Oceans of Love

Which kind of challenges do you find the most ... well, challenging? For me it's often the sketches that stretch my crafting muscles more than others, so you may have noticed that I participate in sketch challenges much less often than, say, colour or inspiration ones. But this week the Freshly Made Sketches post caught my eye and sparked an idea ...

I flipped it 180 degrees and got busy getting inky, lol.

I began with embossing a piece of heavy watercolour card, then inked it and embossed again before giving it a water spritz. Love this new embossing folder from SU, those swirls are just gorgeous! Trust me, it looks even better in real life. The whale was just black and white card (obvs, lol) and the other die-cut pieces were coloured with distress inks. 

Materials used:

• dies - Whale in a Bottle (Spellbinders)
• distress inks - salvaged patina, peacock feathers, uncharted mariner, lucky clover, wilted violet, brushed corduroy, pumice stone, abandoned coral, hickory smoke
• other - Big Shot, Soft Waves embossing folder (Stampin' Up), water spritzer, blending brushes, Dimensionals, craft foam, clear acrylic dots

Hope you've had some crafting in your day and thanks for swimming by.

Cheers

Kerry

Great to Sea You

I combined two challenges for today's card

  

and came up with this:

I started with some ink smooshing. The circles of light blue were punched out and I tried to make them sort of progressive - ie the upper circle is light with some white for being near the top of the ocean, concentrated light blue for the middle circle and then darker blues for the lower one to represent deeper water. The adorable seahorse has a rhinestone eye I coloured blue using a Copic marker. I stamped and clear embossed the sentiment on vellum which is adhered under the seahorse and wrapped around the edge of the card to be held on the back. I had to flip the sketch to get this to fit, lol, but I think it works ok. I was going to dry emboss the background but it detracted from the focal point so I stamped a few bubbles instead.

Materials used:

• stamps - Mermaid Kisses (Sugar Pea Designs)
• card - watercolour, soft sky, vellum
• distress oxide inks - tumbled glass, chipped sapphire, saltwater taffy, abandoned coral
• other - Big Shot, 1 3/4" circle punch, Picture Book Seahorse die (Simon Says Stamp), clear embossing powder, heat tool, water spritzer, blending brush, MISTI, rhinestone, B24 Copic marker, Dimensionals, craft foam, sponge dauber

Have a crafty day and thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Down to the Wire

Browsing around tonight I saw the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge and an idea for a card immediately popped into my head - so what could I do but create? Here's the challenge:

And here's my entry. 

Materials used:

• card - basic white, copper clay (SU)
• dies - Layered Songbird (SSS), Tropical Leaf Bunch (SSS), branch (stash)
• SU inks - pretty peacock, calypso coral, copper clay, early espresso
• distress inks - uncharted mariner, twisted citron, mowed lawn
• other - blending brushes, moon mask (Tim Holtz), Big Shot, Dimensionals, craft foam, Wordies Sentiment Sheets - Everyday (Creative Expressions), rhinestone, basic grey marker, C5 Copic marker, water spritzer, distressing tool

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Hello Spring (say what now?)

Confused over my blog post title? Lol. Well, it's just that I've made a card entitled Hello Spring, yet it's Autumn here in Aus. Could be I'm 'ahead of my time' (yeah, nah 😂) or more likely I've just gotten so used to challenges based on the northern hemisphere seasons! As long as I don't start actually thinking it's Spring here, it's all good, yeah? 🤞

Anywho, today's card was created for three challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - add texture
• Color Throwdown #737 - pink, green and rust
• Freshly Made Sketches #580

 

And here's my card

The texture is in inking techniqes (smooshing, splatters and layers of colour from different mediums), heat embossing and dry embossing. 

I had so much fun colouring and assembling all these little pieces - it was certainly a most enjoyable way to spend a cool and rainy autumn day!

Materials used:

• stamps - Entomology (Tim Holtz), Bitty Buzzwords: Seasons (Honey Bee Stamps)
• card - very vanilla, cinnamon cider, watercolour, vellum
• distress inks and crayons - spun sugar, kitsch flamingo, shabby shutters, peeled paint, rusty hinge
• dies - Curio: Spring Findings (The Greetery), Bitty Buzzwords: Seasons (HBS)
• other - Versamark ink, antique linen embossing glaze, heat tool, pinewood planks embossing folder (SU), sponge dauber, Big Shot, Dimensionals, water brushes, craft foam, water spritzer, tweezers, cajun craze marker (SU)

I hope you get to spend some fun time creating this long weekend too! Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

A Christmas Twofer

Today's card is for two challenges.

The colours in the CTD final challenge for the year are too pretty to not play with, don't you think? Then when I saw the sketch, an idea came to mind and ... well ... you know how that goes, lol. Here's my card:

I cut the baubles from coloured cardstock then stencilled with glittery texture paste, adding touches of paint once it was dry. It's rare for me to stick to a sketch so faithfully, lol, but this one was perfect for my elements. 

Materials used:

• card - basic white, blushing bride, seaside spray, brushed gold
• inks - blushing bride (SU), stormy sky oxide (Tim Holtz), golden glitz (Delicata)
• other - glimmer paste (Nuvo), poinsettia stencil (TH), palette knife, tarnished brass distress paint, paintbrushes, sponge daubers, craft foam, Dimensionals, Holly flourish die (Memory Box), Holiday talk metallic stickers (TH), shaping mat and tool, Bauble nesting dies (Riverside Crafts)

Thanks for dropping in. 

Cheers

Kerry