TIME OUT #84 - Inspired By Words

This week at TIME OUT, we have a challenge where we are asking you to be inspired by the following words:

'Flowers and Friends make life a garden'

We are very lucky to have Michele with us as our Guest Designer -- I am sure you are already familiar with Michele and her stunning cards - her blog I Card Everyone is a

showcase of beautiful and really creative designs.

Here is how I was inspired by the words:

I started out by applying some white embossing paste through a Forileges Design stencil to add some texture to the background. I then added the frame (die cut with some circle dies) with some foam tape before adding the Copic coloured flowers and W Plus 9 Sending die cut. The flower is from Stamplorations - a set called Bloom Sketches - I don't know what kind of flower it is so there is a pretty good chance that it shouldn't be blue....  If you like the stamp,  Stamplorations is offering a gift voucher to their store for the winner of the challenge :)   - another great reason to join the fun and play along!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill

Butterflies and Skyscrapers

A few cards to share today....

The first one is all about pink butterflies. I used the Memory Box Butterfly Heart die - it doesn't cut the butterflies out completely, just their wings. I carefully coloured each of the butterflies with Copics and Wink of Stella for some sparkle. I kept the rest of the card simple with a  Unity Stamp Company greeting

The next couple of cards were all about playing :) I used a TCW stencil that has 2 parts - the solid image and the outline image. I started by blending some Distress Oxide inks in the solid stencil. I then used some Viva black modelling paste through the outline stencil to finish the image. I absolutely love how these turned out in real life (I can't capture the gloss and texture of the paste on camera). I kept the rest of the cards quite simple - black and white with some silver glitter accents.

I will link up to the following challenges:

• Memory Box Challenge - using markers
• Addicted to CAS - Pink
• The Paper Players - CAS Butterflies
• The Curtain Call - Frosting Inspired Challenge (I think the butterflies look like the cupcakes in the picture with the dimension)
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Add a Little Sparkle
• Inkspirational - Urban

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill

Distress Ink Smooshing

I was playing around with some Distress Ink smooshing and have a couple of quick cards to share:

This first card, I made with the Merry Monday colour challenge in mind - I used Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, and Wilted Violet. The tree die is from Ellen Hutson - and I used the same ink colours on the geometric pieces before layering them on top. The greeting is from MFT and is silver heat embossed - and I added a Tim Holtz mirror star to finish it off. I made another version of the card with some silver splatters in the background instead of the Distress smooshing:

I made the second card with the current Inkspirational challenge in mind. I started by stamping a map onto watercolour cardstock in Archival grey ink before adding the smooshing Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, and Mustard Seed inks to the "urban" area of the map. I sprayed some old Studio Calico Mistables with some like-coloured Dylusions sprays, and added a white embossed Studio Calico greeting and a few Freckled Fawn hearts to complete the card.

I will link to the following challenges:

• Merry Monday - Turquoise Blue, Green and Purple
• Less Is More - Geometric
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge- A Bit Of Sparkle (silver splatter, shimmer spray on tree, shiny star)
• Inkspirational - Urban
• CAS Mix Up Challenge - Splattering, Stamping, Heat Embossing, Die Ctting

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill

Sparkle and Shine

Today, I am sharing a few of the cards that I made for the most recent Online Card Class - Sparkle and Shine. I loved the class - not surprising since I love sparkly and shiny techniques :) The lessons inspired me to dig out my supplies and play - here are some of the creations:

Day 1:Glitter
For the inlaid glitter technique, I used my Memory Box Dancing Snowflakes die as well as a Taylored Expressions Noel die to create the silhouettes. I added three shades of glitter in an ombre effect over the Be Creative tape (Glitter Ritz - Deep Purple; Glitter Ritz - Canadian Blue; Elizabeth Crafts - Bluebell). I absolutely love the finished card - this may just become my mass-produced Christmas card this year :)

Day 2: Foiling
For my foiling card, I combined ideas from a couple of the videos to create my card. I used a Power Poppy digital stamp and foiled it in gold onto some smooth Bristol card stock so that I could water colour it using my Zig markers. The foil is hard to capture with my camera but it really shines in real life when the light catches it. I finished the card by creating an aperture with a Simon Says Stamp stitched oval die and adding a Concord & 9th Hugs gold foil die cut.

Day 3:Shimmer, Pearl and Flakes
I love gilding flake mixes - but I don't use them very often so I definitely took this as an opportunity to play with them. I did the inlaid flakes technique that Jennifer demonstrated. The background die I used is from Lil Inkers (love it!) - and I used three different flake mixes for the inlay. It is hard to see the difference between them since they all have a lot of gold (maybe I need to buy more so that I have some different colours!) but I love the effect anyways. The card reminds of falling leaves in Autumn so I probably should have gone with a thanks greeting but I used a Winnie and Walter die cut hello over a vellum strip instead.

Day 6: Embossing Powder
I used Julie's technique on this card - with the Ranger Sticky Stuff and some Glitter Ritz Cool Highlight glitter. The snowflake is layered stamping (from the The Ton)  which is hard to see through the glitter and the greeting is from Simon Says Stamp. Even though I loved the technique, I wasn't entirely happy with the card so I tried to save it by completely over embellishing with sequins :)

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill

TIME OUT #83 - CASE-ing Hannelie

This week at TIME OUT, we are CASE-ing a beautiful card from Hannelie from Desert Diva:

Hannelie creates such beautiful clean and simple card designs - here is how she created this one:

My card  (as many other of my cards) shows my love for combining digital elements with conventional cardmaking methods.The lilies are a digital stamp . I decided to leave it uncolored and only added color to the BG by blending distress inks. The sentiment is my own design. I created a "window",  cut with my silhouette cameo and I layered it over the blended BG. I finally added some splatters to add some interest.

What a beautiful card to CASE - so many inspiring elements...

Our wonderful Guest Designer this week is Susanne from Keep In Touch Cards - she is a regular TIME OUT player and always has amazing cards - so happy she is joining us this week.

Here is how I was inspired:

I think that it is obvious which elements I chose to CASE ;) - I love the sponged background and the black and white focal image. I added some shimmer spray to my sponged background and some silver glitter to the edges of the card so this card really shines in real life. Both the butterfly and the greeting are old Studio Calico stamps that I pulled out of a deep corner of my stash :)

We can't wait to see how Hannelie inspires you - a great challenge and the winner will get a gift voucher for Happy Little Stampers who are sponsoring us this fortnight!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Jill

The Stockings Were Hung

The Challenge at Merry Monday this week is all about The Night Before Christmas - so I immediately thought of the line "the stocking were hung by the chimney with care" and the Avery Elle stamp set. Here is what I came up with:

For both cards, I stamped the images onto white cardstock and coloured with Copics. For the first one, I simply die cut the panel and added it to a shimmery pink card. I white embossed the greeting and popped it up with foam tape. For the second card, I used some embossing paste and a brick stencil to add some texture to the card base. While the paste was still wet, I sprinkled it with glitter to give it some shimmer. I fussy cut the stocking, die cut a frame and adhered them to the card front with some foam tape.

I will link these cards to:

• Merry Monday Christmas Challenge  
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - a touch of pink

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill