Play date Cafe Challenge No 13

This is the colour palette for this week's Play Date Cafe challenge - not colours I would ever have thought of putting together - so an excellent challenge. Very Retro look I think and a fab photo:



While I was thinking about it, my eye landed on a laundry tablet box in just the right colour. I use these boxes to make "treasure boxes" or storage for crafting stash, so the two ideas came together and this is the result:



The photo isn't that great, the tassel is actually a perfect shade of turquoise and the glitter on the flowers doesn't show at all! The stamps are all Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi by Stampers Anonymous, the plate is called Lower Case Art.

Hope you like it.

Back to Basics!

These 2 little cards are a definite step back for me, almost to when I first started card-making! Although I wouldn't have used stamped images then - instead I would have cut something out and stuck it on. That phase lasted about 3 weeks I think! Then I discovered stamping via Glenda Waterworth on TV, then grunge, then Tim Holtz, Craft Stamper, Sue Roddis's wonderful Altered Art .... then I visited Paddy's Stamping Place and life was never quite the same again!
Anyway this week I wanted to make some cards for non-crafters who really don't appreciate anything too "out-there" so out came the glue and the pretty papers (these ones were free with a magazine) and the ribbon. I was pleased with the result - I think the colours work well. I may use the designs again, next time a bit more "from scratch" though. Let me know what you think? It would be easy enough to make the background paper with inks and stamps and get similar effects.

Workshop Samples

These are two cards that I have prepared in advance for a workshop I will do some time at Paddy's. I was going to do it in a couple of weeks time but I have just been given a date for a "procedure" to be done on my shoulder next Thursday and I don't know how fit I will be afterwards so I've cancelled it. But if I can get more samples done beforehand I will be ready to "rock and roll" as soon as my shoulder settles down, whenever Paddy has a space in the diary!
These two have a bit of a theme don't they? Colours very similar, and good for "Man" cards, which is a bit outside my comfort zone. The stamps are Elusive Images or Creative Expressions and the inks used are mainly DI's. I love that long number stamp which I've used as a border. It occurred to me that if you picked out the relevant numbers in another colour, you could make it for any birthday - 26, 57, 93 etc!
Anyway I hope you like them.

Play Date Cafe No 11

I've been lacking in inspiration lately, but when I saw the Design Team's and Sue's entries for The Play Date Cafe challenge, I felt I wanted to have a go. I have to say Sarah's bird particularly tickled me!
So here is my entry. The photo isn't brilliant - the orangy bit is just a reflection in the mirri board, it's gold in real life. A little scrap of embossed black paper was dusted with gold pearl powder and a scrap of text was brushed over with gesso. These two combined to form a base for the silver mirri which was cuttlebugged, then wiped with versamark and embossed with black UTEE, which gave the very rough effect I was looking for. The gold mirri was put through a cuttlebug then stained with black Stazon, then mounted on a black card which had had a wide gold ribbon attached. The small panel and a white flower highlighted with gold Krylon and a skeleton leaf were stuck on. Some tiny mosaic tiles and adhesive pearls finished it off. Hope you like it.