Awesome...Thanks for Spring

Oh boy! this ended up being a tricky challenge. Maybe its because our seasons are the opposite and while the northern hemisphere anticipates Spring, we are in the midst of Autumn, and dreading Winter. It was not the sketch so much, but the combination of the sketch and colours. I'm also having heaps of trouble with the lighting for photography, so I've put two photos up, using two different lighting arrangements. Not totally happy with either option.
 The base and panel remained fairly standard all through my design process, but I've stamped numerous images and cut out many shapes before I settled on this one.
The end result is a label cut with a Chalk Talk Framelit and mounted on a black Scalloped Tag Topper piece. First it was stamped with leaves from Summer Silhouette stamp set, then Awesome.... Thanks! is from Yippee-Skippee. A few small flowers from Summer Silhouette were stamped in Coastal Cabana and Mambo Melon and one of the InColor button embellishments in Coastal Cabana topped the left corner of the tag. I do like the way the tag turned out, Summer Silhouette is one of my favourite stamp sets.

The DSP is Eastern Elegance and a few more flower blossoms were stamped onto the Melon Mambo card base.

Many thanks to the design teams that organise these challenges, without you I don't know what I'd do for inspiration!
Try Stamping On Tuesday for the sketch,( and I managed to add blossoms too!)
Sunday Stamps for the  spring color palette: Melon Mambo, Coastal Cabana and Black.

Thanks for popping by, leave a message if you like, I love to read your comments.

Rachel
Happy news for me again, made the top 3 at Try Stamping On Tuesday, thank you, its such a thrill!

Three Friendly, Furry Monsters

Once I saw these cute, little furry monsters that a number of people have pinned on Pinterest, I wanted to give it a go. I still had the eyes from a Holiday catalogue from about a year ago, and I had the Simple Stems stamp set too. Yes - believe it or not, it is a flower from that stamp set, but I doubt that I will EVER see it that way!

The Paper Player's challenge, set by LeAnne this week, is to use three: a "Three Spree."
Therefore, three little monsters (with another one inside for good measure). This might just end up being the birthday card for the grandson turning three this year too, unless I think of something better before then! For that reason, I have finished this card inside as well.

Now, I have also based the layout on the sketch at Try Stamping On Tuesday. Not with a photo, as suggested, but I might later, although I rarely do a single photo layout. Only one of the design team did, so I don't feel TOO badly.
I also used a couple of stamps from Just Sayin' and cut them with the matching Word Bubble Framelit Dies. The greeting inside is from the retired stamp set Up, Up and Away. Those sentiments fit the Word Bubbles nicely too. A strip of Perfect Plum was dry embossed with Embossing Folder Alphabet Press, love the texture it gives.





I'm planning to do some more creating today, must away...
Rachel

Celebrating You!

I have just arrived home after a rather busy weekend and found this card, still in pieces on my desk. I remembered that I was making it for Try Stamping On Tuesday challenge, the sketch is below and use stripes and squares. I'd taken a while to hunt down a piece of masculine striped paper and match the other colours with it on Friday before I went away, so it seemed a shame not to complete the challenge.
This piece of patterned paper was out of the Print Poetry Designer Series Paper Stack which is in the Clearance Rack at the moment. The reverse of this stripe is a gorgeous pink and yellow spot, so there's something for everyone in this stack.
Its always easier when you have a sketch to go with, or so I find. I thought straight away of the cute shapes in the Starburst Sayings stamp set and the framelits which cut them out so beautifully. For the greeting I picked one from Remembering Your Birthday. It echoes the 'celebrate' theme of the middle Starburst, plus it's no-nonsense, really suitable for a male. All the greetings in this stamp set are partnered with another, making it a simple task to finish off the inside.
The colours on this one are Midnight Muse, Gumball Green and Summer Starfruit.

Hope you've enjoyed your weekend too
Rachel

Pink, Red & White Birthday Wish

Another very sweet sketch by Sara at Try Stamping On Tuesday and I found that my card came together very easily.   I had been stamping with Make a Wish from the Perfect Pennants stamp set and there were some images left over, which I was incorporating onto die cut Chalk Talk Framelit pieces as samples for a class.

Raspberry Ripple (red) makes the banner background with a slightly smaller More Amore DSP banner and a sprinkling of rhinestones and silver Glimmer Paper stars. The Circle Thinlet Die Flip Card has this small star amongst the assortment of dies included with the card. I rather like the bold colour scheme, it makes a statement.

I'm a fishing widow this weekend. so I'm looking forward to some crafting time. We are in for more scorching days, so I won't be out and about too much.
Hope you get time to stamp this weekend too!
Rachel

Try Stamping On Tuesday

This is the first time I've come across Try Stamping on Tuesday, and then I lost it again, so now I've safely bookmarked it. I love this sketch and had another idea for it, which hasn't worked out unfortunately.
Never one to give up, I tried this idea.
It's another Quick and Easy card, with a bit extra - I'll explain.
Choose a favourite Design Series Paper, this one is from the NEW Occasions Catalogue - Watercolor Wonder. Tangerine Tango is listed as the co-ordinating color in the pack of DSP but with that lovely water-colored effect, all shades seem to match, so I selected Crisp Cantaloupe to cut strips just an eighth of an inch larger. I also grabbed the Envelope Punch Board with its built-in corner-rounder punch to round off just one corner of each rectangle. Once everything was adhered to the Smoky Slate card base, I stamped the scalloped round greeting from Sketched Birthday in Smoky Slate and punched. Next the inner section was inked with Stampin' Write Markers before stamping and punching out with a circle punch. Don't punches make life so easy? Dimensionals between layers raised this greeting up, and its all done!

One suggestion from the challenge was keep warm, and I think my colors are quite warm.














Of course everyone in the northern hemisphere is experiencing winter, whereas, in Australia, especially the southern states, we are onto our umpteenth week of  'above 30 degree' days, frequently above 40 degrees - like today!!!! For those of you still using Fahrenheit, as I remember it, 38°C is 100°F.

I had two of my grandsons spend the day here yesterday, with their parents and it was still okay to be in our little pool, but today you'd be fried alive outside I suspect, (great for stamping indoors) so no difficulty keeping warm here! It was a delightful day of relaxing, sharing the supervision of the boys so the adults could attend to the things that needed to be done. When they went home after dinner last night, they were truly tired, but so happy.

Life is good, I hope you have an opportunity to enjoy some good times too and thanks for reading my blog,
Rachel