Staples

Today's challenge over at 365 Cards is to use at least two staples on your card, so here's what I did with exactly two staples!

My husband thought it would be a good idea to do some staple art and make a picture out of a whole load of staples.  He's obviously a lot more confident in my artistic abilities than I am!

The background paper has a layer of tissue paper over the middle part to allow the sentiment to stand out a little more clearly.  The birthday letters are from a Stampin' Up jumbo wheel, which I stamped and then cut out.  The staples are holding down some paper twine (I am rubbish at glueing that stuff down - it has a life of it's own!).  I put the staples through the background paper and the dark brown card base layer before I glued these layers to the card so that the sharp ends wouldn't be seen from the inside of the card

Chevrons and flowers

I've had fun trying out lots of new ideas for this card.  I saw a fab new technique recently of cutting out a design from the front of a card and then putting another layer behind it (thanks Deepti!), this is my take on it - I drew out the scalloped square and the Zoe, then really carefully cut out all the bits with some super sharp pointy scissors.  I water coloured the frame then stamped lots of flowers all around.  The background is held on with some double sided foam pads to add some depth.  I punched holes inside the scallops and threaded some ribbon through to finish it all off.
I'm entering this into
Ribbon Reel #59 Chevrons and Flowers

Kaboodle Doodles #183 Anything with Scallops
Ribbon Girl August Card Challenge : Birthday Card

Background Splatter Birthday

I'm so excited to be on the design team with 365 Cards I'm on a bit of a card making roll!

This card is based on Sketch Frenzy Friday's sketch -

And uses the colours from Colour Q

And Make It Monday's random background stamping technique (which I had great fun with!)

Just a few little dots

Look, I just couldn't help myself today.  I saw the polka dot challenges at City Crafter and The Friday Mashup, and before I knew it yesterday's clean and simple card now looks like this.  I haven't used my circle punch for ages and it was kind of fun getting dotty!
I'm also entering this into Papertake Weekly Challenge: Anything Goes and Moxie Fab World: Birthday Card Challenge

Birthday in Neutrals

Less is More have a colour challenge this week with the most beautiful neutral colour pallette -

I used the closest colour scheme I could muster and produced this very simple card from it.  The letters have been stamped, cut out and stuck on.  I'm usually rubbish at clean and simple cards because I can't help but just add one more thing.  And then just one more last thing.  And then maybe just one little extra thing.....

Peacock Blue

When I saw the colours this week at ColourQ I felt immediately inspired to get my water colours out again!  I found my most peacocky swirly stamp, stamped a few out for the background and painted them.  Then stuck a layer of tissue paper over them when I worked out how I wanted to put the rest of the card together.  I stamped, painted and cut out the flower, then added a little gem to go in it's centre.

Textures

My first card as part of the DT with 365 Cards!
This challenge is to add at least two types of texture to the background.  I started off with a water colour wash of very pale blue, green and grey, then stamped a grid onto it while it was still a bit damp so that it blended in to the background.  I hoped this would add a layer of visual texture but it's a bit too subtle!  Next I dry embossed some flowers around the frame then over painted them to make them stand out a little bit more, and my final texture was some heat embossing from a grungey background stamp (in white) in the bottom corner.
I'm also entering this into the Inkspirational Challenge #31: Anything Goes!