Krafty!

I was immediately drawn to the colour combination in the latest Colour Throwdown Challenge (#476; Kraft, Light Blue and White) and used those colours in Freshly Made Sketch's Challenge #320.  For the koru (swirl) shapes inside the frame, I sponged an embossing folder with blue ink and then embossed the card. I backed the sentiment with Kraft paper to give it a bit more oomph.

Made using:

Stampin' Up: paper (Whisper White, Marina Mist, Kraft) ink (Marina Mist) Quilt Builder and Celebrate You thinlits Glitter Enamel dot.

Other: Craft Creations koru embossing folder and a random bit of blue paper left over from my daughter. 

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.

Balloon Congratulations

The lovely crisp colours of Global Design Project's GDP#073:

 leant themselves to a crisp, simple design. I found such a design in CAS(E) this Sketch's #208:

I absolutely love the clouds in Stampin' Up's Lift Me Up stamp set, so took the cloud in the sketch literally. I returned to an old favourite, Balloon Celebration, for the balloons, and used a New Zealand koru pattern to emboss. I ended up sponging ink onto white card for the balloons to get the right depth of colour, and I heat embossed the sentiment in black just to add an extra crispness. 

Made Using:
Stampin' Up: Whisper White and Basic Black Paper: Lift Me Up and Balloon Celebration stamp sets, baker's twine, Watermelon Wonder, Daffodil Delight and Emerald Envy inks.
Craft Creations: New Zealand koru embossing folder
American Crafts: Black glitter finish embossing powder.