Simon Says.........Inspiration Colors

It's time for a new Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge!

This week we have some inspiration colors for you, courtesy of our Jenn!  

These are actually Simon's Sweet Treat colors!  I have had these colors for quite awhile, but I've never tried putting them all together at one time......I was pleasantly surprised at how pretty they are together!  The DT are using Simon Says Stamp Exclusive products this week, and we'd love to see you using them, too, if you have them.  Here's my first card:

supplies: Simon's Artful Flowers, Sweet Treat cardstock, Sweet Treat inks, Medium Dots stencil,

Ranger Texture Paste, Die-Namics Stitched Tag die, Signo white gel pen

I chose one of the Artful Flower outline stamps and stamped it on each of the cardstock colors in the Sweet Treats pack, adding an extra pink one, then fussy-cut them out.  I used my Signo white pen to color in their centers, and also added a bit of matching ink to the centers of the flowers.  Then I arranged them on my stitched tag, and added leaves die-cut from Green Apple cardstock and doodled around the edges so they "matched" the flowers better.  Setting that aside, I stencilled the Medium Dots on my card front roughly in a diagonal from top left to bottom right, and when that was dry, I added color to the dots using the Sweet Treat inks and finger daubers.

My second card uses all of the colors except the lightest pink.

supplies: Simon's Friendly Flowers, stamped in Audrey Blue and Surf Blue inks, lined in Mint cardstock, Wishing die cut in Doll Pink cardstock, sentiment from Sending & Wishing, stamped in Doll Pink ink, mint and bright pink pearls

Now it's your turn!  We have a $50.00 gift voucher

that will go to the random winner of our challenge this week, to be spent at the Simon Says Stamp Store!

Do you use Instagram?  If you do, we'd love you to add #ssswchallenge to your challenge entry uploads so we can see them on there, too!

Summer Birthday quilt

Taheerah's 2nd Gossip column challenge is up at Winnie & Walter, and this time it's Geometrics!  This should be an easy one for me, since I was a math major way back in the dark ages, but it threw me for a loop at first.  UNTIL I remembered that many quilt patterns utilize geometry, and then I was flooded with ideas!  I think you'll be seeing several entries from me for this challenge, but here's my first one:

supplies: Studio Calico Intertwined Circles stencil, picked raspberry distress ink, Wplus9 Quilt Prints, orange marmalade, mustard seed, peacock feathers, cracked pistachio, and picked raspberry, Winnie & Walter's Big, Bold Happy Cutaway and stamp set, silver and gold sequins

This is what I'd call an Orange Peel design.  Here is the basic block, a square divided into 4 squares, each having a petal in the center:

You take this basic block and repeat it over and over for a quilt.  

 

The magic happens when you add color to those elements!  And this is one of those patterns that looks different depending on how you focus on it.....you may see just those pointy diamonds floating in lines and diagonals, or you make focus on the petals, and see pink flowers, with a patchwork behind them, or you may see pink circles, each with a different patterned center!

I found that I have a stencil and a stamp set that work beautifully together, so I stencilled the petals on it using picked raspberry ink, then went back in with my stamp set and filled in the spaces between the blocks (pointy diamonds, for lack of a better word for them), with various patterns and colors of ink (spiced marmalade, mustard seed, peacock feather, cracked pistachio, and more picked raspberry).  That panel was then trimmed, attached to my card front, and then I added 4 layers of my cutaway and a stamped banner, along with some gold and silver sequins for sparkle.  I'm planning on using this as a bright summer birthday card.

Taheerah has a nice discussion of Geometry and how it's used in design, with lots of wonderful examples - don't miss it!  And you can even download some free geometric backgrounds if you don't have anything in your collection!

Bowl Bouquet

I made this card to play again with my Spectrum Aqua markers, and to enter the Spectrum Noir May challenge: Use Flowers.  I used another Stampendous stamp, this one a wood-block called Bowl Bouquet.

supplies: Stampendous Bowl Bouquet, colored with Spectrum Aqua Markers: sunflower, peach topaz, bud green, moss, slate and kingfisher, watercolor paper, sentiment from Simon's Handwritten Sentiments, dotty dp from Lawn Fawn's Let's Polka pad, yellow and white cardstock

Yellow roses are my favorite kind, and the blues looked so nice with them that I kept the coloring simple here, just adding a little yellow to the centers of the daisies, and a bit of slate for shading.

ETA: I just found the current Power Poppy challenge, which is to fussy-cut your main image.  I find fussy-cutting very relaxing, so this one is right up my alley!

From Places Abroad - Tunisia

I have been wanting to play in the Altenew monthly challenges. They are so generous in choosing FOUR winners each month, so I am tackling the current one, based on a ceiling in Tunisia.   I was so intimidated at first, but once I decided on this gold metallic medallion, things got a bit easier, and I'm really pleased with the way this turned out.  The colors are my favorites, after all!

supplies: Bazzill Robin's Egg, dark blue, and white cardstock, gold metal sheet, Spellbinder's Fleur de Lis pendant die, Altenew's Vintage Roses, aqua, blue, and green inks, Simon's Artful Flowers sentiment, Ranger super fine detail embossing powder, gold enamel dots

This is waaaaay out of my comfort zone, but I'm so glad I gave it a try.  It's good to have a good stretch once in awhile!

Here's the inspiration photo:

Happy Mother's Day!

I am so taken lately with anything having to do with this scribble flower motif that is on trend right now, and I wanted to play one more time at Winnie & Walter's Create Your Own Background challenge, so I decided to make a Mother's Day card.

If I had to describe my Mom in color, this would be it - bright raspberry with a touch of glitter to it!

supplies: white and raspberry glitter cardstock, Tim Holtz Scribbles stencil, picked raspberry and seedless preserves distress inks, Winnie & Walter's The Big, the Bold, and the Happy Cutaway and stamp set, office circle punch for centers of flowers

We'll be with my Mom this weekend - I treasure every minute I can get with her!  To all you Moms out there I wish you a day full of sunshine and lots of love! 

Simon Says........Let's Get Sentimental

Happy Wednesday!  It's time for a new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

This week our theme is Let's Get Sentimental - make sure you use a sentiment somewhere on your project.  The Design Team are all using products by Tim Holtz, and you can, too, if you'd like, but any sentiment will qualify you for our prize drawing.

I went looking through the store and settled on this sweet one, and I've been singing the tune every time I look at my tag.  It's from Disney's Cinderella, I believe.

supplies: Tim Holtz Scribbles stencil, worn lipstick, picked raspberry, and mustard seed distress inks, overstamped with a Hero Arts Music Background in tea dye distress ink, Tim Holtz/Sizzix Caged Bird die, cherry veneer paper, pink cardstock, embossed, leaf die cuts, Tim Holtz wood stamp Wish Text, Vintage Sepia VersaFine ink, brown pearl for bird's eye, seam binding dyed with worn lipstick distress ink

You can see the same stencil better on my next card:

supplies: Tim Holtz Scribbles stencil, sponged with cracked pistachio and touches of peacock feathers distress inks, Tim Holtz Big Chat stickers and Wplus9's Joy die, white and Doodlebug dolphin cardstocks

This time I used Tim's Big Chat stickers to make up my own sentiment, adding them to a die-cut word.  If you look carefully, you can see that I also used the stencil to emboss the design after I had colored it.

Now it's your turn!  We have a $50.00 gift voucher

to our amazing Simon Says Stamp Superstore up for grabs for the random winner of this week's challenge!

Do you use Instagram?  If you do, we'd love you to add #ssswchallenge to your challenge entry uploads so we can see them on there, too!

A sketch challenge at Winnie & Walter

I wanted to play in one last National Scrapbooking Day challenge at the Winnie & Walter blog.  This one's a sketch challenge, and when I saw it I knew I could use some of my vast collection of Washi tapes.

supplies: Essentials by Ellen Bold Blossoms, teal and chartreuse glitter cardstock, washi tape, Winnie & Walter's Big Bold and Happy cutaway and stamp set, yellow enamel dot

Here's the sketch:

This is really a great sketch, and I love the way my card came out!

Lots of Dots

Who can resist pink tulips at this time of year, and when plopped into a pair of pink dotted wellies, I was all in at the Sparkle & Shine challenge!

All of my stamps are discontinued, which makes them all the sweeter!

supplies: Hero Arts Simple Tulips, Jane's Doodles Raindrops, Signo white pen to add dots, The Craft's Meow sentiment from Fly Free, Spectrum Noir markers (pale pink PP3 and green CG2), Doodlebug dotty paper, Impression Obsession rectangular frame die, Darice dots folder, Pretty Pink Posh Springtime Mix sequins

I'm also entering this into the Spectrum Noir May challenge: Flowers, and also Winnie & Walter/Pink Fresh Studio product challenge: Sequins.

NSD Mood Board

Over the weekend, Winnie & Walter, along with Pink Fresh Studio, had lots of challenges to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day.  And coincidentally I FINALLY was able to snag these Hollyhock dies, after years of missing them as they became available!  So, inspired by the watercolored flowers in the notebook at the bottom of the mood board, here's my first play with them:

supplies: Impression Obsession Hollyhock dies, various solid pastel cardstock,  PTI Picket Fence die, Winnie & Walter spring cutaway (Big, Bold Seasons), pearls, dps from Echo Park's Bundle of Joy Dots & Stripes Boy and Girl pads, Martha Stewart butterfly punch

Here's the mood board:

AEI♥U challenge #24 - Spring!

There's a new challenge at the AEI♥U challenge, and it's simply "Spring"!  For once, I knew just what I wanted to make, using my favorite little fawn from the Storybook set:

supplies: Avery Elle's Storybook, Laurels, Simply Said Hello, Simon's Small Forest Tree die and blossoms from Thinking of You, Spectrum Noir colored pencils and markers, PTI cloud die, Doodlebug dot dp

My husband put down a new layering of fresh mulch, and with the grass at it's greenest and everything starting to flower and bud, this is surely the prettiest time of year!  Thanks for stopping by!

Spring tulips

As soon as I saw the photo inspiration for the Sparkle and Shine Challenge this time, I knew just what I wanted to do.  It's been too long since I used this Friendship Jar and the lovely tulips that go into it, and I had been looking for pink polka dot paper recently, and so remembered this one.

supplies: PTI Friendship Jar and Friendship Jar Spring Fillers (tulips and sentiment), Spectrum Noir markers and pencils to color, The Girl's Paperie Jubilee pink dot dp, moonshine sequins and a single spring mix Pretty Pink Posh sequin, Die-Namics Blueprints 20 scalloped rectangle

Isn't this inspiration adorable?

I'd also like to enter this into the Winnie & Walter/Pink Fresh Studio sequins challenge.

Just a Note to Say Hello

We had another Scramble at the Hero Arts flickr group on Saturday, our 108th!  It was hosted by Kanan, and she gave us 3 of her own cards to be inspired by.  I chose one that was based on a design paper.  Here's my take on the challenge:

I used this Penny Black design paper from the Painted Blooms pad, and then stamped my own floral panel to match it, using lots of old and new Hero Arts flowers and leaves, and the sentiment from the Hello Stamp & Cut set.  All of my inks were also Hero Arts: bubble gum, butter bar, orange soda, and field greens, and I was amazed at how well the colors matched the paper!  I mounted my panel on a black frame, and lifted it above the card surface, and added some Paper Sweeties flower sequins in the same colors.

This card works for Winnie & Walter's/Pink Fresh Studio's Create Your Own Background challenge, so I'm entering it there.  And I'm throwing my hat into A2Z's Scrapbooking May Anything Goes challenge with this card, too!

Hello Beautiful!

I'm still playing with these Vintage Roses, this time paired up with some polka dots for The Challenge this time.

I have ALWAYS been drawn to dots, but until now they were in the form of design papers and on a much smaller scale.  Suddenly I find I'm loving bigger dots, and especially the effect I can get with a stencil and several shades of ink.  Here's my card:

supplies: Altenew Vintage Roses, Wplus9 Hand-Written Hello, Simon's Medium Dots Stencil, 4 shades of pale pink to raspberry ink

Here's the graphic for the challenge:

ETA: and I just found the May Power Poppy challenge, which is to fussy-cut around a stamped flower image, so I'm entering that one, too!  I love to fussy-cut, and I adore Power Poppy's wonderful stamps, and don't have a one, so fingers crossed I can win a set!

Color Throwdown #340

Absolutely gorgeous colors this week at the Color Throwdown!  How could you NOT play?  I still had my Vintage Roses out on my desk, so that's where this card started.

supplies: Simon's Audrey Blue cardstock, Cuttlebug Cross My Heart embossing folder, Altenew's Vintage Roses, MFT Die-Namics oval doily, Jane's Doodles Mom's Flowers sentiment, Hero Arts Splash ink

This went together very quickly, as I wanted to keep the background the same blue as the inspiration.  So I just stamped and fussy-cut my flowers, glued them to my doily, added my sentiment, embossed the card front, and I was done!