JAI #573 - Just Add a Sketch

Howdy! Welcome to my first posting as a newly-fledged member of the Just Add Ink design team. I'm excited to be creating alongside these talented ladies.

This week we have a sketch for you. Remember you can flip it, turn it or even reverse it to suit your needs, as long as the sketch is recognisable in the end result.

On my shabby/vintage card I've used a lacey die for my edging feature and a frame for my focal point. 

As I tend to be all about dimension, I cut three of the frames and stuck them together before stamping and embossing with a wood grain effect. The background paper was given a light coat of white ink just to fade it a touch so it didn't compete with my focal feature and the edges were heavily sponged (which draws the eye in) and distressed. Too much fun!

Materials used:

• stamps - Tiny Text, Entomology, Attic Treasures (Tim Holtz), Hardwood (SU)
• card - watercolour, basic white, crumb cake, Rose Avenue dsp (Kaisercraft)
• distress oxide inks - kitsch flamingo, spun sugar, vintage photo, old paper, tumbled glass
• Tim Holtz dies - Crochet, Bloom Colorize, Decor Frames
• other - leaf punch and embosser, antique linen embossing glaze (TH), heat tool, Big Shot, MISTI, blending brushes, distressing tool, Dimensionals, stitched rectangle die (Paper Rose), picket fence distress ink, vintage photo archival ink, aquapainter

I do hope you'll head over to the JAI blog to see how my team mates interpreted the sketch and, of course, we'd love for you to join in the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept Challenge - Sunflowers

Hello and welcome! It's time for another challenge with The Card Concept so here's our pic to inspire you:

As luck would have it, I had some vintage Graphic 45 papers on hand that were perfect for this theme (you all know how difficult it is to throw stuff away, right?). I took the flowers and gingham pattern as my inspirations and chose a mix of vintage and layered styles with lots of sponged edges.

Materials used:

• stamps - Celebrate Sunflowers (SU), Harlequin background (Darkroom Door) 
• card - basic black, French Country patterned papers (Graphic 45), basic white
• other - fired brick distress oxide ink and embossing glaze, heat tool, stitched frame dies, Big Shot, sponge dauber, Dimensionals, craft foam, faceted gems, Copic markers, SU Stampin' Blends, vintage photo distress oxide ink and distress archival ink

Once I'd decided which papers I would use and in which order they'd be layered, I started with picking a sentiment and a size-appropriate die. I went two sizes of die bigger for the gingham layer and both these papers were sponged with vintage photo distress ink. On my brick red piece I did a partial stamp of a harlequin pattern using fired brick distress oxide ink and then applying embossing glaze in the same colour. Doing a partial stamping (ie uneven, not a completely solid image) adds to the shabby/vintage look. Once this was heated, it too was sponged then matted on a narrow border of black card and attached to the next layer of yellow paper. More sponging around the edges. Finally, it was attached to the sunflower paper and black card base. Next I stamped and coloured my sunflowers, fussy cutting them (and a light sponging of the edges), and the final touch was the two small faceted gems to embellish. 

We'd love you to check out the rest of the team's creations - and, of course, to join in our challenge!

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

 

Snowy Treeline

This week I challenged my ladies to make a Christmas card using non-traditional colours, which pretty much means avoiding red and green! So today I sat down to have a play with inks - cos who doesn't love that? - and came up with this wintery scene.

I stamped and embossed the trees first then sprayed the background with distress spray stains. After drying and a bit of smooshing with oxide ink, I stencilled some icicle texture paste over the sky, hoping it would look like icy snow falling. It didn't turn out quite as I was hoping but never mind, it's all practise and experience! 

Materials used:

• stamps - Tiny Text Christmas, Treeline (Tim Holtz)
• card - basic white, basic black, watercolour
• distress spray stains - salvaged patina, prize ribbon
• distress oxide ink - salvaged patina
• other - white embossing powder, heat tool, water spritzer, Icicle texture paste (TH), Speckles stencil (TH), Dimensionals

I've always wanted to experience a white Christmas, it's on my bucket list!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Beauty

This week I gave my ladies a colour challenge so today I sat down to make my own card for it. Originally I had something completely different planned, but an urge to try out the smooshing technique with SU's inks made me change my mind. Here are the colours:

And here's my card:

I smooshed my background using daffodil delight and calypso coral then added a few splatters of soft suede and some partial stamping in the same colour. My flowers were cut from watercolour card and I scribbled them with SU's markers then gave them a good spritz with water, which achieved that gorgeous watercolour effect I am loving! The thing that took the longest was deciding which colour card to use for my base - I tried a few different ones before being happy with Sahara sand, lol.

Materials used:

• stamps - Entomology (Tim Holtz)
• card - blackberry bliss, watercolour, Sahara sand
• SU inks and markers in the colours shown above
• dies - Wildflower Stems 2 (Tim Holtz), stitched rectangle (Paper Rose)
• other - water spritzer, heat tool, craft foam, mini Dimensionals, paint brush, Small Talk sticker (TH)

Pretty sure I'll be doing some more of these techniques again soon!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Use Your Wings - CAS on Friday Challenge #214

For Challenge #214 Janneke has given us this great sketch:

I've taken a fairly liberal interpretation of the sketch, making an inky splodge background rather than a precise circle and using a tree branch as my horizontal line. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Tiny Text (Tim Holtz)
• card - early espresso, watercolour
• distress oxide inks - speckled egg, stormy sky, weathered wood, crackling campfire, walnut stain, vintage photo
• dies - Feathered Friends (TH), Colourful Seasons (SU)
• other - water spritzer, heat tool, MISTI, black rhinestone, distress crayons, sponge dauber

I do hope you'll take a look at the samples my fellow team members have made to inspire you and even be tempted to join our challenge. Just follow the link here.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry 

More Exciting News

I am thrilled to announce that I have now joined the design team with the good folks at Just Add Ink! I can't wait to commence my creative journey with them and hope you'll continue to call in and join me. My first posting as a team member will be Friday 24th September so I hope to 'see' you then!

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept Challenge - Colourful Autumn/Fall

Welcome to my very first challenge as a designer for The Card Concept! We're a fortnightly (bi-weekly) challenge blog that publishes a photo as an inspiration starter for your creativity.

Here's the photo for challenge #159, the theme for which is Colourful Fall/Autumn.

Everyone is welcome to play along, we simply ask that you state in your blog post which element/s of the photo inspired you and which design style you chose to use (you can combine more than one and don't worry, the different styles are explained on our website).

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned many times before that autumn is my favourite time of year as I love the colours of the leaves as they turn, so it will be no surprise that they were the inspiration for my clean and layered card. I also used three of the colours plus a couple more to give a warm, rich palette. Here's my offering:

Materials used:

• stamps - Mocha Fall Girl (Stamping Bella)
• card - basic white, early espresso, Autumn Spice papers (Your Paper Stash)
• other - stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, small banner punch, button die, thread, Copic markers, craft foam, MISTI

My image was stamped on white card and coloured with Copic markers, and I stamped a second image to cut out a few more leaves as extras. Designer paper layers are matted and raised and I punched a small banner accent to tie it all together. The button is a die too, two layers cut from white and coloured with markers to match, then threaded with twine. 

Do follow this link to The Card Concept blog to see what gorgeous cards my fellow team members have created for you, and of course we'd love it if you play along!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Spring is in the Air

Hey ho! Spring has arrived Down Under and I for one am very thankful for the warmer days and nights! I do like not having to bundle up in multiple layers - makes me feel like a yeti, lol.

I challenged my ladies to make a Spring themed card this week and as an extra, extra challenge, asked them to try to avoid having flowers as the main focal point. They have made me proud so far - we've had birds' nests, bees and butterflies. My own card does have some flowers but to me the focus is the little girl and the lamb (cos who doesn't love all the baby animals being born in Spring?). I used Copic markers to colour this adorable image from Mo Manning.

Materials used:

• stamps - Daffodils digital image (Mo's Digital Pencil)
• card - basic white, Sahara sand, Daffodil Joy digital papers (Mary Fran)
• other - stitched circle die, Big Shot, Copic markers, crinkle ribbon, Dimensionals, craft foam, computer and printer, white gel pen

If it's Autumn/Fall where you are, come back around 10pm tomorrow for my first card with The Card Concept, which should be right up your alley.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Hang In There - CAS on Friday Challenge #213

Welcome to another clean and simple challenge with CAS on Friday. Our theme for challenge #213 is BALLOONS and here's my card:

I couldn't resist this cute little guy hanging around, lol. 

Materials used:

• digital image - Flying High (Tiddlyinks)
• card - basic white, coastal cabana
• Copic markers
• T1,2,4
• R32,22,24,83,85,56
• G00, BG11,34
• B0000,000,00
• other - stitched rectangle die, Alphanumeric Tiny Type Lower dies, Big Shot, craft foam, white gel pen

We'd love you to join in our challenge and create a balloon themed card, but meanwhile pop over to the CASOF blog to see what my fellow team members created to inspire you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Exciting News

A while back I promised you an exciting announcement ... so here goes (drum roll please) ... I am now a proud member of the Design Team for The Card Concept challenges. Woot, woot!  

In case you haven't seen it before, The Card Concept is a challenge blog where every two weeks an inspiration photo is posted as a starting point for your creativity. You can take whatever you like from the photo - colours, elements or even just the 'vibe' - and use any design style you like and any brand of product, and hopefully create a card to share with us in our challenge gallery. 

My first posting for that is coming real soon but meanwhile why not pop over to the blog and check out the past challenges? Just follow the links I've attached and be prepared for some amazing ideas!

Cheers

Kerry

Be Curious

I had a late afternoon burst of creative energy yesterday, so decided to have a go at this week's Just Add Ink challenge.

For my "N" I chose Nature and a mixed media card and as it's almost Spring, I used soft colours.

The background was smooshed with distress oxide inks and I love, love, love the gorgeous oxidisation effect I managed to get from dusty concord - wowser, such a beautiful colour. I cut some hexagons and stencilled them with a floral pattern using texture paste and once dry, watercoloured over the paste. For my dragonfly I cut the three layers from watercolour card then used a combination of ink smooshing and watercolouring. Each layer of the wings has also been given subtle sparkle. Some rub ons added a bit of interest and the last feature was the word chip.

Here's some close ups so you can see the layers of the dragonfly and the sparkle on the wings (which is easier to see if you click on the pic to enlarge it).

Materials used:

• card - smoky slate, basic grey, watercolour
• distress oxide inks - dusty concord, tattered rose, squeezed lemonade, hickory smoke, twisted citron
• Tim Holtz/Sizzix dies - Funky insects, Stacked hexagons
• other Tim Holtz products - remnant rubs - Specimen; word chip; matte texture paste; floral stencil
• other - stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, water spritzer, Dimensionals, heat tool, sponge dauber, water brush, clear Wink of Stella, embossing tool

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Rolling in the Deep

(I feel I should have Adele playing in the background, lol)

Hidden deep in my stash, I found an old wood-mount stamp I haven't used in many years - 2006 it was released in! Naturally, a card needed to be made and luckily I have plenty of other goodies to pair it with.

Still in love with distress colour salvaged patina, I wanted to use that to brighten up my browns. Here's how it turned out:

The coffee beans background used antique linen oxide ink through a stencil, with the same colour for the thing that wraps around the coffee cup (can never remember what that's called, lol) and one layer of the steam. For the sentiment I stamped in salvaged patina oxide then sprinkled it with the matching embossing glaze and heat set it - double the colour! My chocolates are coloured with Copic markers. For the dilemma of attaching the vellum, I initially glued it under the stamping and where the coffee cup would be placed, then sewed it on. Unfortunately I got all the way around before realising my bobbin had run out half way through! Refilled the bobbin, rethreaded the machine, and then had to try to stitch in exactly the same place so I wouldn't make more holes, lol. I did go a little crooked but hopefully it just adds to the whimsy and will be overlooked 😉.

What items are at the bottom of your stash that need to see the light of day? Dig them out and have a wonderful time playing!

Materials used:

• stamps - Coffee, Chocolate, Men (Stamp It); Nothing's Better Than (SU)
• card - soft suede, very vanilla, vellum
• distress oxide inks - salvaged patina, antique linen, vintage photo
• other - Coffee Cup thinlits (SU), Cafe Colorize (Tim Holtz), coffee beans stencil (Paper Rose), blending brushes, sponge dauber, salvaged patina embossing glaze, heat tool, Big Shot, distressing tool, sewing machine, Dimensionals, Copic markers E15 E29 E39

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Butterfly Hugs - CAS on Friday Challenge #212

Hello again! I hope you're ready to get your clean and simple on!

This is challenge #212 and the theme is BUTTERFLIES. 

Once I started looking through my stash of goodies I discovered I have quite a range of butterfly stamps, dies and punches, lol, so the difficulty was picking which to use. In the end I opted for these gorgeous transparent wings.

Materials used:

• card - basic white, basic black, tangelo twist
• other - hugs die, nesting slimline rectangle die (Paper Rose), Big Shot, transparent wings (Tim Holtz), opal rounds (SU), mini glue dots, craft foam

Have you got butterflies in your stash too? Pull some out and make a card for the challenge, we'd love you to join us.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

What's Up? You Good?

Giving my ladies a 'shades of blue' theme for a challenge this week gave me the perfect excuse to play for the first time with new distress colour, prize ribbon. 

I decided to see how it pairs with salvaged patina and peacock feathers and must say, I love it! Here's my card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Inquisitive (Tim Holtz)
• card - basic black, coastal cabana, watercolour, basic white
• distress inks/distress oxide inks - salvaged patina, prize ribbon, peacock feathers
• distress oxide spray - salvaged patina
• distress spray stain - picket fence
• other - splatter brush, mini Plus stencil (TH), heat tool, water spritzer, white embossing powder, Dimensionals, blending brush, Copic markers

Hope you're doing good, wherever you may be. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Toadstools & Texture

I made this card back in early May (when it was autumn and not nearly spring, lol) and posted it to Instagram but it appears I completely forgot to post it here, so better late than never, I guess! It was me being inspired by a variety of cards I saw on Pinterest and having fun with various TH elements.

The woodgrain panel used for the base was one I had on hand from a play day, as were the pieces used to die cut the leaves and toadstool. The frame I cut from chipboard and applied crackle paste, painting it once it was dry and rubbing distress crayon into the cracks to highlight them. Script and splodge stamps were used on the background before lots of distressing and sponging of edges. So much fun to put together and one of my favourite cards. 

Materials used (as much as I can remember, anyway):

• stamps - maybe Gorgeous Grunge (SU) and Entomology (TH)?
• card - watercolour, early espresso, vellum, chipboard, woodgrain
• Tim Holtz dies - decor frames, funky foliage
• other - distressing tool, sponge daubers, Dimensionals, hello die, Big Shot
• lots of distress oxide inks including but not limited to - speckled egg, rustic wilderness, crackling campfire, vintage photo, weathered wood, walnut stain

There's more autumn-themed stuff coming in the next month or two as my design teams are based in the northern hemisphere, so get used to these colours!

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry