Naughty and Nice Purse

This week is the 99th challenge from Just Add Ink and the last for this year.
Just add Packaging.





I had bought a friend a little gift for Christmas and instead of wrapping it as normal, I thought I would make another one of those cute explosion purses to make it look more special.

This paper is retired now, it is my favourite ever Stampin Up dsp.  I have been hoarding it and not actually using it because it’s just too nice to cut!  But even though it’s not exactly Christmassy I thought it would make a lovely Christmas bag and I actually used a sheet of it!!! It is card weight dsp so it was just perfect for this.

I used shimmery white which I embossed with the finial press folder and cut with the top note die for the top of the purse.  I also made a little tag using a stamp from the Tags til Christmas set.  I have used this stamp a lot this year, I think it’s so cute!  Then I added a red glimmer brad (which looks much more sparkly in real life) and some retired ribbon for the handle.

I had intended adding some other Christmassy embellishments to it, but decided to take the “less is more” approach in the end.  I just liked it better this way.


Ingredients :
Stamps : Tags til Christmas
Card : shimmery white, white, real red, dsp (ret.)
Ink : baja and real red markers
Other : big shot, finial press ef, top note die, glimmer brad brights, ribbon (ret.) square punch, square scallop punch, crop a dile, linen thread, velcro dots


I gave this to my friend today and she loved the bag even more than the actual present I think :)
Please take a look at the other wrapping and gift giving ideas that the Just Add Ink team have created this week.  I’m sure they will inspire you to make something beautiful.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas.

Kathy

Trim Tree

 

The challenge at JAI this week is to Just Add Sparkle.

I decided to make one last Christmas card for this challenge.

 

The card is much more sparkly in real life.  The snow was made using heat and stick powder and dazzling diamonds.  I white embossed the snow flakes onto shimmery white and then put a dab of glue and dazzling diamonds in the centre of the larger ones.  I sponged pip, pool party and marina mist over the top of the embossing for the sky.

The tree was made using the scallop from the tasteful trim die.  I layered these on top of each other and cut the tree out by hand because it ended up being too thick to cut with my paper cutter.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Four the holidays, confetti, woodgrain

Card : choc chip, pink pirouette, shimmery white, white, celery, wasabi, garden green, crumb cake

Ink : choc chip, versamark, pip, pool party, marina mist

Other : Big shot, tasteful trim, white ep, heat and stick, dazzling diamonds, rhinestone, hodgepodge hardware, clear ep

 

Please take a look at the other sparkly creations the design team have made this week and play along with our challenge.

As this will be my last Christmas card for the year, I would like to take this chance to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and I hope you get some time over the holidays to relax and create.

 

Kathy

Retiring Butterflies

At Just Add Ink this week we have a gorgeous photo to take some inspiration from.



I had been asked to make a retirement card for a teacher at the girls’ school and I decided to use this photo challenge to inspire me.




I chose similar colours to the bags in the photo for the butterflies and I really liked the way it turned out.  I would never have chosen them myself, so hurray for the challenge!  I also angled the butterflies in the same way as they have with the bags and I have used more and bigger butterflies at the bottom and got smaller and smaller and less and less butterflies as they go up into the sky. I then just used one rhinestone on the biggest butterfly of each colour, to mimic the silver beads on the bags.
I attached them with mini glue dots and lifted the tops of the wings upwards.

Ingredients :
Stamps : none!
Card : white, black, poppy parade, pool party, regal rose, limeade
Ink : none!
Other : big shot, beautiful butterflies, beautiful wings, elegant bouquet ef, rhinestones, vintage wallpaper ef

As this was a card for the whole staff to sign I made it a very big one but I’m sure it could be recreated to make a smaller card with fewer butterflies. I always feel a little stressed making cards on behalf of the school and I wasn’t sure what they had in mind exactly for a teacher’s retirement card, but I found the Irish blessing which I thought was beautiful and all those beautiful butterflies just fit with the blessing perfectly.  I think it was appreciated by everyone.
Please take a look at what the rest of the JAI team have created this week and let the photo inspire you to create something beautiful.

Kathy

Poinsettia Peace

 

At Just Add Ink this week we have a different kind of challenge.

It is to CASE a member of the JAI team.  For this month it’s Tania Gould we’re casing, but I think we’ll all get a go at being cased eventually.

I had a lot of fun looking through Tania’s blog.  I saw this pretty card and really liked the layout of it so I decided to CASE it.

I’d say you could try to copy a persons “stamping style” or perhaps their favourite colours or embellishments when casing someone.

But I decided to use the same layout as this card. I also used the pearls and ribbon in the same way and used a flower in the same way too, yet I have created something with a very different look.

I have changed Tania’s pretty pink flower card into a “vintagey” Christmas card.

 

 

I still have a lot more Christmas cards to make (even though we are into December now) and I had seen a beautiful card with a poinsettia made like this one here and so this was a great opportunity to try it out.  I have changed mine a little because I stamped it using frost white shimmer paint instead of ink. 

The flower is made by stamping and cutting a leaf from French Foliage and then using mini glue dots and dimensionals to construct it.

The embossed piece is river rock with soft suede brayered on to the folder before running it through the big shot.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : French foliage, occasional greetings

Card : suede, river rock, vanilla, cherry cobbler

Ink : suede, crumb cake, frost white shimmer paint, versamark

Other : vintage wallpaper ef, big shot, pearls, lace, vanilla taffeta, clear ep.

 

I hope you’ll give this challenge a try too.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy looking through Tania’s blog to find something you’d like to case!

 

Kathy

Christmas Violins

At JAI this week the challenge is to make a Christmas card using a non-traditional Christmas set.  The design team have come up with a lot of wonderful ideas so please take a look and why not try this challenge yourself.



I wanted to make a unique Christmas card for my daughters’ violin teacher.  Unfortunately Stampin Up don’t have a violin stamp so I went looking and found this one.  It looks a lot like both of my girls, who have long hair and freckles so I just had to use it. Unfortunately though, because I turned the small one to face her big sister it has made her left handed (which she isn’t) but the card just worked better that way.

Ingredients :
Stamps : Four the holidays, (The Greeting Farm digi) Chibi Violin
Card : real red, shimmery white, vellum cardstock
Ink : stazon
Other : blender pen, aquapainter, watercolour crayons, square punch, mini library clip, dazzling diamonds

I Googled the sheet music for ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ and printed it on to vellum card.  This is on top of a piece of shimmery white. 
The girls are on shimmery white too and I used a variety of watercolour wonder crayons and ink pads with an aquapainter and blender pen to colour them.  I dressed them in red and green to try to make the card look more “Christmassy”. They are cut out and attached with dimensionals to give the card some depth.
I love the shimmery white card stock, it is so great to colour on and looks beautiful too.
I wanted this card to be special.  It’s for an amazing lady who is a wonderful and caring teacher for my girls.
I hope she likes it :)

Kathy

Club Penguin

At my stamp club last week the hostess asked if we could make a little Christmas treat box.
And this is what we made.


I got the pattern for this box from Brenda Quintana.  It’s here if you’d like to try making one too.
You wouldn’t be able to fit a lot in it but it is a very cute little box and you can even hang it from the tree as an ornament.

Ingredients :
Stamps : confetti, tiny tags
Card : marina mist, black, white, peach parfait
Ink : black, versamark
Other : owl punch, white embossing powder, tag punch, linen thread, white taffeta ribbon, bashful blue taffeta ribbon

Everyone loved the little box and they loved making the little penguin too.
He is just so cute!

Kathy

They’re baaaack

At Just Add Ink this week we have a wonderful sketch from Bronwyn to inspire us.

 

                               

 

I decided to make another Christmas card.  I don’t enjoy making the same card over and over again so I love using these challenges as a way to build up my supply of Christmas cards. 

 

 

“They’re baaaack”!

The gorgeous ribbon flower that is.  I decided to see whether I could use a flower that wasn’t a poinsettia on a card and make it look “Christmassy” and of course I had to choose this sort of flower :)

I used a leaf from French Foliage with it and I think they worked really well together.  I used old olive ink on river rock card and clear embossed them.  They look great in real life.

I stamped and embossed clear the Merry Christmas with cherry cobbler.  The cherry background has also been embossed with the stripe embossing folder and it really added a lot to the card but unfortunately you can’t see it much in the photo.

With the addition of my favourite ribbon, cherry seam binding, I think my Christmas ribbon flower experiment was a success.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : four the holidays, french foliage

Card : vanilla, river rock, cherry, naturals ivory

Ink : versamark, cherry cobbler, old olive, crumb cake

Other : big shot, stripe ef, vanilla satin ribbon, cherry seam binding, antique brad

 

The rest of the design team have created some gorgeous cards using this weeks sketch.  Please take a look and use our sketch as inspiration too.

 

Kathy

Dashing

 

This is the last of my stamp-a-stack cards.

I kind of cased myself with this one because I made a Christmas card last year that is very similar.

 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Dasher, contempo christmas

Card : olive, cherry, white

Ink : cherry, river rock

Other : 5 petal punch, pearls, olive taffeta ribbon (ret.), big shot, petals a plenty ef.

 

Everyone enjoyed making this card.  The 5 petal punch makes a beautiful poinsettia and who doesn’t love Dasher?  He’s gorgeous!

 

Kathy

Rock and roll ornament

 

This is another card we made at the stamp-a-stack last weekend.

 

I used the rock and roll technique on the ornament from Tags til Christmas with wisteria wonder and elegant eggplant.  I also coloured rhinestones with a green permanent marker and it was a pretty good match for the wild wasabi branches the ornament hangs from.

I used the edging from the organza ribbon to hang the ornament from the tree and tie a little bow.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Tags til Christmas, tiny tags, contempo christmas, lovely as a tree

Card : wisteria, eggplant, white

Ink : wisteria, eggplant, wasabi

Other : rhinestone, organza ribbon, tag punch, ornament punch

 

Kathy

Post stack

 

I held a Christmas stamp-a-stack on Saturday and it was another successful, fun day stamping with friends  :)

This is one of the cards we made.  There was no clear favourite for “Best Card of the Day”, but this one did get lots of votes.

I wasn’t entirely sure whether a subtle, vintagey, Christmas card would be appreciated or not.  But I did have lots of other bright ones for the ladies to make so I thought I would give it a try.  Luckily they actually really liked this one a lot!

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Winter post, four the holidays, vintage vogue

Card : crumb cake, vanilla

Ink : suede, crumb cake

Other : big shot, framed tulips ef, square punch, pearls

 

I have only just bought the Four the Holidays stamp set.  It’s lovely, but funnily enough the “Season’s Greetings” sentiment was the one I wasn’t fussed about, yet it’s the one I reached for immediately for this card.  It just worked perfectly.

 

Kathy

Furry friends

 

The challenge at Just Add Ink this week is to just add a tag or a bookmark. Please take a look at all the wonderful creations the team have come up with.

I created this card for my good friend Rita.  Unfortunately she’ll see it on my blog before she gets it in person but I know that being a fellow stamper/blogger/design team member, she will understand :)

 

 

Rita and I met online when we were on the Splitcoast Creative Crew together. We started emailing each other regularly and one time I told her how disappointed my girls were that we didn’t get this set (Furry Folk) in the Australian catalogue.  They had wanted me to buy it for them for Christmas and then I had to tell them that I couldn’t.  Well she bought it for my girls and I and sent it all the way to us inside a little box filled with other goodies and lots of love. I am so very grateful to have found such a kind and caring friend. I feel truly blessed.

I know Rita likes to read, so I thought I would make a bookmark card for her with the set she bought us.  I used one of her favourite colours, not quite navy, and I know she loves the rickrack from the Tasteful Trim die so I added that too.

The photo below shows the bookmark when it’s taken out of the card.  The sentiment is from an old set called Sweet Serendipity.  I won it at the first Stampin Up Regional that I attended a few years ago.  I have kept it for sentimental reasons and I thought that it was just perfect for this card.

 

 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Furry folk, sweet serendipity (ret.), woodgrain, tiny tags

Card : NQN, shimmery white, vanilla, bashful blue, celery, pink pirouette, white, subtles dsp stack

Ink : stazon, white, suede, river rock, espresso, regal rose, mustard

Other : big shot, tasteful trim, little leaves, boho punch, tag punch, circle punches, bashful blue taffeta ribbon, cropadile, white brad. linen thread, aquapainter, corner rounder punch

 

It took me a long time to get the animals and the holes in the tree all lined up and the words in the right place so they couldn’t be seen from the front.  It shouldn’t have been that hard!  I had the idea of how I wanted it to be in my head, but I’m not very good at working out that kind of stuff.  Luckily I know that Rita will overlook mine and the cards imperfections because she’s such a nice person!

I hope you like your card Rita and thanks for being such a great friend :)

Kathy

Stockings for stack

 

I have another Christmas stamp-a-stack happening on Saturday and this is one of the cards we will be making.

I used my new Stitched Stockings set and coordinating punch to make this clean and simple Christmas card.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Stitched stockings

Card : olive, real red, white, brights dsp stack

Ink : real red, olive

Other : big shot, timeless type junior alpha, stockings punch

 

Hopefully it looks like “JOLLY” and not “JOY” with 2 stockings stuck in the middle.  I guess it works either way :)

 

Kathy

Blushing Cherry Ornament

This week at Just Add Ink we have a colour challenge for you.

I have never used this colour combo before and it is just so pretty.

I decided to make another Christmas card to add to my slowly growing collection.
You can’t see it very well in the photo but the cherry cobbler panel that the ribbon is on is embossed with the polka dot embossing folder.  It gives the card more dimension and ties in with the dots on the ornament and the pearls on the elegant bouquet embossed panel.
I used the organza ribbon in a new way on this card.  I had decided that I wanted the ribbon as a band behind the ornament but I wanted to also tie some ribbon to the ornament to kind of “hang it” to the branch.  I tried so many different ribbons, thread and cord, but nothing looked right.  Then I had the idea to cut off the edging of the organza ribbon and try that.  Well it tied beautifully and worked perfectly with the rest of the card.  So I was very pleased with that discovery and I will definitely be using organza that way again  :)

Ingredients :
Stamps : Contempo christmas
Card : white, cherry, in colour dsp hostess stack (ret.)
Ink : cherry
Other : big shot, polka dot ef, elegant bouquet ef, pearls, organza

Please take a look at what the rest of the JAI design team have come up with this week and give these colours a try yourself.

Kathy

Ornament Stack

These are some more of the cards the ladies made at my Christmas stamp-a-stack a few weeks ago.
They are basically the same except one uses the ornament from Contempo Christmas and the other ornament is from Tags til Christmas.



The outer ornaments are all stamped with pretty in pink.  The blue card uses marina mist dsp from the subtles pack and the centre ornament is stamped in this colour too.
The other card uses razzleberry dsp from the brights stack and the ornament is also stamped in that colour.




The ladies really liked these cards a lot.

Ingredients :
Stamps : Contempo Christmas, Tags til Christmas
Card : espresso, white, subtles and brights dsp stack
Ink : espresso, pip, razzleberry, marina mist
Other : ornament punch, rhinestone, organza ribbon


I am holding another Stamp-a-stack at my place on Saturday Nov. 5.
A stamp-a-stack is making a number of cards which are quick and easy, but still beautiful.
In this stamp-a-stack we will be making 8 great cards (2 of 4 designs) and they will all be Christmas cards so you will have made a start on your list :)
You will need to bring your own adhesives and scissors with you.
At the stamp-a-stack I will also have both new and used retired stamp sets for sale at great prices and any purchase of $50 or more from my stamp collection or from the Stampin up catalogue will receive one ticket into the draw to win a stamp set. Any booking for a party made on the day will also receive a ticket in the draw.
Details
Date : Saturday Nov.5  Time : 2 – 4:30
Place : My place. When you rsvp by email I will send you the address :)
Cost :$20
You MUST rsvp by Sunday Oct. 30.
Places are limited, because so is the size of my house :)
stampingstill@gmail.com
Kathy

Lovely wisteria trees

 

This is another one of the cards we made at the Christmas stamp-a-stack I held.

 

It is using my new Lovely as a Tree set again and this tree is gorgeous too.

This is not an original idea.  I always have a look at the stampin up galleries on splitcoaststampers when I buy a new set to get some inspiration and to see different ways people have used it. Well this general idea has been done by a lot of people so I’m not sure who originally thought of it to give them credit but I’m pretty sure I’m the only person to have made this card in wisteria wonder at least!

Ingredients :

Stamps : lovely as a tree, occasional greetings

Card : black, white, wisteria wonder

Ink : wisteria, stazon

Other : wisteria ribbon, wide oval punch, big shot, lots of tags

 

This card is very easy to make but still looks beautiful.  The ladies at the stamp-a-stack really liked this one and they liked the colour a lot too.

 

Kathy

Tidings of joy

At Just Add Ink this week we have a wonderful sketch challenge from Bronwyn to inspire us.




I decided to make a Christmas card using my new Tidings of Joy set.
I did change the sketch a little to make it work.




I bought this nativity set because I didn’t have anything else like it (plus it’s cute) and I thought my girls and I would find it fun to colour some Christmas cards together.
I stamped the image using stazon onto shimmery white card and used my crayons and aquapainter to colour.
It was relaxing and fun!


Ingredients:
Stamps : Tidings of Joy, woodgrain
Card : vanilla, baja, crumb cake, shimmery white, daffodil delight
Ink : stazon, suede, white
Other : baja seam binding, crayons, aquapainter, nesties

Please have a look at what the rest of the design team came up with this week and give this sketch a try yourself.

Kathy

Christmas stamp-a-stack

 

I held my first stamp-a-stack on Saturday.

8 ladies attended and it was a great afternoon.  I had christmas carols softly playing in the background (Boney M christmas cd – the best christmas cd there is in my opinion) although we didn’t actually notice the songs much over all the chatter :)

We made 8 cards (2 each of 4 designs).  I asked the ladies which card was their favourite and the answers were pretty mixed actually, so I guess that means there was something for everyone.

This was a little gift card holder that we made.

 

 

I was inspired by one I saw on splitcoaststampers by Kelly Acheson.  I just altered it a little.

The ladies loved it!  I did have a few other sentiments for them to use too, just in case they didn’t like this one, but most of them used it, it’s so cute!

Ingredients :

Stamps : Tags til christmas

Card : white, olive, espresso, crumb cake, in colour dsp (ret)

Ink : real red

Other : big shot, two tags die, polka dot ef., tasteful trim, square punch, square scallop punch, owl punch, pearls, celery ribbon (ret.)

 

For the owl eyes I coloured pearls with a black permanent marker.  They look really great on the owl and are easier to stick on than a tiny black circle of card is.

I will show you the other cards we made over the next week.

After making all the cards we had a few Christmas treats for afternoon tea and chatted some more.  I also had a little Christmas raffle and Chantel was the winner. 

It was a really great day!  Thanks ladies :)

 

Kathy 

Reindeer Tag

This week at Just Add Ink we have a wonderful photo to inspire us.


I took inspiration from the gorgeous colours and the trees to create this Christmas card.



For the tag, I brayered on more mustard and then cherry cobbler at the top and baja at the bottom. 
I then used Not Quite Navy to sponge around the edges.
The deer is stamped in stazon and I white embossed the snowflakes from the Confetti set.
The ribbon for the tag is Cherry cobbler seam binding which has been frayed a bit at the top.  It looks gorgeous, I think that is my favourite of all my ribbons at the moment (Oh and I have a lot to choose from! :)  The bow for the button is linen thread which I have coloured with NQN ink.
Can you believe this is my first card using Lovely as a Tree?  I got it for my birthday and now that I’ve used it I don’t know why I didn’t buy it years ago. It is a really beautiful set!

Ingredients :
Stamps : Lovely as a Tree, Winter Post, Occasional Greetings, Confetti
Card : white, NQN, black
Ink : stazon, versamark, baja, NQN, mustard, cherry
Other : big shot, wallpaper ef, subtles button, linen thread, white embossing powder, cherry seam binding

The design team have created some really gorgeous cards this week.  Please take a look and let this photo inspire you to make a beautiful card too.

Kathy

Merry Pine

 

I wanted to work on making some more Christmas cards today and I found a great sketch to inspire me at Inkspirations.

I wanted to make a clean and simple Christmas card that could be easily mass produced and this is what I came up with.

I used choc chip and artichoke markers on a stamp from Tags til Christmas and placed artichoke dsp on the bottom half of it and punched it out.  Then I used  Teeny tiny sentiments and punched it out using the window punch.

Ingredients :

Stamps : tags til christmas, teeny tiny sentiments

Card : artichoke, white, regal dsp stack

Ink : choc chip, choc chip and artichoke markers

Other : big shot, petals a plenty, word window punch, decorative label punch

 

And so I now have another Christmas card to add to my stash :)

 

Kathy

Joyful lights

 

The challenge at Just Add Ink this week is to Just Add a Die Cut.

I have taken this challenge seriously and have used nothing BUT the Big Shot on this card.

 

I thought I would make another Christmas card for my stash (actually it’s a very small stash at the moment but you’ve got to start somewhere!) :)

I decided to use the Island Floral die to make some Christmas tree lights.  After cutting them out of real red card, I used crystal effects on them to make them “glass-like”.  They are very shiny and a bit hard to photograph well. I then cut 3 more using glossy white and cut them just for the top bit of the light. I also used some black wire (that I had bought for some crafty something years ago and had never used) to string the lights together.

Then I used my new Tasteful Trim die (you guessed it another birthday present :) I cut 2 scalloped pieces from the subtles dsp stack to represent the Christmas tree the lights are hanging from.

Then I used my Timeless type junior alphabet and cut the word “Joy” from glossy white card. 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : none

Card : olive, white, red, glossy white, subtles dsp stack

Ink : real red (sponged on edge of lights)

Other : big shot, polka dot ef, island floral, tasteful trim, timeless type alpha, crystal effects, black wire

 

Please take a look at what the rest of the JAI team have created this week and take up the challenge to use a die cut on a card yourself. 

 

Kathy

Christmas Stamp-a-stack

I am holding a Stamp-a-stack at my place on Saturday Oct. 15.
A stamp-a-stack is making a number of cards which are quick and easy, but still beautiful.
In this stamp-a-stack we will be making 8 great cards (2 of 4 designs) and they will all be Christmas cards so you will have made a start on your list :)
You will need to bring your own adhesives and scissors with you.
At the stamp-a-stack I will also have both new and used retired stamp sets for sale at great prices and any purchase of $50 or more from my stamp collection or from the Stampin up catalogue will receive one ticket into the draw to win a stamp set. Any booking for a party made on the day will also receive a ticket in the draw.
Details
Date : Saturday Oct 15
Time : 2 – 4:30
Place : My place. When you rsvp by email I will send you the address :)
Cost :$20
You MUST rsvp by Sunday Oct. 9.
Places are limited, because so is the size of my house :)
 stampingstill@gmail.com

Kathy

Simply stockings

Stampin Up are having a wonderful promotion this month.

During October, purchase this pair of coordinating Christmas products early--before the debut of the 2011 Summer Mini Catalogue:

• Stitched Stocking Set
• Stocking Tag Punch

* It gets even better. Get them both for FREE when you host a $450 workshop!
There is a link in my sidebar for more information.

Why not get some friends together and hold a workshop.  With a $450 party you would receive $60 to spend on anything you like out of the catalogue plus during October you also get the stitched stocking set and punch valued at over $80.
Please email me if you’d like to hold a workshop or place an order.
Kathy

Butterfly friends

 

This week at Just Add Ink we have a fantastic colour challenge.

I was excited to give this colour combo a try because Pool Party is one of my new favourite colours.

Even though these colours are really quite bright, I decided to try making a “subtle” card with them.

 

The background piece is the elements of style flower embossed in white and I used the emboss resist technique again and sponged pool party and crumb cake over the top of it.  Then I sprayed it with vanilla shimmer smooch spritz, although you can’t really see the effect of that much in the photo.

I used crumb cake on the Friendly words wheel and then stamped the kindness matters over the top with stazon.  I also stamped the middle butterfly onto calypso coral and cut it out and popped it on top.

I attached the friends tiny tag with a pin from vintage trinkets and added one of the little buttons to the card too. They were another birthday present (Yes, more … I am lucky aren’t I!)

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : kindness matters, friendly words, elements of style, tiny tags

Card : crumb cake, white, calypso coral, pool party

Ink :  crumb cake, stazon, versamark, pool party

Other : white ep, crumb cake taffeta, vanilla shimmer smooch spritz, vintage trinkets, scallop trim border punch

 

Please check out JAI to see what the rest of the design team have come up with this week and give these colours a try yourself.

 

Kathy

Resist Leaves

On Saturday we had our first new club meeting.
The hostess wanted me to teach them the emboss resist technique and asked if I could use razzleberry on the card too.

This is the card I came up with a few weeks ago.
This one used razzleberry, olive, basic grey and white.



Then for club I decided to do it in 2 other colour ways so that the ladies could choose which one they liked best.

This one used pip, wisteria, celery, basic grey and white.
I think it was the favourite on the day.



And this one used NQN, basic grey and white.
I left the ribbon off this one entirely as I thought it would make a good “man’s” card.




Ingredients :
Stamps : french foliage, en francais, tiny tags
Card : white, basic grey, celery, razzleberry, nqn, wisteria, olive
Ink : versamark, basic grey, nqn, razzleberry, pip, wisteria
Other : white embossing powder, jewellery tag punch, linen thread, celery ribbon (ret.), olive ribbon (ret.)

Everyone loved the cards they made AND we all had a great time learning, creating and chatting!
I can’t wait for our next club meeting!
Kathy

Celebrating Elephants

 

We have a great sketch challenge by Bronwyn at Just Add Ink this week.

I was given the Under the Big Top set at Tasmanian Regionals a few weeks ago and I wanted to try it out.  I did change the sketch a little but it definitely inspired me to come up with this card. 

The elephants are standing on a ball on the stamp too but I decided to punch out 3 different sized circles of dsp from the brights stack for their circus balls instead. I thought it would look good in the dsp and I wanted the balls to vary in size.

I used Perfectly Penned for the sentiment and the celebrate today is perfect for a fun circus card I think. You can’t see it real well in the photo, but I used dazzling diamonds on the stars the elephants are holding and on the ends of the flourishes on the sentiment.  The elephants are on shimmery white and there is a rhinestone brad at the top, so it is more sparkly than it looks in the photo.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : under the big top, perfectly penned

Card : black. shimmery white, pacific point, brights dsp stack, neutrals dsp stack

Ink : stazon, crumb cake

Other : crayons, aquapainter, white pen, paper piercer, glue dots, 2 way glue, dazzling diamonds, rhinestone brad, pumpkin ribbon, circle punches, scallop border punch

 

I think I may have made a gender and age neutral card with this one, what do you think?

Please take a look at what the rest of the design team came up with for this sketch and give it a try yourself.

Kathy

Queen of Clean

 

I was named the Queen of Clean at Freshly Made Sketches this week.

I was so excited!

What an honour for one of my cards to be chosen.  Thanks Linda.

 

You should have heard my family laughing when I told them I was the “Queen of Clean”! 

That title definitely only applies to cardmaking, I wouldn’t win any awards for my housework!  (I’m far too busy stamping!)

Thanks so much ladies :)

 

 

Kathy

Birthday Butterflies

 

Today was my last day of holidays and I was determined to make another card with some more of my new toys.

I used the brilliant sketch at Freshly Made Sketches again. I have only just made their deadline, but I loved it so much I wanted to try it again.  Thanks for a great sketch Lesley, I’m sure it is one I will use often.

I am also entering this card into the challenge at The Paper Players this week.  It is a Clean and Simple challenge to use animals or plants and I’ve used both!

My Razzleberry Foliage card got a “Cut Above Award” from The Paper Players last week.  It was a real honour to have been chosen. Thanks so much for all your kind comments :)

 

 

I used the emboss resist technique again on this card with Pool Party ink and I white embossed the flower from Just Believe.  The butterflies were stamped onto pool party and so saffron card using stazon and then cut out.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : perfectly penned, kindness matters, just believe

Card : pool party, white, crumb cake, so saffron

Ink : stazon, versamark, pool party, crumb cake

Other : square punch, glue dots, white embossing powder

 

This card is using more of my new birthday goodies.  Didn’t I do well this year!  My daughter bought me the butterfly which is from a set called Kindness Matters.  I already own a lot of butterflies, because I love them, but this one is my new favourite :)

The Perfectly Penned was actually a present I bought for myself, because, well, I just had to have it :)

Kathy

Razzleberry Foliage

Wow! Two posts in one day, I must be on holidays and have new stamps to play with :)

There is a great colour challenge at The Paper Players this week.  The colours were perfect because the hostess for my next club asked me if we could do something with Razzleberry.


I decided to combine it with the wonderful new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.


My hostess had also asked if I could show everyone the emboss resist technique and so this card was born.



Ingredients :
Stamps : en francais, french foliage, tiny tags
Card : white, olive, razzleberry
Ink : basic grey, versamark, razzleberry
Other : linen thread, jewellery tag punch, white embossing powder, olive ribbon (ret.)

None of these stamps are actually new in the catalogue but they’re all new to me.  They’re all birthday presents I received yesterday from my family and I’ve had so much fun playing with my new toys today :)
I think my club are really going to enjoy making this card.

Baby Bunny

 

This week at Just Add Ink our challenge is to Just Add Baby.

 

 

I had seen one of these “onesie” cards over on my friend Rita's blog a while ago and it was just so cute I had been waiting for an opportunity to try one.

She has a link to a tutorial by Becky Jensen here if you’d like to make one too.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : confetti, the nicest things, teeny tiny sentiments

Card : white, shimmery white, pink pirouette

Ink : pip, stazon

Other : circle punch, scallop circle punch, button, aquapainter, crayons, rhinestones, scallop trim border punch

 

Why not enter our challenge? It will give you a great excuse to make something cute and you will have a baby card all ready for when you need one.  Please check out the sweet cards the rest of the JAI design team have created this week too.

 

Kathy

Merry penguin

 

There is a new sketch challenge site in the blogosphere called Freshly Made Sketches.  Their first sketch is a great one and I just had to play along.

 

I had seen some examples of the cute little penguin you can make from the owl punch and I had wanted to give it a try.  I thought he would be perfect on a Christmas card. 

 

 

 

I  used some things I wasn’t meant to on this card.  My sister bought me Tiny Tags for my birthday (which is not for a few days) but I knew it would work so perfectly on the penguin’s present that I just had to use it.  Hopefully she won’t mind :)  The designer printed brads are from my eldest daughter and she said I was very naughty to have used them early. But when I showed her the card she totally understood why and was happy that I did because she thought it was so cute :)

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : confetti, tiny tags

Card : pool party, island indigo, crumb cake, white, black, peach parfait, brights dsp stack

Ink : white, stazon

Other : designer printed brad, ribbon (ret.), tag punch, owl punch, white brads, big shot, polka dot ef.

 

I stamped the confetti snowflakes in white and also rubbed the white pad over the top of the polka dot embossed piece.

I cut the fish shape free-hand, everyone was amazed that it wasn’t a punch or a die. ha ha :)  There was some debate about the fish in my house though!  My idea was that the penguin got a present from Santa and it was a fish wrapped up in xmas paper and you could tell what it was because obviously a fish would be hard to wrap!!!!!  But some in my family just saw it as a cute red striped fish! Oh well!

I printed up a little letter to Santa on whisper white using the chiller font in Word. 

You might be surprised to know that owls and penguins have the same handwriting! :)

 

Kathy

Very Merry

This week at Just Add Ink we have a colour challenge for you.
The challenge is to use white plus one other colour.
I decided to use white and my favourite stampin up colour Baja Breeze.

I thought I would get Dasher out and make my first Christmas card for the year.  I had seen a great sketch challenge at Paper Players last week that I thought would be perfect for him.
My friend Rita had very kindly sent me a little care package with some samples of ribbon and other bits and pieces and this gorgeous baja seam binding was one of the goodies she sent.  Thanks so much Rita, what a lovely, thoughtful gift.
I actually used baja ink refill mixed with some frost white shimmer paint to stamp Dasher and I stamped the snowflake from winter post on the baja with it too. I also daubered some onto the embossed piece of shimmery white card.   It is very sparkly and pretty in real life.

Ingredients :
Stamps : Dasher, winter post, short and sweet
Card : baja, shimmery white
Ink : baja, versamark
Other : baja seam binding, baja ribbon (ret.), rhinestones, white embossing powder, big shot, wallpaper ef, rhinestone brad, frost white shimmer paint

I also made the same card in chocolate and white.


It’s very pretty too, I think it just needed white seam binding instead of taffeta to make it look that bit more “special”.
I have a huge Stampin Up order coming this week with more seam binding in it. Can’t wait!
I could (and probably should) make a whole collection of these cards in different colours, but I don’t like stamping that way.  I like to create different designs and challenge myself to come up with something new.  It might depend on how many cards I have ready by December though :)
Please have a look at what the rest of the JAI team came up with for the white with one challenge and give it a try yourself.

Kathy

Glad we’re friends

This week at Just Add Ink we have a lovely sketch challenge from Bronwyn.



I needed to make a card for one of my daughter’s friends who was turning 10, so I used the sketch and this is what I came up with.



My daughter wanted the card to be a little more grown-up and not so “kiddish”, now that they’re into double digits :)  She thought this card was perfect for her friend who loves black, bling and pink.
The flower is actually melon mambo, but in the photo it looks more red than pink unfortunately.  I used a black permanent marker to colour the rhinestones and the clear rhinestone brad.

 I also used 2 new in colours, pool party and island indigo.  I used white craft ink on my finial press embossing folder with pool party and it looked gorgeous.

Ingredients :
Stamps : best yet (ret.)
Card : black, white, island indigo, pool party, melon mambo
Ink : stazon, white, melon mambo
Other : big shot, polka dot ef, finial press ef, rhinestones, rhinestone brad, filigree brad, circle punch, island floral die, scallop trim border

Please take a look at what the rest of the design team have come up with this week and give this sketch a try yourself.

Kathy