Mindy's Galaxy in a Glass card

Just sharing the fabulous card Mindy Eggen taught at the Spellbinders Weekender Retreat. I have to admit anything with ink blending really excites me and this was no exception.

We started by blending an A2 panel with water reactive inks. I used my Ranger Heavy Card stock and Distress inks, in hindsight maybe I should have used Distress Watercolor paper as we certainly ended up wetting it a lot. The watercolour paper in my kit was missing so I had to swap out with my own card.

Mindy started by blending a greenish yellow in the middle of her card, she then she applied a teal blue ink around it on one side. She blended across the top into the blue and the yellow-green a velvety rose pink ink and then the next colour blended in was a bright berry pink followed lastly by a vibrant purple. She then ink blended all the edges with a black ink. Then wet the whole panel quite a lot with her mister bottle so the inks were moving and let the colours mix more before drying with a heat tool. Lastly when dried splatter with white paint. This is my panel all dried and ready for die-cutting.

We used 3 die sets for this card; Sunset in a Glass, Tropical Flair and Tunnel Clouds.

We also ink blended on a dark blue card stock black ink all around the edges and splattered with the white paint again (Splatter White Opaque Watercolor by Spellbinders).

These were the inks I used and the approximate positioning of where I blended them into the panels. Mindy was working with Simon Hurley inks.

Well I love how cool this card is and I am thinking of giving it to an ex-colleague who is about to retire so thinking about what sentiment to use on it. The pain of all that die-cutting is fading when I look at this card. 

✿Karen✿

Weekender Fun with Spellbinders

I just had a fun weekend with my friend Donna who is one of my oldest and bestie friends, we go back to working in a hospital lab in the 1980s and she's also to blame for getting me into crafting when she dragged me along to Creative Memories workshops to learn scrapbooking in the 90s. My usual suspect in all things crafty Sarah was also in as well.

We all took part in Spellbinders Weekender Virtual retreat. Personally I'm trying to have a bit of a hiatus from Virtual boxes and kits as I'm quite a way behind with them but it was really hard to not sign up as our local craft store Krafters Cart actually bought the kits into NZ and shipped them to us for under $10. Most virtual kits the shipping is normally around the $100 USD mark which adds a lot to the cost for us down under but I justify it as I'm getting first class tuition which is free and the kit always is at least the value of what we pay for it. The problem is so many companies are now offering them it's really hard to pick and choose which ones to do. But I have to be honest as you get SO MUCH product in the kits (some of it you wouldn't normally buy as its not your thing) that I'm running out of storage space in my craft room.

We got the kit box with plenty of time beforehand which was just as well as there was so much die-cutting to be done. I knew there'd be a lot but there was truckloads and I actually ended up getting blood blisters under my index and thumb nails tearing the dies off the backing sheets. Also the cutting was complicated with lots of different coloured papers in the kit and to be honest I don't think I got all the coloured card we were supposed to get in a kit but in the end I worked with what I had and filled in the gaps with something similar in my stash they were using. Also the teachers were using dies from multiple die sets to make one card which complicated things as well. I posted a wee quick video on my Facebook page of all the diecuts which you can see HERE.

The three of us post lunch on Saturday which was the Friday class and cocktail party in the States. Luckily we had just bought ourselves a new TV,  after 20 years we finally replaced the 32" TV with a Chromecast attachment for a 55" smart TV which made watching YouTube videos so much easier and so much BIGGER and clearer.

Myself with bubbly and OJ whilst listening to the stream.

Sarah looking happy.

My kitten enjoyed playing with the cocktail umbrellas! I'll be back soon to share a card or maybe even more from the event. Hope to see you then.

✿Karen✿

AAA Colourful Dreamy Moodboard

It's time for another challenge with AAA Colourful and I am so delighted to be joining them as a Guest Designer this month. I love colour and was very excited when this new challenge blog started up and here we are at month four, doesn't time fly! 

This month's moodboard is so dreamy and it really reminded me of Craft Consortium's Ink Drop Papers which are perfect for those of us that would like the look of alcohol ink backgrounds.

I'm sure I not the only person who has watched a Jennifer McGuire video and went and bought what she was working with and I must admit this is how I own some CC Ink Drop papers and also some coverplate dies from Honey Bees (Delicate Daisy A2 Top and Base plates) after watching her create her usual magic. I have blogged about my first plays HERE and HERE. When Jane invited me to be the Guest Designer this month I went this will be easy that moodboard looks just like my DSP so I'll just tweak the card design using this time Vivid Ink Drops DSP (CC) and use a different "leaf" and the coverplate dies Jennifer "made me buy" for the background.

I'm really happy with my card but feel that my 3/4" paper strips maybe too green and the yellow seems to have disappeared in the strips. This is a no stamping card as the sentiment is a ready-made foiled sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio. The lovely leave die is Whirl Leaves (SSS)

Well I hope I have provided some inspiration for the moodboard or to just to use up some DSP in your stash as this truly is a really effective card and quite quick to put together which is always appreciated if you need a card in a hurry, this design would also work so well for Sympathy cards. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Design team came up for the challenge so hope you can join in, you have plenty of time to play along.

I'm also feeling like my colours are quite representative of the colours at The Paper Players at the moment so will join in with their latest challenge. Also Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is to add a die cut and when you add a SSS die cut to your card it would be foolish not to enter as who doesn't want to win a $25 gift card to their store (it will pay for my postage back to NZ).

Thanks so much for popping in.

✿Karen✿