Birthdays

So I did get some creative time in yesterday - partly for fun but also partly out of necessity too as there are a few birthdays coming up.

The first card that I made was a shaker card. This is the first one that I've made outside of a class and I was surprised at how easy it was. I have to admit that this card was heavily inspired (i.e. CASEd)  by one that I saw here on Jennifer McGuire's blog a while back - I loved the white-on-white number background that she did. Here is the card:

The card is for one of my new co-workers who turns 40 this week, and I wanted to make a card that was both fun and classy (just like her) so I went with a white, pink and gold colour scheme. I won't go into a lot of detail on how I made the shaker but I will say that I used white fun foam which made the whole process super easy (I think that this may be my new favourite craft supply. The pink card base was stamped using the HA Bursts in SS Doll Pink ink, and the numbers were die cut using Lawn Fawn dies. I struggled a lot with the greeting - I knew that I wanted to use the Kelly Purkey "never looked better" but I had originally planned to stamp it on a banner - I just could not find a colour combination that I liked. I finally ended up gold heat embossing it on vellum that I wrapped around the panel along with some gold thread.

I will link this card back to Virginia's View which inspired me to make a shaker card (thank you!).

The second card that I made is for my sister-in-law - her birthday is coming up at the end of the month. She is an amazing fun person who shares my love of shoes and margaritas - so I decided to make a margarita themed card.

I was really inspired by the current challenge at TIME OUT that is a CASE of Kylie's beautiful card:



And here is my margarita card:

My interpretation is fairly loose - instead of dry embossing the card panel, I used some embossing paste through the SS tiny dots stencil and covered it with Rock Candy Distress Glitter (it's supposed to represent the "salt"). I added the stamped and die cut limes directly to the card panel and didn't use a tag. In place of the bow, I tied a piece of Hemptique twine around the top of the panel. I mounted the whole panel on fun foam before adhering it to the card base so that it will keep it's shape as it travels all the way to Denmark (told you I loved fun foam!).

All the stamps and dies are from Reverse Confetti - I bought this really fun set in the fall and it has been sitting in my "IN BOX" for a while now. So happy that I finally broke it out..

I will link this card to the current TIME OUT Challenge.
I will also link this to Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme is Anything Goes.


Thanks for stopping by!
Jill 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I think that today's card is very V-Day appropriate!

This card features a technique/design that I have wanted to try for a while using watercolours and die cuts - with the die cut "floating" over the watercolours. Here it is:

I started out by die cutting the Memory Box hearts from a piece of scrap paper to use as a guide for the watercolouring. I started with a piece of Tim Holtz watercolour paper (smooth side) and laid the guide over it. I took some clean water and roughly painted the area inside and around the big heart. After waiting a few minutes, I took my brush and dipped it lightly into some Picked Raspberry re-inker ink and I dabbed it around the water painted heart. Because I wanted the colours not to blend too much, I waited for the pink heart to dry completely before repeating the process with the purple (Seedless Preserves) and blue (Salty Ocean) heart.

I die cut the hearts three times from white cardstock and adhered them together. I did this because I wanted the die cut to "float" so it needed so stiffness. When the panel was dry, I used some clear foam tape to adhere the die cut to the panel, and I stamped a Penny Black greeting. I adhered the panel to a black card. I absolutely love the way the card came out and cant wait to do this technique again! Here is a photo from the side where I tried to capture the "floating":

I will link this card to a few challenges:

The AAA challenge - this is really where I got the inspiration for the design.

CAS-Ology where the cue card is LOVE

House of Cards where the theme this month is LOVE

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill

Finally Some Time To Craft!

It has been almost two weeks since my last post – I can’t believe how incredibly busy these last few weeks have been!

My favourite types of challenges are those that have inspiration photos – I’m not sure why but I seem to get more ideas from pictures than words. When I saw the photo at the AAA Challenge Blog this week, I was immediately insipid by the colours flowing around the heart – it made me think of watercolours.

 Here is what I came up with:

I started out with a stencil (the same Crafter’s Workshop stencil as I used in my last post) and a black Copic multiliner. I traced some of the stencil hearts onto the rough side of some watercolour paper, and then I applied some masking fluid to the inside of the hearts. I then coated the paper in water and let it sit for a few minutes before dabbing the wet paper with a brush that had been lightly dipped in some Distress re-inkers (Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves and Salty Ocean – I love this combination!). I got a little bit more crazy with the colour on the first card, and kept the second card a little bit more subdued. The hardest part of the whole process was waiting for the ink to dry so that I could remove the masking fluid!

I wanted to finish the cards very simply so I die cut the “Thanks” twice – once from white and once from black. I painted the black one with some Wink of Stella and then layered the two on the card front. I added a small strip of black cardstock with “with heartfelt” white heat embossed (Clearly Besotted stamp).

I will link this card to the current AAA Challenge and I will also throw my name in the hat for a spot on their design team.

I will also link to Addicted to CAS where the code word is "Mask" since I used masking fluid.

So I set aside some time this weekend to spend in my craft room so I suspect that the posts will be coming fast and furious!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

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