Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Tropical Toonie Tuesday


Doesn't thank sound good....Tropical.....sigh.....
Well I have two opposite cards for your today...one very much in the tropical theme and the other in a Christmas theme.
This is my color challenge card today. The colors were Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss and Tangerine Tango. I wasn't even going to play, but realized that I needed to make a thank you card for someone who made us something wonderful....you'll see that in a minute.

Sample One: Tropical Thanks



One thing I really like about the Eastern Blooms set is that you can get a very Eastern feel to it, a lovely Asian design, but you can also create a sort of tropical feel to it too with the larger flowers.


Here I stamped the larger flowers on Whisper White in Kiwi Kiss and in Tangerine Tango, cut them out, created "leaves" from the Kiwi petals and also stamped one of the trio of flowers stamp in Chocolate Chip and cut out. I assembled all these together with glue dots and adhesive to give some dimension, folded some of the petals and then mounted on the Haiku paper with dimensionals. The sentiment is from Beautiful Borders and I overstamped the outline petal.



Just for your to know...today I grabbed from my scraps what I thought was SU Whisper White paper to stamp the flowers on. As I stamped it it looked "grainy" to me, even as I was cutting it I was thinking...hmm this just doesn't look right. You know when you get a new stamp and it needs conditioning and it doesn't stamp clean...it sort of had that look. I went to my larger sheets and grabbed a new piece of SU Whisper White....EUREKA! Gorgeous image. SU Whisper White....the paper of choice. Really, it has such a nice polished finish that is perfect for stamping.

See these pictures as comparison.....

Non SU White on the left...see the grainy look to it...yuck!

SU Whisper White below on the right....see the nice crisp image you get!?



And here is what I was making this card as a thank you for....a friend from church made me an Autumn Wreath this weekend and gave it to me. Isn't it gorgeous!????! I really had wanted a wreath and it is perfect on our door. It gives it such a festive look!



Sample Two: A Christmas Door



And in the theme of wreaths and doors.....here is a card I made several weeks ago for the Great Swaps Girls Winter Mini Swap. I thought it would be a "great" idea to design a watercolor swap...I do love watercoloring but man this took me SO long to finish because I was making I think 15 of them. I wanted deep rich colors so I used the deep chocolate and reds and greens for a very festive warm feel.
Background is stamped with Weathered, I watercolored with reinkers, and SW Markers. I added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to my tree after the entire project was completed to give it that shimmery snow feel, see below.
I also included a touch of our new Alpine Ribbon from the Winter Mini and did the sentiment with the scallop punch to give it a pretty ribbon feel too. I also used our old Zig Painty for the sliver on the door handle, hinges and light fixture. It has lots of dimension and warmth IRL.

Recipes: Sample One: Stamps Eastern Blooms, Beautiful Borders Paper: Chocolate Chip, Haiku DSP, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss Ink: Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip Accessories: Wide CC Grossgrain Ribbon, Oval Punch, Dimensionals, Scissors, Glue Dots, Piercer, Scalloped Edge Punch

Sample Two: Stamps: Weathered, Home for Christmas Paper: Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Watercolor Paper, Old Olive, Ski Slope DS Ink: Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Brown Stazon Accessories: SW Markers, SU Reinkers, Alpine Felt Ribbon, Piercer, Dimensionals, Felt Flowers, Silver Brads, Scalloped Edge Punch

3 comments:

LeAnne said...

Wow, what a beautiful card. And how blessed to receive that gorgeous wreath! My wreaths always look so lame....my grandfather, uncle, cousins, and daughter are ALL florists.....do you think that gene is in my body? Nope, not a bit!
LeAnne

Joan Ervin said...

I just love your tropical thank you card, Christine, and your other door project is wonderful!!! Thanks for the close up of the images stamped on the white cs...sure glad I use SU white!!! I love the wreath your friend gave you, too...what a sweet thing to do!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow, both of these cards are gorgeous Christine! I love the colors of the tropical card, and I especially love the Christmas card, what a beautiful set! Your wreath is gorgeous!