Satin Elements

 

Exciting news!!!  I’ve been asked to be on the design team at Just Add Ink PERMANENTLY! WOOOHOOO!  It has been so much fun playing along with them this month, I am so excited and very honoured to be asked. They are such a wonderfully talented group of ladies (and they’re all lovely too!)

There was only 1 drawback to being on their team and that was that I had to provide a photo of myself!  I hate having my photo taken, (and to have one on the internet for all to see – even worse!) which is why I have never had one on my blog.  I look so much cuter as a cartoon character!  If you’ve ever wondered, it is me as I would be if I was a character from Pokoyo. (I love that show –very cute!)  Anyway my family and close friends realise how much I must REALLY want to be on this design team to make this sacrifice!  Ha Ha!

Well I’d better get on with some stamping stuff………..

The challenge at Just Add Ink this week is to just add a flower.

So I just had to make another one of those gorgeous satin ribbon flowers.

 

I guess I just had to use the Elements of Style stamp set again too.  It’s one of my favourites.

I have made a few cards with this type of flower now you can see them all here. 

I originally found a tutorial for them on Kelly Acheson’s blog. Click here if you’d like to see it.

 

Ingredients:

Stamps : Elements of style, teeny tiny sentiments

Card : very vanilla, espresso, cherry cobbler

Ink :  espresso, cherry cobbler, crumb cake

Other :  big shot, beautiful wings, vanilla satin ribbon, espresso thin taffeta, antique brad, pearls, word window punch, modern label punch, square scallop die, sticky strip, circle punch

 

Head over to Just Add Ink for some wonderful inspiration for Mother’s Day cards (or just for anyone who loves flowers) and join in the fun and make your own flower card this week.

Kathy

News

 

A little while ago I got a blog award from Rita Wright.

She left me a lovely comment about my 50th birthday card plus this award.

Thanks so much Rita!  You should definitely check out Rita’s blog here.  She makes so many wonderful cards. She is very talented and is a very lovely person too!

With this award I have to tell you 7 things about myself you might not know.

* This first one is exciting for me and it’s how I met Rita.  I’ve been chosen to be on Splitcoast Stampers Creative Crew! (Rita was chosen to be in the Crew too.)  I will tell you more about the Creative Crew at the end of this post.

* I have lived in 3 different states (or territories) in Australia so far. No plan to leave lovely Tassie though!

* I love most kinds of music. Especially rock, metal, punk, grunge.  Most people would be surprised by this.

* I usually play the same cd over and over again for weeks until I get so sick of it I HAVE to take it out.  A cd in the car can stay in there for months and we never listen to the radio. Right now it’s Offspring we’re listening to.

* I have tried lots of crafts : knitting, cross-stitch, paper tole, scrapbooking and many more, but stamping is my favourite and my best! (Charlie and Lola quote there, I love them too!)

*  I don’t watch movies very often.  If I had to choose a favourite, I think it would be Edward Scissorhands.

*  It’s hard for me to think of things to say about myself!

 

Okay done!

Now I have to pass this award on to other bloggers.  I’d love to pass it back to Rita but I guess that’s not allowed.

Kirsty girl  this is my daughter’s blog.  She makes the occasional card but that’s not what her blog is about.  It’s all about her photography and paintings. Great blog and she’s taught me everything I know about blogging and using a computer.  (Which still isn’t much.  She’s very patient though!)  Thanks Kirsten.

stampinonthefly is Jen Timko’s blog.  I have only recently found it. She makes wonderful cards. Check it out.

Jackie Topa is on the Creative Crew too.  She is very clever and talented.  You should check hers out as well.

Well I’ve probably rambled on enough today so I will just briefly explain about the Creative Crew.  The Splitcoast Stampers site is the number 1 stamping site and a Stampin’ Up challenge group was started on there at the end of last year called the Creative Crew.  It is a group of demonstrators chosen to enter challenges each month to showcase Stampin’ Up! products.  The crew goes for 3 months.  So I am doing May, June and July.  I have been a bit quiet posting on my blog this month because I have been making my challenges for the crew and can’t show them till May.  So I have been busy, just not posting.  I will post 1 of my challenges here each week during my term.  I will let you know what the challenges are and how to post your own entries to SCS later.  Anyway it was a real honour to be chosen for the Crew, there are so many talented stampers in the group.

Kathy

Nicest Friend

 

With Anzac Day being this week, Just Add Ink has decided to focus on Mateship or Friendship.

I decided to use the Nicest Things stamp set to create this card for a friend.

 

My idea was to make the card look like an old-time scrapbook page or perhaps a bulletin board.  I watercoloured the girls, trying to make it look like a photo and left the bunny as a sketch would be.  I used dsp from the hostess paper pack, it is blushing bride.  I sponged crumb cake ink on it to age it a little though because it was too white.

I sponged the clouds using baja and a mask made with a scallop circle and scallop oval punch.  It was the first time I’ve tried this technique and I was really happy with how it turned out.  I think my watercolouring may be full of cloudy skies in the future!

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : The nicest things

Card : espresso, watercolour paper, confetti white, hostess paper pack

Ink  :  baja, espresso, stazon, crumb cake

Other :  crayons, aquapainter, sponge, scallop circle punch, scallop oval punch, linen thread, pip button, photo corner punch, library clip, spiral border punch

 

Why not send a card to a friend  this week “just because”.  Not for any   special occasion, but just to say Hi. 

Kathy

 

April 25th – Anzac Day

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. In 1917, the word ANZAC meant someone who fought at Gallipoli and later it came to mean any Australian or New Zealander who fought or served in the First World War. During the Second World War, ANZAC Day became a day on which the lives of all Australians lost in war time were remembered. The spirit of ANZAC recognises the qualities of courage, mateship and sacrifice which were demonstrated at the Gallipoli landing.                                    

50th Chocolate

 

The challenge this week at Just Add Ink is to create a card using the colours from your favourite chocolate wrapper.  It was very hard to come up with a favourite chocolate because I pretty much love them all.  I am addicted to chocolate! (Just not the white stuff – I’d have to be really desperate to eat that.)

I decided to go with my favourite “everyday chocolate” the kind I see at the check out and can’t resist buying.  Not the “really special” kind.

Can you tell what it is from the colours?

 

 

I was asked to make a card for the Principal at the school where I work (and my girls go there too).  It was a big birthday occasion as you can see and I was told that they didn’t think she’d like a “flowery” card!  Well that made it kind of hard because I would have done flowers plus it needed to be very special.

So I decided to use the Birthday Bakery set, I thought the saying might be just right for this occasion.  I thought it should fit well with this colour challenge too, because I had to use red and chocolate.  Have you worked out my favourite chocolate yet?  It’s Cherry Ripe.

I had pretty much designed and made most of the card using real red card and dsp, choc chip card for the border and coloured in the cakes using choc, real red, pip and regal rose.  I used choc chip ink to stamp the 50 and the saying and then thought “maybe I should find a photo of a cherry ripe on the internet just to be sure”.

Well do you realise there is yellow on the pack and no brown!  I couldn’t believe it!  I obviously associate the chocolate colour with the pack but you don’t actually see chocolate until you open the wrapper.  Yellow!….. Well I tried putting some yellow card on it and “YUK” is what I thought.  So I decided to colour the cake stands daffodil delight and the string from the tag is yellow embroidery cotton.  You can’t see the yellow much in the photo, but it was just enough to look nice without clashing with the red.  I had to leave the choc chip colour on there though because to me that really is the colour of cherry ripe.

Ingredients :

Stamps : Birthday bakery, Calendar alpha and numbers

Card  :  Real red, choc chip, shimmery white, brights dsp stack

Ink  :  Choc chip, markers, red, choc, crumb cake, pip, regal rose, daffodil, celery

Other  :  red satin ribbon, build a brad, circle punch, big shot, lots of tags

 

The red satin bow made this card and really looked like the wrapper – so gorgeous and shiny.

Why not make a card using your favourite chocolate wrapper colours and enter the challenge at Just Add Ink? Or at least visit there and drool over the design team’s very yummy creations.

Kathy

Tulip field

 

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

 

I’ll admit I did find this challenge very challenging!

But the girls’ reminded me of a field of bright red flowers and this is the card I came up with.

 

 

I used the Awash with Flowers set with Inspired by Nature to create a woodland field of spring bulbs. ( Perhaps tulips and bluebells?  Okay, you might need to use your imaginations a little!)

I paper-pieced the flowers with real red card and daffodil delight dsp from the brights stack. Then I used embroidery thread to make french knots for the flower centres and blue wildflowers. The flowers are popped up on dimensionals.

Here is a closer look: 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps :  Inspired by nature, awash with flowers, teeny tiny sentiments

Card :  bashful blue, marina mist, real red, whisper white

Ink : old olive, daffodil delight, stazon

Other :  brights dsp stack, embroidery cotton, oval punch, linen thread, dimensionals, big shot, polka dot folder, square scallop die

 

It was a challenge but I’m glad I was brave enough to take it because I really like how this card turned out :)

 

Kathy

Party invitations

 

There’s no stamping involved in this project, but it’s a quick and easy party idea that I thought you might like to see. 

I always try to make party invitations that are a bit different.  Not just those pads of invitation sheets that you fill in or computer generated ones.  But I also wanted this one to be quick and easy.

This is what I came up with for my soon-to-be 6 year olds party this year.

I used some retired stampin up cardstock to make pillow boxes.  There were actually lots of different colours used.  This one is apricot appeal, not a colour I miss, I must admit, but it did look nice  (there was even a balloon in the pack which coordinated beautifully with it.) Instead of stamping their names (which would have taken much longer) I chose a nice font from the computer and printed it onto whisper white.  I punched this out with the word window punch and then backed it with the modern label punch.

I also printed out the party info from the computer onto printer paper.  I cut this out and wrapped it around a Candy Roll with a balloon and tied it together with curling ribbon.  This fit neatly, all wrapped up into the pillow box.

They looked very sweet and I’m sure the kids will love getting a balloon and lollies with the invite.

Kathy

Explosion Purse

 

I was asked to be a Guest Design Team member for April at Just Add Ink. 

What an amazing honour!  The Design Team are all so talented and they have great challenges each and every week.  I am very excited to be a part of the team (for a month anyway)!

This weeks challenge is Just Add a Box or a Bag.

I found this little bag over on Brenda Quintana’s blog.  It’s called an Explosion Purse.  It’s a wonderful design and it’s easy to make too! Bonus!

 

This is my cute and simple version.

Ingredients :

Stamps : Punch Bunch

Card : Perfect plum 12”, regal rose, white, brights dsp stack

Ink : Melon mambo

Other : big shot, top note, scallop square punch, cropadile, turquoise ribbon (ret.), sticky strip, velcro dot.

 

And this is my Classy “stepped-up” version.

 

I like the other one, it’s cute. But I love how this one turned out!  I embossed a stamp from Elements of Style with silver embossing powder on black card.  It did take quite a while to emboss the whole sheet, but it was worth it, (it looks so luxurious!)  I also used shimmery white card and embossed it in the big shot using the Square Lattice folder and cut it using the top note die.  I trimmed this down so that it would have an edging of Rich Razzleberry and I used some Razzleberry satin ribbon for the handle and an Antique brad added that extra special touch.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps :  Elements of style

Card : black 12”, shimmery white, razzleberry

Ink  : versamark

Other : silver embossing powder, razzleberry satin ribbon, antique brad, big shot, top note, square lattice folder, cropadile, sticky strip, velcro dot

 

Brenda has instructions for the purse on her blog Qbees quest if you’d like to give it a try.  She is so clever! 

And make sure to head over to Just Add Ink and check out all the wonderful bags and boxes the rest of the design team have to show you too.

 

Kathy