Inspired By

Just squeezing into the challenge at A Blog Named Hero to create a card inspired by one of the Hero Arts Artists.

I chose Shari Carroll, and this card in particular:

I used the colour scheme from this week's ColourQ:

Stamps by Hero Arts:
S1832 Italian Poetry Background
H4464 Two Flourish Flowers
CL139 Birthday Messages

Zest For Life

Remember when 70 sounded ancient? (Picture grey-haired old ladies in rocking chairs.)  The 70-year-old recipient of this card made her first parachute jump last year, and has a zest for life that would put many people half her age in the shade.  She also likes a tipple, so this Cheers image from Penny Black was ideal.  And what nicer way to beat the heat than with a chilled glass of rosé?

It's for the following challenges:

Penny Black Beat the heat:

CAS-ual Fridays - use a number or numbers:

CFC110: Use a number or numbers on your CAS creation

Moxie Fab World Birthday Card Challenge:

And Simon Says Summer Food and Drink:

SUMMER FOOD AND DRINK

Pre-cut card and card candy - Craftwork Cards
Image stamp - Penny Black 40-219 Cheers
Sentiment stamp - Hero Arts CL611 Many Birthday Messages
Numbers - Sizzix Roundabout
Bling - Stickles Crystal

Butterflies and Dragonflies

I've been playing with my Magenta butterfly and dragonfly stamps for their July colour challenge:

I stamped the small butterfly cluster in Versamark and embossed in white, then smeared Distress Inks over the card and spattered with water.  Once dry, I stamped the cluster again in Dusty Concord in the top-right section, then in Victorian Velvet in the bottom-left corner.  I stamped the large dragonfly in Dusty Concord then highlighted it with a Sakura white Gelly Roll pen, and added a few white dots to the small butterflies.  I stamped another large dragonfly on white and softened the colour in with a water brush.  There's another butterfly stamp which you can just make out under the white dragonfly.  Added a few sequins in the colours of the challenge.

[03.101.F] 4 Bold Flying Butterflies 

[23.090.F] Butterfly

[23.151.I] Most Famous Dragonfly - Large

Sequins - Neat & Tangled

Golden Butterflies

There are only a few hours left to enter the Seeing Spots challenge at Clearly Besotted:

I've used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

And the new challenge at CASology is Gold:

All stamps and dies by Clearly Besotted.  Spotted paper provided by Stephanie of Clearly Besotted as a little thank you when I bought some stamps from her via eBay, before she went global ;)

There are many different shades of gold, so I've got different shades of butterflies, but if that doesn't count, I've also added some pearlised gold bling, again in various shades.

Chloe Bouquet

I've been busy fulfilling commissions for wedding cards and keepsake books, so what with that and the glorious weather we've been having, I've not entered any challenges for a few days or done the blog rounds, and I've been getting withdrawal symptoms.

So here's a card for three challenges:

Less is More

Hand made Flowers

Play Date Cafe

Cream...Melon...Cantaloupe

And Moxie Fab Birthday Card Challenge

I cut the Chloe Stems (Memory Box) from cream card, then coloured them with Tombow pens, and did the same with the Happy (also Memory Box).  I splattered the card with the same colours, tied a curly lacy ribbon from my stash and stuck one side down with red tape and let the other side curl, then added "birthday" (Waltzingmouse Stamps Say It Loud).

Polka Dots and Flowers

I'm playing along with CAS-ual Fridays, where this week's challenge is Polka Dots:

I've used the sketch from the current Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge:

and the colour scheme from The Play Date Cafe:

Burnt Umber ... Honey ... Butter

My burnt umber is a tad more orange, but it was the nearest colour I had.  All stamps are from Paper Smooches: Primary, Sentiment Sampler, Reflections.

Bright Lights

This week I have the honour and pleasure of being guest designer at CASology after this card was chosen for Week 50, Free.  So when Melissa asked me if I'd like to be guest designer, of course I said yes, then waited with baited breath for "the word".  Ya never know whether it's going to be, well, challenging!  So I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw what it was:

Neon colours are hot in the cardmaking world, but if you google the word neon, up pop gorgeous neon sign images, so I had a go at making my own neon sign.

You likey?  If you look closely at those google images of neon signs, the neon tube shows white, while the colour glows around the tube, and this is what I wanted to capture.  I white-embossed the sentiment (Woodware) and even though I used a static bag, there is the odd stray speck of white.  But I'm hoping you'll be too blinded by the neon to see it ;)  And it really does glow IRL!

I drew around the embossing with a Versamark pen and applied iridescent mica powders (Cosmic Shimmer) with separate cotton buds for each colour.  After I'd applied the powder to the first letter, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't as bright as I'd expected. (I was making the card at night).  But I thought I would persevere with all the letters and then make a judgement.  Then when I lifted the card up, and the powders caught the light - WOW!  And the green was a surprise - it was pink in the tub! (Interference mica powders change colour when applied to black card.)

I can see myself making many more neon lights cards!  What will you make with the cue word?  Pop over to CASology and see what the Design Team have created, then join in.  I can't wait to see everybody's creations!

Material Girl

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays this week is to create a project incorporating material:

And the challenge at Less is More is to use at least two shades of grey:

The bodice stamp is from Stampendous, the sentiment stamp is from Penny Black and the organza is from a bouquet of flowers. Oh, and there's some Stickles for bling.

It's All About Today

Another excuse to get messy with A Mixed Media Challenge.  This time the colour scheme is yellow, pale pink and peach.

I used acrylics to paint the canvas yellow, white and pale pink, then painted a peachy flower and added some watercolour pencil shading.  The images and text are stamped onto tissue paper then pasted on with watered down PVA glue.  Added a bit of Frantage for texture and Stickles for the fairy wings.

Unsettled-Showers - Paper Artsy Words Plate 3
Fairies - Lindsay Mason
Leaves - Lavinia Stamps
It's All About Today - Hero Arts C2738

Congrats!

The current challenge at A Blog Named Hero is to use your favourite Hero Arts Stamp or product.  Quite often my favourite stamp is my newest one, and so it is with Hero Arts AC026 Brush Strokes.

I love the versatility of this set.  You can make fireworks from splodges (well, I did - dunno if anyone else sees them as fireworks!).  The current challenge at CASology is, appropriately enough, Fireworks.

I've used the sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch, turned on its side:

And the colour scheme from ColourQ:

And as it's a firework card it's also going into Simon Says Patriotic challenge:

Stamps from Hero Arts AC026 Brush Strokes, letters from Memory Box Parker Lower Case Alphabet.

Tic Tac Toe

Sshhh, don't tell anyone, but I made this card for Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger, which had already closed before I started making it!  Duh.

But it fits the bill perfectly for The Paper Players challenge (which closes soon!) of Tic Tac Toe:

I've gone for top-left to bottom-right, Birds, Bling, Ribbon.  The black wooden bird in cage was from MeiFlower (NBUS, Darnell!), the bling is Craftwork Cards card candi, but in case that isn't blingy enough, I've added a self-adhesive AB gem to dot the "i", and the ribbon is from my stash.  Sentiment is Hero Arts CL139 Birthday Messages and geometric stamps are from Paper Smooches Tri-balation.

Summer Fun

I was asked to make a card for a 14-year-old girl.  I would have loved to get a card like this when I was 14!  I'd already coloured the image when I found these unused message die-cuts in my stash (while I was looking for something else).  Hey, Darnell, I've done a NBUS!

The colours were inspired by this gorgeous photo at Pinspired:

And Simon Says Anything Goes is still open where you can win a Simon Says voucher or this card candi package from Craftwork Cards:

 

I didn't use card candi but I did use the message die cut and the shaped card from craftwork Cards.  The image is Penny Black 2163K Love.  If you look really closely you can see tiny self-adhesive AB gems in the centre of the flowers.