Part two of my challenging week – this time set by Narelle, a member of my ‘A Klass Act’ stampin’ team, on our online forum.

Narelle issued a challenge to use three different shades of the same colour – a monochromatic type scheme – for which I chose to focus on blues, specifically Brocade Blue, Brilliant Blue and Night of Navy…

It looks for all the world as though the focus is out on my camera in this photo, and truth be told, it may just be, but the blur is kind of magnified by the shadow stamping effect that I used with two different colours of blue ink…

This card gave me an opportunity to use some of the soon to be retired colours of cardstock in my stash – a stash that has been relocated to my stamping desk, right in front of my face so as to remind me that I really must use them as much as I can in these next few weeks.

Some of the retiring colours are already sold out, and many more are heading out the door in large numbers, so if you have yet to load up your stores with cardstock, ink and refills that are on the fond farewell list, be sure to get in touch to order some soon

“Upsy Daisy Blues”
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Sanded
Paper: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Brilliant Blue, Very Vanilla
Ink: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy
Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Brocade Blue 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This week – at least what’s left of it – over at Just Add Ink, there’s a funky sketch challenge for you to play along with…

I just love the simplicity of this sketch and envisage that I will be revisiting it again many times!

Here’s what I did with it for the challenge…

I used a similar technique as I did for the Just Add Vintage challenge a little while back, combining a couple of background stamps and some embossing powder.

If you’d like to play along with this sketch challenge, head over to Just Add Ink before midnight Wednesday and link up your entry!

Tell ‘em I sent ya

“Just Add Ink Challenge #24″
Stamps: Baroque, Sanded, Upsy Daisy (greeting)
Paper: Soft Suede, Whisper White, Kraft
Ink: Versamark, Soft Suede
Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, White Embossing Powder, Brayer

So I mentioned yesterday how much fun I had with the first sketch challenge over at Just Add Ink…

Here is the second card I made using this very fun and versatile sketch…

It’s very different to the first, which is precisely what I love about sketch challenges – the variety of results that can be obtained from a single “map”, if you will.

To get the watercolour-ish effect in the flowers, I coloured directly onto the gorgeous silhouette image from Upsy Daisy using Summer Sun, Cameo Coral, Rose Red and Old Olive Markers, starting with the lightest colour and working upwards to the darkest.  That way, when you overlap the colours a little bit, it won’t ruin your markers.

Next I grabbed my spray bottle filled with water and with the coloured stamp approximately arms length away (the bottle has a fairly serious spray attachment!) I gave the stamp around 3 spritzes of water, then stamped it onto my cut out circle of Naturals Ivory.

This card was sent off to a lady that has a son a couple of years below my big girl at school.  She turned up at a garage sale I had a couple of weeks ago (a long overdue clear out of toys and clothes that have been outgrown at various stages since my girls were born…  procrastinator much?!) and offered to sell off anything that I had left at the Baby and Kids Market where she had a stall the following weekend.

How nice is that?!  Thanks again Penny

If you haven’t tried the sketch challenge yet, you have until midnight next Wednesday to take part.

Actually you can try the sketch whenever you want, three or more times over as I did if you like, but if you want to enter it in the running to be judged one of the Top 5 or Honourable Entries, you have until midnight next Wednesday.

Get to it!

Just Add Ink Challenge #3 – Take Two
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Trendy Trees
Paper: Naturals Ivory, Old Olive, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink: Rose Red
Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, Summer Sun, Old Olive, Cameo Coral & Rose Red Markers, Very Vanilla wide grosgrain, Button Bouquet,  Stampin’ Dimensionals, yellow embroidery thread (non SU!)

The most difficult cards to make are always the ones conveying sympathy for the loss of a loved one, and I had reason to make one of these this week for a dear friend of mine who lost a long-time friend of hers in the most tragic and terribly sad of circumstances.

This is card that I took around to my friend today.

The soft look of the flowers in the Upsy Daisy stamp set is achieved by colouring directly to the rubber with Watercolour Wonder crayons, spritzing the stamp with water and stamping onto watercolour paper.  It was exactly the soft, muted look I was hoping for.

Thinking of you Deen…

“Just Because I Care”
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Sanded, Best Yet
Paper: Always Artichoke, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Mellow Moss, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Always Artichoke, Regal Rose
Accessories: Watercolour Wonder Crayons (Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke), Eyelet Border Punch, Rose Red wide stitched grosgrain, Button Latte Designer Buttons, Linen Thread, Stampin’ Sponges

It’s been a very long time since I participated in one of Kristina’s colour inspiration challenges!  In fact I just did a bit of digging and determined that my last effort was a whopping 26 challenges ago!

So a few days ago, having cleared and tidied my craft desk (and my floor – yep it was that bad!) I had no more excuses not to sit and stamp, so I decided that I would have a crack at the next colour inspiration.

Then yesterday, up went the colours….

Holy cow, those there are some bright colours!  I almost re-thought my determination to take part, but then I started formulating a plan…

The plan involved playing around with one of my current absolute FAVE stamp sets – Circle Circus - and instead of stamping it randomly as I have done previously, I decided on a more ordered approach.

This is what resulted:

What I love about Circle Circus is that it looks great all random and everywhere, but equally fun all lined up and regular.  This sure gave the ol’ Stamp-a-ma-jig a good working out I have to tell you!

For the colours, I used a tiny bit of Tempting Turquoise as the Sky Blue that was called for in the challenge.  Over my way, the sky is quite often turquoise, so I used a bit of artistic licence there, and aside from that I’m all out of Soft Sky since it’s been retired and I couldn’t let that pesky detail get in the way of my resolve to have a play with this challenge!

Here’s a bit of a close up of the detail….

At this angle you can see the crimping of the Green Galore flaggy thing a bit better and also the ‘thread’ that I have used in the button.  I mentioned this idea in a post a few months back where you cut tiny thin strips of cardstock and pop it through your button holes for perfectly co-ordinated ‘thread’!

There are still a couple of days to have a play with the colour inspiration, so go on, challenge yourself!  It’s a great way to have a go at something you would probably not usually choose for yourself, so a handy method to extend your stamping skills and step outside of your comfort zone a little

“Kristina’s Colour Inspiration #54″
Stamps: Circle Circus, Upsy Daisy (greeting)
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal, Green Galore
Accessories: Crimper, Pumpkin Pie Striped Grosgrain, Button Latte, Stampin’ Dimensionals