Hi everybody!! Sorry its been so quiet on my blog this week. I was 'surfing the web' earlier in the week looking for an old movie I could watch online. Totally naughty and I certainly suffered the consequences because I didn't find the movie and ended up with a virus!! I couldn't email, download photos or anything. Thank goodness for a clever husband who has fixed it all for me and I am now back in 'blog business'!
A huge apology to my TIME OUT team-mates as I was supposed to have linked my photo and published a blog post on Thursday to remind you all about my current challenge. Better late than never I suppose..... The theme for our challenge is:
WINTER with optional twist of 'white on white'
You can use black/white and other neutral colours for the sentiment. With half of the world in the middle of Winter at the moment, I bet they will have lots of inspiration in their own backyard!!
We are very lucky to have Uniko as the Sponsor for this challenge and they are giving a prize to one randomly picked entrant. So jealous!!
For my card this week I was tempted to do an 'all white' design but couldn't get the idea of mixing a teal blue with it, so just went with the flow:
I was excited to use a new die (from Poppystamps 'Narrow Tree Triptych') that I had borrowed from my friend Lowri. She had purchased it to make Christmas cards herself and I thought that was a great idea!
I started off my die-cutting the squares from white CS and putting all the pieces to one side. I then grabbed another piece of white CS and used my mini-blending tool with Distress Inks 'Peacock Feathers' and 'Mermaid Lagoon', blending them together. I die-cut the squares from this and kept all the pieces in place.
On another piece of white CS I glued down the white squares and covered the tree parts with Wink of Stella. I then glued in all the blue pieces. I was then able to cut the squares out and pop them all up on foam tape on the card front. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment (from Uniko 'Rustic Christmas') in silver and added some sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
This was a bit fiddly but loved how it turned out and was able to make another card with the colours the other way around from all the leftovers. Win win!!
I'm going to link this to The Heart Desires Challenge #8 as it fits in with their gorgeous theme board:
Will also link to the Muse: Christmas Visions Challenge #76 where the inspiration is this fabulous card by Kimberly Wiener, which inspired by card colours:
And I'm going to link this to the Simon Says Stamp - Work it Wednesday Challenge - December 2016 where they ask you to 'Make something new with something new'.
You have one more week to link your projects to the TIME OUT challenge. And if you need any help with inspiration, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our wonderful Guest Designer Claire have designed for you. Looking forward to seeing you in the Gallery!
Take care
Shona
Hello there everybody and happy new year!!! I hope you all had a relaxing Christmas and have had a safe and happy start to 2017!! Its time for a new theme at The Flower Challenge and we've decided on a colour combo this month:
I love the colour blue on any card, so to mix it with yellow makes for such a happy design. I decided to create a blue flower that may not be seen in nature but really stands out against a yellow background:
I must have photographed this a million times! We've had some very dreary days of late (even though its the middle of Summer) and I desperately wanted to capture the shimmer on my flower. You can just see it if you squint your eyes really tightly....
I stamped this flower from Altenew 'Beautiful Day' on some white CS using Altenew inks 'Ocean Waves', 'Dusk' and 'Desert Night'. I then carefully fussy cut it out. I cut a panel of white CS the same size as my card front and die-cut the circle using Waffle Flower 'Flower Circles Inverted Dies'. Once I worked out where the circle would sit over the card front, I used my mini-blending tool and Distress Ink 'Mustard Seed' to create the background. To add a bit of interest I sprinkled it with water and used tissue to soak it up.
The panel was popped up on foam tape, as was the flower image. The sentiment (from the same Altenew stamp set) was stamped twice with Altenew 'Desert Night', fussy cut and put on foam tape as well. I then glued on some clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh for a bit of sparkle and added lots of Wink of Stella to the darkest parts of the flower petals.
The challenges closes on Wednesday 25th January, so that gives you plenty of time to enter once or twice. And if you need help getting those creative juices flowing, pop over to the blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created for you. We will be back on the 15th January with a reminder and some more inspiration for you. Can't wait to see what you come up with!
Take care
Shona
There are only four hours left to link my project to the Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday Challenge 'Anything Goes' so thought I would add this card now before I fell asleep!!
As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent some time yesterday playing with a new stamp set from Altenew 'Geometric Flowers'. I wanted to create some rainbow coloured flowers in different ways. My last card was using Distress Ink, this time I mixed different ink pads together:
I hadn't used this 'ink pad mixing' technique for quite a while. I first saw Kristina Werner doing it on her blog probably a few years ago, tried it out, loved it and then forgot all about it. Time for a revival I say!
I used my MISTI so I could stamp more than once to blend the colours a bit more evenly. The solid stamp was stuck to the MISTI clear panel. I used Altenew mini cube inks and paired them together, adding colour to each half of the stamp and overlapping in the middle to blend. Each flower was stamped two or three times to get a blend I was happy with.
Once the inks had dried, I used my MISTI again to stamp the matching geometric pattern on top and heat emboss using Ranger 'Queens Gold'. They were then all fussy cut out.
To add some interest to my card front (but keep it white) I cut a panel of white CS the same size as my card but removed a strip from the middle the same size as the sentiment. This was stamped on the card front in black ink and the panels popped up on foam tape above and below. I then adhered the rainbow geometric flowers and some gold sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.
I hadn't used the solid stamp that goes with the geometric stamp before (and they match perfectly by the way....) so will link to the Simon Says Stamp - Work It Wednesday Challenge - December 2016 where their theme is 'Use new products'.
My eyes are screaming to shut so off to bed I go. Although I just sneakily purchased an OK Australia magazine today, so might have to have a quick flick through that before I go to sleep. I love OK, WHO and NW magazines but can't afford to buy them all the time. The two weeks around Christmas and New Years are the only times I get them now (oh and for my birthday) so its a wonderful time to lay in bed, read a whole lot of gossip and eat Scorched Almonds. Bliss!!!
Take care
Shona
