Happy Birthday Gullfriend - Just Add Ink Challenge #712

Jo has given us a sketch for this week's Just Add Ink challenge. 

I've created a sunrise over the sea scene with a bit of a pun sentiment that appeals to my quirky sense of humour, lol. 

My background is stencilled on watercolour paper using distress oxide inks. All the die-cut pieces were cut from white cardstock and coloured using oxides also. I have used some creative licence in moving the focal shape down a bit from what's in the sketch - well, those posts would look silly floating in mid-air/mid-ocean!!! 

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage Beach Days (Waffle Flower)
• distress oxide inks - squeezed lemonade, saltwater taffy, dusty concord, villainous potion, uncharted mariner, black soot, brushed corduroy, vintage photo, spiced marmalade, lost shadow, walnut stain
• stencils - Uncharted Waters (Spellbinders)
• dies - Oh, Buoy! (Spellbinders)
• other - sticky grid mat, blending brushes, Sidekick, Dimensionals, craft foam, white embossing powder, MISTI, heat tool

What does our sketch make you think of? We'd love to see your creations in our gallery - just head off to the Just Add Ink blog and while you're there, check out what my fellow team mates have made to inspire you.

Thanks for cruising by.

Cheers

Kerry

Promise of Peace

Every now and then I enjoy the challenge of making a clean and simple (CAS) card and the theme at Addicted to CAS caught my eye and sparked an idea. I really hope I'm not the only one whose creative muse won't let me rest until I've sat down to see whether or not my idea will work ... 

And here's my offering:

This was a very quick card to make, probably no more than 10 mins start to finish. I die-cut the splat shape out of a piece of scrap card to use as a mask, blended with distress inks, stamped the sentiment and die-cut the gulls. Card done! 

Materials used:

• stamps - Sunrise, Sunset (Fairy Hugs)
• dies - Nesting Splat (Paper Rose), Guiding Light (Spellbinders)
• distress inks - scattered straw, saltwater taffy, abandoned coral, salvaged patina, mermaid lagoon
• other - blending brushes, MISTI, craft foam, Big Shot, VersaFine Clair Twilight ink

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

A Cup of Christmas - Just Add Ink Challenge #711

Totally loving the inspiration pic for this week's Just Add Ink challenge and couldn't resist playing along. 

Christmas in July, a warm blanket, hot chocolate, marshmallows ... I'm there! 

Taking a deep dive through my stash of random dies, I was delighted when I found some I thought made the perfect combo for this challenge. I chose to use pastel tones for a soft, almost watercolour kind of effect. 

All the bits were die cut from white and coloured with Altenew inks. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Merry Cafe (Stampin' Up)
• card - basic white, sandstone
• other - hot cocoa cup and marshmallow dies (stash), Christmas die (stash), snowflake embossing folder (Crafter's Companion), Altenew inks, blending brushes, Dimensionals, craft foam, Big Shot, T4 Copic marker

Do check out what my fellow team-mates created over on the Just Add Ink blog, and thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kerry

Birthday Dinosaur

When I saw the options in this week's Color Throwdown challenge I immediately had an idea.

I thought they suited a card for a little boy, so got out my dies to have a play and this is what I came up with:

I stencilled the terracotta layer to get the look of plaid fabric. The pocket I curved to give it shape and adhered it only around the U portion so you can actually add something in there. 

Materials used:

• card - night of navy, copper clay, basic beige, basic white, basic black (Stampin' Up)
• dies - Birthday Dinosaur (Spellbinders), overalls and number die from stash
• other - Plaid Builder stencil (My Favorite Things), blending brushes, Dimensionals, Big Shot

So cute! 

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Let's Par-tay! - Just Add Ink Challenge #710

It's time to par-tay! Welcome to a new challenge with Just Add Ink where Jan suggested we...

Woot, woot! I featured party hats, streamers and bold colours on my bright easel birthday card. 

I began by die-cutting all the bits for the hats and colouring them using oxide inks. Once that layer of ink was dry I could then use the co-ordinating stencil with more oxides over the top - love, love, love this ability of oxides for layering. For my background I began with stamping in a lighter shade of teal but decided that was too 'in your face' for what I wanted (it's a very busy stamp!). I did, however, like the placement of the word "Hooray!" and thought it might be fun to have that highlighted, so I coloured it with a marker and stamped that first, then cleaned my stamp and re-inked with Versamark, stamping again and adding clear embossing powder to give a subtle background. There are two layers to the "PAR-TAY!" sentiment, again coloured using the same oxide inks. Streamers and brightly coloured dots add to the party atmosphere. 🎉

Materials used:

• stamps - Celebrate background (HoneyBee Stamps), Sentiment Strips 2 (Altenew), Birthday Shenanigans (Simon Says Stamp)
• dies and stencils - Party Hat (HoneyBee Stamps)
• other dies - Vault World Travel, Celebrate Colorize (both Tim Holtz)
• distress oxide inks - twisted citron, wilted violet, peacock feathers, picked raspberry, mustard seed, ripe persimmon
• card - basic white, basic black, Bermuda bay, retired DSP (all Stampin' Up)
• other - Bermuda bay marker, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Big Shot, blending brushes, MISTI, Dimensionals, craft foam, coloured dots

We'd love to see your party fun creations over on the Just Add Ink blog and be sure to check out my fellow team-mates' cards. 

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

And the Summer Hits Just Keep on Comin'

Today's card is for another couple of challenges with - yep, you guessed it - Summer Fun as the theme, this time over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and also the Paper Players.

After having to really restrain myself with my last card being CAS, I had so much fun getting inky and layering with this mixed media number.

Everything other than the card base itself were made using white cardstock and coloured with distress oxide inks. There are three layers to the tree trunk because I wanted dimension but didn't want to fiddle with really narrow pieces of mounting tape! 

Materials used:

• dies - Surf Shack (Cottage Cutz), Guiding Light (Spellbinders)
• distress oxide inks - salvaged patina, peacock feathers, brushed corduroy, vintage photo, walnut stain, twisted citron, mowed lawn, pine needles, mustard seed, abandoned coral, picked raspberry, lost shadow
• other - blending brushes, white gel pen, titanium white pan pastel, water spritzer, Sidekick, craft foam, Dimensionals, distress tool

If you're in my part of the hemisphere, I hope it's not too cold and miserable and this helps you look ahead to some summer fun. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Summer Fun

It seems like almost every challenge blog based in the northern hemisphere has Summer has their theme at the moment. Certainly it's no hardship to be thinking of warmer days and outdoor fun instead of the rain and cold, lol. A couple of clean and simple challenges caught my eye and when an idea popped into mind ... well, you know how that goes ...

And here's my offering:

This was most definitely a challenge for me, I kept wanting to add things, lol. Even now my fingers are itching ...

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage, Postage Collage Beach Days (Waffle Flower)
• stencils - Postage Collage Beach Days (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Postage Collage (Waffle Flower)
• inks - crumb cake (Stampin' Up), salvaged patina, peacock feathers, candied apple, carved pumpkin (distress), hickory smoke (distress archival), black
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, MISTI, mounting tape

Still a ways to go before we can say goodbye to winter, but thoughts of sunshine and beaches are always welcome!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Beach in a Bottle

This week's Tic Tac Toe challenge really got the old grey matter ticking and cranking, lol. Here's the board:

I was sorely tempted by the beach option. It's been so cold here the last couple of weeks, courtesy of a polar blast from Antarctica, that the idea of a sunny beach really appealed. So I picked the middle horizontal row - Beach, Yellow and Fun Fold - and let an idea percolate for a day or two until this morning I sat down to see if it would pan out. Happily, it did! Here's my offering:

Everything was cut from white cardstock and coloured using distress inks. I repeated the sunrise colours on the inside, stamping towards the bottom so it shows in easel mode, and attached the seagull from the set to act as a 'stopper' - and because it looks so cute there! 

Materials used:

• stamps - Polynesian Paradise (My Favorite Things)
• dies - Surf Shack (Cottage Cutz), Whale in a Bottle (Spellbinders), 
• distress inks - salvaged patina, peacock feathers, squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, antique linen, tea dye, brushed corduroy, vintage photo, twisted citron, mowed lawn, abandoned coral, scattered straw, saltwater taffy
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, Dimensionals, circle punch, masking paper

Hope this brings a warm wish and sunny smile to your day! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Travel - Just Add Ink Challenge #708

It's a choose two option this week with Just Add Ink! Here's what we've got for you:

I chose blending and embossing, though I did end up - as so often happens with a choose two - using some of the third element as well, lol. 

My turquoise background piece is a blending of two inks, then I lightly applied some embossing ink through a stencil and added embossing glaze in a matching tone. The glazes are transparent, which was ideal when I was after more of a 'hint' of colour, rather than a full-on immersion. My globe was cut from card in my stash that had ink blending already and I added more blending around the edges of the continents to mimic the look of an atlas (for those of us old enough to remember what they are, lol). There are multiple layers to my airplane for extra depth and sturdiness. I chose a lowercase alphabet for 'travel' to contrast with the uppercase stamped sentiments.

Materials used:

• stamps - Tiny Text (Tim Holtz)
• dies - Vault World Travel (TH), Alphanumeric Tiny Type Lower (TH), stitched rectangle (Paper Rose)
• distress inks - salvaged patina, peacock feathers, wild honey, twisted citron
• other - compass stencil (Stamperia), salvaged patina distress glaze (TH), distress embossing dabber (TH), craft foam, MISTI, Dimensionals, Big Shot, blending brushes, heat tool

There are more samples to inspire you on the Just Add Ink blog and as always, we'd love to see your creations in our gallery.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Hello Friend

Today I'm playing along with this week's Tic Tac Toe Challenge. Here's the grid:

I picked the left hand vertical column - friendship, die cuts, ink blending.

My background piece was in my stash, stamped in Versamark and clear embossed, then some white ink blended lightly over it - this mutes the background colour a little while also bringing out the stamped/embossed portion. I die cut the bird and branch/leaves, then coloured with oxide inks, used bought paper flowers but changed the centres to match my card base, and went (maybe a little too) crazy with white gesso splatters lol. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Vintage Flora (Honey Bee Stamps), Tiny Text (Tim Holtz)
• dies - layered chickadee (Simon Says Stamp), branch, stitched rectangle (Paper Rose), friend (stash)
• distress inks - squeezed lemonade, stormy sky, twisted citron, mowed lawn, brushed corduroy, picket fence
• other - Dimensionals, Big Shot, MISTI, blending brushes, black gem, paper flowers and stamens, white gesso, fan brush

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Edited to add: The team at Tic Tac Toe chose my card as the Designer Pick for this week. Many thanks! 

Birthday Fishes

I love the Seize the Birthday challenge this week! 

I sat and had a play with the first idea that came to mind - but you never know, I might think of more before the week is out, lol. 

After cutting my postage die and positioning the blocks stencil, I inked with light and medium aqua, then placed my second stencil over the top (the waves) and inked with medium and dark aqua to get this tone-on-tone effect. Next I stamped some weeds along the "sea floor" before stamping, colouring and fussy-cutting the aquatic friends and cake. If you imagine those things at the top of the cake are candles (and that you could actually light candles underwater, lol), the blowfish is perfectly positioned to be blowing them out! (I know, my mind is a scary place 😉)

Materials used:

• stamps - Gill Friends (My Favorite Things), Big Bite (Gerda Steiner Designs)
• postage collage - A6 die and blocks stencil (Waffle Flower)
• other - blending brushes, Copic markers, waves stencil, Big Shot, MISTI, sticky grip mat, Dimensionals, foam tape, blender pen

Thanks for swimming by.

Cheers

Kerry

Ahoy - Just Add Ink Challenge #706

It's time for some crafty inspiration with a new Just Add Ink challenge! This week we've a pic (chosen by yours truly) to stir up those creative juices.

The cute little sailor hat and neckerchief on the dog inspired me to use a nautical theme for my card.

While the anchor, waves and gulls are die-cuts, I didn't have a die in the right size for the lifebuoy so made my own with two circle dies.  

Materials used:

• dies - Coastal Escape View (Spellbinders), Layering Circles (Stampin Up), Birds in Flight (Poppystamps), stitched rectangle (Paper Rose)
• Mintay - designer paper and cut-apart from the Marina collection
• other - linen thread, Dimensionals, craft foam, Big Shot, Copic markers

We look forward to seeing how the images inspire you. Check out more samples over on the Just Add Ink blog and thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept #208 - Hello Summer

Got the winter blues? Cheer yourself up by using The Card Concept's Hello Summer board as inspiration for your cards this month!

My mixed media card was inspired by the colours and starfish.

I began by making the starfish using soft clay and a mould; once dry I coloured them with oxide sprays. More sprays were used on the teal background piece and mummy cloth, which I then interwove with a few fibres from hessian ribbon. For the foreground I used sand embossing powder over crumb cake cardstock - it's the first time I've used this powder and I was thrilled at how realistic it looks! I got out my stash of seashells, assembling those with the mummy cloth, starfish and some art stones/art pebbles. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Ocean Wisdom (Stampendous)
• card - distress watercolour (Tim Holtz), crumb cake and basic beige (Stampin' Up), vellum
• distress spray stains/oxide sprays - salvaged patina, peacock feathers, lost shadow, pumice stone
• other - silicone mould Sea Land - Corals and extra light soft clay (Stamperia), Sand embossing powder (Hero Arts), heat gun, art pebbles and art stones (Art Ingredients), mummy cloth (TH), hessian ribbon (SU), seashells, craft foam

I'd love to be walking along a warm beach right now, wouldn't you?

Check out more inspirational ideas over on The Card Concept blog. This is the last challenge before the US summer break, so no more challenges until September. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

With Love and Hugs - Just Add Ink Challenge #704

Welcome back to another Just Add Ink challenge and we've a beautiful colour combo for you to play with. Don't forget you can add neutrals in black, grey, brown, white and vanilla as accents if you wish.

These colours are so soft and feminine and I immediately wanted to go with a shabby/vintage look for my card.

I began with die cutting the flower and leaves, colouring all the layers with different intensities of flirty flamingo and basic beige inks. The bird was next, coloured using lemon lolly and some greys. I very lightly tinted the mini postcard die with more beige and stamped in grey archival ink. The two small postage stamps have freesia backgrounds and some beige and grape inks on the stamped images. For my background I stamped with Versamark and embossed with white, then did a watercolour wash using the two purples. After everything was assembled, the finishing touch was some white paint splatters.

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage (Waffle Flower); Vintage Flora, Blooming View and Postmarked (Honey Bee Stamps)
• card - Distress watercolour (Tim Holtz); basic white, fresh freesia and basic beige (Stampin Up)
• dies - Bloom colorize (TH), Layered Chickadee (Simon Says Stamp), Postage Collage (WF), Nesting Postage (Hero Arts), Mini Postcard and Blooming View (HB)
• inks - lemon lolly, flirty flamingo, fresh freesia, gorgeous grape, basic beige, smoky slate, basic grey (all SU), hickory smoke and black soot archival (TH), Versamark
• other - water brushes, blending brushes, Big Shot, MISTI, Dimensionals, postage collage stencil (WF), white embossing powder, heat tool, blender pen, black rhinestone, distressing tool, craft foam, picket fence distress paint, splatter brush, distressed tile 3D embossing folder (SU)

We'd love these colours to inspire you to create and share, just head over to the Just Add Ink blog to join the linky. While you're there, take a look at the beautiful samples my fellow team mates have made.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Submitted to the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge Lots of Texture (dry embossing, heat embossing, layering dies, layers) and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge Anything Goes

Celebrate - Just Add Ink Challenge #703

This week's challenge with Just Add Ink is so versatile you'll want to jump right into your crafting supplies!

Pretty hard to resist, right? I chose balloons and bright colours for a celebration card suitable for a number of occasions - birthday, anniversary, job promotion, etc.

I began with stencilling the balloons using distress inks, two shades of each colour. Once that was done I die cut the stitched border then added the confetti and streamers using gold pigment ink - pigment ink sits over the top of dye ink easily. The gold has a lovely subtle sheen and certainly adds to the celebratory atmosphere! 

Materials used:

• card - basic white, brushed metallic gold, vellum, gorgeous grape
• distress inks - squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, salvaged patina, peacock feathers, kitsch flamingo, picked raspberry, wilted violet, villainous potion
• other - balloon/confetti/streamers stencil (stash), blending brushes, golden glitz pigment ink (Delicata), slimline stiched rectangle die, Big Shot, celebrate die

Which two options would you choose? If you create, be sure to share it with us over on the Just Add Ink blog, we'd love to have you!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Entered in Just Us Girls stencil week challenge.