Theme photo @ STAMPlorations

Morning and welcome back!
STAMPlorations have been on their summer vacations but the DT are rested and raring to go with the new revamped challenges. Instead of being on the CUTplorations team, I'm hoping to inspire you with the rest of the theme and photo challenge team!
So without further ado here is my first card.

It was inspired by this photo.

My focus was on the bowl of flowers in the centre and went from there.
I started by masking off the top half of the vase from the Just Because set and stamping on a panel of black with Versamark, then heat embossing with gold EP. The group of succulents from Thankful and Blessed set were stamped in Versamark so that they hung over the edge of the stamped bowl. More gold embossing  followed. Then I added the rim of the bowl free hand with a Versamark pen and heat embossed with gold EP.
As I stamped on black, I used my Prismacolour pencils in white, tan, green, blue and purple to colour the image. Using the smallest of the Crazy double stitched rectangle die cuts, I cut out the finished image, mounted it on a slightly larger panel of gold, then onto a plain black card base. The thank you, from For the Birds, was stamped and embossed with the same gold EP to complete.

So what will inspire you we'd love to see, so please share with us in the gallery.

DT inspiration over at Uniko

Good morning peeps, it's my turn to inspire you over at Uniko.
For this post I took my inspiration from a couple of challenges out there. I often use challenges to fire up the mojo and after first seeing the colours at Color Throwdown, I knew my palette, then when I saw the photo at ATSM, I knew I should get my English Country Garden set out!

Please check out the Uniko blog for all the details.

Joining in over at:-

     

Inchie panel trees

Good morning folks.
The sunny weather of last week is a thing of memory, as autumn takes a grip.
At least we managed to finish the hay, although it was only large bales and not the small square ones we would have liked but still days however warm are not conducive to proper hay making. Better to get something though than loose the whole crop, which was a possibility.
Anyway its time for a new challenge at Cardz4Guyz where our theme this time is -

TREES or LEAVES or BOTH

The trees are showing a little colour, mainly berries it has to be said, but it wont be long before the fireworks really start. I love the colours of autumn but not necessarily the chilly weather that comes with it.

I was thinking of something that to do that would satisfy the theme and remembered that CAS Mix up were featuring inchies in their challenge, so off I went and produced this.

I used a Creative Expression rubber stamp that I had success with last year here. Initially I was trying to find another image to use but loved the trio of trees so used it with a slightly different technique.
The stamping was done similarly to last years, using Zig Markers and small ink pads to add colour to my stamp then spritzing it with water and then stamping. To get more detail, I added some stamping without spritzing and also added some freehand trunks and branches with a fine water colour brush.
Each of my inchies, made from Mixed Media paper, were popped up on brown fun foam then added to a kraft card back panel, leaving a slight gap between each one. A simple stamped greeting from Uniko on a MFT die cut banner completes. The kraft panel was added to a 51/4" square card.

So that's about it from me, but please check out the rest of the Cardz4Guyz team here for more masculine card inspiration.

I'm joining in over at:-

 

My choices - Inking with markers, watercolouring, blending with brush, spritzing, funky foam

     
Trees and Leaves                                                         

Uniko September Challenge

Good morning folks.
It's been a lovely autumnal week herein the UK, the hay has finally been cut and hopefully soon baled and although the days are pleasantly warm, the evenings have a definite autumn chill to them.
Soon the leaves will start to change to their wonderful autumn hues,
So it's rather appropriate that the latest challenge over at Uniko has an autumnal theme, or you can just stay with the anything goes theme if you prefer.
Here is my card to inspire you.

This uses those small stamps that we all have, often mixed in with other images. I rooted through my Uniko sets and found quite a few sets with small leaf images, Big and Bold Hello, Nature's Treasures, Originally Organics Additions and Wonderful Day.
Using the small leaves from Nature's Treasures and a wreath builder template, I stamped away using autumnal colours on an off white card panel.

Next I made a tri-panel card by cutting a panel of burnt orange card stock to 41/2" x 131/2" from some large card I got a couple of years back in Lidl, then score at 41/2" and 9".  It's a larger size than A4 and enables me to make such card bases without having to join up two 41/2" square cards which is the other option.
After gluing my trimmed panel to the front of my card, I then used a circle die to cut an aperture through both front panels.

Folding the right hand panel into the middle, you may need to trim a sliver off this so it sits without buckling, I popped the card into the MISTI and stamped the sentiment from the Wonderful Day set with Versamark before embossing with gold EP.

A panel of plain card was added to the inner panel to add a hand written note without it showing at the front.

So that's all from me but please check out the rest of the team here.

Joining in over at:-



Anything Goes, no twist

     
               
                   Autumn Colours                 

Die cut wild flowers and a resist inked panel

Do you love CAS cards or are you wanting to improve your CAS creations? Well there's a new blog on the block that might just help you, its called Perfectly CAS and their first challenge starts today.

I was lucky enough to be asked by Kylie, ATSM and HLS, to be on the team so hope I can come up to scratch!

Here is my first card for you.

I kept my design CAS by only using 1/3rd of the front of my card, keeping my sentiment within that 1/3rd also. Here are a few more pointers to help you create a CAS card.

To make the coloured panel, I stamped Penny Black background stamp with Versamark onto a an 3" by A5 panel of white card, then inked it with DI when totally dry. The Versamark acts as resist to the ink, leaving a subtle background.

I trimmed the A5 panel down to be roughly 1/3rd the width of my card, adding a narrow border to it by matting with white card. The 2 die cut wild flowers are from Sizzix, placed on the panel, leaving the bottom roughly 1/4 empty. I initially decided to crop off the bottom of the inked panel leaving a gap for my die cut and stamped greeting. However I later decided to add a bit of the cropped off, inked panel back, before finally gluing the 'Sending' die cut in place, popping both parts of the panel panels up on pads.

That's it really.

So please check out the rest of the fabulous team over at Perfectly CAS and then why not join in?

Joining in over at:-

Use a die cut word/s on your card