Spotty Eiffel Tower

I love this Eiffel Tower Stamp (Art Impressions). I don't know what it is about it, but I just love it. And I love the background stamp which I've used on several cards recently.

The background is the same as has been featured all week. This one was done with Victorian Velvet & Dusty Concord Distress Inks and the Seeing Spots folder. I then stamped the background image (from "I See Paris" by Tim Holtz) with Dusty Concord. I stamped the Eiffel Tower and saying (Inkadinkado) in black overtop.

To create the perfectly matching bottom design, I cut the spotty background and a purple cardstock at the same time with one of my Tim Holtz border dies. The trick is to make sure your purple cardstock is about an inch bigger than what you are going to layer on top of it. Then place and match up the bottom and cut the rest of the sides to fit.

Then I just stamped the saying below the panel. It's another saying from one of Tim Holtz' word sets stamped in Dusty Concord.

Black & White & Red all Over

I love the colour combination of black, white and red. It seems so strong and it really catches my eye.

Today, I used the negative background of the card I posted yesterday: Fired Brick, Dusty Concord & Retro Circles Embossing Folder. I had been getting back into the groove by working off of sketches, but this time it just kind of came together on its own. Not to say that I didn't struggle, but I had an idea in my head and then just went for it.

I cut the flowers using one of my backgrounds (I think from the left over scrap from yesterday's card) using my Tim Holtz die. But they were lacking some punch, so I stamped on them and added the black brad. I was getting somewhere. Then I put them on little red squares to make them stand out. I cut the background to fit and then matted it with a very thin black border. I tried putting that directly on the red card but it didn't pop enough, so I added a white background, but that was boring. Remembering my newfound love for black, I stamped a black background. I used the same background stamp from "I See Paris" that I used yesterday. I love how it's a nice background (and big), but not too cluttered. Then I tried stamping a saying in Fired Brick at the bottom. You can't really read it,but it added to the depth, so I just left it.

Happy Birthday Colleen

It certainly is the little things that make life big. This simple little card is a tribute to my friend, Colleen. She was over the other day and I was showing her the fun foam embossing folder technique and she told me to do one with red and purple. I was skeptical as it's not a combination that I've used before, but I love it. The background was done with Fired Brick and Dusty Concord Distress inks and the Retro Circles embossing folder by Tim Holtz.

I cut the background down to 4x4" and put it on the card. Then I stared at it because I didn't know what else to do. I was working off another sketch and so I cut the white and red paper, but didn't know what to do with it. So, I just started looking through my Tim Holtz sets until I found something that would fit. I placed it over top of the background, but the empty purple spot was bothering me, so I took one of the stamps from "I See Paris" (one of my favorite stamps) and stamped it in black. Normally, I like a more subtle background for something like that, but I quite like how it turned out. Then I just added a little embellishment and I was done.

I've been using black more on my cards lately and I really like it. I used to think it was too bold and I tended to stick to my other colours, but for now, the black is working for me.

So, this card is for Colleen. Happy Birthday!