TIME OUT #53 - Inspired By Words

It is time for another Time Out challenge.This week we have another great challenge - we are asking you to be inspired by the following words:

'A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water' 

- Eleanor Roosevelt

We also have a great Guest Designer with us this week - Elaine is always a source of great inspiration so make sure you check out her blog Craft-E-Place.

So here is my card:

I was inspired by the "strong woman" words so that is what I focused on. A very simple card - the quote is from Unity Stamp and the woman is from 'Lil Inkers - and she was coloured with Copics.

A great quote that inspires a lot of good ideas - we can't wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Jill

AAA #61 - Stenciling

We have another great challenge at AAA Cards for you - this week, our theme is stenciling!

We also have a great sponsor for this challenge: Stampendous has agreed to give the winner a $20 gift certificate to their store - YAY!

I use stencils mostly to create backgrounds but since this challenge is all about stencils, I decided to play around a little bit and do something different. I used a TCW (Stencil Birds) - and sponged through different Distress Ink colours for the birds. I then applied some Texture Paste to create the branches. I found the result a little bit plain so I played some more and added some doodles to the birds on the first card. On the second card, I added some water drops to the birds and then finished them with some Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents. I traced along the bottom of the branches with a black pen to make them stand out a little bit more and finished off with an Altenew Label Love greeting popped up with foam.

A very different type of card for me - much more mixed media than I usually do... I am still not sure how I feel about the finished result but it was fun to play!

So now it's your turn to play along and have some fun with stencils!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

TIME OUT#52 - Reminder CASEing Marjan Kuppers

Have you taken the TIME OUT  for our current challenge? This week we are CASE-ing Marjan Kuppers - make sure you check out her blog, M@rjan's Blog is an amazing artistic inspiration so make sure to stop by. Here is the card she shared for us to CASE as well as the description of how she created it:

How Majan's made this card in her own words:

This card was made with Stampin Up stamps (Painted Petals). I colored directly onto the stamps with Blendabilities (markers). I stamped the front panel and then cut out the top right section. 

Behind that I made a window with mica. Then I layed the whole piece with the cutout onto a white card and positioned the cutout inline with the stamps. After that I adhered the stamped panel to a white card with foam tape to create depth.

Here is my take on her card:

I was inspired by the flowers and the colours so I used the Simon Says Scribble Flowers to stamp some flowers in similar colours (SSS Hydrangea, SSS Hot Mama, HA Field Greens, HA Stone Wash). I double stamped the polka dots in the same colour as the flower - it doesn't show up very well in the picture but you can see the difference IRL. The greeting is from Altenew - Label Love - and was stamped in black and popped up for a little bit of dimension.

I will link up to a couple of places:

• Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday - the challenge is to use florals
• Addicted to Stamps and More - Anything Goes
• Less Is More - Outside My Window (well- what I wish was outside my window - the reality is a snowstorm!)

Thanks so much for stopping y and see you at Time Out!

Jill

Poinsettia Card

I was inspired to play along with the challenge at Merry Monday this week - they are challenging us to use black and white (grey and silver) cards:

I have been wanting to play around with Copic colouring in grey tones so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I used a poinsettia stamp from Penny Black - I stamped it using SSS Fog ink to do a type of no-line colouring and then used the (N) Copic markers to shade it. I used a Prismacolor grey pencil to add the vein details back to the petals.

I finished off the card with a strip of adhesive tape covered in some American Crafts pewter glitter and a Lawn Fawn sentiment.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jill

TIME OUT#52 - CASEing Marjan Kuppers

It's time for another TIME OUT challenge and this week we are CASE-ing the fabulous Marjan Kuppers - her blog, M@rjan's Blog is an amazing artistic inspiration so make sure to stop by. Here is the card she shared for us to CASE as well as the description of how she created it:

How Majan's made this card in her own words:

This card was made with Stampin Up stamps (Painted Petals). I colored directly onto the stamps with Blendabilities (markers). I stamped the front panel and then cut out the top right section. 

Behind that I made a window with mica. Then I layed the whole piece with the cutout onto a white card and positioned the cutout inline with the stamps. After that I adhered the stamped panel to a white card with foamtape to create depth.

Here is my take:

The two elements that I CASE-d were the technique (marker stamping) and the "window". I have to admit that I struggled with this one and the design changed numerous times before I finally landed with this card. I coloured some Hero Arts wildflower stamps with Distress Markers before stamping onto watercolour paper. I used a small amount of water and a brush to blend out the colour. I used some stitched rectangle dies to create a frame and inlaid the "water coloured" panel. I stamped the card front with an Ellen Hutson sentiment (my current fave sentiment!) - and then I used a texture plate to add some texture to the card front.

I can't wait to see all the card that Marjan's beauty inspires - so make you that you take the TIME OUT to join us!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

A Few Cards To Share

Just popping in to share a few cards that I made over the weekend.

The first card is one that I made for my colleague (and carpool buddy) that has accepted another job within the company and is moving across the country. I used some stamps from the Hero Arts set Yay! - this is an older set but I just picked it up on clearance thinking that it would be perfect for this type of card. I stamped each sentiment "Subway Art Style" to create a one-layer card:

I stamped the first one in a neutral colour scheme but I challenged myself to step outside my colour comfort zone for the second one - this week's ColourQ schemed seemed fun so I went with it:

The MISTI made the multiple cards super easy - I feel like I should have made a few more in some other colour schemes - I can always use this type of card. I will link these cards up to a few challenges:

• Less Is More where the cue is "sentiment" for one layer cards
• ATSAM where they are looking for CAS cards
• ColourQ:
• 

My next card is also for a colleague who just told me that she is pregnant:

I used a Memory Box die to create the heart mask which I used to sponge the heart in Pumice Stone and stamp the greeting repeatedly within it. The banner was created using the reverse colour scheme: white heat embossing on a Pumice Stone background. I stamped the pickle jar (Unity Stamp) onto another piece of paper and coloured with Copics before fussy cutting. It was popped up on the heart and banner with a little bit of thread. I added the panel to a card base and used a couple of strips of patterned paper along the side. I finished up with some home made glitter dots around the pickle jar. I had a hard time photographing this card - the colours look a little bit different in real life but the camera couldn't seem to pick it up.

I will link this card up to:

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where they are looking for a bit of green
• Freshly Made Sketches:
• 

The last card is one that I made for the Ellen Hutson Mix It Up Challenge. This month we are being challenged to create a card using products from the Essentials by Ellen line along with Pretty Pink Posh products. This is my card:

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Jill

AAA Cards #61 - Easter

It's time for another challenge at AAA Cards and this week we are challenging people to create an Eater themed project:

We have a great sponsor for this challenge as well: Happy Little Stampers is offering a $20 gift certificate to the winner of the challenge- how amazing is that?!

I have to confess that I have very few Easter stamp sets (ie. none!) but one of my most used stamps is the Clearly Besotted Fresh Flowers sets that has an Easter greeting - so a floral it was to be!

Apologies for the dark picture - the sun hasn't been too co-operative lately :(

For my card, I layered some embossing pate, a wooden tag (cut with a SSS die) and one of the flowers from the set (coloured with Copics and die cut) and finished it off with a Liquid Platinum greeting heat embossed on some vellum and some matching thread for the tag.

So now it's your turn - please join us for this challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

Celebrate - Citrus Colours

A quick post to share this card that I made for a few challenges:

I started out by blending Distress Inks on a piece of cardstock - Ripe Persimmon, Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, and Twisted Citron - and then die cut it using a Taylored Expressions die. I just love this colour combination - it reminds me of sunsets and margaritas :) The die cut was then adhered to the card base. I added a piece of vellum with a Clearly Besotted greeting heat embossed with a pearl grey powder. I also added a MFT stacked (4 high) die cut with the top layer inked with Distress Inks and finished off the card with some lemon-y sequins (they just arrived in the mail in my SSS card kit as I was working on the card - totally meant to be!)

I will link up to a few challenges:

• Less Is More - looking for citrus coloured cards
• Inkspirational - the cue word is geometric - I think that my background qualifies
• Colour Throwdown:
•  
• Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme is CAS

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

TIME OUT #51 - Easter & Spring

It's time for another challenge at Time Out - and this week we are looking for Easter and Spring themed cards - with an optional twist of masking.

We also have a fabulous sponsor for this challenge: Stamplorations has very generously agreed to give the winner a $20 gift card. They are also going to be giving a randomly chosen card (who follows the theme and the twist) two standard sized stencils.

Our guest designer this week is the incredible Tae Eun - make sure you check out her blog Rainbow In November - her creativity is amazing!

For my card, I chose to focus on the Spring theme - when I think of Spring, I think of tulips so this stamp from Darkroom Door seemed perfect. I white heat embossed the image and water coloured the image with my Gansai Tambi paints.  I don't think this type of image is supposed to be heat embossed because it is so detailed but I really like the look it creates.

I trimmed the panel and backed it with some SSS Fog cardstock before mounting it on foam onto the card base. The greeting is from the Ellen Hutson Mondo Magnolia set - I love the scripty look of it. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and make sure you take some Time Out to play along with us!

Jill

AAA Cards #60 - Embossing

We have another great challenge at AAA Cards for you - this week, our theme is embossing!

We also have a great sponsor for this challenge: Stampendous has agreed to give the winner a $20 gift certificate to their store - WOOHOO!

For my card, I decided to use embossing paste on the background - this is one of my favourite techniques - I just love the white-on-white dimension that it creates.

I masked off the borders and a horizontal strip (for the sentiment) with washi tape before laying down a Hero Arts stencil (Numbers Background) and applying some embossing paste. The birds (MFT Birds of Paradise) were stamped and coloured with Copics on another piece of paper. They were then fussy cut and mounted on the card base with foam squares for a little extra dimension. The greeting is from the same stamp set.

I will link this card up at:

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where Anything Goes

So now it's your turn to play along and have some fun with embossing!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill