It's Father's Day for Challenge #246 at Cardz 4 Guyz

The new challenge for the next two weeks at Cardz 4 Guyz is #246 - Father's Day, chosen by Caz with the winners picked by Caz.

Please check out the blog for details and also to see the awesome samples by the Design Team.

This image is by Art Impressions and is the perfect card for my husband.  After stamping the image, I used my Derwent Watercolour pencils to colour it and then my Aqua Painter brush to "magically" turn it into a watercolour.  The sentiments are from random sets.

I decided to use two different colours for the background mattes.  Before using them, I dry embossed them with two different embossing folders.  I love the way the Granny Apple Green and the Pineapple Punch look against the base of Soft Suede, don't you?

I hope you enjoy this card as much as I enjoyed creating it.  Have fun with our challenge.

WWC254 - Tristan's Challenge: All About Occasions

I am forever hunting around for Birthday cards.  Yes, I make cards and so technically should never be without cards, right, but it doesn't turn out that way.  It seems as if a lot of the cards I make are for all sorts of other occasions.  This year I intend to make at least one feminine and one masculine birthday card each month and, hopefully, the problem will be solved.

For my last Stampin' Up! order, I included those stamps and dies which I knew I could happily use from the Mini Catalogue.  One such bundle was the Timeless Tropical which has so many images that "speak" to me.  I love the hibiscus flower in particular.  What a beautifully detailed stamp that is, and it has lovely leaves as well as the accompanying dies.  I went online to search out hibiscus blossoms and was blown away by the variety of colours.  I finally settled on the yellow/pink version but am determined to try my hand at some of the other gorgeous colours with future cards.

One thing you'll notice about my card is the layering of patterns.  I didn't want to use any patterned paper but instead turned to some of my current and retired embossing folders.  The background pattern is the debossed side of the Hammered Metal 3-D ef.  After embossing the cardstock, I used a sponge and some Cajun Craze ink to pick up the raised pattern.  I used a second embossing folder, the Stone 3-D ef, for the retired Galvanized Metallic paper.  It has a duller sheen than the silver foil, but I think it compliments the silver embossing in the sentiment perfectly, don't you?

I hope you'll check out the wonderful creations by the Watercooler Artists over at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.

I've linked this card up to the following challenges:

Just Us Girls Challenge #518 - Trend Week: Create Dimension

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #111 - Always Anything Goes

Addicted to Stamps and More #372 - Make Your Mark

WWC173 - Tenia's Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge

This week Tenia Nelson is hosting our popular Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge and, of course, you know that I love this particular challenge.  A lot of my stamps are more "girly" than neutral and so I most frequently create cards with a feminine touch.

At the moment I'm going through a huge sorting job.  What am I sorting?  I've decided that I am borderline "hoarder" with my retired stamps and so I have instructed myself to be more realistic and actually keep only those stamp sets which I know I will use.  What good are a whole lot of "oh, but I love it stamps" when they're not being used?

This stamp set which I've used, Indescribable Gift, is one that I'm on the fence about.  In its lifetime with me I've used it perhaps four or five times.  Each time I love it and love colouring it and make promises about using it more often (which I consequently break).  Again, when I used it this time I began to fall in love again.  I think, however, it's with the act of colouring and not necessarily with the stamp set.  And so this is my "goodbye" play with this particular stamp set.

Aren't the blossoms stunning, watercoloured with the gorgeous new Lovely Lipstick ink?  And the leaves, too, with the combination of Tranquil Tide and Granny Apple Green inks?  The new colour refresh which Stampin' Up! introduced with the new Annual Catalogue really is exciting and refreshing.  Certainly, I'll miss several of the retired colours but, oh, how beautiful the new colours are which replaced them!

I've layered the Tranquil Tide with Whisper White for my background.  The fun stamped textures are from the Artisan Textures stamp set and used the Tranquil Tide and Granny Apple Green inks.  For the off-kilter square in which I've stamped my image, I used a matte of Lovely Lipstick.  The textures behind and around the blossom are also from the Artisan Textures set and were stamped with the Balmy Blue (off-stamped once).

So "goodbye" to this lovely stamp set and "hello" to our challenge.  I hope you'll check out the awesome samples created by our wonderful Watercooler Artists at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge blog.