Winnie and Walter - June Color Challenge with Heather H.

Well, this hasn't happened for a while!! I've actually made a card that isn't for a Design Team! Haven't had the time much lately to join in with all the amazing challenges out there for a while, so this was a lovely treat. Unfortunately this card evolved from being home the last two days with Max (he has a bad chest cold), he's slowly on the mend and its meant I've caught up on housework, my own gardening and a card!!

I've been looking at this inspiration photo for the Winnie and Walter - June Color Combo Challenge with Heather H. for weeks, hoping I would have some time to give it a go. Today is that day and I'm so happy with the result:

I really wanted to have stripes on my card but I don't own any W&W stripey stamps however......I found this one from 'Scenery: Holiday Trimmings' that would give a similar look.

I cut a panel of watercolour CS and heat embossed the stamp using black embossing powder. My MISTI really helped with doing this. I set up the stamp where I knew it was straight and just moved my panel up one inch after each stamp with Versamark Ink. I then grabbed my Distress Inks 'Picked Raspberry', 'Mermaid Lagoon', 'Mowed Lawn' and 'Mustard Seed' and blended across each stripe. I didn't want to blend the colours together too much as they would create new colours (like the orange between the pink/yellow) but did the best I could.

Once the ink was dry I die-cut it using the large die from W&W 'Essentials: Audrey's Cutaways'. I wanted to capture the grey brick wall in the back of the inspiration photo, so cut a piece of grey CS and adhered to my card front. The striped panel was put on foam tape over top. I die-cut the W&W 'Hello' die twice from white CS and glued together for a bit of strength and put on foam tape as well.

For the rest of the sentiment I die-cut the small tag (also from W&W 'Essentials: Audrey's Cutaways') twice from white CS, glued them together and stamped 'baby' from W&W 'The Big, the Bold and Happy'. This was put on foam tape. And instead of sequins I die-cut some hearts (also from Audrey's Cutaways) from black CS, glued them in place and added some Glossy Accents. 

I'm also going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.

Hopefully Max will have a good nights sleep and be feeling much better for school tomorrow. If not, you might get another card from me......

Take care
Shona
 

Honey I Shrunk the Kit - July 2017

Hi there everybody and welcome to the latest edition of 'Honey I Shrunk the Kit'!! I have to warn you that this is a rather long post, so grab a cup of coffee/tea and a few biscuits (chocolate I hope) and make yourself comfortable!!

Myself and four other friends take turns every two months to send out an envelope filled with crafty goodies and we post the cards created with it on our blogs to see what we all came up with. Its so much fun and rather amazing to see the difference between our cards even though we use the same kit!!

Hazel was our 'Kit Hostess' this month and this is the kit she put together for us called 'Going Up'. You know how much I love die-cuts so was falling over myself to use those and the stamp images are so darling. This is Hazel's list of kit contents:


STAMPS: Gerda Steiner Designs - You're Koalafied/ STAMPlorations - Noteworthy 2/ Bella Stamps - Tomorrow's Dream & A Beautiful Day/

DIES: MFT - Brushstroke Birthday Greeting/ Clearly Besotted - Let's Party Die Collection / Spellbinders - Day Dreams (sun and clouds) / Butterflies (not sure)

OTHER: Patterned paper: Stampin' Up! - Birthday Basics (retired) / Yellow twine (my stash)

For my first card I coloured in the large koala image with pencils and then fussy cut out. I also pencil coloured the smaller koala and stuck him in for a hug. I used the paper from the kit and die-cut it using a stitched oval die from Studio Katia. This was adhered to the card front, the koala's were put on foam tape over top and then the same done with the kit sentiments. I then added some green sequins, also from Studio Katia and gold from Neat and Tangled.

For my second card I had to do something with these balloon shapes. I used my new Distress Oxide ink to create a sky colour. I adhered the clouds to the card and put the sun in the corner after colouring with Distress Ink 'Mustard Seed'. The balloons were all coloured with Gansai Tambi 'Pearl Colours' and I wish you could see the shimmer of this paint, its divine!! I worked out where the balloons would sit and drew in some strings. The balloons were put on foam tape and a few Neat and Tangled sequins added for shine.

For card no. 3, I carried on with a similar look. I used the same Distress Oxide ink to colour the sky background, its so lovely to use and blends beautifully. I then coloured the butterflies using the same Gansai Tambi 'Pearl Colors' paint but this time mixing two colours together. I cut the sentiment out using another stitched-oval die from Studio Katia and glued on the card front. The butterflies were then popped up on foam tape, along with some Neat and Tangled sequins.

For my fourth card I decided to keep within the same idea of the previous two cards. I just have to say that I love this little girl so much and think I'm going to have to track down the stamp set somehow!! I blended the Distress Oxide ink again for the sky background. I coloured the clouds lightly with grey pencil and fussy cut out. These were adhered to the card front, along with the sentiment die-cut with the same Studio Katia stitched-oval die. 

I painted the balloon with the Gansai Tambi 'Pearl Colors' using 'Pearl Pink' and 'Pearl Scarlet Red' (which is such a pretty peachy colour). I coloured the girl with my pencils, using the same pink/peach colour scheme and fussy cut her out. I popped her up on foam tape and did the same with the balloon. And of course I had to add some peachy and pink sequins from Neat and Tangled.

I hope you've made it this far as I've saved my favourite for last!! For my fifth card I coloured the scene with my pencils and then used a stitched-rectangle die from Pretty Pink Posh, which fitted around it perfectly. It didn't look right against the white card front so I cut a rectangle of black CS slightly bigger and adhered the panel on top. This was glued on to the card front. The sentiment was cut out with a circle die from Couture Creations and popped on foam tape. 

I love this scene so much and the sentiment goes with it perfectly. Its so very sweet and I now have yet another stamp set I need to buy!!!

Whew, that was huge!! If your still awake well done. If not, have another couple of chocolate biscuits as there are more cards to be seen. You can now pop over to see what the other girls created with the same kit:
                                      

Hazel

Sarah G

Sarah P

Anita

Thank you so much Haze for creating the most amazing kit, and thank you for reading such a long post. I'm off to see what the rest of the 'Honey's' made!!

Take care

Shona

 

Happy Little Stampers - Watercolour Challenge - July

Well, well, well......where did July come from so quickly?!!! We are suddenly half-way thru the year and I still feel like I haven't gotten over Christmas. Looks like I need to start making some more Christmas cards for this year very quickly!!!

With it being the 1st of the month it also means that its time for a new challenge theme at Happy Little Stampers - Watercolour Challenge.

As always we have our 'Anything Goes' theme but you also have the optional twist of using 'Blue' on your project. And with blue being my favourite colour, I'm very happy indeed!!

And of course you also have the chance to win a $20 voucher to spend in the Happy Little Stampers  store. How fabulous!!

For my card I knew I definitely wanted to use blue but I also wanted to use two new products as well:

I started off by cutting a panel of water colour CS and heat embossing in white my new Studio Katia 'Your So Ranunculus' stamp. I then used my new Gansai Tambi 'Pearl Colors' watercolour paint. I wish I could have captured the shimmer of this paint, its absolutely amazing!! Once the flowers were dry I die-cut the panel using a Winnie and Walter die from 'Essential: Audrey's Cutaways'.

Since the paint has a silvery shimmer to it, I added a panel of silver CS to the card front and adhered the flowers to it. The sentiment (from the same stamp set) was heat embossed in silver on a strip of watercolour CS and popped up on foam tape. And I added lots of clear sequins from Neat and Tangled to carry on the shine.

I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge where their theme is 'Anything Goes'.

And will also link to The Challenge # 88 where I've used two keywords 'Flowers' and 'Watercolour'. 

You have the whole month of July to link your projects to the Happy Little Stampers - Watercolour Challenge and pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created to inspire you. Can't wait to see your projects in the Gallery!!

Take care
Shona