Just Add a Design Team Member!

Welcome to another glorious Autumn day and I hope you are having a lovely Good Friday?! Today I have some wonderful news to share with you :-) As many of you will know,  I have been a Guest Designer with the wonderful  Just Add Ink Team over the last two months. I've had a fabulous time  and have been so warmly welcomed by the lovely ladies on the Team and had such fun creating for the challenges. And now I am so excited to be able to share with you that I have been asked to join the Team permanently!! Such a lovely surprise and honour!! So I am very glad that it is Friday already and  time for my first post as Guest Designer on the Team - woo hoo!!

This week Narelle has suggested a Just Add Inspiration challenge for you with a beautiful photo! So full of lovely Autumn colours for the first week in April :-)

So much to love about these photos and I hope you have a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see the wonderful and varied creations that the lovely Team have made to inspire you this week :-)

For my card I created a little bouquet of flowers using the fun Flower Patch set and and co-ordinating Framelits. The chevrons are stamped on some white card and then have a piece of Vellum layered over the top :-)

Card stock: Calypso coral, Whisper White, Vellum Card stock

Inks: Calypso coral, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pear Pizazz, Versamark

Stamps: Flower Patch, Work of Art, Positively Chevron

Accessories: Big Shot, Flower Fair Framelits, Gold Twine, Gold EP, Non SU Sequins

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink to see all the wonderful ways the Team have been inspired by these photos and I look forward to seeing what you will create this week too!

In the meantime have a wonderful Easter long weekend - and don't forget for those in Australia to put the clocks back an hour Sunday morning as Daylight Savings Ends -  :-(  And I hope you have a wonderful time with loved ones and friends :-)  As for me, I'm going to be pretty busy today and tomorrow singing with a music group at our local church and am looking forward to a relaxing day on Sunday :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Fish Big for CYCI

A very Happy Easter to you wherever you are in the world today and whatever you are doing! It is such a special time of year and one of my favourite times :-)

Today's card is inspired by the the great team at Can you Case it.

I've had the idea for this card for a few days and finally got some time to sit down and put it together. I think I had fish and Good Friday on my mind too!!

For the Chevrons I've used the Positively Chevron stamp in two ways - ideally I had wanted to run the bottom half of the white page thru the Big Shot with the Embossing Folder too but the folder is too large to go through on its side so stamping has to suffice to give the wave effects of the sea :-)

The base card is Island Indigo and then I used 2 pieces of Whisper white - the bottom piece I stamped the chevrons directly in Island Indigo ink and then for the top piece I sponged Pool Party ink onto the stamp and stamped to give a much lighter and softer look and added with dimensionals.

I wanted to give the idea of movement so added the On Film piece on an angle on dimensionals and stamped the Fish from By the Tide in Calypso Coral ink and then coloured with some Crisp Cantaloupe using a Blender Pen.

The little greeting is from A Dozen thoughts and as usual I used my Hexagon Punch to flag the banner ends - love how easy that makes it! The little button is made from Simply Pressed Clay and is quite sparkly in real life as I sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds into the mould before adding the clay. It is coloured using some Island Indigo ink and another Blender Pen :-) And finally just a few silver sequins for bubbles.

Card stock: Island Indigo, Whisper White

Inks: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe

Stamps: Positively Chevron, By the Tide, A Dozen Thoughts

Accessories: Big Shot, On Film Framelits, Hexagon punch, Simply Pressed Clay, Blender Pens, Whisper White Bakers Twine, Silver Sequins (Non- SU)

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you and for family have a very happy Easter and maybe you might have time to see what the fabulous Team at Can You Case It have made to inspire you and see if you can CASE it too :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Records and stars for the Paper Players

Its another gorgeous day In Melbourne, with clear blue skies and warm enough still for short sleeves. And so after taking Sally for a walk and play with her friend Monty….

 It was time to make a card - inspired by the sketch at the Paper Players this week.

When I saw the sketch and the circles I decided to make this a masculine card for some friends whose musician friends' Anniversary is later this week. Hence my theme of records and stars.

To make the striped edging, I masked off most of the White card  - actually with Masking tape! -  as I wanted a straight line to stamp the Positively Chevron against. Then I added another piece of White card stock on dimensionals and stamped with some Gorgeous Grunge.

The black and gold records were created using the Circle Framelits altogether inside each other -  and the black has a layer of Modge Podge applied to it as well in order to make it a little shiny like a real LP :-) 

The fun Sassy Salutations forms the greeting here and also is  cut and layered using the Circle Framelits and dimensionals. And the large star is first punched and then embossed with the Chevron EF before the finishing touches of the sequin and Bakers Twine bow were added for a bit of softness :-)

Card stock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Gold Foil Specialty

Inks: Rich Razzleberry

Stamps: Positively Chevron, Gorgeous Grunge, Sassy Salutaions

Accessories: Big Shot, Circle Framelits, Large Star punch (Retired), Whisper White Bakers Twine, Dimensionals, Non SU sequin

Thanks so much for dropping by and I hope you feel inspired to check out the great sketch this week at the Paper Players and maybe have a go too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Happy Watercolor

I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday wherever you are today! Here we are enjoying a short break from the hot weather of earlier in the month and are expecting our first decent rain of the year - hopefully!

Today's card is for the Paper Craft Crew sketch challenge. The Design Team have created some lovely and fun cards to inspire you so I hope you are encouraged to join us in the challenge this week!

I decided to use a new set from the Occasions Catalogue - Happy Watercolor - and for those Australians and NZ'rs no, its not a spelling mistake its just the stamp uses the American spelling :-)

The base of the card is Coastal Cabana and has been stamped with the Positively Chevron background stamp  in Versamark ink and then embossed with White EP. 

The next layer is actually a Calypso Coral Frame cut with the Square Framelits - yes , I know it is a  rectangle frame!! It is easy to turn the square into a rectangle and I will do a tutorial in my next post:-) I did leave the frame plain but it does sit over the white layer which is also backed on the same sized piece of Calypso Coral card.

The three background colours are all stamped off once onto scrap paper before stamped onto the white card. The flower image is stamped 3 times - once onto the card and twice where it is coloured using a Blender pen and cut and layered with Dimensionals.

The little Banner is made from the gorgeous Watercolor Wonder designer series paper and have added some Non SU sequins and also to the centre of the card. Yes! I have been converted :-) Sequins are definitely the IN thing!!

The greeting is from the Sassy Salutaions stamp set and is also stamped in Baked Brown Sugar onto Coastal Cabana card stock and cut out with the fabulous Word Bubble Framelits.

Card Stock: Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral, Whisper White

Designer Series paper: Watercolor Wonder

Inks: Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral, So Saffron, Baked Brown Sugar, Versamark

Stamps: Happy Watercolor, Sassy Salutations, Positively Chevron

Accessories: Big Shot, Word Bubble Framelits, White Embossing Powder, Blender Pens Non SU Sequins, 

I hope you feel inspired to join us over at the Paper Craft Crew this week!

In the meantime here is a fun photo taken during the dog friends play this morning - for those who aren't familiar, Sally is my black Labrador and she is 9 1/2years and Monty her young playmate is a 4 year old Golden Retriever. They met at the park three years ago and quickly became best mates and now if they don't see each other for play every day or so they get very depressed. They push and prod and jump all over each other and then follow it up with hugs and kisses :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Summer Birthday and JAI #195

These last couple of weeks I have been focused on finsihing Christmas cards and have missed being able to take part in many card Challenges! But they are all done now - all 57 of them, phew! So now it's time for a card inspired by the Colour Challenge this week at Just Add Ink.

My first challenge was that I don't actually have any Soft Sky or Blushing Bride in ink or card stock - so I have used Pool Party instead of the Sky :-) 

And here too is a first look at some of the upcoming Salebration free items!!

The card base is Whisper White, the next layer of white is stamped with Positively Chevron in Calypso Coral ink and then partially covered with the same colour card using the Decorative Dots EF. This is then added with some dimensionals to the Pool Party layer.

The greeting is from the fun Saleabration set See Ya Later and is cut out and layered using the Oval Framelits. The butterflies are from the familiar Papillon Potpourri set and the button is made from Simply Pressed Clay using the button molds filled with Dazzling Diamonds.

Card Stock: Whisper White, Calypso Coral So Safron, Pool Party

Ink: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, So Safron

Stamps: See Ya Later *, Papillon Potpourri, Positively Chevron

Accessories: Big Shot, Oval Framelits, Decorative Dots EF*, Elegant and Bitty Butterfly punches, Basic Rhinestones, Simply Pressed Clay, Bakers Twine

* Saleabration item

So fabulous to have all the Christmas cards done in time for posting (via the Post office ) and look forward to sharing in some more challenges soon.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan 

Rev Up for the Males

It is such a beautiful and warm day today - currently its 34 degrees Celsius but its expected to get to 36 and it probably will. So its an "inside with air con" day for us after an early trot to the Park for a walk :-)

Today's card is a CASE of a card I saw on line a couple of months ago and stamped some of  the images at the time but was waiting for my whiite Gel pen….and so today was a great time to have a quick break from Christmas cards and projects and put it together! I can't find the original picture but I have changed a few bits and pieces from what I can remember. If you find the original please let me know as I'd love to give credit to the person that inspired me!

The front of the card is made using the "Chalk board" technique - white embossed onto black card stock and if you don't use the Embossing Buddy and some stray bits of EP float onto the black card thats absolutely fine, just adds to the look! The chevron punched images only just fit :-) And the gum ball green arrow is hand cut and stamped in Black Stazon ink.
The White frame is hand drawn - ok, with a ruler! Using the White Gel Pen.
And the background is the gorgeous Positively Chevron stamped in Smoky Slate ink

Card stock: Smoky slate, Basic Black, Gumball Green, Whisper White

Inks: Versamark, Smoky slate, Black Stazon

Stamps: Rev Up the Fun, Positively Chevron

Accessories: White EP,White Gel Pen, Chevron Border Punch.

This card has "teenager" written all over it don't you think? It is destined to go inside one of the Christmas gifts I will share with you later - a set of 6 cards packaged to impress :-)

In the meantime, I need a card for an Uncle who prefers cars to motorbikes….and so went to my stack of previously stamped images for inspiration.

For those of you wondering, I don't own this stamp and it has recently returned home with its rightful owner :-) I discovered I didn't have any tyres stamped so decided to improvise using the Gorgeous Grunge set. The smoky slate lines provide a "road' instead. 

The greeting is embossed with White embossing powder onto Pacific point card stock and cut with the Wide Oval punch. The arrow is from the Hello Lovely set and is stamped in Black Stazon and cut out with scissors. The greeting, Car and Arrow are all added with dimensionals.

Card stock: Smoky Slate, Basic Black, Whisper White, Pacific Point

Ink: Pacific Point, Smoky Slate, Coastal Cabana, Black Stazon, Versamark

Stamps: Rev Up the Fun, Gorgeous Grunge, Hello Lovely

Access: White EP, Wide Oval Punch

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Stamping Catch Up

On Tuesday one of my best friends came over and we went out for a quick lunch - at a new place we may not go back to...nice food but quite noisy.... and then we came home and had a fun stamping time together - and even had some new goodies to play with! We had a lovely time and here is some of what we made.

My friend Bernie, made this very pretty card using her Flower Shop set and some Gingham Washi tape. She punched the flower centres with the 1/2" circle punch and layered them with dimensionals. Isn't it so pretty? The greating is from Curly Cute.

And I concentrated on some male themed cards in preparation for a "Stamp & Chat" this Friday night. Both are CASED from another SU demo, Justin Krieger. The first card I didn't change a thing...

I love that whilst there is the element of some grunge it is basically a clean card with little embellishment. I did use Stamp-a -ma-jig to line up the tyre marks which are stamped on a piece of white card stock and then cut out. the greeting is embossed with white EP and cut out with my new oval Framelits - in fact everything used here needed a packet opened! ( such fun too!) The Rev Up the Fun stamp set is not actually mine - it belongs to another good friend who is very kind to let me borrow it :-)

Card stock: Whisper White, Smoky Slate, Pacific Point

Ink: Pacific Point, Smoky Slate, Black Stazon, Versamark

Stamps: Rev Up the Fun, Gorgeous Grunge, Positively Chevron

Accessories: Big Shot, Oval Framelits, White EP, Corner rounder Punch

The next card is also one of Justin's that I added some bling to:

And yes, I really AM a fan of blue! I tried this in the traditional red and green for Christmas but didn't really like it as much. This is a new Single Stamp called Wonderful Blessing and it is beautiful! Its lovely that it has an image and a greeting all in the same stamp!! It will make for quick and easy Christmas cards:-) 

 I added a Rhinestone to the star and the two navy brads in addition to Justin's original design - I still have a drawer of retired brads - these are from the Earth Elements. The doily is sponged with Midnight Muse ink and I love the new Hesham ribbon!

Card stock: Soft Suede, River Rock, Very Vanilla

Ink: Midnight Muse

Stamp: Wonderful Blessing

Accessories: Big Shot, Circle Framelits, hesham ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, Not Quite Navy brads (retired)

And of course the day is not over until the two dog friends have a play....this time we paid a short visit to Monty at his home. The friends had a good romp and then just lay chewing on sticks together ("sticking" together LOL!) enjoying each others company.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan