Delightful Dynamic Duos (DD28)

Happy Monday, everyone! Aren't these colours delightful together? They are this week's Dynamic Duo:

So festive! I cut snowflakes using an old Marvy snowflake punch and finished the card off with an Impress sentiment. I used Stampin' Up's 'Stickles' equivalent, but found it a little harder to work with than actual Stickles. Still, they match that Cherry Cobbler perfectly, so I'm not complaining too loudly! lol!

OLW113, Tuesday Trigger - Merry Christmas

Another one for this week's One Layer Wednesday challenge, to use dark red, green and gold.

And for this week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World,  Fantasy in Fall:

It's a bit difficult to describe how I did this, but I'll try.

1) Cut 2 circle masks. One for the outside of the wreath (big post it with a hole in the middle), one for the inside (solid circle)
2) Loosely placed the outside mask on the card. Lifted one corner of the mask to stamp the 3 big 'flowers' so that they would extend beyond the two masks.
3) Placed both masks down, and filled in the rest of the wreath with smaller circles of the same 3 colours (Raspberry Ripple, More Mustard, Old Olive).
4) Lifted off the masks, re-stamped the 3 big circles to make them stand out a bit more
5) Stamped my favourite Stampabilities sentiment in Versafine onyx (maybe brown would have been more true to the inspiration photo, but I wanted it dark so that it would stand out against the parts of the wreath that it would cover).

I was also inspired by this card by Laura Bassen:

and by this photo on my Inspiration board on Pinterest:

I love how a simple shape can become so festive just by using traditional Christmas colours!

OLW113, TMS171 - Happy Holidays

I have spent the afternoon so far just tidying my craft room, finishing cards that were not quite there (usually adding an inside white panel where the cardbase is dark, or stamping my 'Ardyth' stamp on the back). While I was doing that, I came across this card I made earlier in the week, and promptly forgot about.

I made it for this week's One Layer Wednesday challenge, to use dark red, green and gold.  I used an Impress poinsettia in Cherry Cobbler, gold beads for the centres, and Almost Artichoke for the Papertrey sentiment. I added depth to the petals by going over the centre-ends with a copic marker - it really does add something!

But, during the week, I also came across a new (to me) challenge called Tuesday Morning Sketches. It's obviously not that new, since it's at challenge 171, but the fun, simple sketch also inspired me while I was making this card.

Now I'm hoping to get back upstairs to think about some more horsey cards. FYI - I added a link to this morning's post, so that you can find Deadbeat Designs' online store if you want.

Pretty Ponies

Three of the horse cards for the sets of cards I'm making for my sister to give as gifts:

Stampin' Up stamp, River Rock, Poppy Parade, Island Indigo, Soft Suede ink

Horse from Animal Spirit Stamps by Sue Coccia, embossed in Cloisonne (Artful Stamper).

Deadbeat Designs stamps. Versafine Onyx ink embossed with iridescent (image) and clear (sentiment).

I hope to get the rest done over the weekend, so I can show you next week!

CTS5/OLW113 - Let's get Ornamental

For this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge (BTW - Congratulations to CASology's Jennifer Wills who is now on the CAS(E) This Sketch design team!)

And, also, for this week's One Layer Wednesday challenge, to use dark red, green and yellow or gold. This is probably a little more in line (ie a little less black) than yesterday's card was! lol!

I used a Stampabilities sentiment (one of my favourites!) and a little clear ornament that was already on a string (easier than drawing a line!). Coloured with Copics, and a little Stardust Stickles for sparkle.

By the way, MASKerade hit 60,000 total views yesterday! Wow! I'm speechless. And grateful!

OLW113 - Many Tanks (with apologies to Susan)

This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge is being hosted by Susan. The challenge is to use dark red, green and yellow (or gold) on a one layer card. You can use black for a sentiment.

I don't know if this is exactly what Susan had in mind. Oh, please! I KNOW this is not what Susan had in mind. AT ALL.

In my defense, however, I have a 13 year old, military-minded son, and these new stamps from Hambo came in the mail, and I saw this photo on Pinterest (now on my Inspiration Board).

Seriously, how could I have done anything else?!

And, Susan,  I promise to do another one, more in line with the rules!

Horsey update: My sister (the equine surgeon) asked me to make 4 sets of cards for her to give to friends for them to send to their friends. Then one of her friends asked if I could make HER 4 sets of cards for her to give to friends. I agreed, but only if all 8 sets could be the same (each set will have 8 different cards, so I have to make 8 each of 8 designs).  I realized yesterday that I only have two weeks to get them done (because that's when I'm going for my annual visit! YAY!) and put myself into high gear. I have now finished
4 of the cards (8 each)), so be prepared for some horsey-ness over the next couple of weeks!

Church Christmas Card update: Done 132 (11 sets of 12) of my 144 cards! I'm in good shape on this one - last year I think I made about 96 of them in November and the first week of December - I'm much happier that I've tried (and mostly succeeded) to make one design a month. All of these you have seen throughout the year, but maybe I'll do a post with all 12 once they're all done.

LIM92 - Pink

This card is for this week's Simply Less is More challenge, to use pink.

My plan was to cut the Memory Box flower out of my basic grey panel, then cut one out in white, glue the white 'outline' into the negative space in the grey panel and then colour the white petals with Copics and attach them at the centre, with the ends rolled a little, for dimension.

It all went well until, alas, my first two colouring attempts were not at all pleasing. NOT. AT. ALL.

I changed my technique (actually, I mostly changed the colour I was using) and continued colouring and then just placed the petals I had onto the card to see how the shaded petals looked against the grey. I found it to be very striking and thought, why make more?

So this card is really the result of one of those happy accidents that happen when something you didn't plan takes you in a slightly different design direction. Of course I've had plenty of 'unhappy' accidents that took me to a place I didn't want to be! But isn't it nice that sometimes these things work out even better than you'd planned?

Today's One Layer Wednesday challenge is being hosted by the Queen of OLW herself, Susan, at Simplicity - go over and check it out! My card for this week's challenge will be here tomorrow! We'd love to have you play along!