Autumn Blessings

I think I'll need to tuck this card away for another six months as we're heading into Spring in New Zealand but I had a lot of fun spraying shimmer/mystical sprays onto Fabriano Bristol smooth cardstock so  I could die cut out some Artsy Leaves for ALL the "Autumn challenges", unfortunately the shimmer and shine doesn't really show that well in the photos.

I also got to upcycle a cardboard box from my recycling bin using the corrugated cardboard as my mat under the leaves. I've swiped a bit of gold Hero Wax onto the ridges too. The sentiment has been  stamped with Versafine Clair Acorn ink and then clear heat embossed. 

Supplies used:

Taylored Expressions : Happy Harvest (sentiment)

Sizzix : Artsy Leaves dies

Hero Arts : Gold wax, 2-tone Royal Purple + Gold metallic spray

Lavinia : Golden Temple & Pinkella Mystical sprays

Dylusions : Tangerine Dream shimmer spray

Challenges: CAS on Friday #268 ; Simply Clean and Simple : October Challenge; The Paper Players PP662, The Card Concept #200 (Autumn Chill)

I have been inspired by the purple book above to include the colour purple in one of my sprays. I don't think I've ever seen a purple leaf before but it looks and works great as one of the contrast colours.

Well it's funny everyone is wanting Autumn but I had a ball playing and getting inky with my leaves and I saw the corrugated board on another blog with white leaves and at the time thought what a good idea (and cheap). Do check out all the inspiration on the challenge sites there's some fab cards to see.

Have a great day and thanks for popping in.

✿ Karen ✿

Playing with colour blocking

I decided I have to work smarter and combine a few challenges at one time. I used to be really organised and copy all the challenge buttons to a word document but a bit ad hoc here whilst I remember how I incorporated doing challenges as part of my crafting day. So today's blog post combines 2 challenges and it actually helps a lot working out what you are going to do with more "parameters" to work within.

I wanted to take part in Just Add Ink's challenge to use large letters or numbers and I had 2 ideas in my mind but thought I would have a go at Keisha Charles colour blocking a die-cut. This was one of the fab classes at the OCC Spring Camp 2022 and I loved all of Keisha's cards and this is a blogged card I made at the time that you can see HERE.

The card I am sharing today Keisha used to teach this technique but I've tweaked it to also play along with The Card Concepts spring flowers in blue/pink/grey and white and I LOVE, LOVE the final result. Imagine a more vibrant card with hot pink/bright yellow/bright orange and that would be Keisha's card ;)

My card has turned out quite dreamy and the really cool thing about this technique is you don't need any coloured card stock, all the bits in the coverplate die you want to be coloured,  you just ink-blend to create. I have "cheated" as the skies are getting really dark and I want to snap a photo before the light has gone and used a tiny strip of Smoky Slate card stock to add the wee sentiment strip. I didn't really have time to wait for the ink to dry so I could heat emboss on it.

There are some really good tips in the picture below:

• Favourite tape for holding my dies in place is Highlighter tape (Lee Products) - best ever never sticks or tears your paper. In NZ we can buy from Ribbon Rose or Krafters Cart.
• Run the die facing up (a lot of people do this but I don't normally do it this way) so the bits don't fall out of the die
• Use a piece of an old mailer bubble bag between your card stock and the cutting plate, it adds a bit more shim and awesome with dies that have lots of little chads in them, they seem to pop out real easily. You can use it until its lost all of it's air (I've used mine about 6x now and think it's too flat now) 
• When the die-cut comes out use a similar piece of Glad Wrap Press 'n Seal to hold in all the bits and press firmly to make them stick

Here is my die cut with the back of it "stuck" to the press 'n seal

Remove the frame carefully, use your fingers to hold the bits in as you lift up the frame. Attach the frame to your card base. I have gone back to using Gina K's Connect Glue in a fine tip bottle, as much as I love the nozzle on the Bearly Art glue, the glue itself has no wiggle time.

Remove the pieces of the card you want to colour block and using a small blender brush ink blend. It may look messy but dries smooth and lighter.

And the final card:

Supply List (all Pinkfresh Studios unless stated otherwise):

Stamps: You (PhP)

Ink: Sparkling Rose, Sky Blue, Misty Coast, Versamark

Paper: Hammermill White, Smoky Slate (SU!), Vellum (SCT)

Dies: Ornate Floral, Sentiment Suite : You

Other: Blush glitter drops, medium foam squares (SP), Alabaster white EP (BM), small blending brushes (TE)

Challenges: JAI #650 , TCC #194 

Well I sincerely believe doing my colour blocked card with large letters using the dreamy colours of the Card Concept made my original idea better; so definitely 2 heads are better than one or in this case 2 challenges were better than one. Hope you can play along but do check out all the fab ideas on show at both challenge sites.

Thanks for popping in.

EDITED 4/5/23: My card was an honourable mention at JAI. 

Here's what some of the design team had to say... "Love the inlaid design and colour scheme", "Wow! What a show stopper!", "I love the soft colours and dimension in her card. The vellum under the sentiment is perfection". Thank you all for your kind words!

✿ Karen ✿

Just Saying Hello

I was looking at my card stash the other day saying I needed more HELLO cards as I haven't sent out any cards to my old neighbours for quite awhile. The challenge at The Card Concept and at Allsorts Challenge gave me the motivation to make a "hello" card for one of my ex-neighbours who is now in a retirement village after his wife and one of my bestie crafting buddies passed away.

Allsorts want us to use a sentiment (so that is extremely easy) and TCC has a Colours of Fall inspirational picture.

I have used the picture as my inspiration but tried to stick to the colour palette approximately for my silhouette card using Gina K's Friendly Silhouettes stamp set. The saying comes from Altenew's Magnolia Butterfly stamp set. I have used Gina's masking magic to create my mask for the top. The colours of my blend are Fossilized Amber, Crackling Campfire, Faded Jeans and a teeny wee bit of Black soot. I didn't really have a blue like the boat in my distress oxides but am very happy how my blend worked out.

I am happy with my black card mat. I bought a pack of Francheville Black from my local Spotlight store and it's an American card size (11" x 8.5" 176gm) for the tiny price of $11 for 50 sheets, perfect for mats. I have used Lavinia Multifarious Smooth and Supreme white for my blending.

Supply List:
Stamps: Friendly Silhouettes (GKD), Magnolia Butterfly (ALT)
Distress oxides (RNG): Fossilized Amber, Crackling Campfire, Faded Jeans and a teeny wee bit of Black soot

Ink: Versafine Clair Nocturne Black

Dies: Master Layouts 1 (GKD)

Paper: As described above plus Mango Melody (SU!) for my card base

Other: Masking Magic (GKD), blending brushes (TE)

Challenges: TCC #181, Allsorts #698

Well I think this is a perfect card to send to Neville and hope he enjoys it.

✿ Karen ✿