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.

WWC269 - Fifth Week Anything Goes Challenge

April may be one of the shorter months but it has five Wednesdays which means we have an awesome Anything Goes Challenge.  I'll admit I thought about doing a special fold but then I got caught up in using one of my new Altenew stamps instead.

Isn't it gorgeous?  This set is called Dotted Blooms and has a coordinating die.  While I would have fussy cut the image, it was far easier using the die.  If you look closely, you'll see it's really just one image of a branch with flowers and buds.  I've stamped it twice and, having attached the branches at odd angles to each other, it almost looks like different stamps, doesn't it?

I began with a base of Heavy Whisper White and then a matte of Soft Suede cardstock.  On a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper, I played with water and the Distress Oxide Salty Ocean ink.  I've only used the one colour but layered it, sprayed it, and otherwise man-handled it until I was happy with the results for my background.

For the images, I used Toffee Versafine ink to stamp them twice and then used my heat tool to ensure the ink was totally set.  Then I used the filler stamps to set the first layer of colour into my flowers.  For one branch I used Calypso Coral and for the other branch I used Flirty Flamingo.  Then I used my AquaPainter to softly colour in the rest of the flower petals with the same ink.  To finish, I used my Soft Suede Stampin' Marker to colour in the stem.

After stamping the sentiment, I added a few sparkly embellishments to the card and also added some Shimmery Crystal Effects to the centres of the open flowers.

I love the way the card turned out and hope you do as well.  Have fun checking out our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and I hope you'll link your creation before the deadline on Monday, May 4th.

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

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #118 - Anything Goes

Artsystamper Digitals Challenge #14 - Springtime

Addicted to Stamps & More Challenge #387 - Make Your Mark

Simon Says Wednesday - Anything Goes 

WWC228 - Marsha's Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenge

Oh I love our fabulous Feminine "Anything Goes" Challenges.  What fun to be able to create anything as long as I give it a feminine twist.  And what could be a better patterned paper to reach for than that gorgeous Pressed Petals Specialty Designer Series paper?  The images are photographs and simply "pop" off the page!

Look at that wreath of flowers.  Doesn't it look as if I've added real pressed flowers to my card?  Well, I haven't.  The patterns on this paper are all so incredibly realistic that they seem to be 3-D.  The butterflies?  Now those are 3-D since I cut them from Soft Suede using the gorgeous Butterfly Beauty Thinlits dies which carried over and are now in the Annual Catalogue.  The Soft Suede compliments the patterns I've cut from the retired Sale-a-bration paper, doesn't it?  I lifted the lower right butterfly up on a foam Dimensional while the upper left butterfly is simply glued down along the centre of its body.

I've used the sentiment on the front of the card and inside the card from the Beauty Abounds stamp set (also carried over into the Annual Catalogue).  It's hard to tell, but it's stamped using the Mossy Meadow ink.  The two layers of cardstock on top of the Heavy Whisper White are actually Rococo Rose and Mossy Meadow.

Those pretty butterflies and the "bokeh" circles inside the card are also from the Beauty Abounds stamp set.  I used the Merry Merlot and Rococo Rose inks to continue with the colours in the patterned paper.  The sentiment is, again, stamped using Mossy Meadow ink.

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

I've entered my card into the following challenges:

Artistic Inspirations Challenge #216 - Anything Goes

Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #435 - Anything Goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #97 - Anything Goes

WWC223 - Anything Goes Challenge

Hurrah!  It's a real "anything goes" challenge this week and there are no twists, guides or restrictions.  How perfect since I had a graduation card on my schedule with some pretty special images, colours and folds.

While this doesn't look like a conventional graduation card, I fell in love with this sentiment.  Of course that wonderful Come Sail Away Designer Series paper I've used as my background pulls everything together.  How wonderful that the blue in the paper is the blue of the school's colours.  Could anything have worked out more perfectly?  Now I know that the super-wide Jute ribbon (sadly retired) looks as if it's only decorative in this photo.  But there is more to this card than first meets the eye.

Et voila!

As you can see, the ribbon, which is adhered to a piece of Soft Suede cardstock, is, in fact, the "belly band" which holds the rather thick card together.  For the inside of this awesome graduation pop-up twist surprise card, I've also used the Come Sail Away Designer Series paper, although this one is much brighter and lighter so that the large numbers, cut from Pacific Point cardstock, would be the focal point.  The sentiment and sailboat image are both from the stunning new Come Sail Away Suite and I can see many more cards designed using the various images in my future.

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

I've entered my card into the following challenges:

Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge #220 - Beside the Seaside

Always Fun Challenges #112 - Graduation

Creative Moments Challenge #169 - Anything Goes

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #192 - Fancy Folds