She's Got Dame Edna Eyes

I love owls, and I love creating them with punches. While I've really liked the owls I have created, I wanted to be able to make something larger, an owl that would dominate a card front. So I turned to Barry (my Big Shot) and put him to work with the ovals die. I was obviously going to be making some bigger owls, with bigger ovals for the base, but I looked at my punches and tried to think of some other new features I could make with them. And then I noticed a spare wing on my desk, from using the Two-Step Bird punch on another project.

And Dame Edna Owl was born!

Hello owlies!

Of course I had to use bright colours for the Dame, so I pulled out the Pink Flamingo DSP pack and selected my papers and got Barry to work on them. With the papers all spread out, I spotted the "sun rays" sheet and immediately knew how I wanted the rest of the card to go. When I came to put it together however, I realised that it just wasn't all going to fit on a standard card front. Some years ago I was given a bunch of larger envelopes, and I still have quite a few left (all really bright ones... think Yoyo Yellow). I grabbed one of these envelopes and measure it up and made my card to fit. Now the Dame had space to stretch her wings! And because I loved the effect so much, I once again layered the Lots of Tags die on the similar Frames With A Flourish image for the sentiment.

Remember, Pink Flamingo is one of the 5 DSPs on special this week as part of Deals Of The Week. But tonight is your last chance to order it at the special price, so be quick & don't miss out!

All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Real Red, Whisper White
Stamp Sets: Frames With A Flourish, One Of A Kind
Inks: none
Accessories: Pink Flamingo DSP, Ovals die, Lots of Tags die, Two-Step Bird punch, large oval punch, Curly Label punch, Boho Blossoms punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch, Crop-a-dile, 5 Petal Flower punch, Circle Fire rhinestone brads, Real Red marker, Tempting Turquoise marker, Cameo Coral marker, Tombow mono glue, fine Supernova glitter, dimensionals
Show Watched While Creating: True Blood (WARNING: there will be season 3 spoilers on this page so careful what you look at or read!)

Cinema Saturday 49

I'm sure you can imagine that I was exstatic to be asked to guest design for Cinema Saturday's Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers challenge. Those of you who have seen the Extended Edition dvd sets will have noticed that each one has a different style - FOTR is Elvish, TT is Rohirric (if that isn't a word it is now!) and ROTK... well maybe I will save that for when the girls nominate that as the weeks challenge! Anyway, it seemed that the thing to do would be to make something for The Two Towers that had a Rohan theme. One thing that really stood out for me was all the banners that are displayed in Meduseld, so I selected one and based my piece on that. I also have a bookmark of one of these banners, so I decided to make one of my own.

Thank you to my lovely assistant Karl Urban for helping me to present my bookmark to you.

Here's a closer shot of it. I used the emboss resist technique for most of this card as I wanted details in yellow on a green background. The horse was embossed with white, and I then went over it with my VersaMarker to fill the gaps and create a border and then embossed in clear. The base has a fold along the top so it will fold over your page.

Most supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: More Mustard, Summer Sun, So Saffron
Stamp Sets: Carte Postale, Wanted, One Of A Kind
Inks: VersaMark, Ruby Red, Garden Green (I think... it's been a while)
Accessories: white embossing powder, clear embossing powder, 1 3/8" circle punch (again I think, it's been a while), brayer

PS For the curious... I knew there would eventually be a CSCC for The Two Towers, and when working on cards for Fellowship I had ideas sparking for this. I then found out that Karl Urban would be attending the SupaNova convention in Sydney, so I made the bookmark and took it along and got him to pose with it. Squee!

KW Colour Inspiration #47

Woot, I got a challenge done in time! Admittedly there were a number of other things I should have been doing but I just had to have a play this afternoon. This card is a combination of Kristina's latest colour challenge and AmyR's latest sketch (it's been an age since I have done one of those!). I pulled out one of my favourite sets, Boho Backgrounds, and teamed it with One of a Kind. I think these two sets make a great pair, so it is nice to see One of a Kind return for the new Idea Book & Catalogue (only a couple of days away now!). The only thing of note on this card is the big flower, which I inked in VersaMark and clear embossed on Chocolate Chip cardstock. I then put some bleach (Exit Mould) in an aquapainter and painted over the sections that I wanted to remove colour from. I had a little too much bleach in the tip of the aquapainter and it soaked under the embossing a little bit but it's not too bad. I went over the outer bleached section with my Tangerine Tango marker and left the inner section plain since the bleach changed the cardstock to something very close to So Saffron.

Most supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Confetti White, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Stamp Sets: Boho Backgrounds, One of a Kind
Inks: Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, VersaMark, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Boho Blossoms punch, Fire Circle Rhinestone brads, Chocolate Chip 1" double-stitched ribbon, dimensionals
Show watched while creating: Goldfinger

Embossed For You

Here's something else from the scrap drawer. I had been working on this card in dribs and drabs for a while, and all it needed was assembly... only thing was I couldn't remember how I was going to lay it out! If this isn't what I had originally intended, it's pretty close. Probably my favourite part of this card is the sentiment, I love the stamping with the brads on top! I also really love the effect of the white embossing on the main flower. This stamp set, One of a Kind, and it's coordinating Boho Blossoms punch are in the Spring Mini catalogue, so if you'd like to order them you'd better get in quick! The Spring Mini finishes November 30th.

All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Soft Sky, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Whisper White
Stamp Set: One of a Kind
Inks: VersaMark, Rose Red, Soft Sky
Accessories: white embossing powder, Bold Brights brads, Boho Blossoms punch, 1/2" circle punch, dimensionals

KW Colour Inspiration #21

Sorry for not posting more this week, all that time without a computer and sorting a new one out and I am completely out of the habit of blogging. But I return tonight with my card for Kristina's latest colour challenge. I was halfway through my card when it took a sharp turn and ended up completely different. Not entirely happy with it, but I think I am still getting back into the habit of creating. It probably didn't help that the card was created in the dark, just my OTT lite on as there was a sleepyhead in bed in the same room. Which also meant I wasn't watching any shows while crafting

All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Old Olive, Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White
Stamp sets: Bodacious Bouquet, Bodacious jumbo wheel, One of a Kind
Ink: Rose Red, Regal Red, Old Olive
Accessories: Circle Ice Rhinestone Brads, Styled Silver Hodgepodge

One for You

Still haven't stamped anything, but I did find this card that I created not long after I got One of a Kind and hadn't uploaded yet. Quite a simple card, but I quite like it.

All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: River Rock, Purely Pomegranate, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Soft Sky
Stamp Sets: One of a Kind
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Acessories: River Rock "marker" (blender pen + reinker), Soft Sky "marker" (blender pen + reinker), 1/2" circle punch, dimensionals

Bold In Black

This card was for an Inklings mini catty swap, and the returns are starting to show up in people's letterboxes so I can finally share this with you. I really loved how it turned out so I even made some extras (to be technically correct this is an extra, and it has the addition of a little pumpkin rhinestone brad). After working with so many soft and pretty colours before this I felt the need to break out a bold colour combination and use a lot of black for dramatic effect. The large flower was stamped on watercolour paper using VersaMark ink and embossed with black embossing powder. I then drew inside each section with a marker, even going over it a few times to get it really dark, then blended in with the aquapainter.

All supplies by Stampin' Up! Cardstock: Basic Black, Purely Pomegranate, Orchid Opulence, Pumpkin Pie, watercolour paper
Stamp Sets: One Of A Kind, It's Beautiful standard wheel
Inks: VersaMark, Purely Pomegranate, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie marker, Purely Pomegranate "marker" (refill + blender pen), Orchid Opulence marker, aquapainter, Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon, Dimensionals, 2-way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Boho Blossoms punch, black embossing powder, 3/16" corner rounder, Fire circle rhinestone brads.

More Challenging Colours

Last night was the Inklings August Cyberstamp, this month hosted by my singing buddy Dani. Dani's first challenge was a colour one... only a few hours after Kristina had posted hers, you can see why yesterday seemed to be all about colour challenges that really stretched you! I don't recall EVER using Yoyo Yellow before, but I decided I wouldn't take the easy route and I would use the cardstock. I nearly had this all stuck together when I decided that yellow cardstock needed something to make it more interesting, so I added the stamping. In the end I don't this came out too bad!

All Supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Yoyo Yellow, Soft Sky, Whisper White
Stamp Sets: Boho Backgrounds, One of a Kind
Ink: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: Blue Bayou double-stitched ribbon, Elegant Eggplant 1/4" grosgrain, word window punch, scallop circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, Boho Blossoms punch, Fire Circle Rhinestone brads, dimensionals, 3/16" corner rounder, Elegant Eggplant marker, Blue Bayou marker (blender pen + reinker)