Working With Strong Colours

I love colour.  See? Hahahahhaa!  Ahem.  Sorry about that.  

One of the problems with strong colours is that they can overwhelm (especially a small canvas, like a card) and when you use too many strong colours together, it can just look garish.  The most difficult strong colours for me are purple, orange and yellow.  I love them, I just find them tricky to work with, KWIM?

One easy way to use a bold colour that is to make sure you limit the number of colours you use. Stick to two, plus a neutral such as white, vanilla, grey, or kraft.

 

Another way is to use a simple sketch - you don't need a busy card with a bold colour.  Also, muted shades of the same colour can work well together.  

Don't be afraid of bold contrasts!  Some of my favourites are purple/green, purple/red, purple/yellow, blue/yellow, red/green, and orange/green.

 

Hope this was helpful!

Ingredients (from bottom up):
Stamps:  Something Sweet, Polka Dot Background, Petal Pizazz, Congrats (retired), Fifth Avenue Floral, On Your Birthday, Razzle Dazzle, Really Retro, I {heart} Hearts,  Cheer & Wishes
Paper:  Only Orange, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Kraft, Elegant Eggplant, Good Morning Sunshine DSP, Tangerine Tango, Riding Hood Red
Ink:  Only Orange, Kiwi Kiss, Versamark, Elegant Eggplant, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Tangerine Tango,  Riding Hood Red
Other:  Scalloped Oval Punch, large oval punch, Sweet Treat Cups, 13/4 inch circle punch, Rhinestone Brads, Elegant Eggplant grosgrain, dimensionals, Tangerine Tango striped grosgrain, 1 inch circle punch, i1/4 inch circle punch, Full heart punch, Heart to Heart punch, large half pearl from Pretties Kit.

My Darling Husband's 40th

Whoops, almost forgot to post a pic of the card I made my husband for his 40th birthday this week.  Not a brilliant pic, as I just took it now at night (so organised!).  The base card is Kraft, and I used chocolate chip and very vanilla cardstock there too.  The background woodgrain stamp is not SU - it is an old one from my stash, Hero Arts, I think.  The Beer mugs are from Cheers to You, and I coloured them with a More Mustard marker after stamping in Black Stazon.  See the "foam?"  That is liquid appliqué,  which you heat with a heat gun to make it all puffy.  Such a fun effect, and perfect for the beer!
The eyelets are again the retired Earth Elements eyelets by SU.    I used the Word Window punch for the Sentiment (On Your Birthday).

Inside the card was an iTunes Gift Card, and a Gift Voucher for.......3 laps in a Lotus Sports Car!  I find my husband very difficult to buy for, so I think this "Experience" gift was the perfect solution.

Happy Birthday Bec!

Yesterday I had the loveliest day with my sister demo Rebecca and our upline Linda at Bec's house chatting, drinking coffee and doing some cardmaking while our toddlers destroyed Bec's lovely home. It is Bec's birthday next week (Tuesday), so make sure you hop over to her blog

Heart and Craft to wish her a happy day!

Here is the lovely Bec and her baby Zane:

And here is the birthday card I made for her:

It's my second attempt at the Dawn McVey flowers, and I'm much happier with this card. Notice the corduroy brads in the flowers? New in the Spring Mini!

I'll be posting a few more sneak peeks at the mini in the next few days. Enjoy!

Everything's Coming Up Roses....

I'm a big fan of musicals. Love me a show tune. Can anyone name the Musical that line is from?

In the meantime, here are some roses to show off for you! I was on a roll today and made four cards using the same colour palette (Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss) and the same stamp from Fifth Avenue Floral. I love how different the roses look, depending on how you've stamped and coloured them.

I stamped two of the roses with Stayzon black ink on watercolour paper and used my Aquapainter to watercolour them with ink from my ink pads. I'm not very good at watercolouring, but it's something I'd like to get better at. I love the look.

You may not be able to see on the second card, but I used the background stamp En Francais on it, with Versamark. I love how it gives a vintage look.

Recipe: Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, On Your Birthday, En Francais, Sanded

Ink: Versamark, Regal Rose, pretty In Pink, Kiwi Kiss

Paper: Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, Watercolour Paper, Raspberry Tart DSP, Pretty In Pink

Other: Regal Rose grosgrain, Designer Label Punch, Small Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Lace Edge Punch, Aquapainter

The next two I stamped in Versamark on glossy white cardstock, then embossed with white embossing powder. I then sponged the flower with Summer Sun and Regal Rose ink, and wiped any excess ink off the white embossing with a tissue. This is called the Emboss Resist technique. Again, unless you click to enlarge it, you might not see that on the top card here I've stamped the Rose in Versamark on the Kiwi Kiss layer. And I did a little faux stitching on the second card.

Recipe: Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, On Your Birthday,

Ink: Versamark, Summer Sun, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss

Paper: Whisper White,Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose

Other: Heat Gun, White embossing powder, Lace Edge Punch,, Mat Pack and paper piercer, signo white gel pen.

What do you think? Which technique do you prefer?

More Boy Cards

Forgot to show you this card I made today - for my Dad's birthday (next month). I made another very similar to this one for a little boy in my son's class at school. I used Circle Circus, similar layout to my earlier card, but with Pacific Point and Riding Hood Red as the main colours. What do you think?

Kristina Werner's Colour Challenge #53

OK - I must confess that when I saw the inspiration picture for this week's challenge I immediately thought of this cute little clear stamp by Sandylion that I have had in my stash for a while, but haven't used before.

I've put Crystal Effects on all the little red dots and in real life the look really shiny. Again, apologies for the poor photography - very overcast this morning!

Recipe:

Stamps: Sandylion (don't know the name), On Your Birthday

Ink: Basic black, real red, pacific point, yo yo yellow, real red marker

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, YoYo Yellow, Pacific Point

Other: eyelets, crystal effects