A few recent challenges

I’ve been able to participate in more of the challenges at SCS and I’d like to share with you these cards that were made specifically for the challenge.

First is a sketch challenge…this particular sketch provided an opportunity to dip into my stash of designer paper.  It’s a personal goal of mine to actually use my supplies and not hoard them and doing challenges is a great way to achieve this goal!!

Basic Grey was used for the background (Perhaps on the top, Indian Summer on the bottom).  The image (stamp francisco) was stamped in Palette Charcoal on Flourishes Classic White Cardstock.  A variety of markers, pens and inks were used to color the image, including Ancient Page, copics and SU.  The blossom of the flower was stamped and popped up to give a little more dimension.  Chocolate pearls were added at the corners and bottom.

Next is a card made for a “clean and simple” challenge, which required the use of brads or eyelets and I was able to use both!

The image (Savvy Stamps) was stamped in Palette Burnt Umber and colored with prisma pencils and odorless mineral spirits.  The eyelets are used as a way to “hange” the picture.  the background paper is from Basic Grey  – Urban Prairie and the sentiment is from Flourishes Summer Blossoms set.

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Melon mambo with kraft

Today’s color challenge was to use melon mambo, kraft and black.  The bright burst of melon really pops against both the black and kraft neutrals.

The stamps are from Flourishes All Wrapped up set and were stamped in Palette Noir ink.  Now here is something odd – I started coloring the gift boxes with melon ink, but the color did not look right especially when placed against the paper.  The ink looked more orange-y than pink – not sure how that happened!! 

Anyway – here is a good tip…if you have prisma pencils try and match up a pencil color to your ink.  In this card I ended up coloring the boxes with a mix of prisma pencils #993 Hot Pink and #994-Process Red along with  #107o French Grey 30%.   These colors were a nice match to SU’s colors.  You probably can’t tell from the photo but I added a little sparkle to the boxes with a stardust get pen.  The colors overall in the photo are a bit off because of the weather here – its been rainy all day and looks like it will continue through the afternoon, so this was the best I could do.

The ribbon is a black satin overlayed with a sheer polka dot.  The black satin by itself seemed to heavy and the sheer dot too light.  Combining them gave the look I wanted!  The flowers are sizzix die cuts with black rhinestones for the center.

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My latest favorite color combo

I’m seeing these colors in some variation all around me – a light blue/aqua paired with a rich red/violet.  They can be found in Basic Greys Eskimo Kisses line, in the latest holiday line from Cosmo Cricket and I even saw this color combo at Cracker Barrel the other day on one of their holiday tree displays!

Materials Used: Stamps - Flourishes Holiday Greetings; Paper - Flourishes (white), SU (blue and pomegranate); Ink - Palette Ballet Blue, Marvy Aubergine, Other: ribbon, rhinestones, cuttlebug folder, slice machine

I first paired these colors a year or so ago (or was it longer?) when SU issued its beautiful pomegranate paper.  I wish they had made this a permanent color – I’m running low on my supply!  I used it with their soft sky and immediately fell in love with the look!  So this year several of my holiday cards will be made using these colors.

This card was a snap – the blue panel  was embossed with a cuttlebug folder and a panel of pomegranate dp was added on top.  The die cuts were made with a slice machine.  The sentiment is from Flourishes Holiday Greeting set and was stamped with a Marvy marker and sponged with Palette Ink – ballet blue ink.  Rhinestones and ribbon complete the card.

Materials Used: Stamps - Flourishes (sentiment), SU (flower), Rubbernecker (background); Paper: Flourishes White, SU Pomegranate; Ink - Palette Ballet Blue, Marvy Aubergine; Other: Ribbon, pearls nestabilities

With this color combo fresh in my mind, I decided to make a  birthday card – somthing I am always in need of!  Using the same color scheme I put together this card – soft and feminine.  The hardest part was lining up the pearls on the ribbon!  I used circle nestabilities to cut out the shapes and sponged some color on the circle before stamping the image.

 

 

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A favorite stamp

This stamp has to be my all time favorite from Flourishes.   I’ve used it for so many holiday cards not only because it is beautiful, but it is so easy to use.  It is so easy to make an elegant card – that is the true  beauty of a well drawn image.  My secret wish is that Flourishes would come out with a similar image that says Merry Christmas.

Materials used: Stamps: Flourishes Rejoice, Rubbernecker Victorian leaf, SeeD's harlequin; Paper: Flourishes Clasic White, SU Pomegranate and Olive, gold cardstock; Ink: Versamark, Marvy aubergine marker, copics; Other: gold embossing powder, rhinestones

I’ve paired the stamp with my favorite SU paper – pomegranate.  Oh how I wish SU would make this a permanent color!  When this was offered I failed to get the ink and I have regretted that decision ever since. 

The image was stamped on Flourishes Classic White Cardstock in versamark and embossed in gold.  I used the copic collections of Tea Rose and Evergreen for color.  The vine-y background on the pomegranate paper is stamped in magenta and is from Rubbernecker.  The Harlequin background was stamped in versamark and is f rom SeeD’s. I don’t know if you can tell but the diamonds of the harlequin pattern are outlined with a stardust gel pen.  Everything was matted on gold cardstock.  The rhinestones were a lighter pink so I just colored over them with the darkest copic marker from the Tea Rose collection to bring the color more in line with the ink and cardstock.

The great thing about this sketch is that all the panels were made using scraps!  I love when I can do that!

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Patches and Quilt Squares

Lately I’ve seen alot of cards using quilt-type squares, or patchwork and many of them include sewing.  I’m always impressed when I see sewing done on cards because I can’t sew to save my life!    I wouldn’t even know how to thread the needle on my sewing machine…..where is my sewing machine anyway???

Materials: Stamps: Flourishes Sweet Violets (sentiment); Paper: Cosmo Cricket (dp) SU - red, Flourishes - ivory; Ink: Palette L'Amore red; Other: ribbon, scallop punch

This card takes the patch/quilt square concept – but without the sewing!  All the designer paper is from Cosmo Cricket.  I took the bird patterened paper and just punched out squares around the design, then took a slightly larger scalloped punch and punched out red squares.  Everything was mounted on more Cosmo Cricket paper.  The sentiment, which is the only stamped section of the card, is from Flourishes Sweet Violets set.

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Clean and Simple

This weeks clean and simple challenge (CAS) at Splitcoast was to make a sympathy card.  I pulled the colors from the color challenge (cameo, burgundy and vanilla), so this card does double duty.

Materials Used: Stamps: Flourishes Thinking Of You: Ink,Paper,Ribbon: Stampin Up, Nestabilities Ovals

Sympathy cards are understandably difficult due to the occasion but Flourishes Thinking Of You set is the perfect choice.  The delicate images and thoughtful sentiments in this set will give stampers several options for a sympathy card.

To keep in clean and simple I stamped the floral image across the top and bottom of the card.  The Sentiment and oval floral were easily stamped and cut out with Nestabilitiy ovals.  Burgundy ink was used for all the image.

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Birthday Greetings!

I took my inspiration from a Riley Fitzgerald card, with the sketch from 2redbanana’s sketch blog.  The easy part was done – I had the image already stamped and colored from a previous project and it was just waiting in my box of stamped images ready to be used!

Materials: Stamps: Flourishes (gift box and sentiment), SeeD's (background); Paper: Flourishes, SU; Ink: Palette Charcoal, Copic Markers; Rhinestones, Stardust Gel Pen

I colored the image with copics – see my post HERE for a video of how I colored it.  It’s one of my favorite images, from the Flourishes All Wrapped Up set, because it can be used for so many occasions.  Its used as a birthday card here but just change the colors and you can turn it into a christmas, baby or wedding card!

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Eskimo Kisses!

This sketch provides a great opportunity to use that christmas designer paper.  Basic Grey’s Eskimo Kisses paper, matched with SU’s Soft Sky and Burgundy is a nice change from the traditional green and red colors.

The card is large – almost 6″ square and the hardest part was layering all the pieces!  There is only one stamped image – the sentiment from Holiday Greetings.  The snowflakes are from ms punches as is the open scalloped section below the squares.  You can’t tell from the photo, but the snowflakes are covered with ms glitter.  (I tip I learned last year – don’t punch your snowflakes then try to apply glitter.  Apply glitter to a strip of paper, then punch the shapes – it works much better!!).

When the card was put together, I felt it needed a little something more, so I added the pearls on the snowflakes and on the corners of the main panel.

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Sneak Peek – day 2

This ATC was created for a Flourishes Christmas Swap (detail can be found HERE – there is still plenty of time to join, the due date is not until December 1).  I’m using two new sets from Flourishes -  a small image from The Holly And The Ivy and the background Musical Score.

I chose a soft blue and white color scheme because it felt like it was more suited for the image.  The musical score was stamped in bashful blue, with the edges sponged.  The tag was stamped with the small bird and holly image in the same color – I stamped the birds separately and popped them up on the tag.  The picture does not show it well, but there is glittered embossing powder around the edges of the tag and a stardust gel pen was used to put some sparkle on parts of the birds.  Sheer ribbon and silver cord finish it off.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the other swap participants create!

Want to win these sets?  Check out the Flourishes Newsletter  for all the details and to see what the design team has created.

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Sneak peek – day one!

Stampers know that fall brings the start of getting ready for the winter holiday season.   So many of us make all our holiday cards and it’s important to start early.  Flourishes is releasing several Christmas sets on Friday night and today the design team and I are giving you a little peek at two of them

This card was made using the main image from the Christmas Drummer set. It’s such a darling set with nutcrackers, musical instruments and sentiments.  The nutcracker was stamped in Palette Ink – noir and colored with twinkling H2O’s in the colors of solar gold, sunburst, jasper red, hot cinnamon and hunter grey.  A stardust gel pen  added more sparkle once everything was dry.  A Martha Stewart punch and strip of red rhinestone were also used.  I don’t know if you can tell from the photo, but the background has a muted musical score stamped on the red designer paper. The music and sentiment are from the Musical Score stamp set which contains the background image and several holiday sentiments. 

I think both sets work so well together!  Please hop over to the Flourishes newsletter where you can find links to all the design team – they’ve created some beautiful cards with these sets!.

Thanks for stopping by!