Tuesday Alchemy #53 - Over the Pastel Rainbow

Hello!

It's time again for another challenge at Tuesday Alchemy.  The theme for Challenge #53 is Over the Pastel Rainbow, and who doesn't love using pastels! 

The prizes are awesome and are as follows: 

Di's Digi Downloads - $10 store voucher

Stitchy Bear Stamps - $10 Store Voucher

LEJDesigns - 4 Digital Images

The DT was challenged to choose a color and do a monochromatic card in that color, and I chose green.  Huh??  What was I thinking?  Green butterflies?  Green flowers?  I must have REALLY been in the mood for a true challenge.  LOL!  But not being one to back down, here is what I came up with:

How's that for some green?  There are green flowers out there, and who knows, maybe somewhere in the tropics there may be some type of green butterfly.  (These almost look like the common sulphur yellow that are soon to be seen in the garden.)

The image is from Stitchy Bear and is "Floral Swirl," which you can find here.  I paper pieced the flowers with scraps of green printed CS and popped them up on dimensionals, and the butterflies were white which I colored with yellow-green and green Copics.  There are butterflies printed which are part of the floral stamp, but I felt like going the 3-D route this time and covered them with my embossed die cut lovelies.

I glittered the stamens on the flowers.

I applied SU Shimmer Paint to the debossed areas of the base layer.  Why debossed?  Because I was sloppy in applying the paint to the embossed side and thought I'd give the debossed side a try before trashing the piece, and turns out I preferred the look! 

I made a nice, squashy bow out of hand dyed seam binding then added a custom charm which I already had on hand - perfect match!

And that, dear friends, is my monochromatic pastel card.  Thank you so much for joining me today, and do stop on over at Tuesday Alchemy to play along and see what the rest of the lovely DT has made for your inspiration! 

Happy crafting!

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral Swirl (Stitchy Bear)
Paper: Always Artichoke, Wild Wasabi, Subtles Stack (SU); white scraps, green print scraps
Ink: printer
Extras: Dies: Ovals Stax 1 & 2 (Dienamics); Embosslits Beautiful Wings (SU), Copics, rhinestones, seam binding, custom charm, Shimmer Paint (SU), ef (unknown)

Challenges entered:

SCS TLC422 - Monochromatic Madness
Incy Wincy - Pastels
Love to Create #58 - Pastels
Inky Impressions #102 - Flowers
Charisma Cardz Challenge #11 - Diecuts
3 Girl JAM #14 - Green w/Ribbon
Frosted Designs - Up, Up and Away
Really Reasonable Ribbon #68 - Flowers & Ribbon
Red Carpet Studio #29 - The Secret Garden
613 Ave. Create - Anything Goes

Pretty in Purple

Hello and good morning!

Woohoo, I've got my computer back!!  It came in last night and I stayed up rather late putting it all back together and updating everything that requires daily input.  SO happy to have it back.  I told DH that working on my laptop was akin to driving in reverse - I could still get to where I was going, it just took longer and I had to go slower.  So now things are back to normal.  ("Normal??"  What's THAT?)

Today's card is a simple one without a lot of fuss and frill.

I stamped it in gray rather than black so as to not appear too harsh and colored it with Copics.  I stamped a light flourish onto the base layer first so as to give it a little more interest.

I added the teensiest little pearls to the flower centers on the cup and saucer.

The rolled roses are made of felt with the larger one using two strands in contrasting colors.  I also added a pink flower button and some very light green leaves.

The butterfly has been paper pieced and popped up on a dimensional, and a few more small, though not AS small, pearls have been added to the outside border before also popping the centerpiece up on dimensionals.

And that, lovely readers, is my card for the day.  

BTW, did I mention the battery on my phone is going out and I can't send pictures on it anymore?  Perhaps it only needs a new battery...  *sigh*

At any rate, thank you for stopping by and I wish you a lovely Tuesday.  

Happy crafting!

Supplies:

Stamp: Simple Pleasures (IO), Creative Elements (SU)
Ink: Versafine Smokey Gray
Paper: Whisper White, Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush, Subtles DSP Stack (all SU)
Extras: Dienamics Leafy Flourish, Mini Rolled Roses, Oval Stax Dies; SB Floral Ovals dies; felt, pearls, flower button, Copics, dimensionals.

Challenges Entered:

ALOTA Rubber Stamps #99 - Make your own background
Divas By Design - Make It Girlie
Creative Card Crew #28 - Make It Girlie
Allsorts #190 - Flower Power

MFT Guest Designer Challenge

Hello and good morning!

Today I am presenting a card I made for a couple of challenges, one being the sketch challenge over at My Favorite Things, the winner of whom will be their next month-long Guest Designer.  I happen to love using MFT products and rarely make a card without using at least one of their products, usually more, and think being a month long Guest DT would be the cat's meow!  Here is the sketch, 

 and here is my card.

The colors are from the fun color challenge over at CR84FN and they are raspberry, lavender and neutral, a dynamic color combination, indeed.

As stated above, I rarely make a card without using something from the MFT store, and usually I use many items, particularly their dies.  They have a fantastic selection, and for this card I cut all of the layers using their Rectangles Stax Sets 1 and 2.  You might wonder why anyone would buy plain rectangular dies when you could so easily cut perfect rectangles with a paper cutter.  Well, with both Stax sets, you get perfect 1/8" gradations in size without going through the brain damage of measuring and remembering where to make the decreasing (or increasing) size cuts.  Believe me, I've ruined many a piece of CS by not measuring properly before making the cut, and since I knew I would be needing many rectangles on this card, this was the foolproof way of getting them.

BTW, even if you only buy one of the Rectangular Stax sets, you still get perfect 1/4" gradations.  This holds true for all of their Stax sets, i.e. circles, ovals, etc. 

I chose a MFT stamp set that I hadn't yet used before called "Coffee? Tea?" and I immediately knew that I wanted to paper piece the dress.  Recognize it?  It's the same as the paper which I used on the middle layer, except I stamped that layer with Perfect Plum using a French script stamp, En Francais by SU.

I also pieced the sleeve and popped it up on dimensionals.  I first learned of this technique at a wonderful blog, "In Rosie's Book" that you should check out.  This lady is a phenomenal paper artist who continually inspires me with her creative, precise, and out-of-the-park gorgeous techniques.

I colored the image's skin and coffee cup with Copics and glazed the cup with Glossy Accents then used a Spica glitter pen for the "steam."

To the left, you can see the depth that the piecing gives the image.

And to the right is the coffee cup in detail.  This little stinker gave me quite some trouble.  I wound up making three of them, learning something each time.  The final result came about like this: I stamped the image from the stamp set onto light, light tan printed paper, adhered it to a scrap of white CS, cut out the image, then applied three layers of UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) to the surface.  I wasn't happy with the final result - it was too dark, I guess because of the paper's reaction to the heat, so then I painted the cup portion with a blend of Ivory and Tan Creative Inspirations paints and the coffee portion with Chocolate [CI Paints].  It looked better but still needed something, so I  coated the entire piece with Glossy Accents.  When that dried, I drew on the black lines with a Sharpie.  I give credit to my DD for that little detail.  Sometimes it helps to have a second set of eyes when you're frustrated with something.  

And because of all of the surface treatment, you can't even see the original print of the paper.  Oh WELL.

Underneath the cup is a brown Dienamics Fancy Flourish die cut which mimics the steam rising.  If you'll look closely at the entire card, you'll see that the bottom raspberry layer has been embossed with the Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls embossing folder, then lightly brushed with CI Paints Tickled Pink.  I was going for a swirl theme here to mimic the steam which rises from the coffee cup.

I also stamped a swirly flourish on the Fishtail Flags Layers Stax and applied Perfect Pearls in Copper to it for a bit of added zing.  Then I adhered it to the middle layers and stitched around the edges with raspberry embroidery thread.  The sentiment is stamped using brown and raspberry markers onto a die cut using the Dienamics Mini Tabs Quartet.  After all that, a few vintage buttons finished this card.

The inside is finished simply with a couple of layers of CS and a couple of stamps from the set.

Thank you for joining me today.  This card is unusual for me in that it has neither ribbons nor flowers, but I don't mind - the coffee cup and flourish "steam" rising from it satisfied my need for embellishment.  Ok, and the buttons too.

Have a lovely day, and happy crafting!!

Supplies:

Stamps: Coffee? Tea? (MFT), Tiny Tags (SU)
Ink: Versamark, Raspberry Ripple, Early Espresso, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Raspberry Ripple, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Prima Sweet Fairy
Extras: Rectangular Stax Sets 1 and 2, Fishtail Flax Stax Layers Set, Fancy Flourish, Mini Tabs Quartet (all Dienamics), vintage buttons, Perfect Pearls, CI Paints, UTEE, Sharpie, sewing machine, Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls ef, Glossy Accents.

Challenges entered:


MFTGUESTDT0113 - sketch
CR84FN69 Color Challenge - raspberry, lavender, neutral
Delightful Challenges - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp - New Something (Copics, stamp set)