Monochromatic - Purples

There is always something so pleasing about monochromatic colour schemes.  You can really never go wrong.  When it comes to purples, I love Wisteria Wonder, but the other hues don't really call my name very often.  However, looking at my butterfly punches, this was not the story.  I've been meaning to make a card like this for some time, and apparently that time is now!

One of my colleagues retired this June (my mentor, in fact) and I keep collecting little gifts to give her throughout the next year to show her that she is missed, and that she meant (and still means) and awful lot to me.  She loves deep jewel tones, so this is the perfect one for her.

Hand Stamped Sentiments #150

Sooo, looks like I haven't blogged in over a month.  I was thinking about it, so does that count?  No, I don't think it does.

However, today I finally sat down and took time to take a picture of something that I made.  Again, Hand Stamped Sentiments had a lovely colour challenge to work with.  It's the same palette that you can find on one of the new DSPs in the new catalogue.

Pool Party and Primrose Petals are both fairly gentle colours and the black makes them really pop.  A little background embossing adds a gentle girly element, and you can't go wrong with butterflies!

Hand Stamped Sentiments #130

Quick entry before I go for a run.  Hand Stamped Sentiments is using the new In Colours for this week's challenge.  I usually stick to 2 or 3 colours on a card so this was a bit of a challenge for me, but I'm happy with the result!

What do you know?  More sponging! I'm still on a bit of a kick with this technique.

Sponge Sponge Sponge

I was surfing around in blogland the other day when I came upon a woman who does most of her cards either with sponges or a brayer.  I've been on a bit of a brayer kick lately, so I thought I'd pull out my sponges and try that technique as well.

The only thing that I don't like about using the brayer is that unseemly line that you can get sometimes.  You know the one.  And once it's there, there's no going back.  With sponges, however, you are much less likely to have such an issue.

I used Wisteria Wonder and Elegant Eggplant for this one, but then went back in and added a bit of Perfect Plum for warmth.  It's still quite cool, so I'm thinking I might try again today with a little hint of one of the pinks in there somewhere.

Ugh.  You know when you make a beautiful card only to wreck it with your inky fingers?  Yep.  After I made the first version of this card (which, of course, I liked more) I picked it up with my apparently inky finger and left a little black smudge on the top left.  ARGH!!!  Then, I made this one and the image didn't come out very clear so I grabbed my stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the image to stamp again, but it was smaller than the area that the handle covered and it left a shadow impression.  ARGH!  So as a last resort I look my marker and filled in the spots that we're coloured evenly.  Alas, the result is not perfect.  You can see (in person) where I had to colour it.  GGRRR!!!  Whatever.  I'll send it to my 84 year old aunt.  She'll be delighted to received it and won't notice.

Hand Stamped Sentiments #127

 The sun us out again today after a wild storm last night.  Sunny days make me think of butterflies and flowers.  This week's challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments call for you to use the dazzling diamond dust technique. 

I made the panel with the fading ink and knew I wanted a dimensional butterfly on it as well.  What goes better with butterflies than shimmer?

 

I was going to add a birthday sentiment, but thought that the dark pallet would work well for a sympathy card.  I don't really like making cards that say "With Sympathy" because I think it's a little morbid to have those hanging around as "just in case" cards.  The phrase from Herb Expressions fits the bill nicely, but would also be used for someone going through a tough time.  Still a bit of a downer, but not so much as sympathy.

Selective Brayer

Usually I like to have lots of layers on my cards, and quite a bit of distressing too, so this card was something totally different for me.  I don't use my brayer very much, but I saw this idea with the select inking and wanted to give it a try.

I started out by tearing a couple strips of DSP to make the guide and then glued them to my working surface, then I slid my cardstock underneath them.  For the ink, I covered my brayer in Pool Party and covered the whole strip, then followed the the new Gumball Green one the bottom 2/3, and some Island Indigo up top.  The new ink pads are jucier than heck, so I had to give it a few goes before I got the variation that I wanted (I think I'll go back and try this again with a little more Pool Party showing through).  Also, the Island Indigo is very dark so I rolled off most of the ink before applying it.

Leaving my base in the guide I inked up the foliage stamp from Just Believe, and added it to the coloured strip.  I hardly ever use black and I forgot that it takes a while to dry, so I actually ended up smudging the first few tries before I just left it in there (and still managed to smudge - the butterfly on the right is hiding one).  While I was waiting for it to dry I stamped the big butterfly from the new set Papillon Potpourri in Versamark and heat embossed it with black powder.  Then I coloured it in with Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie and punched it out with the coordinating punch (LOVE punches).  the black butterflies are from the Embosslits Beautiful Wings and they're just glued to the base but I used a dimensional to give the main butterfly a little lift.  Finally, Curly Cute made an appearance for the sentiment.  I think this would also make a really nice sympathy card.