Banana Frog Blog

May's Colour Focus

Welcome back to the 2nd round of Colour Focus. Just to recap, here's is this month's inspiration: 

(Photo taken off Martha Stewart site.)

Here's what the Froglets have come up with: 

Annlouise came up with a beautiful card using stamp sets from Flowery Thoughts and Swirls and Butterflies. 

Audrey played with Hiya Chick and produced a fairly 'male-ish' card: 

Card is based on a sketch by Card Patterns Sketch 65.

Francine came up with a beautiful LO of her son. She used It's All About Stars, Super Stars, Pharmacy Large and Super Dreamy stamps.

Here are a couple of close-ups: 

Nat made use of Hiya Chick and came up with this gorgeous card. 

Nestibilities labels were used here: 

Last but not least, Sharmaine created this lovely LO. The stamps she used consisted of It's All About Flourishes, It's All About Elegance and Pharmacy. For the title, she stamped with a black ink and embossed with red!

It's amazing to see how the same colour inspiration has produced different creative works from the Froglets. Check back here for more inspiration especially the 30th where we will be having our blog hop! Until then, happy stamping!

May's Colour Focus

We are well on our way to Spring and this month's Colour Focus takes inspiration from this lovely set: 

(Taken from Martha Stewart site, with thanks)

Here's what the Froglets have come up: 

Anthea came up with a gorgeous LO using stamp sets from It's All About Elegance, Whirlgig and Matryoshka Dolls.

Hannah produced 3 funky cards. She made use of I Heart You stamp set. 

Here's a closeup of a couple: 

Julie came out with a 'now and then' page featuring a polaroid photo taken by BF owner, Bev! The '&' is from Big Punctuation set, journaling blocks from 'Circus Stories' and the alphas are 'Bensfolk'. 

Here's a closeup look: 

Michelle used Kawaii Kokeshi set for her card. The blue strip is a build up of weathered wood and china blue distress inks, stamped with the lovely cherry blossom then spritzed. The central square is done in the same way using old paper, antique linen and tea dye inks.

A closeup view of the card: 

Check back on the 24th for more inspiration from the Froglets. Until then, happy stamping!

April's Sketch Focus

It's almost the end of April and the weather has been brilliant (in England so far!) Makes a change I think. Here's a reminder of this month's sketch, kindly supplied by Julie.

 

Here's what the rest of the Froglets have done: 

Anthea came up with this cute LO about a frog! She used stamp sets from It's All About Scallops, Sewing Kit and Super Dreamy. Here is one tip she shares...Stamp your image onto a button and use some embossing powder, its a great and easy way to jazz up your button collection.

Audrey created a card using Kawaii Kokeshi set.

Francine produced an adorable LO about her little boy. She used It's All About Arrows and Super Dreamy (the journaling lines). Her tip is to substitute stamps for letters as she didn't have any chipboard 'Os' left so she used an arrow stamp instead.

Here's a closeup look: 

Michelle used the It's all about arrows stamp set She layered the big arrow stamped onto different PP's to create the title block. Steelfish Outline alphabets was cut into alpha tiles, coloured with pro marker for the title itself. She used the dotty line from the Make A Chain set for the journalling lines.  As the stamps are acrylic, she manipulated it on the block to create a slightly quirky straight lines. She also didn't ink the full line every time she stamped it so as to get different length lines and the slight faded distressed look at the end of each.

Here's a closer view of it: 

Finally, Nat created a cute, quirky card. She used the Matryoshka Dolls set as little portraits on the wall - à la flying ducks! She added Glossy Accents to the stamped images to make them stand out a bit more in their little frames.

Here's another view of it: 

Have a great weekend and if you fancy having a go at the challenge, do upload to our Flickr gallery. Happy stamping!

April's Sketch Focus

In place of Colour Focus, we have decided to shake things up a little and added a Sketch Focus. We will be alternating between the two in the coming months. Our first sketch was kindly drawn by Julie: 

Here's how the Froglets interpreted the sketch: 

Annalouise made use of a lot of stamps from different sets, the little butterfly from Swirls and Butterflies, two stamps from Flowery Thoughts, alpha stamps Budmo Jiggler and It's all about Flourishes.

Here are some close-ups: 

Debbie used Swirls & Butterflies to create this card. 

Julie came up with this eclectic LO. She used It's All About Documenting stamp set for her jounaling blocks and across her tickets.

Here's a closeup: 

Finally, Sharmaine used Firework, Sewing Kit and Madfont for her LO. 

Do feel free to join us in the sketch. Upload your creations in our Flickr gallery. Have a great Easter and happy stamping! 

March's Colour Focus

Welcome back to the second round of Colour Focus. March signifies the coming of Spring and hence, we have this colour combination as an inspiration: 

Let's see what the rest of the Froglets have come up with: 

Audrey created a 6x12" LO using stamp sets from It's All About Hearts, Postage and Teen alphabet. The 'heart' element in this LO signify how the kids 'heart' this particular playground activity. The hanging hearts were coloured in with sticklers to add a bit of blingz!

Francine celebrated Spring with this lovely LO.It's a hybrid page, which she finds are perfect for using stamps on! She added digital papers and elements to a template in Photoshop, printed it out and then added the photo, title, journaling and stamping. She used Build a Daisy and Super Dreamy sets.

Jo created a sheet of design paper using Super Dreamy stamp set which she then cut up to decorate cards. The photo shows a couple of cards and a piece of the original sheet.  (NB she coloured in part of the petals on the open flowers stamped in yellow - to build them up a little.)

Nat created a gorgeous card using Swirls and Butterflies and Matryoshka Dolls. She used the border stamp from Matryoshka Dolls to create a frame for the aperture.

Here's a closeup of the card: 

Do feel free to join in and upload to our Flickr gallery. Banana Frog is having it's first Bloggity Frog Hop on the 30th March. Book that date and join us on that day as we showcase more inspiration, not forgetting there's also a prize to win! 

March's Colour Focus

It's March and that means Spring is nearly upon us. So to celebrate the end of winter, we have this colour scheme as our inspiration: 

Here's what the Froglets have come up with: 

Anthea created a LO using Retro Space and Matryoshka Dolls. Her tip is to pair up border stamps with border punches for an interesting new look border. Add some glitz to jazz up the stamped images. 

Julie created a couple of art pages in her journal. She used Matryoshka Dolls and Superlicious stamp sets.

Here's some close up look at them: 

Lory did a card using It's All About Documenting stamp set to create a journaling spot for inserting a quote. 

A closeup view of the card: 

Finally, Michelle produced a lovely mini 'Springy' LO! She used the Superlicious stamp set. The yellow mat is a mix of mustard seed and spiced marmalade distress inks, spritzed with water then stamped on top using the same colour inks with peeled paint swirls added. She stamped the flowers, embossed the outline and painted them with some cosmic shimmers water colours. The picture is of Stanley last spring sitting in the primroses. 

Here's a closeup view: 

Feel free to join in on the Colour Focus! We love to encourage blog participation among our reader. Leave a link of your creation in the comments. We like to see what you do with Banana Frog stamps. Banana Frog stamp sets can now be purchased directly from this site. Don't forget to join in on the Style Challenge. You have till the 10th March and you stand to win some great prizes! Check out the details here. Happy stamping!

February's Colour Focus

Welcome back to Part II of Colour Focus. Just to remind you of this month's inspiration: 

Let's see what the rest of the Froglets came up with. 

Anthea came up with a stunning LO using red as the dominant colour. She made use of Matryoshka Dolls, It's All About Elegance, It's All About Scallops and Paper Chains stamp sets. Her tip is to mix stamps from different sets. You might be surprised at what matches and works well together. In her layout, she stamped out a frame and used it to hold embellishments and title.

Audrey created a mini LO (6x4") and chose pink and brown as the dominant colour. She made use of Retro Space for her LO. The spaceship has been outlined with glossy accent to make it stand out. 

Lory made a gift bag using normal packaging paper. She sewed around the edges and decorated the bag using stamp sets from It's All About Scallops, Matryoshka Dolls and Simple Greetings. 

Here's some closeups of the bag: 

Finally, Michelle came up with a lovely project, an upside down pyramid/cone gift bag for that special something for that special someone! She cut the cone shape from some brown Basic Grey 12x12 sheet and before assembling it, stamped, using I Heart You stamp set, and embossed with some crimson cosmic shimmers (the hearts that came out red) then with some coral cosmic shimmers that gave a lovely 'chocolatey' lustre! Once stamped and embossed, she assembled the cone and added the embellishments to pretty it up!

Here's a closer look of the bag: 

There will be more developments on this blog in the next few months! Do check back to see what we have in store for you! In the meantime, if any of the stamp sets interests you, you can now buy them directly from the Banana Frog site. Happy stamping!

February's Colour Focus

It's February and this month is well-known as the 'love' month as you can't help seeing lots of Valentine's items, cards, gifts being sold in the store. So in honour of Valentine's Day, the Froglets were given this particular inspiration: 

Who can't resist a box of chocolates, especially in such an attractive packaging! Here's what the talented Froglets came up with. 

Francine created a LO. She used Matryoshka Dolls and Classic Wedding stamp set. She made the layered flowers by cutting out two sizes of circles from patterned paper.  She stamped the image from Matryoshkas on the smaller circle. Then she distressed the edges of the circles and crumpled them. Finally, she layered them and added the brad centers. She "contained" the title of the page with the border stamp from Classic Wedding.

Here's a closer view of the LO: 

Jo came up with a delightful card using stamp sets from Kawaii Koeshi and Build-A-Bloom. 

Julie produced two 'love' pages from her journal. She made use of Backgrounds and Super Dreamy stamp sets.

A closer view of the pages: 

 

Finally, Nat created this super rich, yummy card using Cupcake Greetings set. It's such a versatile set and perfect for Valentine's!

Here's a closeup of the card: 

Hope you have been inspired! Our design team call is still open and if you enjoy stamping on your projects, do apply. Check out the deets here! 

Colour Focus

Welcome back to another round of Colour Focus. Here's a reminder of this month's inspiration: 

 

Here's what the Froglets have churned out: 

Audrey came up with a tag and create a rose using a flower stamp from Super Dreamy set. The swirls and butterflies came from stamp set with the same name! The quote is from Build A Daisy set. 

There are lots of tutorials online on how to create a rose. Tim Holtz recently did one during his 12 Tags of Christmas.

Francine did a LO using stamp sets from Superlicious and Matryoshka using Versamark ink to make a subtle border and "snowflakes".

Julie also did a LO. For her title, she used FT Rosecube and MadFont stamp sets. As for the baubles in between the flowers, she used three of the patterned-circle stamps from Build A Daisy set. 

Here's a closeup view of the LO:

Finally, Nat made a Christmas thank you card. She used Kawaii Kokeshi set ... the cute little Japanese doll goes great with Christmas/wintry scenes as well. 

To see the card closeup: 

Thanks for dropping by. I hope you have seen the announcement... Banana Frog is looking for new designers. So if you enjoy stamping on your projects, be sure to send in your application! Good luck! 

January's Colour Focus

Happy New Year!

2009 has certainly passed pretty quickly. We start this year with a new inspirational image taken from Marks & Spencer catalogue:

In this freezing weather, we certainly need them! Here's what the talented Froglets came up with: 

Anthea produced a lovely LO. She picked green as the dominant colour. Here's her tip: add life and dimension to your stamped flowers by stamping them twice, layering them and then pinch up the sides of the top flower.

Hannah came up with a card using Steelfish set. The card is a metallic grey with the other colours as a highlight all embellished with pink machine stitching.

 

Here is a closeup of the card: 

Marion made a card using It's All About Hearts and Simple Greetings stamp sets. She used the large scallop heart as a template, stamped it on folded cardstock and then cut out, therefore making a card. She also used the rectangle stamp from that set, but applied it upside down so that she only got the shape, not the pattern.

 

Finally Michelle came up with a delightful project. She made a box from some brushed metallic silver card and decorated it with stamps from Build a Daisy set. She stamped them with versamark onto cream card and embossed with cosmic shimmer powders. She put a blob of silicon where she wanted the centre of each flower and pushed the ends of the petals into it, this way the petals stood up to create the 3D flowers.

 

Here's a closer look at the box: 

We hope we have inspired you to take out your stamps to have a play. Remember, you can upload to our Flickr gallery. Have a great day!