Merry Late

Well I actually made this card for the challenge at Freshly Made Sketches this week.  It was their 100th sketch,  which is quite an achievement!

Unfortunately I didn’t get it done in time to enter but I thought I’d put it on my blog anyway.
I was lucky enough to be a guest design team member for FMS and I loved being on their team.  They always have fantastic sketches and the whole team is talented and lovely too. 





I am holding a Christmas card making day and stamp sale at my place this Saturday and this is one of the cards we’ll be making.  If you’re interested in coming along please email me :)

Ingredients :
Stamps : Watercolour winter, Winter Post, Contempo Christmas, Jolly Jingles wheel
Card : white, slate, pink pirouette, raspberry, primrose
Ink : versamark, pink pirouette, raspberry
Other : white ep, pearls, primrose ribbon, big shot, polka dot ef, delicate designs ef, scallop edgelit, silver ep


Kathy

Merry Dasher

Last week my Merry Monday card was chosen as a winner. Thanks Lesley :)
Which means I get to be a guest designer for this week’s Merry Monday challenge.  YAY!
Here is the wonderful sketch we got to work with.


I decided to use my Dasher stamp for the first time this year.



I brayered the background using mustard and cherry at the top and wisteria and baja at the bottom.  Then I stamped various christmas images over the top of the brayering using crumb cake.
Dasher was then stamped using a mixture of espresso and champagne mist shimmer paint.  He is actually a nice sparkly, rich espresso colour but that was a bit hard to capture in the photo.

Ingredients :
Stamps : Dasher, winter post, lovely as a tree, tiny tags
Card : espresso, crumb cake, white, dsp (ret.)
Ink : espresso, baja, wisteria, mustard, cherry
Other : linen thread, rhinestones, tag punch, mat pack, white pen, big shot, square lattice ef, brayer

Please take a look at what the rest of the design team have created for Merry Monday this week and play along too.

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

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

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

JOY

One of my cards won a challenge this week – my Barrel of Monkeys Christmas Card. This was my second win at Just Add Ink and I was really thrilled.  It’s so much fun to play along with challenges, you should give it a try.
Well I found a new site this week called SU-Only Challenges.  Their design team has come up with some gorgeous creations, follow the link and take a look.  This weeks challenge is to create a clean and simple Christmas card and this is what I came up with. 



It is very clean and simple.                                                                   No ribbon, no “extras”!                                                                         Just the square punch, 1 colour (NQN) for the images and another (crumb cake) for sponging the edges and that’s pretty much it.
Stampin Up sell square envelopes now, yippee!! They measure 14x14cm. so I bought some and made this card to fit.  The envelopes are beautiful and I can stamp on them too to make the card seem even more special.

Ingredients  :
Stamps : Winter Post, Elements of style
Card : crumb cake, very vanilla, NQN
Ink : NQN, crumb cake
Other : square punch, big shot, timeless type junior alphabet

It’s time now to write on all of these Christmas cards I’ve made and actually get them posted! 
Kathy

Dreaming of a white Christmas

I must really be dreaming of a white Christmas with all these skaters and snow flakes on my cards this year.  It has snowed in Hobart on Christmas day a couple of times but just on Mount Wellington I think, not actually in Hobart exactly. So it is extremely unlikely.  Even that is amazing though, when most of Australia would be in the 30 – 40C. range on Christmas day.  Someone in our local government even suggested Hobart build an outdoor skating rink, how fantastic would that be!!! (Not that I’ve ever skated in my life and probably never will, but my kids would love it).
I think snow would just add even more to the “magic” of Christmas.  Although I remember my Dad saying that I only wanted it to snow because I’d never had it, that it’s just dirty and cold and you have to shovel it off the path all the time. He grew up in Ireland and obviously didn’t appreciate snow and instead really enjoyed our hot Christmas in Australia.  I’d like to keep imagining that it is beautiful and magical though, so I will. 
Anyway back to Christmas card making……… this one uses another wonderful sketch from Stamping 411. It is this weeks challenge and there are a lot of beautiful samples to admire.



Ingredients :
Stamps : Occasional greetings, winter post
Card : black, confetti white, white, baja breeze, retired dsp
Ink : stazon, frost white shimmer paint
Other : pearls, hodgepodge hardware, photo corner punch, mat pack, piercer, whit pen, scallop trim border punch, organza ribbon, clear embossing powder

I managed to capture the shimmer paint a bit better with this photo.  You can see at the top of the main image how its shimmery and shiny, or looks darker (like the bottom of the piece) depending on how the light hits it.  I used stazon for the words but also clear embossed it, so it really stands out.
Wishing you a magical Christmas, no matter the weather.
Kathy

2nd challenge card

I got some great news about my metal petal card last week. It was one of the top picks at Stamping 411!  I was so excited!!!!  So now I have 2 little awards for my cards in the side bar.  Woo hoo!
Okay, back to business!  I have already entered the challenge at Just Add Ink this week but I have been trying to come up with some more Christmas card ideas and I decided to use their sketch again, because it’s a great one.
I have used something from the new summer mini catalogue (starts Dec. 1) on this card.  It’s a new embossing folder called Square Lattice and I really like it. Perhaps because I used crumb cake, it looks a lot like I have hessian or something behind the images.  I think I will be using this folder a lot.
This card is very Clean and Simple and has no ribbon or bling (can you believe it!) So it would be a great one for posting.



Ingredients : 
Stamps :  Winter Post, Occasional Greetings, Sanded
Card :  not quite navy, very vanilla, crumb cake, naturals ivory
Ink :  not quite navy, crumb cake
Other : big shot, square lattice embossing folder, square punch

Make sure you check back here December 1 for a link to the new mini catalogue and there is also a great December sale that I’ll let you know about.  Perhaps you could buy yourself a Christmas present!
Kathy

Sweet coin card

Sorry for the long break between blog posts.  I have had computer problems AGAIN!  Hopefully it will be good for a while now.  I have blogs to post and a lot of online shopping to do!
This card is for another challenge at Just Add Ink.
The challenge was to use Wild wasabi, River rock and Chocolate chip.  I must say, I do love all of these colours (river rock and chocolate chip are 2 of my favourites) but I did find these colours challenging to use together. But that’s the point of entering these challenges and trying something different isn’t it?
I made a few Christmas cards with the sweet treat cups last year and they were very popular. I should have made more!  So I thought I would make some again this year, but this time use a different design.
I used my new punch for the first time too; the scallop trim border punch.  It’s so pretty…. why didn’t I buy it sooner!


Ingredients :
Stamps : winter post, elements of style
Card : choc chip, very vanilla, river rock dsp (retired)
Ink : Wild wasabi, choc chip, river rock
Other : scallop trim border punch, designer label punch, circle punch, sweet treat cup, choc coins, linen thread, dimensionals

Another Dasher card

I have been looking at a few sites to challenge myself to make more Christmas cards.
It has been working!  I have about 4 now (ha ha).  I think I’d better hurry up and start mass producing a few!
I got the sketch for this card from Stamping 411.  It is another great, simple design, you should check out their site for challenges and helpful tutorials.
I was also inspired by a new site Inkspirations challenges.  Their challenge was a colour challenge, to use Real red, Old olive, kraft (crumb cake) and white.  Their design team are SO talented, you should check out their work!
I decided to combine both these challenges to make my Dasher card.



Ingredients :
Stamps : confetti, occasional greetings, dasher, winter post
Card : kraft (crumb cake), real red, old olive, whisper white
Ink :  crumb cake, versamark
Other : white embossing powder, clear embossing powder, old olive dsp (retired), ribbon (misteltoe), build a brad, circle punch

I clear embossed the little “snowflake” stamp from the confetti set on the real red (it hasn’t shown well in the photo but looks very pretty) and clear embossed dasher too. I embossed the saying in white.
Hope you’ve managed to make a few more Christmas card than me!
Kathy

Faux tin ceiling skaters

Last Saturday I met with one of my clubs and we made a little Christmas door hanger treat box.  I decided to get all my Christmas stamps out for them to use, so that they could choose whatever they liked to decorate their boxes. I wish I had thought to take a photo of them because they were all beautiful. Anyway, quite a few chose the skaters stamp from the Winter Post set. I was surprised! I had never inked it up, it just seemed too “un-Australian” to me.  But it looked so beautiful, I decided that I was going to make a card with it this year.  So thank you club members for inspiring me.

Then this morning I got more inspiration from Just Add Ink and their challenge to make a Christmas card.  At the start of their post they mention how we still like to incorporate flourishes, sparkles and snowflakes on our Christmas cards even though it’s so hot here. Although in Tassie it isn’t that hot (which I am very glad about actually!)

So that skater stamp was calling out to me yet again to be used this Christmas.





The third piece of inspiration for this card was from seeing a tutorial on Faux Tin Metal Ceiling technique by Dianna Gibbs. I have wanted to try it for a long time and I thought it might go nicely as a background for the skaters.  Her blog is called Stampin’ with Di and it is one of my favourites, she is so talented and has some wonderful tutorials on there too.  If you’d like to try this technique here is a link to the tutorial that inspired me so much.



Ingredients :
Stamps : Winter Post
Card : black, whisper white, confetti white, bashful blue, sahara sand
Ink : stazon, bashful blue, versamark
Other : frost white shimmer paint, big shot, silver embossing powder, heat gun, rhinestones, blender pen, dauber, vintage wallpaper embossing folder, timeless type alphabet, organza ribbon

I stamped the snow flakes with the shimmer paint and daubered some on the edge of the letters too. I used a blender pen to very lightly add some bashful blue to the skaters’ clothes to tie in with the letters and the rhinestones add that extra bit of bling. (Which I haven’t captured well enough in this photo unfortunately).
Kathy

Christmas present

This is another one of the pull-up cards I’ve made, this time it’s a Christmas one.
I changed this one a little so that I could include a gift card with it.
I have a lot of nieces and nephews who live interstate and a gift card at Christmas time is the way to go.


When you pull the top:


The back of the “pull-up” bit:


Ingredients:
Stamps: winter post, occasional greetings
Card : retired dsp, real red, white
Ink : real red
Other : cropadile, ribbon, designer label punch