To A Classic - Just Add Ink Challenge #767

It's time for an inspiration challenge with Just Add Ink and here's this week's photo prompt:

I took the cars as inspiration and made a birthday card. 

Naturally the car is red - we all know red cars go faster, right? 😁

Materials used:

• stamps - Road Signs bold prints (Hero Arts), All About You (MFT)
• dies - Classic car (Spellbinders), Vault World Travel (Tim Holtz)
• other - Sidekick, MISTI, Dimensionals, craft foam, black embossing powder, heat tool

We hope you'll be inspired to join our challenge with your own creative projects. 

Thanks for driving by.

Cheers

Kerry

First Rule of the Garage

I stumbled across a masculine card I made some time ago and hadn't posted. It uses garage-themed papers and ephemera from Mintay which I knew would go wonderfully with some Tim Holtz hardware and a few metal charms I already had in my stash. Now, I've had these tool charms for literally years and years, so I have no idea of their brand or origin but it's great to finally use them!

The hanging tools - crescent and pliers - are real metal, as is the gauge frame just above the sign (the Hardie Mfg Co. one) and the 'screws' at the corners. The rest is paper/card! 

Here you can see the layering. I attached the tools to my 'corkboard' (die cut from cork-look paper) using jump rings and brads. 

I love the background paper that looks like rusted metal plate but it stole the limelight a bit, so I applied some gesso here and there using a brayer to tone it down. The brass pipe along the right side is fussy cut from a sheet of 12x12" paper. I love, love, love the sentiment on the sign - just makes me smile every time I read this play on the famous line from Fight Club. 

The downside to all this metallic goodness? The card ended up being pretty hefty which means when I try to stand it up, it just falls over from all the weight on the front!!! Roflol. Ah well, the recipient will just have to prop it up or lay it down.

Materials used:

• card - early espresso, basic black
• papers - Garage collection (Mintay), Golden Days collection (Mintay)
• dies - corkboard (Paper Rose)
• Tim Holtz ideaology - machinery heads, gauge dials, metal gauge frames, jump rings, brads
• other - gesso, brayer, mini glue dots, craft foam, Dimensionals, Big Shot

Maybe you've got something in your stash that needs to see the light of day too - go on and check it out! Remember, if you use up stuff it gives you an excuse to buy more to fill the gap left behind!!!!!! 😉

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry

Oh Man!

Welcome to another Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where I'm guest designer for the month of June. 

This week the theme is MASCULINE and I've made a card for a small or still-young-at-heart boy.

Materials used:

• stamps & dies - African Animals (C.C. Designs), Tropical Leaf Bunch die (Simon Says Stamp)
• card - basic white, early espresso
• distress oxide inks - tumbled glass, fossilized amber, gathered twigs, walnut stain, twisted citron, mowed lawn
• other - craft foam, Dimensionals, MISTI, water spritzer, blending brushes, Big Shot, Copic markers, stitched slimline die (Paper Rose)

I hope you're inspired to create your own masculine project and if you do, remember, the folks at Simon Says Stamp are generously giving away a fabulous $25 voucher to shop at the Simon Says Stamp store for one lucky entrant who makes something following this week's prompt and links it up at the bottom of the Challenge Blog post. You can join up to 5 times, giving you 5 chances to win! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance. 

Also make sure you check out the fabulous projects the SSS design team made with a masculine theme.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

JAI #642 - Just Add a Sketch

It's a great sketch over at Just Add Ink this week so I couldn't help playing along.

I made a masculine card using the Tim Holtz Tailored die set (which I'm absolutely loving at the moment as you'll have seen from yesterday's card, lol) and a blue/grey colour combo.

Materials used:

• stamps - Perfect Sentiments (PinkFresh Studios)
• card - night of navy, smoky slate, basic white (SU), Piece of Cake Masculine (Nitwit Collections)
• dies - Tailored (Tim Holtz/Sizzix), Perfect Sentiments (PinkFresh Studios)
• other - mounting tape, Dimensionals, sponge daubers, Big Shot, computer and printer, night of navy and smoky slate inks (SU), MISTI

We'd love you to join our challenge and add your own creation to our gallery, and of course there's more to inspire you over on the JAI blog.

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kerry

Tic Tac Toe Guest Designer

This week I'm guest designer for Tic Tac Toe challenge #196 and here's the challenge board:

I chose the diagonal line from top left - heart, free, die cut - and made a Valentines card.

Materials used:

• card - basic black and smoky slate (Stampin' Up), watercolour, Backdrops (Tim Holtz)
• distress inks - lumberjack plaid, hickory smoke, black soot
• other Tim Holtz products - Tailored thinlits, Gothic stencil, lumberjack plaid embossing glaze, Sentiments label stickers, Sidekick
• other -heat tool, Dimensionals, blending brushes, Country Bouquet punch (SU), R27 copic marker, Versamark ink

For the hearts I first smooshed my Versamark ink pad over the stencil then sprinkled with lumberjack glaze and set it, inked over with the matching distress ink and punched out the hearts after it dried. The die cut pieces were also coloured with distress inks once cut - the pieces from the jacket have to be inked on both sides as you fold back the lapel portions. 

Thanks for calling in. I do hope you'll visit the Tic Tac Toe blog and see the wonderful creations the design team came up with to inspire you.

Cheers

Kerry

JAI #619 - Just Add Masculine

I'm playing along with the Just Add Ink challenge again this week. It was a case of an idea popping into my head that wouldn't leave me alone - I'm sure many of you know exactly how that goes, lol - so of course I gave in to it and headed off to my craft room. 

And here's my card. 

Isn't that background a-maz-ing? Love, love, love the depth you get on 3D embossing folders - this is a Tim Holtz one called Mechanics. I embossed a piece of silver foil card then added black soot distress paint and distress crayon to highlight all that wonderful texture. To me it looks just as real as the actual pieces of metal on there, which are the gauge frame and the 'screws' on the quote chip.

Materials used:

• card - crumb cake, silver foil, real red (all Stampin' Up)
• inks - black soot distress archival (Tim Holtz), crumb cake (SU)
• Tim Holtz products - Mechanics 3D embossing folder, gauge dials, gauge frame, quote chip, Postale die set, memoirs ephemera pack, mini paper dolls, hardware heads, black soot distress paint, black soot distress crayon
• other - Big Shot, sponge daubers, craft foam, Dimensionals, corner rounder punch, Copic markers E31, E55

Of course it's always handy to have masculine cards on hand and there's plenty more ideas to inspire you over on the Just Add Ink blog. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

Stay Curious

The Less is More challenge caught my eye this week.

It's extremely rare for me to make a CAS masculine card so I was quite intrigued and gave it a bit of pondering before I came up with this card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Moth Study (Tim Holtz)
• card - crumb cake, very vanilla, basic black
• Copic markers - E31,E55,YR12,YR24,BG72,BG09
• other - stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, Small Talk stickers (Tim Holtz), Specimen remnant rubs (Tim Holtz), optical lens (Tim Holtz), craft foam, crumb cake ink, MISTI, collage medium matte, sponge dauber, in-colour faceted dots (SU)

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kerry

JAI #602 - Just Choose Two

This week at Just Add Ink we have our 'choose two' option and I was very excited as all the choices are some of my favourite crafty things to do!

In the end I incorporated all three on my mixed media card.

I stamped the image first with oxide ink and clear embossed it so I could do my ink smooshing afterwards. On my background I stencilled using crackle texture paste and the Metropolis stencil, which is a city map - look closely and you'll see the streets, blocks and roundabouts. Although the stamp set has some great sentiments in it, I couldn't resist using this word band and rubbed distress crayon into the etched writing to highlight it more. Lots of distressing and sponging of edges, along with the faux stitched border, give it a great shabby/grunge look.

Materials used:

• stamps - Theories (Tim Holtz)
• card - early espresso, watercolour
• distress oxide inks/sprays - speckled egg, weathered wood, vintage photo
• other Tim Holtz products - word bands, Metropolis stencil, crackle texture paste, picket fence distress crayon
• other - clear embossing powder, heat tool, MISTI, linen thread, craft foam, sponge dauber, stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, early espresso marker, ruler

Be sure to check out what my fellow team-mates have made to inspire you and, as always, we'd love you to join the challenge with us.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kerry 

JAI #598 - Colour Combo

Hi, hi! It's time for another challenge with Just Add Ink and this week we've got a colour combo for you to play with:

Cherry cobbler is (as any frequent visitor will know) my all-time favourite SU colour and I love it paired with pretty much any other shades. This combo made me think 'bloke'; consequently, I've made a blokey card.

I made an ink smooshed background using misty moonlight and Sahara sand, adding in some neutral oxide inks for layering (you can't layer dye inks) and gold embossing the gorgeous cogs stamp from the set once it was all dry. More touches of gold in the 'button' on his collar and the star feature top left, while the banner punched adornment and his collar are cherry cobbler. The cogs stamp is repeated on the background piece of Sahara sand card. I think the sentiment sticker I picked suits this gent perfectly, don't you? He seems to have attitude in spades, lol. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Observations (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)
• card - basic black, watercolour, Sahara sand, cherry cobbler
• other - stitched rectangle die, Big Shot, aquapainter, gold embossing powder, heat tool, gold pearl, water spritzer, Small Talk sticker (Tim Holtz), Idea-ology star adornments (Tim Holtz), frayed burlap and antique linen distress oxide inks, Dimensionals, sponge daubers, antique gold gilding wax, small pennant punch

There's plenty more inspiration for you over on the Just Add Ink blog so do be sure to wander over and take a peek. As always, we'd love to see your own creation in our gallery.

Thanks for dropping in.

Cheers

Kerry

Accept Who You Are - CAS on Friday challenge #224

Welcome! It's time for another clean and simple card challenge with CAS on Friday and this time around our theme is MALE cards.

I have kept my card incredibly simple, allowing my die-cut piece to take centre stage - even the few tiny paint splatters are localised to the sentiment.

Materials used:

• stamps - Theories (Tim Holtz)
• card - basic black, watercolour
• distress oxide inks - candied apple, carved pumpkin, mustard seed, mowed lawn, salvaged patina, wilted violet
• dies - Umbrella Man (Tim Holtz), stitched rectangle
• other - white embossing powder, heat tool, Big Shot Switch, Dimensionals, craft foam, black marker, MISTI, water spritzer, blending brushes, white paint

We'd love you to join us in creating a CAS card for a male someone in your life. More inspiration can be found at the CAS on Friday blog where my fellow team mates have plenty to get your creative juices flowing!

Thanks for dropping by.

Cheers

Kerry

What's Up? You Good?

Giving my ladies a 'shades of blue' theme for a challenge this week gave me the perfect excuse to play for the first time with new distress colour, prize ribbon. 

I decided to see how it pairs with salvaged patina and peacock feathers and must say, I love it! Here's my card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Inquisitive (Tim Holtz)
• card - basic black, coastal cabana, watercolour, basic white
• distress inks/distress oxide inks - salvaged patina, prize ribbon, peacock feathers
• distress oxide spray - salvaged patina
• distress spray stain - picket fence
• other - splatter brush, mini Plus stencil (TH), heat tool, water spritzer, white embossing powder, Dimensionals, blending brush, Copic markers

Hope you're doing good, wherever you may be. Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kerry

The Professor is in the House

In just over a week's time I'm heading to Melbourne to visit with my elder DD. I haven't seen her since July 2019 as she's been overseas - so I'm pretty excited, as you can imagine. I'm making her a special crafty project (made one for younger DD too) and I absolutely MUST get it finished before I go! The thing is, I keep getting distracted by challenges that pop up and spark my creativity, thus spending time on them rather than what I should be doing! I'd told myself that after the challenge card I made on Thursday (the blog post a couple back) I would not do any other challenges...

...and then...

...the folks at Just Add Ink went and posted a new challenge...

And oh my goodness, if that didn't spark off all kinds of ideas...all the lovely Tim Holtz things I have been dying to use...brand new dies that arrived in the mail only hours before the challenge went up and are absolutely PERFECT for this theme...

...well, you know what happened next...

...you know I succumbed, once again...

Sigh.

Here's my steampunk card.

It was tons of fun grunging up all the cogs and gear bits as well as the edges of my blueprint paper and I love the professor in his flying goggles and top hat complete with propeller, lol.

Materials used:

• stamps - The Professor (Tim Holtz)
• card - crumb cake, basic black, whisper white, watercolour, black foil
• distress oxide inks - cracked pistachio, hickory smoke, faded jeans, rusty hinge
• distress paints - cracked pistachio, rusty hinge, walnut stain
• other - Gearhead dies (TH), Mechanical dies (TH), black archival ink, distress embossing dabber, aqua painter, Small Talk stickers (TH), Idea-ology hardware heads (TH), mini glue dots, Dimensionals, chunky rust and patina oxide baked texture embossing powders (Seth Apter), collage medium, mechanical blueprint paper (Etsy)

Hubby will love this when his birthday rolls around. Now, to get back to what I'm SUPPOSED to be doing...

Thanks for calling in!

Cheers

Kerry

For the Guys

I recently had a play day where I just made a whole bunch of distress ink backgrounds, then had the fun later of turning some of them into cards - in this case, masculine cards. Always helpful to have a few on hand.

This one is twisted citron and cracked pistachio with a stamp from Tim Holtz's Theories set.

For this one I used antique linen and vintage photo on my background. Timekeeper, Umbrella Man and Tiny Type Upper dies are all TH. The man is cut from 'leather' cardstock and has great texture.

Here's peacock feathers and hickory smoke. I cut the main panel from the background then matted and raised it. The white dots are grit paste, so they have great texture.

These colours are squeezed lemonade, hickory smoke and black soot. Grit paste again on this one, coloured with squeezed lemonade for the lighter stencilled areas. 

Thanks for dropping by. Stay safe.

Cheers

Kez

Blog Hop #12

Welcome! It's time once again for our team blog hop and this month we were given some gorgeously vibrant colours to play with.

My first offer is a fun birthday card with some sponging. I made the striped edging piece myself using a ruler and the brush tip of the marker. You need a steady hand though, lol. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Itty Bitty Birthdays
• card - whisper white, night of navy
• other - balloon bouquet punch, white gel pen, sponge daubers, ruler, night of navy marker, clear epoxy droplets, ornate frames die, Big Shot, Dimensionals, white embossing powder, heat tool, embossing buddy
• inspired by Simonne Clay

I've always loved blue and green together and night of navy with granny apple green has to be one of my favourite combos. Here's a 'bloke' card that uses this pairing and is clean and simple. I purposefully left off any sentiment because I want it to be one of those cards you can pick up and use for almost any occasion - birthday, Father's Day, retirement, etc. There are three layers to the image, which give it depth and dimension in real life. 

Materials used:

• stamps - A Good Man
• card - granny apple green, night of navy, watercolour
• other - aqua painter, markers, craft scalpel

And now for something quite different - whereas the previous cards had a lot of light space, the next one is a touch more dramatic in the use of the colours. I've done more sponging, this time in a Bokeh background effect. 

Materials used:

• stamps - Perennial Birthday, Butterfly Gala
• card - granny apple green, lovely lipstick, whisper white, night of navy, acetate
• punches - 1/4" circle, 1/2" circle, 3/4" circle, 1" circle
• other - Dimensionals, Well Written thinlits, Big Shot, Stampin' Blends, Stamparatus, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Stitched Seasons thinlits, Butterfly Beauty thinlits, sponge dauber

That's it from me! Click on the links below to move around the hop until you've completed the circle, and I hope you have a lot of fun being inspired to play.

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez

Best Laid Plans...

With a thunderstorm raining down on us this morning it was an excellent excuse opportunity to do some more crafting, so I scoured my Pinterest boards, took out my meagre supplies and got to work.

Materials used:

• stamps - Sailing Home (SU), Ocean Wisdom (Stampendous)
• card - whisper white, crushed curry, cherry cobbler, retired DSP
• other - stitched circle framelit, Big Shot, Marina Sailboats die (Poppystamps), Flying Gulls dies (Frantic Stamper), Dimensionals, mini MISTI, Sahara sand marker

Now that it's finished I've remembered thinking I should use a neutral coloured base so the sails and gulls stand out more. Hmmm, maybe I need to make another one...

Thanks for sailing by.

Cheers
Kez

Setting Sail

This week for class we're doing a Shoebox Swap, something my ladies enjoy - as long as I don't ask them to do it too often, lol! In case you're not familiar with the concept, each person designs and makes a card, then cuts the materials for everyone else to make it and puts all the resources - stamps, inks, card, embellishments, punches, etc - into a box. Then at class we sit and work our way through all the boxes and end up with a host of cards to take home.

It's our last class before I head away and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a marine themed card and introduce them to some new product from the 2019-2020 annual catalogue at the same time. Here's my offering:

I've used a new stamp set, new in-colour inks and new designer series paper. Some background stamping and simple watercoloring make this a quick and easy card to put together.

Materials used:

• stamps - Sailing Home
• card - seaside spray, night of navy, watercolour, Come Sail Away DSP
• inks - seaside spray, night of navy, terracotta tile, soft suede, black StazOn
• other - jute twine, Dimensionals, mini glue dot, aqua painter, Stamparatus, stitched framelits, Big Shot

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kez

Into The Wild Blue Yonder

Hubby has a birthday coming up at the weekend, so naturally a card is called for. The theme was a total no-brainer this year - I'll explain that soon. Here's the card:

Materials used:

• stamps - Ocean Wisdom (Stampendous)
• SU card - night of navy, whisper white
• distress oxide inks - fossilised amber, spiced marmalade, worn lipstick, picked raspberry
• SU ink - night of navy
• dies - flying gulls (Frantic Stamper), marina sailboats (Poppystamps), nested stitched circles (Poppycrafts)
• other - water spritzer, Big Shot, radiating rays stencil (My Favourite Things), ink blender tools, MISTI, ruler, Sahara sand and not quite navy markers, Dimensionals

Why the nautical theme? Yeah, it's good for male cards and yes, hubby has done some sailing in the past. But mainly because...wait for it...we're buying a yacht! Yup, some time in the future (a year or two) we'll be packing up the house and sailing into the wild blue yonder, voyaging when and where we feel like it, seeing something of the world and enjoying a new adventure. Here's a pic of our boat and you'll see why I added some blue marker to the die cut.

She's presently moored in France and we're both heading off there later this month to take ownership and spend a few days on board exploring and looking at what work she needs before we spend more time on her. We're both very excited about it all!

So yeah, I'm pretty sure hubby's really going to enjoy his card!

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

A Vintage Card for a Vintage Man

In class this week we're making the very simple masculine cards I showed you here, but I also wanted to give my ladies something with a 'bit more' to get their teeth into. A perusal of Pinterest gave me some great ideas, so I hauled out some Tim Holtz dies my DH bought me a while ago which had never seen the light of day (*guilty face*) and reached for my texture paste. Here's what I ended up with:

Firstly I coloured my texture paste with 3 drops of re-inker and applied that to my stencil, randomly using a dabbing motion at the end because I wanted a mix of rough and smooth textures. While that dried I cut my cogs, making sure to use the precision mat for delicate dies so they cut sharply and were easy to remove. I stamped the car and coloured it using ink and a blender pen. Some of the cogs have extra layers for dimension and added interest - the ones at the top and side that protrude past the border, plus the bottom right hand one.

Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out and even 'He Who Is Particularly Fussy And Difficult To Please' thinks it's pretty nice.

Materials used:

• stamps - Guy Greetings
• card - basic black, very vanilla, baked brown sugar
• other - stitched oval dies, Big Shot, Tim Holtz cog dies, texture paste, silicone mat, spatula, Dimensionals, stencil, blender pen, precision plate

Hope you get the chance to play creatively today. Thanks for calling in.

Cheers
Kez

Classy Gents

Today I really enjoyed making up some masculine cards for my stash, using one of my all-time favourite elegant colour combos of vanilla and black. SU's Truly Tailored stamp set dovetails perfectly with older SU punches and dies, plus some other dies I bought on eBay.

Materials used:

• stamps - Truly Tailored
• card - basic black, very vanilla
• other - masculine dies (brand unknown), tailored tag punch, moustache die, bow builder punch, large black rhinestones (non SU)

The one with the bow tie makes me think how sumptuous men look in a tux - am I right, ladies?

Thanks for calling in.

Cheers

Kez