By The Tide....JAI #300

 

Hello and happy Friday to you! This week has seen Melbourne almost live up to it's name of Four Seasons in one day....we started the week with cool and crisp mornings and then we had a 39 degree day on Tuesday which saw some drama - especially in our house as our air con was playing up...but all good now and we have returned to a much more reasonable 26 degrees or so in time for the end of Summer.

And it is time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink and this week is a very special one as it is our 300th challenge - that is 6 years of challenges - so amazing!! I remember when I first started stamping that JAI was a place where I went for inspiration but it was a few years before I was brave enough to enter any challenges...and now I have had the privilege of being welcomed to the team just over a year ago. I still have to pinch myself sometimes :-)
So to celebrate, we are offering prizes to the winner and honourable mentions for this week's challenge so make sure you pop on over to check out the details and the wonderful cards the fabulous design team have made to inspire you too!

 So here it is - the lovely Kim has designed this fabulous and clean sketch for us all to use this week:

Here is my card:

 I'm going to call this a "faux shaker card" :-) It has the circle frame and some sequins inside but there is no closed window. To be honest I did make a true shaker first - added some Dazzling Diamonds for "sand" as well as sequins but it did make the little fishies a lot harder to see and as they need to be  the stars of this card for my Dad who loves to fish in his spare time...the sand had to go.
The stretch of Midnight Muse ribbon is supported by strips of white card placed underneath it to bring it up to the height of the circle window and is attached using some glue dots. Otherwise, the ribbon tends to sag as of the circle is on dimensionals :-) I say "circle" but the bottom of it has been trimmed to reflect the sketch.
For the underwater scene, I used the lovely Perfectly Artistic DSP and embossed the seaweed image with some white embossing powder both on the background piece and within the circle itself. The fish are coloured with my newly expanded Copics collection before being coated with a little Wink of Stella for shine and sparkle.

Card stock: Midnight Muse, Whisper White (Thick)
Designer Series Paper: Perfectly Artistic
Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Night of Navy
Stamps: By The Tide, Silhouettes and Script
Accessories: Big Shot, Banner Framelits, Triple Banner Punch, White EP, Midnight Muse Ribbon, Metallic Sequins Assortment
Non SU!: Stitched Circle Dies- SSS

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink  and see all the wonderful cards our design team have made to inspire you and the info about prizes for the winners this week and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this fantastic sketch too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Just add..Inspiration JAI #299

Welcome to another Friday - the end of the week is nearly here again - and hasn't the time flown? Already we are over half way into February and it's hard to believe that it's almost the end of Summer.

But in the meantime, and before we get too carried away with thoughts of Autumn...we have a new challenge at Just Add Ink and this one was suggested by me and I hope you enjoy it :-) It is a photo that you can take in so many different ways - the colours, the ombre effect, drinks or even the watermelon itself.  The design team have made fabulous projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look :-)

Here is the photo:

And here is my card:

Yes, I went a little brighter and bolder than the pink in the photo as I went with the ombre effect as a sponged background for this birthday card for a special Niece. The greeting is embossed - the "hello" in gold and "birthday girl" in white once the sponging was all dry. This was a little trickier than it looks - especially when I thought I had the card made and was onto the inside and ran what I thought was the extra piece of white card through the Big Shot...only to find I had used the die on the finished card....and had to redo the whole thing! You see none of us are exempt from mistakes...

The Hip Hip Hourra is one of the new pop up dies....eventually it was cut and stamped from that extra piece of card with some DSP in between the layers for a little contrast from all the pink! This DSP is part of Saleabration and has a lovely ombre effect of it's own.

I also added a little Wink of Stella to the ombre 5 and the little heart for some added "princess" sparkle :-)

Card stock: Whisper White (thick and standard), Gold Foil, Vellum

Designer Series Paper: Perfectly Artistic (Saleabration)

Ink: Melon Mambo, Versamark, Wink of Stella

Stamps: Hello, Perfect Pairings (both available during Saleabration)

Accessories: Big Shot, Large Numbers Framelits, Balloon Framelits, Party Pop Up Framelits, Itty Bitty Punch Pack (Heart), Gold and White EP, Metallic Sequins Assortment, White Bakers Twine

Non SU: Stitched Rectangle Dies (SSS)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop by Just Add Ink and see all the wonderful projects the design team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this sweet photo too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Just Add....Volkswagen JAI #298

Welcome to Friday - nearly the end of another week and almost Valentines Day :-) Hopefully you are all organised to celebrate the day with your loved ones and family. But if not, this week's new challenge at Just Add Ink may be just what you are looking for to spark your creativity :-)

The lovely Tina has suggested we Just Add....V so that is anything that starts with the letter "V".  It could be Valentine, Vellum, Vegetables....and so much more! Our fabulous design team have all created beautiful cards to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look!

You might say that Valentines could've been part of the inspiration of this card with the mixture of hearts but it started out as more of a happy rather than romantic theme ...and it was time for a pink VW :-) The largest heart comes from the  Itty Bitty Punch pack, the smaller ones are stickers left over from the Perpetual Calendar accessories. And the layers of water coloured looking  paper come from the Perfectly Artistic DSP - if you would like some you might want to hurry as this one is only available until Monday :-) I used my few Copics to colour the images... am finding I am  quite enjoying colouring - so will be getting some more of these soon I think.

Card stock: Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Whisper White
DSP: Perfectly Artistic -Saleabration, available until Feb 15
Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Big Shot, Perpetual Calendar accessories, Itty Bitty Punch Pack
Non SU: MFT Dynamics Stitched Fishtail Dies, Copic Markers

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the beautiful cards the design team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what  you will create inspired by the letter "V" this week too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Watercolor Wings for JAI #297

It's Friday and that means it's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink. This week, Nikki  has suggested a beautiful colour combo for us all to use. The design team have all created gorgeous cards to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and have a look :-)

Here are the colours:

And here is my card:

The butterfly uses the lovely Watercolor Wings set and co-ordinating dies. I quickly stamped off the base butterfly image using Pool Party ink - and then discovered I hadn't quite stamped it all off. However, I like it - it almost looks hand painted don't you think? A happy accident :-)

I added a vellum butterfly - so it has an added layer and height whilst not taking away from the coloured one - and it's topped with some blushing bride enamel dots from the Love Blossoms embellishment kit. Love these - will probably need some more quite soon! The white happy is cut and layered x3  with the top layer receiving the now standard touch of Wink of Stella :-) And it might be easier to see in the next photo that there is some of the Botanical Gardens designer Vellum - one of the free Saleabration products - over the background too. It's so soft and pretty! This is another one in the post already....off to the  favourite SIL....yes, she is pretty special in her own right as well as being married to the 'favourite" brother ...one and only LOL! We have a lot of favourites in our family :-)

Card stock: Whisper White (thick), Blushing Bride, Pool Party, Vellum

DSP: Subtles Stack, Botanical Gardens Designer vellum stack (Saleabration)

Inks: Versamark, Blushing Bride, Pool Party, Pear Pizazz

Stamps: Watercolor Wings, Crazy About You

Accessories: Big Shot, Hello You thinlits, Bold Butterfly Framelits, Elegant Dots EF, White EP, Love Blossoms Embellishment Kit, Metallic Gold Thread, Fine tip Glue pen, dimensionals and Snail

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop over to Just Add Ink and see all the lovely cards the design team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with these soft and beautiful colours!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Happy 1st Birthday PCCCS #180

Welcome to Wednesday and it is time for a new sketch at The Paper Craft Crew. The design team have all provided a great variety of cards to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop over and take a look.

Here is this week's sketch:

And here is my card:

A special birthday card for my youngest Niece - she's even  a 'J" too :-)

For a little background for the "1" I used the floral images from the same Number of Years set and die cut the "1" from Gold Foil card stock.

To create the matching pink balloon, I used one of the white honeycomb accents and mixed a combination of re-inker with a small amount of water and misted it over and waited til it dried before adding to the card. My only hope now is that it stays whole as it wings it's way over to New Zealand in the post :-)I did put it in a box wrapped in heaps of tissue paper here's hoping! If anyone has any other suggestions in how to make these gorgeous and delicate little balloons post friendly I would love to know :-)

Card stock: Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Mint Macaron

Designer Series Paper:It's My Party stack,

Ink: Melon Mambo, Momento Tuxedo Black, Mint Macaron, Crushed Curry, 

Stamps: Number of Years, Honeycomb Happiness (Saleabration)

Accessories: Big Shot, Large Numbers Framelits, Elegant Dots EF, Curly Label Punch, Honeycomb Embellishments

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop over to The Paper Craft Crew and see all the fun cards the team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will make with this sketch too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Botanicals For You

Hello, I hope your week is going well? Mine has been a bit up and down so far but tomorrow should be great! A friend and I are taking a drive up to Castlemaine - about an hour and a half north-ish from Melbourne....we are looking forward to catching up with an old friend for lunch so it will be lovely! The weather is looking mild  and I will enjoy being a passenger for the day :-) 

And today's card is a thank you that I made last week using the Botanicals For You set that can be earned for free during Saleabration. The set has the lovely and bold sentiment and a variety of flowers and leaves. 

Often I find scattering flowers and leaves to make a full background a bit tricky as I tend to like to balance even "random" images so this was a bit out of the comfort zone but I like the way it has all come together. Fussy cutting the larger flowers and adding them over stamped ones just gave it the little lift it needed :-)

The main sentiment was stamped using Momento Tuxedo Black and the "awesome" was embossed in white for a little contrast. The black and pink twine seemed so perfect to go with the colours it was irresistible! A little Wink (of Stella) to the flowers and rhinestones and this was ready for the post.

Card stock: Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Melon Mambo, Mint Macaron, Pink Pirouette, Versamark

Stamps: Botanicals For You

Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Basic Rhinestones, Wink of Stella, Triple Banner Punch, Bakers Twine combo pack

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan