WWC185 - "Anything Goes"

Yay!  It's the fifth Wednesday of the month and we get to do an "Anything Goes" challenge!  How sweet is that?  And this time I was inspired to make a special fold.

This fun fold stands up beautifully but easily folds flat to fit into a regular envelope.  As you can see, I used quite a few retired products in my creation.  For some inexplicable reason I had never used the Birthday Fiesta bundle before this.  Looking at the adorable Llama and the other images, I can't explain how that happened, but I certainly loved working with it for this card.  Despite the fact that the bundle has retired, I have future plans for it.  Those images just beg to be used again.  The designer paper behind the cacti and Llama is from the gorgeous Share What You Love suite.  I think it's perfect for this scene, don't you?

I had to take a photo of the card from this angle.  It shows the fold so well.  To fold flat, everything just pushes upwards.  I'd have to say that this is one of the easier folds I've done, but it certainly looks involved.

I hope you'll be joining us by linking up your awesome creations before Monday, September 3rd at 5 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.  To see the wonderful creations by our Watercooler Artists, check out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.

ATS&M #307 - Make Your Mark

It's time for another Addicted to Stamps & More Challenge.  This time it's all about making your mark.  What does that mean?  We'd love to see any creations for which you use your pens, pencils, watercolours, markers, anything that creates a mark. 

For my card I decided to use my Watercolour Pencils and Aqua Painter.  

I've used the new Country Home stamp set from the soon-to-be-released Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalogue.  I love the old milk can with that gorgeous bouquet of cotton bols, eucalyptus and dried florals.  

From this angle you can see the shine of the metallic inks I painted onto the milk can, over the original shaded grays of the watercolour pencils.  I also added some copper ink to dress up the milk can.  It looks great against the silvery body of the can as well as the copper ribbon, doesn't it?

Here you can see the details of the shading I did with the watercolour pencils.

Check out the awesome creations by the rest of the Design Team and link up your card HERE.

WWC184 - Helen's "All About Holidays" Challenge

Oh my goodness!  I received my pre-order from the Holiday Catalogue last Wednesday and the first stamp set which I mounted and used was the Pleasant Pheasant set.  As you know, I love watercolouring and this set just demands some serious colouring.

I kept my card very clean and simple since I wanted all the attention to fall on the wonderful pheasant couple.  Don't the colours just dazzle?  I wound up layering my watercolouring, adjusting the colours just to the point where they looked closest to the real pheasant photos which I had found on the internet.  For the most part, the pheasants are watercolour pencils and Aqua-Brush with a bit of additional coloured ink layered on.  The background grasses, sky and foreground are all Stampin' Up! inks applied with my Aqua-Brush.

As an added bit of embellishment (and I don't do a lot of that), I used three tiny Metallic Pearls.  It's the first time I've used them even though they came out with the Annual Catalogue.  I love the way the gold works with this card, don't you?

I hope you'll be joining us by linking up your awesome creations before Monday, August 27th at 5 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.  To see the wonderful creations by our Watercooler Artists, check out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.

WWC183 - Gail's Masculine "Anything Goes" Challenge

I've been waiting for this.  It's a Masculine "Anything Goes" challenge this week, hosted by Gail Allen.  Why have I been waiting for it?  I've been dying to use an Art Impressions stamp set which I bought a few weeks back.  The name of the set is "Reel Great Guys", which should give you a hint.  Yes, it's all about fishing.  What else would I get for the man in my life?

I love this set!  It's funny but the images are so well drawn.  Look at that little Dachshund, for example, so self-satisfied, floating around in his inflatable.  And the fisherman, decked out in his special fishing vest and hat, having fun casting his line.  Those images are awesome, aren't they?  I coloured them using my Stampin' Blends and love the results.  I decided to cut each image separately, using two different styles of stitched dies.  The little Dachshund is peaceful with that single line of stitches around his oval.  The fisherman, however, is cut with a square "wonky" double-stitched die which reflects all that "wonky" casting he's doing.

I decided to mount the images on the wonderful Wood Textures Designer Series paper.  It just supports that masculine theme so well, doesn't it?  And behind that is a layer of Early Espresso.  I mounted both background pieces a-kilter for fun, using a retired Natural White base.

And for the inside, what could be better than a greeting with a smiling fish?

I hope you'll be joining us by linking up your awesome creations before Monday, August 20th at 5 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.  To see the wonderful creations by our Watercooler Artists, check out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.

I've entered my card in the following challenges:

Craftaholics R Us Challenge #33 - Anything Goes
The Crafty Addicts Challenge #51 - Boys and Men
A Bit More Time to Craft Challenge #74 - Anything Goes

ATSM #305 - Photo

It's time for another Addicted to Stamps & More Challenge.  This time it's all about the Photo Inspiration shown below.

For this card I've turned to my Lemon Zest stamp set.  I think it carries off the photo theme rather well, don't you?  My background is a sprinkling of the Brusho Gamboge on Mixed Media paper, lightly sprayed with water.  I love the yellow, gold, orange and red tones which resulted.  After stamping various images from the stamp set using Crushed Curry, Mango Melody, Pineapple Punch, Lemon Lime Twist, Grapefruit Grove and Granny Apple Green inks on Whisper White, I fussy cut them all.  I turned one of the lemons into a pear by adding a hand-cut Soft Suede stem and one of the stamped leaves.  Another lemon turned into a lime.  Overall, the fruits worked out beautifully and made me a bit thirsty.  My sentiment is from the retired Sharing Sweet Thoughts set.

Check out the awesome creations by the rest of the Design Team and link up your card HERE.

WWC182 - Tristan's "All About Occasions" Challenge

This week Tristan Dawes is host for our popular "All About Occasions" challenge.  I know that there are a lot of possible occasions that we celebrate throughout the year, but for this one I had to use one of my brand new Art Impressions stamps.  Who can resist these plump chickens?  Especially when one of them is offering a "coop-cake" for your birthday!

I had a lot of fun setting up this card.  Once the worst was over (fussy-cutting those chickens), the card just came together beautifully.  I watercoloured the chickens using my Aqua-Painter and a mix of the following inks:  Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand, So Saffron, Mango Melody, Smoky Slate, Gray Granite and Poppy Parade.  For my background I used a wide brush and my Balmy Blue and Crushed Curry inks.

 I wanted seeds scattered across the bottom and found that the sand image from the Magical Mermaid set worked perfectly.

The foil chicken wire?  Who knew I had a die for that?  I plan to use this one a whole lot more!

And, of course, I had to create a fun envelope to go with the card.

I hope you'll be joining us by linking up your awesome creations before Monday, August 13th at 5 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.  To see the wonderful creations by our Watercooler Artists, check out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Seize the Birthday: Water!  (although I've kept to the "anything goes" theme)

Art Impressions Blog Challenge #238 - Card and envelope

WWC181 - Kath's Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge

This week Kath Ricks is host for our Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge.  I had a lot of fun creating my card, despite a few set-backs.  I hope you will enjoy it, too.

The set-backs?  Well, I've been house/dog-sitting for the past two weeks and only have a certain amount of paper and stamps with me.  I've gone back home to add to the pile several times, but that still means if I wind up changing course during the creative process, I reach for something I don't happen to have here.  I suppose that just adds to the challenge, right?

I decided to use the Beautiful You stamp set believe I love those images so much.  This time I decided to use the dancer holding hands with a mirror image of the same dancer.  Once I had completed my stamping, I fussy cut the images and then proceeded to colour them.  I had some of the new Stampin' Markers with me as well as my Neutrals collection.  And so my images are all in Poppy Parade and Smoky Slate.  The skin tone is my "go to" Blush Blossom marker.

I glued the dancers onto a piece of Basic Black cardstock cut with a gorgeous Gina Marie Design die and then onto a retired piece of DSP for which I can't recall the name at the moment.   I attached that onto a piece of Poppy Parade and finally onto a base of Basic Black.  To dress up the black, I scattered tiny black and silver sequins.

While it really doesn't look like it in the photo, that gorgeous sentiment is actually heat-embossed using Silver embossing powder.  

I hope you'll joining us by linking up your awesome creations before Monday, August 6th at 5 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.   To see the wonderful creations by our Watercooler Artists, check out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.

I've also entered this card in the following challenges:

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #73 - Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Challenge #371 - Anything Goes