Monochromatic Mojo

Time again for another inspirational picture from Paper Lovin' Gals, this week I have teamed it up with the sketch challenge at Mojo Monday.  

My inspiration was taken from the colours, I also decided to use the stamping off technique to make the background as I think that is what the shadow in the picture looks like.  I used StazOn for the main image to give a really nice crisp image and then stamped off using Basic Gray on the background.  The panel at the bottom was a piece of DSP that I ran through the Big Shot using the Adorning Accents Embossing Folder and then sanded the colour off the top of the hearts.  The hearts border punch added a matching line of hearts under the Basic Gray ribbon.  As usual I have left the sentiment off this card.

I hope you take the opportunity to play along this week with the Paper Lovin' Gals challenge as it will be the last one for a while.  Check out the PLG blog for more details and see what the rest of the Design Team has created this week.  

Stamping

A Study in Seasons

Sorry for the lateness of my post this week, for some reason I forgot to add the post here!  I loved this inspirational picture this week it made me think of the seasons of the year summer through to spring. it has such great colours, great image, panels, so many things to choose as the basis of my card. What will you choose?

I decided to go with the panels and added the flower branch from Elements of Style.  I cut the four colour panels to size and then lined them all up and stamped the image with StazOn ink.  I then used bleach in my aqua painter to strip the colour from each panel to try and capture some of the colours in the inspirational photo.  As you can see each colour bleaches differently, but I was overall very happy with the outcome.  When going to add the sentiment I decided on impulse to add it on the diagonal rather than straight on. What do you think?  

Please pop over the the Paper Lovin' Gals blog to check out what the other Design Team members have created for you this week, and please join in with your own creation.

Happy Stamping

New Ribbon Holder

I wanted to share with you my new ribbon holder, I am so very happy with it partly because I think it looks awesome, partly because it means my ribbons are right in front of me so that I will start to use them more (I tend to use what is right in front of me) and mostly because I made it myself! 

I have been wanting to have something to hold my ribbons apart from the messy box in which they have been living, and have been toying around with a few ideas.  Can you guess what I used?  I had this idea in my head so down I went to Bunnings with poor hubby in tow and two rolls of ribbon in my hand bag (for measuring diameters) and picked up a piece of 100mm  diameter Poly-pipe.   I brought it home and got hubby on board to help by cutting it to length (so it would fit on my ink/marker storage) and then I helped him to cut a wedge out of the pipe down the length using the Triton workbench.  I then gave both pieces a bit of a sand to smooth off the edges, and inside to the craft table.

Once inside I used sticky strip and Tombow glue to adhere DSP from the Beau Chateau on the outside and Neutrals Paper Stack on the inside.  The wedge I chopped out I covered in Soft Suede card stock and used as the base, adhering the main piece to it with liquid nails.  I haven't quite decided what to do on the ends yet, I think a wood end with a piece of dowel through to hang the ribbons off, but I also like that I can just pull out a roll of ribbon if I need to so not rushing into the ends just yet.  The other thing I like is that I can put the Stack and Store containers in there too,  and I use them to store ribbon shares that are too small for a spool.  The best part is that it was fun to make and didn't cost me a fortune.

The only problem now is that I need another one as I plan to buy more ribbons really soon!  Maybe I will have one for each colour family and decorate them accordingly!

Happy Stamping

Dynamic Punches

I love finding a new challenge, and the one I have this week is brand spanking new!  This week is week one of Dynamic Duos, each week they will have two colours and a neutral to be used in your project.  This week I am  doing a double duo so to speak and because I am entering this project into a second challenge, Stampin' Royalty challenge this week is to use punches in your project so this seemed perfect.

I actually have used 4 punches and a die cut for this little gift bag, I had originally had a "Happy Mother's Day" sentiment, but changed it when my daughter said she would have liked to put a sweet treat inside and pop it into her boyfriend's locker! I love little projects like this, quick and easy to whip up and so effective!

Happy Stamping

Soft Sympathy

A simple sketch and an unusual colour combo come together this week into my entry into Freshly Made Sketches and Hand Stamped Sentiments.  The design teams for both challenges have created some amazing projects to inspire so pop over and check them out.

I sometimes find it hard to keep to a 'clean' sketch, part of me wants to fill the open spaces on a card.  To get around this I knew I had to make the feature shape more fancy, and what better to do that than Apothecary Art stamp and co-ordinating Framelit die.  I kept with the colour theme and used Pool Party to colour the leaves, Pink Pirrouette to colour the flowers with a touch of Regal Rose in the centre of each. I used my Stampin' Write Markers to colour the band on the stamp before layering with Basic Gray taffeta ribbon from my retired stash.  I added a cute little bow and some pearls to 'fancy' up the feature of the card. It wasn't until I was finished that I decided to make this a sympathy card, and added the sentiment from the Loving Thoughts set, splitting the sentiment into two lines using my Stamp-a-ma-jig and some masking.

Happy Stamping

Double the Fun, Double the Challenge

I have some exciting news this week,  for one week only Paper Lovin' Gals have joined up with the team from Friday Mashup.  Regular visitors to my blog will know that I love to join in with the Friday Mashup so I was very excited about this one. This week you can

1. Make a card inspired by the PLG image
2. Make a Mother's Day card
3. Make a pop-up card

Or mash them up and make any combination of the three, or even all three!

This is my card 'closed'  you can see here the stamping I did on the top surface and the punched flower made with different parts of the Triple Layer Punch.  This isn't the exciting part of the card however.

This is what the card looks like when you 'open' it up!  I used the two tags die for the pop up part of the card, and the Bordering on Romance stamp set.  I went with all three elements, colours from the inspirational photo, the Mother's Day card (shhh don't tell mum), and the pop up card!  This was my first attempt at a pop up card, and once I got going it was quite easy.  I got the tutorial from Split Coast Stampers.  This is just one of many pop-up card types, and there is no lack of inspirational options this week, so grab a tutorial and join in with the joint challenge this week.

Pop on over to both blogs to see what all the design team members have created to inspire you Paper Lovin' Gals  and The Friday Mashup.

Happy Stamping