Thanks So Berry Much

Having used cardstock and ink called blackberry bliss for my last card, it was still in my mind when I saw the current challenge at Inspired by...

So I wanted to use blackberry bliss again but also incorporate some of the other colours, as well as have a touch of that 'farm fresh' feeling. This is how my card turned out:

I found some delightful Blackberry Fairies and used one here - isn't she adorable? I fussy cut the image, sponged the background with green, blue sky and clouds, stamped the sentiment at the top of my arch, then assembled everything together. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Berry Special (Lawn Fawn)
• image - Blackberry Fairies (Ginger Journals)
• dies - Essential Arches (Spellbinders), stitched rectangle (Paper Rose)
• other - blending brushes, cloud stencil (MFT), Big Shot, clear dots, craft foam, Dimensionals, MISTI

It was a lot of fun making something different to my usual and I'm still loving that blackberry colour. It looks a bit dark in the photo - unfortunately it was 5pm by the time I was taking pics and the winter sun was weak and low in the sky, but I hope you can tell it's dark burgundy and not black! 

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Thinking of You - Just Add Ink Challenge #763

Hello and welcome! It's time for another Just Add Ink challenge and this week we've a sketch for you to play with.

Sketches are the type of challenge I usually find the most ... well, challenging, lol, and this one certainly gave me a few (more) grey hairs until I came up with an idea I liked. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Wild Poppies (MFT), Postage Collage Beach Days, Winter View (Waffle Flower)
• dies - tree (stash)
• distress inks - saltwater taffy, villainous potion
• SU inks - flirty flamingo, calypso coral, highland heather
• other - blending brushes, circle mask, MISTI, Sidekick, white embossing powder, heat tool

What does your creative mind think of when you see the sketch? We'd love to see your projects over on our Linky list, and check out some more samples to inspire you from my team mates.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Warm Winter Friend Wishes

The current Inkspirational challenge captured my interest.

                                      

Some new wintery friends had just arrived in my mailbox and gave me the perfect opportunity to play along. They're rugged up nice and warm, just as I was while I created and the rain and wind argued outside. It's nowhere near cold enough to snow where I live but some days it sure feels like it - I must be getting old! 

I die cut first, colouring each piece individually using the matching stencils and doing two branches to layer for extra depth. The background was stencilled and sponged with white ink for a subtle, dreamy snowy scene. I'm sure you're as surprised as I am there are no white splatters, lol, but I wanted the snow to be secondary to those cute little birdie friends.

Materials used:

• stencil & die combo - Birdie Friends in Winter (Waffle Flower)
• other - distress inks, blending brushes, Sidekick, snow stencil, Dimensionals, craft foam, white gel pen, Subsentiments Fa La La diecut (Waffle Flower), sponge dauber

I hope you're having some warmth in your day and thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Aloha - Just Add Ink Challenge #759

Welcome to another Just Add Ink challenge, this week a Choose Two combo that gives a ton of possibilities:

I had so much fun making my card that I ended up making a second, both using all three options with a tropical twist. 

The backgrounds are done as a whole piece then I used the blocks stencil to help place the stamps. I cut three layers of the blocks dies for some lovely frame dimension. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage Tropical Sunset, Postage Collage Beach Days (Waffle Flower)
• die & stencil - Postage Collage mini slimline blocks, Postage Collage blocks (Waffle Flower)
• other dies - Smart Glasses (Spellbinders), Vault World Travel (Tim Holtz)
• distress oxide inks - squeezed lemonade, saltwater taffy, salvaged patina, peacock feathers
• other - blending brushes, MISTI, T10 Copic marker, Big Shot, white gel pen, craft foam, Dimensionals

Head to the Just Add Ink blog to see which options my team mates used on their creations.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Sweet Wishes

When Festive Friday Challenges decides to celebrate World Chocolate Day, who am I to argue? Never let it be said I neglected the opportunity to make a card with a chocolate theme, lol. I'm dovetailing it with Just Us Girls and Inkspirational challenges too, as they both have a stencil theme.

 

From the FF inspo list, I used brown, cream, cherries and a sweet sentiment.

I've layered the box of cupcakes, cutting two from kraft card and one from white, stencilling with a variety of inks. The sentiment comes from the same release. Anyone else craving a cupcake/some chocolate now???

Materials used:

• stamp & die combo - Hey Cupcake (Waffle Flower)
• dies & stencil combo - Boxed Cupcakes (Waffle Flower)
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, white gel pen, craft foam, Copic markers, Dimensionals, white embossing powder, heat tool

Have a sweet day and thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Live Gently

Happy new year!

I'm starting off 2025 with joining in the Color Throwdown challenge, and what a challenge it is! 

It was lovely to be getting inky and playing again and I just could not go past using a birdie die, one of my most favourite tools.

I used a circle punch to create a mask for the moon and blended two shades of grey and some black ink for my background, adding a touch of shadowing to the moon afterwards with ink leftover on the brush. My branch was die cut from black, the bird from white and coloured with inks, again in two tones of grey, black, and a touch of cream. These were mounted with dimension, as was the back panel, and the finishing touch was a sentiment sticker.

Materials used:

• card - white, black
• distress inks - lost shadow, hickory smoke, black soot, antique linen
• dies - layered chickadee (Simon Says Stamp), branch
• other - 35mm circle punch, moon mask (Tim Holtz), blending brushes, Dimensionals, craft foam, Small Talk sticker (TH)

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Happy Birthday Gullfriend - Just Add Ink Challenge #732

It's new challenge time at Just Add Ink and this week Tina gives us a sketch to play with.

For my card I turned the sketch to landscape orientation and got out a cute and whimsical seagull.

Materials used:

• stamps - Inquisitive Seagull (Waffle Flower)
• dies - stitched rectangle, wave, Inquisitive Seagull (Waffle Flower), Dancin' Birthday Dragon (Spellbinders)
• distress oxide inks - tumbled glass, uncharted mariner, squeezed lemonade, saltwater taffy
• other - Big Shot, craft foam, Copic markers YR04 and YR07, white gel pen, blending brushes, water spritzer, MISTI

Do check out the great samples my fellow team mates made to inspire you and we hope you'll share your own interpretation of our sketch if you create.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Winter Wonderland

Experiencing a white Christmas was on my bucket list for quite some time and it almost happened the year my daughter was living in Scotland ... until a little ol' global pandemic came along and then nobody was going anywhere - hardly leaving the house, let alone to the other side of the world. Ah well, such is life. Now I enjoy winter in December through card making instead, lol. 

Today's card is for three challenges which happen to dovetail together very nicely.

 

 

My Tic Tac Toe choice was the top row of ink blending, snow and tree.

I began with masking my paper for the snowy ground and blended the sunset sky (red sky at night, shepherd's delight 😉). Stamping came next, then small touches of puff embossing powder on the tree branches and at the feet of the deer before gesso splatters for falling snow. I die cut some snowflakes to tuck behind, cut my scene into three parts to mount, stamped a sentiment and called it done!

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage Winter View (Waffle Flower), Tiny Text Christmas (Tim Holtz)
• inks - blushing bride, lumberjack plaid, cherry cobbler, Versafine Clair nocturne
• other - snowflake dies, Sidekick, blending brushes, hills and drifts stencil (My Favorite Things), MISTI, craft foam, paint brushes, white puff embossing powder, heat tool, Versamark pen, white gesso

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

You Colour My World - Just Add Ink Challenge #720

This week at Just Add Ink, Tristan brings us a challenge to

Soooooooooo many possibilities, I really did have trouble narrowing this one down! In the end I've gone for cuteness factor, lol.

I started with stamping and embossing my ghosts on watercolour card, coloured with Zig markers then die-cut them. I sponged the edges lightly with grey so the white wasn't quite such a stark contrast but is just enough to give them that ethereal ghostly aura, lol. For my background I stencilled clouds on light grey card then stamped trees to create the mood. The sentiment was done on the computer - do you know any couples who call each other 'Boo'? 💀 Well, I do, so I made this for one to give the other.

Materials used:

• stamps - Tree Branch (Lavinia), Frightful Little Bits (Hello Bluebird)
• card - smoky slate, soft sea foam (Stampin' Up)
• other - slimline cloud stencil (My Favorite Things), blending brush, waterbrush, Zig Real Color brush markers, Dimensionals, craft foam, computer and printer, Big Shot, clear embossing powder, heat tool

Check out what rainbow inspiration my team mates came up with over on the Just Add Ink blog and of course we'd love to see your own creations.

Thanks for floating by.

Boo!

Kerry

Promise of Peace

Every now and then I enjoy the challenge of making a clean and simple (CAS) card and the theme at Addicted to CAS caught my eye and sparked an idea. I really hope I'm not the only one whose creative muse won't let me rest until I've sat down to see whether or not my idea will work ... 

And here's my offering:

This was a very quick card to make, probably no more than 10 mins start to finish. I die-cut the splat shape out of a piece of scrap card to use as a mask, blended with distress inks, stamped the sentiment and die-cut the gulls. Card done! 

Materials used:

• stamps - Sunrise, Sunset (Fairy Hugs)
• dies - Nesting Splat (Paper Rose), Guiding Light (Spellbinders)
• distress inks - scattered straw, saltwater taffy, abandoned coral, salvaged patina, mermaid lagoon
• other - blending brushes, MISTI, craft foam, Big Shot, VersaFine Clair Twilight ink

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

And the Summer Hits Just Keep on Comin'

Today's card is for another couple of challenges with - yep, you guessed it - Summer Fun as the theme, this time over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and also the Paper Players.

After having to really restrain myself with my last card being CAS, I had so much fun getting inky and layering with this mixed media number.

Everything other than the card base itself were made using white cardstock and coloured with distress oxide inks. There are three layers to the tree trunk because I wanted dimension but didn't want to fiddle with really narrow pieces of mounting tape! 

Materials used:

• dies - Surf Shack (Cottage Cutz), Guiding Light (Spellbinders)
• distress oxide inks - salvaged patina, peacock feathers, brushed corduroy, vintage photo, walnut stain, twisted citron, mowed lawn, pine needles, mustard seed, abandoned coral, picked raspberry, lost shadow
• other - blending brushes, white gel pen, titanium white pan pastel, water spritzer, Sidekick, craft foam, Dimensionals, distress tool

If you're in my part of the hemisphere, I hope it's not too cold and miserable and this helps you look ahead to some summer fun. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Cats Don't Share

Once again the challenge at AAA Cards caught my eye:

I mean, come on! Ink blending? Yeah, baby! In what universe was I ever going to turn that away? 😂😉 

Nothing came to mind immediately so I just let it percolate in the back of my brain for a day or two until an idea started brewing ...

I die-cut first then coloured with oxide inks - I may have mentioned a time or two (thousand) how amazing these are for blending. It was very difficult to stop the orange bleeding into the white, but hey, them's the breaks. I just kept cleaning my brush and hoping, lol. Then it was a matter of picking which mischievious feline from the set would best suit, and as they're all so fabulous that was the hardest part of the card, lol. I think this one really looks like it's saying "mine!" 😂😂😂 So yeah, a very simple card but I love it.

Materials used:

• card - kraft, basic black, watercolour
• distress oxide inks - picket fence, carved pumpkin, mustard seed
• Tim Holtz dies - Mischevious, Bold Text Halloween
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, craft foam, Ranger white pigment ink

Thanks for stopping by. May you have some ink blending in your day too!

Cheers

Kerry

Here for the Candy

Another Halloween play, trying out an idea to fill the witch's cauldron with sweets instead of potion. I just love these confections - both Halloween and Christmas versions - but these ones in particular do make me crave candy corn! You can get it here in Australia but I usually try to be good and resist, lol. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Unravelled (Tim Holtz)
• card - smoky slate, basic black, watercolour, vellum, mixed media black heavystock
• distress oxide inks - milled lavender, dusty concord, villainous potion, lost shadow, black soot
• dies - Toil & Trouble (Tim Holtz), Witch Please (CZ Designs)
• other - blending brush, MISTI, villainous potion embossing glaze, heat tool, confections Halloween, craft foam, Dimensionals, distressing tool, water spritzer, craft scalpel, Big Shot, sponge dauber, hickory smoke archival ink

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry 

The Humble Pumpkin

The other night I was enjoying a bowl of homemade pumpkin soup with some toasted sourdough (om nom nom) and reflecting on the humble pumpkin, which I've always loved. I can remember as a child, whenever mum made a roast dinner, I would swap with my older brother - I'd give him my kumara (sweet potato) and he'd give me his pumpkin. Recently elder daughter came to visit bringing some pumpkin goodies I had never tried - a pumpkin scone and a couple of pumpkin muffins. (They'd had lots of pumpkin in their veggie box that week, so she was making pumpkin everything, lol) The scone didn't do anything for me but the muffins were fabulous, moist and flavorful - of course I got the recipe!

So for today's card I've featured pumpkins. I was having another play with my Country Road collection dies (see this earlier card), again adding some other dies I already had in my stash. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Welcome Sign & Sentiments (Spellbinders) 
• card - basic white, early espresso (SU), Biscuit (Kaisercraft), watercolour
• dies - Welcome Sign & Sentiments, Country Wheelbarrow (Spellbinders), Autumn Elements (Karen Burniston)
• distress oxide inks - peacock feathers, rusty hinge, vintage photo, antique linen, black soot, hickory smoke, carved pumpkin, ripe persimmon, crackling campfire, mowed lawn, rustic wilderness
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, Dimensionals, craft foam, water spritzer, early espresso marker, ground espresso and vintage photo archival inks, MISTI

And now, having thought about pumpkins so much, I'm craving those muffins! In case you're interested, here's a link to the recipe. By the way, did you know pumpkin is a fruit? Go figure!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Gather Love

As crafters I'm sure you understand completely that feeling of instantly falling in love with a stamp or die or stencil set. Such was the case for me when I first saw the Country Road collection by Annie Williams for Spellbinders. I've bought just a couple of the sets so far (though I'm pretty sure more will make their way here before long) and love that I can pair them with bits and pieces already in my stash. Today's card came from a play with the Welcome Sign & Sentiments stamp and die set. 

I really wanted the sign to look a bit weathered, so hopefully I've achieved that. Many of the dies were assembled late at night, so do forgive any mishaps, lol. Those small, fiddly bits can get the better of me when I'm tired! And does anyone else always lose the flower centres (and tiddles from letter 'i's) and have to cut more?

Materials used:

• stamps - Welcome Sign & Sentiments (Spellbinders)
• card - basic white, basic black
• dies - Welcome Sign & Sentiments (Spellbinders), Bunny Games (Tim Holtz), Cats at Play (stash), Essential Arches (Spellbinders)
• distress oxide inks - hello honey, carved pumpkin, picked raspberry, seedless preserves, villainous potion, mowed lawn, mustard seed, wilted violet
• other - blending brushes, Dimensionals, craft foam, picket fence distress paint, paintbrush, Big Shot

More to come from this collection I'm sure, so stay tuned! Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

JAI #660 - Just Add a Die Cut Inlay

That's right, this week at Just Add Ink the challenge is to add an inlay die cut on your project.

It's been an age since I last played with this technique so I was already tempted, then an idea came to mind ... and well, you know how that ends, don't you?

I not only inlaid the diamond pieces in the background but also the word 'friend' in the greeting. 

The steps involved were:

• I die cut three white diamond frames from thick basic white cardstock, discarding the inner pieces and gluing the frames together then attaching them to another piece of white card the same size.
• On another piece of white card, I did my ink blending. I used distress oxide inks - the colours are squeezed lemonade, wild honey, ripe persimmon and picked raspberry. I did some water splatters all over, then cut this with the diamond frame die, this time retaining the inner pieces.
• The ink-blended diamond centres (those inner pieces) were then glued in their corresponding places inside my white layered frame and once all were in place I also glued the ink-blended frame piece on top of my three white layers. This gives great depth and also a slight white shadow effect which helps highlight the dimension.
• I cut three 'hello' dies in black and one in white cardstock, gluing the black ones together. The white one I again ink blended and did some water splatters, then attached it slightly offset so the black shadow would show.
• For the 'friend' die I cut two of the shadow die from white card which had been coloured with picked raspberry ink to match. Then I took one of the shadow dies, lay the detail word die over the top and cut again - this gave me a thin frame in pink which I glued to the other pink shadow piece. Lastly I cut the detail word die in black card and inlaid it inside the frame of my shadow. 
• I also cut two wildflowers from black card, gluing them together.
• Then it was just a matter of assembly, the word dies and flower being attached with black mini  dimensionals, and lastly I decided to add some white paint splatters.

I checked out this video by Jennifer McGuire and followed her 'shadow inlay' technique at 21:57 for my 'friend' sentiment. Thanks for the inspiration Jennifer!

Materials used:

• card - basic black, basic white
• distress oxide inks - squeezed lemonade, wild honey, ripe persimmon, picked raspberry
• dies - Wildflower Stems #2 (Tim Holtz), Simply Diamonds (PinkFresh Studio), Hello and Friend dies (origins unknown)
• other - blending brushes, Big Shot, Dimensionals, water spritzer, picket fence distress paint, paintbrush

I do hope you'll head over to the JAI blog to see the projects my fellow designers made to inspire you. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

JAI#656 - Just Add Inspiration

Welcome! It's not my week over at Just Add Ink Challenges, but I simply couldn't resist this stunning image and the idea it sparked it my head, so I'm joining in with a card for you.

I began with stamping the fairy image using black ink and clear embossing powder, then sponged on the peach ink and added my moon mask. More ink blending with blue and purple, followed by stamping the trailing leaves in black, blue and purple. Love the touch of sparkle? Holographic glitter for the win! 😁 This stuff is gorgeous but photos don't do it justice, unfortunately. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Rue, Leaf Creeper (both Lavinia)
• card - basic white
• distress inks - saltwater taffy, prize ribbon, villainous potion
• other - blending tool, blending brushes, moon mask (Tim Holtz), MISTI, clear embossing powder, heat tool, craft foam, StarBrights holographic glitter (Lavinia), sponge dauber, Versafine Clair nocturne and twilight inks

I hope you'll pop over to the JAI blog to see more samples to inspire you to create. 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

Pipin and the Fairy

In the mood for playing, I got out some inks and Lavinia stamps and ended up with this card:

I stamped Pipin the rabbit and the fairy first (using permanent ink) to ascertain placement for my ground and moon. The moon mask went down and I tore some scrap paper for the ground before beginning my blending with distress oxide inks. Once all the inking was done and dry, I stamped the images again and added some holographic glitter to the 'magic' sprinkles. As I was assembling the card I decided it needed something more, so I whisked out a stencil and without re-inking my blending brush, added a touch of interest and texture which I think finishes the card off perfectly. It was quick and easy and so much fun and I am loving these colours together!

Materials used:

• Lavinia stamps - Stars 1 mini, Pipin mini, The Fairy Foragers, Silhouette Foliage
• card - Multifarious smooth (Lavinia), basic black and basic white (SU)
• distress oxide inks - dusty concord, saltwater taffy, villainous potion
• other - moon mask (Tim Holtz), Versafine Clair nocturne ink, Quickie glue pen, holographic glitter (Lavinia), blending brushes, sponge dauber, MISTI, scrap paper, Pods stencil (Lavinia), craft foam

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry 

The Card Concept challenge #191

It's the second challenge of the month with The Card Concept so we have two mood boards for you to draw inspiration from, named Signs of Spring and Butterfly Blues.

  

My inspiration came from the flower and butterfly in option b and colours from both palettes (namely navy, yellow and turquoise).

I began by ink blending my background beginning with salvaged patina, ensuring it was lighter towards the middle. Then I placed my first moon mask and added chipped sapphire blending followed by night of navy. With the moon mask still in place, I added a little extra ink around the outside then blended on the second layer of the mask. After stamping the main images (fairy, flowers and butterfly) I used a wet waterbrush to remove some of the oxide ink from inside petals and wings, then coloured them using Copic markers. The next step was the foliage at the bottom which used first, second and third generation stamping to create depth. Lastly I added hints of white gel pen and some shimmer to all the wings.

Materials used:

• Lavinia stamps - willow, slender mushrooms mini, fairy bugs, Mae
• card - basic white, Bermuda bay
• Copics - Y02, Y11, BG11, BG32
• distress oxide inks - black soot, salvaged patina, chipped sapphire
• other - night of navy ink (SU), clear embossing powder, heat tool, MISTI, waterbrush, moon mask (Tim Holtz), blending brushes, craft foam, stitched rectangle die (Paper Rose), Big Shot, white gel pen, clear Wink of Stella, distress micro glaze

Do check out how the challenge graphics inspired my fellow team mates by heading over to The Card Concept blog, and thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry