Just Add Ink #696 - Inspiration

Welcome back to another Just Add Ink challenge where this week we're offering an inspiration picture to help rev up your creativity. And a mouthwatering pic it is too - take a look:

How delicious does that look? Mmmmmmmm...

As my daughter has a wedding to attend in a couple of months, I picked that for the theme of my card.

Materials used:

• card - basic white, retired designer paper (Stampin' Up)
• dies - Celebrate colorize, Crochet (Tim Holtz), Curio Spring Findings (The Greetery), Congrats (stash)
• Copic markers - BV00, BV11, V09, BG11, BG34, C2, C4
• other - pearls, Dimensionals, craft foam, shaping mat and tool, flower punch

Everything was cut from white cardstock and coloured with Copics and I went for an ombre kind of effect on the 'congrats', which is two layers for added depth. The flowers were shaped before being glued on and as you can see, the colours in the pic inspired my palette too. I stuck a row of pearls along the edge of the crochet trim to match with the flower centres. 

With my daughter's birthday tomorrow and mine yesterday, we're treating ourselves to a high tea today, so there will most definitely be cake! I hope you have some yum in your day too and thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

JAI #643 - Just Choose Two

This week at Just Add Ink we have our choose two option:

In a perfect example of serendipity, DD needed a wedding card last weekend, so I used embossing and white as my two options to create this for her.

I used a heavyweight white card with my 3D embossing folder - the photo doesn't do justice to the fabulous depth of this. After running around the edges with my Versamark ink pad, I dipped them into gold embossing powder and melted it to leave a barely-there-but-vital border and gave the inside insert the same treatment. On a separate piece of card I also gold embossed the sentiment and die-cut these, adding them with mounting strips, and my card was complete. (I did toy with the idea of adding some gold pearls but decided the card was busy enough already and I wanted the stunning embossed image to be the star of the show.)

Materials used:

• stamps - Happily Ever After (Trinity Stamps)
• card - Distress white heavyweight (Ranger)
• embossing folder - Book Cover Engravings 3D (Altenew)
• other - gold embossing powder, heat tool, Happily Ever After dies, Big Shot, craft foam, mounting strips, water spritzer

Do check out what my team mates have created to inspire you over on the JAI blog and thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

NSU - A Wedding Card Challenge

With DD21 at home from uni, my craft room has been taken over and consequently not much creating has been done in the last few days.

However, DD did ask me to make a card for a wedding she will be attending in a couple of weeks which posed a challenge for my stamp collection; it's a same-sex wedding, so I can't use my favourite bride and groom image, nor 'Mr and Mrs' type sentiment stamps. 

The colours for the wedding are red and purple, so I wanted to incorporate those into the card somehow and to make it romantic and elegant. In the end I didn't use any stamps at all, but typed my sentiment on the computer.

This is what I came up with:

Materials used:

• card - perfect plum, gumball green
• other - dotted scallop ribbon border punch, Big Shot
• non SU - white linen cardstock, purchased paper roses, rose petal punch and embossing punch, Tied Together embossing folder, glue gun, pearls, computer and printer

DD is very happy with it, so hopefully the happy couple will be too. I think I'll have to make a special gusseted envelope for it though - that's the next challenge!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

In Which I Am Full Of Handy Hints!

Hatches, Matches and Dispatches is the theme for this month's cards. Having a baby card, wedding card and sympathy card in your stash can come in very handy.

My "Hatches" card uses the gorgeous Two by Two single stamp and I chose pool party as a gender-neutral colour for the background. Some faux stitching on the mat piece and lacy embossing with satin ribbon enhance the baby feel.

 Materials used:

• stamps - Two by Two
• card - pool party, whisper white, watercolour, in colour patterns dsp
• other - windows framelits, Big Shot, pool party ribbon (SAB), delicate designs E/F, large scallop edgelits, aquapainter, sponge dauber, dimensionals, white brads (non SU), pool party embossing powder, heat tool, square punch, piercing mat, piercing tool, white gel pen, festive paper piercing pack

Hint: you can make your own colour matching brads. Here's how: using a pair of craft pliers, hold the feet of the brad securely and press the head firmly onto a Versamark ink pad. Now dip the head into the coloured embossing powder, shake off the excess and heat in the usual way. Repeat this process so you have two coats of embossing powder, then allow to cool. 

For the "Matches" card I went with classic black and white, always elegant for a wedding. My sentiment panel is made completely on MDS using three different stamp brush sets. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Meant To Be, All Holidays, Delightful Dozen - all MDS
• card - whisper white, basic black, garden green
• other - itty bitty punches, embossing stylus, pearls, liquid glue, Big Shot, lacy brocade E/F (retired)
• non SU - Spellbinders flower dies, Nellie Snellen leaf punch and E/F, shaping mat, Nestabilities die, white linen card

Our "Dispatches" card has been kept simple and classy. The Stippled Blossoms set is a new addition to my craft room - I've been resisting it for some time but have seen so many gorgeous cards using it that I finally gave in. I'm so glad I did, it is just divine; here it is in pink pirouette and regal rose.

The chocolate chip layer on the leaves was stamped off beforehand to tone down the intensity of colour a little. After stamping the second step of the flowers (regal rose) I went back and re-stamped it using Versamark ink, then clear embossed it. It gives a subtle, shiny finish to the flower.

Materials used:

• stamps - Love and Sympathy, Stippled Blossoms
• card - Sahara sand, chocolate chip, whisper white
• inks - pink pirouette, regal rose, Sahara sand, chocolate chip, Versamark
• other - dimensionals, stamp-a-ma-jig, clear embossing powder, heat tool

Hint: buy two-step stamp sets in wood mount and that way you can create a permanent placement sheet on acetate to use with your stamp-a-ma-jig, without the hassle of making a new one each time if using acrylic blocks.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Wedding Cards

Wedding cards (for the Artfest craft show) were my focus on a wet and gloomy day yesterday.

My favourites are these three using the Marry Me set from the Summer mini (which runs out at the end of this month, don't forget). Sorry about the photos - not my best for sure. The colours are all much more gorgeous IRL.

This last one was cased from a gorgeous creation by Tui Nathan. Thanks Tui, I love your design.

Materials used:

• stamps - Marry Me (SU), Mat Stack Collection 1 (PTI)
• card - blush blossom (retired), soft suede, very vanilla, basic black, whisper white, pool party, digital striped paper, Mocha Morning dsp, Paisley Petals dsp
• other - rhinestones, pearls, dimensionals, basic black satin ribbon, nestabilities dies, flowers from stash 

On the next sample I cheated a little by using a ready-coloured image from Lili of the Valley, but I added some clear embossed stamped images in the background (which you can see if you click on the photo).

Materials used:

• stamps - Marry Me, Baby Blossoms (retired)
• card - basic grey, whisper white, basic grey patterned dsp
• other - rose red seam binding, jewellery tag punch, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Versamark ink, basic black marker, vintage wallpaper E/F, image from LOTV

I do hope the weather is brighter where you are - apparently we are going to get even fewer sunny days this month than we did last month - bring on the Vitamin D tablets!

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kez

Mr and Mrs Owl

The bride wore pearl-encrusted vintage ivory satin ... the groom resplendent in waistcoat and top hat.

I don't know why, but yesterday morning when I awoke almost the first thing that came into my mind was a design for a bride and groom owl. I hadn't been thinking of weddings or owls and neither of those appeared in my dreams, so why that particular thought should just pop into my brain I am not sure! But "ours is not to question why" as they say, so later on after dinner I sat down to create the card I had imagined.

I had soooo much fun! Let me introduce you to the newlyweds:

Seriously, how adorable are these two?

The top hat and veil were both made using the "vest" part of the owl punch and I also used the scallop oval punch for the top part of the veil. The sentiment comes from the Word Play set. Wish I knew someone who was getting married - I'd love to see their faces when they received this!

Thanks for dropping by. Have a great day.

Cheers

Kez