MOJO190 and Stamping 411 Color Inspiration 156

This week the color challenge at Stamping 411 included Basic Black, which for me means a bold and dramatic color scheme.  The color challenge also included Pear Pizzazz and Tempting Turquoise so I when I combined all those colors together I ended up with a very pretty card.

I got a lot of help from the MOJO sketch challenge!

I've always felt that using a dramatic color such as Basic Black is a great way to call attention to your project without overpowering it.  On my card, I've just a touch of it on my scalloped square and on the sentiment, but I think it gives the card a bold look without stealing the show!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Paper Players 46 and Sketchbook Saturday 10

The color challenge this week at the Paper Players is just awesome!  I may have mentioned a time or two before that I think Cherry Cobbler is the best red EVER.  And it's been a while since I've used it, so I was happy to see it in this color challenge.

This seemed like a great color combo to do a masculine card.  The cards made by the Paper Players design team were terrific and seemed to be leaning towards masculine, so I thought I'd give it a go.  Since I love to combine challenges, I poked around in blogland for a while and settled on the Sketchbook Saturday sketch challenge for a layout.

However, once I decided on the colors and the layout, my mojo decided to take a vacation!  I went through at least four incarnations of this card before I settled on this one, and I'm still not sure I like it!
 

At this point, I don't even remember the first thing I was going to do with this card (clearly it was so traumatic my mind has blocked it out), but the second one involved owls, the third one was turtles and lastly I thought a butterly would be nice!  I'm glad I chose the butterfly because I do like this beautiful butterfly from the Simple Friendship stamp set.  I stamped it in Cherry Cobbler then stamped over it in Versamark and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I know the embossing doesn't show up in the photo, but in real life it looks fabulous!  In the end, I'm not sure this is a masculine card at all but I'm pretty sure my Dad will like it when I give to him for his birthday!

Hopefully my creative juices will come out of hiding soon because I've got a lot of challenges I want to do!  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

FTL139 and DCBD 226

Today I wanted to plant tomatoes in my garden.  I bought the plants yesterday and was all raring to go, then I got up this morning and looked outside.  It's overcast and quite chilly, so I talked myself out of planting and decided to make a card instead!  I really liked the colors this week at the Diva Coffee Break Designs and the Clean and Simple Stamping sketch, so it was easy to convince myself that I didn't belong outside!

The other day I made a card that I thought would make a good graduation card for my cousin, but now I think I like this one better!

This is such a great sentiment.  I've used it before to send a word of encouragement to someone, and I think it fits a lot of different occasions.  It's nice to let someone know that you are thinking of them and rooting for them as they begin a new chapter in their life.  Like a new job, or a move to a new location, or a graduation.  It's a very uplifting message!

Thanks for stopping by today.  And happy mother's day to everyone!

Birthday Wishes Brought To You By the Letter P

The color challenge this week at Pals Paper Arts is all about the letter P:  peach, pear, and poppy.

Lovely colors aren't they?  I was puttering around my garden today doing some weeding and assessing things.  Trying to figure out what did not survive the brutal winter we had.  So I had flowers on my mind when I sat down to make a card.  I used the Stamping 411 sketch for a layout.

I used the Greenhouse Garden stamp set because I wanted to do a bit of two-step stamping.  I thought that it would look nice if I stamped the flower in Peach Parfait first, then stamped the detail stamp with Poppy Parade.  I like how it came out.  Then the small flower is just stamped in Poppy Parade.  I had to stamp off twice to get the color light enough so that the detail stamp would show up.

And last but not least, I tried my hand at a little crinkly seam binding ribbon.  I keep seeing this all over blogland and I really liked it, but for some reason nobody wanted to give up the secret to creating the look.  I thought I had read somewhere about heating it up with a heat gun, but I tried that and it didn't do anything except blow the ribbon around my stamp room.  So then I tried wetting it first, then I put the heat gun on it, and all I achieved was a wet ribbon blowing around my stamp room.  So then I posted a question on Splitcoast and got an answer pretty quickly.  And it's so simple:  wet, scrunch, dry.  Apparently, most people let it dry overnight.  You can use the heat gun to speed things up, but the heat tends to flatten out some of the crinkles.  But as luck would have it I accidentally discovered a quick way to do it.

I already had the little piece of ribbon that I wet first, then dried with the heat gun.  I crinkled it up in a very tight ball then carefully unravelled it.  I got a very nice soft, but crinkly ribbon.  Then I cut another small piece off the spool and crinkled it up.  I didn't like the look at all.  The crinkles were sort of sharp looking and the ribbon itself didn't have the soft look of the first one I did.  So I wet it, dried it with the heat gun, then crinkled it into a tight ball again.  When I unravelled it, it was just the softer look I was going for.  I think wetting it first sort of softens up the fibers of the ribbon so that it crinkles better.

Please excuse my ribbon ramble, but I'm so happy I figured this out.  I'm sure everybody else out there has known about this for ages and is wondering why I'm so late to the party!  But thanks for stopping by!

ColourQ 83 and Viva La Verve

The color challenge this week at the ColourQ totally ROCKS!

Wow!  Are these colors fabulous or what?  I couldn't wait to get started.  I poked around blogland for a while and I found a rockin' sketch at the Viva La Verve forum that I thought was worthy of these colors.

I thought that sunburst would be a great way to show off all these colors.  And to make matters extra easy, Shannan Tuebner did a little tutorial on how to create the look.
 

This was such a fun card to make.  I had designer paper in all the colors except for Tangerine Tango, so the sunburst is an interesting mix of colors and patterns.  I stamped the larger Tempting Turquoise layer with the Canvas background stamp to give it a little texture.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MOJO189 and PPC57

Usually on Thursday I'm showing off a card for the ColorLab challenge.  But this week we're taking  break because Julie, our challenge hostess, is grieving over the loss of her grandmother.  I hope you'll stop by and show her some love.  Next week we'll be back with a new challenge and I hope you'll join us then.

So today I decided to show you a card I made for the MOJO and Picture Perfect Creations challenges.

I loved the layout and I loved the color challenge, so I had no trouble putting them both together here!

And finally I found a use for those Sweet Stitches buttons! So cute!

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Color Throwdown 140

Gosh I've been busy the last few days and this is the first opportunity I've had to tap away at the keyboard here.  But I couldn't miss posting today and sharing some exciting news!  Today I get to show you the first card I made as the May Guest Designer for the Color Throwdown!  Whoo hoo!!  I've always loved participating in their challenge and I could hardly believe it when Laura asked me to be their guest designer for May.  How could I refuse?  And what a fabulous batch of colors I get to work with!

Now, these are colors I can wrap my hands around!  I got a little help from the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge and put this little number together.

I usually try to fill my cards up with flowers but today I wanted the sentiment to take center stage against that dreamy Crumb Cake background.  Nothing like a clean and simple layout to show off a particular element on your card.  I colored the sentiment with my Early Espresso and Blushing Bride markers and I really like how it came out.  A little button to balance things out and I've got a cute card that I think I'll save for my cousin's high school graduation in a few weeks.  (As I wrote that I realized that this is already May and her graduation is probably only weeks away!  It sounds trite, but time really does fly by)!

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forgot to head on over to the Color Throwdown and show us what you've got!  For a lot of inspiration, here's what the amazing design team has created:

Tammy Hershberger
Kristin Eberline
Broni Holcombe
Barbara Anders
Danielle Kennedy
Cathy Indelicato
Kisa Peters
Laura Pryor
Carole Burrage

Stamping 411 Sketch Challenge 201

So far May is shaping up to be a very busy month for me.  Later today I'll be going to my cousin's wedding then on Tuesday is my nephew's confirmation.  I wanted to make a card to congratulate him, so I turned to the Stamping 411 sketch challenge for a layout.

I chose Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, and So Saffron as my colors because I figured they weren't too girly.  But on second thought, I love those colors so they must be girly!

I've had these corduroy buttons hiding in my stash for quite a while and I think they're so cute.  My nephew is always teasing me about embellishments that I put on my card.  He doesn't understand that buttons are not just for shirts!  And a corduroy one is even better!

Well, it's back to the drawing board for me.  I've got a 50th wedding anniversary party to go to in a couple of weeks, so I'll need to make a card for that.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!