Girls, Girls, Girls!

Girls, Girls, Girls! That's the title of this week's challenge on the wonderful Pollycraft challenge blog. Cazza has set this week's fun challenge and has inspired me with her fab creation (as ever!!). The prize is sponsored by Sew Sweet who have a really great online shop for those of us who love to sew as well as play with paper.

As I had to make a card for a friend's birthday this week (hi Melissa - happy 21st!!), I thought I would also use it as my entry into the challenge. I am almost twice Melissa's age, so I guess our tastes are quite different. I hope she likes it.

I have used one of Paula's amazing digi stamps from Pollycraft- Cherry Kisses Li'l Miss Attitude. Not because Melissa has attitude, but because the gorgeous Cherry Kisses girl has beautiful curls just like Melissa. I envy those natural curls!

As usual, I have made a large card - this one is 8x8. I have coloured the image with a mix of pencils and promarkers and mounted it on a panel cut using one of my new Grand Spellbinders super-large dies (thank you, wonderful husband!). The lovely bright butterfly paper is from Echo Park and the russet-red flower burst behind is from one of my favourite paper stacks - the Green Stack from DCWV. The muted green cotton lace is from American Crafts and the flowers are Primas with some glass floristry beads glued in the centre. The sentiment is based on a blank top-note shape from SJ at Little Musings, which I added my own words, texture and colour to.

These colours are far from my comfort zone, but I wanted something really bright and cheery, not pink and fluffy. Melissa has had a tough year. She is a super hard-working single mum at just 21 years old, juggling caring for her toddler, working full-time and running her houshold. She is my carer and nothing is too much trouble for her. I look forward to her daily visits, which is why I decided on a bright zingy colour palette to bring a bit of cheer and colour to her day.

I hope she likes the card and has a fab birthday.

Colourful Inspiration

Oh no. Another source of inspiration. My brain may just explode! I paid one of my regular visits to the Jellypark challenge blog yesterday and discovered a link to a really great website full of colour palettes for designers, crafters and anyone who loves colour. Design Seeds has page upon page of colour co-ordination ideas, just perfect for overcoming designer's block.

Claire at Jellypark has set this week's challenge based on Design Seeds' colour palettes. I have chosen an oldie-but-a-goodie called 'Color Picked' ~ those of us in the UK, please excuse the American spelling! I think I chose this set because it is based on colours that I like to wear and use in home decorating. I think that the start of autumn also influenced me in the selection of heather hues and sage green. Had the birds left any on my trees, these would be the colours of the plums being harvested this month, but I have watched them munching the fruit all summer long.

Anyway, getting back to the challenge... I have made a card using one of Claire Keay's gorgeous images of a little cutie being transported into the sky by her balloon. The colours were perfect for this challenge, although my experiment of using clear stickles over the top of the decoupaged balloon didn't come out as I had expected. I thought the plum colour of the balloon would show through the clear glue base of the stickles, but the colour has split and become bronzy, but still very pretty. That's inkjet ink for you!

I tore the image edges freehand and layered it up at an angle. The backing paper was originally a burgundy colour with white dots, but I coloured over the top with a shale Promarker to give a two-tone look. I then laboriously pushed out a whole 8x8 sheet of die cut flowers (from a Cosmo Cricket kit) to give an interesting layer in sage green with pinks and plums. It took me almost a whole episode of Casualty to push out those flowers with my trusty pokey tool, but then I do have trouble with my hands and wrists!

I coloured some of the tiny paper flowers with promarkers and kept some plain. I layered them up with bronze brads to add more dimension. The muted sage cotton lace is from American Crafts, finished with two overlaying flower shaped brads in complimetary tones (not sure where they were from - they've been in my stash for about 7 years or so!). The sentiment is actually a white icing rub-on from Quickutz, applied to a small piece of patterned cardstock overlaid on another piece of cardstock printed with script over-coloured with Promarkers - phew! I also added more of the flowers and brads to the side of the sentiment for balance. The sentiment just edges over the side of the rectangular card so that it makes it need an 8x8 envelope.

The tomato pip just above the ribbon is the work of my two year old son Joel who helped my husband with the photography. He was at the side of the card when it was being snapped and he thought that the photos were of him. Aah, bless him! I have removed the pip now, but was mid-way through editing the picture before I spotted it, so it is staying. It also made me laugh, not a frequent occurence when one of my projects gets damaged, but Joel is so cheeky, he gets away with it. He is rarely to be found with clean face or hands, so the card got off lightly with just a tomato pip.