Friday, February 05, 2010

A Purple Patch



Daring Cardmakers Day today and a busy old intro for the new dare on the blog!
   We say a fond farewell to January's Guest designer Caz - who's been fab, and brought  her wonderfully distinctive style to the blog - thanks Caz!
   We say Hello not to just one, but to two new Guest Designers who aren't really "new" at all as both have joined us as GDs before - but you can't have too much of a good thing, so Nat and Asia are back for a second visit and will both be staying for the next two months - it's going to be fabulous to have them sharing their wonderful  cards with us for an extended period, we're sooooo lucky
   If that wasn't enough, we have a rather tasty little Lucky Dip prize on offer this week - it's from the lovely David and Brenda of Craft Obsessions online craft shop - you'll have to pop over to the DCM BLOG to find out all about it.

  Then there's our new dare of course, which as it's the first Friday of a new month means we're continuing with this year's Monthly Birthstone sequence.  February's birthstone is the Amethyst and I thought I might do something  less obvious than just use the colour.  So I looked into the mythology and meanings surrounding the birthstone. 
"February Birthstone - Properties of the Amethyst
For those who were born in the month of February the Amethyst is the traditional birthstone. The February birthstone poem reflects some of the properties with which the Amethyst is associated - stability, peace, balance, courage, inner strength, sincerity and a calm disposition. The healing properties of the February birthstone are reputed to be effective for health problems relating to the withdrawal symptoms of any sort of addiction,  headaches, insomnia, arthritis, pain relief, circulatory system issues and general healing. The Amethyst is also referred to as the the "sobriety stone" as it was once believed to prevent drunkenness and used to treat alcoholism and other types of addictions."

hmmmm , interesting.  I then decided that it all sounded far too difficult and I reverted to the colour theme instead.  OK so I'm chicken! cluck cluck cluck.

Last month's garnet dare showed me that I actually didn't have much in the way of red coloured papers.  This month's has shown me that I don't have much in the way of purple either.  So what colours are actually in all those boxes and bags of paper then?  It's all very curious.
Purple is one of my most favourite colours, but I do find it quite tricky to use on cards without them ending up looking funereal iykwim or just a total mess.  So for this card I've gone with mainly white with just a "dusting" of the purple.
I've  used a few of my old favourites; the pleated paper strip with the pleats plumped up and the good old coiled paper flowers make a come back appearance, along with various flowers, some ribbon, buttons and brads.
The aperture is cut with a Nesties die, I backed it with a piece of acetate to which I added a couple of the new rub on stickers I made at the weekend; the sentiment and the little swirl (which was from a dingbat font)

 


I added the same Nesties shape cut in purple paper to the inside of the card, then used the die upside down in the aperture to draw in the purple border.  

Flowers are a mix of wired paper flowers, a paste flower cut down a bit to fit better, coiled flowers and a rosette made from organza ribbon.  A bit of inking around the edges was used to pull the various shades together.  I hope it all works okay
Please head across to the DCM BLOG  and see all the lovely cards made by the DT this week, to find the links for our lovely new GDs and of course to read about the prize we've got up for grabs this week.
 
Hope you have a great day today and a lovely weekend - oooh look!  the sun is coming out......

20 comments:

Angelnorth said...

That looks lovely Kathy! I was just looking at amethyst info on Wiki though so I'm disappointed not to see vicious tigers clawing at a quartz statue of a beautiful maiden :haha: Love your flower cluster and the pleated paper looks fab!

Lythan said...

Such an elegant and gorgeous card Kathy. I'm suprised you didn't do a congrats on your sobriety card though...

Lynda said...

Absolutely love it Kathy - beautiful flowers (I need to practice more making these) and the pleating does look fab!

Love Lynda xxx

Annie said...

I really love this card kathy. Purple is one of my fav colours so I'm glad I'm in the age range that can now wear it :-).... Poem.."When I'm old I can wear purple" :-)
A x

Karen said...

Amethysts are my favourite stones of all time!!! I wear it a lot. SO of course I love purple and I ADORE this card Kathy!!!

Love how you used the nesties in different ways on this too! XXX

Julia Dunnit said...

Oh using the die upside down to draw around....genius. Lovely card, nice and fresh...know what you mean about purple, it really can be strong.

Rika said...

Gorgeous card, love the purple border.

Anonymous said...

Another gorgeous card Kathy - the flowers and pleats look absolutely fab. :)

Vanessa.

tracy said...

thats lovely kathy,love the pleat :)

Sharon said...

This is very elegant....love the paper at the bottom....x

Janice said...

I can tell you what colours are in your stash Kathy, that will be Pink, Yellow and Blue ha ha ha!

Love the Amethyst theme, I'd forgotten about the birthstone thingy, it was only a few weeks ago and I'd forgotten already, that is worrying. Hope to do something over the weekend.

Just a little bit Crafty said...

Oh I love this card Kathy very pretty. Thanks for your comment on my blog, I loved your visit.
I really like the mini album in the previous post. I could have a lovely play with it.
Hugs, Irene xx

Julia Dunnit said...

Visit my blog when you've gotta mo - talked about you on Saturday's award post.

Traceyr said...

Lovely purple card Kathy love the buttons on this one. :)

Leigh said...

beautiful card Kath, it's funny, I don't have much in the red and purple department either.

Anonymous said...

Lovely card Kathy, it has just the right amount of "everything" for me, including the white space. Love the paper fold at the bottom, never done that before, so will have to add it to the list of things to try!

Gibmiss said...

Hi Kathy
i love you card it is so different.. i am going to enter did a card ir two in amethyst or lilac or purple will but it om tomorrow...
Hugs sYLVIE
X

Unknown said...

This card is mine, all mine! I received it today from my gorgeous friend Kathy for my birthday!

I'm a lucky Aquarian who's birthstone is Amethyst!

Thanks Kathy!

Love & hugs

xxx

SueH said...

I’m a little disappointed that you went for the easy option in the end….I was waiting with bated breath. Lol!

Never mine, that’s one amazing card you’ve come up with and I especially love the pleated border along the bottom. Think I may have to give that a go at some point!

Sue
x

asia wu said...

I just love the way you ruffled the paper, I really like the whole design :)