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

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

Wisteria Ballerina

 

Freshly Made Sketches have another great sketch this week.

I decided to make another ballerina card, this time in purple.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Tiny Dancer (Tiddlyinks), So happy for you, confetti

Card : wisteria, concord crush, black, x-press it, in colour hostess dsp

Ink : wisteria, white

Other : jewels, square punch, big shot, polka ef, wisteria ribbon, copics

 

I am making a box of ballerina cards to give to a friend for her birthday and I have a lot still to make. Challenges are a great way to make similar yet different cards for a set I think and they keep you motivated to keep creating.

 

Kathy

Vellum style

 

This week at Just Add Ink the challenge is to Just Add Mother’s Day.

The main panel is vellum stamped with stazon using a stamp from Elements of Style. I have then attached that over a piece of pink pirouette cardstock.  The butterflies are stamped onto shimmery white and coloured with pip and razzleberry using a blender pen and adhered with glue dots.

We made this card at my club last weekend. I was showing the ladies lots of different ways to use vellum and they liked the cards and enjoyed using it.  But then one of them asked if I had any Mother’s Day sentiments for this card.  So it obviously didn’t look “Mother’s Dayish” enough for her but I hope it passes as one for our JAI challenge anyway :)

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Elements of style, oval all, kindness matters

Card : shimmery white, black, pink pirouette, vellum card

Ink : stazon, pip, razzleberry

Other : oval punch, oval scallop punch, brads, blender pen, razzleberry satin ribbon, white pen, big shot, polka dot folder

 

Please take a look at what the rest of the design team have created this week and show us your Mother’s Day designs.

 

Kathy

Thinking of Paisley

 

My club hostess asked me if we could make a card with this Spiced Paisley set tomorrow.  So I looked at some of my favourite challenge blogs for inspiration.

Well ColourQ have an amazing combo this week and I decided to give it a try.

I thought they were pretty weird colours to put together actually.  I never would have chosen them, NEVER!  But Arielle has a great “eye” and isn’t scared of unusual colour combos obviously! LOL

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Spiced Paisley, Curly Cute

Card : vanilla, calypso coral, vellum card

Ink : bravo burgundy, pool party, pumpkin, stazon, versamark

Other : white embossing powder, square punch, big shot, polka dot ef, everyday enchantment brads

 

The “flower” is actually white embossed onto vellum cardstock and I cut a piece of calypso coral in the same shape to place behind it.

I actually love how this turned out.  The colours really do work well together and I think the hostess will love it too!  Thanks ColourQ!

 

Kathy

Thinking of Retirement

 

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

I’m not sure it would even be possible to make a bad card with these colours actually.  Take a look at the rest of the design team’s work for some inspiration and then give them a try yourself.

Here is my card :

 

This card was kind of inspired by a thread I was reading on Splitcoaststampers this week.  It was all about the new stampin up catalogue (which isn’t out for ages yet but it’s always fun to speculate). It asked which 3 stampin up sets we thought would retire, which 3 we hoped would stay around in the next catalogue, which 3 sets from mini catalogues we hoped would make it in and which 3 sets we hoped would retire (never to be seen again).

Well I was really shocked and amazed that this Awash With Flowers set was mentioned by quite a number of people as one they hoped would retire.  While I admit I haven’t used it heaps (but I could say that about a lot of sets I own actually :o) I have liked each card I’ve made with it.  I really like this flower in the set especially.  Anyway the thread “made me” use it again to prove it’s a good set and not one we need to get rid of. And in the top 3 sets you would want to retire?  Unbelievable!

I guess everyone has different taste.  But I like it!

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Awash with Flowers, Thoughts and Prayers

Card : vanilla, crumb cake, choc chip, subtles dsp stack

Ink : choc chip, crumb cake

Other : big shot, designer frames, polka dot ef, crumb cake seam binding, pearls, corner rounder punch

 

Well if you’re interested, here is what I wrote in the Splitcoast thread:

3 I think will retire
Under the big top
Season of joy
Friends never fade
Wish they would retire
Flower Fancy
Paisley Petals
Punch Pals
3 I hope stay
Field flowers
Winter post
En Francais
From minis I hope this stays
Open Sea

 

I’d be interested to know your picks for these categories. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you’re hoping retires and stays :)

Wishing you a very Happy Easter and I hope you find some time over the holiday to create something beautiful.

 

Kathy

Wedding Flower

If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know that last week I was asked to make a wedding card for one of the teachers at school. I was happy with how it turned out but then I was asked a couple of days ago to make another wedding card for the same person.   That made it hard because I have no wedding sets and I didn’t want to use the set I used last time (Always) again.

So I started looking at challenges for some much-needed inspiration today.
I found a great sketch of Rita’s at Freshly Made Sketches. 



And The Paper Players have a theme challenge this week which is Spring and that means flowers and butterflies to me.

So I decided to combine the two challenges and this is what I came up with:





I made a big paper flower again using very vanilla and spritzed it with champagne shimmer mist. I made another crumpled double bow too (thanks Ann).  I  clear embossed the butterfly from Kindness Matters and coloured them  with a blender pen and baja and river rock. I  have bent up their wings and attached them with mini glue dots.


Ingredients :
Stamps : Kindness Matters, Tiny tags, Cheer and Wishes
Card : vanilla, baja, suede, river rock
Ink : suede, versamark, crumb cake, baja, river rock
Other : tag punch, big shot, polka dot ef, lattice ef, swirls scribbles, island floral, 5 petal flower punch, fancy flower punch, antique brad, lace, crumb cake seam binding, blender pen, champagne shimmer mist/alcohol, clear ep, linen thread


Hopefully the person I made this for will be happy with the card.  I may just have to invest in a wedding set, it would make things so much simpler!


Kathy

Tiramisu Wedding

 

I was asked by the school Principal if I would make a wedding card for one of the teachers.  I also needed it to be bigger than my usual cards so that all the staff could sign it.

So I went searching for some challenges to give me some inspiration.  I have only made one or two wedding cards and I don’t have many stamp sets that are appropriate for a wedding either, so I was a little stressed.

I found a fantastic sketch at Mojo Monday that I thought would work well with a larger card (my card is actually one A4 sheet folded in half).  I’m sure I’ll be using this sketch again, it’s a beauty!

I also found a “new to me” challenge site called The Lollipop Ladies and their challenge is Tiramisu with the additional challenge of layers.  I thought they would be lovely colours for a wedding card (and just a little different without being too different).  I used shimmery white, vanilla, crumb cake and a dash of espresso for the colours and of course there are lots of layers too.

And this is what I came up with:

 

 

The only set I have for a wedding card really is an oldie (but one of my favourites), Always.  I clear embossed the heart onto shimmery white with crumbcake ink and cut it out and then stamped the hearts again onto vanilla and used white embossing powder.  I cut these hearts out smaller so that there was the embossed crumbcake dots showing around the outside. 

I used the double bow tutorial by Ann Schach again too, but it’s a triple instead of double this time and I decided not to crumple the ribbon on this one.  I also dug out an old sentiment stamp (that I love and have had in my collection for years) and stamped it with espresso.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Always, Happily ever after (Artee)

Card : shimmery white, vanilla, crumb cake

Ink : espresso, crumb cake, versamark

Other : big shot, polka dot ef, finial press ef, clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, pearls, crumb cake seam binding

 

Hopefully all the staff, but especially the bride-to-be, will like what I created. 

 

Kathy

Bubbly Mermaid

There is another wonderful sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I just had to play along.








I brayered the circle with pool party, turquoise and NQN and then stamped the splash from extreme elements with white over the top.

My girls’ love this bubbly mermaid card.  It will be a great one to have on hand ready for one of the many  birthday parties my youngest gets invited to :)


Ingredients :
Stamps : extreme elements, cc designs mermaid, so happy for you
Card : pool party, island indigo, white, brights dsp stack
Ink : white, stazon, memento black, nqn, pool party, turquoise
Other : copics, nesties, big shot, tasteful trim, brayer, polka dot folder, square punch, designer printed brads


Kathy

Happy Paisley

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

That is to add any red plus white.

I decided to use the challenge colours, but make a birthday card instead.





My 2 youngest daughters like me to buy them a Stampin Up set for Christmas each year.  They spend ages going over the catalogues trying to decide which set to choose :)  Anyway this was my 10 year old’s choice this year.

I thought I would use it for this red and white challenge, it kind of reminds me of a bandana.

The red I chose is one that I very rarely use actually, it’s Rose Red.  But I thought it looked pretty and really suited the paisley print. 


Ingredients :
Stamps : Perfectly Penned, Spiced Paisley
Card : white, rose red
Ink : rose red, stazon, white
Other : white gel pen, circle punch, pearls, big shot, polka dot ef

I think this card will be great for one of my daughter’s friends.
Just right for a tween or teen.

Please take a look at what the rest of the JAI team have come up with this week and give our red and white challenge a try.


Kathy

Blushing Cherry Ornament

This week at Just Add Ink we have a colour challenge for you.

I have never used this colour combo before and it is just so pretty.

I decided to make another Christmas card to add to my slowly growing collection.
You can’t see it very well in the photo but the cherry cobbler panel that the ribbon is on is embossed with the polka dot embossing folder.  It gives the card more dimension and ties in with the dots on the ornament and the pearls on the elegant bouquet embossed panel.
I used the organza ribbon in a new way on this card.  I had decided that I wanted the ribbon as a band behind the ornament but I wanted to also tie some ribbon to the ornament to kind of “hang it” to the branch.  I tried so many different ribbons, thread and cord, but nothing looked right.  Then I had the idea to cut off the edging of the organza ribbon and try that.  Well it tied beautifully and worked perfectly with the rest of the card.  So I was very pleased with that discovery and I will definitely be using organza that way again  :)

Ingredients :
Stamps : Contempo christmas
Card : white, cherry, in colour dsp hostess stack (ret.)
Ink : cherry
Other : big shot, polka dot ef, elegant bouquet ef, pearls, organza

Please take a look at what the rest of the JAI design team have come up with this week and give these colours a try yourself.

Kathy

Christmas stamp-a-stack

 

I held my first stamp-a-stack on Saturday.

8 ladies attended and it was a great afternoon.  I had christmas carols softly playing in the background (Boney M christmas cd – the best christmas cd there is in my opinion) although we didn’t actually notice the songs much over all the chatter :)

We made 8 cards (2 each of 4 designs).  I asked the ladies which card was their favourite and the answers were pretty mixed actually, so I guess that means there was something for everyone.

This was a little gift card holder that we made.

 

 

I was inspired by one I saw on splitcoaststampers by Kelly Acheson.  I just altered it a little.

The ladies loved it!  I did have a few other sentiments for them to use too, just in case they didn’t like this one, but most of them used it, it’s so cute!

Ingredients :

Stamps : Tags til christmas

Card : white, olive, espresso, crumb cake, in colour dsp (ret)

Ink : real red

Other : big shot, two tags die, polka dot ef., tasteful trim, square punch, square scallop punch, owl punch, pearls, celery ribbon (ret.)

 

For the owl eyes I coloured pearls with a black permanent marker.  They look really great on the owl and are easier to stick on than a tiny black circle of card is.

I will show you the other cards we made over the next week.

After making all the cards we had a few Christmas treats for afternoon tea and chatted some more.  I also had a little Christmas raffle and Chantel was the winner. 

It was a really great day!  Thanks ladies :)

 

Kathy 

Joyful lights

 

The challenge at Just Add Ink this week is to Just Add a Die Cut.

I have taken this challenge seriously and have used nothing BUT the Big Shot on this card.

 

I thought I would make another Christmas card for my stash (actually it’s a very small stash at the moment but you’ve got to start somewhere!) :)

I decided to use the Island Floral die to make some Christmas tree lights.  After cutting them out of real red card, I used crystal effects on them to make them “glass-like”.  They are very shiny and a bit hard to photograph well. I then cut 3 more using glossy white and cut them just for the top bit of the light. I also used some black wire (that I had bought for some crafty something years ago and had never used) to string the lights together.

Then I used my new Tasteful Trim die (you guessed it another birthday present :) I cut 2 scalloped pieces from the subtles dsp stack to represent the Christmas tree the lights are hanging from.

Then I used my Timeless type junior alphabet and cut the word “Joy” from glossy white card. 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : none

Card : olive, white, red, glossy white, subtles dsp stack

Ink : real red (sponged on edge of lights)

Other : big shot, polka dot ef, island floral, tasteful trim, timeless type alpha, crystal effects, black wire

 

Please take a look at what the rest of the JAI team have created this week and take up the challenge to use a die cut on a card yourself. 

 

Kathy

Merry penguin

 

There is a new sketch challenge site in the blogosphere called Freshly Made Sketches.  Their first sketch is a great one and I just had to play along.

 

I had seen some examples of the cute little penguin you can make from the owl punch and I had wanted to give it a try.  I thought he would be perfect on a Christmas card. 

 

 

 

I  used some things I wasn’t meant to on this card.  My sister bought me Tiny Tags for my birthday (which is not for a few days) but I knew it would work so perfectly on the penguin’s present that I just had to use it.  Hopefully she won’t mind :)  The designer printed brads are from my eldest daughter and she said I was very naughty to have used them early. But when I showed her the card she totally understood why and was happy that I did because she thought it was so cute :)

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : confetti, tiny tags

Card : pool party, island indigo, crumb cake, white, black, peach parfait, brights dsp stack

Ink : white, stazon

Other : designer printed brad, ribbon (ret.), tag punch, owl punch, white brads, big shot, polka dot ef.

 

I stamped the confetti snowflakes in white and also rubbed the white pad over the top of the polka dot embossed piece.

I cut the fish shape free-hand, everyone was amazed that it wasn’t a punch or a die. ha ha :)  There was some debate about the fish in my house though!  My idea was that the penguin got a present from Santa and it was a fish wrapped up in xmas paper and you could tell what it was because obviously a fish would be hard to wrap!!!!!  But some in my family just saw it as a cute red striped fish! Oh well!

I printed up a little letter to Santa on whisper white using the chiller font in Word. 

You might be surprised to know that owls and penguins have the same handwriting! :)

 

Kathy

Glad we’re friends

This week at Just Add Ink we have a lovely sketch challenge from Bronwyn.



I needed to make a card for one of my daughter’s friends who was turning 10, so I used the sketch and this is what I came up with.



My daughter wanted the card to be a little more grown-up and not so “kiddish”, now that they’re into double digits :)  She thought this card was perfect for her friend who loves black, bling and pink.
The flower is actually melon mambo, but in the photo it looks more red than pink unfortunately.  I used a black permanent marker to colour the rhinestones and the clear rhinestone brad.

 I also used 2 new in colours, pool party and island indigo.  I used white craft ink on my finial press embossing folder with pool party and it looked gorgeous.

Ingredients :
Stamps : best yet (ret.)
Card : black, white, island indigo, pool party, melon mambo
Ink : stazon, white, melon mambo
Other : big shot, polka dot ef, finial press ef, rhinestones, rhinestone brad, filigree brad, circle punch, island floral die, scallop trim border

Please take a look at what the rest of the design team have come up with this week and give this sketch a try yourself.

Kathy

Look Whoo

 

This is my last card for the Splitcoast Stampers Creative Crew.

CCREW0811HF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM – Holiday Focus:

You had to use this sketch, the paper piercing tool and choose 3 colours from this selection : baja breeze, daffodil delight, early espresso, night of navy, pear pizzazz, poppy parade, rich razzleberry, so saffron, soft suede, whisper white.

It was also meant to be for Friendship Day, Sister’s Day or Family Day which are celebrated on the first Sunday in Aug.

Well I did something a little different and made a card for my daughter’s 10th birthday instead, which just so happened to be on the first Sunday in August too!

 

I decided to make a little owl brooch for her and attach it to the birthday card insert.

All you do is punch a few owl bodies out (6 I think?) and glue them on top of each other (of course decorating the top one).  Then I put crystal effects over it and left it overnight to dry.  The next day I put a brooch back on the other side, again using crystal effects to adhere it and put crystal effects all over the back too.

I just used my crop a dile to punch 2 little holes on the insert so that I could attach the brooch .

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : none

Card : white, espresso, baja, pear, saffron, razzleberry, brights dsp stack

Ink  : old olive

Other : big shot, polka dot ef, button, little leaves, owl punch, crystal effects, timeless type alpha, paper piercer, white gel pen, linen thread, brooch back

 

Kathy

Blushing Hippo

This is my final card for this months Creative Crew challenge.
CCREW0711DF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM -- DSP/Color Focus: Show us what you can do with the In Colors! You can use other colors, but In Colors should be the main focus of your project.




This is another Triangle Tri-fold card but this time I used the cute hippo from Pun Fun.  I used dazzling diamonds on the hippo’s bow and balloon and paper pieced her using blushing bride and pear pizzazz card stock.


Ingredients :
Stamps : Pun Fun
Card : pear pizzazz, blushing bride, white, in colour dsp stack
Ink : stazon, pip, old olive
Other : rhinestones, white taffeta ribbon, dazzling diamonds, 2 way glue, scallop trim border punch, big shot, polka dot embossing folder


Unfortunately I must have knocked the little rhinestone when I took the photo and hadn’t realised, so the card looks a bit “off”.  I did fix it before giving it to one of my daughter’s friends for her birthday though and she thought it was very cute!

Kathy

Bee black and white

 

This weeks challenge at Just Add Ink is to just use black and white.

Amazingly I have never made a black and white card before. This is what I came up with.

 

 

Yes, I know, I made another one of those ribbon flowers!  But they are just so beautiful.  I made it with the organza ribbon this time.

I used shimmery white for the card and stamped the elements of style swirl onto vellum with stazon. I attached that to the shimmery white with black brads and stamped the bee from nature walk onto shimmery white and cut him out and used dimensionals for him. (I have no idea why that bee is a he – but he is!)

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : elements of style, nature walk

Card : black, shimmery white, vellum

Ink : stazon

Other : black brads, organza ribbon, sticky strip, circle punch, antique brad, big shot, polka dot embossing folder

 

I hope you’ll take a look at what the rest of the design team at Just Add Ink have come up with for this challenge and I’m sure you’ll be inspired to make a black and white card too.

Kathy

Monkeys for Alex

 

I needed to make a card for my nephew and I decided to use the colour challenge at Paper Players.  They extended the playing time because of problems with blogger last week and this gave me time to play along.  Yay!

Perfect colours for a male card.

 

 

My sister told me Alex would love one of my monkey cards for his birthday. (Plus something to go with it of course!) I’m getting quite a reputation for using this stamp.  It’s actually my daughter’s set and it is the best birthday present I have ever given her. Ha Ha :)

I stamped the monkeys with espresso and then embossed them with clear.  It gave them more dimension and they’re nice and shiny too.  Can’t see that in the photo though.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : fox and friends

Card : NQN, cherry cobbler, confetti white, whisper white

Ink : versamark, espresso

Other : big shot, polka dot embossing folder, clear embossing powder, square punches, thin espresso taffeta ribbon, timeless type alpha

 

There are lots of gorgeous examples using these colours on the Paper Players site.  Take a look and then give them a try.

Kathy

Beecoming 18

 

As the current challenge at Just Add Ink is still going, I thought I would show you another of my Creative Crew challenge cards.

CCREW0511DF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM - DSP/Color Focus:
-- Go neutral with a splash of color! Instead of whisper white or very vanilla, try naturals white or ivory, confetti white or cream. Large emphasis on neutrals. Look to the Elegant Soiree DSP this month for inspiration: All neutrals with that splash of baja breeze! You do not have to use the Elegant Soiree DSP but that is the look that we're after.

 

I used naturals ivory, baja and suede for the colour challenge.  The dot background was made by brayering baja ink onto the dot embossing folder and putting naturals ivory through the big shot.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Nature walk, so swirly, something sweet

Card : suede, naturals ivory

Ink : suede, crumb cake. baja

Other : big shot, polka dot folder, lots of tags, timeless type alpha, linen thread, neutrals brad

 

This is for my niece who is about to beecome 18 :)

Hope she likes it.

Kathy