Christmas Wreath - The Card Concept Challenge #212

It's time for a new challenge with The Card Concept and this month the moodboard features a stunning Christmas wreath to inspire you. 

I chose to go vintage collage for my card which incorporates both wreath and tartan from the pic. 

I added ink to the background pieces to provide cohesion as well as enhance the vintage vibe. My wreath was cut from card coloured with various inks as well as some mica, so it has a lovely sheen and glow when it catches the light. For the bow I attached plaid washi tape to card and die cut from that. The stars were thick chipboard but I removed a couple of layers as I didn't want that much bulk; the chipboard sentiment strip I left as is, as it provides a nice base for the gentleman to stand on. 

Materials used:

• dies - Vault Collection Christmas 2021 (Tim Holtz)
• papers - Christmas backdrops (Tim Holtz)
• ephemera - Christmas ephemera pack, Baseboards & Transparencies Christmas 2023 (TH)
• other - antique linen and vintage photo distress inks, sponge dauber, blending brush, Big Shot, Christmas design tape (TH), distress inks and mica stains, Dimensionals

I hope the moodboard gives you inspiration for your own cards and that you'll share them with us over on The Card Concept blog. Do check out the samples from my fellow design team members. 

This card is also being entered in the current Christmas Kickstart challenge. 

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

First Rule of the Garage

I stumbled across a masculine card I made some time ago and hadn't posted. It uses garage-themed papers and ephemera from Mintay which I knew would go wonderfully with some Tim Holtz hardware and a few metal charms I already had in my stash. Now, I've had these tool charms for literally years and years, so I have no idea of their brand or origin but it's great to finally use them!

The hanging tools - crescent and pliers - are real metal, as is the gauge frame just above the sign (the Hardie Mfg Co. one) and the 'screws' at the corners. The rest is paper/card! 

Here you can see the layering. I attached the tools to my 'corkboard' (die cut from cork-look paper) using jump rings and brads. 

I love the background paper that looks like rusted metal plate but it stole the limelight a bit, so I applied some gesso here and there using a brayer to tone it down. The brass pipe along the right side is fussy cut from a sheet of 12x12" paper. I love, love, love the sentiment on the sign - just makes me smile every time I read this play on the famous line from Fight Club. 

The downside to all this metallic goodness? The card ended up being pretty hefty which means when I try to stand it up, it just falls over from all the weight on the front!!! Roflol. Ah well, the recipient will just have to prop it up or lay it down.

Materials used:

• card - early espresso, basic black
• papers - Garage collection (Mintay), Golden Days collection (Mintay)
• dies - corkboard (Paper Rose)
• Tim Holtz ideaology - machinery heads, gauge dials, metal gauge frames, jump rings, brads
• other - gesso, brayer, mini glue dots, craft foam, Dimensionals, Big Shot

Maybe you've got something in your stash that needs to see the light of day too - go on and check it out! Remember, if you use up stuff it gives you an excuse to buy more to fill the gap left behind!!!!!! 😉

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Sew Excited!

Way back in mid-March I was offered the opportunity to be a Guest Designer on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for the month of June. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase some projects for the next four weeks alongside the immensely talented regular members of the Design Team, and hope you will join me on this creative journey.

This week the theme is NOT A CARD and as it's the first Monday of the month, SSS are showcasing a brand/company and the design team are all using products from Tim Holtz. You don't have to use them to join in with the challenge, but if you have them we'd love to see them used.

So, without further ado, let's dive into my project! 

It certainly is no hardship at all for me to use Tim Holtz products, as regular visitors will know - the difficulty was in choosing from my stash of TH goodies! I finally decided to use some of Tim's gorgeous fabrics to make some phone/tablet stands. They make great gifts - once you have enough for yourself, of course! 😉

For extra fun and decoration I added some charms from Tim's Idea-ology range to the floral stand.

 

Perfect for watching your favourite YouTube videos!

Designer William Morris famously said,  “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful" and I think these stands fit the bill for both.

Materials used:

• Tim Holtz fabrics - Eclectic Elements Gilded Mosaic Gold and Bouquet
• Tim Holtz Idea-ology - metal hook clasps, thought tokens, heart adornments, antiqued gems, jump rings
• other - sewing machine and thread, ribbon, dry rice, wadding, chipboard

Please do pop over to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog to see what gorgeous creations the design team have come up with to inspire you.

The lovely folks over at Simon Says Stamp are generously giving away a fabulous $25 voucher to shop at the Simon Says Stamp Store - all you have to do is take out your crafting supplies, make something following this week's prompt, and link up at the bottom of the Challenge Blog post. You can join up to 5 times, giving you 5 chances to win! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Things with Wings

I decided to join in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week with the theme Things with Wings and had a blast creating this mixed media card.

Materials used:

• card - very vanilla, basic white, early espresso, watercolour, Essentials (The Junk Journal Studio)
• distress/oxide inks/sprays - uncharted mariner, rusty hinge, vintage photo
• other Tim Holtz products - Silhouette Birds die, Field Notes ephemera, Clippings stickers, distress paint antique linen, mummy cloth, Sidekick, distress watercolour pencils
• other - branch die, small rhinestone, sponge daubers, paint brush, craft foam, Dimensionals, crimper

I was lovely to get my grunge on a little bit with plenty of distressing, sponging and splattering, lol. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Edited to add: I was lucky to be picked for both the Designer Spotlight and as the random winner of the challenge! Many thanks to the design team and Simon Says Stamp.

We're Going on an Egg Hunt

With both my girls grown and in homes of their own, I don't often make for Easter these days, but when I saw the Tim Holtz Easter release, I just knew I had to get them and create.

I've made a small display dome heavily inspired by two of Tim's makers, Paula Cheney and Tami Bastiaans.

The rabbit and eggs were painted with distress paint, I coloured the flowers using oxide sprays and hauled out some fake moss I bought years ago for the grass. Everything is hot glued in - it seems to be the only type of glue that holds that moss, which is kind of plasticy and very resistant to staying put, lol. As my eyesight isn't great for painting finer details with a brush, I used a Copic marker for the eyes and nose on my Easter Bunny.

By the way, this dome is only 4 1/4" high (about 11cm) and those tiny eggs are just that at 1/2" (1.3cm)!

Materials used:

• Tim Holtz Ideaology - salvaged rabbit, tiny eggs, barrel, bouquet, display dome
• distress paints - saltwater taffy, salvaged patina, dusty concord, squeezed lemonade, walnut stain, frayed burlap, antique linen
• distress oxide sprays - worn lipstick, kitsch flamingo
• other - E47 copic marker, linen thread, hot glue gun, imitation moss, paintbrush

With my first grandchild on the way, from next year I'll be able to indulge and make tons of fun things for all the holidays and occasions - can't wait!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

PS How many of you saw my title and started singing 'we're going on a bear hunt' in your head like I did? Fess up! LOL.

Just Add Ink Blog Hop

At Just Add Ink challenges we're starting off the new year with a blog hop and the theme is 

If you've come from Rochelle's blog then you're in the right place. If you're starting here, you'll be able to keep following all the links to take you around the hop. 

My two favourites pasttimes are crafting (naturally) and reading - I'm rather a voracious reader and always have been and it's something I wanted to pass down to my girls. Elder Daughter seemed keen for a while  but her interest began to wane when she was in year one.

Then something happened that changed everything.

She came out of school one day chattering and excited about a book all her friends were talking about. Having never heard of it, I asked some of the other mothers, to be told it was a new phenomenon everywhere and that some of them had read it too. So I bought the book and we took turns reading it - and thus began her love for the fantasy genre and reading in general.  

The book? Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

So for my favourites project, I'd like to share an item that combines my two favourite pasttimes as well as being something I made for one of my two favourite people. 

There were lots of steps in making this, as you can imagine, but it was a labour of love. I began with making the 'book' base to support all the other bits - this is made from a wooden box (Tim Holtz vignette box) and I pretty much followed a tutorial by Tami Bastiaans here but changed a few things to suit, using a copy of the original bookcover, which is the edition we have. 

The suitcases were made using the SU retired matchbox die and some TH cracked leather cardstock. Luckily we live in a digital age, so I was able to find copies of the Hogwarts letter to Harry and his ticket for the Hogwarts Express. 

For the inside of the 'textbooks' I scanned pages from the actual book and cut them to size. The covers are TH ephemera. For the 'potions' inside the bottles I coloured glossy accents with alcohol ink, mixing them together with a toothpick. The bottles were grunged up a bit with collage medium and touches of distress crayon. I rolled up vellum for parchment (in the cauldron and down front with a quill die).

The owl was bought from a dollhouse miniatures place here in Melbourne. I did have to shave a bit off the tail to make it fit in the birdcage, lol.

As this represents Harry at the train station ready to head off to Hogwarts for the first time, I know that strictly speaking the broomstick shouldn't be there, but it was so adorable I just couldn't resist. Call it poetic licence, lol.

If you're a fellow Harry Potter fan, I hope you enjoyed that walk down memory lane! And I'm very happy to report that ED loves it.

Materials used:

• card - Coastal (Kaisercraft), basic white, vellum
• Tim Holtz Idea-ology - birdcage, cauldron, broomstick, potion bottles, vignette box, Memoir ephemera pack, 
• other TH products - collage medium matte, walnut stain and vintage photo distress crayons, vintage photo archival ink, antique linen distress paint, jump rings, alcohol inks,Regions Beyond die
• other - linen thread, computer and printer, Wee Creations miniatures, glossy accents

Thanks for calling in. I hope you find plenty to love along the hop and of course we'd love to see YOUR favourites on our challenge board this week.

Cheers

Kerry

Click on the icon below to hop to the next blog, which is Narelle.