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

Making Me Smile

The Inspired by challenge board really caught my eye and it didn't take long before I decided to try out an idea.

I do love using neutrals occasionally, especially the combo of white and kraft used here. Those two colours were inspiration for my card and I think the leaves also echo the triangular shape of the bookshelves. 

I cut all the leaves and veins from both heavyweight watercolour and kraft heavystock - I love the extra heft for small pieces, plus they take really well to dry embossing. I stamped the 'make me smile' part of the sentiment a little darker as I wanted to emphasise those words.

Materials used:

• stamps - Sentiment Strips 2 (Altenew)
• card - watercolour (Cansen), kraft heavystock (Tim Holtz), basic white (SU)
• inks - crumb cake (SU), vintage photo archival (TH)
• other - craft foam, Dimensionals, blending brush, water spritzer, Big Shot, MISTI, regular and 3D embossing folders, Artsy Leaves dies (TH)

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

Cheers

Kerry

Edited to add: Thanks so much to the design team for the pick as winner for this challenge.

JAI #647 - Just Add a Sketch

Welcome to another challenge with Just Add Ink, where this week we're giving you a sketch to base your creations on.

I've made a simple birthday card with bright, cheerful colours.

I stencilled the background first, masking and doing all of one colour at a time. The balloons were inked using blending brushes while the confetti used mini blending tools for greater precision. I layered some strips of designer paper, stamped a sentiment (and inked up some white card to turn it pink because I didn't have any of the right colour, lol) and added some sequins - now we're ready to party!

Materials used:

• stamps - Sentiment Strips 2 (Altenew)
• card - basic white, Bermuda bay, retired DSP
• SU inks - Bermuda bay, polished pink, daffodil delight, granny apple green, pumpkin pie
• other - balloon stencil, craft foam, blending brushes, mini glue dots, clear sequins, mini blending tools (Ranger), MISTI

What would you do with this sketch? We'd love to find out in our gallery and of course there's plenty more to inspire you over on the JAI blog. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept - May Flowers

Our challenge theme this week over at The Card Concept is May Flowers. With the rest of the design team in the northern hemisphere, they're enjoying all the new spring growth in their gardens. Here's our inspiration picture:

For my mixed media card I was inspired by the floral theme and the soft shades in the colour swatch, and I've given it an Aussie twist with a flowering gum as my feature.

Materials used:

• stamps - Sentiment Strips 2 (Altenew)
• card - watercolour, very vanilla
• distress oxide inks - saltwater taffy, fossilized amber, abandoned coral, barn door, evergreen bough, lucky clover
• distress crayons - barn door, fossilized amber
• other - aquapainter, Big Shot, craft foam, stitched rectangle die, Stamparatus, heat tool, Gum Leaves 1 die (Paper Rose), water spritzer, Quilted 3D embossing folder (Tim Holtz), Dimensionals, ground espresso archival ink, blending brush

There's plenty more inspiration for you over on The Card Concept blog and we do hope you'll join in the challenge with us.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept - How Does Your Garden Grow

This week's theme for The Card Concept is How Does Your Garden Grow and we have a truly gorgeous inspiration pic for you for challenge #174:

As much as I love flowers in a garden (although sadly, my current abode doesn't have any), what I have always enjoyed more is watching and listening to the birds that come to visit. They're a delight to see and hear as they flit among the trees or scour the front lawn after a spot of rain. So birds in the garden were the inspiration for my mixed media card.

I gave my card a subtle floral background with some stencilling and texture paste.

Materials used:

• stamps - Sentiment Strips 2 (Altenew)
• stamp/die/stencils - Songbirds on Branches (Pinkfresh Studios)
• card - basic white, smoky slate, Bermuda bay
• Altenew inks - frayed leaf, forest glades, evergreen (leaves); citrus burst, fresh lemon, volcano lake, lagoon (birds)
• other - double stitched circle die (Poppycraft), craft foam, Dimensionals, textture paste (Ranger), Florals stencil (Tim Holtz), spatula, Big Shot, Stamparatus, hickory smoke archival ink

As always, there's plenty more inspiration for you over on The Card Concept blog. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Thoughts of You

I thoroughly spoiled myself yesterday with a crafting day (it was my birthday), even getting to play with new stuff! You know how fun that is. Here's one of the cards I made:

I'm entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which this week has an Easter/Spring theme.

Materials used:

• stamps - Sentiment Strips 2 (Altenew), Songbirds on Branches (Pinkfresh Studios)
• card - basic white, pool party
• Altenew inks - frayed leaf, forest glades (leaves); mountain mist (sky); citrus burst, buttercream, lavender fields, deep iris (bird); coral berry, ruby red (flower/buds)
• stencils - Songbirds on Branches (Pinkfresh), slimline cloud (MFT)
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, Songbirds on Branches die (Pinkfresh), mounting strips, craft foam, MISTI, pearlescent gems

Love the Altenew inks for using with layering stencils or stamps, they do gradients of colour so well. Pretty sure it won't be long before I'm playing with these again.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry