June 2018 – Tinstar Designs

Weekend crafting

Today I’m back with a couple cards inspired by a variety of challenges. I’ve had a super busy week and next week is going to be no different. I have 2 major work projects coming to a head that I’m getting a bit nervy about so my best medicine to relax my mind is sitting in front of my craft desk creating. A bonus today is I had my friend Michelle over to share in this activity.

My first card is for the current Flower Challenge which is to use a previous challenge from their blog. I chose a challenge from August 2017 which is to focus on background stamping.

I used a background stamp from The Ton called Blossom Garden’ which I heat embossed in black and then used alcohol inks to colour the flowers, leaves and sky. I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out but I’m really please with the final look. The sentiment is from CAS-ual Fridays called ‘Frankly’. This card will go into the collection of thank-you cards I am making for my mum to give to all her friends who have been helping her with all her cancer medical appointments.

Next up is a fun card inspired by 3 challenges:

I was inspired by the multi-stamped dog image used by Kim on her card and decided to switch up the animal based on the owl images in the Card Concepts and JUGS challenges. I used a stamp set from Katzelkraft called ‘Les Piafs’ which I masked to stamp each different bird in a layer, which I then watercoloured. the sentiment is from a Tim Holzt set called ‘Handwritten Thoughts’.

Aren’t these birds cute? Miss K has decided she wants this card to give to a friend.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Birthday balloons

I love a bit of rainbow action on a birthday card and when I saw the current challenges over at CAS(e) this Sketch and Addicted to CAS I knew exactly the card I wanted to make!

I recently bought the Bundle of Balloons card kit form My Favorite Things and that kit just screamed rainbow. I love the balloon dies in that kit that can make your sentiment or be just plain balloons.

So I went to town with my Big SHot and die cut 10 balloons from rainbow card stock, hand drew on the balloon strings and added a sentiment from Altenew’s ‘Label Love’ set and I was one.

I love this sketch and think I’ll be using it for quite a few more cards.

Thanks for looking and ave a great day.

Poppy pattern

Today I’ve been playing with my distress markers and water on a background stamp from Penny Black called ‘poppy pattern’. I love colouring directly on the stamp, spritzing with water and then placing my cardstock on top and seeing what you get. It really gives you a deconstructed look to the stamp with very soft edges and blended colours.

I used Candied Apple, Peeled Paint and Black Soot on this image and you can see how the black after mixing with the water and red have now made a darker red in the centre of the flowers.

I got my inspiration from these challenges today:

I like how Tracey in her card used 2 main colours and I have adopted that same idea with the red and green on my card along with the flower being the central focal point. I changed the sketch up to be horizontal, mounted my floral piece on a black panel then attached both to a white card base, along with one of my favourite sentiments from the Altenew ‘Label Love’ stamp set.

I thought about adding some twine or sequins but then decided not to and keep the focus on the flowers and colours.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Little boy birthday

I struggle with masculine cards so love when I find a challenge that pushes me down that path with my design. The current challenges at The Male Room and Freshly Made Sketches certainly made this next card an easy one to make!

I decided to flip the sketch around and make the sentiment panel vertical rather than horizontal. I used a sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays ‘Shenanigans’ and the elephant and safari guy are from Gerda Steiner ‘Go Wild’ that I roughly water coloured.

I love how the elephant is hiding and peeking out from behind the edge of the sentiment panel.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Beachy Birthday

As you can tell from past posts, I’ve been having some fun with my alcohol inks. I’ve been trying the foiling on the tacky inks and now I’m combining that with some colours that make the final piece look like a beach scene.

I was inspired to try this look by a paper crafter I admire – Gayatri who has been making beach scenes with alcohol inks.

I thought with this inspiration that my card would be a great entrant for the current challenge over at Seize the Birthday which is all about a Beachy Birthday!

I used alcohol inks in turquoise, aquamarine, pebble, espresso and snow cap with some rose gold deco foil on top. I die cut the palm trees and hammock from black cardstock and stamped the birthday sentiment from Altenew ‘Birthday Greetings’ around the edges of the alcohol panel piece.

I am super happy with how this card came our and can picture myself relaxing in the hammock for my birthday.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Fabulous friend

Today I’m playing with a new stamp set from Clearly Besotted called ‘Flirty Fuchsia’. I’ve always loved these flowers and think they ares o pretty when the blooms dangle over the side of a hanging basket.

My colours and theme were inspired by the current challenges are the Paper Players challenge to use Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral and Lemon Lime Twist on a card. and Little Red Wagon to use a flower on a card.

I love these colours and am pretty happy with how this card came out.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day.

Long Weekend Crafting

We have a long weekend here in Australia to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday, not that her birthday is in June, but I won’t complain about having an extra day to relax and recharge my batteries plus get crafty!

My first card fits a quadrella of challenges:

I love it when a variety of challenges come together as it really helps me design my card.

I had a background piece in my stash that I had stamped sometime back but not coloured up (sorry can’t remember the company). I smooshed Stampin Up inks in Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and Garden Green onto my crafty mat (one at a time so I didn’t create mud – I never would have thought to use these colours together). I then cut the piece in half and punched out a bit of a circle. added some gold cardstock to the side, twine and sequins for a bit of bling and stamped the sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays “Frankly’isms’ into the circle hole.

I know exactly which friend will be getting this card for her birthday!

Next up is a double bill of challenges:

I was inspired by the blues in Anita’s card, so I created a base panel with alcohol inks in turquoise, sailboat blue and aquamarine on Yupo paper. I have seen some videos on using foil on an alcohol ink piece when it’s still tacky, so gave this a go and love, love, love how it turned out. I’ll be doing this a bit more often. I added a die cut sentiment in black and gold; mounted on black cardstock and then a white base.

Third card today is another double bill challenge card:

I have a stash of pre-coloured and fussy cut critters and was super happy that I had the perfect little guy that fit the bill for these challenges. The piggy and sentiment is from a set by Simon Says Stamp called ‘Birthday Farm Animals’ that I had watercoloured. I popped him up with dimensionals and put him on some white cardstock with a black and white border for contrast. Isn’t he cute?

Last but not least I was inspired by the colour and word theme of these 2 challenges:

Nothing says summer like black, white and blue and these are fabulous colours for a masculine card (which I struggle making). I used a sentiment stamp set from CAS-ual Fridays called ‘Shenanigans’ stamped in Stampin Up Tempting Turquoise and Basic Black. Popped that panel up on some Tempting Turquoise cardstock and some Catherine Pooler Designs black and white striped paper, added a bit of blue and white stripped twine and I was done!

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

A pile of cats!

I have recently sorted my stamp sets by theme rather than by manufacturer and in doing so I have come across some sets that I had forgotten I had bought and had never inked up.

Today’s card is using one such set from Art Impressions called ‘Cat stackers’ and was a perfect fit for the challenges over at the Paper Players and Sketch Saturday.

I don’t tend to make many masculine cards but I think this one with its image and colour scheme would suit a male birthday.

I coloured the cats in with my Stampin’ Up Blends, fussy cut them out and attached them to a variety of paper scraps I had in my drawer. I think the burlap looks like the cats have been scratching it up a bit.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Sunday Funday

I love crafting when the house is quiet and everyone is still asleep. It’s so peaceful and conducive to creativity.

I was able to make quite a few cards, so this may be a longish post again……

My first card is for the Paper Craft Crew current challenge which is an inspirational photo challenge.

I used a stamp from the Tim Holtz set ‘ Cocktail Blueprints’ and water coloured it and added a couple of die cut leaves from the Stampin’ Up ‘Botanical Blooms’ set. I’m feeling thirsty just looking at this card!

Next up is a card using the current Freshly Made Sketches sketch and theme from Addicted to CAS. Now I know some of you may think my card isn’t very CAS, but I think it qualifies with enough ‘white’ space for your eye to rest, as it is cardstock that has been die cut, 1 stamp for a sentiment from Avery Elle ‘Knotty’ and some plaited twine for a knot. I thought the die cut from Stampin’ Up looked like waves in the ocean. I added a little Spectrum Noir sparkle to the edges of the waves to make them look like they have foam on the top.

Do you see the waves too?

Thirdly is a card that fits the sketch bill for CAS(E) this Sketch, TGIF colour challenge and Just Us Girls word challenge.

I loved the idea that the JUGS crew had that outside didn’t necessarily have to mean the outdoors but could also mean overlapping an edge, so I have taken that as my guide for this card. I flipped the sketch on its side and tried some no line water colouring of the Concord & 9th ‘Hello Lovely’ stamp with Calypso coral and Smokey slate for the flowers and Old olive for the leaves. I used a panel of Night of Navy to ground my floral image. I wasn’t really happy with how the centre of the main flower looked so tried to camouflage it with the sentiment. I think I need to practise this technique some more but I’m pretty happy with my first attempt.

It seems today’s post has a lot of cards inspired by sketches, and this last card is no exception! I really liked the current sketch at My Favorite Things.

I loved the idea of the rectangles and how I might be able to use them as peek-a-boo style elements on my card. I though a vellum panel with rectangles cut from them to then highlight portions of the image below was the way to go.

I used 2 background stamps, 1 from Stampin’ Up ‘Watercolour Wash’ stamped using Kaleidacolor ‘Blue breeze’ ink pad and the other from MFT ‘Abstract background’ stamped in Momento black. The sentiment is from Altenew ‘Label love’ in Momento black.

A great card for a male don’t you think?

Well that’s it for today – thanks for looking and have a great day.

Impossible Card

Today I have tried a new style of card that I have seen over on Splitcoast Stampers. It’s called an Impossible Card. It sounds more difficult to make than it actually was. It basically involves cutting and folding your card in a way that twists the centre panel and makes it stand up. Google it and have a go, it’s fun to do something a little bit different.

So, I’m going to enter my card into 4 challenges:

I loved the inspiration card at Muse from Sweety Gupta and used my stamp set from Altenew called ‘Magnolias for Her’ coloured with my Stampin’ Up Blends. The Sentiment is also from Altenew called ‘Birthday Greetings’. I used some scraps of Stampin’ Up DSP for my patterned paper edges of the card and a couple of sequins for that extra feminine touch.

Here’s a picture of the card from the side so you can see the structure. I added a couple of panels across the back and front to provide stability to the card and the front piece worked well to hold the sentiment.

This image shows the card flattened for mailing. You will need to use a larger envelope to send this card.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.