We Wish You Joy

I love this week's word theme at the Just Us Girls challenge and happily played along.

I'm also loving this new-to-me die set from Honey Bee Stamps. You just can't help but adore this sweet face!

I die cut all the pieces from white, vanilla or beige card and added shading with either ink or Copic markers. The antlers have two layers to give them a bit more strength, likewise the letters J and Y have three layers for dimension. The sticker initially read 'we wish you a merry Christmas' but I just cut off those first three words to use. 

Materials used:

• dies - Lovely Layers Vintage Reindeer (Honey Bee Stamps), Large Letters (retired SU)
• other - gold glitter card, Christmas patchwork papers (Etsy), Big Shot, Copic markers, blending brush, metallic sticker (Tim Holtz), vellum, Dimensionals, white gel pen

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Naughty or Nice - Just Add Ink Challenge #728

It's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink and this week we've a Choose Two option.

Patterned paper and pens were my picks for a fun festive card.

The looks on their faces is rather sassy, so I just had to go with an equally sassy sentiment, lol. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Oddball Boy and his Reindeer (Stamping Bella), Stamptember 2020 (Tim Holtz)
• other - patterned paper (SU retired), MISTI, water brushes, Clean Color real brush markers (Kuretake), small pennant punch, Sahara sand marker (SU retired)

We have more samples to inspire you over on the JAI blog and we can't wait to see which options you choose to create!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Thankful Blessings - The Card Concept Challenge #211

Hi there and welcome/welcome back! Today's card is for the new Card Concept challenge for November. Here's the moodboard:

I took those gorgeous autumn leaves as inspiration for my card featuring some very happy, free-flying mice, lol.

Lots of colouring and fussy cutting for this one, but they're so adorable, how could I resist? 

Materials used:

• stamps - You Autumn Know (Lawn Fawn)
• dies - stitched rectangle
• other - Copic markers, blending brush, white pigment ink, cloud stencil (My Favorite Things), Dimensionals, black marker, white gel pen, white embossing powder, heat tool, MISTI, craft foam

Do check out more samples from my team mates over on The Card Concept blog and if you're inspired to create, we'd love you to share in our gallery.

Thanks for floating by!

Cheers

Kerry

Winter Wonderland

Experiencing a white Christmas was on my bucket list for quite some time and it almost happened the year my daughter was living in Scotland ... until a little ol' global pandemic came along and then nobody was going anywhere - hardly leaving the house, let alone to the other side of the world. Ah well, such is life. Now I enjoy winter in December through card making instead, lol. 

Today's card is for three challenges which happen to dovetail together very nicely.

 

 

My Tic Tac Toe choice was the top row of ink blending, snow and tree.

I began with masking my paper for the snowy ground and blended the sunset sky (red sky at night, shepherd's delight 😉). Stamping came next, then small touches of puff embossing powder on the tree branches and at the feet of the deer before gesso splatters for falling snow. I die cut some snowflakes to tuck behind, cut my scene into three parts to mount, stamped a sentiment and called it done!

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage Winter View (Waffle Flower), Tiny Text Christmas (Tim Holtz)
• inks - blushing bride, lumberjack plaid, cherry cobbler, Versafine Clair nocturne
• other - snowflake dies, Sidekick, blending brushes, hills and drifts stencil (My Favorite Things), MISTI, craft foam, paint brushes, white puff embossing powder, heat tool, Versamark pen, white gesso

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Three Wise Penguins

I absolutely love the theme over at the Christmas Kickstart challenge this week and just had to play along.

My card features three playful penguins bearing gifts - and how adorable are they? 

I cut my pieces from black and white card then used Copics to colour, keeping to soft pastels apart from a pop of red on each wee cutie. My background was ink blended before stencilling the star and spritzing with shimmer mist for some gorgeous sparkle, which - as I'm sure all crafters know - just doesn't photograph well. Sigh! Everything was kept very simple because I wanted those penguins to really be the star of the show (excuse the pun!). 

Materials used:

• dies - Playful Penguins (Spellbinders)
• other - Copic markers, Big Shot, blending brush, Sparkle stencil (Tim Holtz), Dimensionals, shimmer mist, shaded lilac oxide ink, Christmas tiny text remnant rubs (Tim Holtz)

Thanks for waddling on by.

Cheers

Kerry

Getting Cozy - Time Out Challenges Guest Designer

This week I'm Guest Designer with Time Out Challenges and the theme is

This challenge is being sponsored by Newton's Nook with a $25.00 store credit as the prize for the challenge winner as chosen by the Design Team. Winner also gets an invitation to Guest Design for a future challenge.

I don't know about you but I don't need it to be cold out to be happy to sit down with a chai latte and a good book - I'll quite happily admit to those addictions, lol. Having said that, I did use autumn tones for my card because one, it's my favourite season and two, they're just cozier - and of course, Melbourne weather does often forget it's spring and tosses in a few autumnal/wintery days too!

Materials used:

• stamps - Exquisite (Tim Holtz), Itty Bitty Greetings (Stampin' Up)
• papers and die cuts from Mintay Golden Days collection
• dies - Papercut Cafe (Tim Holtz), book die (stash)
• distress oxide inks - antique linen, brushed corduroy
• other - blending brushes, Dimensionals, Big Shot, MISTI, Copic markers C0,C2

There's more card samples on the Time Out Challenges website and if you're inspired to create, they'd love you to share.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Let Life Surprise You - Just Add Ink Challenge #726

It's Friday, which means a new Just Add Ink challenge, and this time around it's an inspiration moodboard. 

I couldn't resist using the adorable little ginger kitten and tartan blanket as inspiration for a simple layered card.

Kittens are so playful and sweet, I challenge anyone not to go gaga over them, lol. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Three Little Kittens (Mo Manning), Tiny Text (Tim Holtz)
• other - Copic markers, blending brush, MISTI, stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, craft foam, white gel pen, blue distress ink

Which aspect of the pictures makes you want to create? Whatever you choose, we hope you'll share and link up on the Just Add Ink blog.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

The Silence of the Night

I don't usually delve into the darker side of Halloween, but I'd been playing with moon backgrounds the other day and had one which reacted quite differently to what I was expecting and ended up being a little on the spooky side. Then two things converged: one, I was thinking there was just a little time left for one last Halloween craft project, and two, I saw this week's theme of stencilling at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. My mind put those things together and I decided there was no harm in playing with that spooky background to see what I could make.

Here's the result:

I stencilled fractured cracks over the moon and decayed over the gravestones, then added trees, ghosties and a couple of sentiment stickers. 

Materials used (mostly Tim Holtz):

• dies - Vault Fright Night
• stencils - Fractured mini, Decayed
• other - moon mask, distress oxide sprays and inks, Curiosities sticker book, water spritzer
• not TH - blending brushes, Big Shot, heat tool

I hope you enjoy your Halloween, whether it's spooky or cutesy or anything in between! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Christmas Wishes and Gingerbread Kisses - Just Add Ink Challenge #725

I'm back with more stencilling! It's not my scheduled week but I couldn't resist playing along with the new Just Add Ink challenge, lol.

I love, love, love all the layering stencils that are so popular in the craft world at the moment. Here I combined two Christmas-themed stencil sets, unifying them by using the same ink colours throughout. 

Materials used:

• stencils - Postage Collage Gingerbread, Postage Collage Christmas (Waffle Flower)
• dye inks - wintergreen (Catherine Pooler), picked raspberry, tea dye, rusty hinge (Tim Holtz)
• dies - Postage Collage, Merry Christmas Print (Waffle Flower)
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, Dimensionals, vellum

Have you some stencils you just love using? Dust them off and create, then share over on the Just Add Ink blog; we'd love to see them.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Let It Snow - Just Us Girls Challenge #750

Welcome back! It's my final week as Guest Designer at the Just Us Girls Challenge - I've had a ton of fun designing for these challenges and thank the JUGS team for the opportunity. Right now, it's stencil time!

I made a Christmas card using layering stencils as well as a standalone, and as I'm loving pink for Christmas this year, I paired a dusky pink with burgundy and white.

I started with my pink background piece, stencilling with texture paste, then I inked the snowman layering stencils and cut them using the postage collage die. Once they were attached I did gesso splatters (regular visitors will know how essential those are!). My sentiment was given an ombre ink treatment and a touch of sparkle before being mounted on vellum. 

Materials used:

• dies - Postage Collage (Waffle Flower), Festive Words (Tim Holtz)
• stencils - snowflake (stash), Postage Collage Snowman (Waffle Flower)
• distress inks/oxide inks - lumberjack plaid, carved pumpkin, black soot, vintage photo
• other - opaque texture paste (TH), blending brushes, Big Shot, Dimensionals, white gesso, fan brush, clear Wink of Stella, craft foam

I hope you'll get out your stencils and have fun creating - and if you do, be sure to share and link up for the challenge. There's more samples to inspire you over on the Just Us Girls Challenge blog, so pop over for a look.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Embrace Beautiful Chaos

I was in the mood for some mixed media play this morning and had a lovely time getting inky! With the sun out (albeit along with a cold wind), I was inspired to use bright, cheerful colours.

I began with smooshing on my background using distress spray stains then once they were dry, stencilled with texture paste. The hexagons were stamped and edged before I added the same colour inks, though in a slightly diluted form. I added the same stamps in random places on the background too, then die cut and coloured the dragonfly. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Field Notes (Tim Holtz)
• dies - Funky Insects, Stacked Hexagons (Tim Holtz)
• distress spray stains - salvaged patina, twisted citron
• distress inks - dried marigold, ripe persimmon, frayed burlap
• other - Books stencil (Stamperia), volume paste (Stamperia), palette knife, Big Shot, paint brush, Dimensionals, craft foam, Small Talk sticker (Tim Holtz), heat tool, water spritzer

I hope you have the opportunity in your day to get inky as well. Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun - Just Add Ink Challenge #724

It's colour combo week at Just Add Ink and this time around we're giving you two colours (plus neutrals) and an option to pick a third!

I picked purple as third choice for my ghoulishly fun card.

I began with misty moonlight card, inking it darker around the outside then splattering with white gesso and white embossing the sentiment. The other bits were all die cut from either black or white card and colour added with Copics. A few dots and dashes of white gel pen were the finishing touch. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Boo Sentiments (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Sweet Ghosts (Waffle Flower)
• other - Copic markers, Dimensionals, blending brush, Big Shot, white gel pen, white gesso, fan brush, water spritzer, craft foam, white embossing powder, heat tool, MISTI

I can't wait to see what you create with these colours and what third option you pick! Do share with us over on the Just Add Ink blog, but before you do pop over to see what my team mates came up with to inspire you.

Thanks for floating by.

Cheers

Kerry

Spooktacular Mummies - Just Us Girls Challenge #749

Welcome! I'm guest designer this month with the folks at Just Us Girls challenge and this week it's a moodboard to inspire you.

Here's a bigger version of the pic to make it easier to see and inspire:

I combined a few stamp sets for my card, wanting to have orange pumpkins but also I couldn't resist these adorable little mummies. They took a while to fussy cut and my aging eyes weren't happy afterwards, lol, but they are so worth it. I mean, how damn cute are they? (My favourite is the little guy bottom left contemplating that toilet roll 😂😂😂)

I began with blending my background blocks and doing the outside edge bits using stencils, then cut two of the blocks die from black card. The top one was cut again with the spider web texture die and I ran some white ink over it to highlight the pattern a little more and stop the black from being quite so intense. The sentiment strip was white embossed and also given some white ink edges. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Little Mummy Agenda (Mama Elephant), Frightful Little Bits  (Hello Bluebird), Postage Collage Spectacular (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Postage Collage Block die, Spider Web Texture die (Waffle Flower) 
• distress oxide inks - milled lavendar, wilted violet, carved pumpkin, picket fence
• other - Copic markers, blending brushes, Big Shot, Postage Collage coloring stencil (Waffle Flower), MISTI

Do check out what the design team created to inspire you, and hopefully if you make, you'll share it with us in the gallery.

Thanks for rolling on by.

Cheers

Kerry

Once in a Blue Moon

Once in a blue moon...I make a clean and simple Halloween card. 

The sketch at AAA Cards Challenge caught my eye this week, so I sat at my craft desk and this is what transpired.

I knew I wanted to use this little ghostie, so began with stamping and colouring it and accessories. Then the idea of the blue moon came to mind, so that was blended next, then it was simply a matter of stamping the bats and sentiment. Too easy!

Materials used:

• stamps - Boo Crazy, Mini Bird Crazy & Things (Tim Holtz), Boo Sentiments, Postage Collage Spooktacular (Waffle Flower)
• other - blending brushes, blender pen, moon mask (Tim Holtz), circle punch, MISTI, Dimensionals, craft foam

I've been giving my Halloween cards to my daughter to give away but this one might get saved for my grandson - not that he's old enough to appreciate it, lol, but it's the thought that counts, right? He is definitely too cute to spook!

Thanks for floating on by.

Cheers

Kerry

Double Trouble

Today's card was inspired by a wicked challenge. 

I used four options from the inspo list - black, orange, candy and bats. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Boo Crazy, Mini Bird Crazy & Things (Tim Holtz), Gorgeous Grunge (Stampin' Up), Postage Collage Spooktacular (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Postage Collage (Waffle Flower)
• stencils - Postage Collage Spooktacular (Waffle Flower)
• distress inks - wilted violet, carved pumpkin, picked raspberry, black soot, lost  shadow 
• other - blending brushes, Dimensionals, Boo Diecut Subsentiments (Waffle Flower), Big Shot, white gel pen

It's getting close to the 31st but there's still plenty of time to get some more fun Halloween craft made! 😆👻 

Thanks for ghosting by.

Cheers

Kerry