Reminiscing

 

It’s New Year’s Eve and I’m looking back at the last 6 months on my blog and reminiscing.

July

It was so much fun colouring this cute girl with my copics.

 

 

August

A new way of colouring with SU markers in pretty blues for JAI.

 

September

The same set in purples this time.

 

October

I LOVE this adorable stamp! It is just perfect for baby cards.

 

November

Creating this wintery Christmas scene with different SU sets was so much fun!

 

December

A different way to use SU wheels on a card.

 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year !

 

Kathy

Looking Back

 

I thought I’d take a look back at what I’ve created this year and choose a few favourites.

January 

I loved so many of the cards I made last January.  I hope that happens again next year because I have no mojo at all at the moment :(

  

 

February 

Wedding cards and a collage with flower.                                                  

March

Easter theme fun with copics and a gorgeous colour challenge at ColourQ.

    

 

April

I made these 2 when I was a Guest Designer for Freshly Made Sketches.

      

 

May

Having lots of fun colouring with my grey copics :)

      

 

June      

A baby card for my friend Rita and a photo challenge at Just Add Ink. 

 

Tomorrow I will look back at my favourites from the second half of this year.

And don’t forget to check out our new blog still addinktive.  The first challenge starts Wednesday the 2nd of January and we have a very talented group of ladies joining us.

 

Kathy

Season’s Greetings

 

I wanted to wish you all a very happy Christmas with one last card for the year.

Ingredients :

Stamps: Watercolour winter, curly cute

Card : sahara sand, white, cherry, cherry coredinations, regal dsp stack

Ink : stazon, sahara

Other : pearls, gel pen

 

I also have some exciting news!

Bronwyn Eastley asked me if I would like to co-manage a new challenge blog with her and I jumped at the chance.  It will be such fun!

It is called still addINKtive challenges and it is a challenge site with a difference. There will be a sketch and colour challenge combined, as well as one that features Stampin' Up! ® stamp sets.

Please take a look at our new site here:

Our first challenge will be launched on

Wednesday 2nd January

at 6am (AEST)  

and it would be great if you could join us!

 

We already have a very talented group of ladies for our first guest design team but we are looking for 1 more.

We understand that it is a busy time of the year so the only requirement is to send us an email with a little blurb about yourself and a link to your blog by this WEDNESDAY, 26th December.  You can send it to -

stilladdinktive@gmail.com

 

Thanks for all your support this year and I hope your Christmas is everything you wished for.

 

Kathy

In Baubles

 

At Addicted To CAS  the challenge is to use Baubles on a card.

I came up with this idea and used it as one of the cards at my friend’s stamp a stack last week.

Everyone liked this one :)

 

We simply used espresso ink and wheeled over each piece of coloured card and cut out with the holiday ornaments framelits. Then we cut the top part of the ornaments again using striped paper and sponged crumb cake around the edges to give the baubles some dimension.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Jolly Jingles Wheel

Card : vanilla, crumb cake, pool party, wisteria, island indigo, calypso coral, neutrals dsp stack

Ink : crumb cake, espresso

Other : big shot, crumb cake taffeta ribbon, delicate designs folders, linen thread, holiday ornaments framelits, large scallop edgelit

 

Kathy

Blue Sparkle

 

I decided to try using the gorgeous ColourQ combo this week to make another Christmas card.

I combined it with a Merry Monday sketch.  They are having a Year in Review where you can use any past sketch. 

I was going to be so good this year and planned to play along at Merry Monday each week so that all my Christmas cards would be done.

Mmmm ….. I really wish I’d stuck to that plan!!!

Anyway here’s the card :)

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Ornament Keepsakes, Flowering Flourishes, Sweet serendipity

Card : white, pool party, midnight muse, crumb cake

Ink :  pacific point, pool party, midnight muse, crumb cake and turquoise markers

Other : Holiday ornaments framelits, dazzling diamonds, rhinestone, square punch, bakers twine, big shot, fancy fan ef

 

I should have sent all my Christmas cards out by now, but no, I’m still making them!

 

Kathy

Peaceful Pine

A friend asked me if I would do a Christmas stamp a stack for her and we had a great time yesterday creating together!

One of the cards we made was this one which I based on this week’s wonderful sketch challenge at Mojo Monday. 









Ingredients :
Stamps : Watercolour Winter, Four the Holidays
Card : river rock, vanilla, espresso, dsp stack neutral
Ink : espresso, suede, olive and crumb cake markers
Other : tasteful trim die, big shot, lacy brocade ef, river rock ribbon (ret.)


Not long till Christmas now and still so many cards to be made!


Kathy

Storybook Christmas

I had an idea to use my Storybook Friends set to make a cute Christmas card.  So when I saw Jen’s wonderful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches  I thought I would give it a try.




I am also entering my card into the challenge at Addicted to CAS.  It is their first ever challenge and the challenge word is SNOW.





It does look a bit cuter in real life because I have put dazzling details silver on the ground and through the tree branches for some sparkly snow, but you can’t see it sparkling much in the photo :(
I used pool party to make a cloudy sky background (I’m thinking I might write to SU everyday til the new catty begging them not to retire this colour!) And used copics to colour the cute animals.

This would actually be a very funny card to send to the Tasmanian Fox Task Force!  Only Tasmanian’s are going to appreciate that though :)

(For anyone interested, we don’t have foxes in Tasmania.  But after apparent sightings, a Taskforce was set up to find and eradicate them.  (Which is a good thing because they would kill all our native marsupial animals). But it was started in 2002, costs millions of dollars a year and they have not captured even one fox in all that time!) Maybe they’re just too clever :)


Ingredients :
Stamps : Storybook friends, lovely as a tree, teeny tiny sentiments
Card : pool party, white, dsp (ret.)
Ink : memento black, stazon, crumb cake, pool party
Other : copics, big shot, polka dot ef, ribbon (ret.), dazzling details


Kathy

Thanks to Music

This week at Just Add Ink we have a challenge to Just Add Music.

I decided to make a Thank You card for my daughter’s violin teacher.
She had music examinations last week and her teacher always puts in a lot of extra time to help her prepare for them.  So we gave her this card and some lovely flowers and chocolates to thank her for everything she does. 
She loved the card :)





Ingredients :
Stamps : Perfectly Penned, music notes wheel, serene silhouettes
Card : crumb cake, espresso, espresso core-dinations, vanilla, pool party
Ink : espresso, pool party, crumb cake
Other : big shot, lacy brocade ef, cotton ribbon, labels framelits, festive paper piercing pack, vintage faceted button, linen thread, boho blossoms punch, 5 petal punch, white shimmer mist


Please take a look at what musical cards the rest of the JAI design team have created, and please join our challenge.

Kathy

Violin Mojo

 

There is a wonderful sketch at Mojo Monday this week, which is great for me because I needed to get cracking on my Christmas card making.

My daughter has been in the Hobart Youth Orchestra this year.  She has had some wonderful teachers and made some great friends too.  She is even in a string quartet now!  They range from 8 to 11 yrs old and have just starting practicing Christmas Carols and are going to give busking a try.

So I thought it would be great to make some violin Christmas cards to give to all the musical people in her life.

 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Violin Girl (MFT), Four the Holidays

Card : Cherry, vanilla, lucky limeade, festival of prints dsp, be of good cheer dsp

Ink : memento black, stazon, crumb cake

Other : copics, square punch, vintage faceted button, retired ribbon, big shot, polka dot ef

 

Kathy

Christmas Stash

 

This week at Just Add Ink we have a sketch from Mae to inspire us.

My sister sent me an email last week and she asked whether maybe I had a secret stash of Christmas cards ready to put up on my blog because I haven’t posted many!  NO!  THERE IS DEFINITELY NO STASH!

She shocked me into realising that I’d better get started making some!

So I thought I’d use this sketch challenge to make a Christmas card to add to my very small collection.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Greeting card kids, Teeny tiny sentiments

Card : crumb cake, x-press it, marina mist, cherry cobbler, Be of good cheer dsp

Ink : crumb cake, memento black

Other : copics, rhinestones, cherry seam binding, square punch

 

Please check out what the rest of the design team have come up with this week.  There are so many gorgeous cards!  I don’t think anyone else has made a Christmas card, perhaps they already have a large Christmas Card Stash?

Kathy

Two by Two Chevrons

 

This week at Just Add Ink we have a challenge to Just Add Chevrons.

I decided to try them on a baby card. 

 

 

I used the new chevron embossing folder on pink pirouette card and used white craft ink on top of the embossing to highlight it a little more.  I originally thought to use it because of its wave-like pattern but it also has a baby blanket look to it too I think.

I used my copics on the image and it was lots of fun to colour.  This is such a fantastic stamp. I love it!  I can see every baby card in the future being made with Two By Two.  It is perfect and so cute!

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Two by two

Card : grey, pink pirouette, pip, white, saffron, x-press it

Ink : memento black, white

Other : copics, big shot, square scallop, chevron ef, square punch, buttons, bakers twine

 

The design team have come up with lots of great ways to use chevrons on their cards this week.  Please take a look and join in with our challenge.

 

Kathy

Pop-up Greetings

Well amazingly I am entering a challenge this week!  I just haven’t had time for any extra lately, with my design team work for Just Add Ink and the Dirty Dozen.  But I have missed them.

My club hostess this month asked if we could do a Christmas Card and so I went searching for a good sketch and found this great one at one of my favourite sites Freshly Made Sketches.





 


I coloured the girl with watercolour crayons and sponged the card a fair bit for an “antique” look.  I used the core’dinations card stock for the first time too and I was happy with how it turned out.

I always like to teach my club something new and so I made it a Pop-up Gift Card Holder.  This is how the card looks on the inside.
There is a great tutorial for this on Splitcoast here if you’d like to give it a try.  I did change mine slightly though.





Ingredients :
Stamps : Greeting card kids, Curly cute
Card : watercolour paper, vanilla, crumb cake, cherry core’dinations, festival of prints dsp stack
Ink : stazon, crumb cake
Other : sticky strip, aqua painter, watercolour crayons, linen thread, big shot, petals a plenty ef, square punch


This card was lots of fun to make and nowhere near as hard as I thought it was going to be :)

Kathy

Blissful Starfruit

 

 

At Just Add Ink this week we have a colour challenge.

 

I must say I did find it challenging.  It’s the first time I’ve used any of the new in-colours and I haven’t bought any inks or markers (as yet anyway). I did have the cardstock though and so I decided to white emboss over the top of it.

 

 

I used a few new goodies from my big SU spending spree in September on this card.

The ornament keepsakes bundle, delicate designs folders, good cheer wheel and Blissful Bird.

When I had worked out my order and was just about to submit it, I looked down at the catalogue which was open at the page with this bird on it and on a whim decided I had to add it too.  I hadn’t even noticed it before, even though I’d looked over the catalogue hundreds of times and agonised over what to buy.  Possibly because it is on the same page as the stamp I wanted most of all - Poppies.  Anyway when I saw it I thought it would make a great Christmas bird, even though SU haven’t put it in the Christmas section, that’s what I think it is.  I thought he might look great holding one of the ornaments.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Ornament Keepsakes, Blissful Bird, Good Cheer wheel

Card : confetti white, basic grey, starfruit

Ink : white

Other : white ep, big shot, holiday ornaments, delicate designs ef, bakers twine, sewing machine, bird punch, square lattice ef

 

It’s an unusual colour choice for a Christmas card I know, but I think it works.

Please take a look at what the rest of the team at JAI have come up with this week.  There are some gorgeous creations to inspire you.

 

Kathy

Prehistoric Sun

 

Sorry for the late posting of this but I have been on holidays.

Anyway the challenge at Just Add Ink this week is to make a kid’s card. 

 

My son is Stepdad to (almost) 5 yr old twin boys and this is for one of them.

I know from experience, that boys (and men) love cards that “do something” and so I decided to make a suspension card.  There is a great tutorial here on splitcoast if you’d like to give one a try.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you might remember that I am on the Splitcoast Dirty Dozen Design Team?  Well the theme there this month is “Back to Primary” and I have made another suspension card (for the other twin) that can be seen there if you are a member.

 

I coloured the pteranodon with copics and cut him out and used shimmery white for the centre of the sun. I don’t have a sun die, but I used my scallop circle nesties which I think still worked okay.  Then I created the sun’s rays by simply moving a post-it note around the circle and sponging daffodil delight and a little pumpkin pie off the edge of it.  It’s the first time I’ve tried that and I like how it turned out.  There is a little fishing line to suspend the sun and on the back of it is a big red number 5.

 

Ingredients:

Stamps : Dinoroar, up up and away

Card : bashful blue, NQN, shimmery white, red, daffodil, white

Ink : daffodil, pumpkin, stazon

Other : nesties, big shot, fishing line, sponge, post its, simple numbers die

 

The rest of the design team have created some wonderful kid’s cards this week.  Please take a look and enter our challenge.

 

Kathy

Romantic Polka

 

At Just Add Ink this week we have a challenge to Just Add Polka Dots.

 

I decided to use the flowers from Bordering on Romance again and of course lots of dots.

I was a bit “mmmm maybe” about this set when it first came out and I didn’t buy it straight away.  But I’m so glad I decided to get it.  These flowers are just so pretty and they are great to colour.

I coloured the flowers with markers on watercolour paper again and I love this colour combo too.  This time I used wisteria, island indigo and elegant eggplant with lucky limeade for the leaves.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps :  Bordering on Romance, Curly cute

Card : concord crush, vanilla, watercolour paper, in colour dsp stack (ret)

Ink : stazon, markers (wisteria, indigo, eggplant, limeade, bashful blue)

Other : limeade ribbon. mat pack, tasteful trim, big shot, pearls

 

The JAI design team have made some gorgeously dotty cards this week.  Please take a look and join us in this (not very hard) challenge.

 

Kathy

Hermione

 

We have a wonderful sketch challenge at Just Add Ink this week.

And I needed to make a birthday card for my daughter and this is what I came up with.

 

 

She is a huge Harry Potter fan and we bought her everything Potter for her 11th birthday.  I wanted to make her a matching card too so I used this wonderful Tiddlyinks image called Wizardette.  I coloured her with copics to look like Hermione and used some dazzling diamonds and crystal effects too.  I tried to colour her scarf the correct Gryffindor colours and made banners to match.

She absolutely loved her card! She was so impressed with it!  :)

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Wizardette (Tiddlyinks), Blowing Bubbles (MFT)

Card : basic grey, black, daffodil, real red, white

Ink : memento black

Other : square punch. corner rounder punch, crystal effects, dazzling diamonds, copics

 

Please take a look at what the rest of the JAI team created this week and I hope you find some “crafting time” and can join us.

 

Kathy

Get Well Blues

 

This week at Just Add Ink the challenge is to Just Add Blue and Bling.

I decided to use my new stamp set Bordering on Romance and try colouring it with Stampin Up markers and a blender pen on watercolour paper. I’ve never tried that technique before.

I actually don’t have many markers and I wanted 3 blues.  The strange thing is that I do have my most favourite SU blues in a marker (Baja and NQN) and yet amazingly I decided to try some different blues for a change.  I must have been in a daring mood that day!!!

Anyway I used bashful blue, pacific point and night of navy.  I don’t think I have ever made a card with night of navy before and I’m not real sure about pacific point either actually.  But the gamble paid off, I love how this card turned out.

 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Bordering on Romance, Perfectly Penned

Card : night of navy, vanilla, subtles dsp stack, watercolour paper

Ink : stazon, crumb cake, markers (night of navy, bashful blue, pacific point, celery, olive)

Other : bashful blue taffeta ribbon (ret.) rhinestones, big shot, labels framelit, blender pen

 

These blues could never replace my favourites but I should use them more often because they’re beautiful too!  I hope you’ll take a look at what the rest of the JAI team came up with this week.  Join us and make a card with your favourite blues, or like me, try some blues you’ve been neglecting.

 

Kathy

Happy Dance

I have been a fan of the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge for a long time now but this is the first time I’ve played along with them.

I saw their wonderful sketch this week and decided to use it to make another Tiny Dancer card. Those of you who read my blog regularly will probably remember that I have been making a set of cards using this stamp to give to a friend for her birthday.  It is just as well I started doing this so early, because her birthday is this week and I have still only managed to make 6!  If I had made them all the same it would have been quick and easy, but where’s the fun in that?!




I must admit that I found this sketch a little challenging but I am happy with how it turned out.






Ingredients :
Stamps : Tiny Dancer (Tiddlyinks), music notes wheel, think happy thoughts
Card : real red, black white, x-press it
Ink : white, stazon, memento black, real red
Other : 2 tags die, circle punches, copics, big shot, crop a dile, ret. ribbon, white bakers twine, dazzling diamonds


I didn’t have the idea of the record originally, I was just playing with different images and embellishments for that corner and it just “popped” into my head.  Don’t you love it when that happens!  The person I’m giving these cards to is much younger than me ….. I’m hoping she knows what it is!

Kathy

Bloomin’ Beautiful

 

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

Isn’t it beautiful!

As soon as I saw it I knew exactly which stamp I had to use.

 

I love using my copics and this image was so much fun to colour.  Even though the flowers are different, I tried to use similar colours to those in the photo.

Ingredients :

Stamps : Wryn Blooms (TiddlyInks), For Everything (SU)

Card : regal rose, pumpkin pie, pear pizzazz, x-press it, always dsp (ret), in colour stack (ret)

Ink : memento black

Other : copics, square punch, button (ret.), white bakers twine, white pen

 

I hope you’ll take a look at what the rest of the JAI team were inspired to create this week.  Hopefully you’ll  play along with us too, I’d love to see your creations in our gallery :)

 

Kathy