Watercoloured Simply Beautiful for JAI #780

Happy Friday and welcome to you! We've finally had some rain in Melbourne - almost the only rain so far this year -  this week and the grasses and lawns are lapping up the welcome water and the producing a little green grass at last. The flowers and trees in my garden are also looking so much healthier.

This week at Just Add Ink is another of our now standard and rotating challenges:  Just Add Stencils, Dies or both. You have until 7pm on Wednesday 11 February to join with us for this fun challenge. Our design team have used all sorts of themes of dies and stencils in our projects this week and you can too! We'd love to see what you have in your stash and what you love to create with.

My card features lots of dies this week. The obvious ones are the Simply Beautiful dies that are used to cut these gorgeous floral images and the main flower centre. 

But the background pieces - the Arches - its an arch with a removable frame and the Leaf EF came as part of the Starter Kit bundle of products from Sizzix when I bought a new Big Shot recently. I used some adhesive to keep the fine frame attached to it's centre.

For this card design, I was inspired by Tami Hewlett who is one of my favourite SU Artisans as water colouring has long been my favourite way to add colour to projects and she is such a master of this technique. Blends and Copics are great, but there is something special about the way water will add something unique every time by the way it moves over the paper.

I love adding a light layer of colour first - here I used Pretty in Pink - and then, as it is drying, I'll go in often with another layer of the same colour, but here added some Melon Mambo to add a little extra depth of colour to the petals. For the leaves, I've used Granny Apple Green with a tiny touch of Garden Green. 

The images and sentiment are embossed in gold to add a little something special. The sentiment is from the January SU Stamp of the Month called Fabulous Sayings. The set has a delightful array of sentiments in both a handwritten and typeface and will be something I will use often.

These sentiments don't have dies so a quick and easy way to cut out a sentiment is to trace around it with a pencil, stamp inside this outline and then fussy cut using the pencil line. I did this but trimmed some of the space down as I didn't want to cover up too much of the water colouring. 

Once the flowers and leaves were all added a gold Wink of Stella pen was used to flick some gold ink over all the images and a little of the white background too.

I look forward to seeing what Dies or Stencils or combination of the two you would like to add for your project at Just Add Ink this week!

Card stock: Basic White, Thick and Standard, Gold Foil

Inks: Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, Granny Apple Green, Garden Green

Stamps: Simply Beautiful, Fabulous Sayings

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Simply Beautiful Dies, Gold faceted Gems, Metallic Enamel Shapes (retired). 

Non SU: Sizzix Starter Pack Thinlits - Arch Die, Sizzix EF - Leaf Motif, Tim Holtz Watercolor Card Stock.

'Til next time,

Jan

 

Felt With The Heart for JAI #779

Welcome! To the second Friday in February,  and we have finally had a little rain here in Melbourne so it's been a lovely and cool day for dogs, horses and humans. 

It's a Sketch Challenge this week at Just Add Ink  It won't be a surprise to most people that I adore CAS designs. Yes! This very simple sketch is from me and so I hope that you enjoy using it. The design team have created a fabulous array of cards to inspire you. This challenge is open for the next 12 days and I look forward very much to seeing what you create!

It's a new year and Term for RDA (Riding for the Disabled Association) and so I created a card to thank all the amazing volunteers at RDA Viewbank for all they do. I am no longer able to ride but Harley, a mostly white (officially called a "grey") gelding that is depicted here is a special friend and there is a possibility I may still be able to visit to say hello and take some carrots and treats very soon. I can hardly wait!

Harley helped me regain confidence after the horse I was originally paired with, sadly passed away. We bonded closely and rather quickly. Even when I was moved on to ride other horses, Harley would watch me ride in the arena from his place in the barn. Keeping an eye on me...like some special dogs, some of the horses knew I was seriously ill and Harley was one. 

The image here, from Unity Stamps is called Felt With the Heart and reminds me of one day when I'd had a particularly painful time and Harley was tied to a fence, awaiting his next rider. I went to him and buried my face against his. The tears quietly flowed as we stood cheek to cheek for a few minutes. He stood with me, holding my face with his, he knew...then when he judged I was ready, he started to lick my shoulder and so I moved so he could reach my forearm - his favourite spot. So this card really is for Harley and all the other special horses in the world that give to us at least as much loyalty and love and take care of us as much as we do of them. 💖

Harley is coloured using many Copics  -  some greys to add definition and shading to his neck and face and some yellows and oranges for his mane. I am coloured using a few different Blends and Copics. The images were masked off before using a Distress Ink  for the blue surrounds. Of course there is some Wink of Stella applied and a touch of twine and sprinkle of sequins too.

In case you can't quite read the sentiment, it's a quote from Helen Keller - very RDA and disability in general appropriate - "The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart."

 

So, a very heartfelt card from me for this Valentines Day week!
I can't wait to see what you will make for this Just Add Ink Sketch challenge.

Card stock: Pretty Peacock, Grey Granite, Basic White

Ink: Momento tuxedo Black, Blends, Copics, Distress Inks

Stamps: Felt with the Heart (Unity Stamps)

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Stitched Rectangle Dies,  Grey Granite Bakers Twine, Metallic Sequins assortment (retired).

'Til next time,

Jan