Full of Thanks for the Paper Players

Hello friends!  I just want to thank everyone who joined in my theme challenge at the Paper Players last week - we had some amazing cards in the gallery!  And now it is time for a new challenge that the wonderful Claire is hosting.  It's a color challenge and she's chosen a beautiful palette that makes me think of fall.

Paper Players

In looking through my autumn/fall stamps and dies, I found one that hadn't been used in a couple of years and thought it would work perfectly with these colors.  Except for a slight booboo I made...and fixed.

I began with stamping and Copic coloring the autumnal spray with the challenge colors, except I forgot that the only green was Old Olive.  I finished up and then it dawned on me that the bright yellow green I used on some of the leaves wasn't going to work.  Fortunately, alcohol markers are transparent, so I was able to use another color to glaze over the parts that weren't olive and avoided a redo.  After that, the image was die cut.

I wanted to keep things simple, so a panel of white was trimmed down and lightly ink blended with a brown at the bottom and the orange above.  The sentiment was stamped and die cut before both pieces were added to the panel, which was then mounted to the card base with foam tape.  All done!

What do these colors bring to mind for you?  My wonderfully talented teammates have a wonderful array of designs with these colors, so I encourage you to pay a visit to the challenge before heading off to your crafty space.  Our challenge will remain open until Friday, August 15th at 3pm EDT.  I hope to see your card in the gallery!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stef

• Simon Says Stamp Full of Thanks stamp and die
• Simon Says Stamp/CZ Design Clean Line Gratitude stamp and die
• Copics - YR18, 09, 07, 15, 21, R59, 39, 37, 35, YG99, 97, 95, 67, 63, 61, 17, 11, 05, 03, 01, V09, 06, 05, 01, E59, 57, 55

Sending Sunshine for Color Hues

Hello friends!  Here we are at the first of May and it's time for a new challenge at Color Hues.  The amazing Marcia is our host this week and has chosen a lovely color pairing of blue and yellow.

Color Hues

When I saw these colors, I had a vision of what I wanted to create and set about doing it.  See what you think.

I've had the Spellbinders Build-A-Wreath die set for quite a while (thanks to my friend and crafty enabler, Nancy!) and used just one of the flower dies to create these cute sunflowers.  They were cut twice with a lighter and a darker shade of yellow, layered up and a brown center added.

For the background, the Altenew Trellis die was cut from white to layer on the blue base layer.  The sentiment was cut twice from white and once from the lighter shade of yellow, layered up and added to the white base.  It was centered on the card then the flowers were added on each side.  The sentiment and flower centers were brushed with a glimmer pen and the final step was to randomly add a few clear sequins.

What are you inspired to create with these colors?  To see what the team did, head over to the challenge, where my talented cohorts and our lovely guest Nance have some fabulous cards to share.  The challenge will remain open until 9am EDT on Wednesday, May 14th.  Won't you please come join us?

Take care!

Stef

• Spellbinders Build-A-Wreath dies
• Altenew Scripty Sentiments dies
• Altenew Garden Trellis Cover die

Hello, Sunshine for Color Hues

Hi friends, welcome back!  It's time for a new challenge at Color Hues and this time I chose the combination of red and yellow because it is just so summery.  However, as you'll see if you pop over to the challenge blog, my amazing teammates used these colors in a wonderful array of designs!  

Color Hues

I had many possibilities running through my mind when I chose these colors, but ultimately I just had to go with sunflowers!

When Simon Says Stamp released both the Bountiful Sunflower and the Little Sunflower Bloom in June, I knew that's what I'd be using for this card.  The flowers were die cut from Distress Watercolor paper, then colored with Distress Watercolor pencils.  However, the colors just weren't vibrant enough for me, so I added color and shading using Copic markers.

After toying with various different options for the background, I ended up using a trellis cover plate die cut in white over a panel of dark brown card stock that was adhered to a white card base.  Before adhering the background together, the panel of brown along with the three sunflowers were lightly splattered with gold metallic paint.  While the paint dried, the sentiment was die cut from matte gold paper and added to a white shadow die that had been layered on two additional die cuts.  The card was then assembled and I called it done!

So what will you be inspired to create with these colors?  I hope to see your card in the gallery - the challenge remains open until 9:00 a.m. Monday, August 28th.

Take care!

Stef

Dies:  Simon Says Stamps Bountiful Sunflower Blossom, Little Sunflower Bloom and Hello, Sunshine sentiment dies; Altenew Garden Trellis Cover die

Paper:  Distress Watercolor, Neenah Solar White, SSS Dark Chocolate and Matte Gold

Distress Watercolor Pencils:  Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, Lumberjack Red

Copics:  YR27, 24, Y15, 11, R59, 46, 27, E59, 47

Other:  Gansi Tambi Starry Colors Metallic paints

Super Sunflowers

Hi, friends!  Thought I'd pop in with a quick post sharing my card for the current challenge at Color Throwdown.

CTD 755

These colors worked perfectly for a new die set I received earlier this week!

I am so smitten with the delightful Simon Says Stamp Super Sunflower Plate.  Love all those cute sunflowers!  Initially I planned to use Distress Watercolor pencils for coloring the sunflowers, so I die cut a panel from Distress Watercolor cardstock.  But after testing the colors on a scrap, I just wasn't achieving the vibrance that I wanted, so I ended up using my Copic markers, which work fine on w/c paper.

 

For the background, I ended up die cutting a trellis cover plate from Neenah Desert Storm (sorry, it looks gray in the photos), adhered that to the card base then added the sunflower panel.  I then used the Super Sunflower die to cut another panel from white cardstock, snipped off everything (which I saved), leaving just the frame.  It and the die cut sentiment were colored with a red Copic marker, then the frame was stacked on card front.  Glossy Accents was added to both the frame and sentiment, and when dry, the sentiment was added to the card front atop a vellum shadow.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're having a great weekend.  I'd love for you to come back on both Wednesday, where I'll have a reminder card for The Flower Challenge, and Thursday, where I'll share another sunflower card for the new challenge at Color Hues!  Hope to see you then!

Take care!

Stef

Dies:  Simon Says Stamp Super Sunflower Plate and Hello, Sunshine dies; Altenew Garden Trellis Cover die

Paper:  Neenah Solar White and Desert Storm, Distress Watercolor, Lawn Fawn Pearlescent Vellum

Other:  Ranger Glossy Accents

Copics:  R46, YR27, 24, Y15, 11, E59, 37, YG67, 17, 03

Fall Sunflowers

Hello and welcome!  I have a card to share with you that I made for the challenges at Double D, where the theme is sunflowers, and The Paper Players, where the lovely Ann has given us a fun Tic Tac Toe board.  I'm joining the Double D challenge at the last minute and took a look at the new PP challenge and saw that my card worked for it as well (die cut, leaves/pumpkins, embellishments).

Double D - Sunflowers

PP565

I've had this amazing slimline stamp with sunflowers for a while and this was the perfect opportunity to ink it up.

The image was stamped in brown amalgam ink which works with both watercolor and Copic markers, the later of which I used to color the image.  There's so much detail that it actually took me a couple of afternoons to color and complete the card.  After everything was colored, a rectangle die was used to cut down the panel, then I used gold metallic ink to add splatter and a gold edge.  

The hello sentiment was die cut twice from white cardstock and once from gold matte then layered together and added to the vellum shadow.  The vellum shadow was die cut with double sided adhesive on the back so it could be added to the card without any adhesive showing through.  It works so slick!  The colored panel was matted on a kraft layer, then added to the ivory card base with thin foam tape.  The last touch was to adhere a few gold baubles for a bit of bling.

Thanks for taking time to stop by!  Take care!

Stef

PS - scroll down if you want to see my DT card for Sunday Stamps.

Stamps:  Slim Fall Sunflowers (Stampendous)

Paper:  Ivory (Simon Says Stamp), Neenah Desert Storm, Matte Gold (SSS), Vellum

Ink:  Gina K Chocolate Truffle Amalgam

Other:  Gansi Tambi Starry Colours metallic paint, Big Scripty dies (Ellen Hutson), Gorgeous Golden Baubles (Trinity Stamps), Copic markers