Ink & Inspiration Blog Hop January 2025

Hello and welcome to my blog. Today I am delighted to be taking part in the Ink and Inspiration blog hop for January 2025.

This month we have a bright colour palette and/or a beautiful picture to inspire us.

I have chosen to use the Mixed Florals Bundle which is available as an Online Exclusive in the Stampin' Up® store. The flowers are not exactly the same as the one in the photo but I thought that the open line drawings would allow me to incorporate the colours from the challenge. They lend themselves to colouring flowers, don't they? Cherry Cobbler is a colour I seldom use, unless I am creating Christmas cards, but I saw an opportunity with this set!

I stamped the image onto Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper with Versamark ink and heat embossed the image using black powder. The shiny, raised lines provide a barrier which contains the colour, stopping the water spreading too far when you are watercolouring. It's a different look to the more relaxed and traditional watercolour finishes that you often see.

To colour the images I transferred some ink from my inkpad onto a block and picked it up with a Water Painter. The largest petals are coloured with Fresh Freesia and the small dainty ones are very watered down Berry Burst. The stems and leaves are Garden Green and the large flower centres are in Crushed Curry. At first I was disappointed that the Crushed Curry bled and blended with the petals, and I was going to start all over again. However after allowing it to dry, I decided that the colour mixing looked authentic and natural so I decided to stick with it.

Now for the Cherry Cobbler element! The bundle includes three adorable ladybird images. Cherry Cobbler is just right for their wings, so I've tucked in a couple peeping out from behind the flowers.

I've managed to use all the suggested colours by using Blackberry Bliss for the card base, die cut circle and sentiment. The paler colours really pop against the deep rich purple. Finally, the deconstructed Twisted Gold Thread and Purple Adhesive Backed sequins add a little shimmer and shine to the card.

I hope that you are inspired by my card today and that you will continue along the hop to see what the others have created too - click on the names below to enjoy their  projects. We would love to hear from you and so if you have been inspired, please leave a comment.

Blog Hop Index

 

Do you need any of the products  used on today's cards? If you live in the UK please take a look in my online Stampin' Up! shop. You can follow the link or click on the pictures below of the products I have used today.

Stay safe and as always, happy crafting,

If you would like to order any supplies, and you live in the UK, I would love to be your demonstrator. Use the current hostess code (January 2025 code: FTGKPATS) to get some free product (it will follow in the post after the end of the month). If your order is over £150 do not use the code as you become the hostess and get the rewards. To place an order please visit my online shop HERE. The products I have used on today's project are linked from the images shown below.

All Star Video Class Bundles 

The Video Class Bundles have 12 AMAZING video tutorials to inspire you each month. This month we are featuring the Marbled Elegance Suite Collection from the Stampin' Up! Online Exclusive offering.

 

Click HERE to purchase.

FREE with a purchase from my online store

 

Sale-A-Bration

Sale-A-Bration is the biggest sale of the Stampin' Up! year - it starts 7th January and ends 28th February.

Earn free products when you shop

With every £55/£110 you spend on Stampin' Up! products (before shipping and handling), you can choose a FREE product from the Sale-a-Bration brochure.

Gathering has Rewards

With any order of at least £275 (party of individual order) you get to choose an additional £27.50 worth of products from our catalogue for free!

Join Stampin'Up!

When you join Stampin' Up! as an independent demonstrator during Sale-A-Bration you can build your Starter Kit by choosing £130 of products for £99 (including shipping) PLUS you'll get to choose one of two FREE BONUS options to add to your Starter Kit.

 

 Option 1: Your choice of TWO marker sets from our Stampin' Write Marker Assortments (Brights, Neutrals,Regals, Subtles), PLUS a beautiful stamp set exclusively designed to work with them.

 

Option 2: your choice of an additional £30 in free products

 

Click on the images of the products I have used today to purchase them in my online shop:

Rembember to use the current hostess code.

January 2025 code: FTGKPATS

 

Storybook Friends and the Heart Shaped Bundle for the New at SU! Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog. Today, I am participating in the New at SU! blog hop. We are a group of Stampin' Up!® demonstrators from around the world who are full of creative papercrafting ideas to share with you to get you crafting. We are showcasing projects from the Sale-A-Bration brochure and showing how they can be combined with other products!

I am a huge fan of anything heart-shaped and so the Heart Shaped Bundle was a must have choice from the Sale-A-Bration brochure for me. From the January to April Mini catalogue, I had similar feelings about the Storybook Moments Suite. It was the first thing I ordered; an absolute must have for me! It reminds me of the Beatrix Potter illustrations in the books we loved reading to our children...which led to a total obsession of rabbits for one of them.

My colour combination of Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon and Pebbled Path was driven by the sheet of Designer Series Paper (DSP) I chose from the 12"x12" Storybook Moments pack. Using Pebbled Path ink I stamped and die cut one of the adorable rabbits on Basic Beige card. The image is coloured using Stampin' Blends.

I envisaged that the rabbit would sit within a heart-shaped frame. I created the base using a heart shape cut with the Hearts of Elegance dies. The trio of flowers stamp from the Sale-A-Bration set are curved and so I was able to stamp them around the edge to decorate it. I cut a second smaller heart, with a stitched edge, for the rabbit to sit on. From a couple of coordinating sheets of the Timeless Plaid 6"x6" stack, I also die cut a couple of leafy hearts. Adhering them slightly offset provides a fuller, more textured edge to the frame.

The sentiment, which echoes the image perfectly, was also stamped using Pebbled Path ink. It's framed using one of the banner dies in the Stitched Shaped set and decorated with a die cut flower and leaf sprigs. The final embellisments are some Adhesive Heart-shaped Sequins - a couple of them have been tinted using my Blends.

Although this is quite a simple card, I think that it is super cute and I love the way that it turned out. I hope that you have been inspired by my project today and that you have been encouraged to mix and match your products. Continuing along the hop to the others will provide you with even more project ideas - you are currently with me, Furry Cat Designs by Karen Henderson - but before you hop on to the next post, please take a moment to leave a comment. We love reading your comments!

Blog Hop Index

Do you need any of the products  used on today's cards? If you live in the UK please take a look in my online Stampin' Up! shop. You can follow the link or click on the pictures below of the products I have used today.

Stay safe and as always, happy crafting,

If you would like to order any supplies, and you live in the UK, I would love to be your demonstrator. Use the current hostess code (January 2025 code: FTGKPATS) to get some free product (it will follow in the post after the end of the month). If your order is over £150 do not use the code as you become the hostess and get the rewards. To place an order please visit my online shop HERE. The products I have used on today's project are linked from the images shown below.

All Star Video Class Bundles 

The Video Class Bundles have 12 AMAZING video tutorials to inspire you each month. This month we are featuring the Marbled Elegance Suite Collection from the Stampin' Up! Online Exclusive offering.

 

Click HERE to purchase.

FREE with a purchase from my online store

 

Sale-A-Bration

Sale-A-Bration is the biggest sale of the Stampin' Up! year - it starts 7th January and ends 28th February.

Earn free products when you shop

With every £55/£110 you spend on Stampin' Up! products (before shipping and handling), you can choose a FREE product from the Sale-a-Bration brochure.

Gathering has Rewards

With any order of at least £275 (party of individual order) you get to choose an additional £27.50 worth of products from our catalogue for free!

Join Stampin'Up!

When you join Stampin' Up! as an independent demonstrator during Sale-A-Bration you can build your Starter Kit by choosing £130 of products for £99 (including shipping) PLUS you'll get to choose one of two FREE BONUS options to add to your Starter Kit.

 

 Option 1: Your choice of TWO marker sets from our Stampin' Write Marker Assortments (Brights, Neutrals,Regals, Subtles), PLUS a beautiful stamp set exclusively designed to work with them.

 

Option 2: your choice of an additional £30 in free products

 

Click on the images of the products I have used today to purchase them in my online shop:

Rembember to use the current hostess code.

January 2025 code: FTGKPATS

 

 

Stamping Inkspirations Blog Hop - A Sketch Double Challenge

Hello and welcome to my blog! Today I am taking part in a blog hop with some fellow enthusiasts who love sharing their creative talents using their Stampin' Up!® products. This month in the Stamping Inkspirations Blog Hop we are creating projects using a Sketch for inspiration.

To start the year in style we are adding shimmer, bling or frosting to our designs.

I love the visual cue that a sketch gives you when you are designing a card. It's such a great starting point. As usual, my approach to this sketch is quite literal in terms of the layout, although, I have cut straight edges on my vertical banner and changed the layers ever so slightly. 

As Sale-A-Bration is in full flow now I have thrown as many of the free Sale-A-Bration products at this card as I could! I have used the Bloom Impressions papers, the Corner in Bloom stamps, the Starstruck embossing folder and the Purple Adhesive Backed Sequins. To complete the card I used the sentiment from the Hearts of Elegance stamp set (from the Online Exclusive offering), white heat embossing and coloured the flowes with inks and a Water Painter.

For the additional challenge element I used my go to shimmer, which is Wink of Stella. There are some all over splatters and the white embossed panel has been sprayed with Wink of Stella - unfortunately the twinkly effect does not show up on the photos, but hopefully you can see the sparkle from the sequins. Although the sequins are called Purple Adhesive Backed Sequins, they tone really well with the pink hues I have used. I have had a spray bottle, with a fine mist nozzel, containing a mixture of rubbing alcohol/contents of one Wink of Stella pen on my desk for a long time. A small squirt provides a shimmery layer to projects which is quite lovely!

With the Corner in Bloom stamps you can create a square or rectangular border. Following the sketch I created a rectangle and white heat embossed the images for a raised, shiny finish. I experimented colouring with watercolour pencils and inks on both Melon Mambo and Flirty Flamingo backgrounds. I liked the chalky effect that the White Craft ink gave, so I decided to use an acrylic block as a palette, added ink from my ink pads together with a drop of White craft ink and a Water Painter for my colouring.  

I really enjoyed making this card, and I may go on and recreate it in different colours using some of the other Bloom Impressions papers! Please continue along the hop to see what the others have created too...enjoy the projects! We would love to hear from you and so if you have been inspired, please leave a comment.

 

 Mo Rootes  ●  Karen Henderson  ●  Aurélie Fabre

Annette Ball  ●  Teri West  ●  Jan Musselman

 Tricia Butts  ●  Leonie Stuart  ●  Judith Patterson

Do you need any of the products  used on today's cards? If you live in the UK please take a look in my online Stampin' Up! shop. You can follow the link or click on the pictures below of the products I have used today.

Stay safe and as always, happy crafting,

If you would like to order any supplies, and you live in the UK, I would love to be your demonstrator. Use the current hostess code (January 2025 code: FTGKPATS) to get some free product (it will follow in the post after the end of the month). If your order is over £150 do not use the code as you become the hostess and get the rewards. To place an order please visit my online shop HERE. The products I have used on today's project are linked from the images shown below.

All Star Video Class Bundles 

The Video Class Bundles have 12 AMAZING video tutorials to inspire you each month. This month we are featuring the Marbled Elegance Suite Collection from the Stampin' Up! Online Exclusive offering.

 

Click HERE to purchase.

FREE with a purchase from my online store

 

Sale-A-Bration

Sale-A-Bration is the biggest sale of the Stampin' Up! year - it starts 7th January and ends 28th February.

Earn free products when you shop

With every £55/£110 you spend on Stampin' Up! products (before shipping and handling), you can choose a FREE product from the Sale-a-Bration brochure.

Gathering has Rewards

With any order of at least £275 (party of individual order) you get to choose an additional £27.50 worth of products from our catalogue for free!

Join Stampin'Up!

When you join Stampin' Up! as an independent demonstrator during Sale-A-Bration you can build your Starter Kit by choosing £130 of products for £99 (including shipping) PLUS you'll get to choose one of two FREE BONUS options to add to your Starter Kit.

 

 Option 1: Your choice of TWO marker sets from our Stampin' Write Marker Assortments (Brights, Neutrals,Regals, Subtles), PLUS a beautiful stamp set exclusively designed to work with them.

 

Option 2: your choice of an additional £30 in free products

 

Click on the images of the products I have used today to purchase them in my online shop:

Rembember to use the current hostess code.

January 2025 code: FTGKPATS