JAI 34 - just add a colour combo

Hi there,

welcome back for another Just Add Ink challenge! This week its a colour combo. Here's the colour pick.


Boy oh boy did I struggle with this colour combo! Crumb cake is not a colour I work easily with although I'm improving and I can see that it works well with strong colours but with pastels!!! Yikes!! So I ended up going simple and I hope a little stylish.



I started with a Crumb cake base, stamped the little vine flourish twice in versamark, above and below the bottom right hand corner. Then in from the top left hand corner I stamped the sentiment and white embossed it. Its important to do this before you do the next step - or you'll end up with white powder sticking to your versamark frame! Next using a ruler and the new Versamarker I drew a frame connecting the two vine flourishes. One thing I would recommend is to use a very light hand, use more than the absolutely miniumum pressure and you'll get a thick chunky line. Next I stamped several of the large and smaller flower from Vintage Vogue in Pretty in Pink and So Saffron on Whisper White. Trimmed those out and then layered them up with dimensionals, adding a large pearl to the centre top to finish. Then I added some small pearls to the vine flourishes and finished off the inside to match.

Thanks for visiting and why don't you have a try at this colour combo and link your creation back to Just Add Ink. I will be really keen to see what wonderful ideas you come up with so I can pick up some tips :)

Kim

Recipe: All SU!
Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Sincere Salutations
Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Ink: Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Versamark (pad and pen)
Accessories: Pearls, White embossing powder, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive

Birthday Lily

Hi there,

I'm going to squeeze in an extra post this week and this is it! I have been quietly watching Steph Pike's blog for a while and when she decided to set an inspiration challenge I decided to have a go. Steph used Makeesha Byl sketch (posted for her weekly challenge) for her card and since I usually do Keesh's challenges I decided that was the way to go too. So here are Steph's inspiration pic and Keesh's sketch.

The colours in the inspiration pic are a mix of quite rich purples, yellow and green. Having just got my hands on Rich Razzleberry recently I decided to use that as my main purple. The other reason was that I wanted to stamp my Lily onto DSP and one pattern in the Cottage Wall DSP was just perfect. (Cottage Wall colours are Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Old Olive).

The inside finished off simply to match.

So I started with a Rich Razzleberry base, then layered that with a panel of Summer Sun (I do hope the new Daffodil yellow due in the new catty in Sept is just as rich). The next layer was Whisper White (to balance all those strong colours), but I gave it some texture by embossing with the new SU embossing folder Perfect Polka Dots. Next taking some Cottage Wall DSP I stamped the Lily. Then using copics (Y15, Y21) I coloured in the stamens. I also used an aquapainter and ink from the Orchid Opulence ink pad lid to give some depth to the Lily. The Lily was carefully cut out and then mounted on dimensionals on a sequence of circles (same layers as the card base). Final touches were some little Old Olive ribbon leaves and little dabs of crystal effects on the tips of the flower stamens. The finished flower element was mounted on dimensionals to overlap a broad strip of Cottage Wall DSP. As per Keesh's sketch I added a sentiment. I didn't want it to overpower the flower so I kept it simple, white on white. I stamped the sentiment in Rich Razzleberry then punched it out with the Designer Label punch and slipped in under the top of the DSP. Three small purple rhinestone brads finish it off.

It was an unusual mix of colours for me, but then that is what challenges are all about! I'm pretty happy with the result though.

Thanks for visiting,

Kim

PS: Happy Birthday Steph :)

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Sincere Salutations
Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, Summer Sun, Whisper White
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence
Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Designer Label punch, Cottage Wall DSP, Old Olive narrow grosgrain ribbon, Copics, Crystal Effects, Fire Rhinestone brads, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, Double sided tape

The Christmas card

Hello, hello, hello there,

I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas. We had a lovely time visiting my parents, the kids got to go to the beach a couple of times, Mum (me) got to go to the movies for the first time in three years! and do some shopping. I bought myself a new border punch that I have been wanting to get my hands on (Apron Lace from Fyskars). It's nice to be home though and aside from some decluttering (every surface in our house seems to attract some) and preparing for a BBQ tonight I couldn't resist posting. Actually I have a few things I'd like to post but given that Christmas is rapidly disappearing I thought I had better post my "official" Christmas card for 2009.

I played around with Tree Trimmings, for a few weeks trying to find a layout that I liked. I'd seen some great cards but wanted to come up with something that was easy to reproduce but looked good and was mostly mine in design. I can't remember what triggered it but I was seized by an idea and then was able to make up a prototype very quickly - hooray!! In fact I prepped up the pieces for 20+ cards and took them with me on holiday in November and then just assembled two cards a day till I was done.

I wanted to do a traditional colour version and a non traditional version, the blue/olive mix was mostly DSP inspired, the Ski Slope DSP available then used those together as did the (long retired) Holiday Thyme DSP I used on those cards. Enough blather - the design pretty simple, the base of the card is stamped with stars/snowflakes, over that is a Old Olive panel scalloped down one edge. Then the image panel goes over that. DSP at the bottom, the greeting and a bauble raised on dimensionals. A strip of ribbon goes over to blend the join.

Thanks for visiting through this first year of blogging - its been a great fun and I love to hear your comments.

Have a Happy New Year,

Kim

Recipe: Trad colours (All SU unless otherwise noted)

Stamps: Sleigh Full of Toys (R), Tree Trimming, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock: Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Chocolate Chip, White Craft

Accessories: Ski Slope DSP (R), Scallop Edge punch, wide Real Red and Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, Silver brad, dimensionals, Double sided tape, SNAIL adhesive

Recipe: Non-Trad colours (All SU unless otherwise noted)

Stamps: Sleigh Full of Toys (R), Tree Trimmings, Sincere Salutations

Cardstock:Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Whisper White

Ink: Bashful Blue, Old Olive

Accessories: Holiday Thyme DSP (R), Scalloped Edge punch, 1" Double stitched Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon, narrow Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, silver brad, dimensionals, double sided tape, SNAIL adhesive

Daisies Stepping Up to the Sky

Phew,

we had one busy weekend and I haven't been able to get near the computer. First the weekly shopping, then taking the kids off to get photographed (they are only little for such a short time, although when you're sleep deprived it feels alot longer! and we rounded the weekend off with attending a birthday party). I actually had written this post up on the lap top nearly a week ago but posting well I guess that's another issue altogether. So here it is:

I managed to squeeze in an extra nights crafting this week to work on a special project – a birthday present for a good friend (hi Sam). Since she is superb paper crafter I wanted to do something special and the project I came up with was to make a Stepper Box. I first saw one on Caroline Le Bel’s blog last year (in Dec I think), when she showed the box she did as a workshop class. Caroline was kind enough to send me the instructions she had written up to make the box. You can also find instructions through this link, which was kindly sent to me by Splitcoasters (as they didn’t have a tutorial on their site for the box). (Tip: Make the Lid box a little bigger than suggested). So what kind of box am I talking about – well this is what I mean.

Using chipboard panels covered with DSP you make a casing that wraps around, 4 little box “shelves”, that are adhered each on a different panel at different levels so they “step” and the whole box can fold up on itself – how clever!!

After ummming and ahhing I settled on the Urban Garden DSP I wanted to use. Basic Gray wouldn’t normally be my first choice for a birthday card but I really liked the vertical flower pattern and thought it would work for the box and a matching card. So the colour palette is pretty simple – Basic Gray, Baja Breeze and Whisper White. I won’t go into details of how to make it – just follow the link if you want to check it out. One thing I will say is that it looks, initially to be really complicated to make all the boxes, but it is actually really simple and the boxes almost come together like magic.

There was no way that I was going to chop off the flower heads on the DSP or cover them up when the lid sits on the box, so I decided to cover the outside, side of the chipboard with white paper first then at a lower level layer with the DSP. I scalloped the top of the DSP on both the card and box. Inside the box I used another Urban Garden pattern to line it. The stepper boxes and lid are all made from Baja Breeze cardstock, all decorated with a matching DSP. The final touch for the box lid is a Baja Breeze corduroy button from the new Mini catalogue.

The little internal box steps are perfect for stashing a special little array of birthday treats – choccies, brads whatever takes your fancy.

The card is pretty simple but I hope effective. The same Urban Garden flower DSP scalloped at the top. Set on a layer of white, then the card base is Baja Breeze. To accentuate the DSP I paper pierced above and below. The sentiment was stamped in clear embossed Baja Breeze, punched out and set in a silver hodgepodge frame. That was laid over a strip of Baja Breeze ribbon and the frame was also embellished with the ribbon and some rhinestone brads.

I liked the result so much I think I’ll make one for me!! And my little Miss Four is dead keen on having on for her use as well.

Thanks for visiting.

Recipe: All SU unless noted
Box
Stamps: none
Cardstock: Baja Breeze
Ink: None
Accessories: Bella Chipboard sheet, White copy paper, Urban Garden DSP, Baja Breeze Corduroy Button, Basic Grey Taffeta Ribbon, Scallop Circle Punch1 3/8 circle punch, 1 1/4 circle punch, SNAIL adhesive, Tombow Multi

Card
Stamps: Sincere Salutations
Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Ink: Baja Breeze, Versamark
Accessories: Urban Garden DSP, Silver Hodgepodge, Ice Rhinestones, Striped Grosgrain Baja Breeze Ribbon, Mat pack and piercing tool, Clear Embossing Powder (for the sentiment), Scallop Edge punch, Designer Label punch, SNAIL adhesive, Double sided tape