Being My Friend

Browsing through the challenge sites I found some with a common theme (click on each icon to be taken to the challenges):

A Cut Above August challenge with optional twist of Fall Flowers

Inspiration Station August prompt

So because I love (a) sunflowers, (b) Autumn colours and (c) ink blending with stencils, I decided to play along.

I cut the die from watercolour card and stencilled with distress inks. My background has been embossed with a woodgrain pattern that's difficult to see on such a dense black, but I promise you it's there! 

Materials used:

• die & stencil combo - Sunflower Cluster (Waffle Flower)
• distress inks - fossilized amber, rusty hinge, lumberjack plaid, aged mahogany, vintage photo, walnut stain, mowed grass, rustic wilderness
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, grip mat, linen thread, sentiment strip (Paper Rose), foam squares, Lumber Large embossing folder (Tim Holtz), water spritzer

Hope you have some creativity in your day. Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Letting Things Go

I recently had my first attempt at a collage layout in my art journal, though it's probably more of a 'clean and simple collage' than a true collage, lol. It incorporates an autumn theme and colours and while it didn't end up looking exactly how I'd imagined, I let that ideal go and have come to love it. 

I began with covering the double spread using paints in yellows and oranges then stamped and clear embossed large leaves. Once dry I sponged over the background with blue and did some stamping of text with brown ink. Unfortunately I forgot to use permanent ink and used dye ink instead, so when it came time to glue the fussy-cut images and give the whole thing a coating of collage medium, the dye ink smudged, turned the blue to a murky green/brown and ended up darker than I'd intended. Lesson learned, sigh! I shadowed the collaged images with marker, added a sentiment and splatter, and darkened around the edges to draw the eye in. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Sketchy Leaves (Tim Holtz), script (stash)
• collage images - Autumn Stories (Maremi's Small Art)
• other - distress paints, clear embossing powder, heat tool, collage medium, Big Brush Pens 

I'm entering this in the Four Seasons Challenge for this month, which is autumn/fall.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

From Our Patch to Yours

I had one of those moments that fellow crafters will recognise - I was going through my stash of dies looking for something, when I came across a set I picked up ages ago at a craft sale and have never used. It's autumn/fall themed and very cute - and you know how much I love autumn. As I was about to bypass it, sad that it's the wrong time of year for it, I reminded myself that it is autumn on the other side of the globe and surely there'd be an appropriate challenge around. I was right! (click on the icons to go to the challenge)

     

So I happily sat down and began to play...

For the background I used patchwork patterned paper dry-brushed with gesso to mute the tones a little and also enhance the rustic feel. Most of my die-cut pieces were cut from coloured card and inked for dimension, then raised on the card surface. I don't have a stamp with this sentiment so I printed it on the computer.

It doesn't feel like spring here today, it's very gloomy and raining and now I'm wishing I had some pumpkin to make soup! Lol. (Sorry about the photo - as I said, gloomy day.)

Materials used:

• dies - Pumpkin House (Papertrey Ink)
• other - Autumn patchwork paper (Etsy), craft foam, Dimensionals, distress inks, blending brushes, Big Shot, computer & printer, white gel pen, white gesso, paint brush

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

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

The Card Concept Challenge #209

Are you itching for a challenge to get your creative mojo raring to go? The Card Concept challenges are back after the summer break and here's our first inspiration pic to springboard your ideas:

I used autumn tones and a floral theme for my card.

I added patches of crackle texture paste to the distressed background paper, coloured the die-cut flower using distress inks and painted the stem and leaves with crackle paint for the tiniest of fine cracks. Strips of co-ordinating papers form the stage for my die-cut sentiment and a few gems and gesso splatters added the finishing touches. 

Materials used:

• designer papers - Autumn Splendour (Mintay)
• dies - Sunrise Stem (Simon Says Stamp), Hugs (stash)
• distress inks - dried marigold, spiced marmalade, brushed corduroy, walnut stain
• other - Dimensionals, blending brushes, craft foam, white gesso, fan brush, gems, texture paste crackle (Tim Holtz), distress crackle paint (Ranger)

We'd love you to create a card inspired by our board and share it with us on The Card Concept blog, where you'll find more samples from my fellow design team members. 

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept Challenge #200

It's time for another inspiration challenge with The Card Concept. This month's mood board, titled Autumn Chill, has some gorgeous rich colours and evocative images to get those creative juices flowing.

The challenge is to create a card inspired by any aspect of this photo, whether it's the theme, the colours, one or more of the items in the picture -  just any idea that comes to mind. Plus of course we'd love it if you shared your card in our gallery. If you post on social media, please tag @thecardconceptchallenges2 and use the hashtag #tcc200. 

My card is a simple shabby style in warm colours inspired by pretty much all of the elements in the mood board.

I couldn't go past this image, to me it embodies the spirit of the challenge board so perfectly. I chose copper coloured card to match the hair and die-cut some autumn leaves from ink smooshed card I always keep on hand. They were bent to give them movement and glued in place, while the cable-knit paper and backing card were distressed and offset slightly. 

This is so me, I'm not sure I can bear to give it away so it might end up being added to my art journal for my own personal enjoyment.

Materials used:

• card - copper clay, basic black, basic white (Stampin' Up), boho knit pattern paper (Etsy), watercolour
• dies - Fall Foliage (Tim Holtz)
• other - distressing tool, Sidekick, sponge dauber, copper clay ink, craft foam, digital image (Image Credit: R.W.K. Clark), various distress oxide inks

Do check out all the other inspiration we have for you over on The Card Concept blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept Challenge - Pumpkin Party

This week's Card Concept inspiration pic is these gorgeous pumpkins! 

The first thing that came to my mind was Halloween - seems to be an automatic thing with me when given that particular colour combination and pumpkins, lol. I guess if we decorated for fall/autumn here like they do in the US, it might be a different story. Anyway, I've used a Halloween theme for my clean and layered easel card featuring two adorable Mo Manning images.

Those two cuties were coloured with Copics and I loved the idea of the jack o'lantern container protruding past the edge, so cut around it. I was very happy when I found some papers on Etsy that mirrored the 'candy' I was using. The resin Confections are so cute, simple to colour with alcohol markers (I added the orange to the stripes) and easily cut in half to save on bulk. I even used one of them as the stopper to hold the easel open, lol. Aaaaannd, now I want some candy! 😂😂😂

Materials used:

• stamps - Mummy Baby, Halloween Ghost Baby (both Mo's Digital Pencil)
• card - basic black, basic white
• Copic markers - E00,E21,E11,C0,C2,C4,W0,W2,W3,B00,YR09,YR12,YR15
• other - Idea-ology confections and confections - candy corn (Tim Holtz), pumpkin pie Stampin' Blends (SU), craft foam, jet black archival ink (Ranger), craft scalpel

There's plenty more inspiration over on The Card Concept blog for you to check out.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept - Harvest Bounty or Christmas Joy

It's time for another inspiration challenge at The Card Concept and once again there are two amazing images and colour swatches for you to choose from. 

I picked option a, taking the crate of apples as inspiration for my clean and layered mini slimline card.

The crate is a digital stamp which I printed with the quote (from Mother Teresa) alongside then coloured with Copics. The papers from Mintay were a match made in heaven and I love that soft blue, don't you?Once I had everything assembled it needed a little something to give that finished look, so I got out my trusty sewing machine and added two simple lines of stitching. 

Materials used:

• stamps - All Things Apples (Power Poppy)
• card - basic white, Apple Season papers (Mintay)
• Copic markers - R29,39,89; G24,28,43; E53,33,35; E13,23; B000
• other - small banner punch (SU retired), computer and printer, white gel pen, sewing machine and thread

I hope you'll be inspired to take part in our challenge and to check out what my fellow team mates created for you over on The Card Concept blog.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept - Colours of Autumn

Welcome to a new inspiration challenge with The Card Concept. This week's picture is full of the rich, earthy tones of autumn/fall but it may inspire something completely different for you!

I absolutely love the foliage colours and made a mixed media card inspired by these. The timber boat and dock are represented by the woodgrain panel.

Materials used:

• stamps - Tiny Text (Tim Holtz)
• card - very vanilla and blackberry bliss (SU), woodgrain (TH), watercolour, Woodland Fall papers (PhotoGraphicScrap)
• TH dies - leaf fragments, fall foliage
• distress sprays - crackling campfire, crushed olive, villainous potion, rusty hinge, antique linen
• distress inks - antique linen, vintage photo
• other - blackberry bliss ink (SU), Versamark, vintage pearl embossing powder (Ranger), MISTI, Dimensionals, craft foam, Big Shot, water spritzer, heat tool, sponge daubers, amber gems (SU), paintbrush, blending brush, stitched rectangle die, distress micro glaze

Do check out the lovely cards my fellow team mates have created to inspire you over at The Card Concept blog and as always, we'd love you to join the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Color Throwdown Featured Stamper

My card was lucky enough to be picked in challenge #661 at The Color Throwdown (this card), which means I was offered the opportunity to be Guest Star Stamper for today's new challenge. Now, you all know how much I love a colour challenge, so ...

I spent a joyous afternoon smooshing, sponging and die cutting - ending up with very inky fingers, lol. And even though it's spring here, I fully embraced the fall/autumn vibes for some speckly orange, brown and grey goodness. 

I began with some smoky slate card, cutting it into strips and sponging the edges before gluing them to another piece of card and running them through the embossing folder. After die cutting all the leaves and acorns and sponging the edges, I arranged them with my sentiment, adding the stringy bow made with bits pulled from burlap ribbon as a final touch. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Autumn Leaves (Poppystamps)
• card - early espresso, smoky slate, watercolour, very vanilla
• distress inks/sprays/oxides - carved pumpkin, frayed burlap, gathered twigs, rusty hinge, crackling campfire, vintage photo, dried marigold, pumice stone
• distress archival inks - vintage photo, ground espresso
• dies - Funky Foliage, Fall Foliage (both Tim Holtz/Sizzix)
• other - Ornate Frames thinlits (SU), Big Shot, sponge daubers, Dimensionals, craft foam, water spritzer, heat tool, burlap ribbon, Pinewood Planks embossing folder (SU), Stamparatus, mini glue dots

And there's still plenty of speckly goodness left for another day and another card! 

A big thank you to the folks at Color Throwdown for the opportunity to be Guest Star Stamper. I do hope you'll pop over to their blog to see the design team's beautiful samples and be inspired to join in.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept Challenge - Harvest Adventures

Hi everyone and welcome to another challenge with The Card Concept. Here's our inspiration picture to get your creative juices flowing:

My mixed media card was inspired by the pumpkins as well as those beautiful leaves from the background. As it's all done on thick watercolour card, there's a lovely texture to everything that makes me want to touch, lol!

I had on hand some smooshed ink pieces in oranges and greens, so I made up some yellows, browns and blue/greys. Distress crayons were used for shading and highlighting on the pumpkins and all the leaves had their edges sponged. My background piece is just watercolour card spritzed with antique linen oxide spray and left to dry - don't you love the little blue-ish speckles in it? That's just from oxidisation; gotta love that! As I didn't have any card in the right colour for my base, I used white, sponging the edges with blue ink then randomly stamping a plaid pattern around in blue/grey - I love how that turned out, so I'll be using that method again! I gave it a gentle spritz with water to blend and soften it a bit, then sponged the edges and called it done.

Materials used:

• stamps - Pretty Pumpkins (Stampin' Up), Perfect Plaids (Tim Holtz)
• card - watercolour, early espresso
• distress spray stains/oxide sprays - fossilized amber, mustard seed, wild honey, carved pumpkin, crackling campfire, dried marigold, peeled paint, forest moss, antique linen, iced spruce, walnut stain, evergreen bough, speckled egg, frayed burlap, gathered twigs
• distress crayons - spiced marmalade, crackling campfire, iced spruce, antique linen, hickory smoke, gathered twigs
• distress archival ink. - vintage photo, ground espresso
• pumpkin dies - Layering Pumpkin (Honey Bee Stamps), Autumn Elements (Karen Burniston), Halloween Pumpkin (stash)
• Leaf dies - Fall Foliage (Tim Holtz)
• other - MISTI, craft foam, stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, heat tool, sponge dauber, Dimensionals, blending brush

We'd love you to create your own card inspired by the photo so do pop over to the Card Concept blog to see the other samples made by my fellow team members.

Thanks for stopping by.

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