Tea and Biscuits

Welcome to a new challenge with Just Add Ink. This week we have a sketch for you to interpret and play with. 

Ever since I saw a funny meme on Pinterest I've been wanting to make this particular card and I'm so glad I could make it using the sketch. 

I cut all my die pieces first from white card then coloured with inks and assembled. The 'flavours' of the biscuits were heavily influenced by a selection from my favourite macaron patisserie here in Melbourne, La Belle Miette.

For funsies I stencilled my background with a newspaper pattern, as if it's saying 'Stop the Presses!' or 'News Flash!', lol. I guess it's almost a thing of the past to sip your tea while you read the paper ...

Materials used:

• dies - Cafe Colorize (Tim Holtz), macarons (brand unknown)
• stencil - media stencil KSTD149 (Stamperia)
• Altenew inks - buttercream, warm sunshine, frayed leaf, forest glades, mountain mist, volcano lake, lagoon
• other inks - saltwater taffy (Distress), basic beige (SU), coral reef (Pinkfresh)
• other - blending brushes, grip mat, foam squares, computer & printer

Do head over to the Just Add Ink blog to see how my fellow team mates used this sketch, and if you decide to play along we'd love you to share.

Entering in the Double D challenge:

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Let's Go To The Beach - Just Add Ink Challenge #778

It's time for an inspiration/colour challenge with Just Add Ink and this gorgeous summer mood board.

My beachy mini slimline card was inspired by both image and palette.

I blended inks for my background then gave it plenty of water splatter. Once dry, I used a fine glue pen to dot along the edge of the 'sand' and added white embossing powder as a representation of sea foam. The shells were die cut and coloured with inks before being attached. As usual, there are two layers to my large die-cut sentiment and the stamped portion was white embossed on vellum.

Materials used:

• stamp/die combo - Oversized Beach Word (Waffle Flower)
• other dies - Seashells (Waffle Flower)
• SU inks - lost lagoon, crumb cake
• distress oxide inks - fossilized amber, barn door, dusty concord
• other - blending brushes, glue pen, white embossing powder, heat tool, water spritzer, craft foam

We do hope you'll be inspired to create and share, whether it's the image or the colours that spark your muse. Check out lots more samples over on the Just Add Ink blog.

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kerry

Peaceful Poinsettia - Just Add Ink Challenge #774

It's time for a new challenge with Just Add Ink and this time anything goes as long as we ...

I made a simple Christmas card focused on dies.

This was very straightforward to create, the main work was in the colouring. I cut all the floral pieces from heavy watercolour card and used distress inks. Once I was happy with an arrangement, I began by adhering the poinsettia then tucked everything else behind or around it. The sentiment has multiple layers.

Materials used:

• dies - Festive Blooms (Concord & 9th), CZ Design Peace wafer die (Simon Says Stamp) 
• distress inks - worn lipstick, abandoned coral, scattered straw, antique linen, brushed corduroy, walnut stain, shabby shutters, peeled paint, twisted citron, mowed lawn, rustic wilderness
• other - Big Shot, blending brushes, Dimensionals, craft foam, sticky mat, glue gun

I hope you'll have a chance to sit and create with dies and/or stencils over the next two weeks and join our challenge. Do be sure to check out more samples over on the Just Add Ink blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

You Rock! - Just Add Ink Challenge #770

Today's offering is for the new colour combo challenge at Just Add Ink. I saw a card on Pinterest that inspired me and couldn't resist playing along.

Not a combination I would normally use without some other colours in there as well, but it turns out they were just right for this idea.

I blended the three inks on watercolour card for my background and added some distress oxide splatters in what I hoped were similar shades (the purple oxide turned out bluer than I would have liked). Then lots of water splatters to give a very mottled look, before adding more water spritzed over a stencil and blotted, for the rays of light. The stamped figure is coloured with Copics and I gave her outfit - including boots - some shimmer.

Materials used:

• stamps - Uptown Girl Loves to Perform (Stamping Bella), Sentiment Strips 2 (Altenew)
• SU inks - bubble bath, fresh freesian, highland heather
• other - stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, blending brushes, water spritzer, heat tool, clear Wink of Stella, Copic markers, fresh fressia Stampin' Blends, Dimensionals, Ray of Light stencil (MFT), craft foam, gems, banner punch

Do these colours immediately bring something to mind for you? We'd love to see your creations in our gallery.

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Life is Beautiful - Just Add Ink Challenge #769

It's Choose Two time again at Just Add Ink with some very versatile options.

So many possibilities! I ended up choosing numbers and words for a postage collage card. 

I started off by using the blocks die to cut my segments, placing them back inside the frame on a sticky mat to do the ink blending. The stamping was done in three parts using my MISTI - the stamps are reasonably small so you can sit quite a few of them on and ink them all at once. The postage themed stamps were last, and they are tricky little devils! They're so small and fiddly and they keep sticking to my fingers when I try to position them, lol. So forgive me if there's a wee bit of crookedness going on! Then I added highlights with a white gel pen. Foam tape was used behind the blended panels to give dimension and the sentiment was embossed with white and raised also.

Materials used:

• stamps - Postage Collage, Lake Sunset (Waffle Flower), Rest & Relaxation (Honey Bee)
• dies - Postage Collage, Postage Collage Blocks
• distress inks - spun sugar, worn lipstick, salvaged patina
• other - Big Shot, blending brushes, Bermuda bay ink (SU), MISTI, foam tape, white gel pen, masking corners stencil (Waffle Flower), white embossing powder, heat tool, Dimensionals

We look forward to seeing how the options inspire you!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

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