Just call me .....

I'm having a go at another class lesson from my Spring Camp at Online Card Classes and the tutor for this lesson was none other than Gina Krupsky aka GinaK showed us a few techniques using die cuts to make rainbow coloured cards.

I really liked the one she created like a wreath and this had also been a lesson from another tutor using a stamp set earlier in the week. 

Now I do not own a wreath builder but I created my own on some grid paper on my desk rather than marking my card stock with a ruler and pencil and I liked the look of my leaves at the ½" marks so I used a paper piercer and a piercing mat to make a mark on the 4" piece of card stock below which I attached to the grid with Dotto.

My final card is a 5½" square card and the 2 mats are 4" (white) 4⅛ (black) and 5" (white) 5⅛" (black)

The leaf die is from Stampin' Up! Pierced Blooms. Coloured cardstock are all SU! and going clockwise from the top above: Petal Pink, Grapefruit Grove, Sweet Sorbet, Mango Melody, Parrot Parakeet, Tahitian Tide, Orchid Oasis and finally Rich Razzleberry. The wee saying is from Rainbow of Happiness (SU!) which seemed appropriate. The sequins are from Simon Says Stamp "A Little Bit of Moonshine"

So after this lesson I can now say just call me GinaK!

Less is More challenge site has a Rainbow challenge this week so I am going to enter my "homework" for the challenge as well.

Under the Sea

It's inspiration time at Just Add Ink this week and I loved the colours of the ocean which is my inspiration for my card.

I have clear embossed the school of fishes from Picket Fences "Vortex of Fishes" background stamp on SU! Just Jade card stock and then blended over the top Blueprint Sketch distress oxide ink leaving the inner relatively untouched. 

I then inked up the mermaid from SU! "Magical Mermaid" and coloured her in with my Copics. Colours used were inspired by an mermaid colouring class I did way back in 2017 with Kit and Clowder. I have fussy cut her out by hand and popped her up on dimensionals.

I also white embossed one of the saying from "Magical Mermaid" on vellum card stock and fish tailed it and added a few purple and aqua sequins from my stash. I have also spritzed with shimmer spray and the card is really sparkly in real life

Thanks for swimming by to check out my under the sea card.
✿ Karen ✿

Just call me......

I have to admit when I lifted my stencil I squealed and went OMG just call me Cathy Zielske!!! Cathy was the guest tutor for our 2nd day at Online Card Classes Spring Camp and she demonstrated the Joseph Coat technique using a stencil and wow does it pack a punch. 

 I've snapped as I went along so you can get some idea of the process.

The card Cathy demoed for her first project also used a leafy stencil so this is the closest I'll ever get to doing it like "Cathy". 

 I have to say that this online class series is one of the best I have ever done and it is such phenomenal value (it was $22USD when I signed up) and includes 10 days of videos and a a different project every day taught by 2 fab tutors. So lots of examples and twists.

Here's my finished card and supplies used.  

I feel like the card on the white fence backdrop is a better representation of the bright colours but the white card stock "disappears".

Stamp: Up the Happy (Essentials by Ellen)
Stencil: Leafy by Dina Wakley

Distress Oxides: Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Cracked Pistachio, Salvaged Patina, Wilted Violet, Villainous Potion (but this got chopped off), Black Soot
✿ Karen ✿

Ink Lifting and playing with Stampin' Up! new in-colours for 2022

Hi everyone I seem to be slowly recovering from my head cold and I wanted to play along with Just Add Ink's challenge to "case yourself" plus start on having a go at Online Card Classes Spring Camp. So I think it's ironic that the card I'm choosing to case is an ink lifting card that I made after watching Jennifer McGuire demonstrate the technique in 2016 and she was the first tutor at Spring Camp demonstrating the same technique. This is the LINK to the the card I am casing and it is posted below.

The first time around I used distress inks but I finally received my SU! order with the new in-colours so had a play with Orchid Oasis (Parakeet Party and Sweet Sorbet).

It's a really pretty technique a bit like bleaching but you remove colour with water to lighten the image. I have used Altenew's Paint A Flower: Gerbera this time around.

✿ Karen ✿

Easy watercolouring

It's a colour challenge at Just Add Ink this week and after my struggle with my butterflies yesterday I wanted something easy with a bit of WOW.

I am always surprised how much I like cards that are created with colours from a challenge, I think it maybe because they are not colours I would pick but they work and you may find a combo you actually really like. 

This weeks colours were all colours I like but when you stamp with Blushing Bride it's a dirty pink but when you "watercolour" with it I think it's a prettier pink. So I used the re-inkers to colour up one of my favourite stamps Mondo Hydrangea (Essentials by Ellen). 

I have heat embossed it with white embossing powder (Alabaster Brutus Monroe) on Ranger watercolour paper (as its a white paper unlike most watercolours which are off-white to cream). 

I used a no. 2 round watercolour brush by Black Velvet to wet every flower and then used a very small amount of re-inker to colour in, then repeated on a flower not touching the one I just coloured so there was no bleeding. I was pleased I managed to get some colour variation with the Mint Macaroon as only a single colour. I love this paint brush and hopefully one day can afford the no. 4.

I have used a sponge dauber with white Craft ink (Hero Arts Unicorn) on the retired SU! embossing folder Pretty Prints. The saying comes from The Ton's Easy Expressions: Sympathy - I just adore these easy expressions stamps (I have sympathy, thanks and birthday sets). They are 2-step stamping, so you can have different colours easily and when you use the matching dies you get about 6-10 lovely sentiment strips.
 

Supply List:

Stamps and dies: Mondo Hydrangea, Easy Expressions Sympathy
Ink: Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaroon, white craft, Versamark
Paper: Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Mint Macaroon, watercolor
Other: White embossing powder, Iridescent Rhinestone jewels (SU!), dimensionals, Pretty Prints EF, water colour brush, sponge dauber

EDITED 19/5/22: My card was an "honourable mention".
✿ Karen ✿

Brilliant Butterflies

When I saw this BEAUTIFUL image at the Color Throwdown I knew exactly what stamp set I wanted to use.

I had bought the Brilliant Butterflies stamp set from MFT stamps sometime in 2020 and had never gotten around to inking it up so today was the day or should that have been several days ago.....

OMG what a frustrating stamp set. I was ready to throw it out the window if I have to be honest. It has a matching die and multilayer stamping (4 layers). The set comes with a guide and the stamps are clearly linked on the sheet what goes with what. From what I had seen in many videos it was best to die cut first and then stamp the really detailed wings then the background colours. 

This is where it all came apart the colour guide is not a true reflection of what the final die shape is and the best thing was printing off the Black and White Image from MFT stamps for the dies and then look at the stamped images inside them (second day). FYI this is the image at MFT stamps for the dies that I am talking about:

I still got it wrong for 2 of them, so in case you are interested this is the answer to the what stamp goes with what die: top row from left to right is "orange" then "green", middle row is "teal blue" then "purple"; bottom row is "red" then "yellow". 

My dies are now on a magnetic sheet and clearly marked what "colour" they are. The colour ties them up with the layering guide that comes with the stamp set. 

Because the stamps actually have to be stamped in different places in the die it's really hard to line up a clear photopolymer stamp on a piece of white card stock and you had to do the tiny body and feelers as well. They released after this stamp set More Brilliant Butterflies which when I look at it online, addresses some of my frustrations with this stamp set. 

I now feel comfortable working with the stamps and dies but I have never in all my years of stamping taken 2 days to work out how to use a stamp and die. 

 Anyhow back to the fab challenge what an amazing image and in the end I don't think I did it justice but I worked out how to use my stamp set and dies and I know whoever receives the card will love it as it looks so fab and opulent IRL with all the gold; some embossed, some inked, some card stock.

Supply List:
Stamps: Brilliant Butterflies (MFT) and matching dies, Sainty Swiss Dots BG (Altenew)

Ink: Versamark, Blush and Rouge (Altenew), Fresh Freesia and Highland Heather (SU!), Metallic Gold (Encore)

Paper etc: White, vellum card, the gold paper came from a 12x12 DSP which had gold and white stripes ?CTMH but it seemed a really close match to the Rose Gold EP (Altenew), the friend die came from SSS a long time ago.

After all that I feel like I need to eat cake!

✿ Karen ✿

So tweet

Just Add Ink has another fab challenge this week to just "Choose 2"

I chose stencil and heat embossing as my two. I actually used my stencil to do stencil emboss resist. I've used 2 stencils from Taylored Expressions; Frayed Edge and Rainbow Repeat. 

So I placed the rainbow stencil down with the rectangle stencil on top.  They're both 6x6" so laid on top of each other nicely. I used a mini Versamark ink pad to add the embossing ink through the rainbow stencil. Then I lifted both stencils and added a retired Stampin' Up! embossing powder called Ice (which I think is clear EP with Dazzling Diamonds glitter) and heat set/embossed it with my heat tool.

I then laid my rectangle stencil over the embossed rainbow rectangle. I then used my  Distress Oxides with a blending brush. Unbelievably my rectangle stencil was "dirty" and there was black marks on the bottom of my cardstock when I lifted the rectangle stencil up.  I could have started again but it looked really pretty so decided to die cut it out. 

I used a stitched rounded rectangle die from My Favorite Things to cut out the embossed, stenciled rectangle. I then popped the cut out border up on skinny foam strips.

Distress Oxides used were: Spun Sugar, Dried Marigold, Squeezed Lemonade, Cracked Pistachio, Salvaged Patina, Shaded Lilac 

The stamp set I'm using is called So Tweet and its a set I bought over a year ago from Close to my Heart, it also has 5 matching thin cuts and it is phenomenal value at $37.50 for the set. It is still available to purchase.

I have also covered the wee heart and balloon with Nuvo Crystal Glaze. The saying from the stamp set is white heat embossed and fussy cut out by me. I have Copic coloured the images.

Well that certainly was a sweet tweet from me. I am actually really enjoying having a go at a few challenges a week - it is getting me out of my usual stamping style/rut. So thanks for popping in.

✿ Karen ✿

Scrappy strippy time

It's been a while since I had a go at the scrappy strip technique which I have to say when you're doing it looks a "hot mess" but when you cut down to a card stock mat it looks fab. I was inspired by this fab graphic at The Color Throwdown to have a go at this weeks challenge.

The colours for this week are mint green, strawberry, light yellow and navy. Just generic colors (so any brand/type/whatever you have will work) and you can always feel free to add in neutrals (white / black etc) to make your creation pop!

I love that dress, this is a dress that young me would have worn!

Because of the pattern on the dress it reminded me of scrappy strip cards but they're just badly cut strips of card stock attached to a neutral colour. I used strips of Mint Macaroon, Strawberry Slush (now retired), So Saffron, Night of Navy from SU! I wanted to do Kraft as my neutral but I had to search through a lot of old Simon Says Stamp kits to find a piece of Desert Sand. My partner Pete will be happy "he won" as I used to love Kraft but he used to say OMG you don't go buy cardboard cards when you go to a stationary shop. Thinking about I decided he was right so obviously never bought anymore when I ran out.

Then with a guillotine you make a mat.

Place the mat on your card and embellish, the cards are often just embellished with a saying as the pattern is so striking but I found this really cool wee stamp set called Fun in the Sun (My Favorite Things) and I thought ohh I'll colour the beach towel in to match the strips.

I did no-line colouring with my Copics but that might not have been such a good idea as I lost her pigtails so had to also use a Burnt Sierra polychromo pencil to add some definition. Now I'm not sure if it is my colouring but this wee girl is the spitting image of my granddaughter Indianna (see below).

Recipe:
Stamps: Fun in the Sun (and matching die) - My Favorite Things
Ink: Night of Navy, Desert Sand (Memento) 
Paper: So Saffron, Night of Navy, Mint Macaroon, Strawberry Slush, Desert Storm, X-press It 

Other: Dimensionals, various Copic markers, white gel pen

Copic Markers (I follow Kim Singdahlsen's suggestions for Copic colour match up to SU! colours)

Beach Towel: Y21, G12, B99, E43
Hair: Y21, YR23, YR24 and Burnt Sienna Polychromo pencil
Skin: E00, E93, V12, R30
Togs: RV11, RV13, RV14

Hairclip: RV13, RV14

I have to say I'm really loving these challenges I'm making cards I never would have thought of, they certainly are making me think outside the square.

And here's the cutest granddaughter  in the world says one very biased nanny but there is a big resemblance between her and the stamped image.

Indianna aka Indie 2022

✿ Karen ✿

Hey Birthday Chick is shaking!

This week Just Add Ink's challenge is to use a sketch and the sketch layout is one I actually do quite often when making cards. I'm also going to enter at The Paper Players as their challenge is to use a bird or a bee on a card.

 I decided to make a shaker card when I found some cut up squares of quite thick acetate when I was trying to tidy up a "bits and bobs drawer", I think looking at the thickness of them it might have been the original acetate I bought from Stamp Zone before I discovered SU! in the mid 2000s but they still do the job and a quick spritz with some isopropanol made it nice and shiny again.

I used to love making shaker cards awhile ago, so much so I bought a Fuse so I could make my own plastic pouches but I made this shaker card the traditional way with acetate and foam tape. I have learnt a cool tip lately which I didn't know about originally which is to use your embossing buddy to "chalk up" the inner edge of the foam tape to take away the stickiness, so your sequins don't stick to the foam.

Supply List (Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Hey Birthday Chick (and matching dies), Whiskey Business (saying) 
Ink: Memento Black, Versamark, Pumpkin Pie, Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight
Paper: So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black

Other: thin foam strips, Wink of Stella, embossing buddy (retired), dimensionals

Non-SU! supplies:

Alabaster White embossing powder (Brutus Monroe), Scallop Circle dies (Pretty Pink Posh), various sequins, acetate, red tape, X-Press It blending card stock
Copics: Y11, Y35, Y38, YR12, YR16, R32, R35, R46, W0, W1, W3, W5

Well I really like my card and its fun to shake but the front panel is too clean (which is unlike me to say as I really like CAS and white space) and if I have enough energy I'm going to have a go either using an embossing folder or a stencil on a second try.

Updated version created the day after:
I've used SU! All  Wired Up Background stamp on the So Saffron mat with So Saffron ink, I've covered the balloon in Nuvo Crystal Glaze and it so shiny in real life. I've also made the shaker panel a "mat" and I feel the Pumpkin Pie makes it all pop better. I've also tried some different Copic combos on my colouring:

Bird body:  YR24, YR27 and E19
Balloon: Y11, Y35, Y38, YR12 and YR16 - this colour combo is one of Kit and Clowder's weekly colour combo called Amber. Alyce Keeton gives us a new combo to try every week. These are a great resource and FREE to all not just those of us who are taking our monthly colouring classes. you can see more combos HERE.

For interest here's some old blog posts from me doing the "JAI sketch" in 2020 (click HERE) and in 2016 (click HERE and HERE), the final  one is one of my favourite cards of all time my Christmas elf card in 2016 (click HERE). Well I know there will be more posts but these are 4 that I instantly thought of when I saw the sketch layout. So hope you can join in this week too but if you can't make sure you have a go at the sketch it's a goodie one to use.

Happy stamping
✿ Karen ✿