Totally aqua!

Hi all! This week's challenge at Totally Gorjuss is to use aqua shades and is sponsored by Lili of the Valley. I love aqua but I always get confused on how green or how blue it should be! So I made my first card and it turned out far too blue (I used it for yesterday's post instead so not wasted)! Anyhow, I checked out my Copic pens and found one called aqua and managed to match up some cardstock to it.

I made this card for my assistant who has just bought her first home and is about to finalise. I remember when I bought my first flat nearly 13 years ago - all that responsibility and not being able to walk away from a six month rental contract - scary! I'm so excited for her - she's becoming a grown up!

I hope you can play along this week! Have a super duper weekend all.

Papers/cardstock: Bazzill cardstock, Stampin' Up whisper white cardstock
Stamps: Elzybells bye bye birdie and brighter tomorrow (cloud stamp), Lizzie Anne Designs sentiment, Hero Arts houndstooth background stamp
Mediums: Copic Ciaos, Glamour Dust on bubbles
Accents: American Crafts ribbon

Tools: Nestabilities scallop circle and circle dies, Fiskars scallop border punch

Happy birthday dad! And...eerrr...dad!

Okay, I mean dad and father-in-law! Their birthdays follow each other and then it's my husband's the following day - three days of male birthdays! I always struggle to make a card for this audience, but I think I quite like this one...

So much so that I made the same card for both dads! Now to make my hubbies - he isn't bothered by cards so I don't know why I'm going to bother cos he won't care that I made it! Still, I'm sure he'll pretend to like whatever I make him cos that's what love is all about! Now I just have to make it in time for Friday!

Papers/cardstock: American Crafts orange cardstock, Bazzill kraft and vanilla cardstock, Imaginisce All Kinds of Happy paper

Stamps: Lizzie Anne Designs sentiment

Mediums: none

Accents: BasicGrey buttons, ribbon from stash

Tools: Nestabilities star die, Fiskars border punch

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #15

Have you seen Dawn McVey's blog yet? She has a really professional and contemporary style - there isn't one card of hers that I don't like! She also has a very popular colour challenge that I've never done before but this week's one is sooo tasty I couldn't resist it...



As soon as I saw the colours I thought of ice cream! Specifically, those in an ice cream parlour my husband and I visited last year at the harbour in Auckland, New Zealand - they had melon flavour and then I thought of vanilla, pistachio, raspberry... nearly the colours of Dawn's challenge! I had my theme but I really struggled to come up with a format. Luckily, I knew I had the image I wanted to use straight away - an ice cream image from Elzybells. I just love their cute stamps! Surprisingly it took me 3 hours to come up with the design and complete the card - that's pretty quick for me! I'm never going to make any money making cards if it takes me that long to create just one! Anyhoo, here it is, what do you think?



The photo shows up the colours far brighter than reality which are pretty close to Dawn's colours. I just can't get the lighting right - must create that light box asap! Anyway, I didn't have any printed paper that matched so I used my fav Hero Arts raindrop background stamp with Versamark and cream embossing powder to give a little interest. I was also going to use my Copics to colour in the ice creams, but decided that I loved the 'linen' effect by using my colour pencils instead. To give it a little pop, I put glitter on top of the ice creams, think you might be able to see it here...



I'm really getting into these challenges and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next week! Caio for now!


Papers/cardstock: Bazzill Basics cardstock in vanilla, light olive green and raspberry (don't know actual colour)
Stamps: Elzybells Mini Messages Summertime, Lizzie Anne Designs Sketched Sentiments
Mediums: DecoArt Glamour Dust, colour pencils (assorted brands), VersaMagic Chalk Ink in Spanish Olive
Accents: ribbons from my stash
Tools: Fiskars Apron Lace border punch