Daisy Delight

I've had a break from making cards - and then a break from making them in response to challenges - but here I am again. There's not a whole lot of stamping on this card, but as I was responding to Retro Rubber's latest challenge (#84, a lovely spring image), the stamps are all from at least a year ago - the daisy from Grateful Bunch (2016 - 2017 catalogue), the sentiment from Crazy about You (2016 - 2017) and the grass from Sheltering Trees (2015-2016).
I used the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch - #267 - for the layout. I sponged some clouds to begin, and then added the die cut ones for impact.
The card:

Made using:

Stampin' Up ink: (Soft Sky, Cucumber Crush, Lost Lagoon, Rose Red); paper (Shimmery White, Lost Lagoon, Soft Sky), stamps (Grateful Bunch, Crazy about You and  Sheltering Trees, watercolour pencils (M.elon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry) sparkly dot thingies (forgotten their name!) and dies (Up and Away)

Guest design for Retro Rubber

I was extremely excited to be chosen as a guest designer by Retro Rubber - and this emotion quickly morphed into extreme nervousness!
However, the sketch was inviting and beautiful in its simplicity:

... and I do love going back to stamps that have languished a little while I'm playing with new toys. Here's the result:

For this card, I started by reverse embossing a piece of Whisper White card, using 'Falling Flowers' stamps from the 2016 - 2017 Stampin' Up catalogue, and then sponging on Marina Mist and Lost Lagoon ink. The upper card is stamped with one of the 'Petite Petals' stamps from Stampin' Up's 2015 - 2016 catalogue, in Marina Mist. The sentiment is from 'Crazy about You' stampset, also from the 2015 - 2016 catalogue. The ribbon looks like it has to be Island Indigo in colour, but I won it as a spot prize at a demonstration, so I don't know catalogue details, sorry. The matt and base card are Island Indigo and Lost Lagoon, respectively. Teh only non- Stampin' Up product I used is the little Francheville pearls.

Birthday Boy

My son's birthday is coming up, and he's been overseas for some years now, so I wanted to make a card that evoked home. I used CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge #210 as a starter:

I've experimented with a couple of things on this card. First, I'm very tentatively trying Copic markers, so used these on the vertical panel. Second, I tried embossing over black stamped images - I didn't want a totally embossed image, but a kind of fill in look. I'm pleased with the results.

The images themselves are New Zealand flora: a ponga koru (the ponga fern is the source of our national symbol, the silver fern, and the koru, or spiral shape has many meanings, among them harmony and new life); the pohutukawa tree (about which I've previously posted) and a kowhai (pronounced caw-fie) blossom. The last will remind my son, I hope, of his sister - they both got a two-blossom kowhai tattoo to represent their relationship before he left.
Made using:
Paper: Stampin' Up's Whisper White, Pacific Point. Kraft paper also - can't remember whose.
Ink: Stampin' Up's Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Basic Black, Real Red.
Embossing: Stampin' Up Gold and Real Red, American Crafts Green Glitter Finish.
Stamps: Stampin' Up Sassy Salutations and Crazy about You (both for sentiments) and craft creations Kiwiana Christmas stamps.
Other - Copic Markers: Robin's Egg Blue, Process Blue and Lapis Lazuli.; washi tape which may be Stampin' Up but I'm not sure.