#1004 – Mixed Media card

Hello and welcome! Today I have the honor of being the Guest Designer for the wonderful Color Throwdown challenge!

Its a color challenge that helped me groom my coloring skills when I first started card making, and continues to do so today. The design team always have such wonderful inspirations with any pick of color! Speaking of which, this is the color combo for this time –

Beautiful set of colors! And this time I took up a personal challenge to make the card look like its made up of ATC elements. Here’s what I made –

I used a lot of older stamps and die cuts on this one – and that made me happy as well! I used Tim Holtz’s stamp set that I got as a part of Alcohol Inks kit, Ranger Entomology, Nature’s Elements, My Favorite Things Bold Diagonal Stripes in the background, and to make the butterfly piece look like an antique piece, used stamps from Ranger Entomology and CrafTangles Halftone Dots and a couple of washi tapes. The die cuts are Paper Smooches Flower 2 and Sizzix Flowers, Branches and Leaves. I doubt most of them have been available for a long time now! The sentiment, from Altenew Label Love is probably something that’s available.

I used distress inks and with the help of brayer and gel plate, made butterfly panel a bit more variegated. I also colored the top wings of the butterfly in green, though I doubt its that visible. Well, once all the pieces were done, I just arranged them adhered them together on the card base. The only dimension being behind that BnW diagonal background.

I’m glad this card came out so quickly, given that I had been taking very long to make my cards until recently. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity – I had a lot of fun with this new design style of card making!

Do stop by the Color Throwdown challenge blog to checkout the creations of the design team, who manage to impress me, at least, every single time! 🙂

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#1002 – Inspiration Station Challenge #18

PE: Color Throwdown Featured Stamper!! Yippie!!

Welcome to Inspiration Station Challenge #18! It was my sister’s chance to come up with the challenge this time.

She made this Tic Tac Toe board, which turned out to be a little difficult for me. Any line I chose, two were in favour, one, not so much. I then had a flash of inspiration and used the middle column to make my card.

And here’s what I made –

I started with making the mosaic background. Helping me were CrafTreat Arabic Pattern stencil and my trusty Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. After coloring a white card base using them, I set it aside to work on the frame.

The flowers are from Altenew Delicate Clusters and the sentiment is from Concord & 9th Painted Peony. I added gold leaf to a frame cut out using Paper Smooches Frame 4 die and adhered it to a few more pieces of die cuts to get some dimension.

I was going to just adhere the floral frame on the card and maybe add a twine with a bow, but then I had a flash of inspiration – something I had seen a few card makers do – I used the twine to make it look like the frame was hanging like a portrait on a mosaic wall. Loved it instantly! 🙂

I’m joining these challenges as well –

Color Throwdown challenge #694:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More challenge #430: Stencils and/or Die cuts (I’ve used both)

And that’s my card! Checkout this gorgeous tag that my sis has created for this challenge! I love how she’s used washi tape to create that gorgeous background (I wanna copy that technique!!) and that glittery flower die is just muah!!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#969 – A Watercolored Floral Frame

PE: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge Winner!!

Hello and welcome! The start of a new month means the start of Happy Little Stampers Watercolor challenge! As always, this is an Anything Goes challenge, and you can join us with any kind of project as long as watercoloring is used on your project.

And this is what I made –

I used flowers from Altenew Garden Treasure and leaves from Beautiful Day and Peony Bouquet. Using masks and MISTI, I stamped them using VersaMark Black Onyx pigment ink on watercolor paper, and watercolored them using distress inks. Originally, I wanted to color them in 3 shades, but I was able to do so only on the yellow flower. To balance things out, once the panel dried, I used my fineliner marker pen to draw some additional shading on the images. Finally, I fussy cut the inside of the flowery frame. I also added little dots scattered all around the frame for something extra.

For the sentiment, I initially thought of stamping some sentiment, but after searching through my stash, I thought of using these die cuts instead. I used Penny Black Many Thanks die, cutting a few pieces from kraft cardstock and stacking them for dimension. I then foam mounted the flowery frame, then adhered the sentiment within.

And that’s my card! I’ll be joining the following challenges –

Color Throwdown challenge #662

Timeout challenge #197: Inspired by Words

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Anything Goes

Checkout more inspiration at the Happy Little Stampers Watercolor challenge, and don’t forget to join us with your own watercolored projects!

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#916 – A Tweet Hello

PE: Winner at Inspired By challenge!! Yay!!

Hello and welcome! I was craving to make something yesterday, and as usual, card challenges are an excellent source for my inspirations!

To make this card, I started with the tweet birdie. I drew and watercolored it using Gansai Tambi watercolors, and then after it dried, fussy cut it out. Setting it aside, I die cut the flowers and leaves using Elizabeth Crafts Bunch of Flowers dies and Simon Says Stamp Eucalyptus Leaves using the same watercolor paper I used for the birdie. I then watercolored them too.

I then started working on the background. I stamped the wood design using Concord & 9th Barnwood Background and a light gray ink. I also wanted to use a strip of grey cardstock. I die cut them both using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles die. I then assembled my card using the same grey cardstock for my cardbase. The sentiment, from Winnie & Walter Sketchy Thoughts, I stamped on scrap white cardstock, drew a bubble around it, and fussy cut that. I then foam mounted it on my card.

And that’s my card! Checkout these challenges that I got inspired by and I am joining with this card –

CASE This Sketch #405 The last challenge (boo hoo!!) I just couldn’t not join!!

Watercooler Wednesday challenge #306: All About Occasions

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

Inspired By Tweet Messages

Color Throwdown challenge #627

Thank you so much for stopping by!

#796 – The Hedgehogs Say…

Hello and welcome to listen to what the hedgehogs want to say!! 😀 😀

I had these cute lil hedgehogs from MFT for quite some time now, and it felt like using autumn colors on them was the perfect idea. So, I made two cards, with the exact same arrangement, but with little changes.

I used MFT Happy Hedgehogs and Verve Stamps Bountiful Harvest stamps. I actually wanted to test one of the cardstocks that I own, on which I usually do misted stamping for superb effects, with watercoloring. The results weren’t exactly what I expected, but my sis said she liked the soft tones, so I thought of using the piece (or rather, keeping the card I made) than not. And that’s the one you see on the right.

I made this other one as I wasn’t satisfied with the first one. The one on the right is made by watercoloring using distress inks – and even bright colors were significantly toned down by this card stock. And the one on the left using stamping with MFT Black hybrid ink, then coloring using Zig Brush pens.

Coming back to the card on the right. Once the cardstock had dried, I die cut it using MFT Stitched Mini Rectangles die, added a base of dark brown cardstock, then adhered it to a kraft cardbase that I had already stamped in plaid tones of orange, red and brown using the MFT Plaid Background Builders. The sentiment is heat embossed on the same dark brown cardstock, die cut using MFT Slanted Sentiment Strips, foam mounted on the panel.

For the card with the brighter tones, the sentiment comes from Ranger Letter It – Thank You stamp set. I used distress oxide inks to create the blend of colors in the background, on which I splattered some water. I fussy cut the hedgehogs and pumpkins and mounted them at different levels of dimension.

With these cards, I am joining the following challenges –

MFT Sketch Challenge #402

Happy Little Stampers: September Watercolor challenge: Anything Goes (not using the optional Butterflies)

Color Throwdown challenge #510

Timeout Challenge #118: Photo Inspiration

Paru’s Card Making challenge: September challenge: Anything Goes

Thank you so much for listening to the hedgehogs and for stopping by! 🙂