Any Man Can Be a Father

 Afternoon, just popping by to share this Father's Day card I made using LOTV's #7 Bear. I decided to use this image because of the JUGS challenge to use numbers and as luck would have it I can also enter the new challenge at Passion for Markers because they are focusing on Animals! There's still also the  chance to enter another card at Creative Inspirations, For the Boys.

After stamping the image and colouring with Copics, I stamped the sentiment, a mix of Card-io ones, and then trimmed my white panel down so that a border from the red base card would show, simples.

Joining in over at:-

One for the boys

Animals

Color Hues #112

 Good afternoon and welcome. 

Today we are already over halfway through the month of June, so it's time for another colour duo from Color Hues. Here's my take on the new colours.

I wasn't sure about the Cobalt element of this duo so I looked at my paint palette and matched it to my Cobalt Blue watercolour pan and used the nearest match to it from my card stash. The peach I used for the dress is a mix of Copic markers that I found from Vanilla Arts, E93,95 and R30, with a little B41 for shadow. This is a combination I've not used before and looking at my colour chart I probably wouldn't have until I looked at the Vanilla Arts site but I think works well.

My young lady is from a Stampingbella set, Uptown Girls Victoria and Juliette, but I only wanted the one girl for this design, so a bit of judicious masking and redrawing of the arm was required! I think she's sipping a Peach Bellini!

The night sky was suggested by the card stock, so a simple white card circle and a couple of MFT's City Skyline die cuts in black were added. I added a few small pieces of gold glitter paper behind some of the windows to bring the buildings to life and framed the scene with an aperture panel.

My girl was fussy cut and added to the panel together with the stamped Uniko sentiment before overlaying the cobalt blue base on foam pads.

Well that's all from me but why not pop over to Color Hues to check out the fabulous ideas that the rest of the team and our GD have come up with here.

Looking forward to seeing your makes in the Color Hues gallery.

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#179 Birthday

Sentiment or not

I would say that I always use a sentiment UNLESS it detracts from the image such as a watercolour floral or scene such as this card or this but it's very unusual!

Use a circle

Uniko FB Challenge

Good morning all. 

This month on Uniko's FB VIP Challenge we are focusing on MASCULINE cards. I know many of you struggle when it comes to cards for the men in your life, I'm pretty outnumbered in the male department so I'm used to producing cards for blokes of all ages but it doesn't get any easier!

With Father's Day fast approaching, I thought I would make one for the Grand kids to give to their dad, think this might be OK for the eldest who is in the middle of his mock exams, CAS works well for male cards and I'll make a cuter one for the youngest later!

I made this using one of Bev's MCM stencils, MOD Background Builder -Circles and a muted palette of greens and blues.

The stencil is designed so that you can cover whatever size of panel you would like but for this I just needed a strip across the card base to match the sketch at AAA Cards. I also mixed up the pattern to extenuate the columns rather than the circle aspect of the stencil. 

After placing the stencil on my white A6 card base, I inked each section individually using a mask I made from some scrap acetate from some packaging, die cut with a small square die, it cuts down the risk of inking in the wrong place!

To fill up my line, I had to replace the stencil over the inked section to take the pattern as near to the edge as I required. I used the paler colours first before adding the dark blue over the top of some of the shapes, trying to create a pleasing pattern. Once finished, I stamped the sentiment, Simply Said, with the same dark blue ink.

That's all from me but please join in the fun over on Uniko's FB page.

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Under the Sea

Good morning all, time for a brand new challenge at Cardz4Guyz. This time our theme is:-

SEASHELLS

Now when I saw this theme I was initially stumped but after looking through my stash, I came across an under the sea themed set that came with a magazine a few years ago that had mermaids, octopi and other assorted sea life along with a few shell stamps! Here's what I came up with.

The shell stamps were very small, so I decided to use them to create a background panel for my A6 card. Using the shells plus a seahorse, starfish and sea urchin I stamped with white ink over a panel of grey paper from the stash. 

Once satisfied with the background I started on the central greeting. I found this white embossed on grey sentiment, Uniko, in my stash mounted on white card. Around this I glued some green conifer branch die cuts, Sizzix, which reminded me of sea weed and three shell images. This time I stamped onto MM paper with Gathered Twigs DI and used a damp brush to pull the colour into the shell outlines. A little extra ink smooshed onto a mat was used as as when. A touch of pink on the conch shell was added using a Zig marker.

The whole lot was then added to my white base card, leaving a border around the grey panel to echo the sentiment one. It just goes to show what you can achieve when pushed and don't forget the small stamps when used together can pack a punch!

So where will the theme take you? For more MASCULINE ideas please check out the rest of the team here. 

See you in the gallery!

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One for The Boys

Color Hues #111

A new month and a brand new colour challenge from Color Hues. 

Sheri is hosting and has chosen a warm summery feel for her colours. Here's my take.

Coral is many things to different people but I went with the colours from Altenew's inks, Coral Bliss and Coral Berry for my take. They remind me of the paper thin petals of the wild poppies that are currently bursting into life in my gravel. I love poppies, so any excuse to paint them is to be embraced!

First off, I stamped the largest poppies from Altenew's Poppy Garden with their Limestone ink onto some MM paper for a no line effect. Then, I watercoloured the flower heads with a mix of Coral Bliss, Vineyard Berry and Coral Berry by smooching the pads onto an old dinner plate to create a palette and then adding some water. For the leaves I used a trio of Zig watercolour markers. The poppy centers were painted with the same markers in shades of black and grey. Another warm grey marker was used to give a little cast shadow to the petals.

I wanted to create a lattice for my blooms to sit on, so after looking through my stash, I settled on a Creative Expressions die and made a mini slimline card for a change. To assemble the card, I glued two of the lattices together and added them to my base, before adding the fussy cut flower heads and leaves. A simple foiled sentiment completes.

So which direction will these two new colours take you? As always the team and our GD have some fabulous inspirational makes, should you need it here!

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Nature