Colour Q and the "AH HA" Moment

My New Year promise to myself, beside losing weight, was to play the Colour Q more often. No weight lost yet, so here I am making a card!  My inky fingers got a good workout today!  Does that count?

I am a fairly simple stamper and tend to use the same colours...blues, browns, neutrals...I often look at the Colour Q Colours and run in the opposite direction because I often don't know where to start!!  Then it hit me one day!  Why start from scratch?  Why not take a "Cue" from her inspiration photo?  There you have it.  The big "AH HA" moment!  I finally CLUED into what Colour Q meant!!  LOL!!!  I should take a CUE from those gorgeous photos used with the Q Challenges and go from there!!!  Just because I am a teacher doesn't mean I am the sharpest knife in the drawer!!!  Hehehe!

So I did it!  I took the CUE from the beautiful photo Arielle has given us to use this week:

I looked at the photo and thought:

1. Eastern Blooms Stamp Set-It has similar flowers in it and I haven't used it in such a long time!  I needed to dust it off. (literally)
2. Look at the circles...thin white circles layers with Cherry Cobbler Circles...I can do that with my Circle Scissors Plus.
3. The Flower Stems...I can use my Little Leaves Die in the Big Shot in the Always Artichoke Colour.
4. The So Saffron is in the middle of the flower, I can use my Itty Bitty Punches and punch out a couple flower centres and cover them with my Pearls.

And this is what I created with the Inspiration Photo as my guide...

I am happy with how it turned out.  I wish I had tried to get the flowers closer together but I liked the way they looked around the sentiment.  I also used my Sanded background stamp in Cherry Cobbler Ink on my Poppy Parade background.  I thought the circles needed some scallops and so used my Large Scallop Circle Die in the Big Shot too.

Thanks for stopping by and for reading through my long post.  It really was an "AH HA" moment for me today! LOL!  I would love to hear what you think of my card and I hope you get the chance to head over to Arielle's Colour Q Challenge Blog to try out this challenge for yourself!

Smiles,
Lesley

The Paper Players Colour Challenge ~30~

This week at the Paper Players we have a beautiful Colour Combo created by Nance!!  She chose such pretty colours and I was swept away in the romance of the soft hues of River Rock, Baja Breeze, Rose Red and Very Vanilla. 

This is the card I created, complete with Butterflies and sponged edges.  I sponged the edges with River Rock Ink and added some texture with my crimper on the front circle. I am in love with the sentiment from that Level One Hostess set called "Afterthoughts".  My butterflies are all decked out with Pearls and the background of my card is stamped with the En Francais Background Stamp.

Some things that I do when tackling a colour challenge:

1. Playing with colour can be intimidating and overwhelming! I always take the Stampin' Write Markers in the colours from the challenge and lay them together on the table. I also pull out one sheet of each colour in cardstock and lay them on the table.  This helps me to see how the colours look together and gives me the idea of what stamps to use!
2. Still not sure where to start?  Try focusing on the colour that appeals to you the most!  Then choose a stamp set that would work well with your favourite colour.  In this card, I really played up the Vanilla and Rose Red on my card.  The Rose Red is highlighted by the ribbon and the Butterflies from the Embosslit Butterflies Die for the Big Shot.
3. Create a focal point by choosing a simple and clean layout and then let the colours do all the hard work for you!!!

I hope you give this wonderful colour scheme a try this week at the Paper Players Challenge Blog.  You can visit the blog and link up your creation by clicking HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Watercolour Trio (retired), En Francais, Afterthoughts (Level One Hostess)

Inks: River Rock and Rose Red Markers and Classic Ink Pads

Paper: River Rock, Baja Breeze, Rose Red and Very Vanilla. 

Extras: Large Scallop Circle Die, Circle Scissors Plus, Crimper, Embosslit Butterflies Die for the Big Shot, Pearls, Markers, Ribbon (Retired)

Chipboard Album

I got out the Big Shot and using the Large Scallop Circle Die, I cut four circles out of chipboard! I had never used the Big Shot for this before and let me tell you! It went through the chipboard like butter! Wow! So I then cut out 8 circles of my Cottage Wall DSP and then fit perfectly over my chipboard scalloped circles!! Tonight I would like to share the cover of my new chipboard album that I made all by myself! All the pages inside are covered with the DSP but I have not completed the inside yet. So I can only share my cover. The stamp set I used on the cover is the "Charming" set from the Holiday Mini Catalogue. Although it is not in any of the current catalogues, it is still available for purchase and so I got it!I am going to work on the inside pages this weekend and hope to share them soon.

Thanks for stopping by!
Smiles,
Lesley :)