unsupervised

 hello crafty stampers!

The lovely sisters at the sisterhood of snarky stampers have a new challenge this fortnight - #201 I is for Ink

I was wanting to do some stencilling and this challenge was right up my alley.

The seahorse from Darkroom Door Under the Sea was stamped 3 times using my Misti. 2 were in plain soft sea foam while the last seahorse has a multitude of distress oxide inks put on the stamp using a finger dauber, and stamped with each colour. Such a kaleidoscope of colour - like a naughty toddler getting into the inks! The seahorses were masked, then using Paper Rose Small Drops stencil, 2 blue distress oxides were blended over the panel. The sentiment is a Tim Holtz Small Talk sticker. The panel was added to the card base with foam tape.

I'm also entering this in the Just Us Girls Challenge #614 Trend Week

Thanks for stopping by!

joy

 hello again stampers!

This is my last week as Guest Designer for the Just Us Girls Challenge and I've had such fun! This week is photo inspiration week #612.

This photo reminded me of a country kitchen - all the shopping bags with Christmas goodies, I couldn't resist making a Christmas card. I was inspired by 3 things: the subway tiles across the centre of the pic (they are fab!), the leafy wreath on the bench, and the brown bags with Christmas goodies and a tiny pop of red.

Since I wanted to include a wreath but I have no wreath stamps, I chose to make a square card. That way, I can use the Misti and leaf stamps and just rotate the card 90o, stamping 4 times to create the circle. I began by stencilling the brick pattern using Darkroom Door Brick Wall stencil with distress oxide ink. Then I used Paper Rose Solid Flowers and Leaves stamps in my Misti to stamp the wreath. I also used a Darkroom Door Circle stencil to align where to stamp to get a circle shape. I used 2 different stamps from the set, to give a loose, leafy wreath. Some shiny red dots were also added. 

The sentiment was stamped using Altenew Warm Blessings in my Misti, with memento tuxedo black and also versamark, then it was heat embossed for a lovely shine. The sentiment was punched with a circle punch, and also punched from red card. These were slightly offset, then popped up with foam squares on the card panel. Lastly the card panel was adhered to a Kraft card base.

Come join in the fun with Just Us Girls, and stock up your christmas card stash! We're looking forward to seeing your designs! 

Thanks to Vicki and the lovely team at Just Us Girls Challenge for having me as their Guest Designer this month. I have really enjoyed all four challenges! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

thanks

 hello again crafters!

I'm into my third week as guest designer over at Just Us Girls Challenge, and am loving the experience! This week is #611 colour week and the colours chosen are aqua, brown and cream.

I wanted to do a CAS card and keep the imagery simple to highlight the colours.

I used a Paper Rose Leaves stencil to blend Vintage Photo distress oxide ink, then die cut it using a Paper Rose Stitched Rectangle die. The dragonfly from Darkroom Door Wildflowers Vol 1 is inked with Salvaged Patina and heat embossed in clear to give him texture and shine, then fussy cut and popped up on foam for dimension. 

Here's a closer shot of the shine on the dragonfly. 

The sentiment is die cut using Altenew Fancy Thanks die, 3 times and layered to make it stand out. Finally I added a few dew drops.

Come join in the fun at Just Us Girls challenge - we'd love to see your creations! Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

postcard

 hello lovely stampers!

This fortnight the new challenge at AAAcards #203 is for a one inchie + optional twist of masculine.  

I am intrigued and a little bewildered by the inchie. What is the best way something so tiny can still deliver an interesting card? I decided a one inchie didn't need to be a one layer or a one colour, so that formed the basis for my idea. 

My plan was to pack in as much as possible in that one inch.  I do have a stamp set Darkroom Door Seaside Inchies and the lovely DT over at perfectlyCAS have as their theme this month, 'Tropical' so I decided to combine the challenges.

I chose the inchie stamp with surfboards so it also satisfied the optional twist of masculine.

I began by stamping the inchie on a white card scrap with an area blended with distress oxide ink for the sky. The stamp was masked and stamped separately for the sky edge and the sand background. Then I stamped the whole stamp onto various ink blended scraps, with various colours of distress oxide ink and black ink, then chose the best ones to fussy cut each of the surfboards. 

MANY variations later... 😅 I chose a combination I liked. The surfboards were glued in place onto the background stamp, then the inchie was cut out. I'm thinking it was like paper piecing, but with ink blended card instead of paper. The sentiment was stamped with memento tuxedo black onto ink blended scrap (the same sand colour) using Altenew Sentiment Strips, then cut, edges inked and popped up on foam tape. The edges of the inchie were also inked with black to make it stand out on the card, then also popped up with foam onto a white card base using the rule of thirds and placing the inchie at the top right intersection.

Phew* I think it looks like a teeny tiny postcard!

Thanks for stopping by!

hugs

 hello crafty stampers!

Today I have a card I made for the fun challenge at Just Us Girls. It's colour week and this week's colours are:

Beautiful colours together, and so many ideas in my head. But I thought I'd use a new die I received last week with sweet butterflies.

I started by stamping the wildflowers using Darkroom Door Wildflowers Vol 1 stamp set, with Memento tuxedo black. The butterflies were die cut using Paper Rose Amaya Butterflies die and popped them up with foam so they hovered over the flowers. The dots were scraps from other die cuts (I throw out nothing! lol).  I die cut the sentiment using Paper Rose Hugs Fine Script die twice and glued them together for definition, then glued the sentiment to the card panel.

Thanks for stopping by!

thoughts

 hello again stampers!

I'm on a roll and onto the second card challenge for today - the rain is not easing up, so I'm taking advantage of some free time!

I found an interesting challenge at As You See it yesterday where you had to complete a card in under 10 minutes AND make it funny! Oh okay...

I had an idea for a card, based on a sentiment I had picked out but I had no idea how long it would take, I mean, how long is a piece of string? so I planned it out, got out the inks and supplies, began the timer and started with the first step - ink blending... Well that probably was my undoing.  I stopped the clock after 11 minutes with blurry stamping and still having not done the sentiment.  Doh!

Okay let's rethink this... I simplified the ink blending, making it only 2 colours, carefully cleaned off the stamps and made sure I didn't overink, decided not to cut down the panel but just adhere it to the card base. 2nd try was a success!

The stamps are from Darkroom Door Under the Sea, and the sentiment is a Tim Holtz Big Talk sticker. I stopped the timer at 9:22:03 but the distress oxide ink was still wet. I guess that still counts?

Great challenge! I'll be joining in more in the future for sure.

Thanks for stopping by!

hugs

 hello stampers!

It's raining today so I've spent a lovely morning in the craft room, enjoying the escape from weeding the garden! I made a card for 2 challenges which is the first time I've entered more than 1 challenge at a time - my skills must be coming along, albeit at a snail's pace 😉

It's colour week at Just Us Girls 

and the good people at AAA Cards have a no layers challenge

I have been wanting to use a recently acquired stamp from Darkroom Door so took the opportunity today.

I began by blending distress oxide inks in yellow, orange and red using a rectangle stencil. Then stamped the main sentiment from Darkroom Door Friends, masking off the first word and substituting the word 'hugs' using letters from Darkroom Door Alphabet Medley.  

I always get a little nervous with a 1 layer card - if I mess up, it's a full do-over: something I am not fond of doing as my brain moves onto the next idea. But simplicity is key - I am learning.

Thanks for stopping by!

magic

 hello crafty stampers!

The lovely ladies over at Just Us Girls challenge have a new challenge this week - Trend Week and they have chosen for us to create a shaker card.

I was reading and watching a few youtubes about the edge to edge shakers and thought that would be fun to try.

I started by heat embossing the sentiment from Darkroom Door in white, then blended distress oxide inks over and around the embossing. A few white ink splatters were added too, then the edges of the panel were inked in black. The clear plastic was placed over the panel and glued onto the back then the little sequins added and the last edge sealed up. Lastly the card was adhered to a black card base.

Such a fun technique and a Christmas card for my stash too! 

Thanks for stopping by!

talking

 hello lovely stampers!

I was lucky to be chosen as queen last challenge with the snarky sisterhood so I have the honour of being the guest designer this fortnight. The challenge is #193 P is for Paper Piecing.

Okay so I'm fessing up - never done this before! But how hard can it be right? Turns out it's brilliant! Especially for people like me with no copic markers and not a whole lot of drawing skills.  Girls, I have your back!

Stamped the bird from Darkroom Door Garden Birds using Memento tuxedo black ink, onto several coloured Stampin' Up papers and then fussy cut out each body part and glued them together to get the finished bird. Stamped the leaves from Altenew Beautiful Day onto the leftover reverse of the papers and die cut them with the coordinating die. Fussy cut the conversations from the same papers, black inked the edges using memento tuxedo black and glued them onto the card. The leaves were glued, bird popped up with foam squares, and the words from Tim Holtz Small Talk was also glued in place. Finally the black card panel was glued onto a paper panel, then glued onto a black card base.

I'll be using this paper piecing technique again now I know it's a thing! lol Come on and join in the fun with the snarky sisterhood!

Thanks for stopping by!

seashell

 hello there stampers!

I have a lovely card for you today that I made for a friend. The inspiration was the current challenge at CAS colours and sketches #432

In Melbourne here, we're coming to the end of winter and a little dose of summer would be most welcome! A little memory of the beach and collecting seashells proved to be too enticing to pass up.

I started by using watered distress oxide inks and smooshing the colours over a couple of white card panels. Once dry, I stamped the shells over the interesting coloured spots of one card, and used the other card as the background panel. The stamped images were fussy cut and glued to the white base. The inchies fit perfectly on the card! The sentiment was glued to a pool party card strip to match the seaside colours.

Thanks for stopping by!

ingredients:

stamps: darkroom door seaside inchies

inks: distress oxide scattered straw, tumbled glass, peacock feathers, memento tuxedo black

guardian angel

 hi there crafty stampers!

I have a lovely little card today inspired by the latest challenge from the sisterhood of snarky stampers #188 W is for Watercolour.

I don't know why but watercolours always make me think of the ocean and undersea creatures.  All those dreamy colours and blurred edges.

The background is distress oxide inks, watered and swirled over the card panel. After stamping the main images, the panel edges were inked with speckled egg. The sentiment is a Big Talk sticker, stacked onto card and also watercolored with speckled egg. 

Come join the sisters and have some fun with watercolours! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

inks: distress oxide inks

stamps: darkroom door under the sea, seaside inchies

sentiment: Tim Holtz Big Talk sticker

Edit: Thankyou lovely sisters for choosing me as a Princess for this card - had a ball doing the watercolour!

explore

 hello again stampers!

Today I made a card for the perfectlyCAS challenge #15 Repeat stamping. 

Although I like the CAS card designs, I do find them challenging - mostly because of my inky fingers! lol But today I liked the thought of repeat stamping and I had quite a few ideas swimming around in my head. (see what I did there?)

I began by stamping the fish inchie on the lower corner, masking each one before stamping the next. The seaweed was also stamped using masks over the inchies. I wanted to make the solo swimmer stand out so the word and the fish were stamped using my MISTI then stamped again with Versamark ink and clear heat embossed. I did the embossing twice to make it nice and smooth. Then I glued the panel to another panel the same size, then glued onto a card base, keeping it nice and white.

Even though we may find ourselves in a metaphorical box, perhaps sometimes we need to break out, take a leap of faith and explore. It's a big world out there but we can all find our place in it.  Sorry - didn't know I was going into some deep thinking.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

supplies:

stamps: darkroom door seaside inchies, under the sea, wildflowers vol 1

inks: altenew, versamark

slightly funnier

 hello again krafty stampers! (see what I did there?)

I'm back making cards - after a hiatus due to an injured finger. Thank you for all the well wishes, it is much improved (although I still only have 9 working fingers which plays havoc with touch typing...)

Today I made a kraft card for the sisterhood of snarky stampers challenge #186 K is for Kraft-y

I found I don't often make kraft cards but the distress oxide inks look fabulous on the kraft. I will have to make more of these.

I started by stencilling the lightest blue around the perimeter, then stamped the texture stamp and another leaf stamp with darker blues over the top.  Then I stamped the birds - they are the exact same image just mirrored. The sentiment is from the Tim Holtz Big Talk sticker book, lightly blended with distress oxide ink. The panel was mounted on a dark blue card then onto more kraft. I think the blues just pop!

Such a funny sentiment when they're talking to their twin. Who doesn't love irony?

Come join the sisters, make a snarky card, and have some fun! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

stamps: darkroom door garden birds, darkroom door flourish texture stamp

stencil: scrapmatts stones

ink: distress oxides tumbled glass, salty ocean, chipped sapphire

Edit:  Thank you so much to the snarky sisters for the Princess award for this card.  I am thrilled!

bad hair day

 hello crafty stampers!

I am thrilled to be the guest designer this week at the Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers after being chosen as queen in their M is for Monochromatic challenge! As guest designer I made a card for this fortnight's challenge SOSS #185 A is for Animal.

 

Autumn is in full swing here and the windy days and blowing leaves are in abundance, so I decided I had to find some snark with this theme. I actually accidentally sliced my finger a couple days ago so was stamping left handed - no mean feat, but I wasn't going to let a little thing like 5 stitches and a bandage slow me down. Luckily I had started on the card background but still had to simplify the design a bit.

I started by blending distress oxides over the whole card panel background. The deer was stamped along with the leaves and windy swirls using my MISTI. The sentiment was put together using alphabet letters and a sentiment strip, edges inked, then adhered to the card front. 

Dasher is actually the very first stamp I bought, and second hand. Such a beautiful deer - I hope I am forgiven for the snark. lol  Some days just feel snarky, so come join the Sisterhood challenge and have some fun! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

inks: distress oxides

stamps: Stampin Up Dasher, Altenew sentiment strips, Darkroom Door alphabet medley

wish

 hello crafty stampers!

Today I did a card for the CAS colours and sketches challenge #416 color.

I stamped the butterfly on 3 squares of inked card using the colours. The edges of the squares were also inked. I also stamped the word onto white card. Then I glued all the squares onto black card. I arranged them in a square pattern and glued them onto a coastal cabana card base. Such a pretty combination. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

stamps: darkroom door wildflowers vol 1, altenew sentiment strips

inks: altenew rubellite, volcano lake, balmy blue, memento tuxedo black

flutter

 hello crafty stampers!

I have a card for you today that should put a smile on your face.  Purely by chance, I found the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers blog and got such a giggle out of it, I had to have a go at their challenge. The current one is SOSS #183

Now I own zero snarky stamps, so perhaps more of a challenge for me. But I figured I'd use what words I had to convey a similar idea. I'm hoping I hit the mark!

I started by stamping the bird on ink covered card then cut him out. I blended ink for the background on a card panel, stamped around the edge and also inked the edge. Then I stamped the bird on the card panel, glued the blue bird over the stamped image. I stamped the words and inked their edges and foam taped them onto the card panel. Then glued the panel onto a card base.

I just love this bird - now he has attitude! Bit like my cat. 💙

Edit: Thank you so much for crowning me Queen Rachel for this challenge - I'm thrilled and honoured! 

Supplies:

distress oxide inks: tumbled glass, salty ocean, chipped sapphire, archival ink jet black

darkroom door stamps: garden birds, Wildflowers Vol 1, alphabet medley, flourish texture stamp

other various stamps 

spread your wings

 hello lovely stampers!

I am sharing a simple card with you today. I took the challenge from PerfectlyCAS for this month:

  

I am loving using the distress oxide inks - the layering ability is fantastic.  I used 2 or 3 colours on my butterflies to get a graduated colour effect. Lots of inky fun!

I started by blending using the cloud stencil to make a background. Using my MISTI, I stamped each butterfly several times with parts of it inked with colour. The fun part is deciding which beautiful colour to use next! The sentiment was put among the butterflies to tie them all together. Lastly I mounted the panel onto a mint macaron card base.

Thanks for stopping by!

supplies:

darkroom door stamp: Wildflowers Vol 1

my favourite things stencil: rolling clouds

distress oxide inks: scattered straw, dried marmalade, spun sugar, abandoned coral, seedless preserves, tumbled glass, salty ocean, peacock feathers, chipped sapphire, black soot

if nothing ever changed

 hello fellow stampers!

I've been feeling crafty lately (I might have to lie down till it passes). I have found myself happily stamping, blending, even watercolouring. I know! A new me?  I am pointing the finger squarely at my latest acquisition - my first distress oxide inks - just a few - but they are great! Awesome at blending (I have never been happy with my previous attempts), awesome as watercolour, and many many options with how to use them. Brilliant.

Today I made a card using the inks as watercolour. My first one, but they are so easy to use. I thought I would take the challenge thrown down by the lovely people at AAA cards, #187. 

Quite a tricky one - I played around with a few options for quarters but decided to go with what suited the sentiment on the card - the uplifting idea of butterflies had to be at the top! I also decided to do a square card so the quarters looked like quarters!

I started with watercolouring a rainbow - quite simple with 3 colours and blended to get the in between colours. Then I stamped the butterflies using black archival ink. In a similar way, I watercoloured the green using blue and yellow, and stamped using archival ink. They were cut out to the quarter size.

Stamping the sentiment twice on different coloured cardstock, they were then cut them in half so I could use each half on each quarter. They were stamped in versamark ink then embossed with white. They were then glued at the edge of each quarter. Lastly the quarters were adhered to the card base using foam tape for dimension. 

I am quite pleased with the result, and so happy with the new inks - I must get more. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

inks: distress oxide inks: abandoned coral; scattered straw; tumbled glass, archival ink jet black, Versamark ink

card: whisper white, highland heather, mossy meadow,  watercolour paper

stamps: Darkroom Door wildflowers vol 1