Paper Adventures Birthdays 2021

Hello! I know it’s all about Christmas this week, but I’m finding myself jumping between Christmas and birthdays since many of my friends and family celebrate birthdays in December. It certainly leads to some varied stamping!

This year for my Paper Adventures team birthdays, I decided on a theme (yellow) and gift (themed stamping block & Citrine stone) in January and then ran with it for the whole year. It was an attempt to get the packages delivered to letterboxes in the same month as birthdays as these things tend to get away from me!

Across the year the cards and packaging were different which added an element of creativity for me throughout the year. I’ve already shared a few – watch for the yellow, black & white creations that have popped up throughout the year.

This is the final team card share of the year…

The Meadow Dies have been a favourite of mine throughout the year – the foliage making for a pretty embellishment to any card.

The Kraft Gift Boxes – featured in the July-December 2021 Mini Catalogue is a beautiful way to package cards & gifts. I added similar elements to the card for a coordinated finish.

Happy birthday to all of the lovely stampers in our Paper Adventures team! I’m busy thinking of a theme for next year…. Is it time for pink?

Just Add Ink #583 | sketch

Hello! And apologies to my email subscribers who just received a blank email in their inbox! Though in the midst of the mass marketing of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas Frenzy type emails, I wonder if anyone is brave enough to check their emails at the moment!!! December has snuck up on me and I’m caught between loving all action of the festive season and paralysed in the chaos of it all!.

In better late than never style, today’s post is another sketch for Just Add Ink Challenges. The design team have created wonderful samples with the elements of the sketch and we can’t wait to see what you create. You can see the DT projects on the Just Add Ink blog as well as share your creation in the gallery. Click here to visit.

I flipped the sketch 90 degrees to create a landscape card using the semi-circle as the bee hive to create a sweet little card for a gorgeous friend’s ‘bee-day’.

This card got started because I’ve been itching to use those cute little bumblebee trinkets from the Annual Catalogue. Which led me to a “bee”-day and the bday/birthday pun. The stamp & die sets are an eclectic mix from my stash including the Stitched Greenery Die (Annual Catalogue), Christmas Cheer Dies (Mini Catalogue), Shooting Star Bundle (retired) and Happiest of Birthdays stamp set (Annual Catalogue). It was fun to pull it all together for a bee theme.

I carried through the gold from the trinkets to the inside of the card by edging the the writing panel with gold leaf (Annual Catalogue).

The card design is a take on the notebook fancy fold. I’ve made the bound side the top edge and add it all to a flat mat as the bottom piece.

I hope you can join us for this challenge!

Just Add Ink #581 | legs

What a cracker of a theme we have for you this week at Just Add Ink. It’s so brilliant, I can’t believe we haven’t done it before – Just Add … “legs”! Thanks Lou for the great inspiration! There’s so many options – lots of legs (like on a spider), regular legs on an animal, people legs or maybe table legs!

I must admit, I’ve been a little (well, quite a lot) slow going this year for Christmas cards, so I felt it was time to let the inspiration motivate some festive creativity.

Reindeer are my favourite Christmas motif, which work out well as there is always a fun reindeer option in the July-December catalogue.

The Deer Builder Punch punches out the sweetest prancing reindeers – and if you are as good at collecting (… hoarding) paper as I am, you may also have the gorgeous Peaceful Prints DSP from the Sale-A-Bration catalogue that ran in conjunction with the mini catty earlier in the year.

The punch can be used to cut out the reindeer facing right, but it only cuts one way, so the reindeer facing other way needs to be cut by hand. Sometimes you can see through the DSP when you hold it up to the light and cut that way, but these deer are backed by a very solid red & black checkered print. So.. I used the negative to line up where the outline would be, tacked it in place with removable tape and the fussy cut around the reindeer, using the negative punched image as a guide. It worked so well that I’m not sure I’d be able to tell which one was punched and which was was cut!

We’d love for you to join us for this challenge with us and share your ‘leggy’ projects in the gallery. Visit the Just Add Ink blog to up load your creation.

Happy crafting!

Just Add Ink #579 | choose two

It’s a sparkly theme this week for our Choose Two challenge at Just Add Ink. Will it be foil, glimmer or shimmer for your masterpiece?

This was another Choose Two challenge where I could have chosen all three! I ended up settling on foil and shimmer elements.

I wanted lots of layers and frills in this card – it’s for a special birthday recipient. It’s always a tiny bit of extra pressure when you’re making a card for someone who makes cards themselves!

Products:
– Picture This Dies
– You’re a Peach DSP
– Dressed to Impress stamp set
– Forever Flourishing Dies
– Frost White Shimmer Paint
– Blushing Bride Metallic Ribbon
– Stampin’ Blends
– Love You Always Foil

Please share your bling project made using two of the options (foil, shimmer, glimmer) with us on the Just Add Ink blog to join the challenge. We love seeing what you create and choose one winner and two honourable mentions each challenge.

Have a great weekend! I hope it involves good weather, good crafting or both!!!

Just Add Ink #577 | photo inspiration

This week’s for Just Add Ink, we’ve got an irresistible photo inspiration to get you started on your weekend crafting. Choose whatever from this photo that gets the creativity flowing – the colours, a nature theme, water droplets…. It’s up to you!

Be sure to share your projects with us on the Just Add Ink blog – click here to visit and add to our gallery.

I was inspired by the colours of the leaves – they reminded me of the variation of colour we get in native Australian leaves when they start drying out. Somehow, my tangent of thought decided I would collect some of these pretty leaves and use a punch to cut them into little hearts. Natural confetti is becoming very popular at weddings to throw as an environmentally conscious option.

I used the hearts in a shaker style card, elaborating on the Australian native theme with papers from Uniquely Creative.

I love the hearts in this card – I couldn’t paint that level of colours & detail!

Have a wonderful weekend of crafting and other adventures. The weather here is just starting to warm and I’m looking forward to spending more time in nature. Perhaps more leaf collecting!!!

Just Add Ink #575 | colour combination

Hello! How’s your week been? It’s school holidays here in WA and we’ve just returned from a glorious holiday in Denmark – about 4 hours from our home in Bunbury. We stayed at a caravan park with a fantastic kids playground and jumping pillow – the main requisite for the mini Papercrafts!

It’s time for another Just Add Ink post – this week it’s a colour combination.

These colours are made to go together with the brightness of the Polished Pink and sweetness of the Soft Succulent with gorgeous gold accents. It was a good push for me to use one of the brighter pinks – as I tend to stay with the softer pink tones.

I made a card for one of our design team members who has, after many years of being part of the JAI team, stepped back from stamping for a while.

I love the Handmade for You stamp set and it’s suitability for my crafty friends! I’ve paired the “Craft Queen” sentiment with a greeting from the Sweet Farewell stamp set.

The flourish in the background was made using the watercolour stamp from the Artistically Inked stamp set. To make it gold, I stamped in Versamark, covered in Heat & Stick powder – melted with my heat tool and then quickly layered with Gilded Leaf flakes. I removed the excess with a dry Stampin’ Sponge and the effect left by the watercolour style stamp is magical!

The finishing touches were some Polished Pink and gold gems. I can’t get enough of gems on cards at the moment! What’s your current crafting love? Can you work it into a project using a pink-green-gold theme? We’d love for you to share it with us on the Just Add Ink gallery. Click here to visit the JAI blog.

Have a lovely weekend!

Just Add Ink #573 | sketch

Hello! It’s been a wonderful break but I’m excited to be back to sharing on my blog and Instagram again. I’m going to continue to do most of my sharing via Insta – so jump over there to follow for all the cards I share!

It’s fitting that my first blog post back after my break is a Just Add Ink challenge – they are my favourite inspiration! Today it’s a sketch – a great weekend crafty adventure!

I made my first Christmas card of the season using my favourite suite – Whimsy & Wonder.

How cute are those trees! “‘Tis the season” is from the Christmas to Remember stamp set.

If you make a project using our sketch as the inspiration, share it with us on the Just Add Ink gallery – click here to visit the blog.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Out of Office | 2021

Hey followers! It’s time for this little blogger to take a break. I’m ok and everything is fine! After almost 10 years of classes and 8 years of blogging, it’s time for another rest & recharge. I’m pressing pause on the blog and stamping classes. Both of these activities have a significant unseen amount of time that goes on behind the scenes.

I may add cards every now and again on my Instagram – it’s a much quicker and easier way to share. You can find me on Instagram @kellykent.

Stay safe, keep being creative and find joy in the things that bring true happiness.

CLEAR CASE INSERTS | 2021 In Colors

After almost two months of using the 2021-2023 In Colors, I can confirm that I love them! Soft Succulent is definitely my favourite, followed closely by it’s partner in crime Evening Evergreen. What’s the most used of these 5 pretties in your craft room?

For many years now I have created free printable inserts for the Stampin’ Up! clear cases to store your In Color products. You can see the archive of previous inserts by clicking here. With the standard cases as the only one left to buy now and a range of specialty range of storage solutions available in the catalogue, I wasn’t going to continue to create new inserts. But, I hear from your messages and emails asking me when I’ll have the clear case inserts for the new In Colours available, that many of you are still storing your markers and ink refills in these cases.

So, by popular demand, click on the link below to download the pdf document –

These are available for you to download and print free of charge and are for personal use only.  You are welcome to share a link to this page with your stamping friends & customers.  Please do not upload these files to your own blog, Facebook page/group or any other online source.

These are designed using A4 paper sizes.  For correct printing, ensure ‘actual size’ in printing options.

Hidden Gem| Stitched Greenery

Stampin’ Up! do a great job of displaying their gorgeous products but there’s a few hidden gems in the 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue that you may not notice on your first flick through. One of these hidden gems is the Stitched Greenery Die plate. It’s a single die that doesn’t cut a shape, but instead embossing a stitched leaf pattern that is just gorgeous.

The colours and styling of these cards were inspired by a card made by Karen Young. You can see Karen’s card by clicking here.

I made two versions – a simpler version of Karen’s using the Artistic Die and a different version using the Layering Hugs Dies. We made the hugs version in today’s Social Stamping class and it was a big hit!

I’ve added in a sentiment from the Artistically Inked stamped set for the card above and one from the Sending Hugs stamp set for the card below.

The flowers are from the Sweet as a Peach stamp set, embellished with Basic Rhinestones. The three sizes are perfect for the three different sized flowers. No need for fussy cutting, there’s a die in the Peach Dies that cuts them out!

If you need to add any hidden gems to your next order, you can find the full range in the online store. I love being able to search, scroll and browse through the categories, making it easy to find all your favourites. Click here to shop or browse.