Simple Lattice Blooms

Hiya!

Happy Tuesday! It's time for another great colour challenge over at the ColourQ and this week's colours are so pretty...

I seem to be in a very florally place at the moment (I keep thinking 'what flower set can I use with this combination?'), so I pulled out Simple Stems and a Bigz die I hadn't played with in a while...

I used Blushing Bride instead of Pretty in Pink, and started by rolling the Very Vintage wheel across the bottom half of the card (this will be retiring soon!) with Blushing Bride ink. I then added a Naturals White Window Frame shape to the side as well as a Whisper White Lattice die-cut (sadly, also retiring!) and trimmed both to fit. The flowers are from Simple Stems, stamped in Pumpkin Pie and Calypso Coral, with the centre one layered in three pieces with a large pearl in the middle. The leaves were die-cut from Old Olive card with the Little Leaves sizzlit (also retiring.. so sad!) and given some dimension by shaping them with an embossing tool on a foam mat. The sentiment is from Petite Pairs, die-cut with the smallest banner framelit, and I layered a dsp banner behind that. I couldn't resist adding a few more pearls to finish!

I used this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch for my layout:

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Simple Stems, Petite Pairs, Very Vintage wheel
Ink: Blushing Bride, Pumpkin Pie, Calypso Coral, Old Olive
Paper: Whisper White, Naturals Ivory, Blushing Bride, Old Olive, Epic Day dsp
Accessories: Pearls
Tools: Lattice Bigz die, Window Framelits, Secret Garden Framelits, Banner framelits

I'm also entering this into the current Seize the Birthday 'Anything Goes' challenge.

Make sure you check out the fab creations by the rest of the Royal Court this week!

Thanks for stopping by...

x Amy x

Sponged Simple Garden...

Hiya!

I'm a bit late posting my ColourQ card tonight - busy day with work and a Stampin' Up party tonight (thanks for hosting Lyn!). Here are this week's colours...

So pretty!! Well I had to make substitutions for Peach Parfait and Apricot Appeal so I used Crisp Cantaloupe and So Saffron. I was inspired by the two-tone leaves on the box in the inspiration pic so I played around with creating a similar look on my card...

I achieved the shaded look by inking the stamp up with the lighter colour, then sponging the darker colour on the edges directly onto the stamp. The flower at the bottom (from Simple Stems) was inked with So Saffron the sponged with Crisp Cantaloupe and a touch of Pumpkin Pie.

I played along with the Friday Mashup challenge this week...

As well as using the sketch, the second part of the challenge was to use spritzing or splattering so I used Gorgeous Grunge to stamp the centre oval as well as the background paper with Gold Encore ink.

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Secret Garden, Simple Stems, Happy Watercolour
Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, So Saffron, Summer Starfruit, Always Artichoke, Gold Encore
Paper: Sweet Sorbet dsp, Always Artichoke, Whisper White, Naturals White
Accessories: pearls
Tools: Ovals framelits, Labels framelits, Secret Garden framelits, square lattice embossing folder

Make sure you check out the gorgeous creations from the rest of the Royal Court this week!

Thanks for stopping by...

x Amy x

Simple Pink Blooms

Hiya!

It's time for another ColourQ challenge and this week we're going pink & red...

When I first saw these colours I was wondering how to fit that many red/pinks on one card, then I took out the new Simple Stems set and had a play combining different colours and adding shading with a blender pen. When I finished cutting and layering them then I set about looking for a sketch to play with and came across the Retro Sketches layout this week so I decided to play along, and here's what I came up with...

This is what I love about playing along with challenges - I would never have come up with this card on my own, but by combining a sketch and colour combo I can create something a bit different from my usual style. I've used a few new Spring/Summer catty goodies on this one: Simple Stems, Gold baker's twine, gold sequins and some Fresh Prints dsp.

The largest flower was stamped three times with Blushing Bride ink and I added a little shading with Melon Mambo ink (although you can't really see it in the pic!). The largest layer was die-cut with one of the secret Garden framelits while the next two layers were cut with my paper snips and layered up with dimensionals. The other flowers were both stamped twice and layered: one with Melon Mambo and one with Real Red, and both were shaded with Raspberry Ripple ink.

Here's the sketch I followed...

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Simple Stems, Hello Lovely
Ink: Blushing Bride, Raspberry Ripple, Real Red, Melon Mambo
Paper: Fresh Prints dsp, Blushing Bride, Raspberry Ripple, Whisper White, Naturals White
Accessories: Gold baker's twine, gold sequins
Tools: Secret Garden framelits

That's all from me - make sure you visit the rest of the Royal Court and be inspired by their fab creations this week!

Thanks for stopping by...

x Amy x

Simple Stems Sympathy

Hiya,

I'm popping in quickly to share a simple card I put together last night using the colour challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary, together with the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch...

I pulled out a new background stamp coming in the Spring/Summer catalogue called Hardwood, as well as the lovely Simple Stems set...

I also used the Angled Tag Topper punch (can you tell that I rather like this punch?!). I used some Island Indigo chevron ribbon, a smoky slate button and some white baker's twine to make a bow, and added a couple of Perfect Plum candy dots.

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Hardwood, Simple Stems, Simply Sketched
Ink: Smoky Slate, Perfect Plum, Stazon black
Paper: Smoky Slate, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Naturals Ivory
Accessories: Neutrals button, Regals candy dots, Island Indigo chevron ribbon
Tools: Angled Tag Topper punch

Don't forget that during Preview Week you can subscribe to the Create with Connie and Mary Spring Edition for only $24.95 - that's a $5 discount... but only during this week! And today, Debbie and Natasha both have fabulous projects for you to download, as well as blog candy up for grabs on their blog... Head on over and check it out!

Thanks for stopping by...

x Amy x

Sweet Sorbet Stems

Hello!


I've just finished my first full week at my new job and it's been great - love what I do - but am still getting used to being back to working full time for the first time in a few years. I did manage to put a quick card together this afternoon using the fabulous Retro Sketch this week, and I was inspired by the Curtain Call inspiration piece to use some of the Sale-a-Bration dsp coming at the end of Jan...

      

I didn't pay enough attention to the closing time of the Curtain Call challenge so missed it (duh!) but here's what I came up with...

I used some more new goodies from the Spring/Summer catalogue - a very pretty floral stamp set called Simple Stems, and a sentiment from another floral set: Happy Watercolour. The dsp is one of the freebies you can get during the Sale-a-Bration promotion (starts on Jan 28th). I added some Summer Starfruit ribbon and Pool Party candy dots (I tried putting a bunch of different things on the edge of the dsp panel like the sketch shows but couldn't make it work so I resorted to candy dots... they work every time I tell ya!).

Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Simple Stems, Happy Watercolour
Ink: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Stazon black
Paper: Sweet Sorbet dsp, Basic Black, Whisper White, Pistachio Pudding
Accessories: Summer Starfruit stitched ribbon, Subtles candy dots
Tools: 2 1/2" circle punch, Floral Frames framelits, envelope punch board

That's all for now... I'm off to work on my swaps for an SU training day tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by...

x Amy x