Gull-tastic Birthday - Just Add Ink Challenge #756

Friday means a new Just Add Ink challenge and this week it's time for a bit of fancy folding so you can...

It's been a while since I last made a card needing a belly band and initially I wasn't intending to play along, but I rewatched some fav YouTube videos recently and came across a gatefold card made by Ruth Hamilton that inspired me to get crafting.

Here's the front with the belly band on:

And on the inside...

I love aquas and teals, especially for a coastal theme, so used a variety of inks for my ocean scenes and repeated those colours when I stencilled the stripes to use as 'patterned paper'.  

This card is my entry for Seize the Birthday challenge #307 - Fancy Fold.

Materials used:

• stamps - Inquisitive Seagulls, Postage Collage Beach Days (Waffle Flower)
• dies - Oh Buoy (Spellbinders)
• inks - coastal cabana, summer splash (Stampin' Up), dew drops, teal cave (Altenew), frayed burlap, pumice stone, carved pumpkin (Tim Holtz distress), nocturne (Versafine Clair)
• other - blending brushes, two-step mixed stripes stencils (Waffle Flower), Dimensionals, Sidekick, MISTI, small banner punch, white embossing powder, heat tool

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

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

JAI #624 - Just Add a Diorama Card

This week at Just Add Ink we're challenging you to make a diorama card. Diorama cards can be as simple as a shadow box card or more complex with many layers, but whichever style you choose it should contain a scene which is viewed through an opening.

I chose a Halloween theme for my project and kept it structurally simple (just three layers) as I wanted the hard work to go into the details and not the design. And oh boy, I had so much fun making all these quirky/spooky bits and pieces!

On the middle layer I put the tree - made up of three branch die cuts - on the left side.

And on the right side of the middle layer is the front pumpkin. The back pumpkin, together with the cat, gravestone and crow, are attached to the base layer.

The 'sky' background and sentiment lettering are coloured with mica sprays so they have a wonderful sheen to them when they catch the light. I mixed some crypt grit paste with green reinker to make lichen to cover bits of the 'tree'.

And there's more crypt paste on the gravestone to give it that lovely aged and weathered look.

Bring on Halloween, I say! I'll be interested to see if I get any trick or treaters in my new neighbourhood - though, regardless, it's a great excuse to have lollies on hand! 😂😉

Materials used:

• stamps - Unraveled (Tim Holtz)
• card - black mixed media heavyweight, watercolour
• Tim Holtz dies - Mr Bones, Mischevious, Pumpkin Duo, Regions Beyond
• distress mica sprays - flickering candle, jack-o-lantern, peppermint stick, hocus pocus
• distress oxide inks/sprays - antique linen, brushed corduroy, pumice stone, black soot, stormy sky, weathered wood, speckled egg
• other TH products - crypt texture paste, rustic wilderness re-inker, moon mask, iced spruce and shabby shutters distress crayons, candied apple distress paint, Idea-ology adornments - Halloween, picket fence distress ink
• other - water spritzer, heat tool, blending brushes, Dimensionals, stitched square die, white gel pen, branch die, white embossing powder, Stamparatus, Big Shot, Sidekick, paintbrush, sponge dauber, mini glue dots

Check out more diorama cards over at the JAI blog and, as always, we'd love to see your creation in our gallery this week.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

The Card Concept Challenge - Wearing of the Green

March already! Where is the time going???

This week for challenge #170 at The Card Concept, our theme is Wearing of the Green.

I went with a St Patrick's Day/good luck theme for my clean and layered fancy fold card. Somewhere, deep in the lush green heart of Ireland, there are leprechaun chicks celebrating the best way they know how, lol.

The rainbow was treated with some Wink of Stella for subtle shimmer. Unfortunately the 'indigo' portion looks very dark (almost black) in the photo but I can assure you it's blue/purple. Such is life!

Materials used:

• stamps - Irish Chicks (Stamping Bella)
• card - watercolour
• distress inks - candied apple, carved pumpkin, mustard seed, mowed lawn, salty ocean, wilted violet, shabby shutters, tumbled glass, rustic wilderness, black soot
• dies - Card Stacks Base (Concord & 9th), Cascading Rainbow (MFT), Alphanumeric Tiny Type Upper (Tim Holtz)
• other - blending brushes, Dimensionals, slimline drifts & hills stencil, concord crush dye ink (SU), Big Shot Switch, clear Wink of Stella, Sidekick

We would love for you to take part in our challenge. Simply choose any aspect/s of our inspiration pic for your card, tell us what it was/they were, as well as which design style you've chosen, and upload it into our gallery. 

May be your days be many and your troubles be few. Thanks for calling in. 

Cheers

Kerry

Magnolia Magnificence

Back to the theme of fancy fold cards, I decided to have a go at a Pop Up Front Step card - at least, I think that's what they're called, lol. I saw a few on Pinterest and managed to find some instructions - sadly they were in imperial measurements, so I had to adapt and adjust. Luckily not too steep a learning curve for this one! Once I sorted out measurements, it was very easy to construct and it doesn't take long to cut a few pieces of DSP to compliment this magnificent flower.

Materials used:

• stamps - Good Morning Magnolia
• card - basic black, whisper white, petal pink
• other - magnolia dies, Big Shot, Dimensionals, Well Written thinlits, strong adhesive, Stampin' Blends

I don't have the mossy meadow Blends but as luck would have it, the medium and dark old olive Blendabilities pens (from when we had sets of three shades) gave me a close approximation. There are two layers to the 'thanks' sentiment, which makes it stand out much better than only one layer does.

It all folds flat, though I did have to cut off one leaf and place the flower so it didn't extend far past the outside of my base in order to ensure this would still fit into a regular C6 envelope.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez