JAI #168 - Sketch Challenge

It's time for another challenge over at Just Add Ink.  This week we have a sketch to challenge you with.  Take a look

This past week I re-signed as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.  The fact that I could get the pre-order stuff I wanted in my Starter Kit for only $169 was a bargain too hard to pass up.  And because it was a 'Starter Kit', it shipped really quickly so I was able to put some of my new goodies to use.

This was nothing like what I had planned, but when I was looking at the embossing folder, I just saw the pattern of the sketch in it, and a new idea was born.  I decided to use all of the new 2013 - 2015 In Colours - they are just so pretty.  The embossing folder, punch and stamp set are from the Quatre Fancy product suite.  All of these items will be available for purchase come July 2, 2013.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Design Team's submission - there are some awesome ideas for you

Thanks for visiting

Supplies Used:

Stamps:  Mosaic Madness

Ink:  Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush

Cardstock:  Whisper White

Accessories:  Mosaic Punch, Rhinestones, Modern Mosaic Embossing Folder, Big Shot

JAI #164 - Sketch Challenge

And I'm back.  After a very long break from all things stamping, I've finally found some enthusiasm to get back down to the studio and get creative.  I guess it didn't hurt that quite a few new purchases have found their way into my studio - maybe that was the push I needed.  Anyway, this week at Just Add Ink, we have a sketch challenge for you.  Take a look

Cool sketch, hey?  Lots of possibilities with this one.  During my break I took a couple of classes from Online Card Classes - one of them was Pattern Play - which was a class full of tips & tricks for using patterned paper.  I must have learnt something because look at what I came up with.

This patterned paper is as old as the hills. It's from 2009 I think - from SU called Flamingo something or other.  I also have a matching beach towel that I got from Momento Mall when I attended Convention in Canberra that year.  I have quite a few of these 'bold' papers and I thought this sketch would be a good way to use some of it up.  It took me ages to line those squares up and much to my disgust, they are not quite perfect.  I have since come up with another, better idea, so I will give that a try next time.

I was going to add a sentiment but I decided to leave well enough alone.

Well thanks for visiting.  As Arnie would say, 'I'll be back', if not next week, then definately the week after :)  Be sure to check out what the rest of the design team have come up with - lots of gorgeous samples for your inspiration.

Catch you later

New Stuff

Here's a couple of cards I made with SU's new photopolymer stamp set - Designer Typeset (US/CAN only at this stage). 

I have stamped the banner image repeatedly and coloured in the triangles using my ProMarkers.  Whilst I really like who this has turned out, I've decided to cover the light grey and brown triangles with Ranger's Enamel Accents in White & Black respectively (when they arrive - like, hurry up and ship my order please).  With the sentiment being so black against the white cardstock, I think it will just pull the card together just that bit better.  The sentiment is actually a line image that I coloured in using the very FINE end of my black SU marker.  Doing that made me realise I need to bring my glasses home from work because my eyes were burning and running from squinting so hard to make sure I stayed in the lines.

Here's another one

Being made out of polymer means you can manipulate these stamps from their original form - see how I've curved the banner.  Again, the pennants were coloured with my ProMarkers and then I stamped the letters over the top.  I like the way the little, teeny-tiny letters were small enough to fit inside the hexagon.  I did rule a line to make sure I stamped them straight.

So what did I think about these photopolymer stamps???  Well, I liked them.  I'm an equal opportunity stamper and don't really care whether the stamps are clear, rubber, wood mounted, cling mounted etc etc.  I'm really only interesed in what the images look like and when I saw this set, I had to have it because it was so cute.  I've already got quite a few photopolymer stamps and I've never had any problems with them.  Safe to say, I can't imagine that SU would have gone down this road unless they were 100% sure of the quality of the product - too big of a risk for them to put out something out that was inferior.  Anything I didn't like??  Those little letters are small and will be easy to lose if you drop them.  They are NOT as small as a set I have from PTI and were actually quite easy to line up - I just eyeballed the placement of the letters in the pennants.  The other thing that I wasn't over fussed on was the thickness of the images.  They are quite thick compared to some sets I have and the thickness made me think that they looked a little coarse.  It suits the set but I hope some future ones are a little thinner and look a little more refined.

Anyway that's it from me tonight, Top Chef is about to start.

Adios and enjoy your week.

Online Card Classes - Pattern Play

A few weeks ago, I participated Pattern Play - an online class held by Online Card Classes to teach you how to actually use all of that Patterned Paper that is piled up in your crafting area (or overflowing onto the floor as the case may be).

I thought this was another awesome class, filled with great ideas - things that I would never have thought of doing and it all made to look oh-so-easy.  Day 3 of the class we were shown how to use Difficult to Use and Bold Patterned Papers.  I have quite a few of these.  A few years back (let's just say 6) I bought 4 or 5 Basic Grey 6x6 patterned paper pads.  I had all these great ideas of just taking the papers, adding them to a card front, adding a sentiment and calling them done.  Guess how many of these so called cards I have made using said paper pads?  I'll make it easy for you - nil, none, nada - until last week that is.

Kristina showed a great idea for using these papers and this is what I ended up making

I can't remember which pad this paper came from (and can't be bothered going downstairs to look, sorry).  The card base is Rose Red and I think from memory the strips were about 1.5" wide.  It was about 11 pm when I started on this card and I couldn't quite work out how to work out the spacing like Kristina did so I just cut mine, laid them out and then trimmed the card to fit!!!

The sentiment is from SU and punched out using a SU oval punch, which was a perfect fit for the frame, which is from PTI's Pretty Peonies set.  I recently purchased a Fiskars stamp press after seeing some nearly all the designers from OCC using it and I must say how much easier it was to line up the stamping onto the die cut.  I was very impressed.  The only thing I don't like about it is that I can't work out the best way to clean my stamps.  At the moment I'm pulling them off the press, and popping them onto another block and then cleaning using my Stamp Scrubber.  If anyone has any other ideas, please let me know cause I just know that one day the ink from that stamp I'm trying to clean is going to get on my fingers and I'm not going to notice and it's going to get onto that project that I've just finished after spending 12 hrs working on it!

And then last week (or maybe it was the week before) I received my SAB order from Felicity as well as an order from Simon Says Stamp (so I'm rolling in new stuff :)) and I put this one together

The DSP is from this year's SAB free stuff, as is the button.  I've used the Honeycomb embossing folder and die cut all those little hexagons using my Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Hexagons.  These are slippery little suckers and I'm sure there will be a post here lamenting the fact that one of them has gone walkabout and is nowhere to be found.  The sentiment is stamped in Saraha Sand and the twine in the button was SU White Baker's Twine that I coloured with a coordinating Promarker.

Anyway, I was kind of proud of my efforts to use use a touch of all of that patterned paper that I own.  I hope to put some of the other ideas I learnt in class to use some day soon.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

CTS #17

Hey there, long time, no see.  I've had a bit of an unplanned blog break because I have had absolutely no inclination to stamp or create at all.  It's been nearly 3 months since in ventured into my craft room, but after receiving some new goodies in the mail on Friday, it felt 'right'to be doing something crafty.

I have wanted to play along with CAS(E) this sketch for some time, however, when I looked at this week's sketch, I thought I'd skip over cause it looked a bit hard, and I wasn't really feeling it.  I thought I'd sleep on it and come back the next night, but before I knew it, I had come up with this

I've used some of my Christmas 'washi' type tape,  my new SSS stamp and die set  (I think it's called You) and a PTI set (Grunge Me maybe??).   Not much else to say apart from it was good to put ink to paper.  Since the football has started up again, I'm sure the motivation to craft will grow stronger again.

Thanks for visiting.

Supplies:
Stamps:  Espressions for You (Simon Says Stamp), Grunge Me (PaperTrey Ink)
Ink:  Real Red, Going Gray (Stampin' Up!), Tuxedo Black (Mememto)
Cardstock:  Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Big Shot, You Die (SSS), Quickie Glue pen, Silver Glitter 'washi' tape

JAI 143 - Just Add Colour Challenge

This week at Just Add Ink we have a colour combo to challenge  you.  I know it certainly challenged me.  Check out the colours we are working with

It's a combo that I really liked but gave me no inspiration at all.  Usually I get a feeling for the combo and what will be best suited to it, but this one, it just left me with crickets.  I really had no idea of what I was going to do until I went to Ikea last Sunday.  Whilst I was there I found these awesome placemats, awesome for 2 reasons; the patterns and the fact that I can just wipe them clean.  So my idea was formed, I was just going to copy the polka dot pattern, changing the Ikea colours with the challenge colours.  All was going well until I realised that I didn't have a solid polka dot that was just the right size.  I tried it with a star patterned dot but it wasn't quite working.  So, back to the drawing board. 

Whilst working with the star dot, I had a thought to use its coordinating die and do some partial die cutting to cut the edge of the card.  Good idea but what was I going to use for cutting plates, my normal ones were too big and wouldn't work with the partial die cut thing.  So I tried some cardboard from one of my SU delivery boxes.  Not quite thick or sturdy enough.  So I tried adding an extra cardboard shim.  Still not quite thick or sturdy enough.  Then I thought, what about one of my clear blocks?  It was certainly going to be thick enough but would it work, cause I only  had one and still needed to use some cardboard to protect the rollers in my die cut machine.  With nothing to lose, I flipped open the tabs on the platform and ran it though and this was the result

Woo Hoo - it worked, but it did put some marks in my clear block.  It took me some time to decide on exactly which sentiment I would use - I'm still not convinced this one was the best choice.

Then, whilst working on that card, I wondered what would happen if I flipped the big star spot over and stamped using the back of the stamp.  Check this out

Bingo - just the sized dot I was looking for.  So instead of 1 card I ended up with 2.  Love it when that happens :)

Well, that's it for me today.  Thanks for visiting and be sure to check out what the rest of the design team's awesome creations.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Boy Basics - Simple Circles, Birthday Basics  (PaperTrey Ink)
Ink:  Marina Mist, Sahara Sand, Tangerine Tango, Early Espresso (SU!)
Cardstock:  Whisper White (SU!)
Accessories:  Big Shot, Simple Circles die (PTI), Acrylic Block

JAI 141 Colour Challenge

Ooops.  In my hurry to get my streak ridden benches clean, I totally forgot to schedule my post for this week's challenge at Just Add Ink.  And since the weekend was a bust for free time, here I am posting now.

The challenge this week is a colour challenge, check them out

Aren't they pretty.   I decided to use my brand new stamp set - Summer Silhouettes to make my card for this week and this is how it turned out

I stamped the border image off once before stamping it on the card.  I like the  little extra detail it adds.  The sentiment is from the Made for You set, which is also new.  It was stamped with Distress Embossing Ink and embossed using Zing Brown Sugar embossing powder.  I used my favourite corner rounder to round the top corner.  The card is a note card sized card, same ones as SU! sells.  The proportions just looked a bit better. 

Harry gave this card to his teacher on Friday just gone as it was Teacher Appreciation Day. 

Well, I'm keeping it short & sweet tonight.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you can play along with us this week at Just Add Ink.

Supplies Used: 
Stamps:  Summer Silhouettes, Made for You (Stampin' Up!)
Ink:  Crumb Cake, Wisteria Wonder (Stampin' Up!), Distress Embossing Ink (Ranger)
Cardstock:  Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  Heat Gun, Corner Rounder (retired) (Stampin' Up!), Brown Sugar embossing powder (Zing)