Kelly's Stamping Friends Blog Hop - Goodbye Special Reason, sniff sniff

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Hello, good evening beautiful crafty friends ~

Welcome to a special blog hop celebrating Kelly's five year anniversary with Stampin' Up!  Kelly has invited a bunch of her fabulously talented friends to share her happy event, and I'm super excited to be a part of it.

If you're following the hop in order you will have arrived from the lovely Martha Groeger.  If not, you can start here and continue hopping by using the Next button at the bottom of each post.  If you get lost or come across a broken link just head over to Kelly's blog for a full list of participants.

On the cusp of a brand new Annual catalogue launch, and the end of the current Occasions catalogue I just had to use Special Reason before it officially retires.  It is probably goodbye for many demos, but I love this stamp set so much (yep pretty late to the party on this one) that I'll be keeping it a whole lot longer.

What doesn't show up in the pic is all the gorgeous shimmer on the flower :(

I've used a Very Vanilla card base, a little Urban Underground dsp, a strip of Copper foil and a fun technique to colour my bloom and leaves - see tutorial shared by Alisa Tilsner here.  In keeping with Kelly's hop theme of celebration and happy I chose a sentiment that makes me happy - my friends mean the world to me and make me very happy! I love the funky fonts and sentiments from the Oh Happy Day Card Kit (which is carrying over to the new catalogue - yay). Ink colours are Soft Sky & Pacific Point, Pear Pizzazz & Old Olive.

Thank you, Kelly for inviting me along to celebrate your stampin'-versary!  I am so lucky to work alongside you on a couple of design teams, and to have met you in person at On Stage Live in Brisbane (we do live on opposite sides of the country after all).  You are amazingly talented, such a kind soul and a lovely stamp friend - congratulations on this milestone and best wishes for five more fabulous years.  See you back here at the ten year mark for another hop? Lol.

Now click on the button below to see what beautiful creation/s Sandra Collett is sharing with us. Enjoy the rest of the hop!

Patrice x

Just Add Ink #361 - Just Choose Two

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Happy Friday crafty friends ~

Kelly gave us a choice of two for the new Just Add Ink challenge this week - Flowers or Washi or Watercolour - I chose to do a watercolour wash and a little posie of flowers using the Jar of Love stamp set.  How do you like the vibrancy of Berry Burst?  Such a pretty pink!

Our neighbour's teenage daughter had an urgent surgery last week so I made this card for her.  She'll be at home recuperating for six long weeks.  I don't think she's complaining much about missing school lol.

To get the watercolour wash I used a panel of watercolour paper, spritzed it quite heavily with water and painted the ink on with a wide wet brush going from dark to light, bottom to top.  I then used my heat gun to speed up the drying process and finished by dipping a couple of fingers in water and splattering it across the panel to get the splotches you see.  I used Distress Inks Seedless Preserves (very similar in hue to Berry Burst), Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar.

If you'd like to choose your own two elements and join our challenge fun this week pop over to JAI and get some inspiration from the design team.  Lots of loveliness to whet your crafty appetite.

 

We've been a bit of a sick house again of late.  Sniffles and head colds aplenty.  Not so fun.  Looks to be a quiet weekend ahead for us.  Thanks for stopping by today, and enjoy your weekend!

Patrice x

Just Add Ink #360 - Just Add a Sketch

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Happy Friday ~

Narelle has given us an awesome sketch for the new Just Add Ink challenge kicking off today.  I loved it so much I've made at least four cards using it!  I'm sharing my favourite with you today.  A gorgeous card kept popping up on my Pinterest feed so I finally followed the link...which took me here.  I just love it and was completely inspired to add Copper elements to my own card, and who can resist the gorgeous blooms from SU's Special Reason?  I used a technique (shared by Alisa Tilsner on Facebook) to colour them using my Watercolour Pencils and an Aqua Painter. Lots of fun.

Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White and Copper - what do you think?  I've also wrapped some copper thread just above the Washi banner, can you see it?

I have a feeling this sketch is going to be super popular.  If you'd like to join the fun, head over to JAI and get all the details.  You're sure to be inspired by the design team creations, I think they're all extra gorgeous this week.

Last week I mentioned that I was planning on baking a Chocolate Raspberry Cream cake for Mother's Day.  Well I did.  The family loved it.  So here it is, a quick snap on the kitchen bench before it was devoured so please excuse the lighting and shadows.

My kids & hubby spoiled me rotten and we all had a lovely day together.  Hope you had a fabulous Mother's Day too!

Patrice x

Just Add Ink #359 - Just Add Inspiration

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Good Friday morning!

I'm a bit late getting my post up this morning as I'm just home from a Mother's Day morning tea at school with the twins. They sang a concert & then we went to each of their class rooms to do some activities together, followed by coffee & cake. A lovely start to the day.

Kim has given us a sweet inspiration pic to use as the new challenge at Just Add Ink this week.  I'll add it at the bottom but here is my take on it.  I did a little watercolour wash before adding a few botanicals using a couple of the new In Colours - Lemon Lime Twist & Berry Burst.  I'm loving ALL of the new colours!  Can you see all the shimmer I added with Wink of Stella?

If you'd like to join the challenge fun this week pop over to JAI & check out the details.  Here is the gorgeous inspiration pic for you, & you'll find more over on the blog from the design team.

I hope all you gorgeous mummies have a fabulous Mother's Day on Sunday.  I'm sure all our lovely children (and their daddies) will spoil us rotten.  We're planning a family bike ride around the lake, and some lovely chocolate & raspberry cake - which I'm going to bake.  If it looks awesome I may even take a pic to share :)

Patrice x

Twist & Pop 21st Birthday - Sweet Cupcake

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Hello, and happy Monday!

I made this card back in early March for the daughter of a lovely friend of mine.  Just found the pics and thought I should share here.  The birthday girl is a huge fan of all things purple so I used the deeply vibrant and gorgeous (retired) Blackberry Bliss c/s, with silver glimmer paper and foil accents. All special milestone birthdays need a bit of glitz and bling (and even those that aren't) don't you think?  The cupcake icing was given a good 'wink' of shimmer too.

I'm showing you the pics back to front - above is fully open.

Here it shows the opening mechanism, super simple once you know how.

And here is the front of the card - not the best pic as it's over exposed and a bit wonky looking but I can assure you it was very nice (and normal) in real life and the birthday gal absolutely LOVED her card.  The best I can hope for!

I actually do have quite a few more (not previously shared) cards that I may add here in the coming days.  Have a great week & thanks for stopping by today.

Patrice x