Magical Chapters

It's the first Friday of the month, which means a new challenge from All About Papercraft. This month it's...

I chose the occasion we probably celebrate the most often - someone's birthday - for my card. 

As a voracious reader, I'd happily receive this one myself, lol.

Materials used:

• stamps & dies - Twilight Tales (Pinkfresh Studios)
• die & stencils - Nature's Narrative (Pinkfresh Studios)
• other - blending brushes, MISTI, Big Shot, foam squares and strips

I hope you'll join us in creating a celebration project. Check out more inspiration from my fellow design team mates over on the All About blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Brighten My Day

Over at Tic Tac Toe Challenges we've a new board to whet your creative whistle, this one suggested by yours truly.

As much as I'm very appreciative of the arrival of spring here, I also really love enjoying a "second autumn", as it were, through challenges based in the northern hemisphere. I'll never pass up the opportunity to play with all the delicious things associated with my favourite season! With that in mind, I had a ton of fun creating my card and used the left diagonal line of autumn/fall colours, leaves and metallics.

For my background I sponged around the edges of the card before embossing. I layered on some distressed hessian and lace that had been coloured with oxide sprays. My leaves were die cut before colouring with distress inks and I gave them a coat of distress glaze to enhance and preserve the colours. My frame was cut from woodgrain card and coloured with spray stains and oxides. Metallic aspects are small gold dots and some gold ink splatter.

Materials used:

• stamps - Caring Thoughts (Simon Says Stamp)
• dies - leaves (stash), Decor Frames (Tim Holtz), sentiment strips (Paper Rose)
• other - hessian ribbon, lace, linen thread, calypso coral ribbon, gold dots, woodgrain card, Pinewood Planks embossing folder (Stampin' Up), various distress and oxide inks and sprays, MISTI, distress glaze, Big Shot

Entering in the Four Seasons challenge - anything goes Fall.

Check out the gorgeous samples from my team mates over on the Tic Tac Toe blog and thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Witchy Business

It's time for a new challenge with Just Add Ink and this time around we're asked to ...

As I'm enjoying making Halloween crafts I thought it would be fun to try a bit of witchy paper piecing.

I used digital papers so I could reduce the size enough to get maximum pattern within the confines of the stamp. The rest of the image was coloured with Copics then fussy cut, while the spiderweb background was foiled.

Materials used:

• stamps - Miss Witch (CC Designs), If the Hat Fits (SSS)
• dies - essential stylish ovals (Spellbinders), spider web (Tim Holtz)
• other - Copic markers, MISTI, digital papers, foam squares, foil machine, silver foil, spiderweb press plate (Spellbinders), silver sequins, clear embossing powder, heat tool

Have you got stamps with nice open areas suitable for paper piecing? We'd love you to play along! Check out more inspiration on the challenge blog.

Entering in the following challenges:

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - W is for Witch

If You Give a Crafter a Cookie - Halloween

Two Old Bats - Halloween

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Frightfully Fun

Following on from the dragon-mouse of my last post, I'm adding a vampire-mouse to the menagerie. This little cutie is the epitome of sartorial splendour and on his way to some frightfully fun shenanigans, no doubt - at the Blood Bank, perhaps? 😜 

Isn't he adorable? There's two layers to 'fright', of course, and I inked a little behind that and the mouse for a bit of shading. And on the inside:

Materials used:

• stamps - Ghostly Greetings (Catherine Pooler)
• dies - Little Mouse, Halloween Costumes Scary (both Elizabeth Crafts), Vault Gothic Portraits (Tim Holtz), Capsule Basics (The Greetery)
• other - blending brushes, paper from Etsy, foam squares, Big Shot

Inspired by and created for the following challenges:

Two Old Bats challenge - anything Halloween

Colourful Options challenge (red, black, white, orange)

Just Us Girls challenge (die week - Halloween)

If You Give a Crafter a Cookie challenge

Die Cut Divas challenge - shaped cards (no squares or rectangles)

Thanks for swooping by!

Cheers

Kerry

Trick or Treat

Having grandchildren is a wonderful excuse to make cutesy cards and though my grandbabies are a little too young still to appreciate them, I don't let that deter me! 😂 Today's card is one such, featuring an adorable wee mouse dressed as a dragon for the all-important trick-or-treating.

All the die pieces were cut from white and coloured with inks. For my background I masked the moon and blended oxide inks around it then stencilled the shading and a touch of a pattern for added interest. 

Materials used:

• dies - Little Mouse, Halloween Costumes Cute (both Elizabeth Craft), sentiment from stash
• stencils - moon mask, Gothic (both Tim Holtz)
• other - distress and oxide inks, water sprtizer, Big Shot, blending brushes, foam squares

Inspired by and entering in the following challenges: 

  

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Farm Fresh

Today I'm playing along with the Festive Friday challenge with a sweet friendship card.

The options I included on my card are brown, burlap, farm animals and distressed technique.

I stamped on an offcut piece of card (the inside of a frame used for something else) and watercoloured then edged with a brown marker to match the bottom background layer. The sentiment was the perfect fit for a very old speech bubble die - proof you should never throw stuff away! 😁 The background papers were torn or distressed apart from the gingham, which I was going to sew but forgot before it was attached to everything else and then was too bulky. Duh! 

Materials used:

• stamps - Seen & Herd (Unity Stamp Co)
• other - distress inks, MISTI, speech bubble die (SU), Farm Shabby patterned papers from Etsy, linen thread, foam squares, water brush, Big Shot, E47 Copic marker, distressing tool

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Twinkly Christmas

Today's card was inspired by the Passion for Markers challenge, which has the theme 'for a child'. I stamped my image and coloured with Copics for a cute and fun child's Christmas card.

How adorable is a baby reindeer?!! There is Glossy Accents on his red nose of course and I added touches of sparkle to the lights/baubles and stars with clear Wink of Stella. A little tinsel trim adds more sparkly delight.

Materials used:

• stamps - Twinkle Toes (Unity Stamp Co)
• dies - Essential Stylish Ovals (Spellbinders)
• Copic markers - E50,E51,E53,E55,E57,E47,R24,R27,RV11,Y35,B0000,B06,T1,T2
• other - MISTI, papers from Etsy and Mintay, Big Shot, craft foam, Glossy Accents, clear Wink of Stella, mini tinsel trim (Stampin' Up)

Have a twinkly day and thanks for calling in!

Cheers

Kerry

Turning One

Welcome to a new challenge with Just Add Ink. It's our stencils and/or dies challenge and we've added a theme sure to appeal to many of you.

My offering is the card I made for my daughter to give her niece, who recently celebrated her first birthday. 

Pooh and Piglet were cut from thick watercolour card for a bit of texture, while all the accoutrements were cut from white. There are three layers to the number one and I added bling for that something extra.

Materials used:

• dies - Essential Arches, Classic Pooh Birthday Accessories, Pooh & Piglet (all Spellbinders), Large Numbers (Stampin' Up), Santa's Helper (Tim Holtz)
• other - Classic Pooh Birthday Numbers embossing folder (Spellbinders), blending brushes, Big Shot, rhinestones, foam tape/squares
• inspired by a Meghann Andrew card

So adorable!

I hope you'll get out your kid-friendly dies/stencils and play along. Don't forget to check out other samples for inspiration over on the challenge blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

M is for ...

Today I'm playing along with the AAA Cards challenge.

I picked Minnie Mouse as my M and made a clean and simple birthday card.

Isn't she a sweetie? 

Materials used:

• stamps - Your Day Sentiments (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Classic Mouse (Spellbinders), Beach Bound Christmas Additions (HoneyBee), Hearts Balloon (Waffle Flower)
• other - Big Shot, Y08 and T1 Copic markers, MISTI, craft foam, polka dot paper (Etsy)

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Bold is Beautiful

Today I'm playing along with the current Just Us Girls challenge.

For my card I used bold colours and a bold stamp for the sentiment. 

I die-cut the balloon border first, along with extras of the heart and small round balloons, and chose a palette of bold colours fresh enough to brighten anyone's day. That's mounted with foam onto my base and then it all received a liberal spritz with shimmer mist, so there's a lovely shine everywhere. My sentiment was stamped and cut before adding and the final touch was some glitter card stars. A very simple card that gives a bold wow!

Materials used:

• stamps - Your Day sentiments combo (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Balloon Frame (Waffle Flower)
• distress inks - picked raspberry, carved pumpkin, mustard seed, peacock feathers, wilted violet
• other - Big Shot, blending brushes, shimmer mist, MISTI, white gel pen, foam squares

Have a good day and thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Creepy Peekies

Welcome to a new challenge with Tic Tac Toe, where you pick a row - horizontal, vertical or diagonal - and create using the three elements in that row. 

For my project I made a set of Halloween themed tags using elements from the bottom horizontal row of metal embellishment, Halloween colours and die cut (and also fit the right diagonal of twine, free, metal embellishment).

I die-cut my tags then stamped and watercoloured the adorable images before sponging the edges. The backing was attached and distressed before a black eyelet was added with some mummy cloth threaded through and tied off with baker's twine. I stamped the sentiments, attaching them with staples, and added some ink splatter to my backgrounds.

Materials used:

• stamps - The Creepy Peekies (Unity Stamp Co)
• dies - stitched tags (stash), sentiment strips (Paper Rose)
• other - distress inks, water brush, MISTI, Big Shot, mummy cloth, baker's twine, black eyelets, Crop-O-Dile, blending brush, stapler, fan brush, water spritzer

Do check out projects from my team mates over on the TTTC blog and I hope you'll be inspired to join us and create.

Thanks for creeping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Ride Any Wave

It's sketch challenge time with Just Add Ink. 

I've made an undersea themed card featuring some happy turtles.

Everything was cut from white and coloured with inks. The circles received some spritz so they have a lovely soft shimmer IRL. The turtles and weed etc were splattered with water and blotted. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Turtley Amazing (Pink and Main)
• dies - Happy Turtles, Under the Sea, Postage Collage Coral Reef Silhouettes (all Waffle Flower), stitched circles
• embossing folders - seabed, soft waves (both Stampin' Up)
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, distress spritz and inks, foam squares, water sprayer
• inspired by a Karen Downs creation

Check out more samples on the Just Add Ink blog and if you're inspired to play along, we look forward to seeing what you create.

Thanks for swimming by.

Cheers

Kerry

Still Making Waves

Welcome to a new challenge with All About Papercraft. This month the theme is...

I picked a nautical theme for a birthday card and was in my happy place colouring die cuts and getting inky with stencils.

The focal feature is all cut from watercolour card.

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage Beach Days (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Fair Winds Sailboat, Stylish Ovals (both Spellbinders), Sentiment Strips (Paper Rose), gulls (stash)
• Stencils - Fair Winds (Spellbinders), Clouds (My Favorite Things)
• other - blending brushes, Castaway embossing folder (Spellbinders), foam tape, Big Shot, water brush, MISTI

Check out more masculine goodness from my team mates on the All About blog and of course we'd love you to create and join us.

Entering this in the Krafty Chicks challenge, which has a birthday theme.

Thanks for sailing by.

Cheers

Kerry

Fight Like a Girl

Here in Australia, September is awareness month for gynaecological cancers. Every two hours an Australian woman is diagnosed with a gynaecological cancer and early in 2025 I was one of them. Thankfully the cancer was able to be removed surgically.

The new challenge theme at Festive Friday is perfectly timed to hopefully encourage women everywhere to be aware of the symptoms of these or any cancer and to seek medical help immediately if they occur.

My slimline card uses the these elements from the list: die cut words, awareness ribbon, strength sentiment. banner, hearts.

Materials used:

• dies - large letters (SU retired), awareness ribbon (Lozziecraft), slimline stitched rectangles (Paper Rose)
• other - Big Shot, blending brushes, clear sequins, banner punch, foam squares

I cut and coloured two of each letter using the colours of the various gynae awareness ribbons (see the diagram above) and giving the tops a little more ink for a slight ombre effect. There's also two layers to the awareness ribbon behind them. 

Thanks for dropping in and please, be aware and proactive.

Cheers

Kerry

Rustic Patchwork

It's colour/inspiration time at Just Add Ink and here's our moodboard to play with:

My card uses some colours (red, white, brown) for inspiration as well as the mushrooms from the pic. 

How does the moodboard inspire you? We hope to see you play along.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry