Lush Berries - Just Add Ink Challenge #766

Hi all and welcome. It's Friday, which means a new Just Add Ink challenge and this time around we're asking you to...

Here's my one layer Christmas card:

I dry embossed first, changing the orientation of the embossing folder so it would work for one layer, then stencilled before stamping my sentiment. Next I inked very lightly around the outer edges of the card - this helps draw the eye in and made it look less like a branch floating in the middle of nowhere, lol. All those speckles on the background are gold ink splatters. I used ink for this rather than paint as I wanted them to be very subtle; they give a lovely sparkle when they catch the light but are pretty impossible to catch on camera (of course!). Of course the debossing shows on the inside front, but I don't think the recipient will mind too much, do you?

Materials used:

• stamps - Christmastime 3 (Tim Holtz)
• stencils and embossing folder - Lush Berry Branch (Altenew)
• distress inks - bundled sage, peeled paint, candied apple, lumberjack plaid, brushed corduroy
• other - Big Shot, blending brushes, MISTI, sticky mat, golden glitz ink (Delicata), fan brush

I hope you'll have a go at making a one layer card and share it with us in the Just Add Ink gallery.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

It's a Sunshine-y Day

I am honoured to have recently won challenge #166 over at CAS on Friday (see the winning card here) and been given the opportunity to be guest designer for an upcoming challenge. More on that when it is imminent!

Meanwhile, the theme for their current challenge is a One Layer Card, which I've only ever done a couple of times before. I look at it as being similar to clearing the clutter in my craft room - I'm paring back to essentials - and this card is just stamps and ink plus a stencil. I decided I couldn't resist bringing out my distress oxides - you all know how much I luuuuuurrvve these.

Here's my card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Full of Sunshine (My Favourite Things)
• card - whisper white
• distress oxide inks - squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, fossilised amber
• other - Sun Ray stencil (MFT), Stamparatus (SU), clear embossing powder, heat tool, blender tools, clear epoxy dots

It was only fitting that I took this photo outside in the warmth of a sunny spring day and I'm thrilled at the dappled light on our grapefruit tree in the background there.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Serene Snow

How often do you make a one layer card? If your answer is 'practically never', then I say 'join the club' because I am usually all about the layers. So I was kinda surprised when the challenge over at Less is More caught my eye the other night and set my creative mind whirring.

It didn't take long for an idea to come to mind so I thought about it for a while before I went to bed. Then I thought about it some more once I was in bed (yeah, it's real conducive to sleep *she says sarcastically*) and again the next day. Eventually I sat at my craft desk to see if the idea would come together and I think it did. I'm quite happy with my result, anyway, and for me to be happy with only ONE layer is pretty much unprecedented, so yeah...break out the Toblerone (or Cadburys or Lindt...) 

And that's my second winter-themed Christmas card in two posts - looks like the drought is well and truly broken, lol.

Materials used:

• stamps - Dashing Deer, Gorgeous Grunge, Stylish Christmas
• card - very vanilla thick 
• inks - soft suede, pool party, cherry cobbler, Versamark
• other - clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, heat tool, embossing buddy, Stamparatus, Drifts and Hills stencil (MFT), sponge, sponge dauber, marker

I began with stamping the deer using my Stamparatus and soft suede ink, then overstamped with Versamark and clear embossed (this was so sponged ink wouldn't change their colour later). Then I stamped the snowfall in Versamark and white embossed, having masked my ground area with the stencil. Next came the sponging in pool party ink for the sky, then moving my stencil and sponging more snow drifts. Excess ink was wiped off all the embossed pieces with a tissue. Shadows were added with a marker and my sentiment was stamped last in cherry cobbler.

Have you challenged yourself lately to try something completely different to your usual style? 

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez