Part two of my challenging week – this time set by Narelle, a member of my ‘A Klass Act’ stampin’ team, on our online forum.

Narelle issued a challenge to use three different shades of the same colour – a monochromatic type scheme – for which I chose to focus on blues, specifically Brocade Blue, Brilliant Blue and Night of Navy…

It looks for all the world as though the focus is out on my camera in this photo, and truth be told, it may just be, but the blur is kind of magnified by the shadow stamping effect that I used with two different colours of blue ink…

This card gave me an opportunity to use some of the soon to be retired colours of cardstock in my stash – a stash that has been relocated to my stamping desk, right in front of my face so as to remind me that I really must use them as much as I can in these next few weeks.

Some of the retiring colours are already sold out, and many more are heading out the door in large numbers, so if you have yet to load up your stores with cardstock, ink and refills that are on the fond farewell list, be sure to get in touch to order some soon

“Upsy Daisy Blues”
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Sanded
Paper: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Brilliant Blue, Very Vanilla
Ink: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy
Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Brocade Blue 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

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, Just Add Ink brings you another colour challenge, and what a cracker it is!  The lovely Bronwyn Eastley – fellow DT gal – came up with this one…

I can honestly say that left to my own devices, I would likely never have combined these colours in a single project, but that’s why they call it a challenge, right?!

Here’s my contribution…

Saved by my DSP collection

All I did was punch out 1-1/4″ circles from whatever Designer Series Papers that I could find with the relevant colours.

A bit of embellishing here and there (quite literally) and I was all done.

Hop on over to Just Add Ink to check out some fabulous creations with this combo and while you’re there, have a go for yourself

Just Add Ink Challenge #22
Stamps: Seeing Spots
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Bella Rose DSP, Cottage Wall DSP
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Sunny Day Simply Scrappin’ Kit, 1-1/4″  and 1-3/8″ Circle Punches, Circle Ice Rhinestone Brads, Boho Blossom Punch, Button Bouquet, Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot grosgrain ribbon

So I have only just managed to make good on my promise to be back “later today” (at least according to my West Australian clock), but here I am with my entry for this week’s Just Add Ink challenge.

This week it’s another colour challenge for you and it was a large challenge for me as it involves Elegant Eggplant, which I can just never seem to make anything decent with!

Here are the colours…

And here is my contribution, that I’m not at all sure about, so please be kind…

As it turns out, the greatest challenge for me was finding a sheet of co-ordinating DSP to go in the background of the photo, but as you can see, that was a challenge that I didn’t manage to meet.

I got out my Circle Scissors Plus for this one, which I must do more often, as I am rather partial to a circular element on a card, but quite often forget to include one.

I also dusted off Garden Whimsy for the first time in ages, which is another thing I try to do with challenges – incorporate a recently neglected stamp set at the same time.

So there you have it, a very bright and very challenging combination of colours.

The challenge for the week closes at midnight this coming Wednesday, so if you’d like to have a go at these colours for yourself, pop on over to Just Add Ink and play along!

Some extra stampin’ tips for you to try….

• Add some visual interest by popping your feature images up on Stampin’ Dimensionals and extending them outside their “frame” as I’ve done with the butterflies

• Tone on tone stamping – as I’ve done with the curly stamp with Elegant Eggplant ink on the Elegant Eggplant background – fills a bare space, but without being too busy and ‘in your face’

“Just Add Ink Challenge #19″
Stamps: Garden Whimsy
Paper: Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Taken with Teal, Melon Mambo
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Taken with Teal, Melon Mambo
Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Melon Mambo Polka-Dot grosgrain, Scallop Edge Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Over at Just Add Ink this week, we have a colour challenge for you!  I chose to bust out my Aquapainter and Watercolour Paper this week, hence the title of my post.

Here are the colours…

And here is my card…

I had no idea where I was going with this, I just sat and watercoloured while my small girl played Dora games next to me on the computer.

Aside from the occasional utterance of some Spanish phrase or other from the little one, we sat mostly in companionable silence doing our thing.  Such a nice thing to be able to do

If I’m not back before Sunday, which at this stage is a fairly likely scenario, Happy Mother’s Day to all the lovely mums out there.  May your day be filled with lovely things that hopefully don’t include a bunch of kitchen appliances from the department store catalogues that always appear at this time of year.

Seriously, can we not have something frivolous and whimsical instead of white and practical for Mother’s Day?!

Although having said that, I’d change my tune quite happily for a Thermomix….

“Just Add Ink Challenge #16″
Stamps: Embrace Life, Trendy Trees
Paper: Watercolour Paper, Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Pretty in Pink, Sweet Slumber Specialty DSP
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Soft Suede, Ruby Red, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Versamark
Accessories: Soft Suede Polka Dot Ribbon, Button Latte, White Embossing Powder, Corner Rounder Punch, Aquapainter, White Gel Pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Kitchen String

We’re up to week 10 over at Just Add Ink and we have another fun challenge for you to play along with.

This time, you need to put something together using this delightful palette….

When I saw it, I had thoughts of submitting my blog header as my challenge entry, as it pretty much fits perfectly, but given that none of it is Stampin’ Up! and it doesn’t involve any ink, I thought better of it and moved on…

I love the soft, prettiness of this combination, but my own stamped creation is somewhat busy and loud as it turns out…

I think it’s the combination of the stamped upper panel and quite detailed DSP at the bottom that sort of shouts at you…

What do you think?

For the top part, I repeatedly stamped the decorative scrolly-type stamp from  Framed with Love out of the soon to be defunct Summer Mini catalogue, turning the stamp each time so as to fill the space with a fairly regular and tight fitting pattern.

You probably determined for yourself that the Stamp-a-ma-jig is pretty much a must-have for this  part…

See that Close to Cocoa 1/4″ Grosgrain Ribbon across the centre…?   Well it’s not actually Close to Cocoa at all, or at least it wasn’t when it started out.  It’s Whisper White that has simply been coloured in with the brush end of my Close to Cocoa Stampin’ Write Marker.

How cool is that?!

Aren’t you just so glad that you popped in today and had your ribbon colour possibilities extended in direct proportion to the number of Stampin’ Write Markers that you own?

If you own every colour, then a roll of Whisper White 1/4″ Grosgrain and some Very Vanilla in the 5/8″ will enable you to custom make your own ribbon colours in varying widths as well!

You’re welcome

The main stamped image is another from Framed with Love, as is the long skinny stamp that stretches across the card underneath.  I wanted to get the most out of the one stamp set, and aside from the greeting out of Vintage Labels, managed to stick to just the one stamp set.

Check out the neat and perfect cutting out in this shot (whilst trying to avoid the less than stellar stamping if you would….)

The perfect border here is due less to my scissor wielding talents, and more to the fact that I now own a very exciting piece of die-cutting machinery plus a die that matches this stamp perfectly!

It’s coming up in less than a week’s time with the amazingly extensive Autumn/Winter Mini catalogue, and without going into too much detail, I can tell you that it starts with “B” and ends in “ig Shot”, so deduce from that what you will

I have another card to show you tomorrow that uses the same decorative scrolly-type stamp in a similar way, but in an entirely different colour combination, so pop in over the weekend to check that out.

In the meantime, head on over to Just Add Ink to check out the amazing array of projects inspired by this combination of colours, and play along for yourself if you like!

Oh, and don’t forget that both the Summer Mini Catalogue and Sale-a-bration are all done and finished come April 1, so if you *need* anything out of either of those catalogues, you’d best be contacting me quick smart!

Just Add Ink Challenge #10 – Colour Challenge
Stamps: Framed with Love, Vintage Labels
Paper: Cameo Coral, Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa, Kraft
Ink: Cameo Coral, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Vintage Brads, Whisper White 1/4″ Grosgrain (coloured with Close to Cocoa Marker), Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ dimensionals

It’s week seven over at Just Add Ink, and this time around it’s another colour challenge – a most challenging one for me that gave me a good old shove out of my comfort zone.

Here are the colours:

They look quite delightful and Springtime-ish here, but Bold Brights have never been a strong point for me, and having to create anything with such bright colours, quite frankly, ‘frightens my life out’ as my girls would say.

I will admit to a false start with this challenge that never made it into a complete card.   I wasn’t happy with the stamped panel that I had created, so that was cast aside in favour of this…

The Flower Fancy stamp set that I have used here is usually one that I reserve for colours such as Rose Red and Always Artichoke, so inking up those flowers in Pink Passion and the leaves in Green Galore was quite a stretch.

The panel of Whisper White that you can see at the bottom of the card has been scored at random intervals using my bone scorer and paper trimmer.

To get this effect, you simply insert the cardstock into your paper trimmer as though you were going to cut it, but instead run the tip of the bone scorer down the cutting groove.  It’s one of those great techniques that adds a little something extra to a project, but without requiring any fancy tools or equipment.

Not that I have anything against fancy tools or equipment – heck knows I own a lot of those (and have another en route as we speak….!) – but sometimes it’s nice to be able to achieve simple but effective results using nothing other than what you have in your basic stamping kit.

Don’t you agree?

I’d love to see what you can come up with using these colours – mostly so I can CASE some awesome ideas for myself – so make sure you head on over to Just Add Ink and play along!

“Just Add Ink Challenge #7″
Stamps: Flower Fancy
Paper: Pink Passion, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White
Ink: Punk Passion, Green Galore
Accessories: So Saffron Marker, Large Oval Punch, Eyelet Border Punch, Chit Chat Rubons, Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

It’s week four over at Just Add Ink!  Isn’t it amazing how time flies when you’re having fun?

And judging by the number of entries in the challenges each week, a lot of you are having fun with the various assignments too!

For your stampin’ pleasure this week, it’s a colour challenge…

As many of you would know, I am a huge fan of colour challenges, and if not for them, it’s unlikely that I would use more than a handful of colours EVER!

In this case, Rose Red, Kraft and Whisper White get very frequent workouts at my stampin’ desk.   Sage Shadow a little less frequently, but I love it still.

More Mustard I also like, but am quite often stumped as to what to put it with, so it frequently stays in the ‘too hard basket’, while I move onto other colours that I’m more comfortable with.

For this reason, I was very happy to be challenged with it this week, and here’s what I came up with based on this set of colours….

The smokey effect of the flowers was achieved by stamping onto Kraft cardstock using Whisper White Craft ink, then dabbing Stampin’ Pastels over the top.  Except for the flower petals – those are just the plain ink.

I stamped the image onto two separate pieces of Kraft and cut the flower images out of the second one, mounting them on top of the first images using Stampin’ Dimensionals to give the card more dimension and realism.

The rest is pretty self explanatory, with some punching, some ribbon, a rub-on and a whole lotta layering to finish it off.

One thing that I will point out since we’re talking colour, is that you will notice that although there are five different colours used in this card, they’re not used in equal proportions.

In order not to have all the colours competing with each other, and to achieve a good balance, you want to make sure not to use the same amount of each colour, but use a slightly lesser proportion each time you add a new colour in.

You will notice in my card that Kraft is the colour that you can see most of, followed by Rose Red, Whisper White, Sage Shadow, then More Mustard.

It’s a rule I follow with all of my stamping and creating and it seems to have served me well.   I can always tell when I haven’t quite got the proportions right, as I won’t be happy with the result until I add some colour here or subtract some there.

Give it a try and let me know how you go!  I’d love to hear if this little tip has helped you out

“Just Add Ink Challenge #4″
Stamps: Inspired by Nature
Paper: More Mustard, Whisper White, Kraft, Sage Shadow, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink: Whisper White Craft, Rose Red
Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, Rose Red double stitched grosgrain ribbon, Whisper White taffeta ribbon, Chit Chat Rub-ons, Stampin’ Pastels, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stampin’ Sponges

It’s official!  The newest and freshest challenge blog around is here and it’s all Australian!

One of the most exciting things for me about this news is that I am on the design team, meaning that I will be taking part in ALL of the challenges and doing general design-y team-y stuff!

Can you tell I’m a little bit new at all this?!

The other thing that it means is that with weekly challenges, I will be updating my blog at the VERY least, once per week with my design team challenge entries, which is exactly the kick in the pants I need to get on here more often.

The plan is that I will be updating more frequently than that, but working on bare minimums, weekly is the current promise

So,  want to know what the kick-off challenge is…?

Here’s my creation based on these colours…

“Friends Forever Card”
Stamps: Framed with Love
Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron Patterns DSP
Ink: None
Accessories: Chit Chat Rub Ons, Rose Red Wide Double Stitched Grosgrain, Flower Fusion, Rich Regals Brads, 1-1/16″ Hole Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Want to check out out what the rest of the team came up with and enter your own creation?

Head over to Just Add Ink —>HERE<— and go for your life!

Oh, and another reason you might want to check it out….

GO!  RUN!  ENTER!

That is all.

Despite the fact that I absolutely LOVED so very many of the products in the soon to be defunct Spring Mini catalogue,  I don’t seem to have managed to blog about  them much.

I will be attempting to rectify that in the coming days as we wave a – possibly final – goodbye to the products that have graced us this Spring.

One of the things that screamed ‘Springtime’ most deafeningly to me has been the Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper.  The colours are so very fresh and pretty and Spring-y!

I thought it was about time I shared some more scrapbooking with you, so here is a layout I completed a little while ago featuring some of this gorgeous DSP and my equally gorgeous small girl.

I took the photos on a warm-ish Winter’s day in the park across the street from our house while Soph was intent on checking out the little pink flowers that were dotted throughout the grass.

The journalling reads:

Never happier than when you are communing with nature…  Sweet Sophie, my little garden girl

I used this sketch as a starting point for my layout and used a t-shirt of Sophie’s as the colour inspiration.

I’ve always loved the vintage-y look of this shirt and I think the colours are gorgeous together.

I zoomed in so you could see the beautiful detail in the image on the front of the shirt.

This happily also spares you from the assorted wrinkles and creases that are in abundance due to the fact that I don’t iron.  It takes away too much time from more enjoyable endeavours, so I have struck it from my list of ‘things that require my attention’.

I highly recommend it.

Stay tuned for some more projects involving Spring Mini stuff in the next little while, and to ensure that YOU get your hands on your must-have Spring Mini products, contact me today to get it while you still can…

“Garden Girl Layout”
Stamps: Jumbo Outline Alphabet
Paper: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette, Walk in the Park DSP, Bella Rose DSP
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose and Riding Hood Red re-inkers (to colour the Pretties)
Accessories: Pretties Kit, Button Bouquet, Scallop Edge Punch, Old Olive Marker (for journalling)