Retro colours

Today's card is a play around with the colours from this week's Colour Me...! challenge, and this is what I came up with. It was supposed to be something completely different but turned into this instead. Oh well, it's always a journey. I was also inspired by the Just Add Ink "Just Add Thank You" theme. 

I absolutely adore Vintage Photo, it's the most amazing brown colour and I use it all the time. This time I inked it through a Tim Holtz stencil to create a background. I punched the flowers and inked around the edges in matching colours, and added a big rhinestone after shaping the flowers for a bit of a 3D effect. I stamped the butterfly and fussy cut before adding the clear jems. Last I stamped using Gorgeous Grunge for the splatters, stamped the sentiment, and inked around the edges of the front panel which I adhered with foam pads.

Card: Kraft card, Stampin' Up Pool Party, So Saffron and Real Red card

Ink: Stampin' Up Pool Party, So Saffron, Real Red and Tim Holtz Vintage Photo

Stamps: Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee!, Gorgeous Grunge, Bloomin' Marvelous

Other: Tim Holtz stencil, Stampin' Up Petite Petals punch, Papermania adhesive rhinestones

Up Up and Away

I'm continuing to focus on using up some of my hoarded papers maybe that's my belated promise for 2015 - to use more paper than I buy! This week's ShowCASe Your Style inspiration photo was perfect for a paper from the Stampin' Up World Spectacular DSP. I used the sketch from Retro Sketches, and the colours from the balloons on the DSP. The colours on this card were very far from my usual comfort zone, so it was fun to make something different. I'm also linking up at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is "Up in the Clouds".

Card: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight

Paper: Stampin' Up World Spectacular

Stamps: Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink Aged Mahogany

Other: Stampin' Up Scallope Tag Topper Punch, Candy Dots subtles, Lawn Fawn Stitched Journalling Card die

Happy cupcake

Today's card is a quick make. Well, it would have been a quick make had I not had to do it twice. Let's just say something irreversible happened to the first version due to a tired crafter who put her scissors through the wrong pink cardstock - the ready card base with all layers attached, and left upside down on the crafting desk instead of a another pink piece of cardstock that was actually meant to be cut. And when you make something for the second time, it's no longer as fun... But it's here now, all photographed and tucked away safely in the ever growing collection of finished cards (I'm good at making cards but very bad at sending them). 

Today's card is inspired by three challenges. A very CAS sketch by Retro Sketches. A stunning colour combo by ColourQ. The theme "Tea and/or cake" over at Make My Monday. After that, it was just a bit of stamping, inking, cutting, glueing and Bob's your uncle. I love this week's colourQ colour combo as I think it's the first time ever I used my Summer Starfruit ink, which I bought in a deliberate attempt to use more yellow in my cards, and have failed so far.

I stamped a few random cupcakes
and cherries inside the card as well.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm smooth white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Coloured 240 gsm kraft card baby pink

Stamps: Stampin' Up A Cherry on Top, Yippee-Skippee

Inks: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Summer Starfruit

Paper: Stampin' Up Sycamore Street DSP

Other: gold sequins from my stash

Wedding card version 2

I've used this idea for a wedding card before (I originally found the inspiration on Pinterest), but I tweaked it a bit this time around. You can see the previous cards here. This time I used a pearlescent grey cardstock instead of a black one, and made a tie for the groom. And yes, that is indeed a full Windsor knot, thank you for noticing the detail! I embossed the sentiment in silver, I think it's a great sentiment for a wedding card. I printed the inside of the card using a freely downloadable font called Jane Austen (I adore the font, it's just what I have been looking for!) and stamped a banner with the word love as well as small hearts in silver ink. It's still a very simple card, but I think I prefer this silvery grey version to the original. The greeting is just saying "Congratulations to the newlyweds" in Swedish, nothing more cryptic than that.

I am entering the card in this week's Shopping Our Stash where the theme is Triple Threat, i.e. use at least three out of: ribbon, flowers, lace, pearls, sprays/mists, punched or die cut elements, rhinestones, doilies, dry embossing or scoring. I have used rhinestones, ribbon, dry embossing and well, there are flowers on the embossing pattern so I think might just about make it too. Everything out of my stash, nothing new for this one. Scraps of paper for the white bits, a leftover bit of ribbon, a scrap piece of vellum and I have to admit, I have never used this specific embossing folder before so I'm glad it finally got to do what it was designed to do. I'm also entering the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge where Anything Goes this week.

Card: Pearlescent silver card I bought from eBay that has no brand, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee, Stampin' Up Banner Blast for the inside of the card
Ink: Tsukineko Versamark, Hobbycraft silver pigment ink
Other: Indentz embossing folder, Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Heather, ribbon from my stash, Papermania silver embossing powder

Poppy Challenge #4

Inspiration is funny sometimes. I really loved this week's Poppy sketch, and immediately got an idea what I wanted to make. But I couldn't make that work, and at the same time this idea came to me instead. I really like the Banner Blast stamp set and matching punch, but haven't used it very much (isn't that always the same story!). I didn't have the exact colours for the challenge, but I used the closest replacements from the Stampin' Up palette.

I guess it's quite obvious from the card how it was created. I stamped the banners and punched out, stamped the background using Gorgeous Grunge and the star from the Banner Blast set. Last, I stamped the sentiment and attached everything into place. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe and Coastal Cabana card
Inks: Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Coastal Cabana and Pistachio Pudding
Stamps: Stampin' up Banner Blast, Gorgeous Grunge and Yippee-Skippee!
Other: Stampin' Up Banner punch

Mythical creatures challenge

When I saw that the theme for the Make My Monday challenge was Mythical Creatures, I could not resist a few cards using the Critters Ever After stamp set. As if I would need an excuse to use it, but still... colouring those happy little critters always makes me happy as well. And what's better than a few happy Critters and four full days of Easter holiday to look forward to!

I stamped the critters using black StazOn and coloured using 80's glam sharpies. I stamped the Yippee-Skippee sentiment from Stampin' up and matted onto coloured card. Trying to be very CAS again, it still goes against my nature but I think the cards turned out really cute.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Stampin' Up card in Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo and Whisper White
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Critters Ever after, Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee!
Other: 80s Glam Sharpies

Swallowtail and Color throwdown #284

I was really inspired by this week's Color Throwdown challenge. And based on the amazing creations from both the DT and participating crafters, so were many others. I just love the colour combo of dark blue and purple, this time with a bit of turquoise to brighten it up. The It turns out I don't have any of the three colours in the challenge this week, but that's ok as you are allowed to use anything you have in your stash that comes close.

This card was born out of a bit of a stamping accident to be honest. I had some problems getting a good stamp with the Swallowtail stamp that I was planning to use for a completely different card. But I didn't want to abandon these half successful attempts at stamping, so I decided to colour them and cut out the parts of the butterfly that looked good. I always get a sense of achievement when I manage to save something from going straight into the bin (which is why I tend to hold onto every little scrap and unsuccessful attempt at crafting, in case I need it one day. Have you seen the program about hoarders? I'm the crafting equivalent...). I made two very different cards, one for the challenge, and one CAS. I always have trouble with CAS, I just want to go on adding stuff to them, but this time I just decided I will put the card away quickly so I can't add anything else to it. By the way, I got myself a new white cardstock to try out to make the card base from, after a bit of research I settled on teh Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm card as I wanted a really sturdy cardstock. So far so good, I really like it although it's a bit tricky to fold neatly because of it's thickness, so I may have to go back to 300 gsm eventually although I love love love the quality feel of the really thick card.

The card for the challenge is above, I coloured it with Peacock Feathers, Seedless Preserves and Evergreen Bough. I stamped the swallowtail again in Rich Razzleberry onto Rich Razzleberry cardstock and matted it onto Bermuda Bay cardstock. I stamped the sentiment from Chalk Talk in Pacific Point and matted it onto Chipped Sapphire cardstock.

For the other card, I coloured the butterfly using Tim Holtz seasonals markers (I got the whole set of all 12 seasonal markers as I just love the bright colours and use them a lot). I matted onto yellow carstock and stamped a sentiment from the Yippee-Skippee! set added a stamp from Fresh Vintage. It is a bit on the simple side, but it's good to challenge yourself and make different things to keep an open mind.

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Bay, Very Vanilla, Tim Holtz Distress collection Chipped Sapphire, Hobbycraft Three Shades of Yellow 160 gsm cardstock, Leonardo Stationery Smooth White Card 350 gsm. 
Inks: Stampin Up Early Espresso, Pacific Point, Rich Razzleberry, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Peacock Feathers
Markers: Tim Holtz Distress Markers Peacock Feathers, Evergreen Bough, Mowed Lawn, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Shaded Lilac, Squeezed Lemonade
Stamps: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk, Fresh Vintage, Swallowtail, Yippee-Skippee!

Petal Parade in Rich Razzleberry and Coastal Cabana

I've been busy crafting this weekend, I believe the best cure for a cold is a good crafting session. And all the crafting challenges out there are a wonderful source of inspiration if you need to get your creative juices flowing. So, browsing the interwebs, I wanted to participate in the CAS(E) this Sketch #68 challenge. During the week, I had a quick play with my new Petal Parade stamp set just stamping randomly onto a sheet. I ended up making two cards from the stamped sheet. One for the challenge, and another just because I really love the colour combo of Rich Razzleberry, Coastal Cabana and Smoky Slate. I often struggle with my colour combos, not liking them in the end, but I think this turned out rather good!

For the challenge card, I made a banner from the sheet I stamped and matted it onto Rich Razzleberry cardstock. I used a die to cut out the doily in Coastal Cabana and coloured the sentiment using markers and stamped onto white cardstock. Punching the small banners only took seconds with the banner punch and then it was just a quick job to attach everything to Smoky Slate card.

The second card has similar components but a different layout and a little bling added for good measure.

Inks: Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana, Rich Razzleberry, Smoky Slate
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana, Rich Razzleberry, Smoky Slate, Hobbycraft white 160 gsm cardstock
Stamps: Stampin' Up Petal Parade, Yippee-Skippee! 
Other: Nellie's multiframes doily and circle die, Stampin' Up banner punch, Stampin' Up adhesive gems.