Dot Dot Stamping Designs

Wow!  What’s even more amazing, two cards in two days!
Another of the Helping Hudson challenges, but this time a colour challenge.  I had to use the colours of Rose Red, Pretty in Pink and Not Quite Navy, which is a gorgeous combination.  And if you pop on over to the Helping Hudson blog site: www.helpinghudson.blogspot.com  you will see lots of inspirational ideas using these colours.
I thought I would like to get back into some watercolouring, so here is my design for this challenge:

I have used an entire sheet of Stampin’ Up! watercolour paper.  If you haven’t tried it, then I recommend that you do, it is absolutely the best watercolour paper out there.  I have tried quite a lot of others!
So, I used Not Quite Navy ink with an Aquabrush for most of the background, then just used a tiny bit of Rose Red ink for some contrast at the bottom.  Then I stamped the image from the beautiful Asian Artistry stamp set, (currently a hostess set, but not for much longer), in black Stazon ink, and coloured the bird in Pretty in Pink and Rose Red with Markers.  And the greeting is from Three Thoughts stamp set.
The colours in the photo are not very true, so use your imagination a little.  I was planning on taking a photo of it during the day today, but have been having so much fun out with my family today at the Malkara Model Railway exhibition.  Jamie has been crazy about trains from a very young age, and I suddenly find myself learning all sorts of new stuff that I didn’t know before I had a son!  But we had a great day.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and happy stamping!
Chris

I have finally done some more stamping!   Yes I know, about time. But I have needed the break, and am starting to get back into the swing of things.
I wanted to share with you some new challenges and a fundraising venture that a group of fellow Stampin’ Up! demonstrators are undertaking.  I do hope you will all support them, it is a fantastic idea for a very good cause. Just click on the link, to see what Helping Hudson is all about.  You can make a donation, buy some card or scrapbooking tutorials or enter into some great challenges.
And I want to especially thank the ladies who have put the challenges together, I normally enjoy doing these, but have been a bit out of it recently, but these ones have inspired me to get the ink out again!  So here is my first challenge entry, which is a sketch challenge.

This card features the very soon to be gone Cottage Wall DSP, with cardstock in Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence and of course, Whisper White.  I have stamped the greeting from “Heard from the Heart” stamp set in Rich Razzleberry and also used the polka dot ribbon in the same colour.  The die cut flowers were a present from a very special friend (thanks Kerri) and I have used a half back pearl from the Pretties Kit.

Enjoy your day,
Chris

I am going to share with you some of the cards that I made during this afternoon’s Stamp-a-Stack, featuring the Fox and Friends stamp set from the current mini catalogue.  But before I get on to those, I thought you might like to see another card that I made which was inspired by one of the lovely ladies who was at the stamp-a-stack, Alison.  Alison used this gorgeous ribbon from my stash (ie not Stampin’ Up!) on one of her cards and I just had to make one with it as well, the colour goes just beautifully with the Rich Razzleberry cardstock! Although the photo doesn’t do it justice, the ribbon has a beautiful pink tinge to it in real life.

I have used Rich Razzleberry cardstock and Whisper White which I have run through the Big Shot with an embossing folder to create that gorgeous but subtle background.  The image is from the Asian Artistry Hostess set from the current mini catalogue, stamped in Stazon ink and then coloured using a blender pen in Kiwi Kiss, Rich Razzlebery with a touch of Melon Mambo.  The flower has then been cut out with paper snips and glued on.

Now for the stamp-a-stack.  I allowed the ladies to have a bit of freedom with the cards today, so they made a few different cards, but here are a couple that I made. 
The first one uses the whale from Fox and Friends, stamped in Tempting Turquoise and Brilliant Blue.

The greeting is from a previous mini, so not currently available, but I thought it was just right for this card.

The next card uses those cheeky monkeys, and colours Soft Suede and Riding Hood Red.

I have done some faux stitching on this one, using my paper piercing tool and mat pack, and white gel pen.  And also the Spiral punch down one side of the whisper white cardstock.

And lastly, another card using a non Stampin’ Up! embossing folder in the Big Shot.  I really hope we get more of these when the new catalogue comes out in September, they really make it easy to create a lovely background and are just so easy to use.

The cardstock I have used for this one is Certainly Celery and Whisper White, the turtles are inked in Certainly Celery and then “thumped” using an Almost Artichoke marker for the dark spots.  The ribbon is also from my own stash.
Well, I hope you get some inspiration from something here and have a lovely long weekend full of craft and stamping time!
Chris