It’s week two of school holidays over this way, and I would have to say that it’s been one of the most enjoyable school holidays I can remember.

Despite the fact that we have had a couple of overly crisp weeks in terms of weather, which was promptly followed by rain in large bucket loads, and a bit of a head cold on my part, we have have been enjoying several sleep ins, a bunch of pyjama days, loads of visiting, a number of play dates, a movie and large amounts of pottering at home.

The girls have been absolutely delightful, reveling in each others’ company and being quite honestly, completely delicious!

So I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this relaxed time, which hasn’t left a whole lot of room for blogging, so apologies for that

I have been stamping though, and have spent some time this week playing along with a number of challenges, hence the title of this post.

You may have noticed that the Design Team over at Just Add Ink has been expanded by about double, meaning that we only have to design fortnightly for the challenges.  We are free to play along in our off week though, and this week I decided to do exactly that – leaving it to the very last minute as is my standard OP, but anyway, here it is…

I especially wanted to play along with this one, as it involves Elegant Eggplant – a colour that I need as much practise with as I can get.

Despite needing practise though, I do tend to use Elegant Eggplant very much as a highlight rather than a feature colour, but at least it’s there!

I combined the colour challenge with a sketch from the Clean and Simple blog – a place that I head to on many an occasion when I’m in need of a fabulous yet simple layout

So there you have challenge number one!  Next up I’ll show you a card that I made up for a challenge on my team stamping blog, and later this week the next JAI challenge!

All this is after we head to the park tomorrow followed by dinner with my bestie and her gorgeous family.

It’s a tough life, but somebody has to do it

“Just Add Ink #25″
Stamps: Seeing Spots, Polka Dot,
Paper: Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red, Very Vanilla, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink: Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red
Accessories: 1-3/8″, 1-1/4″ and 3/4″ Circle Punches, Rich Regals brads, Vintage brads, Elegant Eggplant 1/4″ Grosgrian Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This week over at Just Add Ink, we have a sketch challenge for you.  It’s a beauty of a sketch, with so many possibilities, two of which I discovered for myself when I wasn’t sure about the first card I made, so made a second.

Here’s the sketch…

And here’s my first go at it…

The colour combination is a bit left of centre, and came about as a result of having tidied my computer desk and finding a selection of cardstock under the various debris.

This brought about a vague recollection of having seen a picture online somewhere and taking inspiration from the colours in it, then being distracted by some other random cyber stampin’ sighting and forgetting about it until the long overdue desk clean up.

I wasn’t super happy with the result (that will teach me for tidying up!) so I made a second one…

The colours in this one are much more my speed

I also had fun with the scallops around the edge, wanting to something a little bit different.

In fact, let’s make a game of it – you tell me how I did it

And then tell me which card you like better, ’cause I’m still undecided…

“Just Add Ink #21 – Take 1″
Stamps: Pick a Petal, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Summer Sun, Whisper White, Raspberry Tart (just $11.02 until Tuesday!)
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Rose Red
Accessories: Rose Red 1″ Double Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon, Clear Buttons, Soft Subtles brads, Scallop Border Punch, Crimper, Stampin’ Dimensionals

“Just Add Ink #21 – Take 2″
Stamps: Petal Pizzazz, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Paper: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, So Saffron, Whisper White, Bella Rose DSP, Sweet Always DSP
Ink: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: 1/2″ Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This is a FUN one!  Not that all the Just Add Ink challenges aren’t, but I did enjoy making this card, as much as it took a little longer than usual…

So the challenge this week is to Just Add Stitching – real, faux, whichever grabs your fancy.

Here’s what grabbed mine….

Ribbon flowers!  I also added a couple of rows of faux stitching along the top and bottom of the Mellow Moss strip just in case ribbon flowers didn’t technically meet the stitching criteria

Being less of an embroiderer than a stamper, I Googled ribbon flowers to figure out exactly what I needed to do, but didn’t really find what I was looking for.

Then I had a vague recollection that Kristina Werner had done a similar thing ages ago, which I dutifully searched for – and found – in this post that she did back in January 2008.

I actually managed to include a second challenge in this card, as I caught a glimpse of Karen Giron’s Sweet Sunday Sketch #71 and had to have a go.

Here’s the sketch that helped inspire the card…

If you have a window of stamping opportunity and a fairly patient mindset, I would encourage you to give ribbon flowers a go!

Entries for Just Add Stitching close at midnight on Wednesday, so get out your sewing machine or your Mat Pack and Paper Piercer and jump in to the challenge!

Stamps: Embrace Life, Tiny Tags, Sanded background
Paper: Always Artichoke, Pretty in Pink, Mellow Moss, Whisper White, Tea Party DSP
Ink: Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Pretty in Pink and Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Ovals Original Die, 1/2″ Circle Punch, Crafter’s Tool Kit, Always Artichoke Stampin’ Write Marker, Chit Chat rubons (retired),  Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This week over at Just Add Ink, there’s a sketch challenge for you to try!

At first I was very challenged by this challenge as the sketch doesn’t have a great amount of detail, but as I played around with ideas, including a fairly ‘out there’ colour scheme, I ended up loving the result.

Here’s the sketch…

And here’s what I did with it…

In the end I stuck fairly faithfully to the sketch design, using a hunk of ribbon for the wide element across the top and adding my own touch of a greeting in the bottom right.

And did I not mention that the colour combination was a bit mad?!  I can’t tell you where it originated, other than the depths of my brain.  I just started pulling out some colours and spreading them out on my desk.  I ended up using no less than six of them, plus white, in the final project.

I had a particular someone in mind as I made this card and also had some gift packaging to do to go along with it, so in keeping with the colour scheme and overall design, I made a custom gift box:

I’m not going to tell you what’s inside or who it’s for as it should be due to arrive at its destination some time today and I have no wish to spoil the surprise in case the recipient should be checking in.

Here are the box and card together…

Very floral and rather bright and busy, but hopefully it will do the job of bringing some much deserved sunshine via the mailbox of a lovely friend of mine today

Head on over to Just Add Ink to check out the rest of the Design Team’s take on this sketch and have a play along yourself!

“Just Add Ink #15 – Sketch and Gift Box”
Stamps: Petal Pizzazz, Sweet Little Sentiments
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Sweet Always DSP
Ink: Regal Rose, Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss, Taken with Teal, Chocolate Chip,
Accessories: 1″ Double Stitched Chocolate Chip Grosgrain; Small, Large and Scallop Oval Punches; 1/2″, 3/4″ and Scallop Circle Punches; Corner Rounder Punch; Small Star Punch; Rich Regals brads; Stampin’ Dimensionals

So I’m back with my project for Just Add Ink Challenge #9, which is another sketch challenge!

Personally, I’d be delirious if every challenge included a sketch, as I just love having a map of where things go for a starting point and many times will return to a sketch over and over to save myself time and angst when I need a card in a hurry.

So here’s what we got for this week…

And here’s what I turned it into…

The obvious thing to do where the sketch indicated a scalloped edge was to use a punch, but I wanted to do something a little bit different to show how a sketch can be interpreted in something other than the most obvious fashion.

I used a border style stamp from one of my brand new stamp sets out of the up and coming Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue to convey my idea of a scalloped edge and am quite happy that it turned out pretty much how I envisaged it

The other thing I wanted to do, not necessarily specifically with this sketch, but sometime soon, was bust out my Chunky Sprinkles which I got when they were part of the Inventory Clearance Sale a couple of months back, but haven’t shown the light of day to since!

To create the very glittery (and as it turns out, quite heavy!) effect that you can see here, I first stamped a piece of Whisper White with my new stamp set from the up and coming Autumn/Winter Mini Catalogue, then covered the entire stamped piece with Versamark.

I then covered the whole thing with Heat & Stick Powder, blasted it with the Heat Tool, then liberally spread the Crystal Iris Chunky Sprinkles over the top.

Before I returned the excess sprinkles to their container, I pressed down on them with my fingers to ensure maximum stick-ability and to try and avoid them all coming off again as soon as the card was vertical.

It seems to have worked a treat, and also ensured that everything I touched for the remainder of the day was dusted with a chunky sprinkle or seven

If you’d like to play along with the challenge for this week, or see what the rest of the Design Team have come up with, head on over to Just Add Ink then get busy!

Just Add Ink #9 – Sketch Challenge
Stamps: A new stamp set from the up and coming Autumn/Winter Mini catalogue (!)
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Heat & Stick Powder, Chunky Sprinkles, Chit Chat Rubons, Button Bouquet, Stampin’ Sponges

My word these weeks are passing quickly and it’s time once again for a new Just Add Ink challenge.

This time it’s another sketch challenge – love these – and here it is for your inspiration…

This one shouted “scrapbook layout” to me, so after I had asked it to please use its inside voice  (we don’t shout in our house… ) I set about creating a layout according to the guidelines of the sketch.

And here it is….

You will notice that I flipped the sketch around as there was more empty space to overlap the smaller pictures on the left hand side of the large one, but other than that, I stuck pretty faithfully to the original layout.

To the left of the small pictures, you will notice some little tabs…

These were created using the “left-over”  part of the Round Tab Punch as you can see in the following “how-to”:

These tabs have function as well as a decorative purpose, as they actually indicate that the photo’s can be lifted up to reveal the journalling underneath…

The journalling is divided between all three of the lift-up photo’s and following on from the first bit that you can see above, says:

A couple of days after Christmas, we got to work on creating a fabulous ‘do’ for her.  One hour and a very patient 6 year old later, she had a head full of bouncing barrel curls.

Then it was time for the photo shoot…  Sophie hadn’t been too keen on the hairstyling thing, but definitely wanted in on the modeling action…

27 December 2009

To balance the page, I added a little embellishment in the top right, using the Eyelet Border Punch to create a pretty photo corner, then layered on some stamped images and small embellishments to fancy it up a bit more.

Truthfully, the main photo is just a tad pageant-ish for my liking, but since we were just messing about and playing hairdressers, I figured she could get away with being a bit of a diva for the camera just this once

So now it’s your turn!  Head on over to the challenge at Just Add Ink and see what you can turn the fabbo sketch into!

“Just Add Ink Challenge #6 – Stylin’ Layout”
Stamps: Framed with Love, Always
Paper: Close to Cocoa textured, Rose Red, Whisper White, Bella Bleu DSP
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White craft
Accessories: On Board Lots of Letters, Eyelet Border Punch, Round Tab Punch, Flower Fusion and Flower Fusion Too, Button Bouquet, Pretties Kit, White Embossing Powder, Stampin’ Sponges

In the past two days, I have showed you two very different versions of the sketch that is the current challenge over at Just Add Ink.

In case you missed them, you can see them –>here<– and –>here<–.

Here is the third and final (for now!) card that I made using the sketch as a guide.  It’s another of the four baby girl cards I’m currently in need of to send to people I know who have recently been blessed with precious little angels…

To achieve the slightly blurry watercoloured look that you can see in the above close up, I first inked up the stamps (using Markers in the case of the flower), stamped them onto the Naturals Ivory cardstock, then took to the images lightly with an Aquapainter.  It took the defined edges off the images a bit and was exactly the softened look I was hoping for.

The little dotted border was added in as a bit of an afterthought, as I wanted to define the circle a bit more.  I drew the lines and dots free-hand with my Regal Rose Marker, then went over them with the Aquapainter as well.

The stamp set is my current absolute favourite, which is a large statement, I will admit!  It’s called For Everything, and you can find it in the Summer Mini catalogue until the end of March!

I’ll show you another baby project using this stamp set tomorrow, so be sure to tune in for that!

“Just Add Ink Challenge #3 – Take 3″
Stamps: For Everything
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Pumpkin Pie, Pink Pirouette, Naturals Ivory, Sweet Always DSP
Ink: Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie & Rose Red Markers, 1″ Circle Punch, Regal Rose wide grosgrain, Aquapainter, Stampin’ Dimensionals

So I mentioned yesterday how much fun I had with the first sketch challenge over at Just Add Ink…

Here is the second card I made using this very fun and versatile sketch…

It’s very different to the first, which is precisely what I love about sketch challenges – the variety of results that can be obtained from a single “map”, if you will.

To get the watercolour-ish effect in the flowers, I coloured directly onto the gorgeous silhouette image from Upsy Daisy using Summer Sun, Cameo Coral, Rose Red and Old Olive Markers, starting with the lightest colour and working upwards to the darkest.  That way, when you overlap the colours a little bit, it won’t ruin your markers.

Next I grabbed my spray bottle filled with water and with the coloured stamp approximately arms length away (the bottle has a fairly serious spray attachment!) I gave the stamp around 3 spritzes of water, then stamped it onto my cut out circle of Naturals Ivory.

This card was sent off to a lady that has a son a couple of years below my big girl at school.  She turned up at a garage sale I had a couple of weeks ago (a long overdue clear out of toys and clothes that have been outgrown at various stages since my girls were born…  procrastinator much?!) and offered to sell off anything that I had left at the Baby and Kids Market where she had a stall the following weekend.

How nice is that?!  Thanks again Penny

If you haven’t tried the sketch challenge yet, you have until midnight next Wednesday to take part.

Actually you can try the sketch whenever you want, three or more times over as I did if you like, but if you want to enter it in the running to be judged one of the Top 5 or Honourable Entries, you have until midnight next Wednesday.

Get to it!

Just Add Ink Challenge #3 – Take Two
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Trendy Trees
Paper: Naturals Ivory, Old Olive, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink: Rose Red
Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, Summer Sun, Old Olive, Cameo Coral & Rose Red Markers, Very Vanilla wide grosgrain, Button Bouquet,  Stampin’ Dimensionals, yellow embroidery thread (non SU!)

In case I haven’t mentioned how much I am enjoying being part of a design team, I am SO enjoying being part of a design team!

The girls running the show, Danielle and Amanda are super organised and the team as a whole is so friendly and so flippin’ talented!

And I have been stamping much more than usual these past couple of weeks, also partly due to having a brand new kickin’ morning routine that leaves more than five minutes here and there for stamping.

Gotta love routines

The other reason I have been loving stamping so much this past week in particular, is because of the AWESOME challenge the girls came up with for Just Add Ink Challenge #3!

I ended up creating three cards – all completely different- using this sketch and no doubt I will be going back to it again and again, due in no small part to the fact that it lets me use my fabulous Circle Scissors Plus!

LOVING this tool!

Here is my first card, and the one that is also up at Just Add Ink, along with the jaw dropping creations of the rest of the design team…

I have a number of baby cards to make at the moment – four for girls and one baby boy card, plus I have several that I made towards the end of last year that I must show you too.

I think I feel another Baby Card Parade coming on….!

This card was inspired by a thank you card I received from one of the mums at school who had a gorgeous baby girl at the end of the last school term.

I’ll show you the card and gift that I made for her later in the week, once I have got through the other versions of this sketch that I made.

They’re up tomorrow and Sunday!  Stay tuned…

Oh, and don’t forget to have a go at this sketch yourself and enter it over at Just Add Ink.

And one other thing….  when you get tired of tracing around various sized plates, bowls, CD’s and another other circular paraphernalia you have around the house, contact me to get yourself some Circle Scissors.

I promise you won’t be sorry!

“Just Add Ink Challenge #3″
Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Kraft, Pink Pirouette Patterns DSP
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White Craft
Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, Pink Pirouette Striped Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Nothing like leaving things until the last minute, although as it’s my standard MO with pretty much everything, anything else would be out of character

Although in this case unfortunately, it means revealing a surprise that I haven’t yet managed to get into the post, as I’m pretty sure that the person it will eventually grace the mailbox of checks in here several times daily…

You may recall that I offered a little prize for the first person to correctly guess the multitude of stamp sets that I took greeting stamps from to create the anniversary card for my handsome man.

Well this is the prize that I made for them.

The Sweet Sunday Sketch that I based this project on finishes in about an hour 25 minutes from now, so I will be brief with the banter (is that cheering I hear?!), and get right to the point…

Here’s the sketch:

And here’s my version of it:

Instead of a card, I covered the front of a notebook with the sketch and am rather happy with the result.

Notice the sparkly brad?  I didn’t have any coloured brads that would work with the colour scheme that I chose, so I plonked a mini glue dot on the top of a silver brad and dipped it into Pink Fine Supernova Glitter.

See…?

As well as being a sneak peek for the intended recipient, it’s also a sneak peek of a couple of new products that will be arriving with the Summer Mini catalogue on December 1.

They’re not super obvious, but they’re there….!

So check your mailbox some time next week SJ and you’ll find this, along with some other goodies that I’ll pop in so you do get somewhat of a surprise

Or better yet, pop over for a coffee and I can hand it to you in person!

Cass, if you’re reading, I also have a little something for you but will post it here after you have received it 

“Sweet Sunday Notebook”
Stamps: Defining Alphabet, Baroque
Paper: Pink Passion, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Walk in the Park DSP
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Versamark
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, Paper Piercer (Crafter’s Tool Kit), 3/4″ Circle Punch, 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, Circle Scissors Plus, Silver Brad, Pink Fine Supernova Glitter, Mini Glue Dots