Everything Wonderful for Color Hues

Hello friends!  Well, here we are at the first of March and therefore it is time for a new challenge at Color Hues!  The amazing Karen is hosting this time and has chosen a beautiful color combination!

Color Hues

I think this combo would be perfect for St. Patrick's Day/leprechauns/four leaf clovers, but instead, I had a beautiful leafy image in mind to use.  

This is from the Altenew Arched Foliage Craft-Your-Life bundle.  I mulled over many ways to use this leafy arch, by cutting it  to create various layouts but then I saw this video by Mindy Eggan aka "master ink blender" and knew I had to use her design.

To start, the die was used to cut the leafy arch, then it was stenciled with three greens (Jade, Eucalyptus, and Forest Fern) from Altenew's Frosted Foliage quad.  It's one of my favorite green color combos.  Next the die cut was embossed with the matching folder, then adhered to a second layer for more stability.  

A panel of white was then inked blended with the same colors, fading off to white on the left side, and then added to the card base.  I used foam tape to add the leaf die, cutting off anything hanging off the edge of the card.  For the gold splatter, I used Altenew's Metallic Paint set.

The stamp set has some wonderful greeting stamps, but to be honest, I was being lazy about heat embossing it in gold, so I used one in my stash that I'd previously foiled and die cut.  And, it's a lovely sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by and I encourage you take a moment to visit the challenge blog to see all the gorgeous cards by the other design team members and our wonderful guest designers Donna and Darnell.  The challenge will remain open until 9am EDT on Saturday March 14th.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef

PS - In case you missed my DT post for the Paper Players, you can find it here.   Also, I'd love it if you'd come back by on Thursday, when I have a very special surprise post! 

• Altenew Arched Foliage stencil, die and embossing folder
• Spellbinders Everything Wonderful Sentiments Betterpress plate and die
• Altenew Metallic Gold Paint
• Altenew Frosted Foliage ink quad

Earthenware Vases for the Paper Players

 Hello friends!  Today's card is for the new challenge at the Paper Players.  The lovely and amazing Ann is hosting our color challenge, choosing a gorgeous combination of colors.

Paper Players

This lovely combination had me thinking spring flowers but I pivoted to using a new die set that I received recently. 

The only Stampin' Up! cardstock I had was a piece of Mossy Meadow, the rest are from my cardstock "collection", trying to get as close as I could to the other colors, along with adding some gray and brown neutrals.

The vases and branches are from the Altenew Earthenware Vases dies set.  The blue vase was embossed using the Altenew Textured Blocks 3D folder that came with the die set.  The background is fog cardstock embossed with the Honey Bee Stamps Rustic Brick Wall 3D folder.  It was a bit too textured for layering all the other die cuts on top, so I ran it through my die cutting machine between the plates, which flattened it just enough.  

The "table" was created with the Tim Holtz Lumber 3D embossing folder and the Altenew Elegant Sayings stamp and die set provided the sentiment.  I did use a couple of Copic markers to color two branches and one set of flowers.  I left the other set of flowers uncolored, so it's more of a lighter version of coral.  The card came together quite quickly, once I settled on which cardstock I was going to use.

I look forward to seeing how you use this beautiful color combination, but before you head off, please pop over to the challenge blog here to see all the amazing cards created by my talented teammates.  The challenge will end on lucky Friday February 13th at 3pm EST.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stef

• Altenew Elegant Sayings Stamp and die set
• Altenew Earthenware Vases die set
• Altenew Textured Blocks ef
• Honey Bee Stamps Rustic Brick Wall ef
• Tim Holtz Lumber ef
• Simon Says Fog, Stampin' Up! Mossy Meadow, Tim Holtz Kraftstock Neutral, Concord & 9th Lakefront, Spellbinders Coral and Chiffon
• Copics E18 and R22

Poinsettia Christmas for Color Hues

Hello friends!  A new challenge at Color Hues has arrived and this time the incredible Nancy is hosting.  She has chosen a gorgeous color combination of teal and silver - perfect for any time of year but especially so for creating holiday cards.

Color Hues

 

Of course I decided to create a Christmas card and pulled out one of my favorite die sets, Christmas Bird Poinsettia.  The bird didn't make an appearance this time, but one day I will use it!

I really, really love this die set!  I also used a few dies from other Spellbinders die sets (listed below) to enhance the foliage around the poinsettia.

The background is a panel of Teal Topaz embossed with a snowflake folder then inked lightly with white pigment ink.  The poinsettia was cut twice from white and once from a shimmer foil, then layered.  The foliage was cut from white, the same vellum, silver metallic, Blue Spruce, Acorn and the same teal.  I may have gotten carried away with the foliage but once I started it was difficult to stop lol!  The final step was to add the foiled sentiment.

We would love to see how you choose to use these two colors!  The challenge remains open until 9am EST on Saturday November 29th.  For further inspiration, please head over to the challenge blog to see the incredible creations by my talented teammates and our two amazing guest designers Loll and Joanne!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Stef

P.S. scroll down it you'd like to catch my Paper Players post from earlier today.

All supplies listed are from Spellbinders except where noted.

• Christmas Bird Poinsettia dies
• Build-A-Wreath dies
• Envelope of Wonder dies
• Sending Joy Sentiments Press Plate and die
• Sparkling Snow 3D embossing folder
• SSS Shimmer Vellum

Funky Hello for the Paper Players

Hello friends!  Today we have a new color challenge at the Paper Players.  The amazing Jan is hosting and has chosen a wonderful fall palette.

Paper Players

Because this is the first outing for the die set I used for this card, I'll be sending my card to Darnell's NBUS challenge as well.

NBUS

It took me a while to decide what kind of fall/autumn card I wanted to create, but then I remembered my Tim Holtz Funky Foliage that was still waiting to be used after quite a while sitting in my NBUS bin, and it turned out to be perfect for this challenge!

I'll just say up front this card took quite a while to make, but I love how it turned out.  The next time I use the die set, I will start with colored cardstock rather than white to save some time.  I colored each die cut component using my Copic markers, which I'd chosen to closely represent the challenge colors.  The photos do make the "cajun" colors a bit more orange than rust-ish, but IRL they look much closer.

Next I took a background panel of Kraft cardstock, embossed it with the Tim Holtz Cracked folder, then blended dark brown ink over it for more visible texture.  The arch is black and was die cut three times and layered together before adding to the card front.  

I then added all the elements going up the left side, some with glue and others with foam squares, leaving room for the sentiment.  I actually didn't have one in mind, but a search yielded the Hello that had already been stamped and die cut.  Adding that finished things off.  I'm really happy with this funky/grungy look!

What are you inspired to create with these four colors?  I hope you'll share with us this week, we'd love to see your card in the gallery.  In the meantime, I encourage you to visit the challenge blog where my talented teammates are sharing how they used these colors.  The challenge will stay open until 3pm EST on Friday November 14th.

Thanks for visiting!

Stef

• Tim Holtz/Sizzix Funky Foliage dies
• TH/S Cracked embossing folder
• Simon Says Stamped Nested Domed Arch die
• Copics - Cajun-YR07, 18, E19; Early Espresso-E49, 47, 44, 43; Mossy Meadow-G99, 94, 82; Old Olive-YG99, 97, 95, 93; Grays-W5, 3, 1

Autumn Leaves for The Paper Players

Hello friends!  It's time for our monthly CAS Challenge at the Paper Players and this time the amazing Jaydee is hosting and is asking us to use foliage on our cards.

Paper Players

And of course, what a perfect time of year to create cards with leaves.  Just remember to keep it CAS, with minimal layers and embellishments, along with plenty of "white" space.

My card has both die cut and embossed foliage on it.

As with many, autumn is my favorite time of year and creating fall foliage is just so fun.  For the acorns and leaves, they were die cut from Distress watercolor paper, then I watercolored them using Distress inks.  

While those dried, the background was embossed and the sentiment die cut from gold, white and vellum papers.  Because I was going to adhere the sentiment to a textured background, the words were layered on top of the vellum with gold on white, then a second layer of white was added to the underside of the vellum, which seemed to give it more stability and not appear lumpy when adhered.  I saw Amy R. from Prairie Paper and Ink use that little trick and thought it was a great idea.

After the card front was assembled and added to the card base, it was finished off with three gold sequins.

Okay now, assemble those leaves and share your beautiful creation with us this week!  For more inspiration, I encourage you to visit the challenge blog (linked above) to see all the gorgeous cards created by my talented teammates.  The challenge will remain open until Friday October 24th at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us!

Thanks for visiting!

Stef

• SSS Acorn Bundle dies
• SSS Happy Autumn dies
• Spellbinders Autumn Splendor 3D embossing folder
• Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey, Carved Pumpkin, Rusty Hinge, Cracklin' Campfire, Peeled Paint, Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso and Scorched Timber Distress inks
• Altenew Antique Gold sequins