JAI 46 -just add critters

Hi everyone,

well for a change I don't have a Christmas card for you today. Why? well we have a fun challenge for you at Just Add Ink this week - its just add critters! Now I'm not saying you can't make a critter inspired Christmas card - its just that the first critter idea that popped into my head was Noah's Ark and I just had to see if I could make it work. Here it is.




I've seen side step cards around in blog land off and on and it was on my list of try sometime, and it occured to me that the steps would be a great way to showcase my parade of two by two animals. To find the instructions I just Googled and in the end I followed some simple instructions I found on Marelle Taylor's blog here. So I started by cutting and folding a Marina Mist base, as per the instructions. Next step was all the animals - two tortoises in Old Olive and Kiwi Kiss, two lions in mix and matched More Mustard and Cajun Craze, two giraffes in Pumpkin Pie and Tangerine Tango and two monkeys in Early Expresso and Chocolate Chip - a tree for the monkeys (I hand cut the trunk and then added lots of punched "foliage" as well as some apples ;)
I also added some grass to the two lower levels, for the tortoises and lions to walk through. Of course I also needed an ark! So I stamped my boat on Whisper White and Pumpkin Pie, then cut out some of the white sections and pieced them onto the Pumpkin boat. I adhered my boat about half way up on the small full height section of the side step card, leaving enough room to add a sentiment below, and a bright yellow sun to shine down from above. I also added some vellum cardstock below the boat to be the "sea". The last finishing touch was to add dabs of crystal effects to highlight bits of the boat and the animals. It was a bit tricky but I finished off the inside too.

I was very chuffed to get high marks from all the family on this one - even my DH - so this one is a keeper and most likely destined for my Mr 2 when he turns into Mr 3!! early next year.

So I hope you liked my whimsical critter take on Noah's Ark - if you have time why don't you join in the Just Add Ink challenge this week too.

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU!
Stamps: Fox and Friends, Party this Way, Wild About You (R), Boatloads of Love (R)
Cardstock: Marina Mist, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Kiwi Kiss (smooth and textured), Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Cardstock Vellum
Ink: Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, Early Expresso
Accessories: Boho Blossom punch, 1/4" and 1" circle punches, Word Window punch, Scallop circle punch, Little Leaves sizzlet, Real Red brad, Crystal Effects, Dimensionals, SNAIL, Double sided tape

Inkspirations 34 - roarrrr shhh!

Hi all,

welcome back to my entry for this weeks Inkspirations challenge set by the lovely Makeesha. This week Keesh set a sketch and yikes was it a tricky one! Here it is.


I decided to go with a baby card - no specific recipient in mind although I'm expecting to become an Auntie again in the next week or so but whether the bub is a boy or a girl is going to be a surprise. But at least now I have the boy side covered ;) Here it is.


I started out by thinking I wanted a blue/brown lion - so next I had to work out which brown and blue. I ended up settling on Brocade Blue and More Mustard and pulled some old DSP out of my stash to match. So having found all the bits and pieces I set to work!

I started with a Brocade base, then added a Mustard panel with DSP (stripes horizontal) then added DSP (stripes vertical) to the rest of the card base (after piercing around the edges). Then a Mustard panel with more DSP (a more muted blue stripe) was laid. The central lion panel mostly rests over this. I stamped my lion three times once in Brocade as the base, which I then cut using my circle nestabilities. The other two were used to trim out a Mustard lion head with mane and one little Brocade lion face. These two were layered over the original Brocade lion using dimensionals between each layer. The final touches were to add lots of buttons. On the left hand side I threaded and tied them all together with kitchen twine, then glued them down with Tombow. Two little Mustard buttons were added as accents on the right too. Lastly I stamped "Welcome baby" using Chocolate Chip onto twill and added it to the bottom of the lion with a 5/16 silver brad. The inside was finished off to match.

This card ended up being a bit of homage to retiring and retired product - I quite enjoyed having a rifle through my stash - I hope you liked it too.

Thanks for visiting,

Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise mentioned
Stamps: Wild About You, Short and Sweet
Cardstock: Blue Brocade, More Mustard, Whisper White
Ink: Blue Brocade, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Spring Showers DSP (R), Earth Element buttons (R), Rich Regal buttons (R), 5/16" silver brad, narrow twill, kitchen twine, Circle nestabilities, Piercing tool and mat pack, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, Tombow, Double sided tape

Turning Two - the last giraffe

Hi all,

well our household has been a tale of woe for the last week, with a family sized, all member, cold. Seriously I reckon we have gone through two boxes of tissues between the four of us, and we still haven't reached the end! It's been that bad that I just had no energy to stamp or summon up inspiration!! Just as well I'm a week ahead on Keesh's challenge. I did manage to grab the camera this morning though after dropping Miss 5 off to school to photograph, an oldie but a goodie. The birthday card I made for my little boyo when he turned two earlier this year. The inspiration for the design came from a gorgeous card that Kirsty Brown posted here.


And of course an inside to match

I started with a base of Riding Hood Red, rounded all the corners, then stamped it with Polka Dot in RRH ink. For the image panel I started with a So Saffron layer, then layered that with some of the cloudy DSP from Sweet Slumber (love this!) on the top and Washington Apple on the bottom. The transition is covered by a sentiment banner (RHH and Baja Breeze) which steps down from the image panel to the base layer. I stamped some balloon strings onto the cloudy DSP and then stamped the giraffe from Wild About You in RHH, then trimmed him out. The giraffe is mounted on dimensionals over the strings, so he can hold them in his mouth - of course ;). Lots of buttons finish it off. Two as balloons, and two on the sentiment banner. Mr Two's birthday milestone is added as the final balloon, RRH stamped on So Saffron and then covered with crystal effects.

I was pretty happy with how it turned out - I figured it was probably the last time I could get away with using a cute animal for his birthday cards - they grow up so fast!! I'm pretty sure next year he would rather have a car or train etc - no cute and fuzzies!

Thanks for visiting,

Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise mentioned
Stamps: Wild About You, Polka Dot, Party Hearty, Everyday Button Bits (PaperTrey Inc)
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, So Saffron, Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Corner rounder punch, Sweet Slumber Specialty, Washington Apple DSP, Button Bouquet, Playground Buttons, Pure Poppy buttons (PTI), 3/4" circle punch, crystal effects, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, Tombow, various embroidery threads

Bright baby elephant

Hi all,

well I have another bright one this week for Makeesha weekly challenge. I was going to make a baby card, in monochromatic blues but when I pulled out my Washinton Apple paper to check out the Bashful Blue pattern I saw the checked paper and decided it would be the perfect background to the card. So from monchromatic blue to red, yellow and blue!! Here's the sketch for the challenge and my card will follow.

As the baby card is for good friends expecting a boy in the next month or two I started with a Bashful Blue base, layered that with Riding Hood Red and then the DSP. I stamped the elephant onto a Whisper White panel then again, cropped the second out and mounted it on dimensionals above the first. I also stamped one in Bashful so I could crop out the ear and then mount that on top of the second Red elephant. To finish off the main panel I added some striped RHR grosgrain ribbon, tied using silver cord, with a Bashful Blue button (both retired). In the top corner I added the "twinkle, twinkle" baby sentiment from In the Stars. Oh and I added some rows of free hand piercing under the elephants feet and pierced a border around three sides of that main panel. ( I love the way Debbie Olson does this unfortunately my first go didn't turn out quite as elegantly as I would have like - oh well!). The three squares running down the RHS were quickly done using my small square punch to punch out some quirkly contrasting bits of Washington Apple DSP all framed in Basful Blue.

Overall I was pretty happy with how it turned out - its nice and bright and fun and has a bit of impact - something that will welcome a brand new little bub into the world.

Thanks for visiting

Kim

Recipe: All SU unless other wise noted

Stamps: Wild About You, In the Stars(R)

Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Bashful Blue

Accessories: Washington Apple DSP, mat pack and piercing tool, 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 circle punches, 11/4 square punch, Striped grosgrain Riding Hood Red ribbon, Bashful Blue button (R), silver cord(R), dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

My First DT card - Its a Girl

Hi there everyone,

yep the title says it all. I was delighted (translation excited jumping up and down accompanied by squeals of joy) to recieve an email from the lovely Makeesha to ask me to be the first guest design team member for her weekly challenges. I will be on the DT for the month of June so I will look forward to saying hello each week and hopefully hearing from you all as well!

Now I have discovered that I find colour challenges the hardest to work with - imagine how daunting it was to start off my tenure with a colour challenge. This is the colour combo that Makeesha picked this week.

I did do a fair bit of fiddling and in the end made two cards. But the one I have decided to select as my DT card is right below.

A family friend is expecting a baby in the next few weeks - so my start point was a baby card, given the involvement of Pink Passion - one for a girl. Overall its actually a fairly simple card. My main colour decision to was when possible to space the Celery between the Pink Passion and Pumpkin. I found it gave better contrast for both of them. So starting with a Pink Passion layer, I added a Celery one on top then a Whisper White that was stamped with Polka Dots to match the dotty Pumpkin DSP at the bottom. The main element is the Pink Passion elephant, dressed up with a Celery brad for its eye, glittery Pumpkin ear and a Pumpkin felt Fusion flower. To dress up the Celery ribbon below I also added a row of Pumpkin felt fusion flowers with alternating pink and Celery brads. In the process I discovered that Tombow and Crystal effects just did not want to stick the flowers down but some glue dots and sticky strip later I got that problem solved. Lots of scallops, some piercing and "Its a girl' for the flower stalk and it was all done. The inside was also just finished off simply.

Ok having seen my official card here is the second one I made for the colour challenge.

My starting point for this one was to use the most recent (at the time) Mojo Monday sketch and also to use the same layering as I did for the first. The points to note here are that I used the stripy Background sampler stamp to make the Pink Passion strips on the bottom, then using markers added in Pumpkin and Celery stripes. I got the colour effect on the largest flower, by colouring the centre with a Pumkpin marker and the edge with a Pink Passion one, then used a blender pen to pull the Pumkpin out into the Pink, I did go over after with an aquapainter and a little ink from the ink pads lids to deepen the colour. The top flower was simply rock and rolled and Dazzling Diamonds was added to the Celery flower. The opened up pink brads was accidental really, I opened one up flat just so I could see if the Pink brads were right for the card - size wise and looked and went - hmmm Ok I might keep it this way.

I want to finish today by saying a big thank you to very good friend (and now upline) Sam who kindly lent me Polka Dot, Background Sampler and Petals Pizzazz.

You can check out the brilliant creations from the other DT members here.

Karen

Amy

Renee

Cindy

Kirsty

"Its a Girl"
Recipe: All SU unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Wild About You, So Many Sayings, Polka Dot
CardStock: Pink Passion, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White
Ink: Pink Passion, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Scallop Edge punch, Wide and narrow Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon, Pumpkin Pie felt Fusion flowers, 2-way Glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, Certainly Cerlery brads, Pink Bo Bunny brads, Mat pack and piercing tool, Glue Dots, Sticky Strip, Double sided tape, SNAIL adhesive, Dimensionals

"Thank You"
Recipe: All SU unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Petals Pizzazz, Background Sampler, Simple Wishes (retired hostess set)
CardStock: Pink Passion, Certainly Celery, and Whisper White
Ink: Pink Passion, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Certainly Celery DSP, Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes folder, Ice Rhinestone brad, large pink Bo Bunny brads, wide Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon, 2-way Glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, Dimensionals, Double sided tape, SNAIL adhesive, blender pen

Wildly suspenful

Hi there,

in retrospect, after my last post I decided that I wasn't all that happy with that card, and if I had the time to pull it apart I would have another go - but I don't so it will stand as is. Thank you to all the lovely ladies who did make such nice comments (I guess it can't have been too bad after all). I am however very happy with todays effort which is my entry this week for Makeesha's sketch challenge. Here's the sketch.

The design came to me at night (once again cuddling Mr1 to sleep). I have been wanting to try a suspension card for a while and the circle in Keesh's design seemed perfect for that. The next step was what to go in the centre- for some reason I thought of the penguin from Wild About You and that pretty much dictated the rest of the colours, and design elements (Blue Bayou, Bashful Blue, Whisper White and swirl cuttlebug. The sentiment, of course, had to be Wild About You !). The biggest challenge was trying to work out how I was going to cut a circle through all the layers (I don't have circle nesties (they are on their way though - yippee) my fall back was the Fiskars circle template and that ended up working OK. Final point to note is that there is penguin on both sides, one is Blue Bayou on White and the other is white embossed on Blue Bayou. So here's the card...

I do have another card finished at the moment, for a Mojo sketch from a couple of weeks back, in my first go at vintage -ish style, but won't get to post it till the weekend at the earliest. So till then...bye

Recipe:
Stamps: Wild About You
Card Stock:Whisper White, Blue Bayou, Bashful Blue
Ink: Blue Bayou, Versamark
Accessories: Punches (1 3/8, 1 1/4 circle, small oval), Fiskar circle template and cutter, white embosssing powder, heat gun, Pool Party DSP, Swirl cuttlebug folder, Blue Bayou double stitched ribbon, SNAIL adhesive, sticky strip, Dimensionals, Bashful Blue brads