September 29, 2018

Fall Branches Bouquet

Welcome to another week at Crazy 4 Challenges! With it turning fall here in the Northern Hemisphere, we were asked to make a a fall-themed card. I’d forgotten what the challenge was but when I looked it up, I was like “YAY” as I had been working on a fall card anyway! Fun coincidence!

c4c 18 fall branches

The stamps are from the September Hero Arts kit. I stamped them in Antique Linen Distress ink but added a few stampings to the upper part of the bouquet even though the stems didn’t reach. I just painted them in as I watercoloured the image. The antique linen is so light that it doesn’t interfere with the watercolour plus it also dissolves away with the water because it’s a water reactive ink. The painting of the leaves and berries isn’t that interesting  because they are too small to add much shading.

But the vase, there’s more to talk about. I used a very damp brush to add water to the image. Then I dropped in very concentrated colour on the top, left and bottom. I allowed the paint to move on it’s own with little interference. As it started to dry a bit, I added more and more colour to the left with my board tilted slightly downwards. I loved how the paint was moving so I allowed it to dry completely on it’s own which I rarely do. When I was done, I added stamping over the background, Antique Linen in the middle and a tiny bit of Vintage Photo applied with a foam blender to the sides only. Then I added sponging in the same way with the same colours. Last, I added a warm grey shadow under the vase. I normally would add some sequins or embellishments but I wasn’t sure how I was going to use the card. There’s a high likelihood that I’ll use it for a sympathy card and I don’t bling them up like I do with normal cards.

I hope you are inspired by my card and our challenge this week. The challenge is open until Friday midnight so I hope you will pop on by and play along!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Pastel Party!

When I saw the inspiration photo for the latest Card Concept Challenge, I knew exactly what stamps and dies to use. I’ve always loved pastels so I pulled out all of my pastel cardstock scraps and my Copics and went to work.

pastel party unicorn

The stamps and dies are by Concord & 9th. They are some of my favourite stamps of all time. I used a Simon Says Stamp cloud stencil on the background with Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink. I made a small cloud-shaped shaker filled with white and clear sequins and confetti. I packed it fairly full so you always have a full window of sequins, many of which are iridescent so they reflect a rainbow of colours. But I left just enough room so they still shake around nicely.

pastel party unicorn2

The rainbow dies are unique in that they are individual arcs. This means that you don’t waste paper cutting the colours from the wrong colours as you would if the die was all one piece. I lined them up against a ruler so I’d have a nice straight bottom edge. But the arcs aren’t perfectly semi-circular so if you placed them kinda wonky-ways, they’d look fine that way too. In the top corner I added a Believe in Yourself sentiment.

pastel party unicorn3

The unicorn was coloured with Copics, I used cool greys for the body and a rainbow of pastels for the mane and tail. I have done each section in it’s own colour before but I prefer the blended look I achieved here. To finish the card I added some crystal hearts, clear sparkly sequins and added clear Wink of Stella to the rainbow arcs, the mane, tail and sentiment. You can see the sparkle in the closeup photos.

Thanks for stopping by!

Enjoy, Rebecca

Entered in:

The Card Concept #98

pastel party

September 24, 2018

Numbers Celebrate

This week at Crazy 4 Challenges we were asked to make a birthday card with numbers on it. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you probably already know that I don’t celebrate birthdays so I made a basic celebration card instead.

c4c 18 numbers celebrate

The sketch is Sketch Saturday #531. It’s a great basic sketch that was easy to work with . I grabbed some older paper, sorry but I don’t remember the names of the packs. I used an Altenew set, Label Love, for the Celebrate sentiment. The twine I tied around the panel loops through the eyelet in one way for the first wrap and through the other way for the second wrap. I like how it balances out the tag so it doesn’t twist funny. I adhered it with some foam tape.

Thanks for joining me this week! You have 5 more days to play along with this challenge so pop on over to the C4C blog to join us!

Enjoy, Rebecca

September 20, 2018

Pumpkins and Sunflowers

No!! It can’t be fall already, can it? I don’t like fall much because it means winter is close by and I hate the cold. But these images are too fun to pass up!

c4c 18 pumpkin sketch

Speaking of the images, the stamps are by Hero Arts from last year’s fall card kit. The images are all layered giving loads of colour to these simple shapes without any colouring. I researched sun flowers to come up with one that was non-traditional. There is a super pretty one that’s actually pink? They also come in a dark purple, a rich burgundy, white and yellow and the one I stamped, pink and yellow. It took me a while to come up with the perfect colour combos for both colours of the sunflowers and pumpkins but I love the final variety I was able to achieve.

C4C452Sketch

I arranged my elements according to the sketch challenge for this week at Crazy 4 Challenges. My base was some woodgrain paper then adding a gold mirrored die cut from Spellbinders. I tucked some patterned paper and lace under the gold die cut for some rustic charm and to fulfill the vertical panel on the sketch. I love the combination of rustic elements, the lace, woodgrain and autumn images, alongside the elegance of the gold die cut and embossing.

I hope you can play along with us this week! I’m running a bit late this week so you only have one more day to play! It’s a great sketch because you can do so much with it!

Enjoy, Rebecca

September 08, 2018

Ornate Heart Love Card

Whew! This summer has been so busy! I’ve taken a break from Crazy 4 Challenges for a couple of weeks but I’m back with a fun new theme. This week we were asked to make a love or thank you card for a family member. This card will likely be my sister’s anniversary card next year.

c4c 18 ornate heart love card

I took inspiration from Jennifer McGuire who has shown a couple of variations on the gate fold card on her blog in the past few weeks. I’m used to gatefold cards being made from just one piece of 5.5x8.5” paper but her way uses two sheets that size. So I tried it out for this card. For the background, I used a piece of paper from My Mind’s Eye. The ornate heart came from a Hero Arts kit from a while back. Isn’t it lovely? I stacked 5 die cuts together to make the die cut sturdy enough then covered it in Versamark and WOW Vanilla sparkle embossing powder twice. Last I added some Caramel Cream Nuvo Drops to some spots.

c4c 18 ornate heart love card2

On the inside, I added a layered Love sentiment. I used Avery Elle rose gold embossing powder for the bottom layer. I added three layers until it was nice and shiny and smooth. Then the next layer was stamped with Versamark then embossed with WOW vanilla champagne powder which has gold glitter in it. It didn’t show up very well because the gold glitter made it look splotchy. So I added some SSS Pale Blush Pink ink right on top of the embossing. It helped fill in the flourish part of the stamping.

c4c 18 ornate heart love card3

I hope you love my card because I was very proud of it! I’d love it if you would play along with us over at the C4C blog. All you have to do is make a love or thank you card for someone in your family!

Enjoy, Rebecca