Stampin' Royalty Guest DT - Photo inspiration

I can't believe this is already my third guest post for Stampin' Royalty. Time truly flies when you are having fun, doesn't it. This week we have a gorgeous inspiration photo for you. The colours could not have been more perfectly picked for me! Green and pink is one of my all time favourite colour combos. I absolutely loved making this card. Hop over to Stampin' Royalty to see how the amazingly talented DT have been inspired by the image. Then, please have a play around for yourself and join us as we love to see your gorgeous creations. 

For my card, I was inspired by the beautiful colour combo and the bright pink flowers. I was also inspired by the gold and silver bling in the beautiful jewellery. I started by stamping the large flower from Bloom With Hope in Staz-On onto watercolour paper. I coloured the flowers with pink markers and used a waterbrush to blend the colours. Then I fussy cut the flowers. For the background I stamped the Brushstrokes stamp in Pistachio Pudding. This is such a great stamp, and it certainly has not got all the use it deserves so far. I also die cut two feathers from gold foil. Then it was just a quick job to assemble it all onto a doily, add one of those gorgeous wood veneer sentiments, a bit of silver thread and a few rhinestones. Hey presto! 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Anything Goes
Fab n' Funky - Flower Delights
Natalie and Amy's Challenge - Summertime
Happy Little Stampers - Sketch

Card: Stampin' Up Whisper White Thick cardstock, Gold Foil
Stamps: Stampin' Up Brushstrokes, Bloom With Hope
Ink: Stampin' Up Pistachio Pudding Stampin' Markers Strawberry  Slush, Melon Mambo, Blushing Bride, Pink Pirouette, Memento Staz-On Jet Black
Other:  Stampin' Up Expressions Natural Elements, Silver Metallic Thread, Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Feathers die, Jewels Basic Rhinestones

Quick Love You card

Stampin' Up are selling lots of stuff from their Christmas cattie in the Clearance rack for a very nice price. I couldn't resist getting a few stamp sets I wanted but didn't get around to buying along with a few DSPs. I very rarely pay full price for DSPs, and I am known to go a bit crazy at the Stampin' Up sales. 

I couldn't wait to try my new goodies, and as it happened I had a present for my Culinary Consultant so I wanted to create a card to go with it. However, I knew I only had a short while to create a card before he got home from work. So I went for the gorgeous Seasonally Scattered Love stamp and inked it in Real Red and Strawberry slush. To finish the card, I die cut the "you" using a die from the Hello You set from a scrap piece of kraft card. I used a marker to draw the frame around the card. It probably didn't take more than 5 minutes to make this card, and I think it turned out quite nice, I really like it. I think from time to time I will try to make a quickie card, they are quite refreshing!

I was inspired by the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps - Photo Inspiration (I went with the colour scheme and the clean white feel of the image, also I think the way the clocks are scattered on the wall, a bit like the dots and hearts in the stamp I used)

CASology - Sweet 

Crafty Creations - Seeing Spots

Shopping Our Stash - Lost and Found (the Baked Brown Sugar marker I used for this card was literally lost and found as I had to turn my craft room upside down to find the pack of markers with the Stampin' Up Seasonal colours. After searching for a while, I almost thoght I had only imagined buying those markers (sometimes I think I have some crafting stuff which in fact I don't but keep seeing online so my brain thinks I have it) but in the end I managed to find them)

Card: 300 gsm white card

Stamps: Stampin' Up Seasonally Scattered

Ink: Stampin Up Real Red, Strawberry Slush, Stampin' Write marker Baked Brown Sugar

Other: Stampin' Up Hello You die

Pink feathers

This card is for my Mum who will have a rough few days coming up due to some health issues. I would appreciate any good thought being sent her way, I'll sure be sending out as much of that as I possibly can.

I'm really diggin' the Four Feathers stamp set. I love inking it up in various colours. I also love the current Retro Sketch. And I thought it made a great combo with the colours from the new The Challenge. I'm really getting into this whole clean and simple thing. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers and Just Sayin' 
Ink: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Smoky Slate and Strawberry Slush

Fresh Vintage in Fresh Colours

I own my fair share of embossing folders, but don't get around to using them nearly enough. So for my last few cards, I have tried to incorporate dry embossing. It does give great texture to backgrounds which would be boring otherwise. I have also tried to spend some more time on each card and stamp something inside the card and on the envelope as well to give the whole set a more elaborate finish.

I absolutely loved the colours and photo from this week's ColourQ challenge, and the photo immediately inspired me to use the Fresh Vintage stamp set, it's perfect for colouring using markers. And I decided that a large background panel in Strawberry Slush would be perfect when embossed with a flowery folder. Strawberry Slush is one of my absolute favourite Stampin' Up Colours, it's simply the perfect shade of pink so I was thrilled to have it incorporated in the colour challenge. For the layout I used this week's Freshly Made Sketch for inspiration. I am also submitting the card to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Stamp It to celebrate Stamptember and the STAMPlorations September challenge where the theme is Stamps and Markers as I coloured the stamp using markers.

Cardstock: Coloured 240 gsm kraft card in Navy, Stampin' Up card in Strawberry Slush, Bermuda Bay and Whisper White
Stamps: Stampin' Up Fresh Vintage, Bloomin' Marvelous
Ink: Stampin' Up Bermuda Bay, Pacific Point, Pear Pizzazz and Strawberry Slush
Other: Stampin' Up Basic Pearls coloured with Sharpies, Embossing folder Spellbinders M-Bossabilities Enchanted 

Flower shop

I am continuing my exploration of my new Stampin' Up goodies that arrived a few days ago. Along with the SoVery Grateful stamp I tried out yesterday, I also ordered the Flower Shop bundle with stamps and punch. It seems like I have a thing for these flower stamp and punch combos, as I now have three of them. I sat staring at my stamps for a while with my neurons firing on empty. Then I had a quick browse through my trusty inspiration source, the great crafting challenges out there. The colours of this week's Color Throwdown are amazing - Coastal Cabana, Sahara Sand and Strawberry Slush. I also liked this week's Freshly Made Sketch, although I ended up taking some liberties with the interpretation of it. I was also inspired by the Shopping Our Stash challenge which this week was "Stamp your background". 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana and Sahara Sand

Inks: Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana, Sahara Sand, Strawberry Slush

Stamps: Stampin' Up Flower Shop, Petite Petals, Yippee-Skippee, En Français

Other: Stampin' Up Pansy punch, Petite Petals punch, Tag topper punch, Melon mambo striped organdy ribbon, Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Red Hot

Banner Blast Birthday Card

I have been making quite a few birthday cards lately. And I have been trying out my new Stampin' Up goodies. The hardwood background stamp has become one of my favourites and it seems to feature in at least half of all the cards I make. I love the combo of the hardwood background and the banners. So fun and quirky. And you can modify it to no end by changing the colours. This time I went with the 2013-2015 in colours.

Inks: Stampin' Up Strawberry Slush, Pistachio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, Chocolate Chip
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush, Craft UK Kraft card
Stamps: Stampin' Up Hardwood, Banner Blast and See Ya Later
Other: Bakers twine from my stash

Thank you cards with Wildflower Meadow

My most avid (and possibly only) fan, my Mum, asked me to make a few Thank You cards for her. Always eager to oblige should anyone have a need for my cards, I put together this little set of sweet cards using the Stampin' Up Wildflower Meadow set with matching stamp and embossing folder. It's so quick and easy to make embossed cards now that I have my Sizzix, compared to using the rolling pin method I have used before. Embossing is now a breeze and I want to make an endless amount of embossed cards. For these cards I chose to use the Stampin' Up seasonal colours for 2013-2015. I printed the sentiments as I don't have a Finnish "thank you" stamp. The font I used is called Xiomara and I downloaded it for free from here. I used this website which contains the RGB codes for all Stampin' Up colours to match the colours of the prints as closely as possible to the ink and cardstock.  I think I need to calibrate my printer colour profile as the Coastal Cabana didn't quite match up, the rest of them were great. 

I cut out Crumb Cake card in 10x20 cm to make eight 10x10 cm cards. I cut a mat of the coloured cardstock 9.5x9.5 cm. I stamped the image onto white cardstock and embossed using my Sizzix. I then cut the stamped and embossed image to 9x9cm. I printed the sentiments and cut using scissors. I also cut the banners using scissors. Finally I attached everything onto the Crumb Cake card and added an adhesive gem.

Inks: Stampin' Up Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe and Pistachio Pudding
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Crumb Cake, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock
Stamps: Wildflower Meadow
Other: embossing folder Wildflower Meadow, adhesive gems either clear and coloured using my 80's glam Sharpies or from Papermania Capsule verde.