CTC #143 - Eclectic Expression

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty, a challenge hop where we take inspiration from a section in one of the Stampin' Up! catalogues. The isnpiration can come from a card layout, colour scheme, technique or something else that catches your eye.

This week we are taking our inspiration from the Artistic Expression section of the Annual catalogue, pages 132 - 181. This is another big section of the catalogue full of amazing projects made by the creative team at Stampin' Up!

I took my inspiration from the card above which can be found on page 137 of the catalogue. 

I kept fairly close to the original sketch and used the wonderful Colour Theory DSP Stack, using one of the ombre Old Olive sheets. I used some of the cut outs from the lighter area of the card and added them to the bottom of the front panel, I think this gives nice contrast and makes that element more proment than on the original card.

I held with the Oh So Eclectic Bundle for the images and sentiment. I love the look of the sentiment with each word cut out.  I plan to send this to a special friend who I have not seen in some time.

   

Thanks for hopping around to see what the design team have created. If you would like to join in just add a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook Page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what Megan has been inspired to create this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CI #16 - Let it Snow

Colour INKspiration Design Team is made up of a group of Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from the South Pacific Region. The challenge runs on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month, using an inspiration photograph to choose the colour palette.  We would also like to welcome guest designer, and stamping buddy of mine Cathy for this challenge.

This week we are taking inspiration from the image above using the following colours:

• Whisper White
• Dapper Denim
• Sahara Sand 
• Basic Grey

Still having fun with my new Christmas bundles I couldn't resist using both Merry Little Labels and Carols of Christmas on this card. The feature panel is made by stamping the image three times and trimming down two of these so that just the top of the image peeks out each side of the main image.  I also layered a Dapper Denim punch out under each of the stamped images to make them stand out from the silver doily. I used the curve of the tree framelits to make a mask and sponged Basic Grey to create the snow drifts.

I also had a lot of fun with my Wink of Stella pen on this card, you can see here how I added a little to the base of the trees and along each of the branches to give the appearance of snow.

I also used Wink of Stella on the Basic Grey layer under the cut out images at the top of the card, this photo really shows how sparkly it looks in the right light!  I love how a little bit of Wink can really make a card popl

  

I hope you have been inspired to join in with the challenge, just use the challenge colours to create a project and upload a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook Page.  This would be a great colour combo to make a masculine card for Father's Day which is just around the corner. 

  

Time to hop on over and see what the talented Tanya has been inspired to create.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #142 - Love and Sympathy

Welcome to another week at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, a challenge hop that takes inspiration from a different section of one of the Stampin' Up! catalogues each week. The creative team at Stampin' Up! are so talented and fill our catalogues full of great samples which are perfect to use as inspiration to create our own projects, whether it be the layout of a card, the colour scheme used or maybe even the technique. 

 This wee we are taking another look at the Love and Sympathy section of the Annual Catalogue, pages 86 - 101. 

I took my inspiration this week from the card above on page 97 of the catalogue.  I am not sure what it was about this card that caught my eye, maybe the flowers, maybe the ribbon.

I decided to use one of the bundles I purchased recently, Lovely Inside and Out, and paired it with Framelits from Layering Circles, Stitched Shape Framelits, and Flourish Thinlits.  I was inspired also by the lovely Denita Wright-Smee when she layered Thinlit cut flowers over vellum.  I think it is perfect for this card where I wanted them to stand out from the background without having a solid colour. 

I used some of the lovely Bundle of Love Specialty DSP on the background rather than the watercolour look on the original.  I kept the Fresh Fig colours from the original as I think it gives stunning contrast to the Pool Party. The inside of the card is finished off with some of the new Metallic Washi Tape coming in the Holiday Catalogue.

  

I hope you are inspired to join in the challenge this week, just take inspiration from the Love and Sympathy section of the catalogue and add a picture of your project on the CTC Facebook Page. 

  

Time to hop on over and see what the talented Mel has been inspired to create this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

Freshly Made Daisy

I have been having fun today, this is my second challenge entry of the day, it is so great to be creative!  This time I am using the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, I can't believe they are up to #301 already!  I can't remember the last time I played along.

I decided to base my card on the Delightful Daisy DSP and Bundle, initially I had the DSP the other way around, but the daisy stood out better on the green. Adding some gold edged trim, sequin trim and a gold faceted gem.  The Daisy I stamped on water colour paper using Calypso Coral, then used an aqua painter to run over the image, adding Crushed Curry in places. My aim was to replicate the images in the DSP on the bottom panel. I re-stamped the daisy over the blur of colour once it had dried. The sentiment is from Happy Birthday Gorgeous, I just love the font of these sentiments, block fonts but with a whimsical flourish.

Happy Stamping
Monique

Fab Christmas

Recently I have shifted how I prioritise my spare time, and one of the great things about this is that I have been more inspired to create, and have had more time to browse through my Feedly feed to see what challenges catch my eye.  This sketch is one that got my attention and is from Fab Friday challenge.    

Still enjoying my new Christmas Bundles and am planning a class using them in early September so I thought I would use them in my entry for the challenge.  It took a bit of playing around but I am really happy with this, I think my favourite part is the three strips of Washi Tape and the poinsettia flowers.  I also really like how simple it is, which is great for Christmas cards which have to be made in bulk. 

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #141 - Birthday Turned Christmas

Welcome to anothe rweek at CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, a challenge hop that takes inspiration from a different section of one of the Stampin' Up! catalogues each week. The creative team at Stampin' Up! are so talented and fill our catalogues full of great samples which are perfect to use as inspiration for us to create our own projects, whether it be the layout of a card, the colour scheme used, or maybe its the technique used.

This week we are taking our second look at the Birthday section of the Annual Catalogue, pages 68-85. 

I took my inspiration from the top card in the image above from page 80 of the catalogue. I think it is a great way to showcase some of the beautiful Designer Series Paper that Stampin' Up! has to offer. 

It seems I am ready to embrace Christmas, with my order of sneak peek products arriving recently I have been really excited to try them out.  To that end I used some of the new mega-suite Merry Little Christmas, more specifically the new Merry Little Christmas DSP and the Carols of Christmas Bundle of stamps and coordinating framelits. I figure Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ, so it really is just sticking to the birthday theme!

I am loving the framelits from this bundle, the trees are just great but I think the little deer is my favourite and you are going to see a whole lot more of it on my Christmas projects this year. 

  

I hope the crew are inspiring you to join in with us this week, if so use one or more of the projects in the Birthday section of the catalogue to create your project, then add a photo of it on the CTC Facebook Page. 

  

Time to hop on over and see what the lovely Elizabeth has been inspired to create this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CI #15 - Oh So Eclectic

Colour INKspiration Design Team is made up of a group of Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from the South Pacific Region. The challenge runs on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month, using an inspiration photograph to choose the colour palette. We would like to welcome a new guest designer for this challenge - Erin Gunson.

I loved this image the moment I saw it, the colours are just beautiful together and it makes me think of an exotic holiday destination! The colours for this challenge are:

• Elegant Eggplant
• Bermuda Bay
• Lemon Lime Twist
• Pool Party

I love playing with a new stamp set, even more so when it is part of a bundle!  This set is not new to Stampin' Up! but is new to me, arriving on my doorstep last Friday. It seemed perfect for this challenge.  I stamped the solid flower image in Elegant Eggplant onto Watercolour paper and then spritzed gently to allow the colour to run slightly.  I think it looks perfect with its mottled tones behind the solid colour cut with one of the framelits.

Bit of a funny story, I had intended for this to be a portrait orientated card, with the geometric cut outs on the right hand side.  But I manged to stick it onto the card upside down!  Rather than trying to un-stick all the Dimensionals I decided to keep the landscape orientation and add the sentiment stamped onto DSP.

Have you ever struggled to get layers to stick well to Burlap Ribbon?  Here you can see my solution - use a staple to affix a circle of cardstock to the ribbon and you have a nice clean flat surface to adhere the flower to.  The added benefit of this is that it is great at holding the ribbon in place. You can see here one of the embossed images from the framelits in the bundle, which you would have seen more of on the finished card if I had stuck it on straight!!!

  

If you would like to join in with this challenge just use these colours on your project and add a picture of your project to the CI Facebook Page. 

  

Time to hop on over to see what the talented Denita has created with this beautiful colour combo.

Happy Stamping
Monique

CTC #140

Welcome to another CASEing the Catty Sunday Blog Hop, a challenge in which we take inspiration from sections of the current Stampin' Up! catalogues. The creative team at Stampin' Up! are so talented and the catalogues are full of their ideas and samples. Inspiration can come from the layout of a card or project, a colour scheme or a technique, or be inspired in some other way.

This week we are taking inspiration from the "For Babies and Kids" section, pages 102 - 111 of the Annual Catalogue.

I took my inspiration this week from the cute little card on page 107.

I have used the sketch as inspiration for this Christmas card, I think I was motivated because my new Carols of Christmas bundle arrived on my doorstep on Friday and I was just itching to use it.  Also included was the Merry Little Labels bundle from my pre-order and the sentiment off one of the tag stamps in that set was perfect for this card.   

For the card I used the same framelit on the main panel to make a mask and sponged the stars onto the background. I also used gold, silver and Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper  to add detail to the main panel. The trees are sponged with White Craft Ink to give the impression of show on the branches. 

  

We hope you are being inspired to join in the challenge this week, simply take inspiration from the Babies and Kids section of the catalogue and upload a picture of your project to the CTC Facebook page.

  

Time to hop on over and see what our lovely guest designer Linda has created this week.

Happy Stamping
Monique