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

Just Add Ink #700 - Just Add Shimmer or Shine

It's time to add some sparkle to your crafty creations - if you even need an incentive, that is! Welcome to another Just Add Ink challenge - and not just any challenge, but our 700th!

Sooooooooo many possibilities for this one and I had so much fun playing with shimmery things that I ended up with two cards! Here's my first offering:

For my leafy parts I used mica stains which give shimmer and the stems are cut from shiny metallic card. I added more metallic accents with gold thread and a gold embossed sentiment.

Here's a pic to show the shimmer and shine a bit better:

Materials used:

• stamps - Sentiment Strips 2 (Altenew)
• card - black, gold metallic
• dies - Artsy Leaves (Tim Holtz), stitched rectangle
• other - distress mica stains, Dimensionals, Sidekick, splat box, gold thread, gold embossing powder, heat tool, craft foam

My second card also has plenty of shimmery goodness:

After ink blending the background I sprayed liberally with shimmer mist. The fish and corals were coloured using mica stains. Here's an angle shot to really show the shimmer:

Materials used:

• stamps - Picture It Ocean (Clearly Besotted)
• card - distress watercolour
• dies - Coastal Escape View (Spellbinders), Nesting Splat (Paper Rose)
• other - distress mica stains, white shimmer mist, blending brushes, Sidekick, splat box, Dimensionals, mounting foam tape, MISTI

Have fun creating some shimmery, shiny goodness and of course we'd love you to share them with us over on the Just Add Ink blog.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Just Add Ink #688 - Just Choose Two

Time for another challenge with Just Add Ink and this week we've a Choose Two option. The choices are

Sequins made me think shaker cards and as I don't recall making one before, thought it was past time I gave it a go - everyone loves a shakety-shake card, don't they? 

I die-cut the polaroid frame first, cutting two because I thought those narrow sides needed a bit more strength, and I sandwiched my piece of transparency between them. I cut a piece of white card to match for my background, using oxide inks and a stencil to create the underwater scene. Next I stamped a number of turtles, seaweed and starfish and coloured them using Copics. Originally I'd planned for the sentiment to be stamped on the frame but it didn't fit, lol, so I had to adapt which turtles I used and where I put them. Just as I had everything ready to assemble, I dropped my frame on a black ink pad! So yeah, I cut a third and stuck it over the top - it's nice and strong now, lol. I've used a mix of clear and aqua sequins and bits for the shakety-shake. Love 'em!

Materials used:

• stamps - Turtley Amazing (Pink and Main)
• card - basic white, Bermuda bay (Stampin' Up), transparency/acetate
• dies - On Film framelits (SU retired)
• other - Seabed 3D embossing folder (SU), Big Shot, blending brushes, Ray of Light stencil (My Favorite Things), Copic markers, MISTI, thick white baker's twine, mounting strips, craft foam, Big Shot, clear sequins, Sea Level Sparkletz (Buttons Galore & More), Dimensionals, salvaged patina and peacock feathers distress oxide inks, water spritzer

Tip: After fussy-cutting the turtles and seaweed, I edged them with an aqua marker so there'd be no white edges showing up against the background. 

Check out which "two" my fellow team mates chose over on the Just Add Ink blog and as always, we'd love it if you joined the challenge.

Thanks for swimming by!

Cheers

Kerry