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