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

TIME OUT#82 - Flowers

The Challenge this week at TIME OUT is a very seasonally appropriate theme challenge - Flowers!!! We are also looking for cards that use an optional twist of "kissing" stamps together - and there will be a prize from our wonderful sponsor, Happy Little Stampers, to a random entry that uses the kissing technique.

Here is my take on the theme:

For my card, I used Simon Says Scribble Flowers stamps and dies - in a few bright colours - I did use the optional technique of "kissing" the flowers with a Tim Holtz rubber stamp to add some texture. Here is a close up of the texture:

For the background, I used some Peerless watercolours to create a soft wash, and a simple W+9 greeting.

We can't wait to se how you will be inspired by our flower theme and the kissing technique so make sure you take some TIME OUT to play along!

I will link this card to the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday May Flowers
• Addicted to Stamps and More - CAS
• CAS-Ology - key word Season

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill

Butterflies and Tulips

A couple of cards that I made this weekend as I stayed indoors to recover from this cold that has been plaguing me since we returned from vacation on Monday.

First up is this butterfly card that I made for the current Card Concept challenge:

This card started as a piece of SSS Fog cardstock - I cut the panel from one piece and the card base from another piece. I embossed the panel using a Tim Holtz embossing folder and then painted the embossed area with a mixture of Perfect Pearls and water to give the raised areas some white shimmer. The butterflies were die cut from vellum and then coloured with some Big Brush markers before adhering them by their centres. The Altenew sentiment was stamped in some Stone ink and the card panel was mounted with fun foam to the base for even more dimension.

This card will link to:

• The Card Concept - I think this is Clean and Layered

And here is the second card:

This one is all about tulips - I started by white heat embossing a Darkroom Door stamp onto a piece of Tim Holtz watercolour paper and colouring with my Peerless paints. Once dry, I flicked the panel with some Studio Calico white mist and spritzed with some shimmer mist. I then adhered the panel to a card base. I partially die cut the front panel with a SSS circle die and added the MFT sentiment across the bottom. I will link this card to the following challenges:

• Curtain Call - Tulip theme
• Color Throwdown - Red, Orange, Yellow, and Purple (I had to use a tiny amount of green too!)
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Flowers and Showers

Thanks for stopping by!

Jill

TIME OUT #81 - Home Sweet Home Photo Inspiration

This week at TIME OUT, we have a Home Sweet Home photo inspiration challenge - and here is the pretty picture that inspires us:

Lots of really great elements in this photo to play with - the butterflies, the clock, the text in the background....

We have a great guest designer with us - make sure you check out Michelle's Instagram for lots of inspiration.

Our sponsor for this challenge is Stamplorations - they have a prize for the winner and also a random enrty - I used their Flutterby stencil for my card:

I started off by spreading some Viva Decor Blackberry Ferro paste through the stencil to create the butterfly outlines. If you have not seen this paste, it has a little bit of grit in it which gives some great texture along with the dimension - though I find it to be quite flat and not as metallic as I thought it would be. I then used some pencil crayons to colour in the butterflies - I used about four different colours and flicked the colour from the outside in to create some shading.

I finished the card with and Avery Elle die cut greeting (layered on vellum) - and mounted the panel on a purple metallic card base. This is one of my favourite cards this year so I mailed it right away to someone that makes me think of purple butterflies :)

We can't wait to see how the photo inspires you - so make sure you take some TIME OUT to join us!

Thanks for stopping by!
Jill