Birthday Plants for JAI #698

 

It's Friday and schools are back from holidays here in Victoria. That doesn't effect me except that the Riding For the Disabled classes that I attend only happen during Term time. So it was a happy reunion with the lovely Harley (the horse) for me this week. I hope that you have had a lovely week are ready to craft too!

This week's challenge at Just Add Ink  is a fun one - Choose Two out of Leaves, Flowers or Pots and it was suggested by me so I hope that you enjoy it!!
 There are so many fun options of all three that most of us have in our crafty stash and I hope that you enjoy looking through your options to make something for this challenge. The design team had fun with this and I hope that you do too!

My cards are always created with a recipient in mind - especially these days as I am finding my fingers are much less responsive than they used to be and I can't make the volume of cards that I have done in the past. I still enjoy it, it just takes much more time and effort but is stil worth it for now.

So this card is made for a friend who loves her indoor plants - we have often chatted about care and propagation techniques and plants that we love... it makes for a change from when we chat puppies!😀

Sadly the Plentiful Plants stamp set has retired but I held onto it and the DSP,  for just such a friend and indeed, JAI Challenge! There is something else I must say about this card - this is the first time in over 15 years as a SU Demo that I have used Cajun Craze ink! In reality, it's not as bad as I thought and even suits this card quite well! Who knows, I might use it again in another 15 years or so!!😀

I do like that the leaves of these plants appear to have movement. It adds to the "real" look of the plants. As usual there is a liberal scattering of sequins which in real life, catch the light and add small touches of girly sparkle!

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope that you enjoyed my card for the Choose Two of Leaves, Flowers or and Pots.  And I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink and choose your Two elements as I look forward to seeing what you create!

Card stock: Cajun Craze!!! (not something I usually use at all but it went with the pot colours). Basic White.

DSP:Bloom Where You are Planted

Stamps: Pretty Perennials 
Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Metallic Sequin Assortment

Here is Harley. He loves a snuggle and is licking my hand after I gave him his post-ride carrots and a small piece of his favourite treat, licorice. If anyone else would like SU to do more HORSE stamps then please let them know. Thank you!

'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

JAI #649 Colourful Planters

 

Happy Friday everyone and welcome back! It's been a busy school holidays for us - with appointments almost every day and we are looking forward to the weekend and hoping to do some crafting. I hope you are your family have had a fun time and the kids are are looking forward to returning to school.

Just in time for the weekend is this bright and beautiful Colour Challenge at Just Add Ink  It's suggested by the lovely Annie and I hope that you enjoy it! The design team have all created a variety of cards to inspire you for this week over on the JAI blog and we'd all love you to join in!

For my card this week I decided to make the colours focal points filled with plants. 

The background is embossed with a 3D Wood finish and a shelf made with the plants using some black, silver and Bermuda Bay glimmer card stock.

Firstly, I can hardly believe that Bermuda is retiring! It is a much used and loved colour of so many, including me...but I guess we will all soon realise how good the new colours are. 

The plants are all stamped with Smoky Slate to balance the bright colours with the similarly bright white background I chose and help the planters be the focal points.

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope that you can have fun with this bright and cheerful Colour Challenge at Just Add Ink this week. I look forward to seeing what you create!

Card stock: Smoky Slate, Basic White, Bermuda Bay Glimmer, Basic Black

Ink: Poppy Parade, Bermuda Bay, Smoky Slate

Stamps: Plentiful Plants

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Stitched Rectangle Framelits, Plentiful Plants Dies, Hardwood EF,

Metallic Sequins assortment

'Til next time,

Jan

 

JAI #598 Colour Challenge

Happy Friday and welcome!! It's been a busy week in our household but we managed to find some time for card making. It sure helps to tune out from the busyness and take some time to be creative and do some colouring. How is your week going? Hopefully you have time to read further and look at the current challenge below.

This week at Just Add Ink we have a fun colour challenge suggested for us by Chantell! The red, white and blue tones could work as well for a masculine card as a female and of course some flags around the world as well!! The design team have created a number of different looks and themes for you and we'd love to see what you create with these colours so I hope that you can pop on over to the main blog to see.

For my card I had two ideas in mind...I needed a Thank You card for someone and with Anzac Day coming it is also a great opportunity to get out the Painted Poppies stamp - even though it has retired.

The poppies were coloured with Blends first. Colouring is something that is quite relaxing and I could've coloured more of these for other cards. 

The Background was stamped using the same set and the die cut leaves were also coordinating. It is wonderful when one stamp bundle is all you need to complete a card but I did choose the sentiment from another for this time.

Card stock: Sahara Sand, Whisper White,

Ink: Misty Moonlight, Blends : Cherry Cobbler, Versamark

Stamps: Painted Poppies, Plentiful Plants

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Poppy Moments Dies, Painted Labels Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Shimmer Black EP, Metallic Sequins Assortment

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see the other design team cards and hopefully join us. I look forward to seeing what you create!

'Til next time,

Jan

 

JAI #590 Plentiful Plant Friends

Happy Friday everyone and welcome! It's been a hot Summer here in Australia this year and this coming weekend in Melbourne is no different. The schools are back now though which is wonderful for our young people. And our international borders are set to open in a few weeks. How amazing will that be for those missing friends and families abroad!!

This week at Just Add Ink it's time for an Inspiration Photo Challenge and this cute little cactus has been suggested by the lovely Nikki. Our lovely design team have created an array of beautiful cards to inspire you. The lovely thing about a Photo challenge is you can take what appeals to you from it to kick start you creative process.

I was inspired simply by there being a green plant and the subtle little polka dot pattern in the background.

During lockdown, I started collecting house plants. This has been a fun learning curve for an outside gardener.  A lovely friend gave me a Fiddle Leaf fig for Christmas and she has one too so their progress is something we can share. So when I saw this image in the co ordinating DSP, I knew it should be the star of my card for this week. Isn't she gorgeous?!!

The paper Lattice is also part of this Suite of products and really is lovely. I used it for a pattern background in the way the polka dots are in the photo and raised it up. After fussy cutting the little Fiddle, I added some Wink of Stella to it. Then with the twine, a sentiment and a sprinkling of Basic Jewels this very neutral coloured card is done. And it is as big a surprise to me, as it may be to some of you that I didn't add a touch of pink at all!! 

Card stock: Basic White, Thick and Standard

Designer Series Paper: Bloom Where You're Planted, Paper Lattice

Ink: Everest Evergreen

Stamps: Plentiful Plants

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Perfect Plants Dies, White Twine, Wink of Stella, Basic Jewels (rhinestones),

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoy your weekend and I look forward to seeing what you will create using this beautiful photo Inspiration Pic at Just Add Ink this week.

'Til next time,

Jan

JAI #577 Colourful Plants

Happy Friday everyone and welcome back! Today is a special day - and I can say so myself as it's my birthday! I am so glad too that Dan Andrews our Victorian Premier chose to have today as the day we can bring our long lockdown to an end!

This week at Just Add Ink we have a gorgeous Inspiration Photo challenge for you suggested by Kim. The design team have all created a wonderful variety of cards to inspire you. We'd love to have you join us. 

For my card I tried to recreate the Inspiration Photo leaves. I sponged a rainbow of colours onto water coloured card stock and then flicked some Distress Resist Spray and a little water onto the colours to recreate the water droplets in the photo.

Then the leaves were die cut and arranged in black and sillver foil pots to allow the colours to shine.

Card stock: Whisper White, (thick and standard) Basic Black, Silver Foil, Silver Glimmer

Ink: Versamark

Stamps: Pretty Perennials

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Plant dies, White EP,  Silver EP,  Rectangle Framelits 

Non SU: TIm Holtz, Distress Inks. Distress Watercolor Card stock.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can pop by Just Add Ink and I look forward to seeing what you create inspired by this pretty photo.

Til next time,

Jan