Aug 6, 2009 | Uncategorized |
Hi everyone!
I’m sitting at home right now waiting for someone to finish installing the dishwasher (one of the many things we’ve had to sort since moving house – I am never moving again if I can help it!!). So I thought I’d put this blog post up while I wait.
Janet this week has a colour challenge for the
Corrosive Challenge #23, this I can handle a little easier than the inspiration picture she had last week, I just couldn’t do that one! However, this was still a bit of a challenge for me. We had to use the colours Pumpkin Pie, Bermuda Bay and Ruby Red. We don’t have Bermuda Bay (it’s a US in-colour) so I substituted Tempting Turquoise.
The tough part with this colour challenge for me was that all three of those colours are really strong ones – kind of “in your face” type of colours that I would normally use individually with something a little softer (or only use one other colour). So I knew I ran the risk of making something hideous, if I didn’t nut it out carefully!
So I followed the general rule that I mentioned in my last post – use progressively smaller amounts of each colour so as not to have it scream “I’m out of balance” at me. I chose Tempting Turquoise as my main colour, then Pumpkin Pie, and just a hint (relatively speaking) of Ruby Red.
I made this card to give to a little boy who is turning 5 shortly. We’re going to his birthday party this weekend. I figure it’s safe to post this here since I don’t think his Mum knows about my blog.
I used Pun Fun for the rocket and the sentiment (Tip: with that set, carefully cut the sentiments away from the images, mount the sentiments on the sides of the blocks so you can just ink up the images easily and use the sentiments separately without needing to use a marker to ink them up). I stamped the rocket on watercolour paper using Basic Brown (you need a waterproof ink when colouring so couldn’t stamp it in any of the colours from the challenge) and coloured it in with a blender pen and my ink pads. I did do a little shading with Going Gray around the rocket to give it a bit of oomph but I hope Janet will forgive me that little addition!
The Pumpkin Pie patterned DSP is retired I’m afraid, from last year’s Jersey Shore. It worked so well with this card I thought. If I hadn’t had this in my stash, I’d have just stamped a subtle background onto a piece of Pumpkin Pie cardstock.
With the sentiment I stamped it out on Whisper White cardstock, then punched it out with the small oval. Layers using the large oval and Designer label punches finish it off.
So, how did I do? Not too “in your face”? Thanks Janet for stretching me!
Have a great day everyone! I’ll be back again soon with another project from one of my workshops recently (wow, so many blog posts in one week, this must be a record for me!). In the meantime, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to e-mail me (click
here).
Aug 4, 2009 | Uncategorized |
Good morning!
As promised, I have another Spring Mini project to show you today. I demonstrated this one at a workshop on Sunday, where Rachael (yes, we share the same name, hi Rachael!) was keen to learn how the Colour Coach works. I thought it was a great opportunity to showcase products from the Spring Mini, show how to use the samples in our catalogues for inspiration, and teach the ladies about the Colour Coach, all with one project.
A good tip for using colour combinations you’re not sure of, is to use progressively smaller amounts of each colour. On the Colour Coach itself it says to use each colour and make it about half of the previous colour you’ve used. That’s just a rough guide, don’t go trying to somehow measure the amount you’ve used! The main colour on this card is Brocade Blue, I love that blue and wanted to feature it for something a little different as I haven’t really showcased it before (how can that be?!). So using the Colour Coach, I had Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, More Mustard and Pumpkin Pie colours to work with. If you have a Colour Coach, check that out – and if you don’t have one, you can always
e-mail me to order it!
Next I looked in the Spring Mini, as I wanted to use products from there for the demonstration. The card using Forest Friends on page 12 (that set is oh-so-cute, and great value at $28.95!) caught my eye. I changed the card dimensions to make a standard size card, and that meant I had a large space down at the bottom of the card. So instead of stamping the sentiment on the side edge of the card as in the Spring Mini, I chose a larger sentiment from Cheer & Wishes and stamped it at the bottom instead. Cheer & Wishes is on page 112 of the main catalogue and I think it’s an often over-looked set. At $39.95 for 6 stamps covering a wide range of occasions, I think it’s a fabulous set to have. I love the font they’ve used for “Warm wishes”, particularly!
Anyway, back to this card. I changed the ribbon to the Chocolate Chip Taffeta (one of my favourites!), showing the ladies an easy way to add a knot to a project, and used my markers to ink up the tree. As you can see, the amounts of More Mustard (the bunny) and Pumpkin Pie (one of the new flower brads – yum!) on the card are very small; by just adding a touch of those colours it makes the card “pop” but doesn’t scream “I’m trying to use lots of colours” in your face! Another good tip is to make sure you’ve got plenty of a neutral colour in the card – such as white or vanilla, depending on what other colours you’re using.
I hope this gives you a few tips on how to take inspiration from Stampin’ Up!’s catalogues and working with colour combinations you haven’t tried before.
Have a great day!
Aug 3, 2009 | Uncategorized |
Morning everyone!
I don’t know what you all think about our new goodies in the Spring Mini, but I’m having a ball playing with everything! Karen had her
Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #29 up when I went to check yesterday, and I love this week’s sketch! I don’t know how you do it Karen, but ideas seem to pop straight into my head when I see your sketches! I’m supposed to be making about 50 cards for a couple of swaps I’m doing (in the next two weeks – yikes!) but couldn’t resist the challenge this week.
For this card I used several products from the new Spring Mini – first, the card base is actually our new textured specialty DSP, Parisian Breeze. Wow this paper is just gorgeous! It’s a little more expensive than our other DSP, $27.95 for 12 sheets (plus shipping) because it’s thick enough to use as a card base as I’ve done here. The fabulous part about that is that I’ve got a beautifully patterned inside of my card without any effort on my part! My card is 3″ x 6″ so in fact I could get 4 base cards from one sheet of DSP, that doesn’t work out too bad at all cost-wise. Hmm, might have to do that…
The second new product I used was one of the individual stamps that we have in the Spring Mini. Fun Flowers is a cute little image that I used for my focal point, I stamped it on Whisper White cardstock using Baja Breeze ink and cut it out. I mounted it on a scalloped square punched from Kraft cardstock, then used Dimensionals to layer it onto my Chocolate Chip patterns DSP from the main catalogue. That was mounted onto a piece of Kraft cardstock and I added a row of pierced holes on each side for a bit of added dimension (I think they work well with the dots on the Parisian Breeze DSP). I often add a little piercing on my projects as it can lift an otherwise boring layout and it’s the cheapest way I know to embellish your work, once you have purchased the mat pack!
The “Thank You” image is also from the Spring Mini. Can you find it in there? It’s from the Elegant Thank You stamp on page 3. I simply used a Chocolate Chip marker to ink up just the words, stamped it onto Whisper White cardstock and cut it out into a little banner. It’s attached using one of the oh-so-yummy corduroy buttons in Baja Breeze, also in the Spring Mini. I love these! (If you’re reading this Dale, yes I do now have a sample to show you – and they are fabulous!). There’s also a couple of Dimensionals behind my little banner, as with the layers on the left hand side, it needed to sit up a bit from the card base.
I have to show you the inside of the card as well, I love the pattern in this DSP. I often add a Whisper White or a Very Vanilla insert to my cards, especially where the card base is a dark colour, so that it gives you a clear space to write your message. Adding an insert makes the card a little thicker and I think, a bit more luxurious. I usually do a little simple stamping to the insert and here I’ve used one of the images from Great Friend, one of my favourite new sets from the Spring Mini.
And that’s it! You won’t hear me say this often (I’m my own worst critic), but I love this card. The photos really don’t do it justice, you need to see it in real life. I love how quickly the idea came to me, and how easy it was to put together. Thanks again Karen!
If you live in NZ and you would like a hard copy of the Spring Mini, contact me (
click here) and I can get one to you pronto. While you’re waiting, you can view it online – just click on the picture of the Spring Mini in the sidebar.
I hope I’ve given you a little inspiration today, be sure to check back soon as I’ve got more Spring Mini samples to share with you this week!
Happy stamping!
