Sympathy Blooms for JAI #463

Welcome back for another week of crafty inspiration. We've had a week of sad news, with a funeral to attend today and further loss and hospital admissions for friends. Heading into the craft room at such times can be difficult so that is where challenges can help kick start ideas to flow.

This week's Choose Two challenge at Just Add Ink is one I suggested so do hope you enjoy it! And I would love to see what you create by choosing Two of the Three embellishments - Foil, Ribbon or Sequins. The design team have plenty of gorgeous examples to inspire you so I hope you can pop over and join us.

Suggesting these embellies seemed easy and it was only when I sat down to create the challenge card that I realised it's because I tend to use all three on a lot of cards! So for this one it was a case of which one to leave off. With the Bloom and Grow set just arriving it became an easy choice with the flow of this lovely floral spray cancelling the need for a ribbon layer.

Everyone has their own view on what they like to create for a Sympathy card. I am not averse to adding a little colour as I see the card's job is to provide a little comfort in a time sad enough. But I do try not to over complicate them.

Here, I've kept the design CAS, just the floral spray coloured with Copics and Blends, a simple textured background and foil sentiment popped up on layers of Smoky Slate. Plus the sprinkling of silver and copper sequins as per the challenge.

Card Stock: Night of Navy, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Silver Foil

Ink: Versamark, Momento Tuxedo Black, Blends: Old Olive, Basic Black and Navy combos

Stamps: Bloom and Grow, Well Said

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Budding Blooms Dies, Well Written Dies, Pinewood Planks 3D EF, White EP, Metallic Sequins Assortment (retired).

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can pop by Just Add Ink and see all the inspiration from the rest of the team and I'd love to see which of these three embellishments you like to choose!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Bird Ballad Thinking of You

This week has been one filled with sad news for several of our friends and as a card maker that means we need to head into the craft room. Sometimes, especially in the emotion of the moment, it is not easy to come up with an original idea which is what happened to me this week. But we are blessed to have the internet and lovely friends who inspire us and today I've CASE"D (Copy and Share Edited) a design by my fabulous Just Add Ink team mate, Rochelle Blok. Funnily enough, her cards were inspired by another of my favourite card makers Jennifer McGuire 😊So I feel better that we all need inspiration sometimes!

The technique Jennifer calls "Floating die cut frames" and you get two cards out of the one design which was perfect for this situation as I wanted a card each for 2 sisters. 

Rochelle used the Bird Ballad DSP for her project and it's so very pretty that I wanted to give this a go too. The only thing I didn't have is the Glad Press n Seal. But I do have a roll of Post it Tape. 

So the idea is to lay your images (these are fussy cut from the Bird Ballad DSP ) to cover the card front. Add the Press n Seal or in this case, Post it Tape strips that I had first de stickied (is that even a word?) by taping to my jeans a few times... then die cut with a frame. Add dimensionals to every tiny piece of the cut images and then using the Glad or Post it Tape, add it to the card front and then remove the Glad/Tape. I can say it is worth the de-sticky process and I can also verify that Painters tape doesn't come off easily enough.

For this first card, I have added a smaller Nested Label to help show off the frame shape and a sentiment from Magnificent Magnolia. You can really see the dimension of the floral frame here too.

To help the label shape be the star, I added a white frame around the second card and the sentiment comes from a Saleabration set, Part of My Story.

Hopefully you can see here that the frame is flat to still allow the dimensional florals to shine.

Card stock: Whisper White thick and standard, Basic Black
Designer Series Paper: Bird Ballad
Inks: Versamark
Stamps: Magnificent Magnolia, Part of My Story (Saleabration, 2019)
Accessories: Big Shot, Stitched Nested Labels Dies, Black EP, White EP, Gold Faceted Gems, Basic Pearls.

Thanks so much for stopping by and if you too find you need to CASE a card or two please do but remember that it is always good to give credit to those that inspire you. We all need a little encouragement from time to time and it is really lovely to hear when you have inspired someone to get creative as that is what we are all here for. 😊

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Country Birthday for JAI #462

Welcome back everyone! Today is a day I have been waiting for - it's the Shortest Day or Winter Solstice....hooray!! So why is it a big deal? Because after today the days start to get a bit longer and brighter! Spring is a coming people however how cold it might be!!😀
And I'm also hoping that might mean that taking card photos might get a bit easier too but I'll let you be the judge of that.

And its new challenge time at Just Add Ink,  and this week we have a fun and very versatile sketch for you from Kim. You can use the sketch as is or flip it around - as long as we can see the sketch in your project. The design team have created such wonderful and varied projects it's obvious that this was a favourite challenge so we hope that you will love it too!

For my card, I dug deep into the Designer Series Paper draw and came up with this retired pattern. Black and white with a pop of colour is my favourite combo and this seemed a good time to put that to work.😊 After colouring the floral image with a mixture of Blends and Copics and fussy cutting it soon became clear that a circle was going to work better than a square for this image. The coloured shadow onto the white background is hard to see with the actual shadow but it is there.

The white circle is a die cut stitched circle the same size as the Lipstick one behind, but it's trimmed along the stitching to create a slightly smaller shape. The sentiment is wrapped around the jug's handle and the banners just couldn't be resisted.

Card stock: Basic Black, Lovely Lipstick, Whisper White, Lovely Lipstick Foil (SAB)

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Blends: Old Olive, Lovely Lipstick 

Stamps: Country Home, Well Said

Accessories: Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies, White EP, White Flax Ribbon, Gold Sequin Trim, Metallic Sequins Assortment (retired) 

Non SU: Copics

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the awesome creations the design team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this fun sketch challenge too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Happy Tails for JAI #461

Happy Friday and welcome! It's time for a new challenge week at Just Add Ink!

Rachael has given us this fabulous Inspiration Photo to spark our creativity this week. You can take whatever you like best from the photo - be it the lovely city and tree scene, the architectural feel or the colours - whatever pops out at you! The design team have created lots of different styles of cards to inspire you so I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink and we'd love to see you join us!

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I chose to use the colours from the Inspiration Photo to create this for one of our much loved doggie friends who sadly fell at the park during the week and has partially torn her cruciate ligament. That's right, this card is for a dog, a beautiful golden Lab called Tag to be specific...tho I suspect her Mum will love it too 😊

The front is simply the frame, with the puppy, hearts and sequins added to the outside. Then it opens to reveal the brayered heart - over a home made stencil made by die cutting the heart out of a piece of card stock.

Then the card opens further to reveal space for a hidden message. This means that the front panel image remains intact. The perfect sentiment for a puppy or puppy loving family don't you think? 

And particularly good here as it even rhymes with her name, which is Tag 😍

Card stock: Basic Grey, Pineapple Punch, Smoky Slate, Whisper White

Inks: Smoky Slate, Momento Tuxedo Black, Grey Granite, 

Stamps: Happy Tails

Accessories: Big Shot, Stitched Rectangles, Hearts Collection Framelits (long retired), Dog Builder Punch, Sponge Brayers, Blender Pen, Metallic Sequin assortment, Iridescent Sequins

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the lovely creations the team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this week's fabulous Inspiration Photo too.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Magnolia with a Difference for JAI #460

Hi everyone and welcome! The first week of Winter is behind us....just 11 more to go and we will be celebrating the arrival of Spring!! 😀Yes, not a huge fan of Winter....

It's new challenge week at Just Add Ink and this week Lou has suggested we add Emboss Resist to our projects. This is where you heat emboss an area - or an image and apply ink and the embossed area resists the ink application. The design team have had such fun with this and all created a wide variety of gorgeous projects to inspire you so I hope that you can pop on over and take a peek and join us.

My card was inspired by a Jennifer McGuire post where she calls this particular technique Trapped Emboss Resist. I started with a piece of white card stock and sponged a rainbow of colours onto it (So Saffron, Calypso Coral, and new favourites, Lovely Lipstick and Blueberry Bushel). Then, after heat setting the colours to make sure they were dry, I stamped the main image from Magnificent Magnolia. in Versamark and added Clear embossing powder and heat set it. Then I sponged Craft White ink over the whole panel and heat set it again which also helps the embossing to show through. Cool eh?!

You can see the clear embossing shining through in the above pic quite well.

The "friend " die cut has a couple of black layers underneath the white to help it to fit in with the black and white theme of the other elements too. The small Magnolia is also embossed in black.

Card Stock: Whisper White (thick and standard), Basic Black

Inks: so Saffron, Calypso Coral, Lovely Lipstick, Blueberry Bushel, Craft White, Versamark

Stamps: Magnificent Magnolia

Accessories: Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Framelits, Well Written Dies, Clear EP, Black EP

Non SU: Sequins (PPP)

Thanks for stopping by this week and I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the fabulous inspiration the team have for you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this fun Emboss Resist technique.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Dream Big for JAI #459

 

Hello everyone and welcome. It's the first weekend in June and Winter has well and truly arrived here in Melbourne. So much so that the local Ski resorts have opened a week before the offical start of the ski season. And whilst it's not quite snowing here in the city it sure feels like it sometimes!

 I've popped in with a card for this week's vibrant Colour challenge from Rochelle at Just Add Ink.  Due to being unwell this week, my card wasn't quite ready in time for the design team and in all honesty, I had doubts initially about it being up to the high standards I set myself for JAI projects. But this card was made with love for a lovely young friend and so I've decided to add it to the gallery.

So this is a Twisted Easel + Shaker card! The Easel mechanism is easy to create. Simply take a side folding card and score the front diagonally from corner to corner. The bottom half of the scored part is where you attach the standing layers. And in this case, it is the flower that holds the easel in place.

The background panel is water coloured and then the sparkly Dream lies over the top. Some sequins are glued in place to give a sense of height but most are free to shake. The water coloured diamond, leaves and floral images are from the sadly retiring Oh So Eclectic bundle - one of my all time faves.

Thanks to this fitting a standard card base, it folds flat for posting - or in this case, hand delivery 💖
My lovely young hairdresser is choosing to retrain as a teacher. Whilst I will miss her, she will make a wonderful teacher too and I'm so glad for her that she has the courage to go after her dreams.

Card stock: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Diamond Glimmer Paper, Vellum, Watercolor Paper, Window Sheets

Inks: Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Blushing Bride, Poppy Parade

Stamps: Oh So Eclectic

Accessories: Big Shot. Large Letter Frameltis, Eclectic Layers Framelits, Well Written, Clear Faceted Gems, Star Border Punch (retired), Iridescent Sequin Assortment, Foam Adhesive Strips

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the wonderful cards the team have to inspire you. And I look forward to seeing what you will create with this fun and vibrant combo too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan