Friday, 21 March 2025

Birthday Shopping for JAI #743



Happy Friday and welcome! It's been a busy week for many - with Stampin Up's Onstage event held last weekend bringing the latest catalogue, colour and online offerings to the world.  In the South Pacific, it was held in Brisbane, just a week after Cyclone Jack passed through Queensland.


This week at Just Add Ink we have this Clean and Sweet Sketch for you designed by Tristan.
Sketches are fabulous because you can use any theme and colour scheme and just drop the images in to meet the sketch design. Our design team had a lot of fun and you'll see a mix of current and even some sneak peeks of new product too. I do hope that you will pop on over the Just Add Ink blog to have a peek and that is also where you will find how to join in with the challenge!



For my card this week, I decided to put the three images for the circles, into a shopping trolley. 
The Attention Shoppers bundle is so fun and I initially thought I'd use three images from the set without the trolley...but in the end, they are coloured brightly against the neutral, silver of the trolley and the trolley does help with the story of the birthday card.

The colour scheme came from the 2024-2026 In Colour Paper Stack - and Shy Shamrock - with us just celebrating St Patrick's Day this week, it seemed the perfect background colour! 

And the white background has added texture thanks to the Cute Crochet EF. My mother used to crochet a lot and I am loving that it has become very popular again, especially with the Millenials and Gen Z'ers. And the sentiment was still on my desk from another project...



Thanks for popping by today. I hope that you can take a moment to pop by Just Add Ink and we'd love to see what you make with this week's fun sketch challenge.

Card stock: Basic White (both Thick and Standard), Basic Black, Silver Foil
Designer Series Paper: In colour 2024-2026
Stamps: Attention Shoppers, Artistically Inked (retired).
Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Cute Crochet EF, Attention Shoppers, White EP, Retired Twine.

'Til next week,
Jan










 

Friday, 7 March 2025

Memorable Birthday for JAI #741



Happy Friday and welcome! This is a busy weekend for many in Australia. It is a long weekend here in Victoria, with the Moomba Festival and holiday on Monday. And Cyclone Alfred is preparing to strike Queensland -  the most populated South Eastern areas.
Wherever you are this weekend, in Australia or overseas, I hope that you, your family and your household are safe and hopefully, your home is too. 
Maybe you might be able to do some crafting as a way of keeping occupied and calm whilst at home before the storm arrives? Hopefully you will find the challenge below enables you to take part even if you have reduced supplies available.



At Just Add Ink this week, the lovely Lou has suggested we Just Add... Simple and Elegant. They are terms that are relative to your own style. But generally, Simple suggests an uncluttered space and Elegant can mean gold and silver and often female cards. I hope that this theme helps those in QLD that are away from their usual space, to still be able to take part. You can see all the design team cards and find the link to join in the challenge on the Just Add Ink blog and I look forward to seeing what you can create for this challenge.


The beautiful Memorable Blooms bundle has recently arrived in my craft room and is very elegant, I think! So using it for this challenge was an easy choice. 
I had a couple of colour options but decided that a White-On-White approach was what I wanted to explore for this challenge. To add texture, the Crochet EF was used after first die cutting the Hexagon opening.



Next, the larger floral image was stamped using Momento Ink on Thick White card stock and then water coloured. 
Yes, I know we usually use Stazon Ink for water colouring  and water colouring parper! But the theme for this Challenge is "Simple" and so I went for a simple technique and using simple supplies. It was done carefully, monitoring the amount of water the Water Painter tip used by blotting on paper towel where necessary. Once the initial, light colouring of the flowers and leaves was dry, a second round of colour was applied using even less water and the same blotting technique.


The way the Hexagon dies with this bundle create a delicate border on each cut side is really beautiful - and seemed so perfect for this challenge. Unfortunately, if you want to keep the border die as I did, and to add in the white die cut image, you need to add something to hold all these pieces in place.
 I die cut a hexagon from Window Sheet to do this: adhesive was added to the back of the white die cut image as it was centred and then to the front of the corners of the Window sheet. This meant the Crochet embossed card front could be perfectly laid upon it as though the die cut is inlaid. Then the Crochet and acetate are added to a layer of Thick card stock before being attached to the card front. 
Then the simple sentiment was added along with the ribbon and sequin details to continue the elegance. 


Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see the design team cards and all the amazing entrants too and I look forward to seeing what you create for this Challenge.

Card Stock: Basic White, thick and standard. Basic Black, Window SheetInks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Petunia Pop, Summer Splash
Stamps: Memorable Blooms, Artistically Inked (retired)
Accessories: Memorable Blooms Dies, Crochet EF, Water Painter,White EP, Pool Party ribbon, Silver Trim, Metallic Sequin Assortment.

'Til next time,
Jan