The Forever Card

I'm calling this the forever card, because it took forever to come together.  I couldn't get my head around the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week, nor could I work out how best to use the colors for the color challenge at Create with Connie & Mary.  I have spent 3 days trying to work this out in my head.

I'm going to love using Midnight Muse for the next couple of years and Daffodil Delight is growing on me slowly, but Gumball Green, I'm afraid to say, just doesn't do it for me.  And it was those 3 horizontal panels in the sketch that threw me for a loop.  I had pretty much decided to flag both challenges this week, but they don't call it a challenge for nothing, so here it is:

I used Midnight Muse as my main color, with Daffodil Delight second.  Gumball Green as you can see only got a peek in LOL.  I overcame the horizontal panels in the sketch by using the branches from the bird punch.  They're probably a little bit too "even" but I wanted to stick as close to the sketch as possible.  Lastly, there's a little tiny pearl that persists in moving out of alignment.  He is really bugging me, so it may be that he is exiled to the rubbish bin and another pearl is given the opportunity to take center stage.  That'll teach him LOL.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Petite Pairs

Cardstock:  Midnight Muse; Daffodil Delight; Gumball Green; Brights DSP Stack

Ink:  Midnight Muse

Accessories:  Daisies Die; Bird Punch; Pearls

Cheers

Karren

Established Elegance

My first card of the weekend is using a stamp set I've had since it was first introduced but had never inked it up.  Oh, the shame!  Established Elegance appealed to me as soon as I saw it, but I'd never used it.  I know I'm not alone in this, so why do we do it?  Who knows the ways of a stamper's mind LOL.

On to the card.  This card is being submitted for this week's challenges at Hand Stamped Sentiments and Pals Paper Arts.

It's quite hard to see in the photo, but the dry-embossed layer was first stamped with various images from Established Elegance and Artistic Etchings in Crumb Cake ink.  Then I ran it through the Big Shot, lightly sponged Crumb Cake ink over the raised portions and finally cut it into strips.

The seam binding flower was made by pulling a center thread in the ribbon to gather it and then rolling the ribbon into a flower shape and sticking down to some sticky strip.  A pearl peeks out from the center of the flower.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Artistic Etchings; Established Elegance

Cardstock:  Early Espresso; Cherry Cobbler; Very Vanilla

Ink:  Early Espresso; Cherry Cobbler; Crumb Cake

Accessories:  Vintage Wallpaper EF; Cherry Cobbler and Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon; sponges

Cheers

Karren

Blue Christmas

One card, three challenges!  The sketch challenge at iSpy Sketches is another great one this week, with those gorgeous fishtail banners.  Plus Just Add Ink have a "Blue & Bling" challenge and as soon as I saw the inspiration photo at Stampin' Royalty, I thought "blue & bling" - bonus!

Here's my submission for all three challenges:

A few notes about the card.  Apart from the card base, all the rest of the layers are Whisper White.  The blue layers were sponged with Island Indigo before stamping.  The fishtail banner was stamped and embossed in white and the Labels Framelit layer was stamped and embossed with Iridescent Ice EP.  IRL it's a lovely shimmery layer.  

Thanks for looking.

Products Used (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Stamps:  Snow Swirled; Many Merry Messages

Cardstock:  Island Indigo; Whisper White

Ink:  Island Indigo; Whisper White

Accessories:  Iridescent Ice EP; White EP; Snowflakes EF; Fishtail Flags (MFT); Labels Framelits; Island Indigo Ruffled Ribbon

Cheers

Karren

In Colors

This week's challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments is to use all 5 of the new In Colors.  Quite timely, as we're in the pre-order month for our new catalog which includes the 2012-14 In Colors.

For my card, I went very simple, letting the colors take the spotlight.

My card is an odd size - 5" x 4".  I originally made it 5" x 5" but didn't like the balance so I cut an inch off the bottom.  I like these dimensions better for this card.   Unplanned but interesting is the fact that my 3 favorite colors got the most space LOL.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):

Stamps:  DRS Designs

Cardstock:  Whisper White; Primrose Petals; Raspberry Ripple; Midnight Muse; Gumball Green; Summer Starfruit

Ink:  Basic Black

Accessories:  White Satin Ribbon

Cheers

Karren

CAS Flower

For my second card today, I chose the awesome sketch challenge at Create with Connie & Mary as well as the color challenge at Color Throwdown.  These colors are right up my alley, although funnily enough, of the four colors, Pumpkin Pie is my least favorite, yet that is the one I chose for the main focal point - go figure LOL.

Because the sketch has a lot of white space, I chose to go CAS with this card.

The flower was made using the faux suede technique and the 5-petal flower and spring bouquet punches.  To finish it off, I tied a bow using linen thread through a small Pumpkin Pie button.

Here's a close-up of the flower so you can see the cool texture the faux suede technique creates.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  French Foliage

Cardstock:  Very Vanilla; Basic Gray; Poppy Parade; Pumpkin Pie

Ink:  Basic Gray

Accessories:  5 petal flower punch; spring bouquet punch; Brights button; linen thread; 1" square punch (for the fish tails); crimper (for faux suede)

Freshly Made Sketches #47

This week's sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches is a great one!  I decided to combine that sketch with the challenge at SUO Challenges to use DSP.

I had decided to use The Open Sea and make a masculine card.  This took a while to come together but I'm quite happy with the end result.

I stamped down the left hand side of the card base with the ledger image from The Open Sea set.  For the main image, I colored the ship using markers and stamped onto Crumb Cake.  I then masked it and over-stamped the globe image using Crumb Cake ink.  The sentiment comes from an old hostess set called Occasional Quotes.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  The Open Sea; Occasional Quotes

Cardstock:  Early Espresso; Crumb Cake; Not Quite Navy; Nautical Expedition DSP

Ink:  Crumb Cake; Early Espresso; Not Quite Navy

Accessories:  Cherry Cobbler; Not Quite Navy; Early Espresso markers; Circle Scissor; Square Lattice EF; 1" square punch (for the flag tails)

Cheers

Karren

Wild, Wild, West

Here's my submission for this week's challenges at Freshly Made Sketches and Create with Connie & Mary.

I created all the light layers using the faux mother of pearl technique.  I used Champagne Mist shimmer paint and it has a lovely shimmer.  Here's a photo of the cardstock before I stamped on it.

I started with Very Vanilla cardstock and dabbed shimmer paint using some wadded up cling wrap.  Then I sponged Sahara Sand ink over the whole piece.  I put another light layer of shimmer paint over the top to finish it off.  It looks lovely in real life - trust me LOL.

The stamp set I used is from 2002 called Wild, Wild West.  It goes for huge dollars on Ebay, but I managed to get it for a lot less than it's currently selling for, which is the only reason it's part of my collection.

I also realised that I've mounted the Happy Birthday rubber crooked on the wood block.  I've had that stamp set forever and only just realised now - doh!  Off to the microwave I go to correct it.

Thanks for looking.

Products used (all Stampin' Up!):

Stamps:  Wild, Wild West; It's Your Birthday

Cardstock:  Very Vanilla; Basic Black; Real Red

Ink:  Sahara Sand; Black Stazon

Accessories:  Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint; sponge; Framelits; Dotted Scallop Border Punch; black brads

Cheers

Karren