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

Birthday Leaves - Just Us Girls Challenge #748

It's time for another challenge with Just Us Girls, where I'm guest designer for this month. Our theme this week is

I love the colours of foliage at any time of year, especially during my favourite season of autumn, but to celebrate it being spring here I went with bright, fresh rainbow colours and blended three shades of ink for an ombre effect. 

Materials used:

• dies - Foliage Shaker (Pinkfresh Studios)
• inks - distress inks and Altenew inks
• other - Big Shot, gems, Dimensionals, craft foam, blending brushes, Wordies sentiment sheet (Creative Expressions), rainbow alcohol ink paper (Etsy)

You'll find more samples over on the Just Us Girls blog and if you are inspired enough to create, we'd love you to share and join the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Pumpkin Season - The Card Concept Challenge #210

Now that we're into October the weather here has finally realised it's Spring and is giving us fresh green grass and buds on trees, but up in the northern hemisphere they're celebrating Fall/Autumn, and that means pumpkins...

The pumpkins were my main inspiration but I also used the orange, black and steel grey/blue (from the buckets) as my colour palette and added touches of gold. 

I stamped and gold embossed the pumpkins, then watercoloured using oxide inks. Once dry I splattered liberally with brown, gold and white. The sentiment is also gold embossed and mounted on black then gold glitter.

Materials used:

• stamps - Pumpkin to Talk About (Simon Says Stamp)
• distress oxide inks - carved pumpkin, iced spruce, black soot, frayed burlap
• dies - stitched rectangle
• other - paint brush, MISTI, Big Shot, craft foam, gold embossing powder, heat tool, gold glitter card, white gesso, tarnished brass distress stain, fan brush

There's plenty more inspiration for you from my team mates over on The Card Concept blog, so do check those out, and of course we'd love you to create and share with us.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Optional Autumn

I had some bits and pieces left over from a design team project I was working on yesterday and as they were a perfect fit for the current AAA Cards challenge, I decided to use them for a sweet CAS card.

I had the coloured pieces, so it was simply a matter of some fussy cutting, a little sponging on the background, attaching the strip of paper and stamping the sentiment. Easy peasy!

Materials used:

• stamps - You Autumn Know (Lawn Fawn), Autumn Leaves (Poppystamps)
• other - Copic markers, blending brush, white gel pen, Golden Days patterned paper (Mintay), Dimensionals, cajun craze ink (Stampin' Up)

Hope your day is as happy as that little mouse's, and thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Feathery Thanks - Just Add Ink Challenge #722

It's time for another Just Add Ink challenge and this week Lou has given us a sketch.

This was definitely a challenge for me as it's so far outside of my wheelhouse, as they say, so it was great to be pushed to create something I usually wouldn't. After looking at a few ideas, I settled on some beautiful glittery feathers for an elegantly simple thank you card.

Materials used:

• dies - Feathery (Tim Holtz), Thanks (stash), stitched rectangle
• card - basic black, gold glitter
• other - Dimensionals, Big Shot, craft foam

For the sentiment I cut two layers in black, then the gold on top, and it sits on a black feather. 

What will you do with this sketch? There's more inspiration from my team mates over on the Just Add Ink blog and of course we'd love you to share whatever you create in our gallery. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Something Wicked - Just Us Girls Challenge #747

Welcome! This month I'm honoured to be Guest Designer with Just Us Girls challenges and for this week it's a colour combo.

The chartreuse and grey immediately made me think Halloween but the light blue threw me for a bit of a loop, I must admit. Luckily it didn't take long before an idea came to mind that I hoped would work.

The drink was coloured with Copic markers then I sponged some oxide ink through a bubbles stencil to make it look a bit more 'evil potion'-esque, lol. I shaped the bubbles to give them roundness and added some shimmer to the drink, drips and bubbles. Does it look suitably wicked? 👻

Materials used:

• stamps - Unravelled (Tim Holtz), Lovely Legs - Best Witches (Colorado Craft Co)
• dies - Boos Cocktails, Olive Martinis (Spellbinders)
• other - Copic markers, white gel pen, clear Wink of Stella, shaping mat and tool, Dimensionals, blending brush, MISTI, Bubbles stencil (Tim Holtz),  twisted citron and hickory smoke distress oxide inks, hickory smoke distress glaze, heat tool, gold POSCA pen, tumbled glass distress ink, hickory smoke archival ink, craft foam

We'd love for you to be inspired by this colour combo to create, and of course to share your creation! Do check out what the design team came up with over on the Just Us Girls blog.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Christmas Blessings - Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

 

It's my last week as Guest Designer with the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. I've really enjoyed taking part and hope you've enjoyed seeing my creations each week. For this challenge we're to make a CHRISTMAS OR WINTER themed card.  Here in Australia Christmas happens in summer, but I love making winter-themed cards so I've incorporated both. 

This scene was a lot of fun to put together. I really wanted anyone looking at it to feel like they're there in the snow so was very generous with my gesso splatters, even extending them to the card base itself. And in case you didn't notice, the music in the background is 'White Christmas', lol. 

I used Lawn Fawn's Build a Birdhouse and Christmas add-on dies, distress oxide inks, Waffle Flower mini slimline nesting rectangle frames dies, Wow white puff embossing powder, white gesso and Waffle Flower Elegant Christmas 2 stamp and die set.

Do head over to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog to see what the design team have come up with to inspire you.

The lovely folks over at Simon Says Stamp are generously giving away a fabulous $25 voucher to shop at the Simon Says Stamp Store - all you have to do is take out your crafting supplies, make something following this week's prompt, and link up at the bottom of the Challenge Blog post. You can join up to 5 times, giving you 5 chances to win! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry