ColourQ 84

The other day I bought a gift for my niece's birthday.  As I contemplated wrapping paper at the store, I decided that I didn't like anything on the rack and that I would like to wrap the gift in kraft paper then use some 1 1/4-inch striped grosgrain tied around the box.  (I hadn't decided which color I would use, though).  I also thought that I would make a birthday card to coordinate with the kraft paper.

Then along comes the ColourQ challenge this week, which I paired with a Verve sketch.

I knew that this color challenge fell right in line with my plans to make card to match my kraft covered gift.  What luck that the challenge this week used colors I love!

I love how the earthy colors like Crumb Cake, Old Olive and Not Quite Navy are highlighted by the Daffodil Delight.  That sunshine yellow is just the thing to make sure this card is not too boring!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Color Lab Challenge 40

ETA:  Well, it appears that Blogger has fixed whatever was wrong, so I can finally get this post up!

I'm so glad that I've had a chance to get some stamping in this week.  I don't know about you, but sometimes I think it's therapy!  And if I don't have a chance to get my fingers all inky, I get cranky!  I will spare you all the cranky details and share a creation with you instead.  Today, of course, is challenge day over at the ColorLab.  I hope you have time to join us this week as we create projects using these great colors.

I think I'm in heaven with these colors!  I know I don't use it very often, but Not Quite Navy is one fabulous color.  And look how wonderful these colors all look together.  I couldn't wait to get going using them.  I decided that the MOJO sketch from last week, would be a good way to show them off.

I really liked the scalloped edge on the larger layer and that cool oval element with the strings coming out of it.  There was a lot going on with this sketch, but I think that's the perfect way to highlight a color challenge that has more than three colors.

Once I put this card all together, I wasn't sure that I liked it.  Even now as I'm typing this, I'm not sure about it.  The Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy look crazy-good together, but I'm not sure that I've shown off the Pear Pizzazz and Rose Red to their best advantage.  I hate when I begin to second-guess myself about a card I've created.  I'm pretty sure it looks ok, but there's always that part of me that thinks that I should have gone back to the drawing board.  I'm sure you know what I'm talking about and I'm also pretty sure that I'm too hard on myself, but there you have it. 

Anyway I'm sure that if you check out the ColorLab challenge this week and visit the design team, you will find ample inspiration to create something of your own.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Color Throwdown 141

This is my second week as guest designer at the Color Throwdown and I absolutely love the colors this week!

I found the aqua an intriguing addition to the other colors, and I couldn't wait to see what I came up with!  I know that probably sounds weird, but often when I sit down to create a card I have absolutely no idea where I'm going to end up!  I chose the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge as a layout and prayed I could make something worthy!

I really like making square cards and I usually make mine 4 1/4-inch so that they fit in a regular A2 envelope.  (Anything to avoid paying the postage surcharge that goes along with mailing a square card)!  Plus that size is so darn cute.  I used Tempting Turquoise for my aqua quite sparingly because I wanted it to be an accent color that sort of stood out.  I colored and outlined a few bits on the stamp and sewed the long thin layer with a zig zag stitch on my mini sewing machine.  At the last minute I decided to sew around the edges of the Rose Red layer with a straight stitch and I'm so glad I did.  I think it really ties it all together.  I thought about stamping the flourish stamp from the Priceless stamp set with Rose Red ink, but embossed it with clear embossing powder instead.  It's a little hard to see (in real life as well as in the picture), so I wish I had gone with my first instinct!

I hope you'll head on over to the Color Throwdown and create something for this challenge.  And don't forget to check out the creations from the design team for loads of inspiration!

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

Thanks for stopping by!

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!