colourQ 368 redux

Colors that keep on giving.  That's our motto this week at colourQ.  Due to some personal issues the challenge at colourQ is open for another week.  Since we're only a few days away from Thanksgiving I decided to use these fall-inspired colors to make a thank you card.

I went back to my patterned paper, layering roots for this one!  I love to dig into my old patterned paper stash (with some exceptions) and I got a double whammy with this one thanks to the Mojo sketch.  These colors are all about autumn and once we get past Thanksgiving in the US these colors take a backseat to Christmas so I really wanted to use them at least one more time in 2016.  

There's still plenty of time to join us at colourQ so I hope you can before the craziness of Black Friday and holiday shopping in general starts.  See you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Simple Sunflower (Papertrey Ink)
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Vellum (Stampin' Up!); Classic Ivory (Flourishes)
Ink:  Hello Honey, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Thanks Script die (Mama Elephant); Fishtail Flags die (My Favorite Things)

colourQ 368!

I am happy to say that I am on vacation for the next couple of weeks and I am really looking forward to some rest and relaxation.  This has been a busy year for me work-wise so it's nice to sort of round out the year with some down-time.  I spent some leisurely time in my craft room Sunday and created this card for the latest challenge at colourQ.

I was in a color-block frame of mind, thanks in no small part to the Match the Sketch challenge.  I jazzed this up by adding a die cut sentiment that I cut from some glimmer paper that is called "champagne" but does not look like any champagne I'd ever drink.  It's coppery in color and I went over it with a dark brown Copic marker so as to keep to the colors of the challenge.  It looks kind of muddy here but in real life it has a lot of sparkle!

I've got lunch dates with long-lost relatives, a driver's license renewal, a new passport photo, and cleaning on my vacation schedule - what an exciting life I lead!  I even started a bit of organizing in my craft room {gasp}.  I don't know where that will lead but hopefully I can do a bit of a purge!

Thanks for stopping by and please head on over to colourQ to check out the inspiration from our design team.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Paper:  Pure Ivory (Gina K); Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Hello Honey, Champagne Glimmer (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Copic E49
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Thank You die (Heidi Swapp)

colourQ 367!

Finally it is election day here in the US.  Hopefully everyone's Facebook feed can return to normal!  It's also time for a new palette from your friends at colourQ.  The colors may say fall to you, but I chose to use flowers.

Everything old is new again.  I found some old SU specialty paper with a bunch of white on white designs so I used a piece of that as my background layer, then I used my scallop Nesties to create the circular layers.  It's been a dog's age since I used a scallop circle!

The layout that inspired those circles is from Just Add Ink and I'm also joining the flower challenge at CAS on Sunday.

Well that's it for me.  I'm typing this in the morning quickly just before I head off to work.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you can join us at colourQ this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Fonds Grunge (4enscrap)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Cool Caribbean, Old Olive, Really Rust, Presto Patterns (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Cool Caribbean (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Classic Scallop Small die, Standard Circles Small die, Standard Circles Large die (Spellbinders); Wild Gardenia die (Essentials by Ellen); Metallic Metal dots (My Mind's Eye)

colourQ 366!

Hello, hello.  We've got a new palette for you at colourQ and the colors are beautiful.  I was sadly in need of a sympathy card so I used the colors to create a card that, I think, is subtly masculine.

I used some leafy dies with a speckled background for my focal point and I arranged them to leave a nice spot for the sentiment.  I've got to tell you though it was quite a pain to leave all the little bits inside those die cut leaves!  I used micro-pore tape on the back to make sure they didn't fall out!  My layout comes from Sunday Sketch.

Short and sweet today.  I'm writing this quickly before I head off to work this morning.  I hope everyone had a fun Halloween and that your trick or treat basket is full of goodies!  Please head over to colourQ to check out what the design team has to inspire you this week.  I hope to see you in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Forever in Our Hearts (Verve)
Paper:  Island Indigo, Hello Honey, Really Rust (Stampin' Up!); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Hello Honey, Dusty Durango (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Branchages & Feuilles die (4enscrap); Speckles stencil (Tim Holtz)

colourQ 364!

We've got some great colors for you this week at colourQ!  They put me in mind of a Halloween card (thanks in no small part to that fabulous wreath)!  I was all set to use a certain image on my card when I decided to go back and look at some old Halloween cards that I had made to see what I would find.  Well, what I found were several stamp sets that I forgot that I even owned!  So in the NBUS spirit I scrapped my original idea and used some cute monster feet from an oldy-but-goodie set!

I only stamped half of the sentiment (the other half says "smell my feet")!  And I also used some really old patterned paper that's got candy corn all over it.  What says Halloween better than candy corn??!!  The layout for my card comes from the latest challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches.

I hope these colors inspire you to create a fun card with us at colourQ!  And I hope we'll see you in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies
Stamps:  Funky Feet (The Alley Way Stamps)
Paper:  Pumpkin Pie (Stampin' Up!); Black (Simon Says Stamp); X-Press It Blending Card
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Jet Black (Altenew); Copics
Accessories:  Stitched Rectangle STAX, Sentiment Strips die (My Favorite Things); Harvest Corn baker's twine (Maya Road); black button (a.muse studio)

colourQ 363!

I love long weekends!  They allow me to do some crafting in a relaxing way.  Before I show you my card for the latest challenge at colourQ I'd like to take a moment to thank the PR machine this is Christopher Columbus.  Hundreds of years ago he set sail from Europe for the East Indies, wound up in the Bahamas, and somehow managed to get the United States Congress to name a holiday after him.  Nice work!  Personally I don't care what the day is called.....I'm just grateful for an extra day off!  Now onto the challenge:

I'm feeling the Halloween bug so I dug out this interesting image from my stash.  At first glance it probably doesn't look very Halloween-ish but if you look closely there is a big bat in the middle, a few spiders, some spider webs, and a pair of ghoulish eyes.  It's a cool image and perfect for some Halloween fun.  In order to tone down the white against the newsprint background I took a Copic marker and colored in the inner parts of the image then traced an outline around the image.  Tough to see in the photo but it really helps the transition from white to off-white, I think.  The fun layout comes from the latest challenge at Sketch Saturday.

Thanks for stopping by!  Please pop on over to colourQ and check out our challenge there.  The design team has made some great cards for you to see.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  From the Crypt (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Black (Simon Says Stamp); Perfect Plum (Stampin' Up!); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine); Copic E50
Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things); black embossing powder

colourQ 362!

October already.  Are you sure?  Before I know it my Christmas Club will come due and I'll have to start shopping!  But before that happens I've got a new palette to show you from colourQ.  And since October is breast cancer awareness month we've got some appropriately pink colors.

I think glitter was in order for my card so I used some old glimmer paper to frame one of the layers.  The sentiment is from a freebie stamp set that I got from a.muse studio a while back and I FINALLY got a pink ribbon die.  There was a lot of white space on my card, which made me unusually squeamish, so I added some embossing paste strategically placed around the sentiment and ribbon.  My layout comes from the latest sketch at Fab Friday.

My way-cool and super talented teamies at colourQ have made some great cards this week using these colors (no surprise there).  You should really check them out!  Then join us in the gallery!  We'd love to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Fight Like a Girl (a.muse studio)
Paper:  Black (Simon Says Stamp); Berry Sorbet (Papertrey Ink); Silver Glimmer, Whisper White, Pretty in Pink (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Hope die (Paper Smooches); Dot Fade stencil (Tim Holtz); white embossing paste (Wendy Vecchi)

colourQ 361!

The weather has taken a turn for fall here so the palette this week at colourQ was perfect for my mood!

I really liked how the big "H" on the inspiration photo was a bright blue color (against all those neutrals) so I really wanted to create something along the same lines.  So for my card I used everything but the blue and orange to create the background.  I then die cut the sentiment in Tempting Turquoise, a couple of the leaves in Tangerine Tango, layered them on and I was done!  I got a lot of help from the sketch at Sunday Stamps!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you've got time to play along with us at colourQ this week.  Our design team has made some beautiful cards to inspire you so be sure to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  French Foliage, Gorgeous Grunge (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Tangerine Tango, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Thanks die (Simon Says Stamp); Feuilles Tropicales die (Simply Graphic); Stitched Leaves die (Lawn Fawn)

colourQ 360!

I am on vacation this week from work and other than cleaning out the refrigerator I have no real plans.  I guess you can call this the ultimate relaxing stay-cation!  I have tentative plans to add crafting to my daily routine but I don't want to talk about it too much in case I jinx myself and it doesn't happen.  I usually spend a big chunk of my Sundays making all of my cards for the week but because I'm on vacation I didn't have to do that so this past Sunday I took my time and made just one!  Ooh-la-la!  The extra time allowed me to really think about my design and make a card that was a little more complicated than I usually do.

All of this is my lead up to the shaker card that I made using the new palette at colourQ.  I made a shaker because 1) I got a cool new stamp that is tailor made for shakers; 2) I have some cool sequins mixes that have names like Autumn Harvest and Festive Fall which fit perfectly with the colors of the challenge; 3)  shakers are way cool; and 4) the challenge this week at Can You Case It is, you guessed it, shakers.

Lessons learned on this card is to cut the circle from the cardstock first then stamp that bokeh burst image around the hole.  I did the opposite, and it was difficult to line up my circle die with the stamped image since it's done upside down.  If you look closely you'll see that it's off a bit.  It probably won't be all that noticeable to whoever receives this card, but I know it's not quite right!  I'm sure you can relate!!

Thanks for stopping by and wish me luck cleaning out the fridge.  I am sure I'll find some expired salad dressing in there somewhere!

And don't forget to pop on by colourQ and check out our latest challenge.  There's loads of inspiration to be found there and I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Bokeh Burst Round (The Ton)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Soft Suede, Hello Honey (SU)
Ink:  Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie (SU)
Accessories:  Blueprints 13 die (My Favorite Things); Thanks Script die (Mama Elephant); Autumn Harvest sequins (Pretty Pink Posh); Festive Fall Mix sequins (Neat & Tangled)

colourQ 359, Tag You're It, Altenew Ultimate Challenge Blog Hop

Today is a very special day in blogland!  On Tuesdays I show you a card that I've made using the latest palette at colourQ.  Well today I'm doing that plus I'm joining in with the Altenew Ultimate Challenge Blog Hop which is a way for Altenew to celebrate all the inspiration that is to be found with the many card-making challenges we all know and love (and some you may not have heard of before).

I am fortunate to also be a member of the Tag You're It design team, which is also participating in the Altenew blog hop, so my project today is a blend of both challenges.

I went way back into the Tag You're It vault and opted to base my tag on challenge #22.  I didn't replicate the fruit, but using my favorite Altenew butterfly stamp and a companion sentiment set set I did replicate the layered tags, the layout of the images, and the "thank you" sentiment.

I don't know about you, but I rarely (ok, never) make a card (or a tag) without first starting with the inspiration found at a challenge website.  I love the idea of taking particular colors or a layout and turning it into something special that I only first saw in my mind's eye.  Sometimes I don't want to play along with these challenges because I can't wrap my mind around what is expected of me, but since that is what a challenge is all about I persevere and try my best to come up with something that makes me smile.  This is especially gratifying when I see a project  of mine turn up on Pinterest pinned by someone who also likes what I made!  Woo Hoo!  I know you like that too!

For me this is the power of a challenge website:  making us think outside of our comfort zone and use some colors, or follow a sketch, use a technique, or a different medium than we usually do.  And thanks to Altenew for celebrating that with all of us!

Supplies
Stamps:  Painted Butterflies, Painted Greetings (Altenew)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Soft Sky, Primrose Petasl (SU)
Ink:  Sea Glass (Avery Elle); Soft Sky (SU); Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Painted Butterflies die (Altenew); Tag Die Layers (My Creative Time); Soft Sky ribbon (SU); washi tape, seam binding ribbon; Winter Wonderland sequins (Neat & Tangled)

colourQ 358!

It's back to work for me today after a long weekend.  I was so happy to have an extra day off work and the storm f/k/a Hurricane Hermine even managed to stall off the coast long enough to give us some decent weather.  But since it's Tuesday that means there's another new challenge up at colourQ.  These colors always put me in mind of a more masculine card so I tried to keep the frills to a minimum!

The sentiment is swirly (not so frilly) so I think this could safely be delivered to a man or boy.  The banners in the sketch at Sunday Stamps were perfect to layer in the two blues and I managed to find some old So Saffron patterned paper in my stash that wasn't so busy that the sentiment could be stamped right on it.

I meant to add some enamel dots to this to jazz up some of that blank space, but I completely forgot until I sat down to write this post!  Easy enough to add some later, luckily!

Hop on over to colourQ and see what the design team has got up to with these colors.  I've seen their projects and they are pretty awesome!  I hope you can join us in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  You're Super (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  So Saffron, Night of Navy, Cool Caribbean, Poppy Parade, Sweet Pea DSP (SU)
Ink:  Poppy Parade (SU)
Accessories:  Blueprints 20 die (My Favorite Things); Banner Bundle die (Verve); Seriously die (Lil' Inker Designs)

colourQ 357!

I love the color palette this week at colourQ.  It's so vibrant and makes me think of tropical things.  Of course, I may have been thinking of a tropical theme because I was going through some old cards recently and I came across one I made a long time ago using a toucan.  It was such a fun, colorful card so I really wanted to use that image again.  Then lo and behold our latest colourQ challenge happened!

The Melon Mambo polka dotted background proved to be too over-powering for my little toucan so I cut out a stitched flower petal in white to layer behind him.  Although I was successful in creating a break between the two colors I can't help feeling that this is really an out-take from my favorite Looney Tunes cartoon Duck Amuck - with the part of the duck being played by a toucan!  LOL!  If you've ever seen that cartoon you may remember there is a scene in it where Daffy Duck is walking along and some giant flower petals frame his face.  Every time I look at my little toucan that's all I can think of!

I got my layout from the latest challenge at The Paper Players.  It was perfect for using up some of that old Melon Mambo patterned paper.

Be sure to check out the inspiration from my fellow teamies at colourQ!  I hope to see you in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tropical Hideaway (The Alley Way Stamps)
Paper:  White (Papertrey Ink); Black (Simon Says Stamp); Melon Mambo, Melon Mambo DSP (SU); X-Press It Blending Card
Ink:  Black Licorice (My Favorite Things); Jet Black (Altenew); Copics
Accessories:  Stitched Sentiment Flag die (Lil' Inker Designs); Flower Petal die (My Creative Time)

colourQ 356!

There are some beautiful colors this week for newest challenge at colourQ.  But in the interest of full disclosure I had a hard time putting them together.  I had several different cards started using some current sketch challenges but I just couldn't make the colors work.  Then I started looking through some old cards of mine and found one that I could CASE.

Most of the time when we think of CASE-ing a card it is someone ELSE'S card.  But when I'm stumped I often go through my own library and find a card that I particular like and use it as my launching point for a new card.  Sometimes it's the colors and, more often than not, it's the layout I'm after!

In today's example the element I copied from myself was the square layer with the corresponding little DSP squares which provided the color commentary.  Then I used some leafy die cuts to create a CAS focal point.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to play along with us at colourQ this week!

Supplies
Stamps:  Summer Garden (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Soft Sky, Old Olive, Melon Mambo, Blackberry Bliss (SU)
Ink:  Blackberry Bliss (SU)
Accessories:  Physalis die, Feuilles Tropicales die (Simply Graphic); Wonky Stitched Square STAX (My Favorite Things)

colourQ 355!

Every once in a while an old card of mine will get a new like or pin on Pinterest and since I've got email notifications turned on, I'll get an email to let me know that someone has expressed a liking, in some fashion, for a card of mine.  Often I'll look at the card and think "oh I remember that one" or "I made THAT?  I forgot about it but I really like it!"  Quite often these old cards feature layers, patterned paper, a flower or two, or texture from something like burlap.  My cards tend to be a bit more austere nowadays, but when I run across one of these oldies-but-goodies I really like how they look and I get a bit nostalgic for yesteryear!

So this week, starting with my colourQ card today, I've dug deep into my card-making soul and made some throwback cards using things like patterned paper, die cut flowers and leaves, and maybe a layer or two.  I'm a bit rusty with these things but I had a lot of fun digging through my stash to see how I could use some long-forgotten supplies.

First up, a layered concoction using these new colors from colourQ and a sketch from Mojo Monday.  I used to play along with the Mojo sketches all the time.  They are fabulous and are easily adaptable to a CAS card-maker like me.  My card-making schedule usually means I miss the Mojo sketch deadline so this week I was happy that I could play along.

I used ribbon (ribbon!) for the horizontal layer.  Originally I had a much wider piece of ribbon on here but while I was editing the picture realized that the ribbon was TOO wide and went back to my stamping desk to carefully pry apart the layers.  I brushed off the dust from a more narrow kind of ribbon and went with that instead.

Thanks for stopping by and for sticking with me for my long narrative!  I hope you get the chance to play along with us at colourQ.  And if you need inspiration with these colors, look no further than our own colourQ design team!  They will wow you for sure!

Supplies
Stamps:  Take Note (Verve)
Paper:  Black (Simon Says Stamp); Poppy Parade, Basic Gray, Whisper White (SU); The Sorbet Collection (Avery Elle)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Blueprints 21 die, Pierced Circle STAX, Pierced Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Petite Scallop Circles Small die (Spellbinders); Basic Gray ribbon (SU)

colourQ 354!

Here we are at Tuesday again and it's time for a new colourQ challenge.  I love the simple colors this week and I made a simple card with them!

The layout for my card comes from the fabbo sketch at Fab Friday.  As soon as I saw it I thought of a flourish die that has been languishing in my stash, unused, for a long time.  

I inlaid the flourish die into the white background then popped up the sentiment layer on some foam to give it a little dimension.  The diagonal stripes down the left side were created using a stencil and some clear embossing paste.  I love how the embossing paste gives some subtle color and real dimension!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to check out the inspiration at colourQ. We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Supplies

Stamps:  Many Thanks (Simon Says Stamp)

Paper:  Cool Caribbean, Basic Black, Basic Gray (SU); Solar White (Neenah)

Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)

Accessories:  Fancy Flourish die (My Favorite Things); Diagonal Strip stencil (Simon Says Stamp); Scallop Border die (The Stamps of Life); translucent embossing powder (Dreamweaver)

colourQ 353!

Hello!  This week at colourQ there is a color combo that gave me a little case of the hiccups!  But never one to back down from a color challenge I persevered through a couple of iterations until I ended up with, of all things, a baby card!

Ha!  And now that I've posted this here I see that I completely forgot to use green!  Believe me, I had every intention to but I think I must have been so obsessed with explaining why I would use these colors for a baby card that I forgot that I had one more color to explain!

I should also mention that I am also playing along with the Sketch Saturday challenge, which is to pick a past sketch.  I chose #225.  And I'm also playing along with Addicted to CAS where the cue word is "welcome."

I was going to make a floral card using these colors but I kept coming back to the "welcome" challenge and couldn't get a baby card out of my head.  I really don't know why because these are some pretty strange colors for a baby card!  I didn't want it to be too pink or too blue, rendering it useless in those instances where the gender of the baby is unknown, so I thought the coral would draw some of the attention away from those colors and make it a little more neutral.  Too bad it drew the attention away from the green too! Yikes!

Despite my faux pas I hope you won't hold it against me and that you can join us in the colourQ gallery this week. We love to see you there!

Supplies
Stamps:  Grunge Cirque (Tim Holtz); Onesie Twosie (Taylored Expressions); Onesie Two-sie (Wplus9)
Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Night of Navy, Calypso Coral (SU)
Ink:  Blushing Bride, Night of Navy (SU)
Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things); Baby die (Simon Says Stamp); Decorative Dots embossing folder (SU)