A New Ink on Life

The Spot #147- Kangaroo and Company

Welcome back to another challenge at The Spot, your place for inspiration and weekly cardmaking challenges. This week we have a wonderful and timely theme challenge and would love to have you join us!

This week is all about hearts and love! I inked up the adorable Kangaroo and Company from the Jan-Jun Mini Catalogue. 

How adorable is that mama kangaroo holding a special message in her pouch?! I embossed a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 Basic White layer with the Stitched with Whimsy Dies then did a little soft ink blending on the piece with Rococo Rose Classic Ink and a Blending Brush. I then cut out a large stitched heart from the gorgeous Oh So Ombre Designer Series Paper that you can earn for FREE as part of the Sale-a-bration promotion. 

The bundle of hearts were stamped on the same ombre DSP, then fussy cut out. The piece for the sentiment is a die cut that fits perfectly into the kangaroo's pouch. Here you can see the little message pulled all the way out. The image was stamped on Thick Basic White Cardstock then coloured in with Blends Alcohol Markers. A few sprinkles of Sequins and some White Baker's Twine finishes it off.

Here's a close up of the little heart tag tucked all the way in. I just love this stamp set so much! 

 

Now be sure to check out The Spot for some fabulous inspiration, and I hope you can play along! 

All products I have used for today's project are listed below with a direct link to my online store for easy shopping! And remember Stampin' Up's biggest promotion of the year is going on now. It's SALE-a-bration time, which means with your qualifying purchases you can earn FREE products!

 

Check out these items that you can earn for FREE with each $60 (CA) qualifying purchase:

Check out these items that you can earn for FREE with each $120 (CA) qualifying purchase:

TGIF Challenges #300 Forever & Always

It's Friday and that means another great challenge on the TGIF Challenges Blog!

This week it's time for an inspiration challenge and what better place to be inspired by than diving into the fabulous pages of the new Stampin' Up! Jan-Jun Mini Catalogue!

I was totally inspired by the Love You Always Suite of products that can be found on p. 10-13. I fell in love with the True Love Designer Series Paper and the beautiful fussy cut and coloured flowers in the sample on pg 10. It's black and white perfection in floral, strips and dotted patterns. I also used the Always In My Heart Stamp and Die Bundle.

I used Basic White Cardstock for my card base and then let the DSP do most of the work for this design. It is no secret that I love pretty pattern papers, so I will use them any chance I get. TIP: Do not be afraid to combine patterns. When working with several designs at once look for complementary patterns such as florals and stripes or dots, or combine all three like I did here. This works for my card as the black and white combo creates a very neutral pallet to play off of. When combining coloured paper designs, look for one bold design and then balance with more subtle patterns. I also love stamping on my patterned papers to give more depth and interest. Here I repeated the "love" as a background using Petal Pink Classic Ink stamped off once.

I also splattered the the dotted paper with Champagne Shimmer Paint using a Water Brush. The floral clusters were fussy cut out using my trusty Paper Snips. Yes it was a lot of cutting, but honestly those sharp snips make it much easier and a great tip is to rotate the paper as you are cutting. To add colour to the flowers I used several Stampin' Blends Markers. This is another reason why  I love this paper, it is so versatile and perfect for adding colour to using various colouring mediums. 

The sentiments were stamped on die cut strips using Whisper White Craft Ink and a few Matte Black Dots added to give a little dimension to the design. 

I hope you can join us this week and make sure to check out the TGIF challenge blog  for some more awesome inspiration!

All products I have used for today's project are listed below with a direct link to my online store for easy shopping! And remember Stampin' Up's biggest promotion of the year is going on now. It's SALE-a-bration time, which means with your qualifying purchases you can earn FREE products!

 

Check out these items that you can earn for FREE with each $60 (CA) qualifying purchase:

Check out these items that you can earn for FREE with each $120 (CA) qualifying purchase:

The Spot #146 - Pretty Perennials to Heal Your Heart

Welcome back to another challenge at The Spot, your place for inspiration and weekly cardmaking challenges. 

This week we have a great CASE the Designer Challenge and are spotlighting to gorgeous work of design team member Jay Soriano of Mitosu Crafts. What's so fun about this type of challenge is that you get to peruse all of his gorgeous cards and pick one to CASE (Copy and Selectively Edit). 

I picked this pretty floral creation that he created using the Gorgeous Posies Stamp Set.

The Mini Calatlogue is jammed packed with so many stunning stamps, bundles, papers and embellishments, but one of my "must haves" was the Pretty Perennials Stamp and Die Bundle and this challenge was the prefect excuse to break it open. There are many things that I love about Jay's original card that I choose to carry over to my version. I kept the look of a lot of white space and the repetitive stamping of a large floral bloom in the background. For my card I went with a colour combo of Coastal Cabana and Crushed Curry inks with a splash of Night of Navy and changed the orientation to a portrait design. 

People make and give cards for many reasons, but I think one of the most important ones is to let others know we are here. We see them, we love them and recognize them not only through the celebrations in life, but in the hard times too. The Heal Your Heart Stamp Set in the Sale-a-bration Catalogue is hands down, one of my favorite stamp sets. The mixed fonts are perfection and it just has all the right words and phrases.

What I especially love about this set is that there are sentiments for both the front and inside of the card. As you can see with my card I mixed them up a little and put the larger of the two inside, as well as used the phrase on the outside that was intended to go with "sorry for your loss" But for the intended purpose of my card it fit perfectly with the sentiment I chose. 

Now be sure to check out The Spot for some fabulous inspiration, and I hope you can join in on the challenge! 

All products I have used for today's project are listed below with a direct link to my online store for easy shopping! And remember Stampin' Up's biggest promotion of the year is going on now. It's SALE-a-bration time, which means with your qualifying purchases you can earn FREE products!

 

Check out these items that you can earn for FREE with each $60 (CA) qualifying purchase:

Check out these items that you can earn for FREE with each $120 (CA) qualifying purchase:

TGIF Challenges #298 Art Gallery

It's Friday and that means another great challenge on the TGIF Challenges Blog!

This is sketch challenge week and it sure is a fun one!

Sketch challenges are one of my favourite types of challenges, they are such a great way to get the creative ideas flowing. The Jan-Jun Mini Catalogue is now live, so I of course had to create with some fabulous new products! The Fine Art Floral Suite is absolutely stunning, full of lovely flowers and textures. 

I am a sucker for patterned paper and the Fine Art Floral DSP is stunning. The patterns were created by painting first on canvas, then photographing them and turning them into paper. The effect is Designer Series Paper that truly looks textured. I stamped the "I Miss You" using Pool Party Classic Ink several times without reinking to make a background and the look of extra texture and then slightly crumpled up two of the corners.

For the stamped floral image I used Stampin' Write Markers to ink the stamp. I actually love how using the markers on photopolymer stamps create an almost streaky look, which mimic paint strokes. Because this suite is all about texture I also used the gorgeous Fine Art Ribbon, the perfect neutral ribbon with flecks of gold, to add even more interest to my card.

I hope you can join us this week and make sure to check out the TGIF challenge blog for some more awesome inspiration!

All products I have used for today's project are listed below with a direct link to my online store for easy shopping! And remember Stampin' Up's biggest promotion of the year is going on now. It's SALE-a-bration time, which means with your qualifying purchases you can earn FREE products!

 

Check out these items that you can earn for FREE with each $60 (CA) qualifying purchase:

 

Check out these items that you can earn for FREE with each $120 (CA) qualifying purchase:

TGIF Challenges #297 - Floating & Fluttering

It's Friday and that means another great challenge on the TGIF Challenges Blog!

Happy New Year! TGIF Challenges is starting off the New Year with a classic Black and White Colour Challenge and I decided it was time to pull out some more of my new goodies. The upcoming Mini Catalogue goes live on January 5th and so does Stampin' Up's biggest promotion of the year; Sale-A-Bration! For my card I used the Floating and Fluttering Stamp and Die Bundle and a SAB sentiment set called Heal Your Heart.

A black and white colour combination can have such a striking impact and work with any type of images and sentiments. To really give my card a wow factor I decided to play with textures by using both dry and heat embossing. I used my favourite go to Subtle Embossing Folder on the white layer and also a new favourite Painted Texture 3D Embossing Folder on the black. I then flicked on some Shimmer White Paint using a Water Brush.

Next I stamped and die cut the gorgeous butterflies image. The cool thing about this is it is all one stamp and one die, so you can stamp and die cut in one easy step and choose to keep the images together like I did, or snip them apart. I also die cut a white single butterfly that is also embossed by the die. The beautiful Black Glitter Organdy Ribbon really sparkles and adds an elegant touch. I chose this sentiment as I really felt that is fitting for the start of a new year, especially after 2020. If I learned anything this past year, it is that it is so important to acknowledge and appreciate that we are not alone and that we can get through anything together.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year! I hope you can join us this week and make sure to check out the TGIF challenge blog for some more awesome inspiration!