Ombre Birthday Just Add Ink #348

Good morning beautiful people, I hope you all kept cool yesterday, I had a lovely relaxing day making cards while the puppies sprawled out on the floor trying to keep cool. Today's card was one I prepared yesterday, and it is based on the Just Add Ink - Just Add Ombre challenge.

I love the look of Ombre things, so when I saw this challenge I as excited to give it a go, and I decided I had to play with one of my favourite colours, purple for this card.

     

     

I wanted to keep it pretty simple and let the Ombre speak for itself, I also decided to use up some of my white card scraps for this one, hence the two sections of the background being of different sizes, though I think it works well.

I used my ink pads and sponge daubers to create the ombre background, on top of this I decided to do a simple white embossed flower from the Butterfly Basics set to add a little interest without totally overshadowing my Ombre background.

I was originally planning to have a plain white panel next to the flower however I couldn't help having a bit more a play so I grabbed out my Gorgeous Grunge set and stamping in all three colours up the blank panel having the colours progress in the opposite direction so the lightest colour was at the bottom allowing me to stamp the sentiment where it would be most legible.

Click on the products below to purchase them and make your own masterpieces.

Butterfly Basics Clear Stamp Set [138816] $63.00	Gorgeous Grunge Clear Stamp Set [130517] $34.00
Balloon Adventures Photopolymer Stamp Set [142823] $45.00	Elegant Eggplant Solid Baker's Twine [141685] $5.25

I hope you all have an amazing Sunday, I'll be at work at the green box today, (aka Bunnings) pondering what I can create when I get home, am I the only one who is always obsessing over being back in my craft room? Have a great day and happy crafting.

Cardz 4 Guys Challenge #157

Hey everyone! I have been busy this week making cards which I sadly can't share right away but don't worry they will be up in the not too distant future, but today I decided it was past time that I sat down and made something I could share. I stumbled across a challenge blog that focuses on guy cards, and since so many of us struggle with guy cards myself included I thought this could be a fun one to give a go and maybe make a regular one that I attempt.

So today's card comes to you from the Cards 4 Guys Challenge Blog and this challenge called for no patterned paper. As I write this blog I realize I haven't actually used any patterned paper in my cards for quite some time, instead making my own background paper using stamps, so this challenge wasn't too hard for me, maybe next card I make I will challenge myself too use some.

          

     

I had fun playing with the Mixed drinks set with this one and couldn't resist pulling out the Gorgeous Grunge as well, it is my go to set for doing male cards. I just love the effects you can get to add that bit extra interest to the card without using the usual and often more feminine embellishments, like gems, ribbons ect.

I found inspiration for the layout by googling card sketches and was drawn to this one by Pamela's World although she hasn't posted anything since 2015 upon glancing over her blog it has some pretty cool resources there especially for sketches for cards and scrap booking, and I can definitely see myself frequenting her blog in the future when I am at a loss for layout inspiration.

Click on the products below to purchase them and make your own masterpieces.

Mixed Drinks Photopolymer Stamp Set [141928] $37.00

Gorgeous Grunge Clear Stamp Set [130517] $34.00

Linen Thread [104199] $8.00

Also please know if you ever want to know more about a card, the possibility of joining me in person or online for classes or any information on purchasing Stampin' Up! I am more then happy to help, just drop me a line via the contact me option above.

I respond to all comments as well so if you have commented a question please check back for an answer just in case you don't receive a notification to alert you. Well that's all from me today I am off to see what else I can make to share with you beautiful people, have a wonderful evening and I will hopefully be back with another card for you tomorrow.

Dragonfly Dreams GDP073

Hey everyone! So I have a card for you tonight, this was inspired by the Global Design Project 073 Colour Challenge. Let me just say this truly was a challenge for me, these three colours while beautiful are not ones I would usually think to put together all at once, and I actually considered just skipping this challenge thinking it was too hard for me.

However I was thinking to myself tonight while I tried to think of what I wanted to create and I realized, what is the point of doing these challenges if I pick and choose which to do based on the easy ones, where is the challenge in that? Besides, the other cards already in the challenge are all amazing, so why couldn't I step outside my comfort zone and do something cool too?

So I sat myself down and went to the internet where I googled green red and yellow inspiration, I sifted through google images and I found this image that got me thinking that maybe these colours weren't so bad together after all.

I love the vibrancy of this picture and although I wish I could have really captured the intensity of these colours, they aren't the colours for this challenge, but they did help me to come up with this card.

     

     

To accomplish this card I used the oh so succulent stamp set to stamp the background using Watermelon Wonder and Daffodil delight. I then used the splatters stamp from Gorgeous Grunge along with versamark and clear embossing powered to add 'water droplets' to the background similar to the inspiration image.

For the dragonfly, I stamped the body with Emerald envy, cut it out using the thinlits and then coloured over the entire thing with Wink of Stella to give it a bit of pop and shine.

Click on the products below to purchase them and make your own masterpieces.

Dragonfly Dreams Photopolymer Bundle [144728] $81.25

Oh So Succulent Photopolymer Stamp Set [142992] $36.50

Well that's more for tonight, time to crawl into bed before a busy day tomorrow, hope you all have an amazing time.

Another Year of Adventures - Avenue 613 #194

Welcome back to my blog! So I was scouring the Internet for something to create last night and came across the 613 Avenue Create challenge blog, I instantly loved the challenge behind sticking to 3 different criteria, CAS (Clean and Simple), something I struggle with as I tend to not know when to stop adding. Make the Sentiment the Focus, another thing I struggle with for similar reasons to my CAS issue, and use blue, a colour I often forget to reach for.

So I got excited at the prospect of a challenge and after much thinking, and a few mind changes, (I kept trying to over-complicate my idea) I finally decided on my game plan which actually would be CAS.

          

So I hope you like the card I came up with, I wanted to try and make it a little more masculine then my normal cards, because why not challenge myself to the extreme! Plus it is always helpful to have more masculine card options out there.

Click on the products below to purchase them and make your own masterpieces.

Balloon Adventures Photopolymer Stamp Set [142823] $45.00

Gorgeous Grunge Clear Stamp Set [130517] $34.00

Layering Ovals Framelits Dies [141706] $58.00

That's all from me for today I hope your day is amazing and you are able to make time for the things that relax you.

Crazy Crafters Blog Hop with special guest Shannon Lane

Welcome to the Crazy Crafters Blog Hop! This is my first one since resigning with Stampin' Up! and I am so excited to be a part of it! Today we are hopping with the very talented Shannon Lane, and the theme of the hop today is to CASE (Copy and Selectively Edit) one of her amazing cards. If you haven't seen her cards before be sure to check her out, you won't be disappointed.

I hope you have enjoyed the blog hop so far, make sure you haven't missed any of the projects by following the links at the bottom of this post, you won't be disappointed!

For this hop I came across the above card by Shannon, and although I thought I wouldn't have time to join in this hop I was instantly inspired by it and hope you like my masculine take on the amazing and effective layout she used. I just loved the simplicity of the card and how she made it pop by layering textures behind the main image and I had to give it a go.

     

     

This card came together so quickly and easily with the help of Shannon's beautiful card to lead the way and I am so thrilled with the different textures and elements of it.

Click on the products below to purchase them and make your own masterpieces.

Guy Greetings Clear Stamp Set [138828] $61.00

Gorgeous Grunge Clear Stamp Set [130517] $34.00

That's it from me for now, make sure you get around and check out everyone's amazing creations from the below list, and I hope to see you again for the next Crazy Crafter's blog hop!