Just Add Ink #690 - Just Add a Fancy Fold

It's time to shake up your regular cards a little with this week's Just Add Ink challenge to ...

My choice is a centre-step card with an Easter theme. I spent about three hours die cutting, colouring and assembling this card and I am so happy with the result. (And speaking of Easter, some supermarkets had hot cross buns on their shelves on new year's day! Not that I mind, I could eat those all year long, lol, but what the heck!) 

Materials used:

• card - green, white, beige, vellum
• dies - Bunny Games Colorize and Potted 2 (Tim Holtz), Nesting Eggs (Waffle Flower), Happy Easter (stash), Center Step and Center Step Layers (Our Daily Bread Designs), clouds (retired Stampin' Up)
• distress oxide inks - squeezed lemonade, saltwater taffy, shaded lilac, speckled egg, bundled sage, antique linen, brushed corduroy
• other - Big Shot, blending brushes, basket weave embossing folder (We R Memory Keepers), R20, Y13 and T10 Copic markers, sponge dauber, crumb cake ink (SU), mounting tape, water spritzer
• eggy hot air balloon idea inspired by Debi Adams

I began with the bunnies, cutting them from crumb cake card with the smaller pieces cut from white and coloured with markers. Once they were assembled I worked on the basket, cutting a tall pot from the Potted 2 die and trimming it down. After colouring it, I embossed with basket weave - so pleased how that turned out - and sponged a little more colour over the raised areas. Next I worked on the egg "balloons", cutting everything from white card then colouring some with a soft rainbow of oxide inks. Getting the "ropes" attached was a daunting task and I'm sure there's realistic inaccuracies, but I'm pleading artistic licence on that! The tall "balloon" at the back has a piece of thick window sheet behind it to help with structural integrity and give me more to adhere it with. The centres of the daisies were also coloured with markers while the sentiment was coloured with ink to match the bunting. The vellum clouds were my final touch, which give those side panels a purpose, lol. 

Do pop over to the Just Add Ink blog to check out more fancy fold cards to inspire you, and I hope to see your own creations in our gallery.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Lovely Day

I've just realised all my class cards this time around feature flowers! That wasn't intentional, it was more about techniques, but hopefully the ladies will like them anyway. Here's my third project for them:

Materials used:

• stamps - Beautiful Friendship, Forever Lovely
• card - purple posy, whisper white, basic black
• inks - purple posy, highland heather, gorgeous grape, granny apple green, pool party, Memento tuxedo black
• other - centre step card dies (ODBD), Big Shot, Stamparatus, craft foam, black baker's twine, scrap paper for mask

The background 'paper' is made by stamping the hydrangea stamp onto whisper white using purple posy ink and I masked off the main flower on the centre panel before stamping the leaves and other flowers. The baker's twine was split approximately in half to make it thinner. Because there's not a lot of space on the thin panels, I've swiped a black ink pad around the 'paper' to give the impression of another layer without actually adding one. 

I'm heading off overseas for a while so apart from my CAS on Friday design team posts every second Friday night, card posts from me may be few and far between. Take care while I'm gone and keep crafting! 

Thanks for popping by.

Cheers

Kez

The Big Fat Man with the Long White Beard

'You'd better watch out,
You'd better not cry,
You'd better not pout,
I'm telling you why -
Santa Claus is coming to town.'

I'm back with the third and final Christmas-adapted fancy fold card, this time the centre-step one I previously did in black, gold, crumb cake and vanilla. Here's a memory refresher:

And here's how it looks once the Big Guy and some retired papers got involved:

Materials used:

• stamps - Merry Cafe
• card - cherry cobbler, grey granite, Festive Farmhouse DSP
• other - pretty pine dies, Big Shot, Christmas cardinal dies, ornate frames dies, cherry cobbler seam binding, vintage Santa Image (internet)

And that wraps up my classes for this year and my Christmas cards! As usual, by the time we get to here and I've made so many, I am thoroughly sick of them, lol. Mind you, there are still a few craft things to make for the day itself, so I can't put everything Christmas-related away completely just yet. 

Come back tomorrow for our team blog hop - a colour challenge.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Vintage Butterfly Hello

Our team's challenge this month is a fancy fold card and I immediately got it stuck in my head that I wanted to do a centre-step card. I had no idea what design to use until I was inspired by a card I saw ... guess where? Yes, you know me well. Pinterest, of course! Gosh, I remember the days I'd spend a small fortune on craft magazines for ideas, now all I have to do is sit in front of my computer for hours a short time.

Anywho, here's the card I made. I'm very happy with it (except for a small snaffoo drawing the antennae which hopefully nobody will notice lol) and suspect it may end up in my 'too nice to give away' pile.

A few speckles of gold in the background tie in with the gold embossing on the base piece, as does the sentiment panel.

I did three layers on my butterfly: the initial stamp on the background piece then two more coloured and cut and adhered with black mini dimensionals to give the wings some 'lift'.

Materials used:

• stamps - Butterfly Gala, Climbing Roses, Gorgeous Grunge, Timeless Textures, Itty Bitty Greetings
• card - crumb cake, very vanilla, basic black
• other - gold embossing powder, heat tool, black Dimensionals, sponge dauber, black marker, butterfly punch, embossing buddy, post it note

Be sure to leave some comment love if this one turns your crank! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Ah, Memories!

When I first began my teaching career (many moons ago), I taught typing on the old manual typewriters - today's youngsters probably don't even know what they are! But one of the new stamp sets in our 2014 catalogue sent me down Memory Lane and I just had to add it to my "must have" list.

This card was inspired by Allison Kamitsu. I have used new in colours blackberry bliss and hello honey along with Sahara sand and whisper white.

Materials used:

• stamps - Tap, Tap, Tap
• card - blackberry bliss, hello honey, Sahara sand, whisper white, Moonlight paper stack
• other - cute clips, stamp-a-ma-jig, clear embossing powder, white embossing powder, heat tool, pennant punch, owl punch, dimensionals, alphabet press embossing folder, Big Shot

The other card I have made is a real labour of love. I just adore the Girlfriends range of stamps from Art Impressions and as my SIL and I are both avid movie-goers, I simply couldn't resist getting At The Movies. Inspired by Sue Kment, this hybrid centre-step card was soooooo much fun to create.

Aren't they gorgeous? There are two layers on the 3D glasses and the seats and this card has the honour of being my best yet, according to my husband.

Materials used:

• stamps - That's the Ticket (SU), At the Movies (AI)
• card - basic black, watercolour, riding hood red, silver glitter, blue glitter
• other - digital images, dimensionals, aqua painter, small star punch (retired), mini star punch, markers, inks

Now, speaking of movies, I never got around to showing you the AMAZING item my afore-mentioned SIL made me at Christmas. As a family we always see a movie on Boxing Day and last Xmas our choice was The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. My SIL gave me some "movie cash" as a gift and made a small cinema-in-a-box to package it in! Check it out in the following photos - here's the view from the front with the box open to see the screen, curtains (real fabric) and row of seats:

Here you can see the detail for the seats - she even cut hand rests!

Is that incredible or what? I was totally blown away by it, I can tell you!

Well, that's all for today. Back soon with the first of this year's Christmas cards.
Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez