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

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

Dinosaur boy

 

I needed to make a birthday card this week and thankfully they had another great sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches for inspiration.

I did follow the sketch although mine does look a bit different I know.  It’s as if a dinosaur put his foot down right on top of it and it got a little squished. :)

 

 

This is a giant dinosaur sized card for my boy.  No he’s not turning 3, but there were 3 panels and I wanted 3 dinosaurs on it.  He’s not a boy either!  He’s actually turning 26!  He was one of those boys who are absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs. Every book he read, story he wrote, picture he drew and game he played was about dinosaurs. So even though this is meant to be a kid’s set I just had to buy it and make a card for him to relive his childhood (plus he’s just a big kid anyway :)

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Dinoroar, French foliage

Card : black, white, sahara sand, x-press it

Ink : NQN, pumpkin, garden green, versamark, bashful blue, stazon

Other : copics, big shot, tasteful trim, mat pack, white pen

 

Kathy

Mermaid Beach

 

This week at Just Add Ink we have a theme challenge. Just Add …. Beach.

Mine is kind of more like Just Add …. Fairytale Beach or Imaginary Beach.

 

 

As soon as I saw this sheet of Everyday Enchantment dsp I thought it would make a perfect mermaid’s tail and I’ve been waiting for a chance to try it. 

My youngest daughter’s birthday is coming up and she loved the other card I made with this stamp but she said she just wished she had brown hair.  She wanted the mermaid to have brown hair and green eyes like her!  So I’ve done that and I think she’ll love her.

I put a small amount of dazzling diamonds on the bubbles, her tail and the 7 so it’s nice and sparkly.  I used one of the clear buttons that SU used to sell and punched a circle of pool party cardstock to place behind it. I threaded it with some ribbon from the everyday enchantment pack and made it go all kind of wavy, similar to how you do with curling ribbon.

 

Ingredients :

Stamps :  Mermaid Laugh (CC designs), Blowing Bubbles (MFT)

Card : black, xpress-it, pool party, everyday enchantment dsp

Ink : memento black, pool party

Other : dazzling diamonds, big shot, tasteful trim, timeless type alpha, copics, clear button, everyday enchantment ribbon, circle punch

 

Please take a look at what the rest of the design team came up with for the Beach challenge and make a beach card too.

 

Kathy

Triple Z

 

This is another z-fold card I made using the SAB dsp and my new triple treat flower and punches.

It has a boho kind of look which doesn’t translate particularly well in a photo unfortunately.  It does look prettier in real life.

I really like the band on this one.  I used the tasteful trim die to cut the border pattern from peach parfait and I did some faux stitching on it too.

 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : oval all, triple treat flower

Card : confetti white, peach parfait, white, everyday enchantment dsp

Ink :  crumb cake, suede

Other : big shot, tasteful trim, beautiful wings, oval punch, 5 petal punch, fancy flower punch, boho punch, everyday enchantment brad, mat pack, white pen

 

This paper pack is really gorgeous and is free with a $100 order!  Please email me if you’d like to place an order :)

 

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

Composition Books

 

This week at Just Add Ink we have a Back to School Challenge.

 

During one of my dreaded annual school book buying excursions  I found something interesting. OfficeWorks had Composition books for sale.  I have often seen altered composition books on US craft blogs and I have  wondered what they were and how they were different from our school stationery.  Perhaps they have been in Australia before, but I’d never seen them.  Anyway, they are just like your usual lined exercise book except that the cover is made of much sturdier card.  So they are great books to cover and keep. 

I bought a couple for my girls to give them on their first day book at school.  They both love to write and often write poems and stories at home so I thought a special book for each of them would be a nice back to school present.

I chose papers, colours and stamps to individualise them.

 

This one is Keeley’s book. I chose this stamp because it shows two of her favourite things to do: writing and eating biscuits!  It actually looks like her a fair bit too!  Her favourite colours are pink, green and blue.

 

 

 

This one is Kate’s (as you could probably guess).

She plays the violin and loves purple.

 

 

I gave the girls their books on Wednesday (their first day back) and they absolutely loved them!

It would probably be a good idea to go back to officeworks and buy some more of these and make them up for my girls’ friends for birthday presents.  It would be a good way for me to use up all the pretty dsp that I’ve been hoarding.  I bought these ones the first year I was a demo I think and I love them but have been keeping them for a “special occasion”?  I’m glad I’ve finally put them to good use.

I tried glueing the paper on at first but totally mucked that up, so I tried using the big shot adhesive sheets.  They worked much better!

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : CC Designs Cookie Emma, pencil,  Greetings Farm Chibi Violin

Card : white, wasabi, regal rose, bashful blue, subtles dsp stack, spring fling dsp?

         white, wisteria, subtles dsp stack, spring fling dsp?

Other : big shot, timeless type alpha, square scallop, tasteful trim, subtles button, copics, sanding block, big shot adhesive sheets

 

The rest of the JAI team have some great back to school ideas.  Please take a look and join in with our challenge.

 

Kathy

Celebrating Dance

 

There is a great sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches again this week.  It’s a long sketch so I raided my “random envelope box” (Yes I really do own such a thing!) and made a card to fit one of the long, skinny envelopes I had.

 

Usually when I see a sketch it takes me quite a while to think of what I might do with it, what sets to use etc.  But I had a very different experience with this sketch.

As soon as I saw it I knew immediately what it was!

It was a stage with one dancer in the spotlight!  Obviously!

The night before I saw this sketch, I had read an email from Rita and in closing she said “ I am off to watch Dance Moms. It is worse than Toddlers and Tiaras!”  I have watched Toddlers and Tiaras before and I thought “could that even be possible?”  So I watched it that night too, just to see.

Well obviously it left a lasting impression on my psyche or something because as soon as I saw this sketch I pictured a stage where there were lots of dancers but just one was in the spotlight.  That’s what the show was about basically.  All the Mum’s were whinging about a certain one being the favoured one, the star who shone and who always had the spotlight on her.  Then there was another part where there was a Mum’s dance and one Mum changed her part of the routine during the concert so that she would be the one “in the spotlight”.

So Thanks Rita (I think?)  It was an experience and at least I got a card idea out of it!  I don’t think I’ll watch again though – too traumatic!

 

 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Perfectly penned, Under the big top

Card : pale plum, concord crush, blushing bride, x-press it blending card

Ink : memento black, perfect plum

Other : subtle dsp stack, copics, big shot, tasteful trim, circle punch, dazzling diamonds

 

I just have to say this is one card that just hasn’t photographed well.  It looks much better in real life.  I have purposely made the “stage” dark and the other dancers can be seen but all the focus is just on The One !

I have put dazzling diamonds on the underside of her tutu (between the folds) and on her crown too. She looks very pretty and it will make a great card for one of my daughter’s friends.

It was so obvious to me that this was a sketch of a stage that I was actually surprised that none of the design team had done one.  They have made some really gorgeous cards that amazingly have nothing to do with dancing at all! Ha Ha! Please take a look at FMS and I will be checking the other entries to find out if anyone else saw a stage or if it really was all because of that show!

 

Kathy

Becoming Indie

 

Last week at Freshly Made Sketches I was made a Princess again for my rocket card.  YAY!  I love being a princess, thanks for extending my reign by a week ladies.

This week at FMS they have yet another fantastic sketch that I just couldn’t resist.

 

It’s a square card sketch and I just love square cards!  I turned the sketch so that it would work with the cute Penny Black stamp I wanted to use.

 

 

I made this cat grey and white because he reminds me of our cat Indie.

I had coloured the image and I was happy with it, all I  had to do was stick it to the card. I had it sitting on my craft table and then I realised Indie had actually jumped up and was sitting right on top of it (of course).  I quickly picked him up and there were all these scratches all over my work!   AAARRGGHH!  I tried to pretend that you couldn’t really notice them much.  But I knew you really could :(  I had to start all over again!

Because I’m a copics newbie it took me a lot of attempts until I was happy with that balloon again.  I won’t embarrass myself by saying just how many tries it took!

Perhaps he was jealous that I was spending more time with this cat than with him?

Here is a photo my daughter took of the culprit looking all innocent like.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Penny Black How Becoming, SU Extreme elements

Card : black, basic grey, white, turquoise

Ink : memento black, pacific point, white, grey

Other : copics, brights brads, big shot, tasteful trim

 

For the side panel I stamped the dots from extreme elements with pacific point and again with white.  I really liked the effect this gave, I’ll have to remember to use it again.

 

Kathy

Happy Princess

 

Hi.  Yes it’s been a while but I have actually created something to show you!

Just Add Ink has had a little break too but we are back this week with a blog hop to celebrate our 100th challenge.

We are also giving away two prizes this week. One is for the winner of the challenge and there is also a prize for a lucky someone who leaves a comment on each JAI member’s blog.

Our 100th Challenge is to Just Add a Crown.

 

I bought this Little Princess set for my youngest daughter for Christmas and we spent a lovely crafty day last week stamping together.  It is a very cute set and was lots of fun for both of us to colour.

I used lots of dsp and lots of different subtle colours on this card, which is unusual for me, but it did turn out cute and my daughter loves it. I stamped the princess and frog on watercolour paper, coloured them with watercolour crayons and cut them out.  They also have dazzling diamonds on their crowns and the wand, but it’s a bit hard to see that in the photo. 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Little Princess

Card : pip, pink pirouette, white, baja, marina mist, subtles stack, watercolour paper

Ink : stazon, crumbcake

Other : big shot, scallop square die, square punch, subtle button, mat pack, white gel pen, circle punch, decorative trim die, watercolour crayons, dazzling diamonds

 

I hope you’ll play along with our challenge this week.

You may have just come from visiting Jodene’s gorgeous blog. Please leave a comment before you leave mine (for a chance to win a prize) and then click on the link below which will take you to see one of Kim Badelt’s wonderful creations.

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

Furry friends

 

The challenge at Just Add Ink this week is to just add a tag or a bookmark. Please take a look at all the wonderful creations the team have come up with.

I created this card for my good friend Rita.  Unfortunately she’ll see it on my blog before she gets it in person but I know that being a fellow stamper/blogger/design team member, she will understand :)

 

 

Rita and I met online when we were on the Splitcoast Creative Crew together. We started emailing each other regularly and one time I told her how disappointed my girls were that we didn’t get this set (Furry Folk) in the Australian catalogue.  They had wanted me to buy it for them for Christmas and then I had to tell them that I couldn’t.  Well she bought it for my girls and I and sent it all the way to us inside a little box filled with other goodies and lots of love. I am so very grateful to have found such a kind and caring friend. I feel truly blessed.

I know Rita likes to read, so I thought I would make a bookmark card for her with the set she bought us.  I used one of her favourite colours, not quite navy, and I know she loves the rickrack from the Tasteful Trim die so I added that too.

The photo below shows the bookmark when it’s taken out of the card.  The sentiment is from an old set called Sweet Serendipity.  I won it at the first Stampin Up Regional that I attended a few years ago.  I have kept it for sentimental reasons and I thought that it was just perfect for this card.

 

 

 

Ingredients :

Stamps : Furry folk, sweet serendipity (ret.), woodgrain, tiny tags

Card : NQN, shimmery white, vanilla, bashful blue, celery, pink pirouette, white, subtles dsp stack

Ink : stazon, white, suede, river rock, espresso, regal rose, mustard

Other : big shot, tasteful trim, little leaves, boho punch, tag punch, circle punches, bashful blue taffeta ribbon, cropadile, white brad. linen thread, aquapainter, corner rounder punch

 

It took me a long time to get the animals and the holes in the tree all lined up and the words in the right place so they couldn’t be seen from the front.  It shouldn’t have been that hard!  I had the idea of how I wanted it to be in my head, but I’m not very good at working out that kind of stuff.  Luckily I know that Rita will overlook mine and the cards imperfections because she’s such a nice person!

I hope you like your card Rita and thanks for being such a great friend :)

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