PPA158 Colour Challenge

I love a colour challenge because it forces me to work with colours that I might otherwise overlook.  This is one such challenge!  Yep, if you know me, you'll see that one of these colours is my least favourite - ever!

My card uses DSP from Summer Smooches (the Lucky Limeade piece) and from Comfort Café (the Summer Starfruit piece).   The Pool Party textured cardstock comes from the assorted In Colour pack.  Stampin' Up's! Paper Daisies are so pretty and they dye really well.

I've used Summer Starfruit to dye these and I'll be posting a video tutorial to show you how so watch out for that.  The Apothecary Framelits are perfect to make frames and mats for your embellishments.  And a little bit of Pool Party ruffled ribbon completes the card.

Considering I don't like........did you guess?.......Summer Starfruit, I'm quite pleased with the way this card turned out.

Don't forget to look out for the video.
Cheers
Karen

Apothecary Art Artistry Card #2

I love this card!   It's so simple but has such a lot of impact with those flowers. 

This particular stamp & coordinating framelit is a good one for journaling so it could easily be added to a scrapbook layout.

Personally, I like the way it frames the flowers.

This angle shows the colours much better.  Can you believe I took the pics in natural light and the same location right after eachother?!  Bizarre

To curl the petals, I gently wrapped them round a kebab stick.  You could use pencil or a stylus just as well.  It's so tactile, I just want to touch the flowers!


Stamp Set
Apothecary Art  #127506 wood or #125527 clear
Curly Cute #121500 wood or #120510 clear
Cardstock
Whisper White #106549
Riding Hood Red #116205
Ink
Red Riding Hood – marker available in Regals set only #119701
Old Olive – marker #100079
Early Espresso Classic Ink #126974
Designer Series Paper
Twitterpated #125406
Accessories
Labels Collection Framelits #125598 & Floral Fusion Sizzlits #115969 with  Big Shot #113439
Pearl Basic Jewels #119247

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen

 

The Beauty of Flowers

On holiday recently, I took this picture of a climber on a pagola. Stunning!   I love the rich colour and the beautiful shape of the petals.   These flowers also start out as tight little buds that look like berries.  Isn't nature clever?   Interestingly, a lot of the flowers were full of bees - some had as many as 3 bees collecting pollen deep inside each of them.  It was so cute to see them popping out!

At our last Darling Stamp & Scrap Club we were treated to a demonstration of paper flowers by Michelle Hughes, fellow SU! demonstrator and PaperLicious team member.   Michelle is a whiz at making gorgeous flowers and showed us some lovely techniqes and ideas for projects.

Kristen, long time friend and fellow crafter came to club and learned how to do the flowers with the idea of using them to decorate boxes.   She's used some SU! DSP to make these.   Aren't they lovely?   The colours are Concord Crush and Real Red.     

That's the beauty of club.  We share the love!  Why don't you come along next month and see what we're up to?  Visit the Darling Stamp & Scrap page for more details.

Have a good weekend.

Karen

Catalogue Launch

What a lovely afternoon we had at the catalogue launch yesterday.  Games, fun, good friends, fantastic food and lots of prizes.  We even managed to squeeze in a make n take....giggle.    Oh and the catalogue!  Possibly my favourite one ever and I'm pretty sure it was well received by everyone else (smile).

Thought I'd share this pic of my C.A.S.E of the front cover.    I popped a small packet of seeds into each seed sleeve and gave one to all the attendees.   I should have lots of friends I can borrow herbs from by summer!

Those beautiful real flowers were given to me at the launch by my friend Gudula - isn't that funny that she chose the colour to match the projects by accident?  Well done Gudula.

I'd also like to say a big thank you to everyone who brought a plate to share.  We were treated to some amazing treats both sweet and savoury and the call went up for a PaperLady cookbook so we may have a new project to start work on!

Happy Monday
Karen

SplitCoast Sketch Challenge

Since I'm on a challenge roll. here's a sketch challenge from split coast.

Shimmer paint added to flower petals with sponge dauber

I saw this as a great opportunity to use up some retired DSP from a pack called Tea Party.   I LOVE the colours in this paper, and it's one of those designs where all the patterns seem to combine extremely well. 

I had one more paper flower left over so I used it with some die cut leaves and the Big Shot - Sizzlits Little Leaves.

The greeting is from Occasional Greetings and I've punched it out using the new Decorative Label punch in the Autumn-Winter mini catty. The spiral border punch adds a nice simple detail to the bottom layer of DSP.

Hope you like it!

Cheers
Karen

SplitCoast Colour Challenge

The requirement of this SCS challenge was to use Concord Crush, Crumb Cake & Ivory. Colour challenges are great because they give you a starting point, in much the same way as a sketch challenge.   When you look around your craft space, or at your supplies, don't you get overwhelmed by the amount of choice you have?   I certainly do.  So challenges suit me down to the ground.  Basically, you get the parameters of the challenge to "jump off" from then you can create your own unique piece of work.

Ok, so I've been wanting to craft for crafts sake - and here's one of the results:

I'm afraid my photo doesn't really do the card justice.  The base is Very Vanilla (my version of Ivory!), the Top Note die was cut using.......ta da......brown packing paper (my crumb cake), then I've used Concord Crush cardstock and DSP.   The ribbon is Concord Crush.   I've spritzed the whole thing with Concord Crush marker.  The scallop shapes are in Very Vanilla and Concord Crush and both from the 2 3/8" punch layered together.  The pearls are from the basic jewels range.

Tip:  when making paper flowers decide how open you want the petals to be before you put your brad in the centre.  If you're going for a tighter closed flower you can use a plain brad because it will be covered up rather than using your gorgeous (and more expensive) rhinestone brads.

Happy Easter.   Hope the bunny stopped by your place today.
Karen

Paper Flowers

Funny how things come about isn't it?  I was wanting a way to use all the brown packing paper that comes with Stampin' Up!'s orders, and while googling, as we do, I came across an idea that Valita Reynolds had done.  Using the brown paper to make these lovely flowers is such a good idea that I doubt I'll ever have an overstock again as everyone is now asking me to save some paper for them!!

We did these flowers in class this week along with a cute easter basket.   Thought I'd share them here with you.

Paper Flower "swiped" across Pumpkin Pie Classic Ink

Paper flower spritzed with Cherry Cobbler

Paper Flower sprayed with Silver Smooch Spritz

All the cards use Greenhouse Gala - what a lovely versatile DSP that's proving to be.  I wasn't at all inspired by it in the catty, but as soon as I opened it and saw how bright and cheery it was, I knew it would be a favourite.

Tip:  If you don't have ribbon in a particular colour, substitute DSP and pleat it like I did in the sample with the spritzed cherry cobbler flower.  The DSP is Greenhouse Gala and I've used a piece of Baja Breeze that has a fine line image over it.  I cut the strip to about 12mm x 30mm and pleated it until I got the width I needed.  I then wrapped 3 pieces of linen thread over it and tucked it round the back before mounting onto the piece of DSP on the card front.

Thanks for looking!   Happy Good Friday.
Karen

Mojo Monday 180

Surprise!   I made my Mojo Monday project a lot quicker this week. 

Now, this was a challenge on steroids for me.  I opted to do the circular card.  May never do it again, but at least I had a go!   I really like it despite it taking me ages.  I did the base according to Julee Tillman's instructions here.  That was the super easy part!   I used the Scallop Circle for the Big Shot too, by the way.

The tricky bit was cutting the smaller circle layers and getting the scallop top on the DSP.   I used my Circle Scissor Plus which I'm still not very good at, but I did cut 3 perfect circles out of DSP and I must stress that DOTTO repositionable adhesive is vital to the success of each circle.  The way it rubs off with an adhesive eraser is also a huge bonus.  No wasted sticky paper!

The Mojo sketch is a tad fussy for me - I like the results, but I generally prefer simpler designs.  I also combined a lot of techniques which added to the complexity.   Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think.

Mojo 180

Supplies (you may need to sit down, there's a lot!)
Stamp Set:  Bliss (Sale-a-Bration 2011)
Cardstock:  Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Ink:  Baja Breezze, Soft Suede, Basic Grey
Paper:  Elegant Soiree DSP, Brown packing paper (for flower)
Big Shot, Scallop Circle Die, Circle Scissor Plus, 1.25" circle punch, Scallop Border Punch, Crop-a-dile
Rhinestone Brad, Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Smooch Spritz in gold