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.

Simple Thanks

For this card, I combined the colour wheel challenge of Less is More's 6th birthday Challenge  and the sketch of Freshly Made Sketch's FMS273. I chose a simply repetition to emphasise the graduated colours and used new (to me) product - Stampin' Up's blender brush - to graduate the colours within each flower.

Made using:
Stampin' Up: Very Vanilla Paper, Bloomin' Love Stamp, Crazy About You stamp (sentiment).
Also used Faber Castell watercolour pencils and Francheville pearls.

Balloon Sunset

I used the opportunity of the double challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches (#208) to have my first play withe the Stampin; Up 'Lift Me Up' stamps and 'Up & Away' dies. Fun! I've rotated the sketch and been a little liberal in my interpretation - hope that's okay. I also had to go with the closest colours I have, since my card habit post

dates the colours in the sketch.


Made using
Stampin; Up 'Lift Me Up' stamps and 'Up & Away' dies; Very Vanilla, Tangerine Tango and Peekaboo Peach papers; Mint Macaron and Tangerine Tango Ink,

Motorbike Valentine

I sat down at my card table absolutely determined to find a challenge that would enable me to use the 'One Wild Ride' stamp set to make a Valentine's Day card for my motorbike-loving husband - something kind of manly but still a little romantic. I found my inspiration in Stamp, Ink, Paper's Challenge 84: a tic tac toe grid from which I selected red, baker's twine and a circular element.

I'm pleased with the result, but it's extremely hard to photograph - I embossed the bike and xoxo in copper, made the circle from copper foil and used red glimmer paper for the hearts. In 'real life' the copper is quite subtle and the red stands out.
On the inside, I amused myself by combining a very girly, flourishy sentiment with motorbike tracks and a smudged edge in Chocolate chip. A final touch was a motorbike on the envelope.
I hope he likes it!

Made using:
Stampin' Up stamps: One Wild Ride, Bloomin' Love, Beautiful Ride (for the 'action' lines.
Stampin' Up paper: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, copper oil
Other products: Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip ink, copper embossing powder and heart border punch, Rosie's baker's twine, red glimmer paper (maker unknown).

Love Weddings!

It's a while since I've been to a wedding - I think I'm between generations, so to speak. But I'm sure this card will end up being used, and anyway, it was a lot of fun to make.
My inspiration for the card was three challenges: Fab Friday's Challenge #104, which asked me to use the colours Sweet Sugarplum, Soft Sky and Very Vanilla; CAS(E) this Sketch's Challenge #205, using this sketch:

and Less is More's Theme Challenge #312, 'New Beginnings'. 

I loved the colours, finding them relaxing to work with, The sketch was... well, challenging, but I resolved that tricky sentiment issue by using a double layered die cut from a set I love, First Edition Craft's Heart Dies. I also revisited the lace stamp from Grateful Bunch, finding it much easier this second time to work with (so all those attempts last time weren't wasted!).

Made Using: 

Stampin' Up: Sweet Sugarplum, Soft Sky and Very Vanilla paper, Soft Sky and Sweet Sugarplum Ink, Grateful Bunch and Shake and Celebrate Stamp sets.

Other products:  First Edition Craft's Heart Dies, Francheville Rhinestones, Kaisercraft Stitched Borders and Rosie's 'Thanks a Bunch' flowers on the inside.

Happy Holiday

This card was so much fun. I love the 'Primary' challenge at Fusion - I love bright colours, and the sketch was... well, challenging!

 It was a bit like a jigsaw working out how to piece it together.
The card is unashamedly a summer one (sorry, those of you approaching winter!) and when I made it, it was windy and cold, so I was looking forward, not out the window. Since I made it, we've had another major earthquake here in New Zealand, and many, particularly in the South Island, are suffering the consequences. I even wondered if it was appropriate to post, but then decided that I quite like how it makes me feel hopeful that there might be good things to look forward to soon.

Made using:
Stampin' Up paper (Whisper White, Garden Green, Real Red, Daffodil Delight), Pacific Point ink and 'brights' enamel dots
Craft Creations Kiwiana Christmas dies, embossing folder and stamps

Awesome and grateful

For this card, I drew inspiration from three challenges: Less is More's colour challenge #301: purple and gold; The Paper Players' theme challenge PP320 'Count your Blessings - Thankful' and Stamp, Ink, Paper's theme challenge 'Grateful'. 

I have just received Stampin' Up's new Stitched Shapes Framelits, and was pleased when the oval shape worked with the Pretty Paisleys embossing folder. I can see many happy hours fiddling around with the stitched shapes ahead!

Here's the inside: 

Made using:

Paper: Stampin Up Very Vanilla, Gold foil and Petals and Paisleys DSP

Stamps: Paisleys and Posies, Grateful Bunch

Other: Stampin' Up Stitched Shapes Framelits, Pretty Paisleys Embossing Folder