Mint ombre 'just for you' card...

Hello...

 

Just sneaking in to share a card I made for the June Mix it Up challenge at Ellen Hutson, where we are playing with Altenew and Essentials by Ellen goodies. I'm also linking this up to challenge #15 at Virginia's View which has a monochromatic/ombre theme.

I made a watercolour ombre background with Cracked Pistachio distress ink (LOVE that colour) on Distress watercolour cardstock. Then I had some fun stamping and embossing the beautiful floral elements from Essentials by Ellen Bohemian Garden in gold (Ranger superfine) on vellum cardstock. 

After die-cutting them all out I arranged them in a cascade from the top corner, using glue dots in the centre of each flower only so that they'd curl up at the edges. I backed the central flower with some gold glitter paper and white tissue paper to make it stand out a bit more.

The sentiment is from Altenew's Label Love set, stamped in Versacolour Tropical Green pigment ink, and matted on black cardstock. I embellished with some gold sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and a patterned paper strip from Lawn Fawn to tie in the black from the sentiment strip.

Thank you for looking, have a happy day!

PS - thank you to everyone who left all the lovely comments on my first few posts, they really made my day!

PPS - I was so excited to win my very first challenge at Just Add Ink! There were so many amazing entries that I feel very lucky to have won.

Sunset happy birthday...

Hello

It's winter here in Australia and I wanted to make something with bright, summery colours... they make me feel warm and happy :-)

Joan B of Dear Paperlicious totally inspired me with her card here, to use hot pink, orange and yellow together in this fun and graphic design.

This is an almost-one-layer card - just a stamped panel on a hot pink card base, no embellishments at all. I used my newly acquired MISTI to get a perfect impression on the sentiment - this thing is awesome!

I'm entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Flickr challenge #20 where the theme is 'Summer', based on this happy graphic:

I've taken the warm colours from the graphic, and am also playing along at the 'Less is More' colour challenge for week 227 where the theme is 'Sunset'.

SUPPLIES:

Stamps - Simon Says Stamp flower scribbles, Papertrey Ink sketched shapes

Inks - Hero Arts ultra pink, orange soda and butter bar, Versafine onyx black

Cardstock - Neenah solar white, SSS doll pink

Thank you for looking, have a happy day :-)

Aqua, gold, black and white....

Hello...

This card was made for the Just Add Ink challenge, based on this gorgeous colour scheme:

 

I loosely painted and splattered the background with my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolours and then had fun layering die cuts and wood veneers to create the focal point. 

I had to cut up my clear stamps to create the 'Oh happy day' sentiment for the faux flair embellishment, and deliberately let the gold embossing get a little messy to go with the overall artsy feel of the card.

The 'enjoy' sentiment was die-cut from gold foil cardstock and adhered to some glossy black cardstock, then a few gold sequins and black drops from a Pico embellisher were scattered around the card.

 I love this refreshing colour combo, it makes me happy!

My apologies for the lousy photography! Just making do with my phone until I can get a real camera :-)

SUPPLIES:

Stamps: Mama Elephant happy everything 

Dies: Hero Arts spring branch, Memory Box woodland branch, Papertrey Ink wet paint enjoy

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink tropical teal, Tim Holtz distress watercolor, WRMK gold foil, Neenah solar white, Judikins glossy black postcard, My Minds Eye woodgrain

Embellishments: Kaisercraft berry vine wood veneer, Simon Says Stamp gold sequins, Tsukineko black pico embellisher, Ranger gold embossing powder

Thank you for looking, have a wonderful day :-)

My first card share and challenge....

Er, hello.

This feels weird. I've never blogged before, what am I supposed to say? Well I suppose I should just jump right in and get the awkward introduction over with, shall I?

My name is Alyson and I'm a stamp-aholic. Well, to be honest I'm a buying-crafty-stuff-and-imagining-all-sorts-of-wonderful-things-I-could-make-with-it-aholic but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it. I've made hundreds of fabulous cards in my head, but there they've stubbornly stayed regardless of how much more 'stuff' I buy.

So I thought it was about time to actually, physically MAKE some real cards and maybe enter some challenges where merit is not judged, thus preserving my fragile ego ;-) 

And hey, I might just win one and thereby justify this insane number of stamps and paraphernalia I own and have never used.

So here I am, starting a blog with my abysmal photography skills (I know, I know - sorry) to enter a challenge with the very first fully stamped card I've ever made. 

You see, I'm rather afraid of stamping. Too many things can go wrong. Up until now I've rested on the laurels of die-cutting, but no more, I tell you! I will stamp, I will not care about making mistakes, and I will have fun :-)

So anyway, this is the card I made for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is 'Make it Masculine'. I'm also playing along at The Paper Players where the theme is 'Masculine'. 

I've stolen cased a wonderful card design by Joan B at Dear Paperlicious - one of my current crafty-crushes. I'm not sure of the proper blog etiquette so I've linked to Joans' blog post. Thank you for the inspiration, Joan, I hope you don't mind. I love it so much I think I'll be using it often.

I love the graphic, yet whimsical feeling it has - it makes me happy just to look at it, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Stamps: Papertrey Ink - Sketched Shapes, Avery Elle - Party Animal, Simon Says Stamp - Lots of Dots, Winnie & Walter - Sparkle

Inks: Heidi Swapp - Navy, Ranger Wendy Vecchi - Forget Me Not, Papertrey Ink - Limeade Ice, Versafine Onyx Black, Versamark

Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, Simon Says Stamp navy & black

Hero Arts white embossing powder

 

Thank you for looking, have a wonderful day :-)

Hello?


Anyone there?

*chirping crickets*



Anyone?

*tumbleweeds*



Alrighty then.




I'll try again later....