WWC99 - Sparkle with Joy and Happiness!

We've come full circle with the challenge we're offering this week.  We began with Clean & Simple challenges and then tried to make them as simple as possible.  Not the best of our ideas.  And now we are back to the current style of Clean & Simple where we do like some empty space, we prefer less ornate, less-multi-layered styles, but welcome a modest amount as well as a modest amount of embellishment.  This week Marsha Reed is hosting this Clean & Simple challenge and has chosen "hearts" as her theme.

Since we are approaching Christmas, this will be a two week challenge, not closing until 5 p.m. Mountain Time on January 2nd.  Lots of time to be inspired and to create!

I challenged myself with masking rather than layering my heart and pine branches.  You know, that old "she thought she could do it, so she did".  Well, that was me and I love the results.  To dress it up somewhat, I used versamark on the green in my bottom right hand sentiment and then tried the Emerald Envy Glitter Stampin' Emboss Powder.  It sparkled beautifully.  It's a subtle addition but I love it.  And since we're allowing embellishments, what better than three of the red Brights Star Sequins?  With a tiny rhinestone in each centre, these stars sparkle.

Isn't it pretty?  And yet it's quite Clean & Simple.  I hope you'll check out the creations by the other Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.

And remember, you have until January 2nd (next year) to link up your own.

WWC98 - Star of Wonder

I love colour challenges.  You can make anything you wish as long as it revolves around the provided colours.  Sometimes that is harder than others, but it almost always brings some surprising results.  For me, it's the shove that makes me create outside the comfortable little box I usually stay within.  Kath's colours really opened that box wide.

These are gorgeous colours.  Creating with them wasn't as hard as  all that but taking a decent photograph for my post almost proved to be my undoing.  Metallics present their own challenge when one is taking a picture.  Either they reflect too much light or they reflect colours around them (silver is almost like a mirror).  All in all, while I didn't find the colours difficult to use for my creation, finishing up with a picture in order to post was the hardest part of this challenge.

I decided to keep it relatively simple by creating my 3-D star by using Starlight Thinlits dies.  The one I used even provides the scoring lines when one cuts it out.  How terrific is that!  The Lucky Stars embossing folder made a simple but perfect background for the star and also for the die-cut gold foil pine branch and Early Espresso die-cut bird.  I love that he appears to be looking up at the star in wonder, don't you?  Of course the sentiments in the Star of Light stamp set were a perfect match for this card, especially heat embossed on vellum in Silver embossing powder.

To give the white a bit of a frame against the white base, I sponged the perimeter using Early Espresso ink.

Simple but effective.  In real life this is a stunner.  It just doesn't photograph as well as I would like.

I hope you'll check out the cards made by the other Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge this week.

WWC97 - Joy To The World!

I love the sketch which Penny Hanuszak has chosen for this week's challenge!  It's fun and easy to imagine lots and lots of different cards based on the sketch.

The hard part was narrowing it down to one.  With the introduction of the new Stitched Shapes Framelits, however, I knew I would have to use one of those.  I've been wanting some stitched framelits for ages.  And wouldn't one of those little mice from the Merry Mice be perfect inside one of the ovals?  (As you can see, the card was making itself by this time.)  I looked at the little singing mouse and immediately knew that the musical notes images from the This Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper would be the perfect match.

As you can see, I carried the colours from my little mouse into the layers of the card.  My base is the Heavy Whisper White with a layer of Pacific Point on top (embossed using the Softly Falling embossing folder).  The Garden Green patterned paper is also from the This Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper selection.  And, of course, the matte for the musical notes is cut from Cherry Cobbler.

I wanted my sentiment to reflect the Christmas season and also give a nod to the song which my little mouse might be singing and so I used the very handy Labeler Alphabet stamp set to put together the "Joy to the World" at the top right.  Heat embossing it using White embossing powder really made it "pop" against the Pacific Point, didn't it?

I hope you'll check out the other wonderful cards created by the Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.