Purple and Rust Experiment

This week I was experimenting with a technique that was new to me. It involved emboss resist, which was not new, and removing the embossing to reveal what was underneath. In order to remove the embossing you put the embossed piece under some paper and iron it. After I had done the ironing I was about to throw away the paper containing the remnants of embossing, but thought I would throw some ink over it just to see how it turned out.

I liked the result so much that I cut the paper into 2 pieces for background paper.  One of the pieces is what I used here.

Since this background is primarily purple I decided to use it to make a card for Color Throw Down. (Their colors this week are purple, rust, gray and white.) I am currently obsessed with a stamp set from SU called Country Home.  I used it to stamp the bouquet in the milk can which I colored with Dusty Durango, Concord Crush, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke and Lucky Limeade from SU. I used CTMH Charcoal to stamp the sentiment on the can. I couldn't bear to cover too much of the background, so I cut a tag from vellum using CTMH Fancy Tags thin cuts. I stamped another sentiment on to the vellum using VersaMark and Dusty Durango, then I clear embossed it. Unfortunately I lost a lot of the color when I embossed it, so I used a Dusty Durango marker on the back side of the vellum to bring back the color.  I simply popped the whole thing on to a white card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

~La

CTD 530 and Stamp Nation Swap

Probably for the first time ever, I got to use a card for dual purposes.  I joined a swap with Catherine Pooler's Stamp Nation in which the theme was "Think Pink".  Simultaneously, this week's Color Throw Down uses dark pink, gray and black.

When you look at my card you may think I missed in the DARK pink, but it actually is there, in the flowers and the shadow.

I have been in a glittery mood lately, so pulled out my Nuvo Mousses.  They had been neglected for so long that I had to reconstitute them with water. That process takes a lot of patience!  On this card I used Peony Pink for the background and Pink Flambe for the flowers and shadow.

The stamps are SU Country Home. Inks are SU Smokey Slate and Catherine Pooler Midnight. I also used a Sharpie white paint pen, Copics and a watercolor brush.

Thanks for stopping by!

~La

CTD 529 (Fearless)

Lately I have been acquiring loads of new stamping supplies but using precious few of them.  Time to put the new things to work!

The colors for this week's Color Throw Down challenge are yellow, red and orange. I did some ink blending using Catherine Pooler's Sauna and Mandarin Spice inks together with Real Red from Stampin' Up. I think I was a little heavy handed with the red and orange,but there's a little bit of yellow in there!

The sentiment is stamped using Real Red ink and a stamp from Catherine Pooler's "Fearless Pursuit" stamp set. The palm trees were cut using the matching die set.

Prior to making this card I had spilled some ink from a new Spectrum Noir glitter brush pen onto my work surface (a paper calendar). I did my ink blending right next to the spill, not realizing that the glitter was mixing in with my ink blending. As a result my entire card front is glittery! I actually like it that way so maybe I've learned a new technique!

Thank you for stopping by!

~ La

Let's Raise a Cup!

A birthday card for a friend who loves tea cups (but doesn't drink tea!)

Following Color Throwdown's lead, I used Real Red from SU, Aquatini from Catherine Pooler and Silver from ColorBox.  Stamps we're Catherine Pooler and Verve, none of which are currently available.

I love this color combo which I probably never would have thought of. This card was put together quickly because I needed it, but I think I'll use these colors again.  Hopefully someone will post something I can copy!

~La

Difficult colors

I'm rushing to load this before the contest closes!

Alas, I missed it by about a minute. Oh well...

As the title says, these were difficult colors for me to use. I thought about them all week and on the last day decided to just give it a try.  The prescribed colors were dark teal, rust and cream. I love blues but rust? Not so much.

Oh well, I have an extra card now which I may or may not use.

Modern Merry Christmas

As usual, I went to Color Throw Down for inspiration.  Here is their palette:

I've decided to work primarily on Christmas cards for now so that maybe I'll get them out in a timely manner this year.

With that in mind, here is my card:

Feeling quite happy with the layout but wanting something with more sparkle, I went all out for modern Christmas colors and made 2 more cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

~La

Serenity

After saying I was only going to copy cards, I immediately went back on my word and made one up. The reason is I haven't found anything I could copy in this week's challenge blogs.

The blog challenges which inspired this card are Color Throw Down and The Card Concept.

Initially I wanted to use Catherine Pooler's Plaid Background stamp to make a piece of background paper. I stamped it in 3 colors on 2 papers but didn't love any of them. So I thought I'd cut them into strips and line them up.  That looked awful. Then I thought of weaving them and - ta da! I think that worked. The effect reminds me a bit of a country fence which I thought worked nicely with the inspiration photo from The Card Concept.

Obviously the inspiration photo also gave me a chance to use my sunflower stamp! (From Our Daily Bread Design's Be a Sunflower set)  I love sunflowers but struggle to use fall colors.

Thinking I would give the card today to someone in a bit of life turmoil I chose the sentiment "Serenity" from Our Daily Bread Design's set The Waves on the Sea. I didn't complete the card in time for our lunch date, so perhaps I'll mail it.

Here is the inspiration photo from Color Throw Down:

I chose inks from Stampin Up today: Peach Parfait, Chocolate Chip, Dusty Durango and Crushed Curry.

The papers I stamped the background stamp on were miscellaneous scraps I had laying around.

Thanks for stopping by!

~La