FS547 - You are Tough

Congratulations to this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper: Joanne (Angelnorth).

I chose this card as my inspiration:

I focused on Joanne's:
-colours
-square shape
-general layout

I changed:
-technique
-butterfly to flower
-proportions of colour

The blue panel, the red rose and the green leaf were all made months ago! I found all these pieces when I was organizing my craft room this week.

At the time, I used Color Burst powders, but I've linked up to similar colours of Brushos. I have tried Brushos at a class and they work the same way and give very similar results.

I used:

Essentials by Ellen Stamp & Die Set, Courage (Fundraiser for Breast Cancer Research Foundation)

Essentials by Ellen Designer Dies, Bold Blossom Stand-Alone by Julie Ebersole

My Favorite Things Die-namics, STAX Circle Set 1

Colourcraft Brusho Crystal Colour Watercolors - Ostwald Red 15g

Colourcraft Brusho Crystal Colour Watercolors - Sea Green 15g

Colourcraft Brusho Crystal Colour Watercolors - Lime Green 15g

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

Avery ELLE-ments Dies, Double Pierced Square

Ranger Watercolor Paper, 10 pk

Neenah Cardstock, Neenah Heavyweight, Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb, 25 pk

Muse 214 - Thank You

This is the tale of a short-lived card. I was inspired by Anita's gorgeous Muse card:

I focused on Anita's:
-white embossing
-blue and purple colours
-black script sentiment
-floral theme

I embossed the roses in white, and then blended distress inks over them, fading out the blending to leave some white space. Spritzed the card for some texture and when it was dry, I stamped my sentiment, added sequins and thought it needed more. So I decided to try some black splattering.

And (and this is important and shows I'm not a wild risk-taker!) I took a photo.

But then I decided I didn't love the splatter. Especially on the white embossing. I thought I could easily wipe it off. Nope. So I added a little tiny bit of water to my cloth and ended up smearing the whole thing. Lesson learned - I'll leave the splattering to the pro's! lol!

I used:

Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps, Bold Blooms by Julie Ebersole

Essentials by Ellen Clear Stamps, Fancy Thanks by Julie Ebersole

Ranger Distress Mini Ink Pad, Seedless Preserves

Ranger Distress Mini Ink Pad, Peacock Feathers

Ranger Distress Mini Ink Pad, Mermaid Lagoon

VersaMark Ink Pad

Hero Arts Embossing Powder, White

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

Pretty Pink Posh Sequins, Sparkling Clear Mix (4mm, 6mm, 8mm &10mm )

Kuretake Gansai Tambi, 36 Color Set

Black Velvet Watercolor Brushes, Short Round 4

Avery ELLE-ments Dies, Double Pierced Rectangles

Sizzix Big Shot White & Gray

Tonic Comfort 8.5 Inch Guillotine Paper Trimmer by Tim Holtz

Neenah Cardstock, Neenah Heavyweight, Classic Crest Solar White 110 lb, 25 pk

FS477 - Thanks

This week's Splitcoaststampers Featured Stamper is Jenn Shurkus. I chose this card as my inspiration:

I focused on Jenn's:
-black outlined diecut roses
-pink and black colour scheme
-theme (thanks)
-black sentiment

I changed:
-added green
-added white
-one less flower
-diecut sentiment

I used:
-Ellen Hutson Bold Blooms
-Hero Arts Thanks

When I finished that card, I made another. This one turned out to be a blend of this week's Muse (stone base) and the Featured Stamper (black base) as well as an experiment in how different backgrounds can make the card look completely different. Which one do you like?

For this one, I used:
-Ellen Hutson Mondo Hydrangea (with one blossom popped up)
-Ellen Hutson Fancy Thanks

Mixed-Up Muse147 - Friend

Here's my card for this week's Muse challenge, where Michele has given us a Valentine with POP! as our inspiration.

I focused on Michele's
-black strip with the image overlapping
-pop of red
-stitched element
-black sentiment

I used
-MFT's Label Maker Sentiments
-Ellen Hutson's Bold Blooms

I used the matching dies to cut out a space in the black strip. Then I created masks simply by placing the pieces back into the strip while stamping the rose and leaf images in Altenew Ruby Red and PTI New Leaf. My square panel is cut with MFT's pierced square die.

I'm also linking this card to Ellen Hutson's January Mix-it-up Challenge - this month's 'mixer' is MFT.

Watercolour Blog Hop (Teacher Thank you 5)

Pretty Pink Posh is hosting a Watercolour blog hop today. Make sure you visit for all the details.

I'm still working away on the teacher thank you sets and thought it would be fun to play some more with my Zig Clean Color watercolour markers. The process was the same for all my colour combinations (see below) - I started by scribbling a dot of my centre colour and then drew a ring of the outside colour about the size of my Ellen Hutson Bold Blooms rose. Then I simply used my waterpen to blend the colours. I then die cut the roses, but when it came time to pop out the extra bits, I really didn't want to lose the intensity of the beautifully bold colours, so I just left them all in. I finished the card with a big and bold Papertrey sentiment.

Bold Blooms (Again!)

This is my second post today (scroll down for CASology) but I wanted to make the deadline for Ellen Hutson's Pin-sights challenge. This was another challenge that Emily brought to our crafty day last weekend. I stamped the bold black images while I was there, but finished the card earlier today.

I focused on the colour scheme of black, white and sparkly gold and used (again!) Julie Ebersole's Bold Blooms. I just LOVE these stamps and dies! To keep the card clean and graphic, I used a Simon Says Stamp row of dots die to create the inlaid sparkly gold dots down the side. No room on the front for a sentiment, but a scripty Happy Birthday or Thanks inside will fit perfectly!