CAS-ual Fridays-Red White And Blue!

Happy Friday everyone..it's almost Memorial Day Weekend and we at CFC are ready with yet another exciting challenge!
 ......this week its all about Red White And Blue!

I came up with 2 cards, the first..a watercolor and another, a more patriotic stars and stripes...take your pick..which one do you like better?

My signature watercolor is a wedding card for a friend who is getting married in June. Since I don't know the colors of her bouquet and such, I went with a more generic.."something blue and borrowed "and imagined a cake with blue frosting and a blue lace handkerchief for the precious rings!.

 The stamps are by Inkadinkado..in fact all of them .. the cake, bouquet, sentiment and kerchief are all from the same set.  For a touch of wedding sparkle and elegance, I stamped and gold embossed the ring and sentiment.

We have  Simon Says Stamp sponsoring a prize this week!

The second one is a more traditional ..perfect for Memorial Day kind of a card....

Masking and stamping  and heat embossing is the name of the game here.

The stripe stamp is by Hero arts and the star is by PTI.

...have a wonderful weekend  !
.....and thanks for stopping by.

It will be ok.......

Running a bit short on time this week, I thought I might not be able to play along, but the Runway Inspired #36  inspiration photo kept calling me so much that I just had to fit it in somehow!

I simply fell in love with the mood and color of the photo...so dark and mysterious with a hint of glamor and elegance...love it!

So that is where I took my card, focusing primarily on color and mood and went for the tone on tone effect. I approached the triangle pattern on the sweater by hand drawing that folk art fish pattern using a versamark pen and embossed it and applied a hint of purple ink over it .

In fact all the embossing is done using Zing khaki powder, but it was so hard photographing this card, if the colors got right , the embossing looked golden and vice versa!

For once the stray embossing powder is intentional!. I wanted it to be all over the card, so much so after I distressed the red cardstock with ink, I sprinkled some powder randomly all over the card and heat set it, but the irony is when you want it to stick it does not, so I just got a few stray powder around the fish !

Also I drew some bubbles and embossed with red embossing powder near the mouth of the fish.

Also I drew some bubbles and embossed with red embossing powder near the mouth of the fish.

stamps-CAS-ual Fridays,Clear Dollar stamps.

 Sharing with A Blog Named Hero-Clean up your act

Lot's to do...gotta go now, thanks so much for stopping by!

Paper Piecing

Am back after a back breaking weekend...
......literally!
We got some planting done around here and by the end of it my back had a mind of it's own, so decided to give it some rest and watch the Make it Monday # 117 video over at PTI ..big mistake!
..by the time it was done I was already at my desk trying my hand at the paper piecing technique..resting my back went out of the window!

 I had done my share of piecing in the past but it was limited to stamping on DP and adhering it to the image, but Melissa's technique was something that I had not tried before.

For my card here, instead of patterned paper, I collected all my watercolor scraps and stamped the image on them as and where it fit and then fussy cut them and assembled it like a jigsaw puzzle

I went over a couple of  petals with markers just to add some shading.

Also sharing with Pinspired Challenge#9

a closer look at the piecing

Stamps -Papertrey Ink, Inkadinkado

Although a bit time consuming, it was fun and am glad I gave it a try!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Take Joy In The Little Things

Confession/sharing time......

If you have been following my blog closely, you would have observed that lately, I have been showcasing more of my watercolor cards, by watercolor I mean not just as a medium of coloring  but as my focal point.I did do a series of them during the holidays but of late I have been trying to use it more in my everyday cards. 

Ever since I started blogging and sharing my cards last year, I have tried to explore different mediums and textures and realised I was drawn towards watercolor the most and almost always ended up giving a painted look and feel to my cards. I loved to use stamps as my jumping off point but always built a  watercolor background around it and seriously, I loved the way it took  a stamped image to a whole different level, almost turning my card into a miniature piece of art!

Having said that, I also began to wonder if my cards were a bit out of the ordinary, given that I  rarely ever use the latest products on my cards, no designer paper nor embellies and although my viewership was satisfactory... comments were few and followership slow..... I asked around and delved into it myself......I know....I know.. we have to do what we love to do and not worry about all of this..I agree, but once you are on a public space, I think it just becomes natural to wonder if people are liking what you are showcasing.

And then suddenly this week, a couple of 'important to me' challenge wins answered all my questions at once. The very same kind of cards that I was doubting were highlighted..not that my work had not been appreciated in the past, but this week just put a closure to my second guessing!

It also meant that, yes, there are people out there who love my kind of work and a sudden surge of new followers  just confirmed that they would like to see more!

Whew! that was longer than I expected!..my high's and low's almost equals the weather around me!

Are you still there..?

..ok  good!

......beacause after this boring monologue I do  have a card for you !!

The colors were inspired by the May Cards Blog Challenge.  I chose  the bowl of cherries stamp by Unity stamps and colored in using a blender pen and ink. Then added the watercolor background to compete the scene and finally added a few yellow splatters  randomly all over .

Sorry about the long post and  thanks for listening!

CAS-ual Fridays

Yay..it's Friday!
...and it's time for another CAS-ual Fridays challenge. Did you'll enjoy the birthday celebrations for the past 2 weeks, we sure did!
.... stay tuned for the happy hour this weekend, there's going to be quite a few lucky winners!

 This week's challenge is all about stamping on designer paper. It was quite a bit of a challenge for me, I hardly ever do that, so had to really scratch my head on it, until I came across this beautiful grid paper  with a flourish line drawing on it. ..Voila,light bulb moment!.... I 'll stamp some flowers and color it in..of course!

So I used the tiny blooms from the Mum's The Word stamp set by CAS-ual Fidays stamps..stamped and colored in the flourish  and blooms using Pitt Pastel Pencils-Faber Castell. While I was coloring the flourish , I smudged it a bit to spread the green color and finally added some puff paint dots as an accent.

we have the wonderful CAS-ual Fridays stamps sponsoring this week, so do join in .

Also sharing with  MarkerPOP blog- May flowers

And Simon Says Stamp-Flower Power

See you at CFC..

Thanks for stopping by.

Hope Heals......

A quick post today sharing a card I made for Runway Inspired's current challenge.# 35..Miu Miu..

 I was inspired by the horizontal stripes on the ramp and the dress..the yellow in the background and a hint of red on the model's collar. Also I chose  to go for a  tall and thin card base to mimic the slim profile of the model.

 Hand drew the swing ...

stamps-Wplus9,Hero Arts, Die-Memory Box

Also sharing with A Blog Named Hero- Clean Up Your Act

Thanks for stopping by today and thank you all for the warm wishes this morning on my winning the Moxie Fab World Watercolor challenge...appreciate it!

Paper Crafts Gallery Idol 2013

 

Finally..
..... after much thought, I decided to throw my hat in the ring!

The Paper crafts Gallery Idol is a much awaited event in the Paper crafting industry and with all the talent out there..I second guessed myself... I mean there are people who just rock at card making and stamping! But then I thought, not everything is about winning, the experience matters too, so I went ahead and made a card just for the top 20 auditions.

The theme is birthday cards for kids and teens. I decided to go with a card for kids, especially the teeny tiny tots who still can't read or appreciate a card, but love to see pictures.  After yesterday's Mother's day card, I was still in the mood for the storybook look ..  but this time  around I chose Humptey Dumptey.  I thought a 2 yr old would immediately identify with nursery rhyme image .

Here is the card...

 

  I had just the perfect stamp for this card, Humptey Dumptey....one of my favorites! I got a shaped card template from Sweet stamps blog which was just right for the two images to sit perfectly. watercolored them and stamped the sentiment on the inside with just a hint of color to carry the outside in.

,

 I stamped the rhyme twice.. once in very light grey for a faded look and once again using walnut stain distress ink.

 A closer view at the images...

 Stamps- Humptey Dumptey -Clear Dollar stamps, inside sentiment-Papertrey Ink, watercolor paper, Koi watercolors.

I had fun with this card and hope you like it too!

Sharing with Moxie Fab World -Wonder Of Watercolor Challenge

Thanks for stopping by today.