For Your Inspiration #25 - blue and orange

Hello!

It's time for For Your Inspiration Challenge #25! The photo inspiration looks like it is from Greece, those beautiful white walls and blue roofs. And we get sunset thrown in as well.

Our March sponsor is Your Next Stamp. All participants at For Your Inspiration Challenge #25 get 15% discount off their next order. Their stamps are absolutely lovely, lots of cute images to choose from. The code for the discount is over on FYI, to collect when you link up your entry. :-)

The inspiration I took from the photograph this week was blue, white, and orange. As soon as I thought of that colour combination, I was thinking a fun kids' card. So that is what I made.

Fox and Friends (Stampin' Up!) are having a party!

Once I'd finished this card, I thought I ought to find a little Dutch boy to give it to. I'll tell you why (bear with me while I give you a small history of Brisbane football (soccer). I don't know much about Brisbane football history, so some of my facts may be wrong, LOL!

Several years ago, when my hubby and I built our first house, we lived down the road from the Brisbane Lions Football Club. The clubhouse was small and definitely not inviting. Around the same time, there was a merger of two of the AFL (Australian Football League - Australian Rules football, not soccer) clubs - Brisbane Bears and Fitzroy Lions. They wanted to become the Brisbane Lions, but the little soccer club in Richlands already owned that name... so there was a deal done. The Brisbane Lions turned into the Queensland Lions FC. (And the Brisbane Bears turned into the Brisbane Lions AFL club.)

Suddenly, overnight (or it felt like that at the time) the little soccer club in Richlands turned into a mega, super-duper, fully-fledged football club with their colours (blue and orange) blazing in all their glory. It's amazing what a little money will do for a sporting club. The club was excellent - the food was great, they had child-minding so you could relax, they had a cafe for coffee and cake, as well as the usual gaming machines. This is when I learned all about football clubs in Brisbane. The orange and blue blazing all over the new club reflected the Dutch heritage of the team. Orange is the Dutch national colour and the colour of the royal family (their flag is red, white, and blue). The Royal Standard is orange and blue. Other teams in Brisbane were other nationalities, and other equally bright colours.

Queensland Roar (managed originally by Queensland Lions) became a professional team in the new A-League national competition, and a few years later changed their name to Brisbane Roar (because there were now two more Qld teams), and in the 2011 season saw them win 36 times in a row to take out their first Premiership and Championship.

Now that you have learned more than you ever wanted to know about football in Australia (and let me tell you, football in Australia is much bigger than that little story), why don't you go and visit my teamies from the For Your Inspiration Design Team:

Debbie

Debby
Irena
Karen

Rochelle

Sara

Steph
Sylvia

Vicki

Thanks for coming by to visit, it's always lovely to have you drop in.

Michelle
xxx

Framed One Layer

Hello!

I'm so excited to be back stamping!  I've had a few weeks off as a result of getting a cough that turned into bronchitis.  You'd think all those sick days at home would be a blessing in disguise (more stamping time), but the tyranny of illness is that I just didn't have the energy for much other than being still in between coughing fits.  So frustrating!

Today I wandered off to the craft show, where I didn't buy much other than tape and spritzer bottles, but I did pick up some fresh inspiration.  I returned home hoping that my family would bless me with another hour or two to myself, and they did ... without my even asking!!

The challenge I chose to work on this afternoon was the new Less Is More challenge.  Week 19 is One Layer Week and the theme is In The Frame.  You saw my first efforts at one layer cards a few weeks ago, and today I gave them another go.  I made three cards: One I quite like, one I'm still thinking about, and one that didn't work.  I'll show you them all.

The first is my challenge entry:

With this card I got a bit adventurous (for me) and made an embossed frame around my sponged image. Surprisingly, first go and I managed to get the lines to meet correctly at the corners. :-)   What I used here was White cardstock, ink colours were More Mustard, Really Rust, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, the stampset is one of my favourites, Trendy Trees.  I like the simplicity of this card, it soothes me.

The second card was the first I made, and I do like it, but I feel like it is missing something.

What I used here was White cardstock, ink colours were More Mustard, Really Rust, Old Olive.  Stampsets were Curly Cute and Organic Grace.  Curly Cute is brand new for me, and I predict I'll be using these sentiments regularly for a while!  Organic Grace I have had for a while and I have made some lovely cards with it, but it seems that I never shared those on this blog.  What an oversight, I'll have to make some more and show you!

The third card didn't work at all.  This card is for one of my little girl's friends at kindy.  She thinks it's lovely and she thinks her friend will like it too, so that is all that matters really . . . but I'm going to have to have another go at the idea in my head to see if I can make the necessary improvements to make it work as it should!

Cardstock is Very Vanilla. Ink colours are Summer Sun, More Mustard, Close to Cocoa, Garden Green, Not Quite Navy, and Chocolate Chip.  The stampset is Fox and Friends (which always makes me smile).

So there you have it. After a card drought of a few weeks, I have managed to put together three in one go.

So what do you think? Which is your favourite?

Michelle
xxx

Little Boy Birthday

This is a post I meant to make before Christmas, but time slipped away from me.  So now I have a couple of posts to catch up on!

This little card was another of my playing with my alphabet.  It was for one of my little girl's favourite friends.  I almost didn't get a photo of it, and this one was taken on the dashboard of my car before we went into the party!  I really love the way the monkey hangs from the balloon, and I can see myself using this idea again. 

Everything is Stampin' Up other than the alphabet. 
DSP:  Washington Apple
Colours: Barely banana, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue, Ruby Red

Boy Birthdays

I haven't had a second to do any stamping lately, and Christmas is looming!  But, I had a couple of birthdays to make cards for this week-end, so out came my gear.  Recently I picked up a simple alphabet from Kikki-K and I played with that for these cards.

The first was a 3rd birthday for one of my little girl's friends - the party was yesterday and I put the card together in about 30 minutes just before we had to go, phew!  My little girl watched me make it and when it was finished she declared, "Oh, that's beautiful, Mummy!"  That put a smile on my face.  :-)  

Colours are (all SU) Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, and Sage Shadow. 

The second is a birthday card for my brother (who I don't think reads my blog, but if he does, "the card's in the mail").  This card emerged from an idea I had in my head that I had trouble translating to paper.  Although not what I originally imagined when designing the card, and due to the challenge of translating my concept to paper, I ended up with something different to my usual style, and I quite like it. 

I can't get the picture to translate in a normal format (it is squishing it up), but you get the idea, I'm sure!

Colours used are (all SU) Very Vanilla, Night of Navy, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie.

Sometime soon I will be blogging with some Christmas cards again.  Until then, I hope you've enjoyed my latest attempts at creativity.