September card in PLUM

Hi there. Welcome to the September challenge at the Rainbow Card Challenge. 

Every month we pick a monochrome color challenge, except for the months of June and December, which are to use all the colors of the rainbow in any way you like!!! Fun, right???

So September is this gorgeous color of plum. There are so many shades and textures that can be used. Of course the problem is, finding the shades you want!!!

But, you're here, and that means you love a challenge!!!

Me too!!! It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. I have this (new to me) Tim Holtz die for these wildflowers and I really wanted to use them. I had seen them on Pinterest a lot and it took me a while to chase down who made the die. Once I got that I was good to go. One of those "got to have this" moments.

Of course, most of us in this crafting world deal a lot with those moments and we try our hardest not to actually BUY everything we want, until it's something we know we will use more than once. That's why I like the digi stamps. They're a lot cheaper and most are not too hard to use.

Anyway, here's my card:

As you can see, I went back to some of the older techniques we used to do. I had not done those for a while, but I needed some texture interest in this card. And it was fun to revive some old tricks of the trade. First of all, I scraped the sides of the cardstock. Then I tore the layers to give the bottom some character. I love the outcome. It's been a long time since I did a card like this. But in the world of art, nothing ever really goes out of style. We just kind of forget some things because there is always something new to try. Most of it comes back in style after a while.

For my colors, I used a really good plum cardstock that I had. Both of the flowers have glimmer and shine on them. I just couldn't get a good picture to show that up. The centers are "plummy" micro beads. I love micro beads for centers of flowers. They are really eye catching in real life. And they seem to blend with colors as long as you're in the same palette. Near the bottom, on the stems I added a leaf die cut that's really shiny, and then some thread glued and topped by a rhinestone. 

I hope you liked my retro look for this card. I sent it to my friend Dee. We challenge each other by going through the alphabet together. We are now on the letter "P". And P is for Plum (the color). I haven't got hers yet, so I don't know what she did. 

Thank you for visiting.

Please leave a comment to let me know you were here!!!

A TEAL card for August

Hello there,

I am so glad you stopped by.

It is August and hopefully, our last month for the temps to be in the triple digits every single day!!! I know it doesn't come down quickly, but it should get a little more comfortable as we get into Fall. We moved here last year in November. And the weather was just beautiful most of the time until we got into the heat in May. So I am really looking forward to the months ahead.

I have been really struggling with my mojo for the last few weeks. Nothing seemed to spark my interest. The color for our challenge is teal... and I just couldn't think of anything that would work with that. I didn't want to do flowers in teal (not that you can't, it just didn't seem to work for me). So I looked, and pondered, and looked some more and then I saw this giraffe!!! What???? A giraffe in teal???

No... a giraffe WITH teal!!! That's the ticket!!! And here it is:

The giraffe is a new digital image from Alex Syberia. She has a LOT of beautiful digi images (and stamps too). I really like digital images because they are so much cheaper than real stamps. Of course, there are many times when you really need a real stamp to work with. But then there's those times that you get a digi image because probably, you are not going to use it that much. AND, it's just too cute!!!

The idea for this card was in my head and it seemed very simple. However, it didn't turn out to be simple at all. First of all, I realized that I couldn't adhere the giraffe under the frame because I had made it thick with 3 die cuts AND added foam tape. That was the first hurdle. 

Then, how do you get the giraffe's head through the frame and on top of it without messing up the frame by it sticking in all the wrong places. 

Other than that, it's a peace of cake...right???

In the end, I got it all together by cutting the giraffe's neck right next to the corner of the frame and then wiggling the frame until it stuck correctly (almost, I had to trim some spots). What started out to be a simple card turned into a frustrating afternoon of trial and error and calling it good!!!

If you know any easier way to do this, please let me know. I am going to practice and practice this card again until I find how to do it better!!!

Thank you for being here,

I appreciate it a lot.