Reverse Confetti

Encouraging cat

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Hello there – again! I said I would be able to find some time to play this weekend. These two cards – just varied in orientation – was inspired by a few challenges. I was able to merge several challenges together with this card – how lucky am I?

The colours were inspired by Color Throwdown, the layout by a sketch from Atlantics Heart Challenge, the sentiment from CASology, and using die cuts from Pause, Dream, Enjoy challenge and 4 Crafty Chicks. Phew…….

I did wonder what I could make using those three colours, but the inspiration from the design team is amazing, and really – there doesn’t seem to be any limits with these colours – from flowers to birds, to winter, to abstract. Great inspiration from the team.

I went with cats as I have two black cats, and whilst I was reading, having a coffee, and stroking one of my cats – my Altenew Modern Cats stamp and die set came to mind.

I was thinking that perseverance and encouragement are exactly what a cat is all about. So, my take on the CASology cue word – keep working at it, whatever it is. I encourage you to play and work hard, and not to lose sight of what your end goal is – ‘don’t quit your day dream’! (end of philosophy!)

Not even finishing the chapter – I went straight to my craft room and created these cards.

The base card is Narwahl from Lawn Fawn, and I die cut a Reverse Confetti ‘Squared Off’ cover panel using Creative Expressions ivory looking card. As I wanted a grey border around the cover panel, I then carefully placed my Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die over it – just to take a little bit of an edge off.

The cat and ball of wool were stamped with Versafine black onyx, and die cut with the matching die set. I did have to put a white dot for the eyes with a white gel pen. I set them to one side, then stamped the sentiment from Altenew ‘Painted Inspiration’, before thinking about placement.

I did the two cards, as I wasn’t convinced which one I preferred. Portrait? Landscape? Does anyone have an opinion on that?

I think my preference is the portrait one………we should have a vote!

As I mentioned, I will be entering into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – grey, black, ivory

Atlantics Heart Challenge – sketch

CASology – cue word ‘Encourage’

Pause, Dream, Enjoy challenge – use die cuts

4 Crafty Chicks – anything goes with dies/punches

 

Altenew Blissful Bud

Hello everyone. I’m back home in UK, and I’m struggling a little with the time difference coming this way. Very unusual. I usually struggle going the other way….it’s taken me a couple of days to get my crafting head back on. I really enjoyed searching through my sister’s stash, so many things I haven’t got, but now I am back I can concentrate on my own things.

These cards are mainly from Altenew ‘Blissful Bud’, and I haven’t had time to play with them until today. It just happens I am playing with them when the cue card from CASology this week is:

So, out came my Altenew inks, and I set to playing. I used the blues and yellows, as I know that I can layer them well, but with some other colours I still struggle. I played with the position of the bud itself, putting it in different areas of the card, and even angled the stem in different ways so it wasn’t straight all the time.

The sentiments from that stamp set are also lovely, and I chose the ‘warm hello’ to enter the card challenge, but used a few others, too. I used my wonky rectangles to cut the main piece of card out, then added different colour card bases for some variety.

I also played with the Stampin Up ‘Tranquil Tulips’ stamp set, which had been waiting for me when I got home from Canada. A hostess stamp set, which was a lovely surprise from my chosen demonstrator. (Shell Bower)

This set has images which give a water-colour effect when stamped, and has a few flower images as well as tulips. You can see one example in the photos above – the Happy Birthday card – but I also played with the layout of another one I stamped:

I stamped the tulip, then die cut that piece of card using Reverse Confetti ‘Vertical Stripes Cover Panel’, stuck down the surrounding part of the die cut flat, then raised each individual stripe with 3D foam………I may be trying that with some of my other cover plate dies, as I like the effect.

As well as the CASology challenge, I shall also be entering the ‘best bud’ card into the current challenge from Addicted to CAS, with the theme of ‘friends’.

Red flowers

Happy Sunday everyone. Craft day again – well, hubby is golfing, so I am playing too.

This card was composed from the background called ‘Squared Off Cover Panel’ from Reverse Confetti. This is a new buy from Seven Hills Crafts – ordered one day, and delivered the next. Always fabulous service.

Anyway, I knew I wanted to use this cover panel, and cut it twice – once in white, and once in a browny/goldy card from Creative Expressions. I then placed a piece of double sided sticky sheet on the back of the white panel, and placed the browny squares back into the white die cut. I stuck this down onto a plain white card base.

Now to the flowers – back to my old favourite from Altenew, the ‘Adore You’ stamp and die set. Love ’em, love ’em! I took some Crafters Companion satin red and satin green card, stamped using my Ranger Perfect Medium, and embossed with detail bright gold embossing powder. Now, you have to be quick with this embossing, as I have found the coating on this particular card isn’t exactly heat proof! (Trust me, I found out the hard way) So, I heat embossed from the back of the card……wish I’d thought of that first!

Anyhoo, I then cut out the flowers and leaves, and arranged them around the cover plate, took a photo so I could place them back again, and glued down with Pinflair glue gel. This gel gives some time to move things around a little, and you can then even stick the leaves underneath.

The sentiment is from that same stamp set.

I shall be entering this into the following challenges:

Altenew July 2017 inspiration – photo inspiration (colours and flowers)

Time Out Challenges – Inspirational words

Just Us Girls – something old +/- something new

Allsorts Challenge – photo inspiration (colours and flowers)