FS261 - Darsie1

Sunday means "Featured Stamper". These challenges are so inspiring - I love looking at what other stampers have created and then putting my own spin on their ideas. This is not because I don't have my own ideas, but because they rarely work. I don't say that for sympathy - it's the truth. Most of my cards are inspired very directly from someone else's creation, whether it be a card, or a fireplace (see yesterday's post!) or anything else! Nothing scares me more than a blank page. Every once in a while, I end up with a card that is COMPLETELY MINE and I feel really, really good about it - I'll let you know next time it happens!

Back to the challenge. Darsie1 has an amazing gallery. Tons of pretty inspiration there. I chose three.

Here's the first one from Darsie1:

I love the square shape with the circle in the middle - my favourite layout. But the thing that really caught my eye and held my attention was the pearls around the circle in various sizes - I love this look.

I kept the bird, and the layout, and the various-sized circles, but changed the colours (this card is also inspired by this one by Andrea):

Next up is this stunning black and white snowflake from Darsie1's gallery:

Snowflakes are my favourite. I have snowflake stamps coming out my ears! Recently, I bought a die from Memory Box - its a snowflake border. It's a little fussy to work with, but I have a metal plate that goes under the die in my cuttlebug, which makes the die cut right through the card stock the first time, so I didn't have to spend to much time removing all the excess bits. I cut it out once in black and once in white, and layered each on the opposite colour. I put the whole thing on a Poppy Parade layer and I'm pretty happy with the high-contrast result:

Finally I chose this one from Darsie1's gallery:

I was fascinated with the sponging. I also loved the embossed swirl on the bottom and that plus the blue sponging made me think of winter. But this card is definitely autumn (it has the word right on it! LOL!) Here's what I made:

My sense was that winter was coming and taking over from autumn - so you see the chilly wind coming in from the bottom left and the remnants of autumn were leaving out the top right. Happy with my blue sponging (and I'll definitely do that again), but less so with the sponging under the leaves - a little dark and brown, when really I just wanted a soft 'glow' of the end of autumn. I'll have to practice some more!

Altogether, was a fun Sunday afternoon with Darsie1. Thanks for the inspiration!

Supplies:

Birdie:

Stamps: Hero Arts, Various Solid Circles

Paper: Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Perfect Plum

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Baja Breeze

Accessories: Circle Nestabilities, Stardust Stickles

Snowflakes:

Stamps: none

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Gina K Pure Luxury White

Ink: None

Accessories: Memory Box Snowflake Border die

Here Comes Winter:

Stamps: Unity (Tree), Papertrey Ink (Flourish), Stamps of Life (leaf)

Paper: Whisper White, Early Espresso

Ink: Early Espresso, Versamark, Riding Hood Red, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Broken China, Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, Mustard Seed

Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder