Pretty and Bright

I love the bright colours of the Pals Paper Arts combo this week, and I was excited to use it with the Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

The Fresh Prints Designer Series Paper Stack was perfect for this challenge as they feature the colours of the PPA challenge.  I chose the gorgeous Bermuda Bay and Whisper White polka dots sheet, isn't it yummy!  I was a bit stumped as to what to add to the strip across the card, until I thought about adding the lace border punched in Whisper White and added to Crumb Cake, it was a bit big so I trimmed it down and added some Real Red Candy Dots.  

Happy Stamping

Monique

Festive Friday #38

This week at Festive Friday Challenge we have a nice simple sketch which leaves you with lots of possibilities some pop on over and see what the rest of the design team have made to inspire you and join in with us - every Christmas card made is one less to rush at the end of the year!

I decided that with such a lovely big open space on the card I would do the Emboss Resist technique. Can you believe that I have never tried this one before? It is really so easy and so fun to watch it come together.  The ink used was Baja Breeze, and I built the colour up from the centre of each 'snowflake' not refreshing the dauber as I moved out so the colour became lighter. The lovely sentiment is from Greetings of the Season and I have cut it with my Apothecary Accents Framelits. 

   

Because I went with Not Quite Navy for the base of the card I wanted to put an inside layer in for writing on and decorated the corners with the same image as on the front of the card but stamped in matching Not Quite Navy.

Happy Stamping

Non-Traditional Christmas

It is not often I have been able to create mid week, however tonight I was browsing through my favourite challenge blogs and came across the Festive Friday Challenge, which this week had an interesting colour combo to use. Not traditional colours at all for a Christmas card, but I liked the look of the samples done by the design team.  Then I went looking for a sketch to inspire me and came across the Just Us Girls sketch, so I combined the two challenges to create a mid-week card!

For this card I have used the Delicate Doilies stamp set for the background, stamped in Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride.  I wanted to keep a vintagey feel to the card so embossed the ornament in a mix of Dazzling Diamonds and Clear Embossing Powder then added some pearls and twine.  The sentiment is from the Curly Cute set of sentiments

Happy Stamping

Colours of Christmas

Don't you find that at this time of year time goes so fast!  It went so fast for me that I completely missed last week's challenge at Paper Lovin' Gals! This week there is a great inspirational photo to inspire creativity, a bit different to what you might see in an Aussie Christmas, although we have had some unseasonably cold weather lately.

I love inspirational photos because there is no limitations, whatever the photo inspires you to create is just fine, whether it is colours, layout, theme, or one element of the picture. Let this picture inspire you and join us in this week's challenge. I love the colours in this picture and it made me want to use my favourite Christmas colours, which just happens to be the challenge theme for Stampin Up Only Challenges. 

From the picture I was also quite taken with the windows, and wanted to recreate them in some way on my card.  I used the Lace Ribbon Border Punch to make the frame, I have seen this done with smaller border punches and just wanted to give it a go with this one.  You need to start with a 5" square piece of card stock and punch once in the middle of each side.  In the corners I have used the Postage Stamp Punch in Cherry Cobbler and then the 1" Square Punch in the centre of each.  Can you pick what I punched out?   It is the ornament punch in the Tags 'Til Christmas stamp set, isn't it cute? I also used this set to stamp the feature in the centre of the card, and backed this with a stamped doily from Delicate Doilies. I finished off with some Rhinestones to add a bit of bling.

Happy Stamping

Freshly Made Sketches

I had a bit of inspiration this evening as I was flicking through the blogs I am following when I found the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge with this layout ...

I have been looking at this new challenge blog lately and just haven't had the time to participate, but life has settled a little so I wanted to join in.

I had made up the stamped background a while ago and thought that it would be great for this card, as I could just see the doilies and snowflakes working together with the elements of the sketch.  I am so loving the colour combo of Pool Party, Concord Crush and Wisteria Wonder together, and although you can't see it easily the doilies have been stamped onto shimmer white card stock which gives them an added frosty feel.  I just had to add a couple of rhinestones to help bling it up.

I have a bit of time on my hands the next few days, so you can expect a few more creations from me, as well as some pictures over the next week or so of the lovely gifts I have received as part of Secret Sister Swaps.

Happy Stamping