Congratulations in Blue

It's graduation season and this is a card I made for my friend's daughter. She didn't want her 'ugly' school colours, just her favourite blues. 

I created this background with my gel plate, some Catherine Pooler inks and a Hero Arts stencil. I can't remember exactly how I did it, so this one is truly unique! Check out the 3D 'texture' on this flat background! 

I finished it with a square negative frame and a heat embossed Altenew sentiment.

Getting More from a Tag Die / Crafty Meraki First Anniversary Video Hop

 

Good morning! Today I'm excited to be part of Crafty Meraki's First Anniversary Video Hop! 

I made a unique layered tag/gift card holder/graduation card, and I used just one tag die to create these 3 different sizes - watch my video to find out how. And then hop along and comment for a chance to win $100 worth of Crafty Meraki products (all details are in the video description box on YouTube)!

AND don't forget - if you shop on the site, use code ARDYTH10 for 10% off your order!

Graduation Cards (and a fabulous cardmaking hack!)

 

This is not the greatest year for graduating, due to cancellation of proms, parties, photos and ceremonies, but both my kids have achieved milestones this year (Kate has finished high school and Struan is finished Uni)!

At least making their cards was efficient! lol! I used the same design, changed up for school colours, and I used a really easy hack that my friend Kathya showed in a video.

For the blue numbers and stripes (and purple too), I started with white cardstock, pressed Catherine Pooler ink onto it (Suede Shoes and Grape Crush) and spritzed it with Avery Elle Shimmer spray.

Then I grabbed my packing tape and taped it over top. And made my own 'glossy' cardstock. Or maybe you want to call it 'faux' embossing, using the tape instead of heat embossing with clear embossing powder.

Whatever you call it, the results are easy, quick and SHINY! 

My number dies are retired (Parker from Memory Box) but I've listed a few others below.

Pretty Pink Posh Design Team - Celebrate

Good morning! Today we're announcing the Pretty Pink Posh DT for this term and I'm thrilled to be a part of this amazing team! Be sure to visit the Pretty Pink Posh blog and comment for a chance to win!

And check back in about a week as we start celebrating a new release and Pretty Pink Posh's anniversary - we have lots of fun in store for you!

To celebrate, I created a bubbly but simple card using a sentiment, 2 dies and lots of sequins and gems!  My neutral colour palette gives this card a sophisticated feel and it could be used for New Year's, a birthday a graduation or even an anniversary!

Rainbow Slider Die Set Ideas - June Innovations with Ardyth

I'm on the Ellen Hutson blog and YouTube channel today with my next Innovations with Ardyth video. This time, I've got 6 ways to use the Essentials by Ellen Rainbow Slider die set!

Muse 273 - Thanks

 I made these two card for this week's Muse Card Club, where Anita gave us this pretty inspiration:

I focused on Anita's:
-blended colours
-black elements and sentiment

As you can see, I ended up making two cards. This is my first time ever using Arches Cold Press Watercolour paper and I was having fun seeing how I liked it.

For the first card, I reversed Anita's idea of the blended stripe on the plain background. I masked a vertical stripe then created my blended background using Catherine Pooler inks. Wow do they ever blend seamlessly on this cardstock! I removed the mask right away, but still got 'fluffy' edges (not sure if that's the paper or the mask). Once it was dry, I stamped a branch from Wild Garden and a sentiment from Counting Blessings. Thank goodness for MISTI because I had to stamp over and over to get a black impression. I tried both Midnight and Versafine Clair Nocturne ink, both needed to be stamped several times on this bumpy, absorbent paper. 

For the second card, I created a horizontal stripe like Anita's, but with vertical blending. Or is that horizontal blending? Well, you know what I mean! lol!

I stamped some stars from Starlights and a sentiment from Spot On and then used the matching die to cut out the star and popped it up.

Overall, I loved painting on the cardstock, but I'm not in love with the creamy colour. I prefer a clean, crisp white. But the ease and result of the blending was amazing, so I'll definitely use it again, at least for that.

I used:

WOW! Catherine Pooler Blog Hop

Good morning! I'm excited to be part of a Blog Hop with some of the designers from the Catherine Pooler Creative Team and also some designers from WOW! Embossing Powders. We're hopping to show you how well these two product lines work together.

As you can see, I created two cards with stripes. What you maybe can't see is that they both used the exact same 6 WOW! Embossing Powders!

I thought it would be fun to show how different the powders look when you use a different ink as a base. I used the same stripe stamp from Eat, Sleep, Create for both cards. I used the same embossing powders in the same order. But for the Celebrate Everything card, I used Versamark ink. For the Star card, I used black Versafine ink. 

Working top to centre (and then I reversed the order and worked back out to the bottom), I used 

• Wanderlust (exclusive to Catherine Pooler Designs)
• Vintage Romance
• Silver Pearl
• Metalline First Frost
• Mermaid Tails
• Sand Dunes

The Versamark card resulted in colours that were soft, pretty and romantic, so I went with that feeling as I finished the card.

I used the scalloped rectangle from Tags, Etc. to trim the panel, and then I used the stitched rectangle from Postage Stamp dies to create an inner panel, which I popped up. I cut some flowers  from the dies that match Love Grows, and coated them in Versamark before embossing them with Vintage Romance and Mermaid Tails. My sentiment comes from Good Things and was embossed in a seventh variety of embossing powder - Metallic Gold Rich Pale Superfine.

The black ink gave more industrial, metallic results so I kept my card very simple and masculine. Again, I used the stitched rectangle from Postage Stamp dies, but I turned it on my panel a bit so that the stripes would be on an angle.

I simply inlaid the new Star Word die into the panel and called it done.

No blog hop is complete without some prizes. Are you ready for some awesome giveaways?

WOW! Embossing Powder

Any 6 powders of your choice along with a WOW carry case to store your powders safely.

Catherine Pooler Designs

One Set of Life of the Party Inks

(Party Dress, Tutti Fruitti, Tiara, Tiki Torch, Lime Rickey, Aquatini, Something Borrowed, Flirty Fuschia)

The CP winner will be given a code to order the inks for free from the CP online shop.

Winners will be chosen randomly from the commenters who comment on ALL THE POSTS on the hop and will be announced on the WOW! blog during the week of July 2.

Catherine Pooler 

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Ashlea Cornell

Chrissie Tobas

Ilina Crouse

Ingrid Blackburn

Jaine Drake

Jen Carter

Jennifer Colacicco

Jo Herbert 

Josefine Fouarge

Julie Hickey

Justine Hovey

Karen Baker 

Kelly Martin 

Laurel Beard 

Marion Embersom

Melissa Miller

Rosali Bartz 

Susan Powell 

Tracie Pond

Zsoka Marko

Olga Lukaseviciene

WOW!

Muse 265 - Hooray!

Here's my card for this week's Muse Card Club, where Anita gave us a birthday inspiration on her birthday!

I focused on Anita's:

-colours

-'layered' sentiment

-celebration theme

I started by blending Aquatini, Something Borrowed and Flirty Fuschia inks from Catherine Pooler on a panel, fading them out to white. I spritzed the panel with drops of water.

Then I cut the Hooray sentiment in Catherine Pooler Smoke and the shadow in white (I also did it in the reverse to see which arrangement I liked better, but with all the colour, I needed some white space!).

I cut the bottom edge of the blended panel with the shadow die so that the sentiment would fit into the blended panel and then decided to pop up the Hooray. Then I decided to add more to my sentiment. Next, I decided to cut out the Seeing Stars die from the panel and when that was done, I decided to lay the stars back into the panel, popping them up. It was a little fiddly, but I like the subtle texture. Finally, I coated the smoke Hooray in Disco Ball Stickles (silver with colourful sparkle in it). 

Concord & 9th February Release - Mosaic Turnabout, Fabulous Phrases

Well, I'm sad to say that today is my final post as a Guest Designer for the February Release from Concord & 9th! I've enjoyed working with these amazing products so much

This week, we're featuring the Mosaic Turnabout stamp set and Fabulous Phrases dies

Wow is exactly right. This stamp is so fun and the combinations are endless! I stamped both the inner and outer stamps with Catherine Pooler inks and then use the Every Day Greetings circle die to cut out and pop up the inner part of the design.

Last week when we were using the Wonderful Florals die, I had a lot of left over cut-out letters, so I made a list of words that used letters from 'wonderful'. There are quite a few, and WOW perfectly sums up my experience this month with these products!

As I was playing around with colours, I realized that yellows would make great sun rays. Again, I used the Everyday Greetings Circle die, this time with the inner texture die and a sentiment from the Sunshine Turnabout set.

Next up, let's call this 'design by mistake' (and then I liked it so much I did it again!). My intent was to do 3 turns of BlackJack and one pop of Aquatini. I forgot to turn the stamp before I did the pop and ended up stamping over the grey, resulting in a darker shade of Aquatini. So I did it again with Party Dress. I cut my sentiments from white cardstock and smooshed ink onto them to ensure a good match. I laid the sentiments on a simple dark grey strip to help them stand out. (The Hooray die is this month's freebie with a $60 order before midnight on March 8!). 

Last week I saw a video on Instagram where the centre stamp was used WITHOUT A MISTI! I thought this was genius and decided to give it a whirl. It's SO easy and allows you to quickly place more than one image on a panel! 

 Here's a quick video:

I used:

AJVD - Shine Bright!

This week, I made a sparkly star-themed shaker card. Head over to the A Jillian Vance Design blog for more details!

CASology 203 - Congratulations!

This week's CASology Cue Card is Congratulations!

It's the perfect time of year for graduations and weddings and other celebrations! I was asked to make a graduation card for my friend's niece. I love to personalize grad cards by using the school colours.

For this card I used a die from MFT Blueprints #25 and sponged it with layers and layers of Festive Berries ink, to make sure it was really, really intense. I used some Seedless Preserves along the edges to give a little 'dimension'. The numbers are Memory Box Parker Numbers dies and the sentiment is from CASual Friday's In The Cards. All that white space keeps this card feeling very clean!

Now it's your turn! We can't wait to see your CAS designs this week!

Be sure to stop by and get more inspiration from the rest of the DT:

Deidre Payne
Hannelie Bester
Hazel Hodgkins
Jacquie Southas
Jen Wills
Joyce Mehrberg
Judy Marino
Kymona Tracey
Melissa Chipperfield
Sherrie Mannion
Tracey McNeely

and this week's Guest Designer: Angela

Congratulations, Kate!

Yesterday was Kate's graduation from Grade 6. Not everyone in Toronto has a Grade 6 grad - the city is made up of an amalgamation of lots of previous little towns and boroughs that used to each have their own School Board, so there are still lots of inconsistencies throughout the city.

Still, it's an achievement and a milestone before heading off to Middle School next year. She was the French valedictorian (she's in French Immersion) and also won the Principal's Leadership Award and a Music Award. We are so proud of her!

Kate's school's colours are green and yellow and she loves Perry the Platypus (see her blog Platypus Krafts here for evidence). For the card, I cut a panel on an angle and then sponged Mowed Lawn and Mustard Seed stripes. I stamped the Lawn Fawn platypus on the card base, and used the matching die to cut out a spot for his tail from the stripes. I used Memory Box dies to cut and layer numbers and an Avery Elle sentiment.

Kate and her friends

Kate and her awards

#1 Grad bracelet from Grandma & Grandpa

CASology 150 - Graduation!

This week's CASology Cue Card is Graduation.



This card is for a friend who just completed a distance degree from the University of Victoria. Using these PTI block numbers was an easy way to incorporate the colours of the university into the card design. I found an old clear 'congratulations' stamp that fits perfectly underneath. This card is full of straight lines, and feels modern and clean. (the inks I used are (left to right) - Ranger Blue Ribbon. Stampin' Up Night of Navy. Ranger Classic Cherry, Adirondack Buttercup).

Now it's your turn! Make sure you check out the inspiration from the rest of the DT members!

Gillian Ross

Hazel Hodgkins
Jen Wills
Joyce Mehrberg
Judy Marino
Kimberly Wiener
Kymona Tracey
May Park
Melissa Chipperfield
Tracey McNeely

and this week's Guest Designer: Sarah

Pinterest Inspired

This card looks like it was made for Monday's Papertrey blog hop (my card and the inspiration photo here). But I actually made it on the weekend, inspired by this card on my Inspiration board on Pinterest, using a recent Stampin' Up set.

Challenges are wonderful things - over the years I have 'met' many people and made many cards I would not have otherwise made. But I find every once in a while it's good to forget the challenges and just make something I like. Just for fun. This is one of those. And here's another:

This time I was inspired by this photo on my inspiration board. Back in my other life, I spent some time working with designers, developing a new 'visual identity' (aka logo) for the life insurance company I worked for. I got to know a little about the Pantone colour system, and I love the simple (yet still cool) design of their colour 'chips'. I masked a strip of white before sponging a panel in Picked Raspberry. I cut it using a PTI journaling card die and then stamped a Simon sentiment and a tiny heart.

Time for Graduation!

It's that time of year again! My friend asked me to make a card for her daughter who is graduating from the Faculty of Education at St Francis Xavier.

I used the idea of half-inlaying the die cut sentiment from this card by Maile Belles as my inspiration, but used only school colours. I used the new Papertrey Super Smoosh congratulations die.

Since the colours are only blue and white (bo-ring!) I added Stickles to the sentiment for a little sparkle.

I stamped the inside with some pale grey stars and a sentiment "So proud of you today".