In Color

Hello! Half way through the week and so looking forward to the long weekend! I get to stamp with a friend I met through SCS on Monday! I can’t wait! She does some gorgeous color washes on her cards and her cards are so unique and beautiful! If you’re heading on over to SCS, have a peek at her gallery! Miss Apple is her Nom de Plume!

Today I have two cards to share with you!

The first one is the card I made yesterday for the color challenge on SCS. The colors we were challenged to use were Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, and Soft Sky. Well I love this combo! Who’d a thought? I decided not to use any dp on this one. I simply stamped the base cream card with my CHF Floral Backgrounder in Ruby Red. I went in with ink and a blender pen to give it some depth by adding color to a few random flowers and leaves. The main image is a gorgeous bloom also from CHF. I inked it up with Pumpkin Pie and stamped it on a cream base. Then I added some lines of Ruby Red and Soft sky dots around its center.

I love how it turned out! Simple, yet bold and pretty, don’t you think?!

Stamps- Cornish Heritage Farms

Paper- Ruby Red text. cs, cream cs

Inks- Pumpkin Pie, China Blue distress (No soft sky left), Ruby Red, Certainly Celery

Accessories- Blender Pen

I made this card using the Friday Sketchers first ever sketch! You have to have a look at this site! Every Friday they will post a new sketch and already with their first one, over 100 people have linked up their cards! Claudia from Pretty Pressings started us all off with this first sketch! They are a group of stampers sampling their work while each representing their different countries! What a great idea and what a wonderful sampling of styles too! Be sure to have a look!

So, for this card I stamped directly on the Close to Cocoa base with yet another terrific background stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. The hedgehog is stamped in Close to Cocoa ink, then chalked in with some more Close to Cocoa, and Creamy Caramel. I used my fineliner pens to outline the butterfly’s body and to add dots to the points of the hedgie’s spikes. The butterfly is chalked in Pretty in Pink.

I used a pink ribbon and a beautiful Esprit Prima flower with a small flower brad center, for embellishment.

The sentiment ” We’re In this Together” is from My Favorite Things! I thought it might be a good card for the Breast Cancer Weekend fund raiser that I am making cards for.  What do you all think?

Thanks for stopping by and thanks so much for your wonderful comments on my previous cards! It is so encouraging to hear from you all! I’m so happy that you are enjoying them and I hope they are inspiring you too!

Flit, Flutter, Fly!

A quick post tonight, before I head off to bed! I had a hard time with these colors for the color challenge today, but I think I finally pulled it off. I don’t normally layer so much, but I do like how it looks. I kept the layout fresh and simple, and I mounted the top panel off to the right of the card to overhang slightly at that end. I did this to add some interest and to give the impression of motion, so the little bird looks to be flying forward.

Hope you enjoy browsing around! I appreciate you stopping by and I love your comments! Thank you!!

Stamps: Inkadinkado

Paper: Provo Craft green (very close to Mellow Moss!), SU Creamy Caramel, Cameo Coral, Apricot Appeal dp.

Ink: Mellow Moss

Accessories: glitter gel writers, Crate ribbon (Coral)

Have a look at TODAY’S FAVES to see my picks of some beautiful cards!

Deena

Colour it pretty, simply!

Hi! Do you have some stamps that you are intimidated by? Are they laying in a drawer unused? Scared away by the seemingly enormous amount of colouring??

Then this is the post for you!!

Have a look at these, and then I’ll explain.

I wanted to show you how you can take an image that you may normally take lots of time to watercolour or colour with inks/reinkers and brushes, and add colour to it more simply.

The card at the top started out with a piece of white card stock. Once I had decided on my colour scheme, I took a couple of complementary chalk colours and using a cotton ball, pounced, smeared and smudged randomly on the paper with a light touch. Here, I’ve used a soft teal and a sunny soft yellow. If you want a darker background just think about where you will be stamping your image and leave this area with just the soft colour and simply add more in a random pattern around this area. You will then take your image stamp and with a darker ink than your background, stamp it where you want on the already coloured paper. No need to colour in the image now. The effect is quite pretty!

You can play with colours and mix in as much or as little as you want and it will result in a watercolour like background.

The next card has two views, with a closed and open gate. The ‘hinges’ are rectangular folded card stock, one end adhered to the base of the card and the other end to the gate so it can open and close. The image of the little girl is simply coloured as well. Trust me! Chalk is so forgiving, all you need is an eraser, and an eye makeup spongetip applicator for controlled coloring, or even a Q tip. Choose your colour scheme and stamp the image on white card stock. I’ve made this card for the colour challenge at SCS, using Soft sky to stamp the image. I used only 4 colours of chalk to fill her in. Two shades of blue and two shades of lavender. I used a grey blue to rub over the ground. Use a soft touch, and fill in the colour. If you go out of the lines, just erase it lightly and blow away the residue! Go in and shade around some edges with the darker shades for definition and depth. Your done!

TIP: If you get little chalk flakes when your applying it on the paper, never try to brush it away with your finger, it will just smear. Blow it away instead!

Have fun with it! Get those stamps out of the drawer they’re hiding in and play!!

DeenaCard supplies: Stampin’ Up Summer By the Sea, chalks,

Inks: SU Basic Black, Soft Sky,

Paper: Stampin’ Up Whisper white, Basic black, Basic Grey, dp Fall flowers

Blackbird

The colour challenge today at SCS is an elegant combo of Purely pomegranate, Basic Grey and Basic Black.

This is what I put together.

A mix of black and grey dp, layered with Purely Pomegranate textured card stock from Stampin’ Up. The card itself is a folded standard size 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 Basic Grey card stock. I loved putting this together, although it is not my usual style…it’s a bit more ornate than I would normally be comfortable with. I did not use a sentiment on this one, as I felt it just didn’t need one.

Speaking of sentiments, I rarely use them on my cards. I started making cards years ago because I would stand in a card store looking for an appropriate card to express what I needed to, and I would always walk out empty handed. I would love some of the images, but would put them back because of the words! I just could not bring myself to buy what I thought were overstated, gushy, cliche’ driven sentiments. It just did not work for me. So, I made a lot of blank cards, and tried to express myself in my own words as best I could for each situation. I also find that a card, like this one, can be used for different occasions, so why harness it to only one? I have only recently started using some simple sentiments on the face of my cards, because stamping companies are now coming out with some unique ones!

For some interesting and unique sentiments check out these sites:

MFT

Gina K Designs