Inkspirational Guest Designer

I was absolutely thrilled when Inkspirational asked me to Guest Design on their fabulous Challenge Blog. I really like this challenge because you get a whole fortnight to submit your card which is great for me because sometimes it takes me a week just to come up with an idea!

Check out the latest challenge here:

The theme for the fortnight is Rose Coloured, and so I decided to use typical Valentine's Day rose colours to make a Valentine's Day card for my husband, Michael.

I started out with a Crafter's Workshop stencil, and some "rose-coloured" Distress Inks: Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Festive Berries, and Aged Mahogany.  I sponged the inks through the stencil in an ombre colour scheme. I then wiped down the stencil and laid it back down over the card and applied some Versamark over the hearts. I added some Enchanted Gold embossing powder over the Versamark and heat-embossed the hearts. I really like the effect of the gold embossing powder but it did make the hearts a little bit more yellow than I intended.

To finish the card, I added some gold thread (this was a first for me - I have seen this done on so many fabulous cards and I wanted to try it), a Clearly Besotted doily die cut from vellum, and a Penny Black Love die cut from red shimmer paper.

Overall, I am happy with the card, and I will definitely be using thread again - I hope Michael likes it too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

Wedding Card

It's the time of year when there are a lot of heart, love and Valentine's Day products coming out - I love all the products but I don't tend to give a lot of these types of cards so I decided to make a wedding card. 

I think that one of my favourite new "love" stamps is this Unity Stamp fox stamp - they are too adorable! I stamped them onto some 110# paper and coloured them with red and pink Copics. I am still learning how to colour with Copics so I kept them very basic. I fussy cut them and then coloured the heart in between them with Stickles for some glitter,

The background was a lot of fun to make - I started by spreading some Ranger texture paste through a Tim Holtz stencil and coating it with some Ranger Antiquities Cement embossing powder (I think that this one is going to become a new favourite!). Usually I wait for the past to dry before heating but this time I decided to heat while the paste was still wet. The heat puffed the hearts up and gave them some really amazing dimension that I never saw when I waited for the paste to dry. It is really hard to capture the dimension in the photo but you can a little bit of an idea when you look at the heart near the red fox that I "tested" by pushing it in with my finger!

I stamped the Altenew greeting and added the foxes with some foam tape. I finished off by rounding the top right corner.

I will link this card to a couple of challenges:

The Less is More Challenge is a sketch this week:

CAS on Sunday Challenge is to use a stencil.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Anything Goes.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill

Hello

Have you seen the inspiration photo for the current TIME OUT challenge? 

I really enjoy the photo challenges at TIME OUT but I think this one is my favourite to date. There are so many great elements to choose from that I could make several cards but unfortunately, I only had time to get one done on the weekend. 

I decided to use my new SSS Stitched dies for this card. I started by cutting some stitched squares from a few different patterned paper, and gluing them to a panel in a grid pattern. I then die cut the whole panel using a stitched rectangle die, and I added an aperture using the stitched circle die. I die cut a slightly larger aperture in the card base so that you can see through to the inside of the card - where I added a circle of woodgrain patterned paper. I added the panel to the card base using some foam tape for a little bit of dimension. For the greeting, I die cut the Studio Calico hello 4 times from SSS 100# cardstock which I stacked and glued together. I glued it across the open aperture and finished it off with some Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents. I originally thought that I might need to use some acetate in the aperture to support the greeting but the thickness of stacked paper made it surprisingly stable.

I strongly recommend checking out the TIME OUT Challenge this week - the DT cards are amazing and the gallery is also full of beautiful cards - I really don't envy them having to pick a winner from the amazing selection!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill

Find Your Happy Every Day

It has been almost a month since my last post but I have a really good excuse - I've been travelling for  the last 3 1/2 weeks with my husband. 

We spent the first three weeks of our vacation in Tanzania (amazing! loved it!). The first week, we climbed Mount Kilimanjaro - quite literally the toughest physical challenge that I have ever done due to the altitude sickness I experienced. We spent the second week on safari in Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater national parks - amazing animal sightings, including a lioness and her two 3-week old cubs that crossed the road right in front of our truck! We spent the third week on Zanzibar relaxing in Stone Town and on the white-sand beaches of a resort - very much needed after the excitement of the first two weeks! Finally, we broke up our 20 hour journey home with a 4 day layover in Amsterdam since I have never seen the city. It was a lot of fun - museums, shopping and restaurants...

We got back on Saturday evening, and I broke out my card making supplied on Sunday morning. I did take a quick browse around Blogland before I started, and I noticed that the keyword this week from Addicted to CAS is WORLD - I thought that this was the perfect challenge for a recently-returned traveler and this is what I came up with (sorry for the terrible lighting on the picture):

I stamped the world heart (from Unity Stamps) in SSS Fossil ink, and then I used a stitched rectangle die to cut the panel. I then also cut a stitched circle hole in the panel and I silver heat-embossed the greeting (from SSS Happy Every Day). I made the card base from brown shimmer cardstock, and I white heat-embossed the wood grain heart (also from Unity Stamps). I applied lots of X-mas red Stickles to the inside of the heart and then added the panel with foam tape to the card front. 

I will link this card to Addicted to CAS challenge:


And also to the Fusion Card Challenge where I was inspired by the sketch:



In the next few weeks, I will share a few of my vacation highlight pictures on my blog -  I just need a little bit of time to work through the 1000 images I have!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill