The Flower Challenge #42 Anything Goes

What can I say but 'SORRY' I am late with my post. I got my computer back yesterday and even did a post yesterday but I got my dates mixed up, so sorry.

This is one of our most popular challenges of course, a card with flowers being the only requirement.

This month we are all using flowers from Rachel Vass Designs

And she is also providing a prize for this month with the choice of two beautiful digi images from her shop. Wait till you see the amazing cards provided by the Design Team at The Flower Challenge

You will also see the amazing card our Guest Designer Joey S has done. What an amazing colourist he is. Joey doesn't have a blog but he does have an Instagram Account and I reckon he would love to have you go look at all his amazing cards. 

But before you disappear I will share my card for this month.

I decided to use the beautiful Poppy Spray I have coloured with

 Copics R02, R20 R32 and love the soft look.

I then decided to fussy cut the image and add to a gold and white pattern paper.

Finished off with the 'Best Wishes' die cut that I layered up with 3 white and one gold glitter, even the little dot on the 'i' got layered.

A beautiful easy card. Now its time to go off to all those links I shared and check out all the other wonderful creations.

Thank you so much for coming to visit and I hope to see you again soon.

PS if you notice funny spelling in here that I have missed thats because Koby at 16 months really enjoys sitting with me as I type and hitting a random letter every now and then when Im not looking. He has just started to babble ( late I know but was happy to point and grUNT  for quite a while) and he sits beside me babbling non stop now, looking at me then the screen, I love it.

Hugs

Aileen

Two Cards Today

I've been colouring in every day so today I decided to make cards.

 I got five done but will just share two today.

This first one I have coloured in this free image from Stamplorations.

I decided I would go soft with this colouring and leave some of the areas

uncoloured. Boy did I struggle, my every instinct wants to colour everything

that looks like it should be coloured.

I did try to stop but I continued a bit more than I should have but I was able to stop

before everything was coloured. I just used two soft pinks and love how it turned out.

I wasn't sure what to do with the centre heart then remembered this wonderful heart die

that I am pretty sure I got from Hero Art. Cut out in silver then 3 times in white, all glued

together then added to the front. Finished off with this wonderful "with love" from Waffle Flower.

I went with pale pink card base and added a layer of pink fun foam to lift

the coloured panel slightly. I really love how this turned out and Im so

glad I didnt go with the vibrant rainbow colours I first thought of.

Now this card is using another of Rachel Vass Designs digital images that she sells

on Etsy. Gentle colouring again this time with soft blue flowers, pale pink nail polish

and a silver braclet.

I layered onto silver mirror card then onto a pale mauve card base. No sentiment

as I couldn't decide what I wanted on it.

I'm going to add these to The30DayColouringChallenge. I cant believe its the 15th

challenge. Its like one of those things that I cant imagine not doing anymore.

All the best and hopefully see you again soon.

xx Aileen

You Are Awesome

I just couldn't resist making another card using another of Rachel Vass Designs. This one is known as

Trio of Peony Roses and was such a pleasure to colour. I printed up on Copic friendly paper as I planned to colour with my Copics but after laying a base colour with the Copics I decided to use my pencils to truly highlight these wonderful flowers.

I love how they turned out and it did take me a bit longer than Copic colouring as I am trying to learn to pencil colour properly and only put down light layers and built the colours up. When it was finished I brushed over the flower itself with my Wink of Stella to add a bit of sparkle.

I then decided to add some soft blending for the background rather than copic or leave white. I had a spare image printed from the same time so decided to fussy cut that and add some glue to the back to make it a mask. The funny thing is it was a particularly hot day with both the air conditioner and the fans going in my craft area so I don't melt. After I cut out the flower I left the area for a few minutes, came back and the fussy cut piece had disappeared. To this day it has not turned up and its not like it disappeared in a messy spot. The table had very little on it and after crawling around and moving things about I had to admit I was defeated.

I still wanted to mask so I used a piece of vellum, traced the image, fussy cut and added Tombow Mono Glue to the back and waiting till it dried. Perfect for masking, I then blended with my Distress Oxides Cracked Pistachio and Tumbled Glass. Stamped 'you are' and added the die cut 'Awesome'.

Its a 5.5" x 5.5" card.

Dont forget to go check out Rachels other images and thank you so much for coming to visit.

Crafty Hugs Aileen

Because Card using a floral image from Rachel Vass

Check out this amazing flower drawn by Rachel and coloured by me. I coloured with copics

and added quite a bit of yellow to my pink mix. I just love how this turned out, not worrying about where shadows and highlights should be just going with the feel.

I then cut the image out by hand as I was trying to decide exactly how to display to its best. I went with of all things a bright background made from yellows and oranges Distress Oxides added in layers and dried between each layer. Although the flower is ultra bright it works with the background.

I felt a little white was needed and thought of adding some embossing paste but decided on this die cut piece that reminds me of a part piece of white fencing or wire, it just worked perfectly. The sentiment well because it could be ' because It's your birthday' Because I love you' ' Because I wanted to say thanks etc.

So dont forget to go check out the rest of Rachel's graphics  on Etsy under Rachel Vass Designs and get ready to see more of these beauties around the place. Congratulations Rachel You have drawn one beauty here.

Crafty Hugs 

Aileen

The Flower Challenge #41 Leaves Reminder

It"s time for The Flower Challenge reminder post.

Here you can see the stamped and copic coloured image through the acetate window of the card front.

I made the card front by die cutting  the palm leaves a number of times then gluing to the card front. I trimmed off pieces hanging over edges and used some to fill places. Then I decided to cut a window rather than put the coloured image on the card front. I picked a stitched square die that fit the image perfectly. Of course then the piece was thick and I had to put it through a couple of times, the washi tape holding it in place then adhered so well that when I removed it it removed some card layer.

Hence the bright pink "happy birthday' that I have attached to the card front to cover the damaged leaf.

I added a piece of acetate to the inside of the card which gave the card front a firmer shape when it was closed.

This wonderful image is from Newtons Nook Really enjoyed colouring this.

Thank you so much for coming to visit and now its time to go check out what the girls have been up to at The Flower Challenge

A couple of cards using digital images to share.

I have a couple of cards to share. This first is using a digital graphic from Rachel Vass Designs .

Rachel is on the Design Team for The Flower Challenge Blog, a great friend and has recently gone into designing her own flower images. I couldn't resist getting some and this is my first card.

What I love above digital images is that you can move them around, resize and generally decide on the card layout before you have to colour in. Love it.

I have used the image and sentiment both from Rachel. Coloured with Copics, cut to size and added to a Olive green layer of cardstock then added to a Kraft card base. A few little sparkly gems and its just perfect in my eyes. My link to Rachels shop is just that a link, I didn't receive any payment for making this card, just pure pleasure.

This next was lots and lots of colouring. Its a digital image from Stamplorations and I went a bit mad there as well stocking up on so many wonderful images. 

Originally I was just going to colour a few things as is the latest trend but I am a colourer at heart and it had to be totally coloured. I love how it turned out. follow the link if you are interested, I don't get anything for supplying the link, just made it easier as I found I wasted a lot of time trying to find the digital stamps in the shop. It is a seperate section as far as I can see.

I printed on a much lighter setting so once finished I went around the frame and colored that black so it stood out more. I added a piece of dark blue fun foam to the back then attached it to my white card base. I didnt need any gems for this piece and finished off with a Penny Back die cut sentiment 'Dream Big'

Two down and many more to come. I hope you enjoy the simple CAS design and the full on design.

Cheers

Aileen

The Flower Challenge #41 Add Leaves

Such an easy challenge, since the main theme is flowers where there are flowers, there are leaves. How much easier could we make a challenge.

I decided to go a step further and not only coloured a beautiful floral stamp from W9Plus and is currently out of stock but wont take long to be back.

Coloured with copics.

I then cut  the Jungle Frame Fancy Die which was an add on to A Hero Art monthly kit. I love this one as it works perfectly with the coloured image. 

I added glue around the edges of the Jungle frame and added to the card over the coloured flowers.

Now its time to go on over the The Flower Challenge and check out the amazing inspiration from the Design Team and our Guest Designer this month who happens to be Galina Filippenko. Her card is just stunning and you need to make the time to go check out her amazing creations at her blog. These girls never cease to amaze me with their stunning creation.

Thank you so much for coming to visit and I hope to see you again soon.

The Flower Challenge #40 Shaped Cards, Pop Up Card

I was re-arranging my die cuts in my craft area and came across a pile of die cuts for 

Pop-Up Cards and realised of course they were perfect for this challenge.

So this is the card as you would see it when you take it out of the envelope. Put it together so that everything I added stayed within the box shape.

And these next shots are what you see when you push the box into its square shape.

Look there's even a little fence that considering all the flowers I added probably should have gone to the front as it looked so cool.

I couldn't resist making another card as I had a pile of coloured flowers (these ones from MFT though I couldn't find a link so I don't think they are sold anymore. It's a sad thing when you realised you have coloured up flowers for the first time and they are no longer being made.)

The flowers are all added by attaching to acetate I cut into strips so you cant see them. There are three grass strips going across the card and I attached the flowers to these front and back to balance it all out.

I added a couple of coloured flowers direct to the box on each of the flaps and then finished off with a 'Birthday Wishes' cut from chipboard. Really pleased with this and I know it will be a popular card from previous ones I have made.

I then decided to make a sea scene one but Im still looking for those 'wave dies' I bought and put somewhere to keep safe !!!

There's still time to enter the latest challenge at www.theflowerchallenge.blogspot.com.au 

if you feel like it and we would love to see you there.

hugs Aileen

The Flower Challenge Reminder #40 Shaped Cards

Time for the reminder.

For this Shaped card I went to my Scan N Cut and only had to do it twice to get everything to work fine. I chose a pattern that was already on the machine made it to the size I wanted then added the same again design again. I then overlapped the design slightly and selected both and I think the word is Melded so they joined up. I cut from a lovely pale blue card stock and just folded it in half.

As you can see the top of the card is straight but thats okay.

The flower I have coloured is one I already owned from Alex Syberia as I hadn't coloured it before and decided now was the perfect time. Just like me physical stamps and dies I have a ton of Digital images that are also crying out to be used.

In this instance I wanted to colour the flower in a style similar to Jaycee (dont forget to check out his amazing cards) and I say similar as I am not in his class but certainly was happy with the end result. I love how the flower turned out, love blues and kept the leaves neutral went with warm greys.

I also cut out a pile of leaves from different dies all in vellum to fill out the background.

I went back to the scanner and picked the same shape slightly smaller and cut it twice seperate to add to the inside of the card. The card design still needs a little work on it as it was ever so slightly out of wack and didn't all fold as a perfect match on the loops but was close enough for now.

No sentiment as I felt it was busy enough. Now it's time to go check out what the rest of the Design team at The Flower Challenge Blog have come up with and also check out what others have been doing. Some amazing inspiration on that page.

The Flower Challenge #40 Shaped Cards

First I would like to wish you all

'Happy New Year'

Yep thats it, no fancy banner or artwork but said with lots of heart and sending loads of well wishes to everyone. 

A bit of police humour to start the day

 I am hoping that this will be the first of many posts now the card making urge is stronger..

This month is Shaped Cards which of course means any shape rather than the basic rectangle standard card. I made my first card by just using the largest die in a square set of dies which gave a fancy deckled edge.

In this instance I have used the largest die from a Honey Bee set called 'Deckled Edge Squares' I love this set. I have this type of style in rectangle as well in two different brands for different sizes. Obsessive - nah.....

Anyway back to this card I folded my card stock in half then put it through my Sizzex making sure to leave the end of the die outside of the cutting plates. It easily cut through the double layer of card and left it intact as a card.

I coloured this wonder Image from Alex Syberia which is available on Etsy and called Winter Bouquet. I do love that with digital images you can size and place exactly where you want. 

Coloured with Copics and very happy with how it turned out.

I was going to try doing with Gold Foil but have found out that we are using a generic brand ink in our laser printer and though it is perfect for everything else it does not for some reason work well with the Hot Foil technique.  Ahh well cant have everything.

I die cut the floral layer with the die that was two sizes down from the largest. The image and sentiment fit perfectly. After adding my fold to the card layer I then attached the floral image on the bottom half only.

You can see from the first photo that the card lays flat on the table then you move the top layer backward to end with the image standing higher than the card fold.

You might also notice I added a couple of big gems to be a stopper for the layer so it didn't slide closed again but found I actually didn't need them as the card stayed upright fine on its own.

Okay thats my card, simple design and easy as. Now it's time to go check out The Flower Challenge and see the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the team.

Alex Syberia has also joined us this challenge with her own amazing creation.  Don't forget to check out her amazing floral images and remember by entering this month you are in for a chance to end up with two of her amazing images.  Also don't forget to check out her blog that shows all the most amazing inspiration for colouring of her images. Maybe try out her dot colouring inspiration.

Before you go I wanted to share my favourite four cards that I made for The Flower Challenge for 2019

See you all again soon I hope

xx

Aileen