Warm Cozy Hugs

It's time for a colour/inspiration challenge with Just Add Ink.

I was pretty happy when I saw this inspiration pic because I knew I had a stencil set with a scene so similar it was uncanny! It was no hardship at all to adopt the colours as well to create a card.

Aww, both kitties look so relaxed and sweet! Makes me want to curl up with a nice warm blankie for a nap too, lol. 

The sentiment on the inside reads, 'Sending you warm cozy hugs.'

Materials used:

• stamp/stencil combo - Postage Collage Sew Fun (Waffle Flower)
• other stamps - Stay Warm (Mama Elephant)
• dies - Postage Collage (Waffle Flower)
• 3D embossing folder - Knitted (Lisa Horton)
• other - Big Shot, blending brushes, grip mat, linen thread, tiny tag punch, Dimensionals, MISTI, mini pins (Tim Holtz)

How do the colours or picture inspire you? We hope you'll play along with us! Check out more samples over on the Just Add Ink blog.

Thanks for dropping 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

In the Clear

Today's card is for the current Time Out challenge.

The clear elements on my card are vellum leaves and clear enamel dots.

Materials used:

• dies - A7 Postage Collage and Postage Collage Blocks (Waffle Flower), script shadow words
• punch & emboss combo - rose leaves (Floral Punch)
• other - craft foam, Big Shot, clear enamel dots, Pastel Watercolour Elegance papers (Etsy)

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

My Favourite Peeps

I've been having a lot of fun playing with some Easter-themed schtuff inspired by the challenge graphic at Four Seasons Challenges.

I took the chicks, eggs and basket as prompts for my card.
 

Unusually for me, I didn't cut everything from white - I used coloured card throughout and added shading with inks. The eggs I stencilled with various patterns using white artists pastel to keep that soft look. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Egg Hunt Sentiments stamp & die combo, Postage Collage Egg Hunt (both Waffle Flower)
• other dies - Postage Collage, Postage Collage Egg Hunt Icons (both Waffle Flower), Papercut Chicks (Tim Holtz)
• Tim Holtz stencils - mini bubble, mini grid, mini hocus pocus
• other - Big Shot, MISTI, foam squares, blending brushes, white embossing powder, heat tool

Aren't those little chicks adorable? They look really weird till you add the eyes and beak, lol, and then they come to life. 

I hope you're having some fun Easter craft in your day. Thanks for peeping in!

Cheers

Kerry

Life is Beautiful - Just Add Ink Challenge #769

It's Choose Two time again at Just Add Ink with some very versatile options.

So many possibilities! I ended up choosing numbers and words for a postage collage card. 

I started off by using the blocks die to cut my segments, placing them back inside the frame on a sticky mat to do the ink blending. The stamping was done in three parts using my MISTI - the stamps are reasonably small so you can sit quite a few of them on and ink them all at once. The postage themed stamps were last, and they are tricky little devils! They're so small and fiddly and they keep sticking to my fingers when I try to position them, lol. So forgive me if there's a wee bit of crookedness going on! Then I added highlights with a white gel pen. Foam tape was used behind the blended panels to give dimension and the sentiment was embossed with white and raised also.

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage, Lake Sunset (Waffle Flower), Rest & Relaxation (Honey Bee)
• dies - Postage Collage, Postage Collage Blocks
• distress inks - spun sugar, worn lipstick, salvaged patina
• other - Big Shot, blending brushes, Bermuda bay ink (SU), MISTI, foam tape, white gel pen, masking corners stencil (Waffle Flower), white embossing powder, heat tool, Dimensionals

We look forward to seeing how the options inspire you!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

And B-I-N-G-O Was Her Name-O

We're celebrating the birthday of my adorable grandson shortly, which naturally necessitates a card handmade by nana. I had already made the focal feature - his favourite character from the Bluey world - but when I saw the pick two options at Time Out challenges they inspired an idea for the rest of the card...

My picks were rainbow and star.

The background segments were coloured using distress inks then given a spritz of mica stain matching the silver of the 'mylar' balloons. Tons of shine when they catch the light! A white frame was a bit wishy-washy but the darker colour makes everything pop. The gift box was cut from scraps of smooshed card to match the balloon colours. 

As this is for my grandson and features a dog, I'm also entering it in The Male Room challenge

Materials used:

• dies - Postage Collage Blocks (Waffle Flower), Seasonal Decor (Spellbinders), Bluey, balloons (stash)
• distress inks - candied apple, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, mowed lawn, blueprint sketch, wilted violet, peacock feathers, picked raspberry, dried marigold, antique linen
• other - frozen fog mica stain (Tim Holtz), Dimensionals, Big Shot, blending brushes, craft foam

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Letters to You - Just Add Ink Challenge #755

Welcome back to my blog and another Just Add Ink challenge. This week it's a colour combo suggested by yours truly.

Here's my postage themed 'Hello' card using these colours.

The background is misty moonlight blended on white card then stencilled over with grit paste. The various envelopes come from two die sets and are edged and "addressed" in smoky slate. Each of the faux wax seals has three layers of clear embossing powder over the outer circle for a shiny, 'waxy' look. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage, Postage Collage Winter View (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Postage Collage miniature, Envelopes, Postage Collage Mini Seals (all Waffle Flower), Hello (stash)
• stencils - Post Card (Stamperia), Postage Collage miniature (Waffle Flower)
• other - blending brushes, craft foam, Distress grit paste opaque (Tim Holtz), clear embossing powder, heat tool 

Visit the Just Add Ink blog to check out more samples to inspire from my team mates and if you do create, we'd love you to share it with us.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Quilted Hugs

When I saw the picture and colours for this week's challenge at Color Throwdown, I immediately got an idea and today I sat down to make it happen.

Totally inspired by the quilted fabric in the pic, I broke out some new goodies for my card.

The same colour inks have been used throughout but for the quilted background I kept them light, going heavier on the stencils and die cuts. For the scissors I cut two, colouring them separately then attaching the red handle over the grey body. I had sew much fun putting this all together! 

Materials used - all stamps, dies and stencils are Waffle Flower:

• stamps - Postage Collage Sew Fun 
• dies - Postage collage die, Postage collage blocks die, Sew fun die, Tiny square texture die 
• stencils - Postage collage sew fun, Tiny square
• distress inks - barn door, tumbled glass, faded jeans, lost shadow, lumberjack plaid, hickory smoke, vintage photo, antique linen
• other - Subsentiments Quilted Diecut (WF), craft foam, Big Shot, Dimensionals, blending brushes, MISTI

I hope you have as much fun in your day. Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Gull-tastic Birthday - Just Add Ink Challenge #745

It's time for a colour challenge with Just Add Ink and this week's picks are

My whimsical offering was inspired by a card by Kathrin that I just love and I had fun incorporating the challenge colours in there. 

I don't have petunia pop so substituted with picked raspberry distress ink, and I used both the balmy blue and soft sea foam for the water to differentiate it from the blue sky. The grey was used on the gull and umbrella pole, while the sand was inked with neutral brown and overstamped for texture. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Inquisitive Seagulls, Postage Collage, Postage Collage Beach Days (all Waffle Flower), Friendly Seagulls (Stampin' Up)
• dies - Postage Collage, Inquisitive Seagulls (both Waffle Flower), Fair Winds (Spellbinders), Word Bubbles (Stampin' Up)
• other - blending brushes, grip mat, Big Shot, craft foam, MISTI, white gel pen

And speaking of birthdays, it's my birthday today! I'm now old enough to have my doctor visits bulk billed! 😂😂😂👵

If you head over to the Just Add Ink blog you'll find more samples to inspire you. We'd love you to create and share with us.

Thanks for dropping 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 

Sending Love - Just Add Ink Challenge #739

This week at Just Add Ink it's our choose two challenge and our options are:

For my simple card I picked colouring and a variation on thinking of you.

Materials used:

• stamp & die combo - Overlapping Hugs Additions (Waffle Flower)
• stencils - Postage Collage Roses (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Postage Collage (Waffle Flower), large love (stash)
• other - dye inks, blending brushes, Big Shot, mini pearls, Dimensionals

There's more samples to inspire you over on the Just Add Ink blog and if you do create, please share it with us in our gallery.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Happy Holidays - Just Add Ink Challenge #731

Looking for ideas for more Christmas cards? We've got you covered this week at Just Add Ink with this lovely inspiration pic:

I was lightly influenced by the red and white colours but didn't pick any particular item, rather using the overall Christmas theme as inspiration for my card.

As I didn't want the sentiment to steal any limelight from those gorgeous images, I chose a silver-on-white sticker. 

Materials used:

• dies - Postage Collage and Postage Collage Blocks (Waffle Flower)
• papers - Merry & Joy 6x6, 6x8 add-on pack (Mintay)
• other - Big Shot, craft foam, sponge dauber, Holiday metallic stickers (Tim Holtz), Dimensionals

There's more samples to see over on the Just Add Ink blog, so do pop over and check those out, and of course if you create, we'd love you to share your projects using the Linky tool. 

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Christmas Wishes and Gingerbread Kisses - Just Add Ink Challenge #725

I'm back with more stencilling! It's not my scheduled week but I couldn't resist playing along with the new Just Add Ink challenge, lol.

I love, love, love all the layering stencils that are so popular in the craft world at the moment. Here I combined two Christmas-themed stencil sets, unifying them by using the same ink colours throughout. 

Materials used:

• stencils - Postage Collage Gingerbread, Postage Collage Christmas (Waffle Flower)
• dye inks - wintergreen (Catherine Pooler), picked raspberry, tea dye, rusty hinge (Tim Holtz)
• dies - Postage Collage, Merry Christmas Print (Waffle Flower)
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, Dimensionals, vellum

Have you some stencils you just love using? Dust them off and create, then share over on the Just Add Ink blog; we'd love to see them.

Thanks for calling in.

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

Double Trouble

Today's card was inspired by a wicked challenge. 

I used four options from the inspo list - black, orange, candy and bats. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Boo Crazy, Mini Bird Crazy & Things (Tim Holtz), Gorgeous Grunge (Stampin' Up), Postage Collage Spooktacular (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Postage Collage (Waffle Flower)
• stencils - Postage Collage Spooktacular (Waffle Flower)
• distress inks - wilted violet, carved pumpkin, picked raspberry, black soot, lost  shadow 
• other - blending brushes, Dimensionals, Boo Diecut Subsentiments (Waffle Flower), Big Shot, white gel pen

It's getting close to the 31st but there's still plenty of time to get some more fun Halloween craft made! 😆👻 

Thanks for ghosting 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

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

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

The Card Concept #206 - April Flowers

Thanks for joining me for another challenge with The Card Concept. Hopefully our options will inspire you to create, whether it's for a birthday, wedding/anniversary, friendship, Mother's Day or perhaps just a 'thinking of you'. 

My clean and layered card was inspired by the gorgeous pink flowers.

My process was perhaps slightly different: I stamped the flower image first so I could then hold the background stencil over it and find what I considered the best layout to suit the stamp. With the stencil in place I coloured my pale blue background with dye ink, not worrying too much if I went over the stamped image because I knew I'd be using oxide inks to colour that, and they would colour over dye ink. Once the background was done I cut with the postage die and then used stencils to colour the image. Next I added the postage stamping, coloured my background piece, and die-cut a sentiment to fit perfectly within the delineated area, using vellum for the shadow so the stamped images beneath could still be seen.

Materials used:

• stamps - Garden Roses and matching stencils (Pink Fresh Studio), Postage Collage (Waffle Flower)
• card - distress white heavystock, vellum
• distress oxide inks - tattered rose, worn lipstick, picked raspberry, shabby shutters, peeled paint
• other - Postage Collage coloring stencils (Waffle Flower), blending brushes, MISTI, Blueberry ink (Altenew), Miss You die (stash), mounting foam

Check out my fellow team mates' offerings over on the Card Concept blog and don't be shy to share your own creations with us.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry