamonds.  Here’s a bit more of a detailed look….

For the accompanying card, I pulled out my All in the Family set, which I haven’t used for quite some time, and using some more of the Spring Fling DSP, made this card…

ETA:  This card layout has become one of my “go to” designs as it is such a quick and very simple but sweet idea.   I had completely forgotten the origin of the idea, but it was my friend Tracey (who has made some FABULOUS renditions of the card here) that introduced me to the design, which was originated by Michelle Force.  Thanks Trace and Michelle!!

I had a lot of fun making it when I finally got around to getting the idea out of my brain and into living colour!

“Baby Phoebe Gift”
Stamps: All in the Family, Short and Sweet, Polka Dot, Background Sampler
Paper: Spring Fling DSP, Celery Prints DSP, Pale Plum, Barely Banana, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Watercolour paper
Ink: Whipser White, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, StazOn Black
Accessories: On Board Blossoms & Basics and Lots of Letters, Scallop, 1-3/8″ and 1-1/4″ Circle Punches, Aquapainter, Dazzling Diamonds glitter

I haven’t had a chance to pay along in Kristina’s colour inspiration challenges for SUCH a long time, and truth be told, I probably didn’t have time for this one either, but I like the colours and as soon as I saw the picture I was immediately inspired to use the Baroque background stamp with the emboss resist technique, so that kind of gave me a head start.  It would be SUCH a shame to have a tiny seed of an idea and not follow through (despite needing to prepare for World Card Making Day, making a baby gift and folding my large mound of washing…) wouldn’t it?!

So here is the inspiration picture…

And here is my take on not just the colours, but also the texture and design of the plate itself…

I couldn’t get the correct angle in a picture to show the embossed pattern, but basically I just stamped the big and beautiful Baroque background onto a piece of Very Vanilla, embossed it with clear embossing powder, then brayered over the whole thing with Pumpkin Pie ink.  The whole reason I actually got Baroque in the first place was because I envisaged it being used with the emboss resist technique, but up until now, have never actually tried it out!  I have plans for some more now though…..

I didn’t want to do much else on the card as the background is so striking on its own and anything much else in the way of embellishing would have made it too fussy.  So I stamped the ‘because’ sentiment from Life Definitions inside the large label type stamp from Frames with a Flourish, sponged the edges, added some Hodgepodge with a smidgen of wide grosgrain and that was enough

“Kristina’s Colour Inspiration #24″
Stamps: Baroque, Frames with a Flourish, Life Definitions
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocoalte Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Versamark
Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Brayer, Hodgepodge Hardware (pewter), Chocolate Chip side grosgrain, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals