Happy Birthday JAI #790

Happy Friday and welcome!! It's three weeks since the Shortest Day and the mornings and evenings are slowly but surely getting lighter. I love this time of year! The garden starts to grow again and there are little signs that Spring will come despite the cold nights and often grey days.  It also makes taking project photos a little easier!

This week at Just Add Ink we have one of our regular Challenges for you: Just Add Dies, Stencils or Both. It currently has an open theme so you can choose whatever takes your fancy. This means the design team cards have very varied themes and colours too so I hope you can pop on over to Just Add Ink and are inspired to join us. You have til Wednesday 29 July to enter your project. 

This week I chose to make a birthday card for a lovely friend and my own dog's best Westie friend's owner. So my dog is a black Lab and of course her Westie is White...plus I know that her favourite colour is Fresh Freesia and/or Grapefruit Grove which pairs well with a soft green. And so that is how this card came to be!

As today's card is about the Dies and/or stencils, I've used LOTS of dies.

There's the wonderful Eyelet Blooms Die that forms the main background, Cutest Crew Dies, Spotlight on Nature Dies and the Attention Shoppers and Stitched Circle Dies (both retired). 

It is very special to be able to create a card for friends using images and colours that you know they will enjoy. That is the joy of handmade cards!

Thanks for popping by today! I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink and join us for this Challenge. You can use whatever Dies and/or Stencils you have  and I look forward to seeing what you will create!

Card stock: Fresh Freesia, Basic White, Mint Macaron, Specialty Foil
Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark 
Stamps:  Cutest Crew, Attention Shoppers

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Eyelit Blooms Die, Cutest Crew Dies, Spotlight On Nature Dies, Attention Shoppers Dies, Stitched Circle Dies, Subtle Enamel Dots

'Til next time,

Jan                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Attention Shoppers Birthday for JAI #753

Happy Friday to you and it is just a few days before the official start of Winter here in Australia. 

It's been a strange Autumn with devastating drought here in Victoria and fatal floods in NSW and QLD. So I hope that wherever you are, you and your family is safe and able to enjoy seeing some crafty challenges even if for whatever reason, you are not able to participate this time. Hopefully, you can join us soon.

This week at Just Add Ink we have a cute Sketch Challenge for you to use in your projects from Tristan. 
As always, our design team have created a variety of ways of creating this sketch to inspire you.

We hope that you can pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog and see all the inspiration and other entries and we'd love you to join us if you are able.

For my version of this sketch, I created a Window using my Paper Cutter and raised that up and added it over the gorgeous Friends for Life DSP. Then each of the 4 birthday special images from the retiring Attention Shoppers Bundle are coloured and added over a Stitched Rectangle.

In this upright photo, you can see the difference that some Wink of Stella can make - silver sparkles show up especially well over darker colours.

The sentiment is added over some white card that has been run through with the Forever Plaid EF and black and white striped ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can join us at Just Add Ink as I look forward to seeing how you will use this sketch in your crafting this week!

Card stock: Coastal Cabana, Basic White, Basic Black, Silver Glimmer Paper

DSP: Friends For Life

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Various Blends and Copics

Stamps: Attention Shoppers

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Stitched Rectangles, Attention Shoppers Dies, Forever Plaid EF, White EP, Wink of Stella, Metallic Sequins Assortment, Well Written Dies

'Til next time,

Jan

 

Shopping for Cake for JAI #749

 

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to the first Friday in May! Here in Australia this coming weekend is our Federal Election but there will still be plenty of time for craft activities I hope and perhaps that will mean you can join in this challenge with us.

This week at Just Add Ink we have a fun Choose Two Challenge suggested by Nikki. She's asking that we choose between Circles, Cakes and Coffee. I hope that you can pop on over to JAI and see all the cards the design team have created to inspire you and we'd love you to join us.

I chose to use Cakes and Circles and you could say, paper plates for my card!

Yes! This is very Clean & Simple card in design but sometimes that is all you need.

The cute cake and sentiment are from the retiring Attention Shoppers Bundle and the Circles (or paper plates!) are from the Spotlight on Nature Dies. I love that these circle dies give you lots of choices of edge details - including these ones that do look perfect for a party! And there are also circles in the background DSP used. 

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the cards the rest of the Design Team have created and then join us and show us which Two of Circles, Cake or Coffee that you have chosen to use for this challenge. I can't wait to see!

Card stock: Petunia Pop, Basic White

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Blends and Copics

Stamps: Attention Shoppers

Accessories: Die Cutting machine, Spotlight on nature Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Attention Shoppers Dies, White EP, Sequins.

'Til next time,

Jan

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

 

Birthday Shopping for JAI #714

 

Happy Friday folks and welcome! Its incredible to believe that we are in the final month of Winter. It sure has been a cold one here in Melbourne this year! This coming weekend there promises to be some warmer temperatures in the outlook. But just in case it doesn't go to plan or you find yourself inside this weekend, it can always be warm in the craft room right?!

This week at Just Add Ink we have a bold and I dare say Fall (if you're in the Northern Hemisphere) inspired Colour Challenge for you from Kerry. The design team all created a variety of themed cards for you so I hope that you can take a moment and pop on over and join us!

My card uses another new stamp set from the relatively new Stampin Up catalog called Attention Shoppers. I had an idea that my first card would be a trolley full of plants....simulating a nursery store we have here in Australia...but it hasn't quite turned out that way but that card is on my list to make!

In the midst of putting this card together, it seemed to start to rain and so I dropped the trolley pieces and raced out to the washing line. I saved the washing but then spent the best part of the next hour searching for and giving up on and creating another set of trolley wheels. And then just as I gave up, I found the wheels stuck to my jumper sleeve so pulled off the ones seen above and replaced them!

Even the Happy Birthday sign is thrown into the trolley here! 😂

I hope that you have a fun weekend and perhaps if you go to the plant nursery you can fill your real trolley with plants a bit like I had intended to do this week! And if not, then you can come over to Just Add Ink and fill up a card trolley instead.                                                                                                                        It won't be long with Spring only 3 weeks away - woohoo!!

'Til next time,

Jan