Twofer Card Challenge #34 – Flowers

Hello … bonjour … and Happy New Year … Bonne Année! May this year be blessed with good health, joy, hope and creativity for us all.  Welcome back, too, after my six week blogland break … it’s great to be here again! Over at Twofer ,we’re leaping into our fourth year of challenges … with plenty of delicious prompts to inspire you … and some changes to the Design Team. We’re saying a very fond farewell to the lovely and super talented Kara and Cat … and saying a warm and happy hello to our new team members, Sonja and Bonnie … welcome, ladies! If you’ve played along at Twofer before, you’ll know how much fun it is to create two distinctly different designs for two different occasions using the same stamps, dies or stencils … and if you haven’t yet joined us … why not give it a go? This month we have one of my favourite card making themes to tempt you … and I’m pretty sure you’ll be itching to dig out your supplies when you see the prompt. It’s …

I created a bold, dramatic ‘just because’ card … and a bright, spring-like ‘beautiful day’ card … using this gorgeous Summer Sketches bloom from The Greetery. Here’s a closer look at each one …

This is one of my go-to clean and simple designs … the image is centred on the card and the sentiment (from Catherine Pooler) is stamped just below it. I added subtle detail by embossing a frame with a die from Spellbinders and doing a little splattering. There’s also a touch of shimmer and shine on the flowers and stamens, which you can see better here …

I stayed with the conventional use of the flower for my second card …

This is another CAS design … albeit a little fuller than the first. Here, the outline flowers were gold embossed in diagonally opposite corners of the card to form a frame around the WPlus9 sentiment (also gold embossed), before being over stamped with the solid images. I added some Nuvo drops to match and added interest by double scoring the two empty corners.

How about joining us with some flowers of your own … we’d love to see you (and them) in our gallery!  All the details about how to play along, including rules and FAQs are over at the Twofer blog … together with heaps of splendid inspiration from the DT.  We’re delighted to have two fabulous Guest Designers joining us this month … Viv from Viv’s Visuals … and Brenda from Inkspired To Stamp … welcome ladies!  If you haven’t met these talented artists yet, do go and enjoy a wander through their blogs … you’ll find inspiration galore!  Even if you are familiar with their work, why not pop along anyway … you can always say hello while you’re there!

My single floral sprig is heading to …

CAS Mix Up – Splatters (plus dry embossing and stamping)

Color Hues – Red and Grey (happy to be playing along at last!)

Watercooler Wednesday – Anything Goes with a Feminine Twist

… and my spring florals are joining in at …

Addicted to CAS – Emboss

Krafty Chicks – Stamp Act

The Flower Challenge – Heat/Dry Embossing

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

Twofer Card Challenge #32 – Silhouettes

Hello … bonjour! It’s the 10th of the month … welcome to our new Twofer challenge for October, where we’re inviting you to play with …

My common images here are silhouette blooms from Catherine Pooler’s Wild Garden … how about a closer look at each design?

A one layer card with a background of texture-y looking squares in ombré autumn colours. The squares are from Clearly Besotted and were inked, spritzed and double stamped … first horizontally and then vertically … one overlapping another. I stamped the wild flowers over the them, added a sentiment from Simon and adhered a few gems to finish off.

My second card has a much more summery feel …

My design here is centred, with the wild flowers and leaves stamped and white heat embossed onto a crimped frame panel from The Greetery. I blended Distress Inks over the panel, using four blue hues in ombré order, added plenty of Shimmer Spray and did a little white splattering over the top. The sentiment is from Altenew, also white heat embossed. I dry embossed another (larger) crimped frame onto the card base and popped up the finished panel over it.

How would you like to join us with your two distinctly different takes on silhouettes … we’d be delighted to see you (and them) in our gallery!  All the details about how to play along, including rules and FAQs are over at the Twofer blog … along with inspiration galore from the DT and from our fabulous Guest Designers, Carol from Just Me: C and Shawna from The Grand Stampede … welcome ladies!  Do go over and have a visit with Carol and Shawna … you’re sure to be inspired by their wonderful work … and you can always say while you’re there too!

My autumn silhouettes are heading to …

Bastel-traum – Fall

CAS on Friday – Autumn

Simon Says Stamp – Happy World Card Making Day

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Make It Sparkle

Sunday Stamps – Colour Palette (below)

… and my summery blue hues are joining in at …

Just Us Girls – Ombré

Simon Says Stamp – Happy World Card Making Day

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Dry Embossing

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Make It Sparkle

Watercooler Wednesday – Anything Goes with a Feminine Twist

You might notice that the alignment on this post isn’t what it usually is … and links to the company products used aren’t there. That’s because wordpress has changed (as blogger has) and I’m learning how to use the new editor. It isn’t very user friendly (to put it mildly!) so it’ll take a while for me to become familiar with all it’s idiosycracies … I appreciate you bearing with me!

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

A New Challenge At Time Out – #139 – Inspired By Words

Hello … bonjour … and Happy 4th of July to my American friends!   Our new challenge at Time Out has just started … and we have an ‘Inspired By Words’ theme for you to join in with for the next two weeks.  It’s a quote from Oscar Wilde … with freedom, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy?  Here’s where I went with it …

My focus was on the ‘flowers‘ part of the quote … though I guess, looking at it now, the wide open evening sky could also imply ‘freedom‘ … and the ‘moon‘ might even be hiding somewhere … maybe just off the picture!  On a panel of Mixed Media card, I sponged and blended a sunset in Distress Inks (Scattered Straw, Worn Lipstick, Shaded Lilac, Blueprint Sketch, Dusty Concord) … and splattered it with shimmer spray to mimic the newly appearing stars.  The delicate flower silhouettes are from Catherine Pooler (Wild Garden) and were stamped onto the panel once the Distress Ink was dry.  The panel was adhered over craft foam onto the card base … and I added the Stampendous sentiment to finish the card off.  Puts me in mind of wildflower meadows around here … so lovely as the sun goes down and the stars come out!

         

Where will our words take your creativity?  You can use any or all of them to inspire your card … we’d love it if you played along with us.  We’re sponsored this time around by Catherine Pooler (thanks, Catherine!) … our winner, as voted for by the DT, will receive a $25 GC … and as usual, will be invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.  All the details are over at Time Out, along with heaps of lovely inspiration from our fabulous DT, and from our super talented and returning Guest Designer, Claire, from Life On The Scrapheap.  Do go and enjoy an inspiring and delicious visit with Claire … you’ll find heaps of fantastic ideas, awesome colouring and brilliant cards to explore … and you can always say hello while you’re there!

I’m playing along at …

Inkspirational – 3 Or 5 Of Something … 5 Distress Ink colours (listed above)

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Make Your Own Background … my sunset

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Stars and/or Stripes … my shimmery splattery stars (though if you wanted actual star shapes, ladies, then please delete this!)

Watercooler Wednesday – Feminine Anything Goes

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂

        

        

A New Challenge At Time Out – #130 – Unique

Hello … bonjour!  We have a really fun new challenge for you at Time Out this fortnight, where We Challenge You To Be … Unique!   Here’s my take on it …

              

… a unique birthday candle … a one layer card that’s completely QACAS (quick and clean and simple in Darnell-ese).  It was made with a sentiment and a leaf image from Catherine Pooler’s Say It In Diamonds … and there are heaps more yummy diamond images and sentiments in the set that are just longing to be played with … I’ve just dipped my toe in the water with this card!  The sentiment was stamped and double heat embossed to give it a lovely waxy shine … and the ‘flame’ was stamped, watercoloured with Distress Inks, shimmered up with Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle and layered with a coat of Glossy Accents.  I sponged a halo of Distress Ink around the flame to add a touch of glow.  That was it … truly QACAS … and unique!  How about a closer look at the shimmer and waxy shine …

         

How will you interpret ‘unique’ … we’d love to see what you create in our gallery!  This time round, we’re sponsored by Catherine Pooler (thanks, Catherine!) … our winner, as voted for by the DT, will receive a bag of goodies from the store … and will be invited to guest design with us in a future challenge.  All the details are over at the Time Out blog … where you’ll also find loads of inspiring ideas from our brilliant DT … and from our talented Guest Designer, Elizabeth from Paper Sweetness.  Why not pop over and check out Elizabeth’s blog … there’s a whole heap of deliciousness just waiting to be explored and enjoyed!

My candle is going to be glowing at …

AAA Cards – One Corner … no optional music twist

Inkspirational – Use Your Stash

Less is More – One Layer Focus On The Sentiment … still celebrating your 8th birthday, ladies!

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Watercooler Wednesday – All About Occasions

Thanks so much for coming by, your visits and comments are always a joy!  Anita 🙂