Simply Beautiful watercoloured for JAI #785

Happy Friday and welcome to you! We've been a bit spoilt in Melbourne by a warmer than usual Autumn. But in the last 24 hours we've gone from a maximum of 21-25 degrees Celsius to having snow on the hills! So we've quickly pulled out the jumpers (sweaters) scarves, puffer coats and electric blankets and I'm writing this post snuggled up in bed, finally nice and warm! Hopefully it's a bit warmer where you are but cold weather is the perfect excuse to stay inside in your craft space and make a card or layout for this challenge isn't it?😄

This week at Just Add Ink is another of our now standard and rotating challenges: Just Add Stencils, Dies or both. You have until 7pm on Wednesday 20 May to join with us for this fun challenge. The design team have used all sorts of themes, dies and stencils in our projects to hopefully inspire you and so can you! We'd love to see what stencils and dies that you love to create with.

My card features lots of dies this week. There are the Simply Beautiful bundle dies that are used to cut these gorgeous floral images and the main flower centre. This is a gorgeous SU Online Exclusives bundle that is now in the Last Chance section and soon to be gone forever so if you like it, then you will need to be quick. It is great for colouring with blends or water colouring  I have again gone with water colouring and have CASED (Copy and Selectively Edit)  a similar card I made for an earlier challenge that you can see below and here. Yes, I mostly kept the design!

The background, detailed Leaf EF came as part of the Starter Kit bundle of products from Sizzix when I recently bought a new Big Shot. Also included were a number of framelits -  an arch, square and sentiment frame plus a number of leaf dies - including the two Smoky Slate ones used here.

When watercoloring, I love adding a light layer of colour first (Balmy Blue) and then, as it is drying I'll add another layer of usually the same colour. Here, though is some diluted Azure Afternoon to add a little more oomph to the flower centre and inner parts of petals. For the leaves, there is Smoky Slate and those delicate leaf dies.

The sentiment is from the January SU Stamp of the Month, Fabulous Sayings. I love that there is an array of both handwritten sentiments and incredibly, it is still available for only $9.00 with a qualifying order.

These sentiments don't have dies so a quick and easy way to cut them out is to trace around the stamp with a pencil, stamp inside this outline and then fussy cut it using the pencil line.

I really look forward to seeing what Dies or Stencils or combination of them that you would like to use in  and your project at  Just Add Ink this week!

Card stock: Basic White, Thick and Standard,Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon, Silver Foil

Inks:  Balmy Blue, Azure Afternoon, Smoky Slate, Versamark 

Stamps: Simply Beautiful, Fabulous Sayings

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Simply Beautiful Dies, Metallic Sequins Assortment (retired). 

Non SU: Sizzix Starter Pack Thinlits - Leaf dies x 2,  Sizzix EF - Leaf Motif, Tim Holtz Watercolor Card Stock.

'Til next time,

Jan

 

Simply Beautiful Die Cut for JAI #784

 

Happy Friday and welcome! Here in Australia and New Zealand we are preparing to commemorate ANZAC Day tomorrow. A day where Australians and New Zealanders remember the times we have stood together in war and also in peace.

This week at Just Add Ink we have a great Sketch challenge for you suggested by Tristan.  

Sketches are great as the design is done for you and you just need to fit pieces into it. 
Our design team have all come up with all sorts of themes and colours to inspire you. We'd love to have you join us and see how you would use this. You have until Wednesday 6th May til this challenge closes.

For my card, I used the Simply Beautiful dies. I have created a card with the stamp before but this time I wanted to use just the dies. The flowers and most leaves were cut from Basic White card stock and then the centres with coloured using ink blending. Then I used a Water Painter and pushed the tip into the ink pad and used the cap to flick the same coloured ink over each piece. For the centre of the main flower, I used the beautiful new Velveteen Specialty Paper from the Velvet Meadow Suite. 

Whilst these coloured leaves and blooms fulfilled the sketch, I wanted some bigger, longer leaves to just add a little height. I found the Coastal Cabana cut leaves in a long retired bundle called Poppy moments. It's a set that I have always thought of around ANZAC Day so it seemed totally appropriate for this week's card. And I bought a bright pink bulb to plant ready for next Spring so that inspired my colour choices.

Thanks for popping by to see my card. I'm always grateful for the time people take in visiting and leaving comments.

I hope that you can take another moment and pop over to  Just Add Ink and see all the other cards from the design team and entrants and know that we'd love to see what you create this week too!

Card stock: Coastal Cabana, Basic White, Velveteen Assortment (Bubble Bath)

Inks: Melon Mambo, Coastal Cabana, Granny Apple Green

Stamps: Artistically Inked

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Plaid EF, Simply Beautiful Dies, Poppy Moments Dies, Basic Rhinestones.

'Til next time,

Jan

Happy Mothers Day for JAI #783

Happy Friday and welcome! Here in Melbourne we are definitely experiencing Autumnal conditions this week. The leaves are changing colours and falling. Yesterday we had a sunny, warm 25 degrees and windy morning and by 2pm we had thunderstorms and the temperature plumetted. More of the good old four seasons in one day that we are famous for to come for sure!

At Just Add Ink we have a Colour & Inspiration challenge for you suggested by Nikki. With these types of challenges you can either add at least 3 Colours of the ones suggested above, OR use the Inspiration photo OR both of these options. Our design team have, as usual, created a variety of projects to inspire you using all these different options. We'd love to have you join us!

For my card this week, I chose to use the colours - there is a pink, caramels, greys and whites to create a Mother's Day card for my friends at Guide Dogs Victoria here in Melbourne. 

I have been asked to facilitate a Mother's Day crafting morning for Guide Dogs clients and volunteers. This will be a card I will have on display and will create a slightly less detailed (and time consuming) version for the class. I was inspired by Andrea Sargent to create a puppy heart for this card.

This card features the wonderful Online Exclusive bundle, Cutest Crew for the pups, the Family Ties set for the sentiment and the long retired Happy Tails bundle with a coordinating punch for the "Mum". 

It was so fun to colour the potential Lab pups from the Crew set to look like the colours that Guide Dogs breed along with the much loved Happy Tails Lab "Mum." 

The pups are stamped and coloured with Copics and Blends, then die cut and fussy cut. 

The sentiment is stamped first on a piece of Basic White card using a stamp positioner to help align the three stamps and also because my hands shake these days so this makes it so much easier for me  to get that crisp and clear image that we all prefer. 

Next, the stamped Basic White card was embossed with the Crochet EF and the pups are arranged around the sentiment in a heart shape. A sparkly, shiny ribbon that was once a Saleabration option was cut lengthwise to make it thinner and used to form the bow and wrap around the card. 

Thanks for stopping by today! This challenge at Just Add Ink is open til 7pm on Wednesday 22 April so you have almost 2 weeks to make your project. I look forward to seeing whether you will choose colours  or the doughnuts to create with. I hope you are having a fabulous Autumn - or Spring - whichever Season it is in your part of the world.

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Pretty In Pink, Basic White

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Blends and Copics

Stamps: Cutest Crew, Family Ties, Happy Tails

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Crochet EF, Cutest Crew dies, Dog Punch, Basic Rhinestones, Pink sparkly ribbon (retired).

'Til next time,

Jan

 

 

Cutest Puppies for JAI #782

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to the last Friday in March. In a week's time it will be the end of Daylight Savings here in Australia. For some it means another Summer done and dusted. For many of us crafters, it means a little less daylight to take photos of our projects and some adjustments for blog post and Social Media timings. 

At Just Add Ink this fortnight, the lovely Lou Kitzelman has given us this challenge. It's to Choose Two or More from: Twine, Ribbon, Sequins, Buttons, Brads or Rhinestones. So there is a lot of choice amongst all the embellishments many of us have in our crafting stash. The ladies in our design team have all created some fabulous projects to inspire you. So I hope that you can pop on over to the JAI blog and hopefully join us.

For my card, I chose Twine, Sequins and what the heck, I added some Rhinetones over the flower centres as well!!

The fabulous Cutest Crew stamp bundle is already a favourite for me and I have plans to use it for a future, special card making workshop I've been asked to run for an organisation close to my heart. More on that later...

But getting back to this card, the middle dog is the focus and so is popped up on dimensionals for added emphasis for the recipient as that's the dog special to them.  Normally, I would've popped the DSP up on dimensionals too but I knew this card was going to be posted overseas so I wanted to keep it a little flatter. 

When posting a card that has rhinestones and sequins etc on it,  it is a good idea to add a piece of loose card stock in the envelope over these as they can pierce an envelope when the weight of other mail is added onto them or through the postal system's machinery.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink and be inspired by the rest of the design team and other challenge entrants to join us. I look forward to seeing what you create for this challenge.

Card stock: Shaded Spruce, Basic White

DSP: Full of Life (retired)

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Blends and Copics

Stamp: Cutest Crew

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Cutest Crew Dies, Nested Framelits (retired), Linen Thread, Rhinestones, Metallic Sequins

'Til next time,

Jan

Cutest Birdies for JAI #781

 

Happy Friday and welcome!! It's been a busy week in our little household and we are looking forward to the weekend and hopefully start some new craft projects. What do you have planned for your weekend? Maybe you might like to join in the challenge at Just Add Ink with us!

Kerry has suggested that we Just Add...Wings for our next Just Add Ink Challenge. There are so many creatures with wings that you might be able to think of and we would love to see them! Our design team have created lots of projects with all sorts of types of wings and we hope this inspires you  You have until Wednesday 25th March to enter your project at the Just Add Ink blog.

For my card this week I used a new Online Exlusive SU! bundle called The Cutest Crew. It features several cats. dogs and these cute BIRDS too. It is a very cute set for all pet lovers and I will use the dogs and cats in the set for future projects for sure!

But for this challenge, I chose to use a repeat stamping technique to create a Clean and Simple card.

A stampin Positioner was used to stamp the birds image three times down the page. Then it was stamped a 4th time and this image was coloured with Blends and Copics before using the coordinating dies to cut the birds out and mount on top of the third image using dimensionals. The green embossed line is another die in the bundle and helped give the birds something to stand on. And the greeting is also part of the set! How wonderful to have all of this in one cute bundle!! I can't wait to play with the other images in the set!

Thank you for popping by  today! I hope you enjoyed this CAS card and that you might be inspired to Just Add Wings to your latest project and enter our challenge. I look forward to seeing what you create!

Card stock: Shy Shamrock, Basic White

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Shy Shamrock

Stamps: The Cutest Crew (Online Exclusive), 

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Cutest Crew Dies, White Twine, In colour Accents.

'Til next time,

Jan

Watercoloured Simply Beautiful for JAI #780

Happy Friday and welcome to you! We've finally had some rain in Melbourne - almost the only rain so far this year -  this week and the grasses and lawns are lapping up the welcome water and the producing a little green grass at last. The flowers and trees in my garden are also looking so much healthier.

This week at Just Add Ink is another of our now standard and rotating challenges:  Just Add Stencils, Dies or both. You have until 7pm on Wednesday 11 February to join with us for this fun challenge. Our design team have used all sorts of themes of dies and stencils in our projects this week and you can too! We'd love to see what you have in your stash and what you love to create with.

My card features lots of dies this week. The obvious ones are the Simply Beautiful dies that are used to cut these gorgeous floral images and the main flower centre. 

But the background pieces - the Arches - its an arch with a removable frame and the Leaf EF came as part of the Starter Kit bundle of products from Sizzix when I bought a new Big Shot recently. I used some adhesive to keep the fine frame attached to it's centre.

For this card design, I was inspired by Tami Hewlett who is one of my favourite SU Artisans as water colouring has long been my favourite way to add colour to projects and she is such a master of this technique. Blends and Copics are great, but there is something special about the way water will add something unique every time by the way it moves over the paper.

I love adding a light layer of colour first - here I used Pretty in Pink - and then, as it is drying, I'll go in often with another layer of the same colour, but here added some Melon Mambo to add a little extra depth of colour to the petals. For the leaves, I've used Granny Apple Green with a tiny touch of Garden Green. 

The images and sentiment are embossed in gold to add a little something special. The sentiment is from the January SU Stamp of the Month called Fabulous Sayings. The set has a delightful array of sentiments in both a handwritten and typeface and will be something I will use often.

These sentiments don't have dies so a quick and easy way to cut out a sentiment is to trace around it with a pencil, stamp inside this outline and then fussy cut using the pencil line. I did this but trimmed some of the space down as I didn't want to cover up too much of the water colouring. 

Once the flowers and leaves were all added a gold Wink of Stella pen was used to flick some gold ink over all the images and a little of the white background too.

I look forward to seeing what Dies or Stencils or combination of the two you would like to add for your project at Just Add Ink this week!

Card stock: Basic White, Thick and Standard, Gold Foil

Inks: Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, Granny Apple Green, Garden Green

Stamps: Simply Beautiful, Fabulous Sayings

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Simply Beautiful Dies, Gold faceted Gems, Metallic Enamel Shapes (retired). 

Non SU: Sizzix Starter Pack Thinlits - Arch Die, Sizzix EF - Leaf Motif, Tim Holtz Watercolor Card Stock.

'Til next time,

Jan

 

Felt With The Heart for JAI #779

Welcome! To the second Friday in February,  and we have finally had a little rain here in Melbourne so it's been a lovely and cool day for dogs, horses and humans. 

It's a Sketch Challenge this week at Just Add Ink  It won't be a surprise to most people that I adore CAS designs. Yes! This very simple sketch is from me and so I hope that you enjoy using it. The design team have created a fabulous array of cards to inspire you. This challenge is open for the next 12 days and I look forward very much to seeing what you create!

It's a new year and Term for RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association) and so I created a card to thank all the amazing volunteers at RDA Viewbank for all they do. I am no longer able to ride but Harley, a mostly white (officially called a "grey") gelding that is depicted here is a special friend and there is a possibility I may still be able to visit to say hello and take some carrots and treats very soon. I can hardly wait!

Harley helped me regain confidence after the horse I was originally paired with, sadly passed away. We bonded closely and rather quickly. Even when I was moved on to ride other horses, Harley would watch me ride in the arena from his place in the barn. Keeping an eye on me...like some special dogs, some of the horses knew I was seriously ill and Harley was one. 

The image here, from Unity Stamps is called Felt With the Heart and reminds me of one day when I'd had a particularly painful time and Harley was tied to a fence, awaiting his next rider. I went to him and buried my face against his. The tears quietly flowed as we stood cheek to cheek for a few minutes. He stood with me, holding my face with his, he knew...then when he judged I was ready, he started to lick my shoulder and so I moved so he could reach my forearm - his favourite spot. So this card really is for Harley and all the other special horses in the world that give to us at least as much loyalty and love and take care of us as much as we do of them. 💖

Harley is coloured using many Copics  -  some greys to add definition and shading to his neck and face and some yellows and oranges for his mane. I am coloured using a few different Blends and Copics. The images were masked off before using a Distress Ink  for the blue surrounds. Of course there is some Wink of Stella applied and a touch of twine and sprinkle of sequins too.

In case you can't quite read the sentiment, it's a quote from Helen Keller - very RDA and disability in general appropriate - "The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart."

 

So, a very heartfelt card from me for this Valentines Day week!
I can't wait to see what you will make for this Just Add Ink Sketch challenge.

Card stock: Pretty Peacock, Grey Granite, Basic White

Ink: Momento tuxedo Black, Blends, Copics, Distress Inks

Stamps: Felt with the Heart (Unity Stamps)

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Stitched Rectangle Dies,  Grey Granite Bakers Twine, Metallic Sequins assortment (retired).

'Til next time,

Jan