Sunday 28 February 2016

CAS Colours and Sketches 162

This card is for this week's challenge at another of my favourites, CAS Colours and Sketches. I love this sweet little sketch, which opened up a lot of possibilities.












For a deceptively simple card, there's a lot going on. In order to get the two-coloured sentiment, I masked because I couldn't get a good enough imprint using markers to colour the photopolymer stamp. The red glasses are layered to give depth but the first layer is inlaid. The white lenses have been covered with Wink of Stella to give some glimmer but it really doesn't show in the photo. I made the different sized tiny stars using the Confetti Stars border punch - and that fine-tipped glue pen that I got from the Occasions Catalogue came in really handy!

Update: Delighted that this card was a Weekly Winner at CAS Colours and Sketches.

Ingredients
Card: Basic Black, Whisper White, scrap of Cherry Cobbler, DSP Everyday Chic
Stamps: MFT Geek is Chic
Inks: Tuxedo Black, Cherry Cobbler
Other: MFT Glasses die, Silver metallic tape, Wink of Stella (white), Confetti Stars border punch, fine-tip glue pen



JAI 300 and PCCC183

Today's card draws inspiration from two sources. Firstly, my favourite challenge site Just Add Ink has a sketch challenge.



And The Paper Craft Crew has a colour challenge that just happened to incorporate some of my favourite colours.

Since the Occasions and Sale-a-bration catalogues came out last month, my crafting has been dominated by all the wonderful things from those catalogues but today, I wanted to use a favourite from the annual catalogue, Kinda Eclectic. Here's how it turned out.




Update: Delighted to be a Design Team Top Pick at Paper Craft Crew.
Ingredients
Card: Blackberry Bliss, Whisper White, DSP from Moonlight stack and Wildflower Fields
Stamps: Kinda Eclectic, Crazy About You
Inks: Blackberry Bliss, Lost Lagoon, Old Olive
Other: Candy dot and brad base, linen twine, dimensionals, Blackberry Bliss marker to colour cut edges.




Saturday 27 February 2016

As You See It 125 - DT Card

This week, we have a theme challenge at As You See It Challenge.


In truth, I like to keep my sentiments plain, unvarnished and unsentimental - perhaps it's a New Zealand thing as we're a fairly stoic and undemonstrative group - but a plain 'Happy Birthday' or 'Thank You' seemed a little too dull for the challenge. So I went for my favourite 'showiest' sentiment from Perfect Pennants - 'Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful'.

In keeping with the sentiment, I chose to use water stamping as the technique for the focal panel as it gives a moody, but imperfect, image. Then I did a bit of over-stamping to add some depth to the panel and highlighted a few of the flowers with tiny pearls. I added in some silver thread around the sentiment to help focus attention on it. The thread is deliberately not too even and tidy, to add to the idea of imperfection.









Join us this week at As You See It with your own favourite sentiment by 2 March (PST) or 3 March NZ time. I'm also going to enter this card into the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.


Ingredients
Card: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White
Stamps: Awesomely Artistic, Perfect Pennants
Inks: Distress Inks - Peacock Feathers, Shaded Lilac; SU Bermuda Bay, Tuxedo Black
Other: Elegant Dots embossing folder, Silver thread, Dimensionals, Sponges, Pearls, corner rounder punch, 2" circle punch.



Saturday 20 February 2016

As You See It 124 - DT

After last week's swirls theme, it's back to a sketch challenge this week.


This week's card is a variation on a theme that I've been playing around with since the Sale-a-bration catalogue came out. I like the Botannical Builder dies a lot but the colours of the DSP that are designed to go with them are just not my colours. Regular readers will know that I've done a few things with the dies but exploring different colourways, my favourite being using them with the Birthday Bouquet DSP and colours. But one thing I haven't tried is using them with the Wildflower Fields DSP, so I've used this week's sketch to experiment with them.




So, why not join us this week and show us your own take on our sketch?

Ingredients
Card: Calypso Coral, Whisper White, Wildflower Fields DSP,  scraps of Old Olive, Blackberry Bliss and Hello Honey
Stamps: Fabulous Four
Ink: Tuxedo Black, Blackberry Bliss to sponge flower centre
Other: Botannical Builder dies, Calypso Coral and So Saffron candy dots


Sunday 14 February 2016

PPA287 and CCMC393

When I first saw these two challenges, they appealed to me and seemed to naturally go together. As the weekend wound on, I tried to separate them but they just kept trying to get back together, rather like a pair of determined teenagers. Beautiful lush colours from Pals Paper Arts


and a sketch at Create with Connie and Mary that seemed to call for repetition of shapes while retaining some individuality.


It's all ended up a bit busier than I usually like my cards to be but I like the way the repetition of image echoes the repetition of the sentiment. My clear Wink of Stella pen got its first outing here, although it's a little hard to see in a photo. Each of the three stamped and layered butterflies has lightly glittered wings.




Ingredients
Card: Calypso Coral, Old Olive, Whisper White, Wildflower Fields DSP, scrap of Lost Lagoon
Stamps: Fabulous Four, Papillon Potpourri
Ink: Tuxedo Black, Old Olive, Calypso Coral, Lost Lagoon
Other: Calypso Coral seam binding, clear Wink of Stella, Bitty Butterfly punch, dimensionals









Saturday 13 February 2016

Global Design Project 22

I really liked the sketch at the Global Design Project this week, so as soon as I got home from school last night, I hit my craft room.

It turned out to be more challenging than I'd thought as I kept thinking of different possibilities. This is where it ended up...





Ingredients
Card: Blackberry Bliss, Whisper White, scrap of Lost Lagoon
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Papillon Potpourri, A Dozen Thoughts
Inks: Blackberry Bliss, Lost Lagoon, Tuxedo Black
Other: Lost Lagoon stitched ribbon, Honeycomb embossing folder, sponges, pearls, dimensionals, Bitty Butterfly punch, 2" circle punch to create the mask for sponged circle.

All Stampin' Up except the embossing folder.

As You See It 123 - DT

My card for this week's swirls theme challenge at As You See It is the result of a serendipitous expedition to Warehouse Stationery and a video from Jennifer McGuire.


Warehouse Stationery was awash with back-to-school specials and I really only went in for some tape but I found a lovely swirly embossing folder and a metallic Perfect Pearls kit. The latter was cause for excitement as I've wanted Perfect Pearls for a long time but no local shop ever had it and each time I tried online it was out of stock. Once I had it, I re-watched Jennifer McGuire's tutorial on using Perfect Pearls to create a faux metal look. Here is the result.





I picked out some of the colours from the challenge photo and blended them together on a piece of Whisper White, applied Perfect Pearls and buffed it. After embossing it in the Garden Frames embossing folder I mounted it onto black card stock. I die cut four black and one white 'thanks', chosen because it was the swirliest word I have, and stacked the black ones. I offset the top white one slightly to create a shadow effect then applied it to the card. The white looked a little lonely so I added in the little flowers.

Ingredients
Card: Basic Black, Whisper White
Inks: Distress Inks Evergreen Bough, Peacock Feathers, Shaded Lilac
Other: Couture Creations Garden Frame embossing folder, Perfect Pearls powder, Hello You thinlit die, Itty Bitty Punch, Perfect Plum candy dots.

Monday 8 February 2016

Just Add Ink 297

This week, there is a soft, dreamy and delicious colour combination on offer at Just Add Ink.


The delicate colours made me think of a garden, so out came my faithful Flowering Fields stamp set, acquired as a free gift in this year's Sale-a-bration catalogue. They've turned out to be incredibly versatile and have been stamped, water-coloured, coloured, embossed and stamped with Stazon during the course of their short lives.




In this case, they have been stamped using Stazon on watercolour paper and then painted with diluted inks. I've kept 'in the lines' because I like that effect and the diluted ink gives a more translucent result than colouring in with markers. I'm pleased with the delicate and dreamy finish.

Update: Delighted to get an Honourable Mention at Just Add Ink.

Ingredients
Card: Pool Party, watercolour paper, Birthday Bouquet DSP
Stamps: Wildflower Fields, Fab Four
Inks: Black Stazon, Pool Party, Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz
Other: Pool Party seam binding

Global Design Project 21

Ok, so it's a public holiday and... it's raining. That's actually a cause for celebration given how hot and dry it's been recently but really it could have waited one day longer. I was at my desk, trying to work out something else when I was reminded of the challenging colour challenge at the Global Design Project.

So putting aside the project I'd been working on, and getting right outside my comfort zone, I started on this tweeny/teeny/girly card.



My brand new, just out of the packet Melon Mambo ink pad gave me some troubles - so new and juicy that it was hard to get a good crisp stamp from it - but we came to an understanding after a couple of practices. This card is a real mix of new and old. It's the first outing not only for the ink pad but also the Perfectly Artistic DSP from the Sale-a-Bration catalogue. Making an appearance in the "old stuff" category are the Confetti Stars border punch and the Star stencil.

And finished just in time to sneak in under the deadline for this challenge. Now, back to my original project....

Ingredients
Card: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Perfectly Artistic DSP, scrap of Wisteria Wonder.
Stamps: Hello!
Inks: Bermuda Bay, Wisteria Wonder, Melon Mambo
Other: Confetti Stars border punch, small Banner punch, Star stencil from Hearts and Stars, sponges, stamp'n'write markers to colour cut edges.


Saturday 6 February 2016

As You See It 122 - DT

I don't know about anyone else but I find making cards for men more difficult than for women. Although I'm not one for New Year's resolutions, I did sort of make one when I decided that I'd make a conscious effort to make more male-friendly cards this year.  The card I've made for this week's challenge at As You See It is the result of that semi-resolution.


I used the last of my new sets from the Occasions catalogue, the Number of Years stamps and dies. It's taken a couple of weeks to get to the bottom of my box of Stampin' Up goodies - everything that came out was so good, I ended up playing with it instead of keeping on unpacking!





I used the stamps to repeat stamp '21' in Smoky Slate on Smoky Slate. It still wasn't as washed out as I'd hoped, so I layered a piece of plain vellum over the top before adding the other embellishments. The large number dies that are part of the bundle are great and made this lovely '21' out of silver glimmer paper. The little silver star is cut with one of the dies that is part of the Circle Card thinlit set, and my Confetti Stars border punch came of exile to play a part in this card too. Here's a peek of the inside.


So, head on over to the challenge at As You See It this week and show us what wonderful things you can do with this sketch too. You have until 11.55 pm, Wednesday 10 February (PST), which in New Zealand gives you until about 9pm Thursday 11 February, so give it a go.

I'm also going to enter this card into the challenge at Stampin' Royalty, a site I've often looked at but never entered before, since their challenge this week is to create a guy card. Perfect!

Update: Delighted to have this card chosen as a Top Pick at Stampin' Royalty.

Ingredients
Card: Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler, Smoky Slate, Whisper White (inside), silver glimmer paper, vellum
Stamps: Number of Years, Sassy Salutations (inside)
Ink: Smoky Slate, Tuxedo Black (inside)
Other: Circle Card thinlit, Confetti Stars border punch, 2 1/2" circle die, Large Number dies



Friday 5 February 2016

Paper Players 280

This is the first week back at work after the summer school holidays. I wasn't liking it much but once all the students were back and it was very clear how much they'd missed the library, it got to be pretty sweet. It was really great catching up on what they'd been doing over summer and what they'd been reading. All the same, I'm happy it's Friday night because all week, an idea for the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge at The Paper Players has been percolating. After school today, I got a chance to see if it would work in practice. Here's the challenge this week.


I'm playing the first column: Flowers, die cuts, yellow.

And here's my circular easel card using the new Botanical Bloom suite from Stampin' Up. I can't believe how much I've played with these dies and stamps, although this is the first thing I've made using the matching DSP and colours.  It took a bit of experimenting to get the circular card working well and next time, there will be some changes in design.




I think I'm going to make the entry to Paper Players with a few hours to spare and have made a card that matched up to how I imagined it would be.

Update: Delighted to be picked as A Cut Above at The Paper Players.

Ingredients
Card: Old Olive, Hello Honey, Cajun Craze, Whisper White, Mossy Meadow, Basic Black. 
Stamps: Botanial Blooms, Balloon Celebrations (sentiment)
Inks: Hello Honey, Tuxedo Black, Cajun Craze (sponging on flower centre)
Other: Circle Framelits, Botanical Builders framelit dies, Cajun Craze candy dots, foam tape and dimensionals, black marker pen to colour cut edges.







Monday 1 February 2016

Creative Inkers' Blog Hop





















Welcome to this stop on the Creative Inkers' Team Blog Hop. There are buttons and links at the bottom of the post to let you move forward (or back) to the next post. Should you get lost, there's a list at the end of the post listing all the stops on the hop.

I've loved everything I got from the Occasions and Sale-a-Bration catalogues - so much so that there are still some things in the box because I've been too busy playing with the things I've taken out to get to them all! So, choosing what to share with you today has been hard.

One thing I've played with a lot is using the Botanical Blooms dies and stamps with paper other than the Botanical Blooms DSP. I've tried several alternative colour ways, and liked them all, but my favourite has been to use Birthday Bouquet DSP. It's such a pretty combination that I couldn't resist making something else with it to share with you all.

I've made a joy fold birthday card. Here it is, folded up. The little pink flower on the left is raised on a dimensional so that it acts like a clasp, holding the fold-over in place. I left that flower pretty plain because I wanted it to lead into, but not detract from, the centre panel.


And here it is, opened up for display.



Here's a closer view of the flower cluster.



Inside, I left it quite plain. I was going to stamp the sentiment from Balloon Celebrations "Come, Let us sit together and drink champagne" but then decided I'd better wait and see who I'd give it to first!



Originally, I'd been going to split the central panel using the leaf edgelit but it just looked a bit too busy with the DSP behind it: just proving the theory that you should plan your card - and then take something out of it!

Should you want to make something similar, here are the dimensions I used for this card.

For the Blushing Bride section
Blushing Bride base: 10.5cm x 21cm, scored at 14.8cm. Fold over the short end to make the front flap.
Floral DSP: 14.3cm x 10cm
Pink striped DSP: 5.7cm x 10cm. Make sure you put this piece on the front of the fold-over.

For the Pool Party section
Pool Party: 20cm x 7.5cm. Note: this is not quite the full width of an A4 piece of card stock. Score it at 10cm and fold in half.
White: 2 x 7cm x 9.5cm. These form the card inner and the front panel. Decorate and stamp them as you wish.
The decorative strip of DSP in the inner is 1cm x 9.5cm
Make sure that when you decorate it and attach it to the Blushing Bride section that it is folded to open left to right.

Also optional is the placement of the small flower, or other embellishment, raised slightly to act as a catch for the small fold over section.

Ingredients
Card: Blushing Bride, Pool Party, Whisper White, Birthday Bouquet DSP, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Basic Black
Stamps: Balloon Celebrations (sentiment), Botanical Blooms
Ink: Tuxedo Black, Blushing Bride for soft sponging of flower centre
Other: Botanical Builder Framelits Dies, Candy dots, dimensionals, 1/4" circle punch.

Enjoy your other stops on this Blog Hop. Previous will take you back to Paula Reid and Next will take you to Bev Poultney. (If the buttons don't work, click on their names instead!)

                                             

Here's a list of all the participants, linked to their post, if you want to hop quickly to another stop.

  1. Kathryn 
  2. Ria Kaire 
  3. Jackie Noble  
  4. Sally Williams  
  5. Heather Stewart 
  6. Narelle Hoggard   
  7. Jacque Williams    
  8. Paula Reid  
  9. Jan Clothier <- You are here
  10. Bev Poultney    
  11. Debbie Lamb 
  12. Lisa Bullock 
  13. Rebecca Palmer