Happy Mothers Day for JAI #783

Happy Friday and welcome! Here in Melbourne we are definitely experiencing Autumnal conditions this week. The leaves are changing colours and falling. Yesterday we had a sunny, warm 25 degrees and windy morning and by 2pm we had thunderstorms and the temperature plumetted. More of the good old four seasons in one day that we are famous for to come for sure!

At Just Add Ink we have a Colour & Inspiration challenge for you suggested by Nikki. With these types of challenges you can either add at least 3 Colours of the ones suggested above, OR use the Inspiration photo OR both of these options. Our design team have, as usual, created a variety of projects to inspire you using all these different options. We'd love to have you join us!

For my card this week, I chose to use the colours - there is a pink, caramels, greys and whites to create a Mother's Day card for my friends at Guide Dogs Victoria here in Melbourne. 

I have been asked to facilitate a Mother's Day crafting morning for Guide Dogs clients and volunteers. This will be a card I will have on display and will create a slightly less detailed (and time consuming) version for the class. I was inspired by Andrea Sargent to create a puppy heart for this card.

This card features the wonderful Online Exclusive bundle, Cutest Crew for the pups, the Family Ties set for the sentiment and the long retired Happy Tails bundle with a coordinating punch for the "Mum". 

It was so fun to colour the potential Lab pups from the Crew set to look like the colours that Guide Dogs breed along with the much loved Happy Tails Lab "Mum." 

The pups are stamped and coloured with Copics and Blends, then die cut and fussy cut. 

The sentiment is stamped first on a piece of Basic White card using a stamp positioner to help align the three stamps and also because my hands shake these days so this makes it so much easier for me  to get that crisp and clear image that we all prefer. 

Next, the stamped Basic White card was embossed with the Crochet EF and the pups are arranged around the sentiment in a heart shape. A sparkly, shiny ribbon that was once a Saleabration option was cut lengthwise to make it thinner and used to form the bow and wrap around the card. 

Thanks for stopping by today! This challenge at Just Add Ink is open til 7pm on Wednesday 22 April so you have almost 2 weeks to make your project. I look forward to seeing whether you will choose colours  or the doughnuts to create with. I hope you are having a fabulous Autumn - or Spring - whichever Season it is in your part of the world.

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Pretty In Pink, Basic White

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Blends and Copics

Stamps: Cutest Crew, Family Ties, Happy Tails

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Crochet EF, Cutest Crew dies, Dog Punch, Basic Rhinestones, Pink sparkly ribbon (retired).

'Til next time,

Jan

 

 

Yappy Birthday for JAI #771

Happy Friday everyone and welcome!!

I have some exciting news for Just Add Ink fans. This is the first week of a new format here at JAI. I hope that you can embrace these changes and have a lot of fun creating your projects.

For Challenge #771 we have a Choose Two or More. You can use as many of the 6 listed options as you'd like as long as you use at least 2 of them. Please remember to tell us which ones you use! And you'll have longer to create your projects too as we are now moving to a fortnightly challenge schedule. Our whole design team will create to inspire you each challenge too so you'll also have more inspiration. We all hope that you will enjoy these changes and, as always, we look forward to seeing and celebrating your creations!

So without further ado, here is this week's Challenge and the Six options to choose at least 2 of to use in your project. This week's challenge was also suggested by ME - so I especially hope that you that you can enjoy this and have fun with it!

For my card....it is rather obvious, (hopefully!)  that I've gone for Pets, Plaid and some Patterned Paper...and a few Pretties too!!
This card was created for a friend but  was made to be from my Labrador, Sally. so the retired Happy Tails stamp set and punch were perfect for this. I am also looking to design cards for a Dog themed Christmas for Guide Dogs Victoria clients, so this design is also suitable, with its plaid and die cut textures to potentially be used for this too.

The Lab from Happy Tails is coloured using Copics to resemble my dog Sally, a black Labrador. And her collar is stamped in Berry Burst and fussy cut.

For the base layers, the Plaid EF is used on some Berry Burst card stock and the "Patterned Paper "or DSP is from the Full of Life suite. 

And then there is the large, bold, die cut "friend"which is also from the Friends for Life Bundle. 

The other sentiment is from my stash. Sometimes, keeping the design simple so the individual elements can shine is for the best.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope that you are excited by the changes happening here at Just Add Ink which are designed to give you more freedom, inspiration and opportunity to share your wonderful creativity with us and with each other as entrants. I look forward to seeing what you create for this challenge!!

Card stock: Basic Black, Berry Burst, Basic White

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black

DSP: Full Of Life 6x6

Stamps: Happy Tails (retired), Dog Sayings (Stampendous),

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Plaid EF, Dog Punch, Friends for Life Dies, White EP, Jewels, Copic Markers

'Til next time,

Jan

 

Thank you Pop up Balcony Card for JAI #690

 

Happy Friday and welcome! It is incredible to think that February is almost over already and the mornings are starting to get darker - despite the very hot day here in Melbourne yesterday. It was a good excuse to stay inside out of the heat and do some crafting. 

This week's Just Add Ink Challenge is from Tristan and she has asked us to Just Add a Fancy Fold. The design team had a lot of fun with this one and you'll see that in all the fun cards that we created and we hope that you will be inspired to join us too.

For my card, I had a recipient and theme in mind - I was needing a thank you card for a dog trainer.
As they've trained a lot of Labradors, the Happy Tails set and co-ordinating punch was the obvious choice of stamp set. The Labs were all coloured with Copics and there are different versions of them all to represent both yellow and red labs as well as how they each have slightly different fur colour combinations.

For the design, I want to thank Lisa Curcio for her Balcony Pop Up card.  I did add another level to help fit in all the Lab's I'd coloured so my card's mechanism is quite thick. Because of this, I recommend gifting this card in person but if you're following the original design with only two pop up balconies, then you should be able to mail this just fine.

The above picture is just to show you that us design team members can have bloopers too!  

The top Lab (coloured with a pink collar to represent Sally of course) was obviously laughing too hard at a joke one of her friends told her as she started to fall off her perch.....oh the challenges of taking photos of a card with many elements! LOL! 

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope that you are able to pop on over to  Just Add Ink to see the challenge details and I hope that you might be inspired to join us and create a fun, Fancy Fold card.

"Til next time,

Jan

Pet Sympathy for JAI #657

 

Hello and happy Friday! It's the end of another week and we are nearing the Shortest Day here in Australia. That is when our mornings and evenings will slowly become lighter and we can begin to look towards Spring. I hope that you all have had a good week and are ready to do some crafting this weekend.

This week at Just Add Ink we have this clean and graphic Sketch Challenge for you from Nikki.

It is such a fabulously versatile sketch as you can see on the challenge blog from all the design team members cards. I hope that you'll be able to pop on over and see and I'd love it if you were able to join us!

This week I used the sketch to create a pet sympathy card using this very touching set called Fill My Heart by Whimsy Stamps. 

Sadly, a lovely friend's dog that I have known for most of his life, is terminally ill. When I initially saw the sketch, rows of paw prints came to mind. So that was the starting point of this card and then slowly the other details took shape. 

A ruler was used to slowly and surely stamp the individual paw print image from the Happy Tails set and emboss these in gold. 

Then the dog image was stamped and coloured with Copics and the touching sentiment was also embossed with gold being the accent colour for the card.

So that is my card for this week. What will you make with this clean and versatile sketch we have for you at Just Add Ink this week? I can't wait to see!

Card stock: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Shaded Spruce, Gold Foil

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Stitched Rectangle Framelits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Metallic Sequins Assortment, Gold EP

'Til next time,

Jan

JAI #639 Puppy themed Get Well

Happy Friday everyone and welcome! It is incredible that we are already in February, Summer is 2/3 over and schools are all back. I have started a new activity- learning to ride a horse with Riding for the Disabled. It has been a bucket list item for me and whilst it is not without a bit of risk for me, it has been easier so far than expected so that has been wonderful.

It's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink and this bright and cheery colour challenge is from me!

They are quite a bold colour palate of Summer goodness and the design team had a lot of fun with this using all different themes. We'd love to see how you would use these colours.

For my card this week, I chose to colour with the colours as I needed a Get Well card for our Dog Groomer. Using the Happy Tails set, multiple dogs were stamped and coloured using Copics and Blends in the challenge colours. 

The image was also stamped on the card front and then the coloured images were punched out and added on top using dimensionals. 

The sentiment comes from a stamp set I had in my stash by Stampendous called Dog Sayings.

Given the circumstances, it seemed the pawfect choice!

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope that you enjoy seeing all the design team's cards and are inspired to join us over at Just Add Ink. I look forward to seeing what you will make!

Card stock: Tahitian Tide, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Blends and Copics

Stamps: Happy Tails

Accessories: Dog Punch, White EP, Metallic Sequins

'Til next time,

Jan

Social Stamping - Animals

Welcome to another hop at Social Stamping a fabulous idea by the lovely Kelly Kent to enable us to be able to create together whilst so many are stamping alone during Isolation.

This week the theme is "Animals." Be it a pet, a wild animal or a new rescue, animals have all noticed the changes to our lifestyles during this time whilst we all spend more time at home. So many shelters have had an increase in the adoption of cats and dogs as people realise they are such good company especially when they have more time to give - and all our beloved pets will be enjoying having us around more during this time too.

You may have just arrived here from the lovely Peta Stephens and her fabulous projects or you can start the hop and click on the Next button at the bottom of each post to make your way around.

Not great photos today with Melbourne's fog and rainy weather but I created a fun puppy Wedding Card using two retiring sets - my all time favourite, Happy Tails and the versatile Piece of Cake. 

You may notice that the two dogs are facing each other - and there is only one such image in the stamp set. I used the Stamparatus and Silicone Sheet to create a mirror image of the stamp and used Blends and Copics to colour the dogs and flowers on the cake. Some sequins from the Peaceful Poppies complete this CAS card.

This is of course the perfect time to introduce you to my current best furry friend - Sally (Jr). Sally is a special girl who graduated from Guide Dogs Victoria last October as a Companion and with extra training helps me as an Assistance Dog. She enjoys both her work in harness and her play time out of it very much and always asks for her bed to be moved to beside the craft table when I'm making cards and finds it the perfect excuse to sleep the afternoon away! 😀

Next you are off to see the gorgeous projects that Julia Quinn has created to inspire you.

I hope that you enjoy your hopping around blog land and enjoy the coming week.

Card Stock: Whisper White, Gold Foil

Designer Series Paper: Lilly Impressions 

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark 

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Subtles EF, Black Shimmery EP, Peaceful Poppies Sequins Assortment.

Til next time,'

Jan

JAI #502 Happy Tails Thank You

Happy Friday everyone and welcome back! It's been a little while since I've been able to play along with the challenges at Just Add Ink but I'm pleased to be back on board and hope you enjoy sharing your creations too!

This week we have a fun and rather cute sketch from Tina! So I hope that you can pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog and see all the fabulous cards the team have created to inspire you and we'd love to have you join us.

You'd be forgiven if you thought the only stamp set I had was Happy Tails...but lately, dog related thank you's have been often needed and so here we go again. 

I hear that this stamp set is soon to retire but as I'm sure you've guessed, that as a Lab owner, it is one that I will hold onto forever - after all, I still have D is for Dog from many years ago, too! 😊

Here, it's paired with DSP from a 6x6" Sampler pack, some Gold Foil and Crinkled Seam Binding and I kept it very CAS to fulfil the sketch elements. I will miss Lovely Lipstick as an In Colour too...

Card Stock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Gold Foil

DSP:6x6 Sampler (SAB)

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Stamps: Happy Tails

Accessories: Dog Builder Punch, White EP, White Crinkled Seam Binding, Peaceful Poppies Sequins

I hope you're all keeping safe and well in these strange times when we are all spending more time at home, and hopefully, having a challenge to create along with will help keep you busy and be something positive to look back on in the months to come. Whatever your reason, I hope you are inspired to share your project with us at Just Add Ink this week and I look forward very much to seeing what it is!

Til next time,

Jan

JAI #490 Easel Card Just Fur You

 Happy Friday to you and welcome!! It is another hot Summer's day in Melbourne today - a good day to be inside in aircon and to craft if time permits. This is a short week for those in Australia as we had our Australia Day holiday on Monday and the week has flown past.

So it's time for a new challenge week at Just Add Ink where the lovely Lou has chosen a fun one for us all - to "Just Add..... an Easel". Be that an Easel in an image or one of the many types of Easel cards, the choice is up to you. The design team had a field day with this and so it is well worth hopping over to the challenge blog and we'd love you to join us 😊

What is your starting point for making a card? Mine is the stamp set. Every time, whatever the challenge. Once I know what images to use, the ideas start to come. I had a special person in mind to create for this week too and knew that a yellow Lab needed to feature - so the stamp set was easy!  Like many card makers, I have loved making Easel cards over the years and decided to use this challenge to try something new, so this is a new Easel design to me inspired by another Jan, Jan B  😀

This card folds flat (like a top folding card) and fits in a standard C6 Envelope and that is something that helped my decision. I started by colouring the Lab with Copics - colouring out to white using the Colour Lifter (which you could do with SU or any alcohol inks too). 

The dog's collar, I drew onto another stamped image and coloured and fussy cut to fit as once again this is personalised for the recipient - one of the great things about hand making our cards.

I also love to mix and match products and have paired the Happy Tails Lab with the Dressed to Impress DSP.  This DSP is so pretty irl and so instead of putting the sentiment on the bottom layer to hold up the card as is usual, I fussy cut 3 of these delightful blooms to pop up and hold the card front as if in a sea of flowers.

Which left room for a sentiment inside instead! Most people know that I have a happy association with Guide Dogs Victoria as my beautiful Sally who now helps me came from them. So as this card is for someone special there, this sentiment from Silhouette Scenes seemed so perfect.

Card stock: Powder Pink, Basic Black, Whisper White

Designer Series Paper: Dressed to Impress 6x6 Stack

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark

Stamps: Happy Tails, Silhouette Scenes

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Stitched Nested Labels, Dog Punch, White EP, Metallic Sequins (retired)

Non SU, Copics : E31, Y21, 0

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you have a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the fabulous cards the team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing how you decide to Just Add..an Easel to your creations this week!!

Happy days til next time,

Jan