Merry Christmas to you!!

A very Merry Christmas to you!! I hope you've had a wonderful day of spending time with family and friends and maybe some relaxing along the way too. For us Christmas started with Midnight Mass and then some early morning Skype calls to NZ to chat with family and share in the lovely nephew and nieces opening their presents...such fun!! Then it was lunch with friends and a surprise flying visit from an Aunty from out of State and a long overdue catch up with more family and cousins etc. So a busy day but a lovely one :-)

Today I have two cards and a few other related projects to share with you to finish the Christmas theme for this year. This first one is clean and simple and sparkly. I teamed the Winter Wonder EF with the Swirly Snowflakes Thinlits and a little blue and copper.

The sparkly snowflake is inked with Distress Inks to add some colour and interest.

Card stock: Whisper White (thick and standard), Dazzling Diamonds Glitter Paper, Copper Foil, Vellum

Accessories: Big Shot, Winter Wonder EF, Swirly Snowflake thinlits, Christmas Greetings Thinlits (retired), Metallic Sequin Assortment

Non SU: Distress Inks - Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch, Frosted sequins (SSS)

The last card is in honour of this being Sally the Lab's last Christmas as she has cancer and is going out to our vet family in Hallam without whom Sally would not be here several times over. Later versions of this for family and friends are without the gold tree.

Along with the card are a few little gifts with mainly the same photo - my first attempts at using Waterslide Decal Paper.  The process is simple but not always so in practice so I have a couple of hints for you.

I found that one coat of Clear Acrylic spray wasn't quite strong enough to prevent the images from cracking on transfer - especially on the mug. Other sites I found suggested up to 3 sprays and I'd recommend that too if your object isn't flat like the tile coasters. After they are dry, you can coat with more acrylic to make it all shiny and smooth and heat resistant in the case of the coasters. Be aware though in the case of mugs and glasses that it's not dishwasher safe.

And yes, the other side of the mug here features Sally playing with her good mate Monty - a happy snap from years gone by.

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White, Silver - and gold Glimmer, Garden Green, Whisper White

Accessories: Big Shot, Softly Falling EF, Christmas Greeting Thinlits (retired), Peaceful Pines Thinlits, Metallic Sequins Assortment

Non SU: Square Stitched Framelits (SSS) chocolates!!

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope you can take some time to enjoy the rest of the holidays and I look forward to journeying with you in the New Year!

Happy stamping  until then,

Jan

Christmas Tags for JAI #391

It's the ( Friday) before Christmas and all through the house not one thing is moving not even a mouse...or so the carol goes :-) It sure has been a busy week in our household with not enough hours in the night or day - but such is the life of a card maker come Christmas :-) Every year I say I'll start earlier (and I did!!) but some late decision projects have taken more time than expected...

Perfect to help you with last minute Christmas projects is this week's Just Add Ink Challenge suggested by Kim. With a choice of two of either Twine, Trees or Tags there are so many ways in which you can use the above ideas. This is the last challenge for 2017 and will last for two weeks to give you some time during the Christmas holidays to complete your projects. Our lovely design team have created projects that will wow you this week so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and join with us :-)

I decided to create some tags using trees and these lovely cards from Last year's Hello December Project Life kit. So here are 4 tags that I've used for my nephew and nieces. These were very quick to make once they were all worked out.

This card features the little red deer from Carols of Christmas:-)

And this one the tree from Christmas Pines 

Of course the reindeer from Santa's sleigh had an outing too -twice!!
All have a little To/ From stamped on the back with room to write a good sized message

And they did look good on top of the presents too  if I do say so myself :-)

Card stock: Whisper White, REal Red, gold glimmer, Emerald Envy

Inks - Momento Tuxedo Black ( on the back )

Stamps: Merriest Wishes (retired I think...?)

Accessories: PL Hello December (retired), Big Shot, Pine bough Framelits, Christmas Greeting Thinlits, Gold twine, red ribbon

Thanks for stopping by today and a big thank you to everyone who has stopped by throughout the year and left comments. It is so appreciated and your encouragement helps me to continue to keep creating.
 I hope you all have a very happy and wonderful Christmas celebrating with friends and family and have time to relax and enjoy the little things amongst all the busyness and celebrating and Christmas services. I will be stopping by over the next little while to share some extra card ideas and little projects but the next Just Add Ink challenge is not until January 19 as the team are taking a little break so I hope you all have a Happy and safe New Year and may 2018 be a special year for you and all your family!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Happy Pawlidays for JAI #390

Happy Friday and welcome! Christmas is only 10 days away and is it just me or is it coming faster each year? It's such a busy time with end of year catch ups,  thank you's and all the gift and food planning....but it still is my favourite.

This week's challenge at Just Add Ink is a beautifully versatile sketch from Narelle that is just in time for all your last minute Christmas cards or it will be just as handy for any other theme you need too! Our lovely design team have a wonderful array of projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and we'd love you to join us :-)

Yes, it's another rather cute Christmas card from me this week :-) This gorgeous Happy Pawlidays stamp set is on high rotation this year as it is so adorable!  This time it's coloured with Copics and I've added some of the new Shimmery White Embossing Paste for the fur on his hat trim and pom pom and some Glossy Accents to the light bulbs and tree edges and star for shine.

They add a little dimension and shine without taking away from the image details.

Card stock: Whisper White Thick and Standard, Real Red, Gold Glimmer

Inks: Versamark, Momento Tuxedo Black, Black Stampin Write Marker for his nose :-)

Accessories: Big Shot, Softly Falling EF, White EP, Shimmery White Embossing Paste

Non SU: Happy Pawlidays Stamp bundle (My Favourite Things), Glossy Accents, 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 fabulous inspiration our lovely design team have created to inspire you and I look forward to seeing your projects using this beautifully versatile sketch too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Christmas Pines Octagon for JAI #389

It's Friday and as the song goes...it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas :-) The shopping centres are full of people and sales and the postman is delivering most days. And it's so lovely to see the decorations up in all the windows and gardens!

This week at Just Add Ink we have a fabulously festive Inspiration Photo for you suggested by Kelly. Christmas parcels, neutrals and pine branches and gum leaves....so many things to kick start your crafting this week! Our lovely design team have created such beautiful projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment and pop on over and hopefully join us :-)

I was inspired to step outside of my usual colourful card routine and created an Octagon box using the colours and pine branches from the photo. This time of year gift packaging is another fun thing to create and so I decided to try a different shape too!! I started with a 15.5 cm square piece of card and then centred my 9cm in length octagon and went from there, scoring 3 cm from each edge all the way around. Every second tab has the corners folded in on both sides to create neat edges. I will add a tutorial if people are interested - just leave a comment to let me know.

These boxes can hold a number of things and can turn a gift card into a more substantial gift.

The ribbon belly band holds the box closed as well as being a base for all the other layers of decorations.

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Garden Green, Gold Foil

Inks: Garden Green

Stamps: Merriest Wishes (Retired)

Accessories: Big Shot, Merriest Tag Framelits,  Pinecone Framelits, Striped Ribbon, Gold Sequin Trim, Jute Twine, Green Sprigs, Red and White Twine (retired)

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 fabulous inspiration from our lovely design team and I look forward to seeing what you will create inspired by this beautiful photo too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Beautiful Day for JAI #388

Happy Friday and welcome! This week has gone very quickly and after several days of very hot weather we are in for a weekend of very heavy rain. Such an incredible start to Summer!

And it's time for our new challenge at Just Add Ink this week Rochelle  has asked us to Just Add...Glitter! Such a versatile product, the shimmer and shine from glitter brings so much joy wherever it goes. Our lovely design team have as always created a beautiful variety of projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over enjoy and maybe join us.

For my card, I've used one of the images from the new Beautiful Day set, soon to be available in the Occaisions Catalogue. I stamped the images in Versamark before Night of Navy  and Garden Green inks so that I could Clear emboss them. Next I water coloured them using an Aqua Painter and ink pads and when dry, went over the edges with clear Wink of Stella and added a glimmer paper background for the glitter elements.

It's a little difficult to see the Wink as here it looks more white. You may be able to see it better in the top photo :-)

Card stock: Whisper White Thick and Standard, Silver Glimmer, Night of Navy
Inks: Night of Navy, Garden Green, Tempting Turquoise, Lemon Lime Twist
Stamps: Beautiful Day (Occasions Catalogue)
Accessories: Brights Sequins, Iridescence Sequins, Big Shot, Stitched Circle Framelits, Layeriing Circle Framelits

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this fun product too!!

Happy stamping until next time,
Jan

Deck The Halls JAI #387

Happy Friday and welcome :-) It's rather incredible to think that Christmas is only a few weeks away. Trees and decorations are up in all their glory in the stores and its time to get out our own decs and check over lights to see what might be needed for this year whilst the sales are on :-)

So with Christmas so close, the new colour challenge at Just Add Ink is perfect for your Christmas crafting! These traditional colours have so many uses this time of year and our lovely design team have created fabulous creations to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look and hopefully join us.

One of my favourite stamps this Christmas is Carols of Christmas. Here, I've teamed it with the matching sheet music DSP , some gold touches and the full of texture, Boxwood Wreaths. That's the first line of the carol done, I wonder what is next :-)

The card builder framelits were used to create a border around the sentiment - I found doing the top half and then lining up the sides when doing the bottom gave a clean frame. The beautiful metallic snowflakes are added to the background for a little Christmas bling, they are so pretty in real life! And this is a design that once the sentiment frame is made, can be easily mass produced.

Card stock: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Gold Foil

Designer Series Paper: Merry Music Specialty

Inks: Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Versamark

Stamps: Carols of Christmas

Accessories: Big Shot, Card Front Builder Thinlits, Regals Enamel Shapes, Boxwood Wreaths, Gold EP, Foil Snowflakes, Metallic Edged Ribbon, 

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 fabulous inspiration our design team have created for you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this familiar colour combination too :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Red Reindeer photo cards for JAI #386

Happy Friday everyone and welcome! It is incredible to think that it's nearly a week since Stampin Up's On Stage and a wonderful catch up with friends. It certainly is one I won't forget in a hurry :-)

This week at Just Add Ink we have a fun challenge for you suggested by Tina. It is to Just Add...R". Yes, it is one of her popular letter challenges and our lovely design team had so much fun with this so don't forget to pop on over and take a look and we'd love you to join us.

 My project this week is a collection of cards made for lovely friends celebrating their first family Christmas. These cards could hold a picture with Santa beautifully - or any other family photo to send to friends :-) For my R elements, I've used Red, Reindeer and Ribbon.

In fact, they even can hold a favourite doggie family photo - Sally the Lab and her Golden Retriever best friend, Monty seen here :-)

The frames are made from Thick Whisper White card using Stitched Rectangle framelits and covered with the reindeer DSP.  I purposefully kept the decorating simple so the photo remains the star. As these are for a gift, the frames are not yet attached but have dimensionals in place, all ready to go when the photo is added. The pretty snowflake vellum won't be seen but does make for a pretty gift.

A simple sentiment on the inside and packaged in acetate boxes, these are all wrapped up to go!

Card stock: Whisper White thick, Red Foil (sadly retired)
Designer Series Paper: Be Merry, Foil Christmas Vellum Specialty (Retired)
Inks: Real Red
Stamps: Christmas Pines
Accessories: Big Shot, Santas Sleigh Framelits, Christmas Greetings (retired), Silver Ribbon, Silver coil twine, Acetate Boxes
Non SU: Stitched Rectangle Framelits - Simon Says Stamps

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment and pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the fabulous inspiration our lovely design team have created for you and I am so looking forward to seeing what you create for this fun challenge too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Santa Paws for JAI #385

Happy Friday everyone and welcome :-) Another week has flown by and this weekend is a special one with Stampin Up's  On Stage happening. There is a local event here in Melbourne and I'm so looking forwarding to catching up with friends old and new and especially many of our Just Add Ink team.

And right on cue, here is this week's new challenge at Just Add Ink. It's a lovely clean sketch designed for us all by Kim. As always our fabulous design team have created amazing projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and we'd love you to join us.

Every Christmas we do a special delivery to the vet hospital that treats us like family out in Hallam. So to go with the treats and hamper, we of course need a card :-) This year, this very cute stamp set from MFT seems perfect for the job.

Of course, a little cuteness was needed for the inside too :-)

Card stock: Bernuda Bay, Whisper White, Real Red

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: Big Shot, Layering Circle Framelits, Real red Striped and plain twine (retired), Metallic Sequins

Non SU: Happy Pawlidays - MFT, Copics

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 inspiration our design team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will make with this fun sketch too. 

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan