Monochrome

I'm on a bit of a roll these last couple of days, which is lucky as I have a TON of cards to make!

This card is a congratulatory card for some dear friends who have gotten engaged and are getting married in August. I chose to take up the challenge from Simply Stampin' (#60) and create a monochromatic card with a splash of a different colour. I also used my oval dies to fit in with challenge #53 (use Punches or Dies) at CAS-ual Fridays.

I went for a muted blue colour scheme, using a combo of Night of Navy, Baja Breeze and Bashful Blue. The splash of a different colour came courtesy of my Wisteria Wonder ruffled ribbon, which I layered with Night of Navy ribbon.

I used the bird image and a sentiment from Silhouette Sentiments, stamped in Night of Navy on Bashful Blue card. The Baja Breeze panel has been dry embossed using the striped embossing folder from Stampin' Up! and mounted on dimensionals. To add a touch of sparkle I placed basic rhinestones around the central image.

If you're reading this Charlie - look away!

Yes, you, Charlie-Louise! Close this page immediately and don't look at it until your parcel from me arrives ;)

Normally, I wouldn't post a card on my blog until I know the recipient will have received it. However, in this case I just couldn't wait to show it off and I also wanted to enter it in the DYSU Challenge #31 which closes tomorrow.

The challenge is to make a card that is Black with a Pop of Colour. I hope you'll agree that this one really does pop!

 

The front page of the card is shaped to match the top edge of the embossed roses and I've used a simple sentiment from the 'Silhouette Sentiments' Hostess exclusive stamp set. In case you're wondering, those flowers are created using the 'Manhattan Flower' embossing folder which is exclusive to Stampin' Up! 

In order to get such a bright pink on black I used Melon Mambo cardstock and inked up my embossing folder with Basic Black ink before running it through my Big Shot machine. Isn't the effect stunning?? Then I simply cut out the embossed section of the Melon Mambo card and mounted it onto a Basic Black card, trimming the top edge to match the flowers.

So simple yet so effective. Think of all the projects you could acheive with this embossing folder... (yes, I can order it for you and it's only £6.95! Just e-mail or call me). In fact, why not add a few more items to your order and take advantage of the special offer listed below. With any order over £75 (or workshop order of £250) you'll receive over £19 worth of Stampin' Up! products plus an exclusive bag that's ideal for keeping all those craft tools in.

  

Simply Stampin' Challenge #16

I was really happy to discover that there is a Challenge blog especially for fans of Stampin' Up! products and couldn't wait to make and enter a card. This week's challenge is to make a card based on this sketch...

Seeing those flowers reminded me of a project I'd seen recently (on Sarah-Jane's Cards and a cuppa blog) and wanted to try; Scalloped Fan Toppers.

First I made my toppers using patterned papers from the Jolly Holiday DSP pack with Night of Navy CS and Very Vanilla CS. The large topper has been stamped using the french script and ink blot stamps from the 'French Foliage' set and the bird stamp from the Hostess set 'Silhouette Sentiments'. The smaller topper uses the ink blots again with the Paris postmark stamp, again from 'French Foliage'.

The base card is Cherry Cobbler CS layered with Night of Navy CS. I've stamped a wide strip of Very Vanilla CS with the 'Bella Toile' background stamp in Crumb Cake and added a narrow strip of the same DSP I used for the large topper. A piece of co-ordinating wide striped grosgrain ribbon finishes it off beautifully. Oh, nearly forgot the sentiment! It's from 'Perfect Punches' and is stamped in Night of Navy on Very Vanilla, cut out by hand and mounted onto a piece of DSP I punched out using the Oval Extra-Large punch.

I think it's quite 'Parisienne Chic' if I do say so myself ;)  Wish me luck!