Tag: blue

The January Blues at Sparkles Monthly

Hello friends!  For those of us that experience the cold weather season for January, I hope you’re finding ways to keep warm.  I have been wrapping myself in blankets with fluffy slippers around the house…and yes, I have the heat up too! LOL  I think I seem to feel the cold more as I get older in age!  This week will be really cold for us here. So I suppose that’s why they say “January Blues”?🥶

Anyway, that brings me to the January challenge over at Sparkles Monthly and for this month, our hostess is asking for “January Blues” (monochromatic blue) on your project.  Be sure to stop by the blog to see what the rest of the design team has created for you.  Here’s my project for this challenge:

Usually, when I think of blues, especially in January, I tend to think of snowflakes.  I wanted to do something a bit different and decided to pull out my blue tone alcohol inks and make a background.  It was really fun to play around with, and of course, you make a panel and make more than one to save for other cards! Blue makes for such a great masculine card too.

I found some cardstock to match up with the background and die cut the alcohol panel with a stitched rectangle die, layered it over a piece of white to attach to an A2 sized top folding blue card base.  (I’m glad that I’m using some older items from my stash as I think this is old Stampin’ Up! paper that needs to be used!  I THINK it’s Pacific Point?)

I pulled out a leaf die from Taylored Expressions called Subtle Sprigs and cut one in white to place over top the alcohol background.  I also used the TE On Occasion stamp set by white heat embossing over blue cardstock, cutting it out with the die and placing it over the background with the sprig.

It’s a very simple card, but I wanted the alcohol background to take the stage on this one.

I hope you’ve been inspired today to play along with us this month for the challenge at Sparkles Monthly! (P.S.  This will also work with the Monochrome challenge at Mix It Up this month too!) Thanks so much for stopping in today with your kind support!  I really appreciate it!  See you soon!

Challenges:

  1. Addicted to CAS – #274 Blue
  2. Crafty Catz – #685 Anything Goes with optional: CAS
  3. Pammie’s Inky Pinkies – PIP2502 Anything Goes
  4. Try it On Tuesday – Feeling Blue
  5. C.R.A.F.T. – #746 Anything Goes 
  6. The Male Room – #194 Clean & Simple

Reminder for the Blues at {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends!  Hope that you’ve had a nice weekend as your days are growing closer to Christmas.

 

Today I have a reminder for you about the “Shades of Blue” challenge over at the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog and that you still have a few days left to enter your blue shaded projects!  Hope you’ll join us!  Although thoughts of winter, Christmas and snowflakes come to mind with these colors, I’ve decided to take the colors in a different direction for this week:

Blues made me think of a masculine birthday which is something that I needed for a birthday card for my dad this last week, so my thoughts turned to him when making this card.  He’s been having some medical issues recently and I wanted to send him a happy card along with some real balloons to help try and cheer him up a bit.  My heart is heavily with him right now as he deals with many physical issues.

For my card, I first started with a piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper and ink blended some blue oxide inks over the panel with Chipped Saphire, Blueprint Sketch and Salty Ocean Oxide Inks.  I die cut the large sentiment die and balloon dies from this piece and then attached the sentiment to a die cut vellum shadow behind it.

I stamped some images with the same blue inks I blended with over a white panel along with doing a very light ink blending in the center of it before attaching the die cut sentiment over top.  I then attached that panel to a blue die cut panel and again over a white die cut panel and finally attaching it to an A2 sized side folding blue card base.  Lastly, I popped up and glued the die cut balloons along with the silver strings also die cut around the sentiment panel keeping in mind the placement of the strings.  I added a few blue sequins to finish it off.

In this close-up photo, you can see the details of the background more clearly along with the shimmer over the balloons which I went over with a glitter brush pen.

So I hope that you’ve enjoyed my birthday card today and were inspired to pull out your blue shaded stash and have a play with them!  Really look forward to seeing what you come up with for the challenge!  Be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Blog and see what the Cupcake Sweeties have to inspire you with this week as well!

Thanks so much for joining with me today and I’ll be seeing you soon!

Challenges:

  1. The Divas That Cut Paper – Dec Anything Goes + die cut machine.
  2. Lil’ Patch of Crafty Friends – #147 Anything Goes
  3. The Corrosive Challenge – #12 December Anything Goes
  4. AAA Birthday – #20 Twinkle
  5. Creative Moments – #204 Anything Goes
  6. Watercooler Wednesday – WWC301 Occasions
  7. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes

Shades of Blue at {Cupcake Inspirations}

Hello friends!  Hope that you’ve had a great first weekend of December and are ready to roll on with the spirit of the Season!  I know the world is a bit different, but it’s been great to get out the Holiday decorations and try to keep things as “normal” as we can be.  We went out and drove through our local park filled with Christmas lights while sipping some Starbuks coffee and the baking of cookies always gets me in the spirit.  What do you like to do around the Holidays?

Today, I have a new challenge to share with you over at {Cupcake Inspirations}:

The new challenge for the next two weeks is a color challenge in “Shades of Blue“!  You need to be sure to use at least three different shades of blue when making your project.  So any theme or occasion you can think of just use these colors!  We look forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge!  Here’s my project:

I think my favorite colors to decorate with for Christmas are blue and silver!  So I knew I wanted to pull out this GORGEOUS stamp set from Whimsy Stamps called Elegant Ornaments and have a play with it!

I started with a Bristol Smooth Watercolor panel and took the Whimsy Stamps Beaded Curtain Stencil and went over the top with some Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass Oxide Distress Inks.  I ended with the lightest color and faded it into the white.  I took the lightest color and also went over the top of the panel too.  I then cut the panel out with the Whimsy Stamps Zig-Zag Stitched Rectangle die.

I then took a couple of the ornaments along with the sentiment from the stamp set and heat embossed them where I wanted to place them with Ranger Liquid Platinum EP.  I took my Zig CC Real Brush Markers and colored in the heat embossed ornaments and blended them together with a watercolor brush.  I then stamped the “curved beads” images in navy colored ink and then heat embossed the strings to the ornaments so that it all looked layered.

This image panel was layered over a piece of silver mirror cardstock and then layered over an A2 sized side folding navy cardbase.  Lastly, I added some blue sequins and filled the centers with some Nuvo Dazzling Blue Glitter Drops.

Here’s a closer look at the ornaments and how that pretty embossing powder looks.  I noticed that the navy beads caught some of the EP when I heat embossed the strings to the ornaments, but I don’t mind that as I think it gives a bit of shimmer over them and gives more depth to it.  The card looks very pretty and sparkly and I’m happy with how it turned out.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed my “shades of blue” creation today and it has inspired you to pull out your blue colored goodies to play along with us!  Please be sure to check out the {Cupcake Inspirations} Challenge Blog to have a look at the wonderful inspiration from the rest of the DT to help inspire you more!

Thanks so much for joining me here today and I’ll be seeing you soon!😉

Challenges:

  1. Cute Card Thursday – Anything Goes
  2. Dream Valley – #238 Christmas
  3. Winter Wonderland – Anything Christmas Goes
  4. 52 Christmas Card Throwdown – Pick a Precious 2020 Challenge – February 52CCT6-20 3 shades of blue
  5. Through the Purple Haze – Holiday – Make it Blue
  6. Crazy 4 Challenges – C4C564 Elvis “A Blue Christmas”
  7. Merry Little Christmas – MLCCB29 December Anything Goes Christmas
  8. The Paper Funday – #24 December Anything Goes optional: Christmas/Holiday
  9. Crafty Calendar – December Christmas theme