Notable Designs by Leslie Banks

MDS Monday - Anything with a Bird

Welcome to another MDS Monday Challenge over at Utah Divas.  The theme this week was anything with a Bird.  I opted to use the brush set Friends 24-7.  Color used are Crumb Cake, Rose Red and Whisper White.  I shadowed the little flowers just a bit to make them pop a bit.  The seam binding is layered on top of each other to create an effect of a wider ribbon band.  There is also a small strip of the Cherry Cobler Designer Series Paper (looks like there is some Rose Red in it as well).  Enjoy and be sure to check what the other Divas have for you this week! 

WWW: Wonderfully Wicked Wednesday #5

Welcome to a new month of WWW challenges.  This month's challenge will be "Mr. Wizards Gears and Cogs".  This is the picture from the musical "Wicked" that prompted this challenge.

 

As you can see there are lots of options for interpretation on this picture.   The clock is a focal point throughout the musical.  The theme of mechanics is also predominant as Glenda rides a "wheel" that produces bubbles, thus providing a circular theme.  So for this first challenge, I have created a very bright card consisting of Cherry Cobler, Daffodil Delight, Chocolate Chip and a bit of Love Letter Designer Series Paper.  I used the Cog Punch and did the Embedded Embossing Technique using the lattice embossing folder.  Love that technique!  Added a bit of ribbon and the words "just for you" from the "Just Belive" set.  The tag frame is one of the tags from the "Lots of Tags" die cuts. 

  One of these days I will get my pictures to take correctly.  The card always looks tilted but it is not, must be operator error.  LOL.

Have a great Wednesday!  Be sure to swing by the Utah Divas Blog to see the designs by my other design team members.

Leslie

 

 

MDS Monday - Play on Words

I have to say this was a hard one for me to do this week.  I procrastinated until I finally came up with this one.  By the way, have you all updated your My Digital Studio?  If not, you should as there are some new features in the latest download.  I chose to do a 3x3 tag this time. The tag hole is covered up with the ribbon.  I used the Medallion brush set to create the faint background on the tag.  The top note and the designer label punch rounded out the design at the bottom.  Razzleberry taffeta ribbon and eyelets and some designer series paper added to the look I was attempting to achieve.  The Man's Best Friend brush set provided the dog.

Be sure to see what the other Divas have come up with.  I am sure there will be some good ones out there!

WWW: Wonderfully Wicked Wednesday #4

As March comes to a close, so does this month's WWW challenge to use shades of purple, green and black in our creativity as the primary colors.   My design team did a wonderful job this month as  you can see by the collage I put together (using My Digital Studio).  The variety of styles is amazing and it just goes to show how much you can do with just a few colors.

Please be sure to go to the UDI blog to see this final week's cards by my design team.  They are truly wonderful and full of inspiration.

My design for this week is a pinwheel card.  They are all the rage and all over the stampin' blog sites.  Seems like these things come in waves every few months.  Anyway, I have always liked the pinwheel design and since it is March ~ winds are blowing here in NM ~ why  not use it as my focal point.  I choose to do a 4x4 square card because it is something different.  I used the Wicked Fun Specialty Designer Series Paper cut into squares.  I then put those on layered black cardstock cut at 2 5/8x 2 5/8.  I placed the whole pinwheel on a piece of Pear Pizazz that has been run through the Big Shot using the lattice embossing folder.  Pulled out a "just for you" stamp from Teeny Tiny Wishes, stamped and layered it onto the middle of the card. Added two black glitter brads as the final touch.

Hope you enjoyed this card!  It was really fast to make and a great wow. 

See  you next week for Month Two's challenge.

MDS Monday - Sale-A-Bration Celebration

For those of  you that participated in Sale-a-Bration,  you received some wonderful FREE sets to play with this year.  I really like using the Bliss set.  It has to be my favorite sale-a-bration set for the last couple of years.  I am hoping it makes it into the new catty in July! 

This weeks challenge for MDS (My Digital Studio) Monday's was to use a Sale-A-Bration set as a fond farewell to mark the end of this years Sale-A-Bration.  Now, there are a few days left if you find you want to get in this fabulous opportunity  of purchasing $50 and getting a free set and/or download cd for your MDS installation! 

I used the Ice Cream parlor designer series paper and the Ice Cream parlor elements and buttons to create my own color scheme of Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait and Marina Mist.   The colors in the paper differ by adding Pacific Blue and Old Olive into the mix. With this color palette, you can say that I am ready for spring to stay!

I used the Bliss brush set for the butterflies and the word Bliss.  The "Friend Forever" came from the Fundamental Phrases brush set.

Hope you enjoyed this card. Stop by the UDI site and see what the other design team members have created for Sale-A-Bration submissions.  Also, remember there are many different weekly challenges out there to explore. I encourage you to do so as the Diva's have created some wonderful designs to inspire you!

 

WWW: Wonderfully Wicked Wednesday #3

Welcome to week 3 of the Wonderfully Wicked Wednesday challenge of using green, purple, black and any neutral along with any current accessories.  I know you are going to love the designs for this week.   They are all different yet still showcase the color scheme of the month.   This card came together really easily for me this week.  I had some of the scallops left over from the Petal Cone die when I was making cupcake baskets this past week.  I just had to use them as they are green, Certainly Celery to be exact.  The scallops were textured using the lattice embossing folder and the background Elegant Eggplant was textured using the dot embossing folder.  Now anyone who has seen the musical Wicked, knows that deep down Glinda and Elphaba were BFF's (Best Friends Forever).  They knew each other better than they knew themselves at times.  So I chose to use the Friends Never Fade stamp set.  Add some Black Satin ribbon and some Celery taffeta ribbon to dress it up a bit.  Added two purple buttons to the ribbons to finish it all off.  I love our buttons (I don't sew) but I still love buttons!  My grandma used to have buttons in a huge box for me to play with when I was little - I sorted them many, many different ways.  So what do you think?  This was truly a simple card that was created based on one element - the scallops.

MDS Monday - Spring!

I was in Denver for a couple of days this week and it snowed during the night and was happily sunny and warm the next day.  Must mean that Spring is here!  This week the theme for MDS Monday's is anything Spring.  This card went together really fast in My Digital Studio. 

I used the designer series paper, Sunny Garden, design number 8 as the strip down the side.  The scallop punch added a great touch in the color that matches the paper.  I used the color match eyedropper to be sure I matched it just right.  The stamp brush set Friends 24.7 was a springy without just being a flower.  I added some color to the bird by using the oval and circle punches behind the bird.  I really like the flower from the Bliss brush set, so I just had to use it.

To create the cut at the end of the ribbon, use the square punch, angle it and then fill it with whisper white to match my whisper white background.

Hope you enjoy and have a wonderful First day of Spring!   Be sure to check out the wonderful MDS designs by our talented Divas by clicking here.

WWW: Wonderfully Wicked Wednesday #2

Welcome back to WWW.  As a reminder the challenges for this UDI adventure is to use the same theme for the whole month. March's theme is to use the colors purple, green, black, any neutral and any accessories (current of course). 

I decided since this St. Patrick's Day is this week, I would use the colors and create a card for the occassion.  Here is what I came up with. 

I used the Lucky Shamrock stamp colored with Concord Crush and Wild Wasabi.  The center is punched and then layered on Concord Crush using the scallop circle punch.  The two "medallions" are created using the small heart punch and forming a shamrock which was then adhered to the black cardstock. I then ran the whole medallion through the BigShot using the Lattice embossing folder.  This is the inlaid embossing technique and is really cool in person. The picture does not do it justice.  There is a scallop border in Concord Crush and it is placed under the black and vanilla striped ribbon.  The Wasabi piece is detailed with the dotted embossing folder and then layered on the card base of Concord Crush.  All elements are popped up with dimensionals.

I had a fun time trying to get this card to photograph!  No matter what I did (tried 12 times) the bottom right corner looks like it is bent, but I swear it is not.  The real card is very straight and not bent at all.  Not sure what I was doing wrong, but hope you enjoy it anyway!

St. Patrick's Day

 Green Beer, a pot of Gold, little leprechauns running around, it must be March.  When my kids were little I used to bake them a St. Patty's Day cake and then I would find gold glitter and gold coins to create a leprechaun trail for them.  They have outgrown that tradition and I have not done it in many, many years, but it is still fun to think of. 

So our challenge for MDS this week was to do something St. Patrick's day related.  I decided to play with the calendar options in MDS for my weekly submission.  I used the Year in Review brush set, On the Green brush stamp and the Lucky Shamrock brush stamp.  The Spring Shades - pattern 2 Designer Series Paper provided the background.  Of course I had to put some garden green brads and some ribbon on it to complete the look I was going for. 

The hardest part of the calendar was getting the numbers to be aligned.  I do like the way it turned out.  Hope you do too!  Be sure to stop by the UDI blog to see what everyone else has done!  Leave a comment if you like what you see.

May God always grant  you a sunbeam to warm you and a moonbeam to charm you and a sheltering angel so no one may harm you.  ~ Irish Blessing

WWW: Wonderfully Wicked Wednesday #1

One of the fondest memories I have of time spent with my mother was watching the television broadcast of The Wizard of Oz whenever it was on. So, when the Wicked musical came out I just knew I had to see it. My mother passed many years ago, but I thought of her when I went to see the musical with two of my closest friends.  I absolutely loved the musical!

I enjoyed it so much that when my friend, Max, asked me to come up with an idea for a challenge for Wednesday's on the Utah Diva blog, I creatively fused the two of these together to form Wonderfully Wicked Wednesday aka WWW. The concept is that each month there will be a different theme/concept. Some will be color challenges, some inspiration challenges and some might be an element or lyric from one of the musicals for interpretation. I do hope everyone will enjoy this challenge!

The theme for March is a color challenge using any shade of purple, green, black and a neutral. Click Here to see what our talented Divas have come up with for this first week.  Be sure to leave a comment letting them know what you think of their designs!

I could not resist using the Wicked Cool set for the first post. (Yes, I do love Halloween!)  I do promise to not use this set all the time even if it is one of my favorites. I know the musicals revolve around the story of the witches, but the challenge is really about the colors and I look forward to see what my team comes up with each week of the challenge.