WCC28 Buffy's Colour Challenge

Colour challenges are a great way to get out of your comfort zone. I love colour challenges for that reason and Buffy has picked a doozy! Just look at this combo:

You can see what the Watercooler Design Team has come up with by clicking here.

To give you an idea of how much out of my comfort zone these colours are, the first thing I like to do is get the stamp pads and cardstock together. These particular stamp pads all needed re-inking! I have probably used the Pool Party more recently than the others, but it is not a colour I reach for often.

And I like all these colours! I really do. But I always seem to gravitate to the Neutrals and Regals the most. So, after I decided that Melon Mambo would be the base for my card, as it is the strongest colour in the group, the next decision was the stamp set/sets.

I thought I would pick a stamp set that had enough images in it that I could use all - or most - of them in all of the colours. The set that filled the bill for me was Bohemian Borders. My first intention was that my card would be in portrait orientation and I would fill the entire Thick Whisper White panel with alternating patterns.

However, once I had done one each of each pattern and colour, I just happened to turn the cardstock sideways - landscape - and the lightbulb went on! I immediately thought of a sample I had just seen on Pinterest by a Stampin' Up! demonstrator in England. See her card here. And this is what I pictured:

The buttefly and the sentiment are from the Best Thoughts stamp set, which is available only with Stampin' Rewards which can be earned either by hosting a workshop or placing a qualifying order.

After stamping the sentiment in Melon Mambo, I stamped the butterfly with Memento Black ink onto a scrap of Thick Whisper White. To colour it, I used a method I had been wanting to try and that is to fill an Aqua Painter with alcohol instead of water. I used all the five colours from the challenge to colour the butterfly by squeezing a bit of ink into the lid of the stamp pad and picking it up with the Aqua Painter. The alcohol makes it dry really fast and makes the colour more vibrant than when colouring with water. I can see me doing this method a lot!

And there you have it. I challenge you to give it a try. You never know what you will come up with and I would love to see your creations!!

Christmas in July - and other things!

Wow! If you are following our Hop in order, you have just come from Heidi's blog and I'm sure your head is spinning from her creations. In fact, my head is kind of spinning as I am sandwiched between two incredibly talented stampers because your next stop is Deborah.

I'm starting with the "other things". One of our assignments this time around is to CASE the new catalogue. The hardest part of this was deciding which project to CASE - there are so many samples in the 2015-2016 catalogue that I paged through many, many times before finally settling on the sample on Page 124 which features the Butterfly Basics stamp set and the Butterflies Thinlits Bundle. This Bundle is an excellent value! At the top of Page 124 is the heading "Layering". And this card certainly has layers!

The card base is the Kraft cardstock on which I stamped the honeycomb image from the stamp set with White Craft ink. For the main image panel I chose the amazing new Thick Whisper White cardstock - I just can't stop using that stuff!

First I inked the flower image stamp with Cucumber Crush and Watermelon Wonder markers and stamped onto the white cardstock. Using a blender pen and picking up ink from the Cucumber Crush and Watermelon Wonder stamp pads, I coloured in the image. It's pure joy to colour this way on the Thick Whisper White because it stands up so well and doesn't pill.

I stamped the image again on scrap paper, cut it out and used it as a mask so I could stamp the fern image in Old Olive to look like the flower is layered over it. It took a while to cut the image, but I will keep it with the stamp set and can use it next time I want to do masking.

The rest of this card is quickly done - a length of the Cucumber Crush Dotted Lace Trim, the larger butterfly from the set stamped in Cucumber Crush and cut out with the corresponding die from the thinlits set and then the medium butterfly die use to cut the gold foil butterfly. Now, I have a confession to make. I've had the gold foil paper - and the silver foil paper for months and this is the first time I've used either one of them!

The greeting is also from the Butterfly Basics set, stamped on the Thick Whisper White and puched at the top with the scallop top tag punch and finished with a piece of white Baker's Twine, folded over and knotted.

There are indeed many layers on this card!

Next up - Christmas! Since I already had the gold foil paper out, I used it on this card also.

This card has fewer layers than the first one: Mossy Meadow and the gold foil. The stamp set is Lots of Joy which can be found on Page 69 of the 2015-2016 catalogue. Isn't it great that Stampin' Up put Christmas back in the main catalogue?

Colours used here are Cherry Cobbler and Mossy Meadow. I think they are the perfect Christmas combo. Each ornament is topped with a bow tied with metallic gold Baker's Twine.

Oh - in case you are wondering, the images are stamped on the awesome Thick Whisper White cardstock!

Since I am already thinking Christmas I thought I would continue the theme with the third part of our Hop assignment: use a new punch.

This card actually features two punches, both of which are new to me but only the Tree Builder Punch qualifies as new-new. It co-ordinates with this year's Ronald McDonald stamp set. Every year Stampin' Up designs a very special stamp set and donates $3 from each sale to Ronald McDonald House Charities.

There are three images in this set that can be used as either a cupcake, scoop of ice cream or a cloud. There are already many samples where the image is used as clouds. I thought it would make perfect snowbanks!

I stamped the image with Soft Sky on the Thick Whisper White, punched it out with the corresponding part of the Tree Builder Punch and for sparkle, added Silver Sparkle Dazzling Details.

The trees are stamped with Cucumber Crush using the tree from Lots of Joy and punched with the Tree Punch (page 167). The sentiment stamped with Watermelon Wonder adds a bit of Christmassy colour.

I almost forgot about the background! It is stamped with a brand new background stamp, Watercolour Wash seen on Page 129 inked with Soft Sky.

Because this card measures 4 1/2" X 5 1/2" I just had to make an envelope for it using the brand new Envelope Paper (page 149). It's almost as wonderful as the Thick Whisper White cardstock and stamping on it is just as great. I decorated the envelope with more images from Lots of Joy.

And that's it! Now click on the 'Next' button to see what Deborah has in store for you. I promise you it is amazing!