Will she like geometry?

 Some fabulous challenges were calling my name today. How does a mix of prompts like 'back to school', a color palette, something beginning with a B and using stencils sound to you? To me it sounded like fun.

Out came the supplies: a stamp of a girl which I have had for some years now - ETA: I bought it in 2023 - , a die by Simply Graphic, a French company, of brackets (how cool!) and a stencil by Viva with mathematical equations and some geometry. My GD is starting middle school in fall and this will be a great card for her.

 

I stamped the girl, (but omitted her arms) and colored her in. The color palette is perfect as my GD has red hair and green eyes and petrol looks good on her. I fashioned a tiny book cover and made it look like she was holding it by drawing the fingers on each side. Behind the hands there is a flap that is glued to the outline of the girl.

Before adhering the girl with her book to the card I stenciled the background, then brought in two brackets. Not only do they have their good use in geometry, but they also frame her. The sentiment says "a little hello for school start".

 

I am showing this card in the following inspirational challenges today:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Back to School 

Retro Rubber: #rrcb275 Bold summer colors 

Fab 'n Funky: #640 Something beginning with a B - which is book 

Allsorts Challenge: #853 Stencils

A Perfect Time to Craft: #7 Open challenge 

Love to Craft: #93 AG 

 

 

Daisy greetings

 The cards I make are usually rectangles, but today I wanted to make a square. 

I was inspired to select colors from my gelli printed papers to match the hues in two inspiration photos. I found several possibilities, but in the end I only picked three of them for my card, one bright, one pastel and one somewhere in the middle. I think the image has more impact this way when the flower does not have to compete with its background.

The Dainty Daisy die (Crafters Companion) is one I have not found a way to use yet. Perhaps it needed a square background? I die cut it twice out of white card stock, then cut the petals of the second one apart and used only the half. I glued them over the bottom part to make the daisy look fuller and more dimensional.

 

I am entering this in these challenges that play well together and I used as my starting point:

AAA Colourful: #29 Colourboard  

 

Just Us Girls: #828 Moodboard week 

 

Fab 'n Funky: #639 Summer Flowers 

Crafters' Cafe: AG, optional blooms - I went with this option 

Creative Moments: #283 Pastels or brights - I say: both! They support each other.

Thank you for your visit! 

 

Two blooms and a butterfly

 I have more flower stamps and dies than anything else, but I have neglected them quite a while. Today I finally grabbed a good and trusty flower stamp with a great background (Studio Light). The butterfly was a left-over from a while ago (here) and the sentiment ('Best wishes' in German) comes from Creative Depot.

I colored it with my Gansai Tambi watercolors - twice. The first layer can still be seen in places, it is a different color. It gives the color some depth in my opinion.

 

Entering this in these challenges that I took cues from:

Triple B: June challenge. - I went with the colors and used two 'b' 's (bloom and butterfly) 

Fab 'n Funky: #639 Summer Flowers

 

Unicorn Challenge: #121 Flowers

Allsorts: #851 Anything Goes from the garden  - my second entry

Delicate for birthday

Today I wanted to make something delicate and laid back. My main inspiration came from an embossing folder technique that I had seen recently on Youtube. One takes the embossed image, turns it backside up and rolls with ink. This fills the background and leaves the image untouched.

Oxides may not have been the right choice, the result was blotchy. 

I then moved onto flowers. I used two stamp sets as I wanted some variation. After stamping I colored them in with water soluble pencils and fussy cut the stems.

The finished card was again a combination of some very fortunate challenges. 

 

I am entering it in:

Pick 3 Challenge:  #5 May/June. I picked Birthday - Embossing - Blue 

Fab 'n Funky: #638 Use a stencil / embossing folder. I used an embossing folder for my background. 

Addicted to Stamps and more: #518 Birthdays 

Sweet Stamping: Flowers 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: AG 

 

 

Flowers for birthday

There are several monochromatic prompts at the moment, and as I was in a need for another birthday card I wanted to make it purple (it's the recipient's favorite color).

I have recently watched a bunch of YouTube videos and can't attribute this technique to anyone, sorry. But basically one runs an embossed image, colors it in and runs it again with background color.

 I painted the flowers in with watercolors. The second run, where the background should be applied by running it through again just did not work for me. The background stayed blotchy and a lot of color stayed on the folder. So I painted it in with watercolor as well.

 

Entering this into these lovely challenges that inspired me:

Fab 'n Funky: #637 Monochrome

4-Seasons-Challenge: #104 Monochroom 

Crafty Gals Corner: AG / Flowers for Mother

Allsorts Challenge: #849 AG/ Monochromatic I chose Monochromatic

 

Just Us Girls Challenge: #823 Word week: Flowers

 

And because this was the first time I used these watercolors, I am entering this in NBUS-Never-Before-Used-Schtuff round #86.

Flowers galore

I have lately been watching a lot of YouTube videos. In one of them Ardyth tried to reason whether she needs a new set of dies or whether she can replicate the look with her existing ones. 

Well, today I wanted to try the same. I pulled out all my single flower dies, applied them on colored papers. And here is one of the results. (I made many, couldn't stop myself...)

 

As it is birthday season and birthday is also a theme in one of the challenges that inspired me today, a birthday card it is.

 

Entering this in the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Use Craft Dies 

Everybody Art Challenge: Happy 600! 

AAA Birthday Challenge: Game 85 

A Cut Above: May Challenge 

Fab 'n Funky: #637 Monochromatic

These are the cards I have made so far...

 

Blue greetings

 I am forever inspired by the lovely ideas found so profusely in the challenge blogs I follow. Today I was again inspired by several.

All these papers have been gelliprinted to ensure color variation. The giant snowflake has been die cut from sparkling silver cardstock.

Entering this in:

Fab 'n Funky: #584 Blue hues

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Make it sparkle

Time Out Challenges: #252 Winter/ holiday

Krafty Chicks Challenge: #691 All occasions

Inkspirational: #303 Seasonal

Thank you for your visit!

Something CAS

The starting point for today's card was a sketch. I had the hardest time interpreting it in a way that felt like "me".  Second inspiration came from a challenge that wanted to see only one other color with black and white. I toyed with pink, but that didn't sit well with my chosen bird stamp. The idea to use the bird came from the prompts "Let's go" and "Look up in sky". The sky is huge where I live and I enjoy watching birds fly.

Here is the result, this is how my brainwaves chose to work with these limitations.

 

Entering it in the challenges that inspired me:

CAS Colours and Sketches: #516 sketch

Fab' n Funky Challenge: #577 Monochrome with a pop

TGIF Challenge: #tgifc430 Let's go

Cut It Up: #282 Look up in sky

Critter Crazy: #76 AG with a featured critter

Flying by to say ...

 A little bird flew by carrying a message: Trust in your abilities, have faith in yourself.

As always, I took inspiration from several challenges that play well together. The background is a dry pulled gelli print, the lower portion of which has been treated with an embossing folder for added interest. The bird is stamped, cut out and colored.

Entering it in:

Try it on Tuesday: Birds and/or feathers

Lost Coast: #169 Use some words  

Inkspirational: Emboss your background

Fab 'n Funky: #575 Use a sentiment

Red, white and gold

This is a very simple card even though it looks very intricate.

I started with dry embossing a sheet of vellum. I then removed everything that was not embossed, glued it onto a piece of red card stock, embossed the text with gold and placed some die cuts along the lower border (it looked very empty).

I am entering it in these challenges that inspired me and fit the them:

Daring Cardmakers: I was inspired by the colors red white and gold, and the Christmas theme.

Fab and Funky: #562 Die-cuts and/or embossing - I used both

Dream Valley Challenges: #283 Lots of layers - there is the card, the matting, the red base, the vellum and the diecut.

Corrosive Challenge: AG

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: AG

 

Something yellow

 I just love challenges that, well, challenge me. At Frilly and Funkie the brief is to do something or use something that you find challenging.

For me it's the color yellow. I like to use many other colors but not yellow.

So I used it, and found out it needs rather strong colors as counterparts, but even when combined with a riot of colors it still manages to hold its own.

All leaves are cut from papers that I first made with a gelli plate. I used acrylics and printed paper as my substrate. I find the print gives the color a nice structure.  The flax twine is from my knitting stash, it miraculously matched the color of the yellow twig and brings a whole other dimension to the mix.

The sentiment was stamped and then heat embossed.

 

 I'm entering this card into:

Frilly and Funkie: A rather blustery day

Fab 'n Funky: #546 Dies or Stencils - dies!

Creative Artiste: #80 Anything Mixed Media 

HLS: Anything goes with Dies Challenge 

A monochrome birthday card

Yhis time I was inspired by a couple of topics ans wanted to see what it would look like if I would combine rectangles, monochrome and the use of stencils. Also I needed a birthday card that would not be overly sweet.

I selected orange as my color. 

Then the stencil part: I spritzed Distress ink Spiced Marmalade through a geometric stencil. Then I took that same stencil and created another sheet of paper, now with orange acrylics. When the paint was dry I sponged the white space with mustard seed Distress ink.

I opted for squares which I cut from that paint stenciled paper and arranged my card. I layered two of the squares with die cuts and stamped the text. 

 

Clicks for larger

It reads: "To the most wonderful 35 year old in the world".

 

Entering in:

Friendship challenge: #67 Vierecke wollen wir sehen Ich habe Vierecke verwendet

Fab and Funky: Monochrome - orange

Country View Challenges: Use a stencil (or two) - used just one

River of Creativity: #3 No hearts or mushy stuff not mushy at all!

The Crafters' cafe: Layer it up (2nd entry)  Four layers, I think...

Gingham ladies

I was inspired by a couple of challenges and that lead to the creation of these ladies. Firstly 'summer gingham' and secondly 'use your stash'. I have an extensive stash and remembered a gingham envelope that I had tucked away too long ago.

Gingham combines beautifully with dots, so I used a dotted paper as well.

 Lastly came the ladies - I had picked them up from a broschure last summer.  They had  a bit of an attitude so I used some text bits that had been in my stash forever.

Lastly I drew a bold red outline around the images.

 

Entering in:

Beyond the Blue: BB23 From your stash

Double D Challenge: Summer gingham

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Fun and quirky 

Fab and Funky: Anything goes