ASM - Photo inspiration ....

....  Good evening - despite all the snow around my house, I know that spring is on the way because it's still light as this post goes live!!!! Yea!  Our challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More! this week is photo inspiration, and here's my take:

Stamps: Impression Obsession - You Are Amazing
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Stampin' Up! - Melon Mambo
Dies: Spellbinders - Squares Lg (S4-126) #6, Squares Sm (S4-128) #6
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Basic Black; Cosmo Cricket DP - DeLovely; SU DP - Basic Black; Copics

International Women's Day is celebrated globally on 8th March each year.  This year the UN has designated the theme "Equality for Women is Progress for All".  While there has been considerable progress in achieving equality for women in the West, in many parts of the the world little has changed.  Women have to be very brave, very courageous to stand up for their rights, such as Mala Yousafazi who was shot by the Taliban for standing up for the rights of girls to be educated.  Our challenge graphic shows a Women's Day logo - to unite and support each other.  I've taken the colours from the graphic to make this card.  I used the layout from Clean & Simple Stamping - FTL#282 and the theme of shades of grey at CAS-ual Fridays - CFC#129. 

I turned the sketch to make a horizontal card.  I die cut the square and stamped the sentiment three times, then used Copics to colour going from black, through shades of grey to pink and then mounted it onto a black mat layer.  I used strips of design paper to make the backing panel.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of black/grey design paper and on the white panel stamped the bold sentiment - "You are worth it".

Our Guest Designer this week is Darnell if you haven't visited her blog - it is worth a trip.  Not only does Darnell make great cards, she is also one of the kindest and funniest ladies I've met in blogland!  As well as Darnell's card, the rest of the team have some fabulous inspiration cards to share with you. 

Our sponsor is StampArt Designs and the winner of the challenge will receive 5 digi images.  That's all for now!  See you soon.

WMSFC - Colours ....

... Hello again!  I'm back with our new challenge at Waltzingmouse Fanatics.  This time we have a colour challenge - there are six colours in the palette and you have to use at least three of them.  I think these are all my favourite colours.  Don't forget you can make anything for the challenge, a card, scrapbook layout, 3D project - but you MUST include at least one Waltzingmouse stamps, digi or sentiment.  Here's my card:

Stamps: WMS - Free Spirit Boy; Impression Obsession - You are Amazing
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Wild Wisteria; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Accessories: SU Card - Naturals Ivory; Copics; Promarkers

Do you ever have an idea of a card in your head and then end up with something completely different?  Well, that's what happened with this card.

I used the sketch from Clean and Simple Stamping - FTL279 for the layout and the theme is from this week's Keep it Simple - KIS#33 where the key word is "TROPICAL" and, obviously, the colours are from our challenge.  From the graphic I took the two shades of purple, the dark teal and ivory.  I made the card from Naturals Ivory (lovely card which I don't use often enough).  The card has a subtle texture which you can see in the stamped sentiment!  I actually like the slightly distressed look.  I used my all time favourite set from Waltzingmouse - Free Spirit Boy - and stamped the hibiscus flowers several times onto white card and then coloured them with Promarkers and Copics.  I cut them out and attached them to the card.  I know that hibiscus don't appear in nature in rich teal (sort of wish they did), but they certainly come in all shades of purple.  For the inside, I kept it ultra simple with just a stamp of the hibiscus flowers.

Don't forget Tara has an inspiration card to share with you too.  You have plenty of time to play along with our fabulous colours, the deadline for submission is Thursday 20th February, 5.00pm GMT (that's Noon EDT).  Oh, were you wondering what my original idea was?  Well I had planned on using the surf boards from Free Spirit and making a guy card!  That's all for now!  Whatever you plan on doing this weekend, keep safe and warm.  Bye for now!