A Masculine Christmas Card with Rogue Redhead Designs

Making some headway on my Christmas cards, this time with some Rogue Redhead Designs stamps.  You can find all of the details over at the Rogue Redhead Designs blog.  Plus, find out about some really great deals on all of their fabulous stamps over at the shop.  (Just a little enabling for your Black Friday pleasure, LOL!)  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Is She or Isn't She?

Hello!  If you are looking for the Scrap365 Blog Hop, please click on the link - it will take you to the post below so you can get all the deets, leave a comment, and continue on the hop!

Just wanted to check in today with a little peek of my post for the Rogue Redhead Designs blog.... you can get all the how-to's for my spooky little gal over at the Rogue Blog.

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.  We have hockey, and volleyball, and hockey again, and volleyball again.... you get the idea.  It's all good! :)  Thanks for visiting, my friends.

Rebel Challenge: Bold-Colored Vintage

How about a little color for your Monday? Rogue Redhead Designs has started a new "Rebel Challenge" - and the very first challenge is Bold-Colored Vintage!  From the RRD site:

Vintage images often are used with soft, sweet colors - so not Rogue! Let's use some of that summer heat and go color wild! Use 2 or more of the bold colors [above right] combined with vintage images in your submission.

You do not have to use Rogue Redhead Designs in your creation (but it would be fabulous if you did!); one lucky participant will win a $15.00 US voucher at the Rogue Redhead Designs Etsy store .

So, for my creation.....The first thing I did was print out the little color graphic of the bold colors for the challenge.  Then I went through my stash of papers, laying them down next to the graphic, and decided which ones to use.  I decided to keep the vivid fuchsia mainly in the image, and not the papers, coordinating it only with the little button that highlights the sentiment.  Then it was just a matter of layering, distressing, and assembling.  The main image is from the Relish Reading plate, available at Stamp Diva.  I colored her with Copics, cut her out, and layered her on the blue panel.  I punched and assembled the rest of my patterned papers around her. Because I used all four of these vivid hues, I wanted to make sure that each color occurred in more than one place on the card, to make them more cohesive and look like a part of the color story.  I added a fuchsia button with blue seam binding to coordinate with the image, and a green "photo corner" that I cut from the same paper as the bottom trim.  The paper along the left side actually has more than one of the challenge colors in it, to pull everything together.  I stitched along the left side for a little shabby vintage flavor.  The sentiment is from RRD's Bits and Pieces set.

I hope you can play along - this is a very fun challenge, and a great way to add some new sparkle to your vintage images!

A Rogue Redhead at the Play Date Cafe

My post title almost sounds like a summer novella, LOL!  When I saw the new color palette PDCC88 at The Play Date Cafe, I immediately thought of this beautiful image of Blanket flowers from Rogue Redhead Designs' Floriculture plate.  I love the bright summery feel of both the image and the color palette.  The image is colored by scribbling Memento markers directly onto the stamp.  I then went in and added color using both Memento and Copic markers.  I found some gorgeous, bright patterned papers and diecuts in my stash from Crate Paper (Restoration - luv!) and Fancy Pants that were the perfect colors. I added a sentiment from the Bits and Pieces set, paper tape from 7Gypsies, some glittered butterflies (Martha Stewart punch), and a bit of lace trim.

I'd like to say Happy Canada Day to all our northern friends!  I hope everyone has a fabulous summer weekend.  I am seriously trying to get back into the swing of crafting.... sorry I've been away for so long, neglecting my little blog.  Since we got back from the beach I've been doing the spring cleaning that never got done during the proper season, lol!  I'll leave you with a few pictures from our trip.  We were on beautiful Topsail Island of North Carolina, watching the sunrise and the full moonrise, taking long strolls along the tideline, playing with crabs, and watching the dolphins.  It was a glorious time. *sigh*

Sunrise

Moonrise

Kids (with lots of sunscreen on!)

Crabs

Dolphins

Rosy Notes Peek

A little peek at what I've posted over at the Rogue Redhead Designs blog today.... a bit of fun with some clean and simple vintage notes.  Yep, CAS and vintage, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!!  I'd love for you to pop on by and have a look.  Hope you all have a fun Friday!

Rogue Redhead Designs New Release!

Well, I said I'd have something fun and new coming up, and this is it!  This is a long post, but stick around to the end for a very special somethin'......  

April showers may bring May flowers and this Spring brings the new Floriculture plate from Rogue Redhead Designs!  This one is right up my street, for sure, with gorgeous vintage floral images.  Bringing together focal images, sentiments, and decorative elements, this set lets you create a variety of nature-themed projects.  Perfect for coloring or just on their own, these vintage botanical images are made with high quality, deeply etched rubber so you can make great impressions. Oh yes, this rubber is gooooood.

For the card above, I stamped and embossed the lily of the valley image onto vellum.  I made sure to use a strip of vellum cut "lengthwise", so that I could wrap it around the patterned paper panel.  Before I adhered it, though, I wrapped a length of silk ribbon around the panel twice, then tied it in a bow.  I love how you can see the wrapped ribbon through the vellum.  I added a sentiment created from a second RRD set being released today......

The brand-new Rogue Redhead Designs Bits and Pieces plate is a versatile collection of common sentiments, which you can mix and match.  In addition to the easy-to-use greetings, Rogue Redhead has also included some simple shapes to create fun effects on your cards.  A great set for lovers of the Clean and Simple style, this set may be used alone or in conjunction with any of the other Rogue Redhead plates.  And of course, since I can't just leave CAS alone, I had to use one of the images to make a little shabby chic type of card.  

For the background, I first blended Distress Inks in Victorian Velvet, Tea Dye, Antique Linen, and Tattered Rose all over the base.  Then I inked up the circle stamp from Bits and Pieces in various different Distress Ink colors.  Now, here's the thing.... in order to get the soft wash look, you have to "know your ink pad."  Some of my pads were very juicy, and I had to stamp off once in order to get a subtle color.  Others I could just ink up and stamp the first inking directly to the card.  Experiment on scrap first.  BUT, before stamping, I did one final step.  After getting the right amount of colored ink on my stamp, I used the "rock and roll" method around the edges, taking the circle and inking just the edges of it with Tea Dye.  Cool look, huh?  That cute sentiment is from the Bits and Pieces set, too.  The Cosmo bud is another great image from the Floriculture plate.

Okay, your reward for sticking with me.....  Rogue Redhead Designs is offering these great half-size plates for the introductory price of $12.00 each, 20% off their regular retail price of $15.00 each, until June 10, 2011.  Buy Floriculture and Bits and Pieces as a bundle and save even more!  Get both these new releases together for the bundle price of $22.50 until June 10, 2011.  That's 25% off their regular retail price!

Oh, but the best is of course saved for last......  RRD is also offering a "Spring Sale Big Vintage Bundle" - Relish Reading, Floriculture and Bits and Pieces - all for the low price of $42.00 plus shipping and handling.  That's a lot of beautiful rubber (one whole plate and two half plates!).  Vintage heaven, I tell ya. ;)  And yep, you guessed it, this one only lasts until June 10, 2011, too.  

Thanks for stopping by, and I urge you to go visit the Rogue Redhead Designs blog to get some spring stampin' fever.... I mean, more inspiration!