Challenge #24 - Inky Fingers

Wow thank you for another fantastic amount of entries for our mens cards challenge! We're still doing our rounds as we've had a huge amount of behind the scenes on this week so we'll catch up very soon so dont worry if you've not had a visit yet, you will! Thank You also to Sandy Hulsart for being our Special Guest and Sheila for guesting.

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CHALLENGE 24 - INKY FINGERS

Oooh my favourite!! Our challenge to you this fortnight is to use ink/stains/mists of some sort on your design. You can keep it minimal such as edging around your card or really go to town and make backgrounds. Although promarkers and copics are ink they'll only be valid if you do something other than colour your image in with them such as colouring flowers or ribbons to match or making your own backgrounds.

We are sponsored once again by The Stampman who are offering a £10 voucher for their store. There is such a wide variety of products to choose from and now free P&P is back!
Thank You Stampman (and lady!)
A quick note also that The Stampman has reopened their very popular ATC swaps and have some candy on offer - pop over to their new blog for details!

Here's what the girls have made! Our newest members will be starting from the next challenge so they've got a chance to find their way round and think "Oh dear what have I got myself into" hehe! Lin has actually submitted one as it was in progress and fitted perfectly so she's jumping on board today!

GUEST DESIGNER - PAULINE

Jack

I started with by stamping La Plume from Clarity Stamps in VERSAFINE VINTAGE SEPIA and then coloured it with WHISPERS PENS (using the watercolour method). I then mounted her onto gold card and then a background I had made using ALCOHOL INKS (Lemonade, Butterscotch, Shell Pink and Copper). The background paper is from K&Co called LJ Letters. On top of the bg paper I added a strip of pink card that I ran through the cuttlebug using the script folder and then inked it up with DISTRESS INKS (Tattered Rose and Antique Linen) and then wrapped a ribbon round the strip (curly ends inspired by Vix). The roses are from my stash and the leaves are punched.

Janey

For this card I've used Sailboat, Pool & Silver Adirondack alcohol inks on glossy card to create the "splodgy" sea & sky background by simply adding a few spots of each colour on the applicator tool. The image is a digi from Tiddly Inks coloured with ProMarkers and mounted onto the background with foam pads, the tree has been stamped out again & decoupaged. The whole image has clear Sakura & glitter-glue highlights.

Judie
I have used a variety of inks to get this and a whole lot of mess lol - I used Sir Tims distress inks to ink up the card first, double embossed on my lady from Dimension fourth - Masked her off and stamped the writing stamp in the background, used sticky fingers gold to bring the whole card alive !!!, i used a little tiny stamp with small holes in to make a border, and used the alcohol inks to swipe the lady and then added gems and feathers. The flower is one I made ages ago.

Julie

I have used a momento ink pads, silver and lilac and spread the ink over black textured card for the background, the used the same lilac ink on the next layer mounting on silver mirror card. The stamp is from Anita's and I have stamped it with same lilac ink again. I have added the flower embellishment to the corner as it just needed something to finish it off.

Lin

The background is Kanban paper. The image was made by sponging on Sir Tim's lovely distress inks in Stormy Sky and Mustard Seed, a few drips of water for effect and I then overstamped an Elusive Images peacock stamp. It didn't stand out enough though so I went to town with some Starbust Stains to colour in the feathers, and used a combination of Hydrangea Blue, Jack in the Pulpit Teal, Wisteria Purple Blue and Marigold Yellow Orange. I matted it onto some glitter card in a toning colour, and added a little peacock embellishment. Sadly it was pink! Whoever heard of a pink peacock. I tried to re-colour it but the best I could get was a shade of purple.

It hasn't come out too well in the pic but in the top right corner I stamped three peacock feathers. Had to avoid too much fuss cos it's for a bloke who likes birds, and yes I do mean the feathered variety!

Lisa

I've used an image from Digistamp Boutique, coloured with promarkers. The papers are K&Co Wild Raspberry, with coredinations cardstock and a small amount of pink spotty Doodlebug (for the flowers). The flowers were cut with a Nellie Snellen punch, with flat back pearl centres added. MS doily lace punch used for the borders, and a computer generated sentiment. Pink papers and flowers were edged with distress inks in Tattered Rose and Worn Lipstick, yellow papers and flowers were edged with Antique Linen.

Mandy

For the latest challenge I have opted to used my tried and trusted Tim Holtz pad to do some distressing. I lad been given a load of greetings cards to recycle and found this fabulous foiled tree and leaf border. I used the distressing pad to rub over the tree to help define the embossed texture and also on the edges of the papers and card blank. The Hampstead papers from Papermania are perfect for this as the colours are autumnal. The mat is a Nellie Snellen frame which has been edged in gold pen and last but not least I used 2 colours of ink to darken the Docrafts 'scrabble' letters as they were a bit too clean looking and didn't suit the card.

Toria

The image is a Hanglar and Stanglar stamp. The image is stamped in Memento Ink and coloured with Copic's.

I used starburst stains to create the turquoise tissue paper background. I created the flower from parchment paper and coloured it with chalk to give it a subtle colour of blue. I created the bead pins and added leaves to finish the arrangement. The patterned paper is a freebie from a magazine and decided to use black to emphasize the starburst stain background.

Vix

For this challenge I was going to use alcohol inks but whilst rummaging in my cupboard I spotted some posh impressions metallic inks I've had forever so thought I'd dust them down and give them a run out! I made some pretty backgrounds by dropping some ink onto a craft mat and placing a piece of glossy card over the top, let dry then stamped and embossed the starburst fairies. I've also inked the corners of the card with worn lipstick distress ink and overstamped with brilliance pink. More details on my blog.

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Most of us will have a certain crafter that provides inspiration and influences how they develop their own styles of creation and I'm no exception. When I first started cardmaking I started with the usual peel offs and printed decoupage not really giving stamping much thought until I saw a wonderful designer in cardmaking and papercraft magazine most months. Her work really stood out because of the colours she used and the style of her work. I often found stamping to be quite grungy so this kind of stamping which looked pretty really appealled. I could spot her work in whatever publication a mile of so if anyone ever asks who are my influences I'll always respond Kim Reygate and Cath Wilson.

Fast forward a few years and I was stood with Jill from The Stampman at a show and one of the ladies there who I see everytime I go the show came over to the stall. I laughed to Jill how everytime I saw the lady I thought it was Kim Reygate, Jill was very amused to inform me she WAS! Kim probably thinks I'm a mad stalker now mwhahaha!

Kim is a many times published designer in various publications and has written 2 books - her rubber stamping book is the only craft book I actually bought and own! Her stamping book is here and her tea bag folding one here.

So may I have the absolute pleasure of introducing our Special Guest for this challenge - Kim Reygate!

SPECIAL GUEST DESIGNER - KIM REYGATE - KIM X

This is Kim's Stash Room (PART of it!) Pop over to Crafty Storage blog to have a look at the rest! I think we can safely tell our OH's that we dont have nearly enough stash lol!

Pop over to Kims Blog to see her write up on this creation and say hello!

Questions for Kim

1. Judie has seen your craft room (hugely impressed!) And would like to know how do you organise and store your inkpads. Also fav brands?

1, I have Billy bookcases in my craft room, and they have a CD section in them which is just brill for inkpads,I love any dye based inkpad but my favourites are probably the distress ones - of course I have them all lol.I also keep them in plastic boxes now as well which makes it easier when I am off to a show or demo.When it comes to storing them, as far as I am aware upside down is right for most but not all dye based inkpads.I learned this tip about 14 years ago when I first got into stamping, but I learnt the hard way that it is no good for multicoloured inkpads like Big and Juicy or the multicoloured Adirondack. Storing them upside down means that gravity takes over like it does with the rest of us and everything sinks to the bottom lol. This is fine with the single coloured pads but with the multicoloured ones the inks all merge into one another ruining the pad. Hope this helps Judie.

2. Toria would like to know where you get inspiration?

Toria - Inspiration can come from everywhere. I have been known to scribble a sketch on the back of a receipt at work if something catches my eye. It might be a piece of jewellery, a T-shirt or even a handbag, any thing can spark an idea.When I sit down to make a card I could no more tell you what it is going to look like than I could fly to the moon. Sometimes its just a happy accident which comes about from the left over pieces from a previous project.If ever I am really stuck for inspiration then I just turn to my old catalogues and magazines. There is always something in them that will spark an idea be it a layout or a colour combo.And then of course there is always the Internet with all the wonderful blogs out there jam packed with inspirational ideas.

3. I would like to know about demoing, do you get nervous, have you had disasters (and did anybody notice!)

I love to demo, it always gives me such a buzz. I do still get nervous occasionally, but that usually disappears as soon as I get started. Of course things go wrong, but that's the great thing with it it gives you the chance to show everyone that we are all human and fallible. There are very few people who are instantly good at things, we all have to practise and sometimes things go wrong. Like you one of my major disasters came from shrink plastic. I was showing everyone how to make a ruler - its a brilliant idea and the one I made at home worked like a charm but everyone I made on the class went wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4. Future plans? Any plans for any more books?

When it comes to new books I guess its a case of never say never but I would have to be asked to do it. It is not something that I would be able to do by myself, and at the moment I haven't been asked :)For the future I would just like to continue having fun with my crafting. I have absolutely no desire to work in the Industry full time, I like being able to do as much or as little as I want. How many shop owners do you know who never get the time to play with all the brilliant products that they sell. I love doing what I do and if I only come home from a class or a show with new toys then that fine by me. Who needs new clothes anyway lol

5. Your top 3 tips!

Probably my TOP top tip is don't be scared. Remember it's only a bit of paper and ink and a little bit of your time. Just because it may not turn out quite as you expected doesn't make it wrong. There are almost no wrongs in crafting - just play and have fun.

Top tip number 2 would have to be the part peel tip with DSST.(Don't take all of the backing off your DSST. Fold part of the backing to form tabs which stick out the sides of the panel you are trying to stick down. When the panel is located in the correct place press down and remove the rest of the backing tape)When I was teaching at the Craft Barn many years ago one of the tutors showed us this and I have used it ever since. The pieces of card stock that I have saved over the years since I learnt this must have saved me a fortune - which I have spent on DSST. I get through rolls of the stuff. I can easily use one in a day when I am prepping a class!!

Top tip number 3 is actually a piece of spaghetti. No seriously folks you just have to have a piece of spaghetti in your craft box - uncooked of course. My friend Anna showed me how to moisten the end of it and then use it to pick up crystals and gems to attach them to a blob of glue on a card. Its just brill. I wouldn't be without it. Its such a cheap piece of equipment and the rest of the pack makes a nice spag bol.

Thanks Kim :)