Pretty Fresh Colours !

 

Good Monday Morning Ladies,

I think we all need the sun to shine,  these dull, dark days certainly affect your mood.  I agree with what Sonia said yesterday about missing the twinkling Christmas lights, I think that gave a bit of extra brightness, now they are all packed away the dark grey clouds seem to stand out more.  Even driving up to the house with the twinkling lights around the front porch made the place seem more welcoming.  

I actually sat and had a play at my desk yesterday,  I cleared everything away from creating those last minute Christmas cards etc and it makes such a difference having room to work in (not that lasts long when I start crafting)  I think I should start doing a 'before and after' shot of my desk, you'd all be horrified!  

When Sonia kindly told us about the 'Dies to Die For ' Sale I went and had s browse,  I saw these fun stamps from Concord & 9th, they are called 'Turnabout ' stamps, you rotate the stamp a quarter turn, as many times as you please to build up a pattern.  You need to have a Turnabout Jig ' to guide your turns BUT the set I ordered from them still hasn't arrived that included the jig, however the Stamp I ordered a day later from Sevenhills Crafts came in 2 days, so I have the Botanical Turnabout with no Jig, so I was determined to improvise, as I was itching to use the stamp set.  So I looked on YouTube to see what the jig was and how it worked and then I had some of this plastic stuff that I got in a bundle of mixed boards, its similar to the stuff that they makes Masks from, is it Milar?!  Anyway I drew an X from corner to corner and wrote 1 to 4 in each corner so you know what 'turn ' you are on, which helps if you are using different colours.  I placed the jig in my stamp tool, lined up the stamp guide and just went for it, I used Granny Apple Green on the first turn then Polished Pink, Parakeet Party and Blushing Bride, at first I didn't think it had worked  but after Diecutting the Diamond for the centre and adding it I decided it looked OK,  I'm sure it will be more perfect when I use the right tool !  

To finish my card I used the coordinating Diamond die set with the word 'Beautiful ' which I diecut in the gorgeous Polished Pink,  I added a strip of vellum across the front so that the 'Beautiful 'looks almost like its floating,  I then stamped a couple sentiments from the 'Botanical ' stamp set in Versamark on Black card and added white embossing powder and heat set.   I then stamped abd die cut a couple of leaf sprigs to embellish, adding them beside the sentiment and finished them with a pink resin dot.  I then matted and layered the card with a narrow Polished Pink mat and finally onto a 6X6 base card. 

A Quick Challenge 

As it's so dark and dull right now I thought it might be nice to create something with a 'Pop of Colour ' So put away your Dark Reds,Greens etc from Christmas and reach for those Bright, Fresh Greens,  Pinks, Yellows etc.  You choose the colours, maybe do a simple 3 colour Blend like Sonia did for that gorgeous Christmas card, you could use Bright patterned papers too, just sit at your desk and play and have fun. 

I will add some inspiration below.....

I hope that these might inspire you my lovelies! 

Have a fantastic Monday, 

Love and hugs to all of you,  

Sandra                                                                                  xxxxxx