Hello crafty friends. I’m here today with some cards that I’ve made with inspiration from the mood board from the March challenge at Paper Rose Studio.

Here’s a look at the mood board. There’s a lot here, and many ways you could take this challenge. You don’t need to copy what’s on the board; it’s designed to be an inspiration starting point only. If you are entering a challenge, and your interpretation is very loose, you can always explain how you were inspired. I’ve made three cards to show different ways you could look at this particular board.

INSPIRATION 1

Firstly, you don’t need to use the whole mood board (although you can if you like) My first card is based on the picture at the bottom right of the proteas and foliage. The way this picture fanned out reminded me of a Paper Rose die I have in my stash, and I chose to use this for my first card.

I chose colours that loosely matched that picture, although they are different from the colours of the whole mood board. I cut the Blooming Flowers Background die from Neenah Solar White card stock, and coloured it with my Copic Markers. I used a big black marker and my ruler to colour the border, which matches the borders on the mood board. I auditioned my coloured panel on several different colour backgrounds, including greys and white, before settling on this textured Kraft coloured card. The sentiment is from the Hello stamp set.

INSPIRATION 2

This card used the overall theme of the mood board which is autumn foliage. There is some similarity to the centre right panel, but I was inspired by the whole board for this card.

I used the leaves from the Snugglepot and Cuddlepie – Peeking Out stamp set for this card. Here’s what I did. I first stamped the four black leaves and then laid a light wash of watercolour over the panel, working hard (and it is hard work!) to not stay within the lines. I then went back in and deepened the colours on the leaves, laying down three layers of deeper and deeper colour. Next, I stamped and gold heat embossed the next three leaves, and water coloured them using the same layering technique. Finally I spattered the panel with black watercolour paint and white gouache.

To assemble the card, I again used the Hello Stamp set as well as the co-ordinating die, cutting the word in brown card, and the background layer in vellum.

INSPIRATION 3

This final card is a much looser inspiration. I have used just the colours of the board, no shapes, no individual pictures, no leaves. Here’s what I came up with.

For the sake of this post, I deliberately tried to keep the inspiration very loose. I used Colorburst and Brusho crystals to watercolour a piece of paper, sticking to greens, yellows, orange and red. Once the panel was dry, I used the Paper Rose Alphabet stamp to cut out Happy Birthday, centering it on the card.

I adhered the outside of the paper straight to some rich red card stock. I then cut the same letters from some yellow fun foam from my local Japanese dollar store (the ¥100 shop) and popped the works up on this. I then stuck the small inside pieces that I had saved ( and the two that completely disappeared and had to be remade from the offcuts!) down flat with the card.

Lastly, a coat of Wink of Stella and a layer of Glossy Accents helped the letters to really pop from the background.

I really hope that this post has encouraged you to give mood board challenges a go. If you’re interested in the March 2019 Paper Rose mood board challenge, you can find it on their Facebook Page.

What other ideas do you have? I’d love to see what you create. Be sure to let me know what you get up to.

Until next time, may your days be crafty.

Blessings,

Donna