JAI 138 Just add a colour combo

Hello there,
I have to admit I suggested the colour combination for this weeks Just Add Ink challenge and then thought what on earth have I done!!! However having seen what the rest of the DT have come up with I'm glad I did! If you didn't like Summer Starfruit before you will after this challenge! In my case some new stamps to play with were inspiration enough to get the creative juices going ;) Here's the colour combo.

And here is what I came up with.

This card came together really quickly, which was delightful and rather surprising, especially when I had no idea how to do the box pleating! Basically I laid my DSP on the score board and just started scoring and folding and miraculously it worked - although I have managed to hide, by sheer chance rather than skill, a couple of boo boos! The swirl from Everything Eleanor is definitely a new favourite too!

Summer starfruit is still growing on me but I am glad this challenge made me take it for a test drive ;) Hope you can join us.
Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Occaisional Quotes (R), Background Basics: Houndstooth (PaperTrey Ink),
Cardstock: Basic Grey, Summer Starfruit, Whisper White
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Basic Grey
Accessories: Boho Blossoms punch, Summer Starfruit stitched satin ribbon, Urban Garden DSP (R), Jewels - rhinestones, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, Double sided tape (X Press)

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

The Starry Sea and Message in a Bottle

Hi there,
well when I first saw the sketch for this weeks challenge from Makeesha - I broke out in a sweat - I kid you not. What was I going to do with this! Here's the sketch so you can see what I mean.

It was seriously challenging, yes I know that is the point! Tag, luggage tags, windows all flashed before my eyes and then for some strange reason I thought "hey the central element could be a bottle". Next step from there was what goes in bottle - ships and messages of course!! Now I really did not mean to do two cards this week, but I just had to follow the two ideas up, and well this month I am really just concentrating on Keesh's challenges. So my "official" card is the one below but keep going if you want to see my second idea for the sketch.

Well the family friend who was expecting a baby had a boy, so I needed another baby card so I decided to use my ship in a bottle idea for this one. The Baja base is double layered, so the two silver brads don't show through to the inside, the top Baja layer was clear embossed with the Classic Stars wheel, and I also embossed stamping first with white craft ink and then using white embossing powder, the star, ship and sentiment from Nursery Necessities. The star and ship are raised up on dimensionals and so is the DSP sail. I created the waves by using the small oval punch on an angle, once that was SNAILed on to the Baja layer I paper pierced the wave pattern. The create the thread at the top of the bottle, I used my bone folder and the track on my cutter, then used a gel pen to highlight the thread, wiping most of it back with a slightly damp cloth. Some ribbon finishes it off. Now, here is card two.

Ok, well card two is my version of a message in a bottle. Once again the base layer (Sahara) is double layered so that the brass brads won't show through to the inside). I stamped that with Sanded in Sahara, the message is En Francais stamped in Not Quite Navy onto Confetti White, then scrunched up a bit and the top corner rolled over and stuck down with glue dots. Behind the bottle I white embossed (most of) the Something Fishy wheel onto Not Quite Navy, used the small oval punch again to create waves, paper pierced just below the waves and then layered that onto a Confetti layer. A white embossed sentiment (I figured if you're stuck on an island and putting a message in a bottle you are certainly thinking of someone!), a Sahara "cork" and some hemp twine finish it off. Hope you liked them :)

To finish once again big thanks go to Sam, who I borrowed more stuff from. Ta!!
I also want to say a special hello to Keesh who has sent me over an award - thanks lovely lady:)

To check out the other design team creations click on the links below.
Karen
Cindy
Renee
Kirsty
Amy

Recipe: (All SU unless otherwise noted)
"Starry Seas"
Stamps:Nursery Necessities, Classic Stars
Card Stock: Baja Breeze,Basic Grey, Whisper White
Ink: White Craft, Versamark, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Urban Garden DSP, Silver hodgepodge, Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon, white and clear embossing powder, white gel pen, Corner Rounder punch, Small Oval punch and small Star punch, Piercing tool and mat pack, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, double sided tape.

"Message in a Bottle"
Stamps: En Francais, Sanded, Something Fishy
Card Stock: Sahara Sand, Confetti White, Not Quite Navy
Ink: White Craft, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: White embossing powder, Brass Bo Bunny brads, Corner Rounder punch, Small Oval punch, Piercing tool and mat pack, hemp twine, Glue Dots, Dimensionals, SNAIL adhesive, double sided tape.

A Trendy Flower

Hi there,

for Makeesha sketch challenge this week I finally managed to break out my Trendy trees stamp and some of the new in colours and I really enjoyed using both. This was one of those idea you come up with in your head and when you convert it to paper it actually worked - yippee. First here is the sketch, and the card will follow.

A side view to give you a glimpse of the inside.

I went with greens and blues for this one as I wanted to use my Urban Garden DSP and the black and white gingham check ribbon inspired me to use black to accent all the features. Really this card is about embossing, punching and piercing. I had read how you can use craft ink and just pour embossing powder onto it, so that's what I tried. First I stamped the tree top with white craft ink, then just to make doubly sure I poured over white embossing powder - it worked a treat! Once I had embossed all the petals I just punched them out. I clear embossed as well on the Baja panel with the same tree top stamp. The flower stem was an idea I had seen some where and some time in blog land, sorry I can't remember, and was made by using the scallop edge punch on both side of the same strip of cardstock, you just need to remember to offset it on the second side, to get the ric rac effect. The sentiment was punched out with the word window punch, and I made a little frame for it by cutting a strip of card stock just a bit wider and then used the corner rounder punch to get the pointed ends. Piercing, ribbon, and some black brads finish it off.

Recipe: (All SU unless otherwise noted)
Stamps: Trendy Trees
Card Stock: Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Basic Black and Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, White Craft, Versamark
Accessories: Urban Garden DSP, Clear and White Embossing powder, Heat Gun, Mat pack and piercing tool, Black Gingham ribbon, 1" circle punch, word window punch, scallop edge punch, corner rounder punch, Black brads