Hello Peeps,

Did you enjoy the holidays? Hopefully you were spoiled as much as I was this year. Since I had bought myself quite a few stampsets the past half year, I stamped them all out on some Crafter’s Companion Neenah Classic Crest Card in Solar White with some VersaFine Onyx Black ink. This way, I can watch some telly in the evening and do some colouring at the same time. Then, when the kids are at school, I can turn the coloured images in to a nice card set. And that is exactly how these cards started out. For some colour inspiration I used the ColorThrowdown Callenge 462. I used Distress Ink as my colour medium because those colours matched the challenge colours the best, in my opinion. Armed with my waterbrush, four Distress Ink colours (Rusty Hinge, Bundled Sage, Fired Brick and Tumbled Glass), a piece of kitchen roll and my piece of laminated white paper, which I use as a palet, I could colour whilest sitting on the sofa with my husband, watching a series on tv. Who says you can’t have it all?

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The first card is a Made by ME white card base with a piece of polka dot paper from the Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine 6×6 inch petite papers pad. I cut the fifth largest cirkel from my Crealies CLNestXXL nr 33 cirkeldies out of some paper from an Avec Colours Unlimited pad with number 4952436 and the third smallest from a scrap of plain pink paper. I stamped the sentiment on to a scrap of white cardstock and cut it to size with a banner end on one side. The addition of the elephant and the kite make this is friendly card.

This card is another Made by ME cardbase that is covered with a checked pattern from my Sizzix Little Sizzles Pastel pad. I wanted to place the elepant in to some grass, but I didn’t want to introduce green as another colour. Therefore I cut the fourth smallest circle from the Crealies CLNestXXL nr 33 once from some Coastal Cabana and once from some Pool Party cardstock, both from Stampin’ Up. Next I cut the Coastal Cabana circle with one of the grass dies from the Lawn Fawn Grassy Hillside Borders set., after which I could rebuild the circle and place the elephant and the flowers. I used the same Coastal Cabana cardstock along the left hand side of the card to make it al little less flat. Since the card was looking very blue and I still had a piece of the polka dot paper from the Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine 6×6 inch petite paper pad laying on my desk, I used it as a background. But it was still lacking something. I rumaged through my stash looking for a piece of orange cardstock that matched with the orange in the dots. On to this I stamped the sentiment and added a sliver of orange along the side. As far as I’m concerned that was exactly the right amount to give some contrast and balance to the layout

This card uses a lot of the same elements as the cards above. The white cardbase is from Made by ME, the polka dot paper is from the Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine 6×6 inch petite paper pad (this time cut out with the third smallest circle die from the Crealies CLNestXXL nr 33), a scrap of Pool Party cardstock by Stampin’ Up (cut to the same size as the polka dot paper) and the checkered pattern from the Avec Colours Unlimited pad nummer 4952436 (cut with the fifth smallest  circle die the Crealies CLNestXXL nr 33). The sentiment was stamped directly on to the card base with some VersaFine Onyx Black ink. I tried to bend te stamp so it would have the same curva as the circle. Then I just needed to add the elephant and the butterflies.

The position of the elephant was leading in determining the layout of this card. I couldn’t just place him in in the middle of the card because he so clearly wanted to stand in the bottom right hand corner. I wanted to keep this card as minimal as possible. The pink background is a piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock by Stampin’ Up. But leaving it like that was a bit too basic for my taste. I cut two pieces of dotted paper from the Simple Stories Sn@p Life and stuck them on either side of the Made by ME cardbase so that only a row of half cirkels would show. I stamped the sentiment at the elephant’s feet to ground him, whilest keeping the rest of the card light and airy.

I was amazed how quickly these cards came together. Of course it took me a while to settle on the layout of each card but that always takes me longer than I anticipate. However by doing everyting step by step, it all went rather quickly

Finally I want to wish everyone a happy new year. May you achieve all your goasl in good health with lots of love.

See you next time

 

Leonie