Oceans of Love

It's my last week guesting with Just Us Girls challenges and I've had such a lot of fun playing along each week; I hope you have too. This week it's stencil week.

I created a fun under-the-sea scene using stencils and die cuts.

I began by stenciling the two-tone water background, overlayed with seafloor silhouettes and that fabulous sunken ship! Wanting one more layer in my foreground, I created a makeshift stencil using a die and acetate. I stamped the tiny fish silhouettes and added water splatters. All die pieces were cut from scraps of card I had on hand from previous playing. I sponged the edges of the rock and raised it so things could be added underneath. 

Stencils used - Drifts & Hills slimline (My Favorite Things), Sea Floor Silhouettes (Waffle Flower)

I hope you'll have the opportunity to get out your stencils and play along, and don't forget to check out what the design team ladies created to inspire you.

Thanks to the Just Us Girls team for having me and thanks to you for swimming by!

Cheers

Kerry

Stay Cool

It's my third week guesting with Just Us Girls and the new challenge is a mood board inspiration pic.

The bright colours gave me summer vibes and the mix of straight lines and rounded rectangles brought to mind that summer favourite, popsicles!

I don't have any dies for the popsicles so improvised with some arches cut down a bit and a candy apple stick from a Halloween set. I added the sunnies/shades as well as a shimmery drop of "melting ice", lol. 

Materials used:

• dies - Essential Arches (Spellbinders), Trick or Treat Colorize (Tim Holtz), sunglasses (stash)
• other - blending brushes, foam squares, Sidekick, computer & printer, Kindy Glitz, craft foam, opal rounds (SU)

Hopefully you'll be inspired to play along and don't forget to check out the samples from the design team over on the JUGS blog.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

With Love Rose

It's Word Week at Just Us Girls where I'm guest designer for this month, and the word is ...

I had inky fun with some layering dies and stencil.

I began with cutting all the petals from vanilla cardstock, then the four largest layers again from blush card. Each layer was inked either completely or just around the edges for shading, then I curled some of them. Leaves were coloured and curled too. The background was inked and stencilled before adding white gouache splatters. As usual, the die-cut sentiment is multiple layers. This die is actually all in one piece but it just wouldn't sit right over the leaves, so I cut it in two. A great card for Mother's Day, Valentines, birthday, anniversary, get well or just because.

Materials used:

• dies - Lovely Layers Rose (Honey Bee), With Love (Waffle Flower)
• inks - tattered rose, shabby shutters, peeled paint, forest moss (Tim Holtz), caramel toffee (Altenew)
• other - blending brushes, white gouache, fan brush, trellis stencil (Tim Holtz), foam squares, craft foam

I hope you'll check out the JUGS blog for more samples and be inspired to join the fun and create with flowers!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Birthday Hello

I'm honoured to be joining the team at Just Us Girls challenges as guest designer for the month of May. This week is Die Week with a theme of:

When it comes to sentiment dies one of my favourite types are large dies, especially those I can team up with a co-ordinating stamp, which is what I've done on today's shaker 'Birthday hello' card.

Those adorable pandas certainly know how to party! 🥳

I layered 5 cuts of the frame to allow room for the shaker after deciding the bands between segments were too narrow to use dimensional foam on. With the acetate layer and patterned paper at the back as well, that's a nice sturdy front cover, lol. 

Materials used:

• stamp&die combos - Little Agenda pandas (Mama Elephant), Overlapping Happy Additions (Waffle Flower)
• other dies - Comic Cover Wonky creative cuts (Mama Elephant), hello (stash)
• patterned paper - Rainbow Twirl (Paper Rose)
• other - acetate, Big Shot, clear sequins, MISTI, Copic markers, foam squares

I hope you'll grab some sentiment dies and join the challenge. Be sure to check out what the design team created to inspire you on the Just Us Girls blog!

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Sew Amazing

Over at Just Us Girls it's CASE a design team member week. 

I don't think I've ever taken part in this particular challenge before but Carol's card caught my eye.

Regular visitors will know I am rather partial to a postage collage card, so today I sat down to have a play and here's the result:

To make it my own I made the following changes:

• flipped the angle
• changed the wildflower theme to sewing
• swapped the gingham background for polka dots (to mirror the stencilling)
• substituted scissors and spool for the pen
• moved my sentiment (just because) 

Thanks for the inspiration ladies! Sew much fun! 

Cheers

Kerry

Blooming Thanks

It's stencil week at Just Us Girls and I couldn't resist playing along.

I kept it very simple because, let's face it, you want those gorgeous blooms to be the star of the show! The die chosen for the sentiment is slim and 'open' so it doesn't obscure anything or steal the limelight. The edges were sponged and very lightly distressed (just using a fingernail) for a softer look. 

 

Materials used:

• stencils - Majestic Roses (Altenew)
• inks - coral reef, passion fruit, berrylicious, candy apple (Pinkfresh Studios), sagestone, olive grove, mossy granite (Altenew)
• other - blending brushes, craft foam, word dies (stash), Sidekick

Hope your day includes some crafty play. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Leafy Thanks

It's stencil week at Just Us Girls and who doesn't love playing with inks and stencils?

I was in the mood for some warm colours so here's what I ended up with.

After die-cutting my background piece, I sponged the edges with antique linen then stencilled the leaves. They're mostly dijon and cinnamon with hints of blackberry here and there for extra depth of colour. The stems were added with another stencil and of course - you know me - I then did some splatter with the dijon and cinnamon. I die-cut two of the 'thanks' and layered them over the vellum shadow before adhering. 

Materials used:

• stencils - Thankful Leaves (Kristina Werner)
• SU inks - delightful dijon, cinnamon cider, blackberry bliss, early espresso
• other - blending brushes, MISTI, stitched rectangle dies, thanks dies, Big Shot, antique linen distress ink, fan brush, water spritzer, craft foam

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Thank You Sunflowers

Today's card brings you some pretty sunflowers! I'm taking part in two challenges:

  

I took the colours from the mood board as inspiration for my die-cut florals and card base.

A very simple card - cut the die, use the co-ordinating stencils to colour, attach to card layer then base and add die-cut sentiment and embellishments. I did ink around the edges of the layer behind the flowers for a bit more visual depth. 

Materials used:

• dies & stencils - Sunflower Cluster (Waffle Flower), Thanks (stash)
• distress inks - spun sugar, picked raspberry, wild honey, spiced marmalade
• Altenew inks - silver sage, eucalyptus
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, clear gems, craft foam

It's so fun inking up dies! I do hope you're having some inky fun in your day too. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Birthday Wishes and Cupcakes

Today's card is for two challenges, Inspired by... and Just Us Girls.

 

These challenges were the perfect excuse I really didn't need to bust out some goodies and play!

Materials used:

• dies - Postage Collage, Postage Collage blocks, Happy Birthday script word (all Waffle Flower)
• stencils - Postage Collage Cupcakes, Postage Collage Coloring, Confetti background (all Waffle Flower)
• inks - summer shower, seaside, coral reef, passion fruit (Pinkfresh), golden glitz (Delicata), twisted citron (Tim Holtz)
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, Dimensionals, craft foam, clear Wink of Stella

I chose colours that are festive but not too bold and added some sparkly touches on each panel for extra birthday zing. As usual there are two layers to the die-cut sentiment for strength and depth.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry 

Hello

It's stencil week over at Just Us Girls and I'm playing along.

Also entering in Addicted to CAS challenge #275:

I began by cutting three 3cm squares and rounding opposite corners, then put them on my grip mat and used stencils for the water and land. The sky was blended with three colours and the birds were die-cut and given a little colour too. For the sentiment I die-cut three layers but used the third layer only behind "h", "e" and "o" to allow for the dimension under the "l".

Materials used:

• stencils - Uncharted Waters (Spellbinders)
• distress inks - salvaged patina, peacock feathers, shabby shutters, peeled paint, squeezed lemonade, saltwater taffy, picked raspberry, lost shadow, pumice stone
• other - blending brushes, grip mat, birds in flight die (Poppystamps), hello die (stash), Sidekick, craft foam, Dimensionals

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

We Wish You Joy

I love this week's word theme at the Just Us Girls challenge and happily played along.

I'm also loving this new-to-me die set from Honey Bee Stamps. You just can't help but adore this sweet face!

I die cut all the pieces from white, vanilla or beige card and added shading with either ink or Copic markers. The antlers have two layers to give them a bit more strength, likewise the letters J and Y have three layers for dimension. The sticker initially read 'we wish you a merry Christmas' but I just cut off those first three words to use. 

Materials used:

• dies - Lovely Layers Vintage Reindeer (Honey Bee Stamps), Large Letters (retired SU)
• other - gold glitter card, Christmas patchwork papers (Etsy), Big Shot, Copic markers, blending brush, metallic sticker (Tim Holtz), vellum, Dimensionals, white gel pen

Thanks for stopping by.

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

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

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

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

Cake?

My zany sense of humour has struck again! As soon as I saw the Inquisitive Seagulls stamp set and dies from Waffle Flower, I absolutely fell in love - the humour is sooooooo me, lol! When they arrived in my mailbox yesterday, there was no way I wasn't going to have a play - and, as luck would have it, the challenges at Just Us Girls and Seize the Birthday gave me the perfect opportunity...

Inspiration for this card came from when we used to have chickens and they would flutter up to the window ledge of my daughter's bedroom and peck on the glass, demanding food. If the window happened to be open, they'd just wander right on in, lol. 

I cut four layers of the window frame for depth, adding a sheet of acetate between two layers for 'glass'. Then I cut a background piece of card to size and stencilled the sky/clouds before adding those adorable cake-hungry gulls and some stamping. Too funny! 

Materials used:

• stamps - Inquisitive Seagulls (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Inquisitive Seagulls (Waffle Flower), Vista View Window (Spellbinders)
• other - Big Shot, blending brushes, cloud stencil (My Favorite Things), MISTI

Hope you have some cake in your day! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Getting an Early Start

Over the past few years I've come to love orange and hot pink together, so when I saw the Just Us Girls challenge had this combo, I was highly motivated to play along. 

For some reason my first thought was Halloween and although I tried thinking of other themes, that thought persisted - so of course, eventually I gave in, lol. Here's what I ended up with.

Materials used:

• stamps - Unraveled (Tim Holtz), Gorgeous Grunge (Stampin' Up)
• dies - Trick or Treat colorize, Mischevious (both Tim Holtz)
• distress and distress oxide inks - spiced marmalade, picked raspberry, carved pumpkin
• other - Sidekick, MISTI, Dimensionals, blending brushes

I know it's early for Halloween craft but I am sooooooo in the mood for it this year! This is also being entered in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, which is Anything Goes.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry