Todays self challenge is Baja Breeze and Animal Stories

Boy oh boy! What did I let myself in for with this colour combination and stamp set?

The colour combination was Baja Breeze, with More Mustard and Cherry Cobbler from the Colour Coach. The stamp set was of all things Animal Stories. I immediately thought what a combination for a nursery style stamp set! Used the Baga Breeze as my base, and stamped just the antlers of the giraffe around the edges in ink the same colour. I then matted the base with More Mustard which I had embossed with Petals a Plenty embossing folder. Measured and cut 3 small squares of Cherry Cobbler measuring 4 x 4cm, topped that with More Mustard that I punched out using the 1 3/8" square punch. Stamped just the 'head and shoulders' of the Giraffe, Elephant and the Whale and also punched them out using the 1 1/4" square punch. The top and the bottom images are attached directly onto the More Mustard Mat, whereas the the centre image is up on dimensionals. To soften the look I added two small white bows and placed a rhinestone on each of the four corners of the middle image. I you remember yesterday I said the other stamp set to use was Friends 24-7. The Colour coach has decreed that I will be using Daffodil Delight and the images that will be stamped will be from the Friends 24-7 set. I hope you like what I am doing with thes little self challenges and if you feel that you would like to play along please feel free to join me and share your creations! Well thats it for today, so bye for now, Gwen.

River Rock Self Challenge

Today's self colour challenge was to use River Rock from the colour coach. It told me to use Cherry Cobbler and Marina Mist as well. The OceanCommotion set I used was the other choice from yesterday, but it lost out to Tropical Party in the draw from the hat! I used Marina Mist as the base for my card and layered a strip of Cherry Cobbler and then a smaller strip again of Marina Mist. I decided to use the Scallop Square Die for the River Rock just to add interest, then stamped it with ink of the same colour and the reeds from the Ocean Commotion set. The seahorse is in Cherry Cobbler as is the sentiment and the fish in Marina Mist. You can not notice it all that well in this photo but I have attached small rhinestones to where the eyes are one each image. I have just done the self challenge draw for tomorrow and the colour is Baja Breeze. I almost redid the selection but thought to myself if I do this now with a colour I really love working with what am I going to do with a colour that doesnt "do it" for me so to be fair to myself (and the little challenge I have set for myself) I am going to do the Baja Breeze Challenge and will be using Animal Stories set of stamps. Apparently the next set I will be using will be Friends 24-7 and the colour coach selection has not been made yet! So stay tuned!! Well thats if from me today, hope you like what I have done, leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Bye for now. Gwen

Time flies.................

Hi everyone, I have been snowed under with a variety of things that have prevented me from retreating to my own little haven for as long as I would like! Yesterday and today I have finally had some time to call mine and have been playing with the tutorials from Maria's blog on how to create roses and lillies and of course those beautiful sweet peas. I am holdig a class on the 18th and in this class I am going to show the ladies how to make these beautiful flowers so they will never be stuck for floral adornment on their creations ever again! So in all we will be doing 4 cards with 4 different flowers and then just as a treat we will also make a special box to put these beautiful creations in so they dont get crushed! I hope you like them, and that you will leave a message on my blog to let me now what you think!
Bye for now
Gwen

Tropical Party

I never seem to use the Colour Coach and I know that I should, but at times I have looked at the different colours and thought to myself "nah", that wouldnt look very nice. So yesterday I got my colour coah out closed my eyes and picked a colour and it was Garden Green. Now if anyone had told me even yesterday morning that the colours Garden Green Tangerine Tango and Bashful Blue would look good together I owuld not have believed them! To choose a stamp set to use was even more involved. Did the same close the eyes trick and picked a set from the IBC and it happened to be Ocean Commotion, then did the same with the Summer Mini and picked Tropical Party. Wrote them both down on a slips of paper and then picked one. Whew! That was pretty involved just to make myself move out of the traditional colours and get me out of my comfort zone. The set Tropical Party I will admit I have had since we were able to pre-order from the Summer Mini and this is the first time the poor set had seen ink!. I took the palm frond and stamped that onto the Garden Green and the Tangerine Tango in their co-ordinating colours, Stamped and cut out the trees and the coconut drinks and glued them onto the Whisper White and then sponged a bit of colour here and there and run it through the Big Shot using the Square Lattice embossing folder. The sentiment is from the Teeny Tiny set of sentiments and I added two chocolate brads. I think I will be using this set a lot more from now on. It has all the connotations of relaxing, retirement, being idle.............I wish! Well thats it for today and I will let you know now that the next colour that was chosen is River Rock. Now to be fair I dont think that I have used that cardstock either so it will be a challenge. I have also decided that I will use the Ocean Commotion set. It will be interesting to see what comes out of it. Bye for now. Gwen

My First Stamping 411 Colour Challenge!

I participated in my very first 411 Stamping Colour Inspiration Challenge today. The Challenge was to use Crum Cake, Choc Chip, Wild Wasabi and Certainly Celery. I have had such fun making the flowers that Maria has been doing Tutorials for that I decided to use some of them on my card! I know that roses dont come in Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery or Crumb Cake, but they just seemed to fit with this challenge. I started by swiping the Crumb Cake with the same stamp pad, and embossed the Wild Wasabi with the Square Lattice Folder. Layered Certainly Celery Grosgrain Ribbon and Choc Chip Grosgrain Ribon across the card and then placed the mats of Choc Chip, Certainly Celery and the Whiper White( which was embossed with Petals a Plenty folder on top. The only stamp I used was the 'Life is Beautiful' sentiment from the Style Beautiful stamp set. A spot of Crystal Effects on each petal and a light smattering of Dazzling Diaminds finished the roses off. I would love to know what you think. Bye for now, Gwen

Male Birthday Card

Last night I remembered I needed a male birthday card for today. The colours in the card was not going to be a problem because as with a lot of the younger males these days their favourite colours seem to be black or grey! This particular young man loves anything to do with the water so as long as I gave him a card that  had something to do with fishing, swimming, surfing or saling I knew that I was going to be on a winner! Starting with Basic Grey as my base I topped that with a Vintage Wallpaper layer in Basic Black. The image I stamped on Very Vanilla using Black Stazon because I wanted to colour the image, which I did using Pumpkin Pie and my Aqua Painters.  I put some Grey Taffeta ribbon around the card just to break the black and wound some linen thread around the base of the card just to add a bit of interest. I might also add that this card is a Mini CASE of the card using the Seaworthy set of stamps in the IBC. This truly was a 5 minute card and I am so happy the way it turned out. I hope you like it too, let me know what you think.
Cheers for now, Gwen

Thank goodness for my "Another Day Box"

Today was a clean up day in my craft room, I was so busy changing things here, a different container there, you know how it goes............then my mobile rang. It was a customer coming to pick up her order a couple of days earlier than expected. Heavens I didnt have a thank you card made to give with her order and she is virtually 3 minutes away! Quickly grabbed my another day box and this is what I found, the hydrangea stamped image that has been in the box absolutely forever, so long in fact it was a Hostess Stamps from last years catty! Must admit I loved the Just Because stamp. This is what I came up with, I think the Certainly Celery ribbon and bow around the bottom softens it quite nicely, what do you think? Bye for now