Kool Kitty Musings

2019 card challenge - February prompt

Hi folks!

I'm posting the February prompt a little early as I won't be at my desk in the morning.

This month we've got plenty of small details in our pinspiration prompt:

{Pinterest pin}

To get you started, here are a few things that came to mind when I looked at this image:

• The obvious focal point/design element: hearts!
• So many different ways to go with hearts, a background pattern, apertures, embellished hearts, DIY paper cut heart, masked hearts, heart sequins...
• Love and friendship themes. It's not all about Valentine's day - share the love with family and friends.
• Galentines Day - I love the concept of this. I first found out about it in that fabulous US comedy Parks and Rec. Celebrate the girl-friends in your life and send them a Galtentines message on 13th February. :D
• Sequins/confetti/paint splatters - add interest to your card with dimensional accents or splatters of colour.
• Use all or some of the colours in the photo: kraft or grey as your neutral, red, pink tones, and gold. Try and take a break from white backgrounds.
• Foil, glitter, metallic accents
• Pretty floral bouquets
• Diamanté/jewelled embellishments - what about fancy ribbon buckles if you still have those in your stash? A good way to incorporate ribbon in your project.
• Washi tape
• Repeat patterns/random background patterns (a la those lipstick marks!)
• Ikat pattern - if you look closely at the tablecloth it's an ikat design. Something you could possibly recreate with stamps or stencils.
• Try ombré ink blending from pink through red.

I think that's it for now! :)

Happy crafting!

Inky times

Sometimes time spent getting creatively organised is as rewarding as the time you spend working on a project.

That was definitely the case today.

I saw Kristina Werner's new series about Distress Oxide blending combos on Friday and thought, oooh a new way to get more use out of my full Distress Oxide collection and swatch these combinations to try later on.

So I spent some of this afternoon prepping to make some swatches:

I took a stack of Neenah 110 lb in 8.5 x 11 inch sheets.

Cut them in half, then in half again, and half again to get 8 "tag" sized swatches measuring 4 1/4 in. by 2 3/4 in.

I organised my ink chart to work out which colours I'd already used with blending sponges and got the new ones bagged and labelled ready for use.

Then on went the radio and I spent a good time therapeutically recreating Kristina's colour combos.

And here are the week 1 swatches done:

I've labelled the backs with the colours, but have had to redo the two red toned ones as I wanted to have the hole punched in the darker gradient and messed up the first time round. D'oh! It just really started annoying me that I'd made that mistake so out came those colours again!

I use a little x in the top right corner on my ink sheet to keep track of which inks already have blending sponges at the ready, since I currently don't have a storage system where I see all the blending sponges I use at a glance. I'm wondering if coin pocket sheets will ultimately be the best storage system, but am not sure... Anyway, that's a dilemma for another day.

In the meantime I'm looking forward to next week's colour combos already. :D

Another colourful card

I've recently seen a lot of YouTubers recommending the Picket Fence blending brushes that look like cosmetic make-up brushes. Well I thought I'd try a cheaper alternative first to see how I get on and ordered a set on Amazon that looked like it might do the job.

Well, this card is my first time using them with stencils and Oxide Inks.

It's also the first outing for a few products that have been in my stash a while but I've just not had opportunity to use them yet.

I'm sure you can relate!

Stencil: Neat & Tangled - Balloon Duo
Die: Mama Elephant - All Prettied Up
Stamps: Simon Says Stamp - Birthday Bits (r)
Other: Distress Oxides

I started off by stencilling the balloons onto the die-cut panel of Neenah cardstock. I used the 4 smallest brushes in the set to do this, so I could colour 4 balloons at a time. All the colours are listed below.

Once those were dry I went in with the Birthday Bits stamps to add little bows to the balloons as well as the sentiment.

I used a pencil to draw the strings and finished everything off with some rainbow sequins once i'd mounted the panel on my card. The heart paper is from an old collection by Elle's Studio.

Definitely a lot quicker adding colour to stencils with these brushes as you don't need to mask off areas because the brush tips are nice and small compared to foam blending pads.

I'm not sure how these brushes compare to the Picket Fence ones, but they're good enough for me right now. I don't do a massive amount of blending, but these cheap brushes finally got me in the mood to use those balloon stencils.

I do think they are easier to use with Oxide Inks if you want that really bold look. It will take more work to blend with them using the original Distress Inks.

I've done a few darker blended backgrounds since for future cards using the original inks so will see what they're like once assembled to make a card. :D

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Simon Says Stamp - Birthday Bits stamps (r) Shop at: MISC	Mama Elephant - All Prettied Up dies Shop at: EH | SHC	Neat & Tangled - Balloon Duo stencils Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Mustard Seed Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Distress Oxide ink pad - Picked Raspberry Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Spiced Marmalade Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Tumbled Glass Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Twisted Citron Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Distress Oxide ink pad - Wilted Violet Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS	Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI precision stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Cosmetic blending brushes Shop at: AZ
Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

DCM - Colourful

This week over on the Daring Cardmakers blog, the spotlight is on COLOUR!

Another challenge right up my street, so much so that I made a couple of cards with the products I had out on my desk. :)

Paper and chipboard elements: Simple Stories - Dream Big
Stamps: Ink Road Stamps - Snarks and Recreation, Avery Elle - Simple Sentiments
Dies: Mama Elephant - All Prettied Up, MFT - First Place Award Ribbon (r)

I've been looking forward to using the lovely cheerful rainbow colours of this collection from Simple Stories. Just perfect for a birthday card.

I cracked open my Snarks & Recreation stamp set to quote one of my favourite lines from that show - Treat Yo' Self!

 
Anyway, yes Parks & Rec - one of the best shows ever made.

I embossed the main greeting with black embossing powder on a piece of paper from an older Simple Stories collection that had similar colours. Then the other sentiment from Avery Elle was heat embossed with white embossing powder.

A few chipboard elements around the aperture window finished off this look.

Here's the next card I made with the same paper line:

Paper and chipboard elements: Simple Stories - Dream Big
Stamps: Mama Elephant - Scripty Bday, Avery Elle - Simple Sentiments
Dies: Mama Elephant - All Prettied Up

I couldn't leave out this other rainbow pattern, it was just so bright and cheerful and again another piece of colourful paper from Simple Stories worked great as a background to the main sentiment. Really fun!

Make sure you check out the lovely card projects from the design team over on the blog, and play along if you get chance! :D

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Avery Elle - Simple Sentiments stamps Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Mama Elephant - Scripty Bday stamps Shop at: EH | SHC	Ink Road Stamps - Snarks & Recreation stamps Shop at: MISC | SSS	Mama Elephant - All Prettied Up dies Shop at: EH | SHC
MFT - First Place Award Ribbon dies (r) Shop at: MISC	Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH	Versamark ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SHC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS
PTI - Soft Stone cardstock Shop at: MISC	Simple Stories - Dream Big - 3x4 Elements paper Shop at: MISC | SBC	Simple Stories - Dream Big - Be Younique paper Shop at: MISC | SBC	Simple Stories - Dream Big - Chipboard stickers Shop at: MISC | SBC
Pretty Pink Posh - Sparkling Clear Confetti Mix sequins Shop at: EH | SSS	Hero Arts - White embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Wow! - Primary Ebony embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH	Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	EK Success powder tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI precision stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

DCM - Just stamping

Morning!

This week's Daring Cardmakers challenge has been set by Dawn, and it's definitely up my street!

She's set us the challenge of just featuring stamping on our cards.

Yay!

Not so difficult for me it has to be said, but I also needed to kill two birds with one stone, in that I had a die-cut panel ready cut that needed using up so it could move out of my scraps folder:

Stamps: Concord & 9th - Flourish, Avery Elle - Simple Sentiments, October Afternoon - Hometown (r)

First up I stamped grey on grey leaf stems from an old stamp set by October Afternoon I have in my stash. The stamp is just one stem but thankfully I was able to make a uniform background using the Misti.

Then I stamped the lovely florals from the Concord & 9th Flourish set using various inks on the white panel from my stash.

If you like this stamp set, get it quick as it's being retired.

It's one of my favourite large floral sets and I love experimenting with different ink colours using it.

Finally, I stamped and heat embossed the greeting from Avery Elle onto a strip of left-over card and mounted it with foam tape.

Make sure you check out the wonderful stamped projects over on the blog here and play along if you can!

Happy crafting!

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Avery Elle - Simple Sentiments stamps Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Concord & 9th - Flourish stamps Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC | SHC	Distress ink pad - Peeled Paint Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Artichoke ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC
Lawn Fawn - Ballet Slippers ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Lawn Fawn - Bubblegum ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Lawn Fawn - Butter ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC | SSS	Lawn Fawn - Guava ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC | SSS
Lawn Fawn - Hippo ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC | SSS	Lawn Fawn - Raspberry ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Versamark ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SHC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS
PTI - Soft Stone cardstock Shop at: MISC	Hero Arts - White embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	EK Success powder tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI precision stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

DCM - January elemental inspiration

Happy Friday folks!

The Daring Cardmakers blog is back with some new challenges for 2019!

I'm also happy to be back playing along with the team. :D

For our first challenge of the year you need to make a card inspired by 3 elements from this image (colour(s) count as one element):

I was inspired by the mix of blues, grey and neutral tones, the knit pattern, and the hot cup of cocoa.

Apologies but it is a Christmas card – I'm determined to get some cards made throughout the year.

Stamps: WPlus9 - Cookies & Cocoa, PTI - Background Basics: Striped Sweater
Dies: WPlus9 - Cookies & Cocoa, Mama Elephant - All Prettied Up, Simon Says Stamp - Sentiment Labels, Spellbinders - Nestabilities: Standard circles large

It's the first outing for this great muti-step stamp set I got in preparation for my 2018 Christmas card production session. I'd been wanting to use it but hadn't quite managed it in time and I really like the dimensional aspects of these stamps.

You even get a line stamp for adding a highlight to the mug using white ink.

Also I never would have managed the neat background stamping had it not been for my Misti. It's pretty straight even if I say so myself!

Make sure you head on over to the blog to join in. :D

Happy crafting!

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PTI - Background Basics: Striped Sweater Shop at: MISC	WPlus9 - Cookies & Cocoa stamps Shop at: MISC | SHC	WPlus9 - Cookies & Cocoa dies Shop at: MISC | SHC	Mama Elephant - All Prettied Up dies Shop at: EH | SHC
Simon Says Stamp - Sentiment Labels dies Shop at: SSS	Spellbinders - Nestabilities - Standard circles large Shop at: AZ	Distress ink pad - Picked Raspberry Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Hero Arts - Charcoal ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC | SSS
Lawn Fawn - Blue Jay ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC | SSS	Lawn Fawn - Doe ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC | SSS	MFT - Grout Gray ink pad Shop at: SHC	MFT - Insulation Pink ink pad Shop at: SHC
PTI - Blueberry Sky ink pad Shop at: MISC	PTI - Classic Kraft ink pad Shop at: MISC	PTI - Enchanted Evening ink pad Shop at: MISC	Hero Arts - White embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC
Zig - Wink of Stella glitter brush pen - Clear Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	EK Success powder tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI creative corners Shop at: EH | SBC	MISTI precision stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

January card challenge cards

Well, would you believe it? I managed to get some crafting in yesterday afternoon.

Things definitely didn't go quite as I envisaged, but I managed to get 2 cards out of my endeavours - despite being rather distracted by my annual binge rewatch of the BBC adaptation of Emma - love it!

First up this one which looks so much better in real life and not the dodgy winter daylight conditions.

I must confess I'd been wanting to use the Simon Says Stamp Bohemian Lace background stamp I bought last year with embossing powders on a navy background:

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp - Bohemian Lace, Simon Says Stamp - Look for the Miracles, MFT - Big Birthday Wishes
Other: Misti, sequins, embossing powder

I definitely think the background stamp is really effective with heat embossing, but it would be easier to photograph if it was white embossing on navy rather than metallic, but the navy and metallic element from the challenge is what inspired me!

I embossed it in Ranger Liquid Platinum then, so as not to cover up too much of the background, stamped the main sentiment on vellum with Hero Arts gold embossing powder.

The vintage cream card blank has been stamped with leaves from the Look for the Miracles stamp set around the edge just to echo the lace pattern and to tie in the navy colour scheme.

And of course some gold sequins finish it off.

This next card uses the off-cut of the blue/platinum background I'd stamped as I didn't want to throw it away. It didn't go too badly with an old MME collection I have from a few years ago – On Trend 2.

But heavens, that "Be Your Beautiful Self" foiled accent was a real pain to photograph!

Paper and ephemera: MME - On Trend 2 (r)
Stamp: Simon Says Stamp - Bohemian Lace
Other: sequins

I was determined to use as much as I could out of the ephemera pack while I had it spilled out on my desk, so I used two of the oversized flowers behind the greeting, plus a tag as some contrasting pattern peeking through.

I've completely emptied my card box and given all my existing cards to my mum, so this one will go live in there for a bit until an occasion presents itself. :)

Until next time!

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MFT - Big Birthday Wishes stamps Shop at: EH | SHC	Simon Says Stamp - Look for the Miracles stamps Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp - Bohemian Lace background stamp Shop at: SSS	Lawn Fawn - Deep Sea ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC
Versamark ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SHC	Hero Arts - Gold embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Ranger - Liquid Platinum embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH
EK Success powder tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI precision stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

2019 card challenge

Good morning everyone!

Happy New Year!

And welcome to this year's cardmaking challenge.

Hopefully you've recovered from last night's celebrations enough to switch your brain to a creative gear.

This year our challenge is all about being Pin-spired! Yep, Pinterest to the rescue. :D

So here's how the 2019 card challenge will work:

• On the 1st of the month, I'll share a Pinterest prompt here on my blog.
• The prompts will include many elements - you can interpret what you see in any way you like: design elements, colour combos, words, patterns, objects, layout... so many possibilities! Whatever inspiration you take from the image, incorporate it in your card! As always I will try and come up with a list of what immediately springs to mind when I look at the image to give you a few ideas if you're stumped.
• What about Christmas cards? As we reach the end of 2019 the prompts will become more festive and wintry themed, but there's nothing stopping you from creating a festive card from the images posted each month. In fact you might welcome the challenge to get ahead!
• How many cards you make is totally up to you, but the more the merrier!
• All prompts past and present for this challenge can be found here on my blog and you can find them easily by clicking on the 2019 card challenge tag over there on the left.
• Speaking of tags, if you're also on Instagram then I'll be using the hashtag #2019handmadecardchallenge for any posts related to this challenge, feel free to use this tag on Instagram too!
• You can share your cards by linking them up here on my blog - just add a comment to the relevant monthly prompt - or by sharing them in the dedicated challenge thread over in the UK Scrappers card forum.
• If you are ever stumped about the layout of your card, then definitely check out the sketches I pin to my Pinterest board here, hopefully there will be something there to inspire you!
• What if you don't have time to start now or play along every month? No problem! Just dive in and out of the challenge when you feel like it. :D Do as much as you want or as little. It's always lovely to have lots of people sharing their makes, but real life doesn't always allow for crafty time as we well know!

Now with all the formalities out of the way, it's time to get on with the show. Here's your Pinspiration for January!

Design ideas get you started:

• A New Year's card
• Has there been a recent new addition you want to celebrate or a significant year - why not include the important date on the front of your card?
• Take inspiration from the shapes you see: strings of stars, rosettes, balloons, sequins...
• Pattern: there are diagonal stripes, spots, what about a text background?
• Celebration and party theme - balloons, champagne, confetti, streamers, cake - lots you could incorporate or focus on
• Cocktails: if you have anything punny on this theme, now's the time to use it!
• Colours: metallic gold or another metallic shade with navy or black and room for ivory as a neutral colour. Lots of opportunity to use your foiled embellishments and papers.

Happy crafting!