Country Birthday for JAI #557

Happy Friday everyone and welcome! There is a feeling of deja vu for those of us in Melbourne, where we are in the midst of another Lockdown to limit the spread of Covid 19. We have gotten through it before so we can do it again. At least at home, we are lucky to have a craft space we can spend more time in and hope that for others in Melbourne, you too can take solace in getting creative.

This week's Inspiration Photo challenge at Just Add Ink  from Rachael is a beautiful Winter's fireplace scene full of layers of texture to choose from. With Inspiration photo's you get to choose from what pops out at you from the photo to inspire your projects. The design team have a lot of variation in their cards this week so I hope you can pop on over to the blog and we'd love you to join us!

I was inspired by the beautiful white bricks in the fireplace and the jars sitting in front. 

To recreate the bricks, I used some Shimmery Embossing Paste with a stencil. This is a quick and easy way to add texture and sparkle and dimension to a background.

The jar from the lovely Country Home set was stamped in Momento and coloured using Copics. The arrangement to top the jar was coloured using a mix of Blends and Copics. Although there are neutrals in the Photo, I needed some colour for the blooms in the stamped image so Balmy Blue to the rescue. It's such a soft and pretty blue and doesn't over power the neutral tones. I've found it's easier to fussy cut the images before you colour them - cause it's not so bad if you make a mistake cutting if you haven't spent time colouring it! Some ribbon and sequins add to the layers of texture and this Birthday card is ready to post.

Card Stock: Balmy Blue, Whisper White, Basic Black

Stamps: Country Home, Well Worded

Ink: Versamark, Momento Tuxedo Black, Blends ( and Copics)

Accessories: Shimmery White Embossing Paste, White Embossing Powder, Metallic Sequins assortment, Silver Sequin Trim, Burlap Ribbon

Thanks for stopping by today! I look forward to seeing what you will create for this week's pretty Inspiration photo challenge at Just Add Ink.

Til 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

Country Home for JAI #425

Happy Spring everyone and welcome 😊The last few days have been the kind that has made Melbourne's weather and Crowded House's song, Four Seasons In One Day so memorable over the years. There has been everything from overnight frosts to sunny highs as well as thunderstorms and hail. But the garden is starting to show signs it is enjoying the growing hours of sunlight and the Spring sound of weekend lawn mowers is for now very welcome!

It's also time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink and this week's gorgeous, country cottage garden inspired image was suggested by the lovely Kelly.  The beautiful florals and greenery are so perfect to celebrate Spring - and Autumn as well - and are so pretty they are hard to resist! As always our design team have created fabulous cards to inspire you so we hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to the challenge blog and hopefully join us.

I was inspired by the florals, pinks and greens and also the country feel of the photo image.  So it seemed the perfect time to have a play with one of the new sets available now in the Holiday Catalogue. Yes, they say it's only 120 days or less to Christmas....so it''s definitely coming 😀

This is the pretty Country Home set, and I coloured the florals with Blendabilities - including the new Blackberry Bliss and Shaded Spruce combos. And for the jar/ vase I used Copics.

I also added some shading using a Basic Grey Water colour pencil as somewhere for the jar to sit but it has been almost lost in the real shadows created by using dimenionals to add the layers. 

I teased out the beautiful Copper Trim and added some Jute Twine and the Wood Textures DSP to emulate the layers of texture in the photo's oak tree, picket fence and cobblestone path.

Whilst many of the sentiments in this stamp set are perfect for the American Thanksgiving holiday, there are plenty more suitable for every day use and I suspect this will be a very handy set to have 😊

Card stock: Whisper White (Thick and standard), Rich Razzleberry

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black

Designer Series Paper: Wood Textures Stack

Stamps: Country Home

Accessories: Big Shot, Blendabilities Combos: Lovely Lipstick, Old Olive, Shaded Spruce, Calypso Coral, Blackberry Bliss. Copper Trim, Jute Twine ( Retired), Regals Enamel Shapes (sadly retired)

Non SU: Stitched Rectangle Dies (SSS), Copics: C1, C3, C5

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and I look forward to seeing what you will create from using this spring garden inspired image as Inspiration this week.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan