Concept Trio Challenge: Seasons - Winter

My Favorite Things - Ski-sons Greetings

The last of my concept trio challenge cards is a winter card featuring the adorable skiing bear from My Favorite Things.

I decided to go in a more detailed direction with this card, and added a few layers. I made good use of my Blueprint dies from MFT, as well as added some pretty paper and ribbon. I really like the palette of warm gray, purple, blue and pink for winter cards. I think it's perfectly suitable, but a little unexpected.

This card has inspired me to go with my next trio challenge -- a palette challenge. Expect to see some new cards for that challenge in the next couple of days!

Thanks for reading,
~Elle~

Concept Trio Challenge: Seasons - Autumn

Mama Elephant - Pix's Favorites

Continuing on with the seasonal concept challenge, today I'm tackling autumn. As autumn is my absolute favorite season, I felt a lot of pressure to come up with just the perfect card. Of course, trying to come up with a perfect card is pretty much impossible - so I decided to just take a couple of simple ideas and run with it.

One of those ideas was to stamp my sentiment in color. I usually just stick to black or brown for sentiments, but I think a bit of color in a sentiment can really make a difference. I opted for a teal and a yellow - both colors that I pulled from the Doodlebug paper I chose for the card.

I think I'm going to have to use color for my sentiments more, as I absolutely love how it turned out.

Thanks for reading!
~Elle~

Concept Trio Challenge: Seasons - Summer

Lawn Fawn - Here's The Scoop , Simon Says Stamp - Ice Cream Dream, Mama Elephant - Friend die

A while ago, I ran a mini-challenge for myself where I would create 3 cards using the same concept or idea. I really enjoyed this challenge, so I thought I would bring it back periodically and share some card creations that fit into a mini theme.

For the first challenge, I'm going with a seasonal theme. Today's card is a simple summer card, with adorable ice-cream and light color palette. I added some ink blending to the bottom of the friend die cut to help it stand out and used a tiny heart enamel shape for the dot over the i.

Thanks for taking a look!
~Elle~

Concept Trio Challenge - Penguin 3

Today I'm sharing the third and final card in my new challenge series - Concept Trio Challenge. This challenge is where I use the same concepts and ideas, but switch out stamps to make 3 different cards.

You can see the first card I created here, and the second card here. 

As a reminder, here are the shared concepts I'm working with:
- skating penguin with pink cheeks
- circle elements
- palette: white, light gray, light blue, navy and dark purple
- same patterned paper


For the third card, I am using an older penguin set from Fiskars called Winter Wishes. This is a rubber cling stamp set that has a few penguins and a snowman, as well as snowflakes and several sentiments.  I got this set a while ago, and never got around to using it.


Since the skating penguin from this set is quite a bit larger than the other penguins, I decided to also make the circle larger - and change the technique from masking and blending with a tool to using watercolor. I used one of the stitched circles STAX dies from My Favorite Things to cut a circle out of regular white cardstock. Now, normally, you'd want to use watercolor paper here to get a smooth result. But I wanted to have a bit of a grittier texture, so I used plain heavyweight cardstock.


I pulled out my craft mat and smooshed the 3 distress inkpads onto it - Broken China, Dusty Concord and Chipped Sapphire. I sprayed it with a fine mist spray, then pressed the circle down, wiggling it a bit so colors would blend in. I turned it over, dabbed the excess with an edge of a paper towel and set it aside to dry completely. Once it dried, I deepened the edges of the circle by blending in a bit of Chipped Sapphire ink. The end result was a circle that looked a bit like a snowglobe - which is very much fun.

While that was drying, I stamped the penguin with black ink, and colored him in with Copics. As with the other cards, I kept the coloring very simple, using just 2 colors per shade and blending them out. I carefully cut around the image, and set it aside.

Since the night sky circle is so much larger on this card, I decided to balance it out by using a navy card base. I cut and scored a piece of navy cardstock into a standard top-folding A2 card. While I had my trimmer out, I also cut a light grey panel that measures 4 by 5 1/4" and a white panel that measures 3 3/4 by 5".

I adhered the patterned paper to the gray panel, then added the white panel on top. I adhered the circle, making sure to use extra adhesive so it would stay flat. Then I added the skating penguin. I adhered the panels to the card base with foam tape.

I stamped one of the sentiments from the Winter Wishes set onto a piece of white cardstock and trimmed it into a fish-tail banner. I adhered it to the card with foam tape.

As a last touch, I adhered 3 purple buttons next to the sentiment with glue dots.

Supplies:
Fiskars Winter Wishes stamp set
MFT Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
Copic Mini Marker Pad 70#lbs
Copics (100, YR15, YR68, B91, B32, R22, B000, B00)
Ranger Distress Inkpads - Broken China, Dusty Concord and Chipped Sapphire
MFT Stitched Circle STAX dies
Neenah Solar White 80#lbs cardstock
Simon Says Stamp cardstock in Soft Navy, and Fog
Chickaniddy Crafts Jolly Good 6x6 patterned paper
3M Double-Sided Foam Tape
Tombow Craft Dot Adhesive Runner
MFT Buttons in Grape Jelly

Concept Trio Challenge: Penguin 2

My last card introduced a brand new challenge - Concept Trio Challenge. In this challenge, I create 3 cards that have a common theme or concept, but use different stamp sets.

You can see the first card I created here.

For this challenge, my shared concepts are:
- skating penguin with pink cheeks
- circle elements
- palette: white, light gray, light blue, navy and dark purple
- same patterned paper

This card uses the very adorable mini set from Lawn Fawn called Winter Penguin. Since this stamp is a bit smaller and more intricate, I also used the matching Winter Penguin die to cut out the penguin. After stamping the penguin onto some marker paper, I used my Copics to color in the penguin, sticking to very simple colors. I added a few white dots to his scarf for a bit of extra texture.

Like the previous card, I trimmed a white piece of cardstock to measure 3 3/4 by 5", and decided to mask off a circle I would color with distress inkpads and round blending tools. But before I could do this, I needed to take a minute to think about the stamp and circle placement.

I'd decided that I wanted to do something a bit more fun with the sentiment - make it look like the penguin had etched the word "happy" with his skates. This meant that I needed to change my card layout and switch to a landscape mode.

Since Winter Penguin is smaller in size, I made the masked circle smaller too. I started by blending Broken China ink, switched to Dusty Concord to deepen the color and, lastly, used Chipped Sapphire to really darken the edges. I took off the mask and added a few dots with my white gel pen.

I adhered the Winter Penguin to the corner of the circle with thin foam squares, then stamped the sentiment next to it with black ink. I used a black marker pen to just slightly extend the end loop of "happy" and bring it closer to the penguin's skate.

As with the last card, I adhered a 2-inch strip of patterned paper to a light gray card base. I adhered the penguin panel to the card with foam tape.

For the embellishment, I switched to sequins, and added 3 of them near the top of the card.

Supplies:
Lawn Fawn Winter Penguin stamp set
Lawn Fawn Winter Penguin die
Copic Mini Marker Pad 70lbs
My Favorite Things Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
Copics (BV25, BV29, YR15, YR68, B91, B32, R22, B000, B00)
Sakura Gellyroll White Gel Pen
Neenah Solar White cardstock 80#lbs
Simon Says Stamp cardstock in Fog
Chickaniddy Crafts Jolly Good 6x6 paper pad
Ranger Distress inkpads in Broken China, Dusty Concord and Chipped Sapphire
Pretty Pink Posh Cobalt sequins 6mm
Pretty Pink Posh Silver sequins 4mm
Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D foam squares
3M Double-sided foam tape
Ranger Studio Multi-Matte glue
Tombow Craft Dot Adhesive (pink)

Concept Trio Challenge: Penguin 1

One of the crafty goals I've set for myself is to make use of the things I own, but I wanted to go about it carefully. I didn't want to make things just for the sake of saying I'm done and I can cross them off my list. I wanted to continue making things that I love, things that are still me - only without a weekly shopping spree.

Looking at all of the stamps I own and want to use was overwhelming. Do I tackle them alphabetically? By purchase date? By manufacturer? Or something entirely different? I've had this feeling in the past, and the way I'd get through it was to browse Pintrest or social media until some creative idea popped into my head. And, unfortunately, it usually also ended with a discovery of new products I just needed to have.

Since I'm actively avoiding Pintrest now, I had to think of something else. I grabbed my "idea" notepad and read through some of the recent entries. One of the things I'd written is that I wanted to make more Stamping Trio Challenge cards. Having a focus like that sounded right, but it didn't help me decide which stamp to use first.

It did inspire me, however, to come up with a brand new challenge - Concept Trio Challenge. Like the original inspiration, this challenge will require 3 different cards. The cards will share several common ideas, colors, concepts or layouts. But they will use different stamps.

For this challenge, my shared concepts are:
- skating penguin with pink cheeks
- circle elements
- palette: white, light gray, light blue, navy and dark purple
- same patterned paper

I started this card by stamping the penguin and ice from Mama Elephant's Arctic Penguins stamp set on a piece of Copic marker paper. I quickly colored them in with my Copics, then careful cut around the image.

I cut a 3 3/4 by 5" panel out of white cardstock. I masked off a large circle near the top of the panel. I knew I wanted the penguin to be on the left side, so I made the circle off-center and to the right.

I wanted to go with a darker night sky, maybe with a hint of northern lights. First, I blended in some Broken China ink all over the circle. I switched to Dusty Concord and blended some purple in, mainly focusing in the upper right area and the sides of the circle. Lastly, I switched to Chipped Sapphire and deepened the edges of the circle. Then I took the mask off (love that part!). I added some stars to the circle with a white gel pen.

I adhered the penguin to the bottom left edge of the circle with my standard adhesive.  Since Arctic Penguins has no sentiments, I chose a loopy and whimsical Christmas sentiment from Clearly Besotted All Occasion Sentiment stamp set, and stamped it in black.

I adhered a 2" strip of patterned paper to my card base. Then, I adhered the front panel with foam tape.

Lastly, I added 3 enamel dots to the upper right of the sky circle.

Supplies:
Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins stamp
Clearly Besotted All Occasion Sentiments stamp
My Favorite Things Hybrid Ink in Black Licorice
Tsukineko Versafine inkpad in Onyx Black 
Simon Says Stamp cardstock in Fog
Neenah Solar White cardstock in 80lbs
Copic Mini Marker Pad 70lbs
Copics (YR15, YR68,R22, B000, B00)
Ranger Distress Inkpads in Broken China, Dusty Concord and Chipped Sapphire
Tombow Craft Dot Adhesive Runner (pink)
Chickaniddy Crafts Jolly Good 6x6 paper pad
3M Double-sided Foam Tape
Studio Calico South of Market enamel dots