Fusion - Color Palette

We've got a beautiful color palette for you at Fusion!  The sketch scared me too much so I chose to use another layout for my card!  I went old-school and filled the background of my card with some colorful patterned paper, accented with fun shapes in solid colors.

I dug through my stash and found this great "thank you" stamp that features the sentiment in various languages.  I knew it would be perfect for this layout.  To add some interest I stamped the center "thanks" in a different color, cut it out, and popped it up over the original stamped image.  The challenge at Sketch Saturday provided my layout.

Thanks for stopping by!  My fellow Fusion teammates have made some amazing cards with both the sketch and the inspiration so be sure to check them out!

Supplies
Stamps:  So Many Thanks (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Whisper White, True Thyme, Pretty in Pink, Pool Party, Welcome Neighbor DSP (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  True Thyme, Pool Party (Stampin' Up!)

Tis the Season

Yesterday was Veterans Day here in the US where we pay homage to all those who currently serve or previously served in the armed forces.  My father was a Korean War veteran so that day is always a little bittersweet for me.  He was very proud of his service as a Marine and spent his post-war life as a very active member of his local Veterans of Foreign Wars post.  Because of my father and his legacy I am very conscious of my debt of gratitude to our veterans. 

So, because of the holiday I had some extra time to make a card for a couple of challenges that caught my eye.  The colors at Christmas Card Throwdown and the layout at Sketch Saturday were perfect for me to use this new snowflake die that I got recently.  (Special thanks to my friend Jen who inspired me to get this die).

I'm not sure it shows up in the photo but the snowflake die is cut with some sparkly paper.  Not for nothing, but it is super sparkly and looks fantastic in real life!  The sequins are a dark purple and I love that I was able to incorporate the colors of the challenge in such a subtle way. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Tiny Word Christmas (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  Solar White (Neenah); Dazzling Diamonds (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Snowflake Cluster die (Hero Arts); Love and Sparkles sequins (Neat and Tangled)

Pow!

We had a wee snow storm here yesterday.  We call it a nor'easter and it came with high winds that blew all that snow around and generally caused all kinds of mess on the roads.  When it was done it dumped about a foot and a half of snow in my yard.  Thankfully, my office closed early and I was able to go home from work and ride out the storm in my stamp room!

There's a hero challenge at CASology which gave me an excuse to use one of my super hero-style stamp sets.  And I recently got some patterned paper that is all comic book themed so I grabbed that and made this card using the sketch from Sketch Saturday.

I love the way this super-girl is standing, arms akimbo, and with a determined look on her face.  She reminds me that girls can do anything!

Well, this girl is headed outside to finish shoveling snow then I'm off to work.  Duty calls!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  You're Super (My Favorite Things)
Paper:  Enchanted Evening, Comic Strip (Papertrey Ink); Daisy (Avery Elle); Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew); Enchanted Evening (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  You're Super die, Wonky Stitched Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things)

Tag You're It 64!

It's time for a new challenge at Tag You're It.  This week our featured designer is Lynn Put and she's given us a great tag to be inspired by.  Check it out:

My stash didn't have much in the way of frothy-winter drinks but I did have lots of red and white and snowflakes!  I took my cues from those red and white colors then added a snowflake die cut from sparkly paper.  The layout of my tag was inspired by the sketch challenge at Sketch Saturday.

My Tag You're It teamies have created some great tags to inspire you so be sure to check them out.  I hope we'll see you in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Sentiment Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Paper:  Real Red, Real Red DSP (Stampin' Up!); Solar White (Neenah)
Ink:  Jet Black (Altenew)
Accessories:  Tag Sale Quilted die (Papertrey Ink); Lindemon Snowflake die (Memory Box); Real Red grosgrain ribbon (Stampin' Up!); Peace, Love, Joy sequins (Lawn Fawn); baker's twine

With Sympathy

Today I'm posting a card that I made for a couple of challenges.  I loved the colors at House of Cards and I thought I could pair them with the sketch at Sketch Saturday.

I started layering colors on in a way that looked pleasing to me without really having an idea of how I was going to fill that focal layer on top.  Once I had the colors done I poked around in my stash of dies for something interesting and I chose these leafy ones.  The colors seemed a little moody to me so I chose to make this a sympathy card.

I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo but I stamped that top layer with a really old background stamp that I dug out from my stash.  It's funny how everything old is new again, isn't it?  I've got quite a few of these big background stamps and I never purged them from my stash because I really like them and I just knew that I'd use them again, even if only occasionally.  And look, I was right!

We had our first snowstorm here in Massachusetts over the weekend.  I think I got about a foot of the light fluffy stuff.  And in a few days it's supposed to be 50 degrees.  Go figure!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  French Script, Warmest Regards (Stampin' Up!)
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Bravo Burgundy, Vellum (Stampin' Up!); Smokey Shadow, Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink); Cement Gray (My Favorite Things)
Ink:  Smokey Shadow, Soft Stone (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Feuillage die (4enscrap); Petit Assortment d'automne die (Simply Graphic); Washi Tape die (My Favorite Things); clear embossing powder  

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 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)

colourQ 343!

After a shaky start spring around these parts has turned out to be pretty nice.  Almost every day the sun is shining, the breeze is gentle and warm, and the flowers are beginning to show their pretty faces!  And speaking of flowers, some of those inspired my colourQ card this week.

Oh, what a fabulous color combo this is!  I love the gold and used a bit of washi to take care of that.  The layout for my card comes from the Sketch Saturday challenge.

The colourQ design team has put together some beautiful cards this week with these colors so be sure to check them out.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps:  Poppy Field (Rubbernecker Stamps); Thanks (Simon Says Stamp)
Paper:  White Linen (Ellen Hutson); Basic Black, Cameo  Coral, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Cameo Coral (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things); Bitty Butterfly punch, Basic Pearls (SU); washi tape

colourQ 340!

Hello, hello!  There is a beautiful new palette of colors at colourQ this week!  I decided to use them for a graphic design.

As is my usual I was poking around blogland this weekend for a good sketch to use for my colourQ card this week.  I checked out the challenge at Sketch Saturday which was to choose one of their previous sketches.  As I was perusing their past sketches I found a one that was perfect for a new honeycomb die that I got recently.  

I cut the honeycomb in one of the colors then filled in some of the holes with the other colors.  I love how this turned out.  It's graphic and kinda cool!

The colourQ design team has made some beautiful cards with the colors this week so be sure to check them out.  I hope you are inspired to join us in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies

Stamps:  Painted Greetings (Altenew)

Paper:  White (Spectrum Noir); Hawaiian Shores (Papertrey Ink); Certainly Celery, Poppy Parade, Rose Red (SU)

Ink:  Rose Red (SU)

Accessories:  Honeycomb Remnant die (Memory Box)

colourQ 336!

Tuesday again and it's time for a new challenge at colourQ.  This week our colors are bold and bright and perfect for spring.  Ironically, after a very warm February and March I thought for sure that spring had sprung a bit early in these parts.  Then April showed up and brought some snow.  Snow!  Can you believe it?  The only good thing about snow in April is that is disappears quickly, but still...I wish we didn't have it at all.  But anyway, on to my card and this week's inspiration photo.

The challenge at Sketch Saturday had a layout that was perfect for a subway style sentiment so I grabbed this stamp set that I haven't used in a long time.  Some bright flowers and a patterned paper background and I was done.  Easy peasy!

That's it for me today.  Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out all the inspiration at colourQ!.  I hope to see you in the gallery!

Supplies
Stamps:  Summer Silhouettes (SU); Subway Series Basics (Fresh Squeezed Stamps)
Paper:  Sweet Tooth (My Favorite Things); Black (Simon Says Stamp); Lucky Limeade (SU); Adorbs (My Mind's Eye)
Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)

colourQ323

Happy new year!  It may be January 5th already but I haven't been around much to wish you all a happy, healthy, and crafty new year so I'm doing it now!   I've been quite an absent blogger lately but with all my favorite challenges coming back online from their holiday hibernation I suspect I'll be back in the swing of things very soon.

At colourQ we've got these great new colors inspired by these adorable baby clothes for your crafting pleasure.  I almost made a baby card in keeping with the theme of the inspiration photo but it was easy to talk myself out of that because I really have no need of a baby card right now!

Thank you cards are always high on my list of cards to make, especially since at the end of the year I supply the thank you cards that we need at my office for gifts that customers give us.  That pretty much wipes out my stash so the new year means I have to start building my inventory again.

I hemmed and hawed quite a bit while I was making this card.  I had settled on following the sketch at Sketch Saturday and the "thank you" challenge at Just Us Girls was a given but I was having a hard time making this all come together in a way that pleased me.  But then I chose this "thanks" die (which is brand new to me) and the rest of the card sort of fell into place.  I love when that happens!

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit!  And please pop on over to colourQ to check out the cards from my fellow teamies.  They never disappoint!  I hope you've got time to join us this week!

Supplies
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, Melon Mambo, Pool Party
Accessories:  Blueprints 15 die, Stitched Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); Foliage 3 die (Paper Smooches); Button Stacks die, Button Stacks II die (Papertrey Ink); Thanks Tag die (Reverse Confetti); white thread

colourQ 314!

Apparently I had one more Halloween card in me this year.  The latest palette at colourQ inspired this one.

I went with some simple graphic shapes on my card courtesy of the latest challenge at Sketch Saturday.  It's been a while since I put together a card that had so many different little layers and pieces!

I usually find myself going overboard making Halloween cards but this year I managed to restrain myself and only made a few.  This one uses one of my favorite bats.  He's so elegant with that swirly design on his wings!  If a bat can be elegant, that is!  Actually, I think bats (the real ones) are kind of cute.  Many years ago one got in my house and after flying around a bit it landed on a window curtain.  He looked so cute just hanging out there and I've been enamored of them ever since!  Call me crazy, I know!

My fellow colourQ teamies have made some beauties with these colors this week so make sure you check them out! I hope we'll get to see you in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  From the Crypt, Autumn Apparitions (SU)
Paper:  White Linen (Ellen Hutson); Basic Black, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White (SU)
Ink: True Black (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories: Horizontal Stitched Strips, Stitched Rectangle STAX, Jumbo Fishtail Banner STAX (My Favorite Things)

colourQ 306

Hello!  My posting lately has been a bit sparse and I hope to remedy that but I'm back today with a card using the new palette at colourQ!  The colors are gorgeous together and I predict the gallery will be full of beautiful projects!

This dahlia stamp is so beautiful but so tough to stamp!  It's three images and trying to figure out how to line them up correctly is a real pain.  I finally figured it out after about 10 minutes of turning the stamps this way and that!  Luckily my MISTI makes short work of actually stamping the images!

I'm also playing along with Sketch Saturday where this week we get to pick one of their past sketches.  I chose #249 because I love the layered scallops.

This card is headed to a friend this is quite ill.  I spoke to her on Friday and she sounds so upbeat despite everything that is going on and I wanted to send along a few extra words of encouragement.  She's got a tough battle ahead of her and needs a lot of positive energy and prayers.

My teamies at colourQ have made some beautiful cards this week so be sure to check them out.  Hope to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Delightful Dahlia Additions (Papertrey Ink); Words of Wisdom (Verve)
Paper:  Classic White (Flourishes); Neenah Solar White; Rich Razzleberry, Wisteria Wonder, Pool Party,  Whisper White, Vellum (SU)
Ink:  Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry (SU); Onyx Black (Versafine)
Accessories:  Dotted Borders die (Avery Elle); Layered Leaves die, Pierced Rectangle STAX (My Favorite Things); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

colourQ 304

Hello!  It's time for a new palette from colourQ!  This week our colors are inspired by this spectacular wreath!  You have to click that link and check that out.  I've seen some garden hoses in my life but I never saw one like that before!  Maybe next year I'll attempt to make that!  My card today isn't anything like that wreath, but here goes:

Despite how much I love that wreath I found the color combo intimidating.  When I sat down to make my card I had no idea what I wanted to do so I searched through my stash and found that leafy die.  I thought it would make a good focal image and from there I just layered on the other colors.  In the end I'm quite pleased with how this came out!  And I got some help from Sketch Saturday!

Our always fabulous colourQ design team has cooked up some fantastic cards for you this week!  So be sure you check them out!  We'd love to see you in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Blossom (Precious Remembrance)
Paper:  Basic Gray, Daffodil Delight, Poppy Parade, Coastal Cabana, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Daffodil Delight
Accessories:  Palm Fancy die (Hero Arts); Pierced Rectangle STAX, Fishtail Flags STAX, Pierced Fishtail Flags STAX (My Favorite Things); Cakewalk button (October Afternoon)

colourQ 293

And we're back!  After a week-long break we are back at colourQ with a new palette of awesome colors.  I decided to go all super-hero with my card this week!

The bold colors got me thinking of this dude and then I stumbled on this layout from Sketch Saturday.  Their challenge was to choose one of their past sketches and as soon as I saw this one I knew it would be perfect for what I already had in mind.

And, of course, I'm playing along with the Paper Smooches Sparks "anything goes" challenge this week.

Our colourQ design team has some beautiful cards to inspire you this week.  I hope to see you in the gallery!  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Super (Paper Smooches)
Paper:  Basic Black, Hello Honey, Tangerine Tango (SU)
Ink:  White (WPlus9)
Accessories:  Bam Bubbles die (Paper Smooches); Starry Nights stencil (Memory Box); black embossing paste (Wendy Vecchi); white embossing powder

colourQ 288

It has been a dog's age since I set foot in my craft room and got serious with some ink and paper.  Last week was oddly busy for me and I just didn't have time to do any creating.  Thankfully, a new palette from colourQ called a halt to my hiatus!  And this color combo happens to be a favorite of mine.  Who's kidding who?  Anything with Kiwi Kiss is a favorite of mine!

It's also been a dog's age since I used this splotchy flower stamp.  I forgot how fun it was!  I love how it can be layered with the two sizes of the flower image.  I used the latest Sketch Saturday as my layout, although I flipped it around.  I have this weird thing about using horizontal sentiments vertically and I didn't have any vertical sentiments so the easiest thing for me was to flip the sketch!

There are some fantastic cards to see from the amazing colourQ design team so be sure to check them out.  We'd love to see you in the gallery this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:
Stamps:  Awesome Blossom (The Alley Way Stamps)
Paper:  Kraft (Papertrey Ink); Basic Black, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White (SU)
Ink:  Bermuda Bay (SU); Simply Chartreuse, True Black (Papertrey Ink)
Accessories:  Pierced Square STAX (My Favorite Things); Make It Merry button (October Afternoon); black thread