Paper Hugs

Challenge @339 at Less is More this week is to pierce your project - paper piercing, brads, sewing etc. I have been wanting to create a card using some of my favourite Stampin' Up! inks, including this new season's colours, so this is what I have 'pierced'. I stamped several colours of inks using the swipe image from Work of Art (SU), then die cut the Flicker Hearts die by Memory Box, which pierces some of the hearts as well as cutting some out.  So my piercing was achieved without pin pricks, then I mounted up the cut hearts to replace them in their original space, but 3D.  The sentiment is also from Work of Art and uses the new colour Fresh Fig.  My panel is cut using Simon Says Stamp stitched frames. Other inks are:  Peek-a-Boo Peach, Flirty Flamingo, Lemon Lime Twist, Bermuda Bay and Wisteria Wonder.

I have just noticed a post from Less is More about a special challenge over at the Stamplorations blog, on the theme of Giving Thanks, and as a friend asked me yesterday to make a Thank You card for the musical director of her local choir, I had just the card to enter! Wendy's favourite colour is blue, so my watercolored background card is in soft blue, turquoise and pale green. Card recipe: Stamps - Stampin' Up!, including the letters for her name - from Brushwork Alphabet Die - Party Music by Memory Box Enamel dots by Ranger Distress Inks - Salty Ocean, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio

The challenge this week at   Less is More has the theme - flowers!  How lovely!  My entry is my effort following a video tutorial by the very talented Therese for Scrapbook boutique.  You can check it out h ere .   In the tutorial, Therese used the beautiful Delicata gold ink for her flower, but in the absence of that particular ink (it would be awesome to own everything wouldn't it???) I used my little tear drop by Brilliance in Galaxy gold, quickly sprinkling clear embossing powder all over the die cut by Memory Box (Peony) as it is a quick-drying pigment ink, and heat embossed it.  In real life, it gives a beautiful textured finish which is very pleasing.  I scribbled and blended the colour from a few Distress markers for the bloom and single leaf outline and adhered the die cut over these.  The sentiment by Paper Smooches is also heat embossed in the same gold ink.  I mounted my water colour panel over a mint-coloured card, after wrappin...

The recipe for this week's challenge at LIM  is to use something made from metal.  What luck then, that when I was shopping at the Papercraft Show over the weekend, I picked up a couple of small metal doily shapes and voila!  here is my entry: I have chosen a strong colour combination, as I felt it was needed to complement the metal, and have used textured gold paper and aqua cardstock.  The flower was cut from a Memory Box die - Tilda swirl, and the metal shape sits beautifully as its centre.  I used a MFT die for the chevron border, and enamel dots by Studio Calico.  The perfectly simple sentiment is by Simon Says.