Westie Greetings for JAI #776

Happy Friday everyone and welcome the last Just Add Ink challenge of 2025!
What a year it has been! We are so grateful for all those regular challenge entrants that have continued to follow us in the new almost fortnightly format and for new entrants too! 

For our last Just Add Ink challenge of the year we have a Choose Two or More of Trees, Twine, Stripes, Snow, Shimmer and Stockings. So if you are still making Christmas cards or gift packaging or tags, you have a good chance of finding a project that you can make to join with us. Our design team at Just Add Ink have created a ton of different projects to inspire you so I hope that you can pop on over and see!

Many of you know that I make a lot of Labrador related dog cards because of my friendship with Guide Dogs Victoria. But I also have friends with other dog types. Including a good friend with a gorgeous Westie that I pick up from her home and walk with Sally several times a week. Gracie and Sally have been besties since Gracie was a young puppy. So it makes sense that I would make her Mum a Westie card.

The little Westie is from the Christmas Scottie set from a few years ago and is embossed in White to create a shiny, textural Westie as it adds texture to look like fur. So that fulfils the "Shimmer " part of this week's challenge. I've also added "stripes" with the DSP  and a "Tree" using the retired Decorative Trees set.

So thank you all for following along and for all your kind comments throughout 2025. I really appreciate the effort of writing a few words when a simple "Like" on Instagram is what many people do these days.

I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and start ot the New Year and look forward to catching up with you all in 2026 for a fun Just Add Ink Blog Hop to kick off a new year pf creativity on January 16th 2026.

Card stock: Gray Granite, Basic White, Garden Green, Highland Heather

DSP:  Christmas Tags and More (6x6)

Ink: Versamark

Stamps: Christmas Scottie, Christmas Classics

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Decorative Trees Dies - including the sweet bow, White EP, Basic Rhinestones.

'Til next time,

Jan

Tree Angel for JAI #732

Happy Friday and welcome! It is almost 3 weeks til Christmas and the schools are finishing and the shops are filling up with shoppers. The jolly man in his red suit is inhabiting the shopping centres and the weather is heating up too. All of these are signs that Christmas is not far away here in Australia! How are your family's Christmas preparations going? Mine are running a little bit behind, but not too far. 

This week at Just Add Ink Challenges, we have a very cool sketch from Tina! Our design team have used the sketch as it is or have flipped it around to landscape and so can you. We hope that you can pop on over to the JAI blog and be inspired to join in the Challenge!

This week's sketch is really fun. But I wondered if I could use a little lateral room with those mountain and valley parts of the it....and as it's nearly Christmas, I had a light bulb moment - Christmas trees would be the perfect shape for the sketch design!!

The trees are stamped versions of Decorative Trees - the dies of this set are so spectacular but I thought I'd try the stamped version and see how it would work for my idea. Perfectly, it turned out!

The stamped trees are quite light and fun and pair with an older MFT set from my stash really well. 
For the lights, I stamped the ones above the puppy several times and coloured these and cut them out using snips. Every light and the cute puppy were all coloured with a mixture of Blends and Copics and then are slathered with Wink of Stella for some Christmas sparkle!

Card stock: Basic White, Basic Black, Summer Splash, Foil Specialty -  Grapefruit Grove

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Summer Splash, Lost Lagoon, Blends

Stamps: Decorative Trees

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Decorative Tree Dies, White EP, Wink of Stella

Non - SU: Stamps: Deck the Howls bundle (MFT-retired), Copics

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed my card and are inspired to pop on over to Just Add Ink and join in this week's challenge!

'Til next time,

Jan

 

Merry and Bright for JAI #728

Happy Friday and welcome! It's been a busy couple of weeks for our household. Our cute and courageous little foster dog, Pocky, lost his fight with kidney disease and the time came to say goodbye. Then we also said goodbye to our home of the last four years and moved to a different area, closer to where we know and love and a newish property that meets our needs and we have lovely neighbours. So we are very happy.

This week at Just Add Ink, we have this cute Choose Two Challenge out of Pens, Pencils or Patterned Paper. Our design team have created some incredibly beautiful cards to inspire you where to start with this fun challenge. I hope that you can take a moment and hop on over to JAI and take a peek!

For my card this week, I chose Pens and Patterned Paper. 
I stamped the outline of the Decorative Trees stamp and then coloured it with Copics and Blends before stamping the inside, detailed image using Shaded Spruce. This not only meets the challenge brief but adds detail and a bit of movement to the image.

The red lights and gold star are attached and then the tree is layered over a white circle from the Spotlight of Nature dies. This just helps the tree stand out against the patterned paper chosen for the background. 

The sentiment is a mixture of one of the sayings from the set - the word "merry" was covered so that it wasn't inked with Versamark and then embossed. And then the word Bright was die cut using the fun Peace and Joy dies that are now retired. I love being able to make slightly older sets relevant by using newer stamps with them.

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope that you are inspired to join us for this week's challenge over at Just Add Ink. I can't wait to see which Two out of the Choose Two options of Pens, Pencils and Patterned Paper that you choose to craft with and what you choose to create!

Card stock: Basic White, Basic Black, Red Glimmer, Gold Glimmer

Designer Series Paper: Joy of Christmas (retired)

Inks: Versamark, Momento Tuxedo Black, Shaded Spruce

Stamps: Decorative Trees, Peace and Joy (retired)

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Spotlight on Nature Dies, Decorative Trees Dies, Metallic Sequin Assortment (retired), White EP

'Til next time,

Jan

Decorative Trees for JAI #726

Happy Friday!  It's a long weekend here in Melbourne, yes Tuesday is the running of the Melbourne Cup - the race that stops a nation as is often said here. Or perhaps it's an extra day to craft for you? For me, we are moving house! After four years in an area we haven't loved, we are able to move to a property that is better suited both in how it will meet our needs for the future and definitely closer to the area that we would like to be in - so we are excited!

This week at Just Add Ink , Kerry Parkinson has given us this fabulous collage of Inspiration photos. 
Our design team have all enjoyed the many different textures and colours in the different photos.

I hope that you are able to pop on over to the JAI blog and we'd love you to join us.

For my card, I was inspired by the different trees and branches, the plaid and the colours of rusty orange, copper and green. 
The fabulous Decorative Trees Bundle has so many options - so many dies to create fun textures and pretty overlays.

The white plaid layer is placed over an ombre ink layer of Peach Pie.

Gold and Green glimmer was placed over card stock layers.

And the sentiment is from Christmas Classics, one of last years favourite sets. 

Thank you for stopping by today and I look forward to seeing what you create with this fun and beautiful Photo Inspiration challenge over at Just Add Ink this week.

'Til next time,

Jan