Sea Happy

 

This week at Just Add Ink the challenge is to case ME.

So you can copy a card layout or technique I’ve done or perhaps make a card using my “style”.

I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

When I applied for the design team position at JAI, one of the questions I had to answer was “What’s your style?”  And I had no idea.  I don’t think I have any style at all and others would probably agree. Ha Ha.  In terms of card making though, I’m not sure I have a style really because I go from cute kids cards and clean and simple ones to more “shabby, distressed” looks. 

Perhaps this challenge will show me what you think my style of card making is?

 

Here are the two cards I cased.

 

 

It is one of my favourite layouts and this will be the 3rd card I have made using it now. This time though, I challenged myself to make it a “manly” card.

 

 

I thought I would use my new Open Sea set as there are a lot of great images in it.  I was one short though so I raided my stamps in the hope of finding something else and I found the shell in my Nature’s Nest set.  It worked perfectly with the others.

I thought I might try something a little different this time and I used the mother of pearl technique on the squares.  I stamped the images onto glossy white with Cherry, scrunched up some clingwrap and after dipping it in white shimmer paint, dabbed it over the top.  I then sponged suede on to each square and around the sides but tried to keep the centre of the image “clean”. It’s a bit hard to photograph but you can see the pearl effect more on the shell square.

Then I punched them out.  I have had a few questions each time I’ve done this layout asking me which square punch I use.  It’s the largest square punch.  Sorry for not mentioning that before.

I tried to “grunge up” the Happy Birthday banner with some distressing, folding and sponging and I was happy with how it turned out.  I love that Perfectly Penned set!

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : The open sea, Nature’s nest, Perfectly penned

Card : vanilla, suede, glossy white

Ink : cherry, suede, stazon

Other : big shot, framed tulips, square punch, vintage trinkets, white shimmer paint

 

I hope you’ll take a look at my blog and find something you’d like to case.

I’d love to see what you create!

 

Kathy

Father’s eggs

 

For our stamp club last week the hostess asked if I could show them a technique with the big shot embossing folders and if we could make it a Father’s Day Card.

So I decided to teach them Inset Embossing and this is the card some of the ladies made.

Of course I used the Teeny Tiny Sentiments set so that they could change the sentiment and make it for whatever occasion they liked.

The ladies were pretty “wowed” by this technique.  It is so easy but very effective.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps :  Teeny tiny sentiments, nature’s nest

Card :  espresso, artichoke, crumb cake, confetti white, white

Ink :  stazon, crumb cake, artichoke

Other : big shot, square lattice ef, little leaves, window punch, modern label punch, aqua painters, crayons, neutral brads

 

Generally, for my stamp club, I do 2 different cards that use the same technique.  I will show you the other one later on this week.

 

Kathy

Faux turtle

  
I decided to enter the challenge at Stamping 411 again this week.  Their team have created lots of “beautiful and pretty” cards, but I decided to do something a little different!  Mine isn’t really beautiful is it, but it’s a good male card.
 
I decided to use my Nature’s Nest set again and I tried out a new technique on the old olive background piece.  I had seen a technique on Jackie Topa’s blog called Faux alligator, which looked very effective. Look here if you’d like to see how it’s done she is such a talented stamper. I used the same technique but did a kind of swirly pattern, trying to mimic the turtle shell.  So I did Faux turtle (or is it a tortoise?) technique instead.
I watercoloured the turtle and then used my versamarker pen over the top of that and clear embossed it, to give him a shiny shell.  (Although if he’s a tortoise he probably wouldn’t have a shiny shell would he?)  Then I cut him out and popped him up on dimensionals.
I used the Teeny tiny sentiments set again too.  The stamp actually says “i’m so sorry” but I used a choc chip marker and my stampamajig to add the extra “i’m” at the end.

It’s probably not a good sign that at the start of the year I’m making cards for when I don’t send someone a card on time is it!
Do you think that’s crazy?  Probably………

Ingredients :
Stamps : Nature’s nest, teeny tiny sentiments, sanded
Card :  Choc chip, early espresso, old olive, river rock, confetti white, watercolour paper
Ink : versamark, stazon, choc chip marker, choc chip
Other : word window punch, clear embossing powder, white pen, aquapainter, dimensionals, big shot, timeless type junior alpha, watercolour crayons

Crayon resist dragonflies

 

This is a card using another new set for me, Nature’s Nest.

You must be thinking “wow she spends a lot of money on stamp sets”.  Which is probably true, but, I also ask my family to buy me stamps for my birthday, mother’s day, christmas, whatever occasion I can think of basically. (haha)

My birthday is in September, right at new catalogue time, so guess what I got?  Lots of great new Stampin’ Up! “stuff”.  My 9 year old daughter chose this one.  She just loves this set, but because I got so many new sets at the same time, I hadn’t used it yet.

So I went on to Just Add Ink for some inspiration.  They have some great tutorials on there and I thought that the one for crayon resist might work well with this set and had to give it a try.

 

I kept it very plain because I wanted a male card for my nephew.  But it could have been “prettied” up.

When I had finished the dragonfly piece I sprayed it with shimmer mist, which gave it a nice glittery effect.  I tried photographing it in my craft room this time, because the shimmer is more noticeable in there, but I still couldn’t capture it unfortunately.

At our last stamp club I showed them how to use the shimmer spray and I was disappointed because we couldn’t see it very much.  It depends on the light and the dining room (where we have our club meetings) must just be too sunny or something.  My craft room is the place, but there is no way I could have sent them in there to get a better look ...… WAY TOO MESSY!

I don’t have time to be creative AND neat!

 

Ingredients :

Stamps:  Nature’s Nest, Heard from the Heart

Card : confetti white, whisper white, black

Ink :  Stazon, bashful blue, baja blue, certainly celery

Other :  white crayon, sponges, white shimmer spray