CAS(E) This Sketch AND Fusion - it's a combined challenge!

Hello!

This week we have an exciting collaboration of CAS(E) This Sketch and Fusion challenges, and I am lucky enough to be on both design teams! The sketch and the inspiration photo both had me running for my craft corner. I saw gold and butterflies, and the sketch is awesome, so a Fusion of both was inevitable.

I used a plethora of product on this card. Hero Arts, Stampin' Up!, Altenew stamps. Lots of gold - ink and smooch spritz. And that fabulous textured patterned paper, Save The Date by Teresa Collins.

For those of you who regularly play with Fusion, we are only running the challenge for one week this week. It will close next Wednesday, 25th June, and then we will take a little one week  holiday before our next challenge. So this week-end will be your only week-end opportunity to join in the fun. I would hate you to miss out!

I can't wait to see how everyone interprets this inspiration! I hope to visit you all soon. :-)

Michelle
xxx

Watercolour Butterflies for Tuesday Trigger

Hello!

Before I begin, just a little advice: Not a good idea to have your glass of wine near your computer or keyboard. Keyboards don't work very well (or at all) after they've been doused in wine... just saying! 

I'm now using my husband's ancient, dusty, old keyboard that takes a 100kg of force to press the keys down... but at least I can type, LOL!

So back to regular programming. The Tuesday Trigger this week had me thrilled. This is the beautiful trigger:

Isn't it beautiful?

For my card, I had a play with a few different ideas, and then I decided that I would try to incorporate the dreamy watercolour effect into a more CAS style that is more "me". I'm really happy with this card. I feel like I reflected the trigger but maintained my own style.

The butterflies are watercoloured with Derwent Inktense pencils (Fuschia and Tangerine). I then sprayed them with champagne shimmer mist. I'm not sure you can see that well in these photos.  I used PTI Turning a New Leaf in SU! Certainly Celery to create a little background. The sentiment is a mixture of PTI Pretty Peonies and Think Big Favorites #12, stamped in SU! Soft Suede. The card base is PTI Vintage Cream.

This is a close up of those butterflies. I punched the butterflies (using SU! Butterfly punch) before colouring. I like the way the colour soaked into the edges of the cuts. I used watercolour paper for the butterflies.

Thanks for dropping by!

Michelle

xxx

Clean and Simple Days 6 and 7

This is my second post of the day. To see my For Your Inspiration post, just scroll down. :-)

Hello!

I had three really busy and really long days at work to start this week, so I had zero chance to even look at the Clean and Simple Classes 6, 7, and 8. Today I looked over Class 6 - Simple Embellishments, and Class 7 - Plainly White, and I decided to combine the two into one card. I think I used just about every technique we were shown in the tutorial videos!

My "embellishment" is my butterfly. I've used a negative die cut again because I just LOVE negative die cuts.  I have another card to make for these two classes, and I might get to that one tomorrow.

Here is today's effort:

I used my Stampin'Up! Butterfly punch twice (patterned paper and vellum), I edged the butterfly (and covered myself) in Dazzling Diamonds glitter, I stamped the sentiment in Pretty in Pink to keep the soft feel of the card.

I like it.

Michelle
xxx

For Your Inspiration #16

Hello!

Welcome to another post for For Your Inspiration!  Steph has chosen another beautiful photo to inspire us this time, I'd love it if you would join us in Challenge number 16.

There is so much to inspire you there. I decided to use the lines created by the trees and the colours. My sentiment follows the angle of the horizon. The card is 10.5 x 10.5cm.

What I used (all SU!):
Card: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Ruby Red (retired), Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede
Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly

I'd love you to go and take a look at the other Design Team member's blogs and see what they've come up with. And our guest designer this week is so worth a visit, too!

Debbie
Debby
Keva
Peggy
Sara
Steph
E.T. (guest designer)

Thanks for stopping by today, and I'd love to see your response to the inspiration photo in the gallery.

Michelle
xxx

One Layer Butterflies for PDCC#86

Hello!

My experimentation with one-layer cards continues. . .

I have a few team members at work who are moving on to new teams, so I am working on cards to thank them as they move ahead to their new challenges.  I did the cutest little card with cupcakes (well, it was pretty big, at A5 like these other two I've done tonight, but it was cute), but I forgot to photograph it before it went out the door!  Argh!  It was chocolate and pinks, and sparkly, and it made me smile.  It was similar to this butterfly card in layout, but portrait rather than landscape. I'm teasing myself now, as well as you.  I'll have to make another and show you. :-)

So on to tonight's work.  This first post is in response to The Play Date Cafe Challege which caught my eye this week.   The colours are so bright and cheerful!  Take a look:

I already had an idea in mind for this card layout, which I picked up from Susan at Simplicity last week-end.  Because my card is A5, I felt I needed the extra butterflies, and I think it works quite well.  The photography leaves a bit to be desired because I was too impatient to wait for the morning  and natural light.

I've used all Stampin' Up:
Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, Butterfly Prints, Curly Cute
Colours: Only Orange, Pink Passion, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White cardstock
Other: Shimmer Mist (on the orange butterflies), Rhinestones

For so long I resisted using pencil lines and the stamp positioner when making my cards (probably because I'm a bit lazy about pulling it out of the drawer), but using these simple tools really makes such a difference to the finished product. So neat and tidy!

So what do you think?  Tell me your thoughts.  I love hearing from you.

Michelle
xxx

Plum Butterflies

Hello!

This is my second post for the week-end and, as some of you will know I am not a prolific blogger, this is a bit unusual for me.

I have had ideas floating through my head all week-end for this new card.  When I finally decided on layout, theme, and colours, my original ideas were dramatically changed. That seems to be my usual way of creating! I might still make the original idea up, if I can figure out how to make it work.

This card is for three challenges:
Clean and Simple FTL#141 - Layout
CR84FN29 - Colours: Light Plum, Plum, Kraft
Less is More - Theme: Butterfly/Butterflies  (I had already made a butterfly card this week-end, but I thought my design was probably a bit "More" than "Less", so decided to try again)

Here is the CAS FTL141 Layout:

These are the gorgeous colours at CR84FN:



Here is my card:

I reversed the layout to suit the direction of the sentiment.  It's been a while since I used my wheel to stamp, and probably a bit longer since I've done any heat embossing, so I am really enjoying that border along the bottom of the card.  I also clear embossed the flowers on the butterfly to give it a little shine.

What I used (all Stampin' Up!):

Card: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, and Sahara Sand (?) I ran out of Kraft!

Ink: Perfect Plum, Versamark watermark

Ribbon: Elegant Eggplant grosgrain

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, It's Beautiful (wheel)

It is certainly Clean and Simple, but is it too CAS? Is that possible? I feel like something's missing.

What do you think?

Michelle

xxx

CAS #122 and Color Throwdown #123

Well, here I go, entering my first challenge!  In fact, I am entering two at the same time, just to give myself an extra-special challenge.  For a while now I have been watching my friend Cassie  create some absolutely stunning work in response to challenges, and every time I see a new card that she has made she inspires me to give it a go too.  After months of thinking about it, here I am actually doing it.

So the two challenges are Clean and Simple #122 layout:

And Color Throwdown #123 colour palette:

I have to admit, these colours did not excite me, particularly because I don't have Always Artichoke or Baja Breeze in my stock of colours, and also I wasn't sure how they would turn out together.  Luckily for me, I do have cameo coral, and also the Color Throwdown people were kind enough to share some digital coloured paper for me to use for the green and blue.

So here is my effort, I'm not sure how I feel about it yet.  What do you think?

What I used (all SU other than the designer paper from Color Throwdown):
Stamps - Butterfly Prints, Flight of the Butterfly, Vintage Labels
Cardstock - whisper white, cameo coral
Ink - cameo coral, mellow moss (the closest match to always artichoke that I have)
Clear embossing on small butterfly and Dazzling Diamonds on large butterfly

Thanks for visiting!

Michelle
xxx

Butterflies!

At last!  A feminine birthday card!

I have a some female birthdays coming up over the next couple of months, so I get to play around with girly cards again, yay!  Today's effort was using Butterflies, and I might experiment a bit more with butterflies over the next few cards also.  I have a few ideas I want to try, as always. 

As per my regular creative process, I had one idea when I started and it changed into something different by the time I finished.  I really like the outcome.  It's quite simple, which might be part of the reason I like it - I like less fussy cards with clean lines.  What do you think?

All SU, except the bling.
Ink Colours:  Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Mellow Moss
Cardstock: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum - smooth and textured
Ribbon: Pretty in Pink (I didn't have any plum colours, but I think it works okay)

I'm looking forward to sharing more girly birthday cards with you soon.

Michelle
xxxxx

Notebooks

Because I was out of time before Christmas to get all my planned activities completed, I have decided that my Christmas gifts for my team at work will be "Seasons Greetings" gifts in the new year.  The thought and heart were there, but I just didn't get the time before I went on holidays to complete the project I planned instead of Christmas cards. 


For each member of my team, I have created the front inside cover of a notebook.  I will write a personal message on the back of this cover for each person, and they will then have my greetings as well as a notebook which will (hopefully) be more useful than a Christmas card, and might even last all year.


Here they are:

They are all different.  I have a particular favourite, but I won't tell you, so that you can choose your own!


I hope you like them, and I hope my team likes them too.  :-)

Here are the larger photos of each.