Keesh's Inkspiration Colour Challenge #12

Is it just me or did August just race by???? It only seems like yesterday that Keesh asked me to be her Guest DT for August - and now here's my last post - or it was meant to be before Keesh needed last week off - too much partying on the Incentive Trip methinks - LOL!!! Only joking Keesh - I know how sore your poor foot is!

I do seem to have been chasing my tail a bit lately - but it was SOOO much fun to be a part of Keesh's team - and thanx soo much to Keesh and the regular DT girls , past and present, for welcoming me aboard. If you don't know who they are you have been missing some awesome talent - so here's a link to them all...
Amy
Kirsty
Cindy
Renee
and the lovely Karen, who has retired from the team but is an amazing talent, and a lot of fun!!!

Now onto this week's challenge!!!

There's a funny story to my card - and my sister will have a good laugh when she sees it!!! I was on the phone to my sister (she was on loudspeaker so I could keep working - we chat a LOT - LOL), when I was "playing" with the colours and trying to choose a stamp set to use. WELL - I was having all sorts of problems, the cold I had just wasn't helping my brain function. I wasn't happy with how anything was working out and Sharon was trying to make suggestions sight unseen! In a fit of angst I told her I was done, and maybe I should just put EVERYTHING I had done on the card!! We had a laugh and I decided to walk away from it for a bit. After picking my daughter up from school I popped into my desk and saw all the bits lying together - and thought "why not!" - so I DID use all the bits I was working on and came up with this!!! And I actually quite like it - LOL.

The Stamp sets I've used are Circle Circus, A Kind Word, Embrace Life and Short & Sweet. The DP is from the Windsor Knot series.

Thanx again for all of your kind words and support during my time on Keesh's team!

xXx

Keesh's Inkspiration Sketch Challenge #12

WOW - I can't believe how fast August is going!!! This is my third Guest DT week for Keesh and I can't believe I only have one more to go!!!

I really couldn't make up my mind with this sketch - my fabulous Holiday Line-Up stamps were calling out to me - but I also wanted to play with my as yet uninked set, Spring Song. So what's a girl to do??? Make 2 completely different cards using the one sketch - LOL.


I've gone for the soft look of Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss and Chocolate Chip for Soft Summer. I used my blender pen and inkpads for the flowers and my Touch and Copic markers for the bird. I cut the oval out using my nesties - after making sure to trim the wings so I could pop them above the nestie and not cut them off! I've also layered the main flower for some extra dimension. Some beautiful Bella Rose DP added to the garden feel. I haven't added a sentiment - it's one of those cards that just speaks for itself and can have soo many uses!!
My second card is a lot brighter!!! I've used my SU markers and my pale blue Copic marker to bring the colours of the Ski Slope DP to life on the snowmen. Instead of flowers I've added some punched and layered snowflakes with a rhinestone in the centre. A fairly simple card but soooo much fun - I LOVE these guys!!!

Keesh's Inspiration Challenge # 11

This is my second week with Keesh as her Guest DT and I just wanted to thank everyone for their wonderful comments of support. The blogging community is an amazing one - I just wish I could spend the hours commenting on blogs that everyone deserves! I think my family would complain a little though if I forgot to feed them - LOL.

And that segways nicely into Keesh's Inspiration picture this week - a gorgeous kitchen in muted browns and clean whites. I think I would almost enjoy the daily chore of cooking dinner in this beautiful space - but it wouldn't look this tidy for long - LOL.


I've chosen to use the Hostess set Window Dressing for my card - to mirror the glass doors of the kitchen cupboards. I also chose to use one of the SU Chef's menu selections from Voila - much more suited to a kitchen window! It's also one of the fabulous things about SU sets - the way you can mix and match!

Another example of mixing and matching comes from Annette from My Pommie Purple Patch. She made a wonderful Shoebox Swap for our Stamp Camp using the Choo Choo set from the Spring Mini and the presents from Loads of Love Accesories to create a wonderful Santa Express Christmas card - check it out here.

I also want to take this opportunity to wish Keesh a speedy recovery from torn ligaments in her ankle - I always knew exercise was bad for you - LOL. At least her incentive trip next week will give her a chance to relax and heal properly...take care and ENJOY!!!

xXx

Keesh's Inkspiration Colour Challenge #11 and a Guest DT Spot for August!

I can't begin to tell you how honoured and gobsmacked I was when the amazingly talented Makeesha Byl sent me an email asking if I would be the Guest DT member for August for her Inkspiration Challenges!!!! I have admired Keesh since I joined SU and was ecstatic to meet her at Convention. Her regular DT girls are all amazingly talented too, and some of my SU gurus - LOL. I was determined not to let Keesh down - but my word she threw me a curve ball with this colour challenge!!!! I LOVE all of these colours - but together - hmmmmm! I ended up making 3 cards - one of which made it all the way to the paper recycling bin - the others are here - although I was awake at 5.30am tossing and turning and trying to re-design to no avail - LOL.

This first card was inspired by the wonderful new things I learnt at Stamp Camp last weekend. Both the butterfly and the rose are made from the same SU DP and the SU 5-Petal Punch - how cool! The butterfly is simply 2 flowers each with one petal removed, folded in half and attached - they look so light and gentle IRL. I don't know who came up with these but they were flying all over the room at camp.

I had also asked the amazingly talented Kellie Winnell to show me how she made her roses, see her post here - based on this tutorial. I don't have the blossom punch she used so I used my 5-Petal Punch and my corner rounder (to take off the flower points) instead. It worked a treat! These roses were a hit at Camp too - I'm sure they'll be popping up all over the place soon!

My second card uses my poor neglected Always set - I love the heart from this set but keep forgetting it's there! I've popped the top heart up on Dimensionals for added effect. This one was the card of choice from my daughter and hubby - but my son and I preferred the previous card - so you get to see both - LOL.

I hope I've done Keesh proud - I'm sure I'll see soooo many wonderful entries I'll be kicking myself I didn't think of them first - LOL.

xXx

Makeesha's Inspiration Challenge #10

Yay - I managed to find time today to play along with Keesh's challenge! I've gone more with the colours - Basic Black, Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White and So Saffron., although I have tried to imitate the linen's stripes with some DP and ribbons too.

The Turquoise layer has been embossed in my Floral Fantasy CB folder and the DP is from SU - my favourite from Urban Oasis at the top and a new one being released in the Spring Mini on August 1st called Walk in the Park. The sentiment is from Warm Words. And of course the image is from Magnolia Stamps - coloured with my Touch and Copic markers.

I also wanted to let you know I'm heading off on Friday for a demonstrator Stamp Camp - I get home Sunday - I can't WAIT!!!! I have a couple of things still to post, but may be quiet for a while as I'm not taking my computer with me!!! I look forward to sharing some of the Stamp Camp fun with you next week!

xXx

Keesh's Inkspiration Sketch Challenge #10

This week's challenge from Keesh is a sketch. I have my FIL's 84th birthday this weekend so decided to use the sketch for a masculine card. I'm also giving you a sneak peek at one of the new sets in the Spring Mini - it's a fabulous set for those gentlemen in your life! Mind you - I can also imagine my Magnolia stamps sitting around with some time - LOL. The set is called A Sense of Time and will be available from August 1st.

I used my Speckled wheel to age some Very Vanilla CS and then stamped my images and sentiment on in Chocolate Chip. The centre of the clocks and cogs have been defined by brads, and the smaller clock is covered with Crystal Effects to give the impression of an old glass cover. I also used my Cuttlebug on some Pumpkin Pie CS and on the faux woodgrain CS. There's also some distressing around the edges of the clock and the main panel. I think texture is fabulous on men's cards!

After I put it all together - which I have discovered you shouldn't do while watching TV!!! - I realised some of my layers aren't quite straight!! My picture is a little skewed too - ah well. I just wish it was my FIL's eyesight and not his hearing that was failing - LOL. My hubby assured me it just added to the "rustic" look!

xXx

Keesh's Inspiration Challenge #9

Keesh's Inspiration Challenge certainly made me put my thinking cap on this week - I had several ideas floating around my head - none of which translated onto paper! It's soooo frustating when this happens because the reality can never measure up!!! Never mind - I actually don't mind the card I ended up with!

The inspiration picture brought to my mind the High Tea at the National Gallery that I'm going to in a couple of weeks. I'm going with a group of my closest girlfriends to celebrate a couple of birthdays within the group. We figured a High Tea would be more our style than a Pub Crawl - LOL. The colours are Whisper White, Pretty in Pink and Purely Pomegranate. The Basic Black trim picks up the teapot colour.

I've stamped the cupcakes from Crazy for Cupcakes onto some SU DP and coloured them in with my SU markers. I tried to use my Touch markers but they bled outside the lines with the lightweight paper. The cakes were "iced" with my versamark pen and white embossing powder. The table of cupcakes has been "framed" in an embossed nestie oval to represent both the gallery we're going to, and the painting in the inspiration picture. And there's 6 cupcakes - one for each person invited! It's going to be a great afternoon I'm sure!

Hope you all have something to look forward to too.

xXx

Keesh's Inkspiration Sketch Challenge #9

Last night I had a very quiet evening at home - my son was tucked up in bed, my daughter was out at her boyfriend's and my hubby was on a plane to Brussels! So I decided to sit in front of the TV and colour up some images - one thing led to another and by the time I went to bed I had completed Keesh's sketch challenge for the week! I really should have been sewing but had no motivation for it!

I love putting Whisper White, Kraft and Black together, and this DP is one of my faves! It is such a stylish combination! So after I coloured this image I thought it would be the perfect background for this elegant red flower from Bloomin' with Beauty. I have toled the petals of the flower and the leaves for added effect - all in all a very simple card, but I'm really happy with it!

And it was lovely to relax on a Sunday evening doing something I love!

xXx


Edit - have just realised my card is similar to Tracey's in the colours and papers she's used for the challenge - I loved hers when I saw it but hadn't realised what an impact it had on me until I revisited her blog! I should call this a CASE of her wonderful card, just wish it wasn't for the same challenge - LOL!

Keesh's Inkspirations Inspiration Challenge # 8

Yesterday I had a wonderful time over at Kristy Young's place (aka Princess). It was her birthday last week and she decided to help celebrate the day by having a bunch of SU demos over for lunch and some stamping fun. While I was there I was playing around making some flowers and I came home having made a daisy using the Sizzix Flower, Daisies #2 die in Pink Pirhouette. I used an embossing tool to cup each of the petals for extra dimension - so easy but what a difference it makes! This morning I decided I would try and incorporate it into a card for Keesh's Inkspiration Challenge for the week.

I felt the challenge called for soft muted tones so I combined my pink daisy with some Sage Shadow leaves I paper pieced onto the stamped background - I used the leaves from God's Beauty - a hostess set in the American catalogue. The background is Kraft which is the colour of one of the pillows. The centre of the daisy is pencil shavings - an idea I got from Donna over at Butternut Sage - she has developed a version of Flower Soft and she explains it here. I think my shavings may be a bit too big but I love the rustic look. I also left my shavings natural in colour as I felt it went better with the natural feel of the whole card. I don't actually have a pencil sharpener that gives fine shavings so you can imagine my neighbour's face when I saw his and asked if I could have them - I think he believes I'm a little crazy - LOL.

The cushions in Keesh's Inkspiration picture are a fairly elegant with the satin embossed look - I've added a pearl to the "i" in the sentiment as my touch of elegance!

Now I must go and start some sewing - I'm making the costume for Titania in the High School's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream - so apologies if my blogging falls behind for a few days.

xXx

Keesh's Inkspirations Inspiration Challenge # 7

Have you seen the DT girls cards for Keesh's challenge this week - wow - amazing!!! It did however make it very hard to clear my head of their stunning creations and come up with my own take! I found my first, and OK 2nd and 3rd, layouts were poor re-creations of what I had already seen. I HAD to come up with something new!!!

I ended up with this at 11.20 last night - the final bit of glue had been applied and I left it sitting on my desk to dry while I dragged myself off to bed!! It doesn't have as much colour as I would have liked, but something had to give. The only non SU items I used were the butterfly punch - one I've had for years, and the big red flower. I've used DPs from the Bella Rose set (the background), the Urban Oasis set (the leaves) and the Holiday Treasures set (the houndstooth check). Thank goodness for the current DP special which enabled me to get all these papers! I've used a Build-a-Brad for the flower centre - I LOVE these!!!!

Anyway - I was happy with the whole effect when I woke up to it this morning with fresh eyes - hope you like it too....

KWerner Color Inspiration #43 & Keesh's Inkspirations Sketch Challenge # 5

For a long time now I have been promising myself I would try a double challenge - and finally I've done it!!

The wonderful colours from Kristina have worked out so well with the fabulous sketch challenge from Keesh. I mean - how could you go wrong using inspiration from these two very talented stampers??

I ended up using both my Eastern Blooms and my Embrace Life sets - I just decided the flower from Eastern Blooms went better in the layout and it's dotty centre mirrors the Cuttlebug embossing on the Pumpkin Pie layer - which is why I decided to colour the spots in Pumpkin Pie too....