You're So Cool JAI #344

A belated happy Australia Day for yesterday to all the Australians and hope that you had a fabulous day. We had a lovely relaxing day and enjoyed time spent with friends and especially the cooler temperature :-)

Also having a cool theme is this week's challenge at Just Add Ink. Kim has suggested this wonderful Inspiration Photo for us all to use in our projects this week.It seems so perfect a reflection of the hot summery weather we have been having in Australia lately! With photo challenges you can take as many elements you like from them and our lovely team have all created fabulous projects so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and join with us.

For me, the starting point of any card is always a stamp set. The lady standing in the pool looked so very cool and relaxed so I started with that in mind and the Cool Treats set. And worked some water and some of the patterns into the design as well.

For the background I used the grunge image from Happy Celebrations and the Rock 'n Roll technique with a little spritz of water. I love how every time you do this, the results are different. You can easily do this without the water but I wanted the two colours (Turquoise and Pacific) to blend a little and it also fitted well with the water in the photo :-) The "Cool" is stamped using both colours again and the rest of the sentiment was a blend of the two stamp sets. This will be heading off for my art loving and soon to be 8yr old Nephew :-)

Card stock: Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, Whisper White, Pool Party
Designer Series Paper: Go Wild Stack (Retired)
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, Versamark, Momento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Chocolate Chip
Stamps: Cool Treats, Happy Celebrations
Accessories: Big Shot, Frozen Treats Framelits, Stitched Circle Framelits, White EP, Clear EP, Silver EP, Burlap Ribbon, Sprinkles Embellishments, Brights Enamel Dots, Wink of Stella (flicked over background)

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 inspiration from our fabulous team and I look forward to seeing what you create with this beautiful photo this week!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Just Add Ink #343 Blog Hop

Hello and welcome back for our first Just Add Ink challenge for 2017. I must admit to being excited to be back creating amongst this group of very lovely and amazingly talented ladies again! 

We always like to start off the year with a Blog Hop to showcase the first challenge of the year. This year, Nikki has suggested a fun and exciting theme to kick things off by suggesting we all "Just Add a Pop-up or Interactive" element to our projects. 

So we are starting off the year with a celebration of crafty goodness and inspiration and hope that you will join in the challenge with us and create your own Pop Up or Interactive card.

You can begin the blog hop here on my blog or at any of the design team members blog posts. Just follow the hop by clicking on the Next button at the bottom of all the design team posts. Or you can start at the beginning by clicking Here or on the challenge banner above.

If you are happily hopping along you will have arrived here from Chantell's blog and her amazing venetian blind card.

For my project, I have a Surprise Slider card using the new Cool Treats Bundle for my oldest Niece whose birthday is not far away :-)

You can see there is a tab at the top of the card and pulling this up is the mechanism for the slider to reveal 6 scoops of ice cream :-)

The slider mechanism was easy to create using my paper cutter to cut a slot behind the ice cream scoops. I used some tap washers with Dimensionals inside to run up and down the "track". Ideally, the top layer would be larger to easily hide the underneath layers but in this case I had to be a little creative, lol. Therefore the top layer of scoops is only able to be adhered under the cone so as to hide the surprise scoops. I used a tutorial by Jennifer McGuire for inspiration that you can see here.

If you look closely, you can see the track behind the scoops in the photo above. For durability, I used the Thick White card stock for both the card front layer and the Pull Tab as it is strong enough to keep it's shape and hold up under the weight of the washers too. 

An added layer of Pool Party behind the silver 6 allows for a touch of colour to peek through as well as extra height :-)

This stamp set is so cute and fun and I am in love with the sweet Sprinkles Embellishments - perfect for a Shaker card or sprinkled on top of a project too :-) 

Thanks for stopping by today and I am sure you will have fun hopping around to all our talented Just Add Ink team members.

 Next you are off to visit the lovely Shona and her wonderful project which I know you will love. 

 If you get lost along the way, just click on the challenge Banner at the top of any design team member's post to take you to the full list of names. Enjoy!

Card stock: Whisper White (Thick), Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizazz, Peekaboo Peach, Flirty Flamingo, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Watermelon Wonder, Silver Glimmer.

Designer Series Paper: Tasty Treats Specialty

Ink: Watermelon Wonder, Chocolate Chip, White Craft

Stamps: Cool Treats

Accessories: Big shot, Frozen Treats Framelits, Large Numbers Framelits, Sprinkles Embellishments, Project Life Corner Rounder, Subtles Enamel Dots, Dimensionals, Fine Tip Glue Pen, Fast Fuse

Non SU: Tap Washers (Bunnings)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Happy Dragonfly Birthday

Happy Tuesday and welcome! We have had a hot few days here in Melbourne lately and the cool change is due to come through overnight with a sprinkle of showers that the veggie garden will gladly welcome. One good thing about 38 degrees is that washing dries really quickly - and so does ink :-)

This card is one I made recently for a lovely friend's birthday. Keeping it elegant as well as clean and simple was the aim here. The background uses Distress Inks, blending to create an ombre effect and keep the central area light to seem (hopefully) as though the dragonflies are flying away into the distance. I love how adding simple flicks of water and Wink of Stella can make such a difference! The dragonflies are layered on top of each other to create more dimension and I resisted the idea of adding some Wink of Stella to them as sometimes I've found it doesn't look quite as even on White card stock as on other surfaces and there already was plenty of sparkle to the background too :-)

Card stock; Whisper White (Thick), Watercolor Paper, Basic Black
Ink: Versamark
Stamps: Sunshine Wishes
Access: Big Shot, Detailed Dragonfly thinlits, White EP,
Non SU: Distress Inks- Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, Worn Lipstick, Abandoned Coral, Picked Raspberry
Stitched Rectangle Die - Simon Says Stamps
Sequins: Crystal Reflections - SSS

Can you tell that I love this Dragonfly bundle already? Yes, it has so many possibilities when combined with the lovely co ordinating dies and different textures and endless colour combinations...
And yes, I am continuing my New Year's resolution of trying new things. It also meant that a little extra storage in the new Craft room was needed too - a new Ikea bookcase add on and so good to have a tidy home for everything (almost :-) )

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Sending Sunshine

Happy New Year to you! I hope that 2017 is a wonderful year for you and all your family!

This year I'd like to broaden my horizons a little bit craft wise with some new techniques and what better way to start than with a challenge?! Today, I've created for a new colour challenge called Colour Inkspirations that is for Stampin Up enthusiasts and can be found on Facebook here.

This week the challenge colours are Bermuda Bay, Mint Macaron and Daffodil Delight. 

And here's my card:

The yellow made me think of warm sunshine and as that is what we were lacking here in Melbourne today, I decided to make some :-) For the background I used a "smooshing" technique, adding colour to a piece of Window Sheet (or acetate) and then spritzing it with water before "smooshing" the colour onto the watercolor paper. I love how this technique gives a completely different result every time you do it. Then, I flicked some Clear Wink of Stella over it all when it was dry for some subtle sparkle.

Tip: I find both, taping down the watercolor paper to a wooden board whilst it is wet and then when dry, adding a layer of Thick White card stock underneath helps keep the warping of the paper to a minimum :-)

The Dragonflies are added to each other with dimensionals to allow both colours to show through and I cut 3 of the sunshines and layered them on each other for more 3D effects.

Card stock: Bermuda Bay, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White - thick and standard, Silver Glimmer, Vellum, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Bermuda Bay, Mint Macaron, Daffodil Delight, Versamark
Stamps: Sunshine Wishes
Accessories: Big Shot, Detailed Dragonfly thinlits, Sunshine Wishes thinlits, Stitched Circle Framelits, Metallic Sequins, Clear Wink of Stella, Window Sheet

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you are inspired to try some new challenges and techniques in 2017 too.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan