Social Stamping - Oh 2020!

Happy New Year's Eve everyone and welcome to my last blog post for 2020!! Today is another fun Social Stamping blog hop hosted by the lovely Kelly Kent. These hops were started back when the first Covid lockdown in Australia was in full swing as a weekly hop to enable people to craft together whilst we were all isolating at home. As restrictions lifted in many areas, the hop continued as a monthly event. For this last hop of 2020 the theme is very apt - "Oh 2020" as it has been a very different year and one we are likely to look back on for generations to come.

You may have come from the lovely Julia Quinn and her fabulous projects or you can start the hop here and use the Next buttons at the bottom of each post. To see a full list of participants please click on the coloured header image above.

This project is one I made back in early May for a Just Add Ink colour challenge. You can see my original post here. The Share Sunshine digital stamp set was made especially for Covid 19 related issues and I was  staying in a hotel (not for Covid) when I made this card. Looking back, I can hardly believe I was able to make a card at all let alone one I still love for it's soft and feminine details.

This card speaks to me of that time - the Basic Grey circle is a piece of smokey slate  I inked with BG as I didn't have that colour card on hand and had to improvise...and the sheer determination and touch of humour distraction we all needed to get through 2020.

And even if we were wearing "day pyjamas" or track pants it didn't mean we had to go without perfume- or roses. You just had to order them all online 😄

So it is finally time to say goodbye to 2020 and welcome in a New Year. We have all learned a lot this year. Apart from the deep and meaningful things...we learned how to sew a mask and  how to make a no-sew mask. How to make and use hand sanitiser, how far 1.5metres apart actually is, that toilet paper is an essential purchase and that any brand will do when it is in short supply!! Oh and how could I forget this big one - how to use Zoom!! So it hasn't all been bad but hopefully not all of these skills will be needed in the year to come. Wishing you all a very happy New Year and that 2021 is a fabulous year for you and all your families!!

Next you are off to see the lovely Andrea and her gorgeous projects that I'm sure you will enjoy!

Card stock: Whisper White, (Thick and Standard), Smokey Slate, Pink glitter

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Rococo Rose Blends & Copics

Stamps: Dressed to Impress, Share Sunshine (PDF)

Accessories:Die Cutting machine, All Dressed Up Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Ribbon, Metallic Sequins assortment (retired)

Til next time,

Jan

Just Add Ink #535 Magical Creatures

Happy Friday folks and welcome! December is racing towards Christmas Day - we are almost half way there so I hope that you are on your way to being ready to celebrate with your family and friends in what has been a different year for us all.

It's time for our next challenge at Just Add Ink and this week Kelly has suggested a delightful and fun and  theme - Just Add Magical Creatures! This one has so much potential for variety and the design team have created a fun array of projects to inspire you. We'd love to have you join us!

I decided on Unicorn and Rainbow for my Magical creature elements and took inspiration from an Erica Cerwin card. To make this card I combined the Hippo Happiness set with the retired Sunshine and Rainbows dies that I still have in my craft room. Quite a happy combination if I do say so myself!

The Stamparatus came in very handy to create the animals - the Unicorn and the Sheep as they are stamps that layer and this makes it super easy to be able to line up all the details. These were then fussy cut as I am yet to purchase the co ordinating dies.

Then the Rainbow and cloud dies from the sunshine set were used to create the background and the rainbow and creatures were given a liberal covering of Wink of Stella sparkle.

I suspect this card will be perfect for any one of my 3 young nieces with a birthday in the next two months or so,

Card Stock: Whisper White, Soft Sky (retired), Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizazz, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Real Red

Inks: Magenta Madness, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Bashful Blue, Pacific Point, Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape

Stamps: Hippo Happiness

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Rainbow Builder dies, Basic Rhinestones, clear Wink of Stella.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoy seeing all the Just Add Ink team's inspiration and I look forward to see what you will create with this fun theme!

Til next time,

Jan

 

Just Add Ink #534 Joy to the World

 

Happy Friday everyone and welcome! It's officially less than three weeks til Christmas!! How amazing that after all that 2020 has meant - and so many sacrifices - that we are nearly there. There also was wonderful news this week that Covid vaccines are about to be rolled out. First in England in the next few days and then over the rest of the world. Hopefully this means that families will be able to gather together for Christmas after all the time we've needed to endure apart.

And just in time is this week's Colour Challenge at Just Add Ink! Perfect for all things Christmas is Nikki's classic colour combo and the design team have all created a wonderful variety of cards to inspire you so we'd love you to pop on over and join us.

I cannot really put down the lovely Peace & Joy Bundle and this week have paired it with my other favourite Christmas set in the Holiday Catty, the Coming Home bundle. 

Going with a Summery, South Pacific theme Pear Pizazz is used for the hill and the other two colours for everything else. 

Card stock: Whisper White, Pear Pizazz, Red Foil, Real Red

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics & Blends

Stamps: Coming Home, Peace & Joy

Accessories: Die Cutting machine, Joy dies, Home Together Dies, Wink of Stella. 

Thanks for stopping by today. I look forward to seeing what you will create with this classic Christmas colour combo this week at Just Add Ink.

Til next time,

Jan

Social Stamping - Merry & Bright

Hello and welcome everyone to another fun Social Stamping Blog Hop hosted by the lovely Kelly Kent. This was a beautiful idea that started earlier in the year as Covid 19 affected our ability to connect and stamp together and as that has inproved for us here in Australia, it has turned into a monthly event. This month the theme is Merry & Bright which is perfect with Christmas only a few weeks away. So I hope that you can grab a cuppa and hop along through all the blogs and be inspired for your own Christmas creations.

You may have arrived from the fabulous Sandra Collett and her beautiful projects or you may be starting here. To continue on the journey you can either click the Social Stamping graphic at the top to see the full list of participants or simply use the Next button at the bottom of each blog post.

I have created two cards using a combination of stamps - the gorgeous Peace & Joy bundle and Coming Home dies plus a favourite pet themed stamp set from my stash. I used a similar theme for my Just Add Ink design team card this week too.  For the landscaped card the background is sponged and then drops of water added to create the snow effect and the cute pups were coloured with Copics.

The same idea was used for this card except for the background. Before inking, some splatters of Distress Resist Spray were used to add clear, shiny, textural drops. This also seals the colour of whatever is underneath - in this case, white! And gives the snow a more 3D effect. Then the layers of ink and card stock were applied as before. 

Here you can hopefully see the texture in the background and shine too- it's a little more realistic of a blizzard. Whilst I love SU and they are always where I turn first for stamping ideas, I do like to occasionally add other ideas and stamps into my collection to help learn new things and keep experimenting with new techniques.

 Thanks for stopping by today. Next you are off to see the lovely Sheila Pybus and her gorgeous projects. 

Card stock: Whisper White, Thick and Standard, Silver Foil

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Magenta Madness

Stamps: Peace & Joy

Accessories: Die Cutting machine, Joy Dies, Home Together Dies, Metallic Sequins (Retired), Wink of Stella

Non SU: Stamps: Deck The Howls (MFT), Distress Resist Spray (TH Ranger), Copic Markers, Distress Inks

Til next time,

Jan

Just Add Ink #533 Add Santa Paws

Hello and welcome!! It's Friday once again and the last week of November. It's amazing to think that 2020 is almost over! What a year it has been!! 

So it's time for a new Challenge week at Just Add Ink and it's one of Tina's popular Letter challenges! This time it's the letter "S". So you can choose anything beginning with the letter "S" as the focal point of your project.  The design team have created such a great array of examples to show you so I hope you can pop over to JAI and take a peek and we'd love you to join us.

I decided on "Snow" and "Santa Paws" for my "S" elements on this fun and rather cute Christmas card.

The background is created with Distress Inks blended together to make a Northern or Southern Lights feel and then water splashes were added to create the snow effect. 

For more snow, the hills and trees were created using the new Home Together dies - and layered to create room for all the fun pups. Next the pups were coloured with Copics and cut with the matching dies and liberally coated in Wink of Stella to continue the Snow effects.

The fun sentiment comes from the same stamp set and is embossed with Black Shimmery EP. It may be retired but I hope it might come back as it adds an extra touch of glamour to black.

Card stock: Whisper White (thick and standard), Real Red

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Home Together Dies, Shimmery Black EP

Non SU: Stamps: Deck The Howls (MFT), Copics

P.S If you live in Australia and need a Copic colour ink refill or pen in a hurry then Officeworks might be able to help as most stores have a limited range of single pens and small packs available.

Thanks for popping by today and I hope that you can pop over to Just Add Ink and see all the lovely creations our design team have created to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this fun "Add S" challenge!!

Til next time,

Jan

 

Just Add Ink #532 Peace At Christmas

 

Happy Friday and Welcome!!  Its hard to believe that we have less than 6 weeks til Christmas and it's almost the end of 2020. It's been a tough year world wide. Here it is rather amazing that after all our long weeks of lockdown, Victoria is now up to 18 days straight of 0 new Covid Cases. We are starting to see the benefits of all our hard work as restrictions slowly ease and the Summer heat arrives. 

It's time for a new challenge week at Just Add Ink. This week we have a Clean and Simple Sketch designed by Patrice to inspire your crafting projects. You can use the sketch as it is or flip it around to the side as long as the  sketch is visible in your project. As always our talented design team have created a great array of cards to inspire you so I hope you can pop on over to the blog and join us.

A sketch is a great base for a card design as all you need to do is to decide on a theme and then fit images into the design. Being so close to Christmas, this was a great opportunity for me to combine the only two new sets I have bought for this Season - the Coming Home and Peace and Joy bundles. They really do work together so well.

The images were coloured with a mix of Copics and Blends and die cut before being added mainly to the White circle. The die cut sentiment is my take on the rectangle element in the sketch and I created the "AT" by stamping and cutting apart other words from the Peace and Joy stamp set.

As a VW driver, I couldn't NOT use the cute little bug and have it look like someone driving home. Something, with Covid I suspect will be more common than flying home this year. 

Card stock: Misty Moonlight. Silver Foil, Whisper White

Stamps: Coming Home,Peace & Joy

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black,  Blends: Melon Mambo, Peacock, Shaded Spruce, Rococo Rose.

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Home Together Dies, Joy Dies, Wink of Stella

Non SU: Copic Markers Stitched Circle Dies (SSS)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you are inspired to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the lovely creations the design team have made and I look forward to seeing what you create with this clean and fun sketch too!

Til next time,

Jan

Just Add Ink #529 Colourful Sympathy

 

Happy Friday everyone and welcome! Victoria has enjoyed it's first few days free of a 16 week Lockdown and it felt amazing to see shopping centres open and be able to sit down and enjoy a coffee for the first time since March! Lets hope it's onwards and upwards from here on.

This week at Just Add Ink we have a stunning Colour Challenge for you from the lovely Kelly! These gorgeous colours would suit any feminine type card from Christmas to Birthday and all in between. The design team have again created a lovely array to inspire you so I hope you can pop over and see and we'd love you to join us!

I sadly needed a Sympathy card this week for a friend but found these colours still worked well for this theme. The Magnolia image is embossed on Water color paper with Silver and then coloured with ink pads and the sentiment is a mix of White embossing and silver foil.

I had a new order of water color paper arrive and really enjoyed getting back to my favourite medium again. The image is die cut once dry and layered over another piece of watercolor paper - this time with the rough side upwards.

Card stock: Misty Moonlight, Water colour paper, Silver Foil, Whisper White

Inks: Misty Moonlight, Majenta Madness, Versamark

Stamps: Good Morning Magnolia, Well Said

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Magnolia Memory Dies, Well Written Dies, Silver EP, White EP, Basic Rhinestones, Aqua Painter

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 create with this gorgeous colour combo.

Til next time,

Jan