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 #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!!!

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.

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.

Social Stamping | Stellar Birthday

It’s cold and wet here today and perfect weather to finish the preparation for tomorrow’s Social Stamping at the Taste of Dalyellup cafe.

Here’s a sneak peek of one of the card options for tomorrow. It’s a spinner card using the Give it a Whirl Dies and Stellar Birthday stamp set.

These dies in all their stitched glory made it so easy to create cards that whirl and create magic. In this card, the planets change colour as you spin the wheel.

The pieces in the kit allow stampers to create a Balmy Blue or Smoky Slate space scene. Which would you choose?

There’s a choice of sentiment from this stamp set, or you could leave it blank for an all occasion card.

If you can make it to Social Stamping, please send me a message so I can save a kit for you.

Tomorrow will be the last week of Social Stamping as we head into school holidays at the end of the week. Social Stamping will be taking a break during July. Mandy will return in August with more cards for you to enjoy.

See you tomorrow!

Stamp Review Crew | Artistically Inked

Hello Monday! Thanks for joining me this morning as I hop with my Stampin’ Up! friends from around the world for another Stamp Review Crew hop. Today we’re sharing projects we’ve made using the Artistically Inked stamp set.

This was my top pick from the 2021 Annual Catalogue. I couldn’t wait to have the whole suite – the stamp set, the coordinating Artistic Dies, the stunning Expressions in Ink DSP and Expressions in Ink Ephemera Pack.

I’ve used my favourite layout at the moment for these cards – a notebook style fancy fold where you take a standard card size, score at 4-1/8” from the open end and adhere the space between the side fold and the score line to create a solid side piece.

The colours for this DSP are so pretty, so I’ve used Polished Pink and Soft Succulent from the 2021-2023 In Colors to complement the DSP.

Each side contains deluxe gold foiling, which made the choice to add accents die cut from gold foil an easy one.

The stamps in this set have a beautiful watercolour effect. You’ll want to make sure you apply ink carefully – either with a brush or sponge dauber, or smoothing the ink with a sponge or brush after you’ve inked directly from the pad. It makes so much difference to the variation in colour that it’s worth the extra effort!

As well as the floral images, the stamp set contains sentiments you’ll want to use on every card you make!

Have I convinced you yet how necessary this suite is for your collection? Keep hopping to see more ideas on projects you can create using this stamp set. Next blog to visit is the fantastic Jay Soriano.

Have a wonderful week!

Paper Adventures Team Hop | out with the old

Hello! It’s my pleasure to be hopping with my Paper Adventures team today. As we farewell the Jan-June Mini catalogue at the end of this month, we’re taking the opportunity to share favourites that we’re going to miss in this ‘Out With the Old’ theme.

My absolute favourite from the Jan-June mini was the Pretty Perennial bundle. Designed by Dena Rekow in honour of her million dollar sales achievement – I love everything about it!

For today’s projects, I have CASEd the cards from the catalogue using this bundle and added in the Hey Girlfriend stamp set for some fun teen cards.

I didn’t buy this stamp set when the catalogue first came out but I always planned to add it to my collection before it retired. It’s a great one for the long term stash – especially having two girls who are fast growing up!

There’s three different girls in the stamp set – all with a different style, which I love! I think this little lady is my favourite – possibly it’s the glasses, Ra-Ra skirt and the cute hair that have me hooked!

Using Stampin’ Blends, you can colour the girls to theme with any card design and using any skin tone you like. I really love this chart by Jacque Williams which allows you to see each of the combinations and had an option to download the chart and create your own skin colour table. Click here to visit Jacque’s blog.

I didn’t have the exact same products in each of the samples, so I substituted where I needed to which is the perfect way to CASE. One of the definitions of CASE stands for Copy and Selectively Edit.

Next up on today’s hop is the lovely Narelle Simm –

Thanks for hopping with us tonight. Have a lovely weekend!

Just Add Ink #559 | choose two

Hello! Thanks for stopping by for a Just Add Ink – Choose Two challenge. I really love it when these roll around – there’s so much room for creativity. There’s a choice today of stitching, stripes and paper strips.

As always, I really could have used all three elements but settled on stitching (how could I not!) and paper strips for these notebook style fun folds. Using DSP for card fronts on so many of my cards, I’ve often got strips of DSP lying around. This style of fold uses those strips up perfectly.

I’ve used the Flowering Cactus Product Medley – a themed crafting set with a stamp set, dies, DSP, embellishments and twine to inspire cards with perfect coordination.

Both of these cards are 5-1/2” long/wide and 4-1/8” across/down. They are scored at 4-1/8” from the open end to create a square feature panel. The remaining portion is adhered together to create thicker edge.

The paper strips were used for the notepad edge and as an accent on the card front.

This card fold works in both orientations – so of course I had to make both!

The Flowering Cactus DSP is so pretty! With the stamps you can make your own cactus & flower combinations but the DSP includes a few different coloured designs of the cacti. I really love how they’ve coloured them, so I decided to use the DSP versions instead of stamping. And fab bonus for this product medley – the dies that coordinate with the stamp set, also match the DSP. These images can be cut using dies!!!

The stitching element on my card is the pretty tag. These are a hidden gem of the 2021 Annual Catalogue. They don’t have a specific stamp set to match, so they only appear in the dies section at the back of the catalogue. You get several sizes of two different tag shapes. A total love for me!

This is the inside of the card. You can see that once you adhere the scored panel on the edge, the usable space in the middle is 4-1/8” square. I’ve layered more of the fab DSP with a Basic White writing panel.

If a combination of stitching, stripes & paper strips inspires you this week, we’d love for you to join us over at the Just Add Ink blog and share your creation.

You can also see which two the design team chose for their cards this week. Don’t forget, that although the design team primarily share cards, any inky project is welcome as a challenge entry – 3D creations, scrapbook pages, memory keeping, journalling. Share your talents with us!!! We’d also love for you to leave us a comment to say hi or share with us your challenge theme suggestions.

Have a fabulous weekend!