JAI #306 Just add sympathy

Hello there,
well we have just about made it out of the cough zone at home. Just in time for school holidays too. Since my stamping time tends to get contracted during the holidays I have been trying to get ahead with some projects and this week's Just Add Ink challenge from Jan - to Just add Sympathy was first on the list. Sadly I will more than likely need to use this one this year as a long term family friend is struggling with cancer :(

I started by having a bit of a rummage through Pinterest for sympathy cards and discovered from that, that what appealed to me was lots of white and a little touch of green. So that's where I started. I also liked the idea of incorporating the sunburst die and decided to double layer it (the top layer is Shimmer White) to give it greater presence. Then I softened the strong lines by using vellum foliage. Knowing I will have to use this does make me sad but I'm also glad that I'm prepared.

Sympathy cards are tough to make and tough to give but are important to provide comfort and support to those who have lost someone they loved.

Hope you can join us. Please do check out the rest of the DT for some wonderful inspiration.

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Turning a New Leaf (PaperTrey Ink), Sending You (PTI)
Cardstock: Whisper White, Shimmer White, Basic Gray, Vellum
Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Basic Gray
Accessories: Circle framelits, Sunburst thinlets die, Turning a New Leaf dies (PaperTrey Ink), Doubled ended banner dies (PTI), Linen thread, Dimensionals, Tear and Tape, Staples

JAI #292 Just add inspiration

Hello there,

well you can probably guess Christmas crafting is in full throttle here (when I can squeeze some in!) I will have to admit to not sending any Christmas card yet - eeek. But the good news is that I have another one to add to the stash courtesy of this weeks Just Add Ink challenge. This week Nikki has a great Christmas inspiration challenge for us. Here's the pic.

And here's what I made.

It's pretty clear what I pulled from the inspiration picture, the aqua/ silver colour scheme and I loved those diagonal stripes, but you needn't be as literal as me. It was fun though, taking the inspiration picture and putting it back together in my own way.

Hope you can join us this week. Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's inspired creations.

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted

Stamps: Tree Trimming Trio (PaperTrey Ink), Teeny Tiny Sentiments

Cardstock: Pool Party, Lost Lagoon, Whisper White, Shimmery White

Ink: Versamark

Accessories: Bitty Banner framelits, Banner framelits, Softly Falling embossing folder, Christmas tree die (PaperTrey Ink), Gold Fancy Foil Designer Vellum, Pool Party and Silver embossing powder, Silver cord (R), 8mm Silver sequins (Beads Neez Hobbysew), Sewing machine, Fine Tip Glue pen, Doubled sided tape (X Press), Dimensionals

JAI #283 Just add a sketch

Hello there,
this week at Just Add Ink we have a sketch for you from Narelle. It's got some classic lines that I thought would be perfect for my parent's wedding anniversary. This year they are reaching 49 years! The nice thing is that our family is always together for this event each year as it's right before Christmas (yes I'm doing a bit of planning ahead here :).
Here's the sketch.

And here is what I made of it.

Dad often gives Mum red roses so I decided to go with that theme this year. Using red and mixing it with earthy kraft and some softening vellum. As you can see I did make one small change to the sketch pulling the horizontal element from the back to the front of the layers. To add some mobile pops of colour I tucked some red sequins in under the vellum, stitching them in. The inside was finished off with another little red rose.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT's fabulous projects. Hope you will join us for the sketch this week.

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless noted
Stamps: Botanical Blocks (PaperTrey Ink), Year of Flowers Collection (PTI), Round and Round (PTI)
Cardstock: Real Red, Kraft, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Cherry Cobler, Old Olive, Garden Green, Versamark, Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Accessories: Brights DSP stack (R), Copics, Sheer Basic Patterned Paper Vellum (PTI), Double ended banner  die (PTI), White embossing powder, Moonshine sequins (Simon Says Stamp), Fine Tip glue pen, Double sided tape (X press)

JAI #253 Just add inspiration

Hello there,
well we've come round to another Friday and that means it's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink. This week we have a vibrant Just Add Inspiration challenge for you from Nikki. Here's the pic.

The colours definitely captured my attention! 

I loved the look of the ripples so wanted to capture that somehow and that led me to play around with the bokeh technique. I think butterflies and bokeh must be a perfect match! Of course I needed a little bit of glitz so I deconstructed some silver taffeta and loaded up my butterflies with rhinestones. This turned out pretty :) and since I have several pink loving friends it will go to a good home.

Hope you can join us this week - do check out the rest of the DT for some gorgeous projects!

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless noted
Stamps: A little birthday cheer (R)
Cardstock: Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Melon Mambo, Pool Party, Basic Grey, Whisper White
Accessories: Starburst framelits, Banner framelits, Butterflies thinlets die, Bitty Banner framelits, Fancy Foil Designer vellum Gold, Silver 1/8" taffeta, Jewels - rhinestones, Sewing machine, Doubled sided tape (X Press), SNAIL adhesive

JAI 220 Just add a sketch

Hello there,
well I have a another very spring like card today probably to counter the mid winter dark and cold we are having right now. Was so darn cold this week - brrrr.

This week we have a sketch for you at Just Add Ink. I think you will find that it lends itself to being CAS or more elaborate if you like. I think this week I kind of ending up some where in the middle - lol! Here's the sketch.

And here is what I made of it.

The embossed vellum overlay is only attached at the top, and to make sure it wasn't going any where I sewed it in place with my sewing machine. The only other point to note is that I coloured the flowers using markers and also using ink from ink pad lids using an aquapainter. The combination of both lets you get a more intense colour.

Hope you can join us this and try out the sketch - we'd love to see your take on it!

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: So Very Grateful, Happy Day
Cardstock: Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Whisper White, Vellum
Ink: Bermuda Bay, Real Red. Crushed Curry, Versamark
Accessories: Apothecary Accents framelits, Black and White embossing powder, Tea Lace Paper Dollies, Gold Baker's twine, Aquapainter, Double sided tape (X Press), Dimensionals

2012 unblogged: Sympathy cards 2

 Hello again,

well here is my second sympathy card for last year. Lots of fussy cutting but I thought the end effect would be worth it.

 

Next installment will be a few masculine cards starting with something "super" special for my DH.

 

Thanks for visiting,

Kim

 

Recipe: My best guess

Stamps: Pleasant Poppies, Loving Thoughts

Cardstock: Basic Grey, Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla

Accessories: First Edition DSP, Bella Rose DSP (R), Apothecary Accent framelits, cardstock vellum, silver brads, Doubled sided tape (X Press), Dimensionals, Sponges

Just Add Ink Swap Blog Hop

Hi everyone,
well welcome to a special event that the JAI team are running - a blog hop. There are 14 stops on the hop (Just Add Ink and the 13 design team members) you can start anywhere as the hop goes in a loop. The link to the next JAI blog (Paula Dobson) is at the bottom - just click on the end swap hop button and that will take you straight to Paula, and of course you can do the hop anytime!

So why are we hopping? Well back in August one of the JAI team came up with the fun idea of doing a swap among the design team. The idea being to use as much material (colours and stamps) from the new catalogue that was to be released on Sept 1. Which, once the swaps were exchanged would give us all some wonderful examples of what you can do with the new goodies. So we each made mulitple copies of our card and sent them off to the rest of the team. Now when I started thinking about what I wanted to do - an idea popped into my head - and I just had to run with it. Well let me show you the end result.

So what popped into my head?? Well the idea for the background. Any guesses how I did that?? Ah well I won't keep you in suspense :) I used one of the inchie stamps from the Level 2 hostess set Cute by the Inch. The important thing is to worked out the centre of the Crumb Cake mat, mark that and stamp out from there. With each subsequent stamp linking together to make the pattern. It was time consuming but once I had tried it and liked the effect I had to do it!! The Crumb Cake mat was layered onto a Marina Mist mat and then onto the Whisper White base. Over the Crumb Cake mat I added a wide strip of cardstock vellum to which I added a central glittered strip. The vellum was fixed the Crumb Cake layer with four silver brads. In the centre of the card I cut a Marina Mist decorative tag, layered that with a wide oval stamped with one of the gorgeous ornate wreaths from Style Beautiful (in Early Expresso) then up on dimensionals added the friend sentiment in Marina Mist. The inside was finished off simply to match.

It turned out quite elegant I think - kind of a clean modern take on vintage! Definitely something fun to experiment with.

Well I hoped you liked it :) please continue on with the Blog Hop (just click on the next button) and that will take you to the next JAI blog. If you have time please visit the rest of the team cause I can honestly say the swaps were awesome!!




Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU!
Stamps: Style Beautiful, Cute by the Inch, Vintage Vogue
Cardstock: Whisper White, Marina Mist, Crumb Cake
Ink: Early Expresso, Marina Mist
Accessories: Cardstock vellum, Sticky strip, Dazzling Diamonds, Stamp-ma-jig, Silver brads, Lots of Tags sizzlet, Wide Oval punch, Dimesionals, Double sided tape

Breezy Birthday and Sleigh Time

Hi there,

time again for Makeesha challenge this week a sketch. Here it is:

I liked the sketch as soon as I saw it , but for some reason struggled to come up with an idea. Late Sunday, like 10:30 Pm (this is really late for me) I was still browsing through my stamp file (this was a fantastic idea I picked up several years ago from Tracey Harp, basically when you get a new set, you photocopy the label stickers before you mount them on the stamps and you put that set image in a little folder. That way you can always see everything you have just by flicking through the folder). Ok back to the cards, anyway thankfully courtesy of inspiration from flicking through my stamp file and just plain lots of mulling on it I did some up with some ideas. In the end I couldn't help myself I had to make two if them.

The first one "Breezy Birthday" is intended for my Dad for his birthday (today - its going to be a little late). Here is it.

A close up of the dragonfly

I used the Parisian Breeze DSP as inspiration for the colours. I did the image panel first - stamping the tips of the grass from Inspired by nature across the panel. I decided to wanted to have a dragonfly up on the top LHS as per sketch. So I dug out my Winged Things set (retired) and I wanted it to be sort of translucent. So first I stamped it in Brown Satzon on acetate. Then I tried colouring in his wings with Copics - but it was just too faint. I then stamped a second dragonfly on vellum, and coloured the vellum in with two copics (BG13 and BG18), cut out the wings from the vellum, and adhered them to the acetate dragonfly (also trimmed out). Now I got the effect I wanted - his wings were a lovely bluey colour but still translucent. To finish it off I added a silver brad through the head and stuck it on the the grass panel with two glue dots. The sentiment (from Upsy Daisy) was added at the bottom, accented with a little Baja circle. Below the image panel I added a strip of Kraft taffeta that had been knotted three times - it was that or hemp and I decided to go with this in the end. The broad stripes from the Parisian Breeze DSP seemed to complement the image so that what I went for as the main matte on the card. The inside is just finished off very simply with a bit more of the DSP.

Now for card two - this time a christmas card. I realised in the process of thinking this one up that all my Christmas sets are retired bar Tree Trimmings - sorry about that but retired sets are part of my stash and so far have stayed with me.

Obviously a red and white theme, (real red and Whisper White) I think my initial thought was that I wanted to white emboss the sleigh onto red, so all the layering worked out from there. The white main layer is stamped with stars also from the same set. The embossed central panel was set off with the holiday sentiment from Rivetting (also retired but so very useful) at the top and with a Button Latte button threaded with red embroidery cotton and backed by a little looped white grosgrain ribbon. I added the scalloped border at the bottom to represent the element Keesh had at the bottom of the sketch.

Hope you liked them and thanks for visiting.

Kim

I am running really late with getting dinner ready so I am going to have to leave this without adding the recipes, any questions please just ask.