Category: Creative Expression

Fun with Colour INKspiration

The colour challenge this week with the Facebook group Colour INKspiration #150 was a challenge 😊 because I had completely run out of Calypso Coral cardstock, so I brought that colour in with the sentiment.

The colours for this challenge are…

Colour INKspiration is a Facebook group for Stampin’ Up! enthusiasts, you can also visit them on Pinterest.

Fun with foil

I have been playing with my Gemini Foilpress machine, I got some new foil dies and got out my inks and blending brushes. I love this card! I foiled the flower then blended three colours over the top and wiped the ink off the gold with a tissue. I can finally say I am feeling more comfortable with foiling 😊

CHALLENGES

I’ve had a busy weekend creating cards for some challenge blogs that I have recently found and started entering my cards into. I love it! It is stretching me and my creativity in a way that I didn’t expect. I am using colour combinations I would not have thought of, creating from sketches which I have enjoyed for quite a while now, playing tic tac toe with techniques and embellishments, and using old rubber stamps on wooden blocks that I’ve had for years!

These are the cards I created this weekend, three of which will go into three challenges, Just Add Ink, TGIF Challenges, and Freshly Make Sketches.

Watercolour wash

I did something today that I haven’t done for ages and realised how much I enjoy it, even though it’s messy and left my beautiful white table looking like it had the measles! I used to do watercolour wash on my cards and ink splattering a lot and will do more of it again. When I find an ink splatter shield 😂

Create your own kind of beautiful

I first heard this saying a few years ago when I was struggling to make sense of my life. When I created this blog for my handmade cards, I adopted the saying as my tagline, because I believe in it so much. I never believed myself to be beautiful or creative, that was a term for real artists not for me a mere cardmaker, who would copy cards I saw in magazines. What I didn’t realise then was that the cards I made were never like the originals, I had made them my way, using the supplies I had, and chose the colours and papers I liked. They were my creations.

I had been making cards, teaching card making, and even selling the cards I made at the local florist, but still did not believe I was talented or creative.

When I came across this quote from Coco Chanel, it all began to make sense. “Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.” I’d like to add to that now, beauty begins the moment you decide to be, to know, to believe, and to trust who you are, who God has made you to be, and what he has put in you. And he has given me a love for paper and creating beauty with it.

I hope this inspires you to create your own kind of beautiful!

Love

An early morning encounter

I have trouble falling asleep, often. So what else could I do than craft?! It’s quiet so I don’t disturb anyone, and it gets my mind off what is keeping me awake.

I haven’t used my gel plate for ages so got that out around 2:00 this morning. What a messy endeavour! But I am in love with how this card came out. (I didn’t enjoy the clean up at that time of the morning though LOL and my husband said he heard the hot tap running for a while).

I finished it off this morning and kept it simple as I didn’t want to cover it up. So a tired but happy crafter today 😃

Mixing old and new

We all know this in relation to weddings, something old to go with the beautiful new dress. I have been looking through old cards, stamps and pictures, and feeling quite nostalgic so decided to use some of the old stamps with some new papers. This set, Baroque Motif, was always a favourite of mine. The paper I used is from the Abigail DSP collection.

Happy Birthday Cluster

I wanted to create a design to highlight the new beautiful Wonderful World DSP currently being offered in Stampin’ Up!’s Sale-a-bration this season. I also used the Happy Birthday stamp from the Calming Camellia set, and fussy cut the flower cluster from the DSP.