3rd Tree Shaker for JAI #270

This week has been beautifully mild but we are in for a wet and chilly weekend which will at least be good for the ski fields as the School Holidays draw to a close :-)

But if you're not looking for snow outside maybe you might like to try looking for some inside?
Yes, It is time for a fun new challenge at Just Add Ink and this week the lovely Nikki has suggested these Inspiration Photos for us. They have a fantastic Christmas in July look to them! The Team have made some amazing creations to inspire you too so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and have a look!

Here are the photos:

Classic red and white and a tree…or maybe two?!

Inspiration photos are a great challenge as you can pick and choose which elements you want to use and that can be as many or as few as you like! What jumped out at me was the red and white twirls and stripes and the green tree with its ornaments and the star at the top. 

So what images do you see?

Red and white has been my favourite Christmas colour combo for decorations over the last couple of years and so it was time to put those ideas into a card. Last year, my first card with the Trees set was a Shaker card and a friend "challenged" me to make more so this is the third in that Series too - such fun!! 

To raise the white layer high enough to fit the Shaker Frame Adhesive without being lumpy, I used a layer of fun foam…otherwise all products are Stampin Up including some Crystal Effects on the Joy for a little shine :-)

Now to create room for the greeting within the embossed trees I cut 3 rectangles from some DSP Bases the size of the card front and used the Label Framelits to cut a window in each piece of card big enough for the greeting and then stuck them together. 

To make my Big Shot sandwich, I first stamped the greeting on the white panel where I wanted it, and placed inside the EF. The EF goes on the bottom of Tab 2 and then the DSP bases on top with the window over the greeting and one cutting plate on top - no cutting plate underneath :-)

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer, Red Glimmer

Designer Series Paper: Brights Stack

Inks: Garden Green, Real Red

Stamps: Festival of Trees, Wondrous Wreath

Accessories: Big Shot, Wondrous Wreath Framelits, Tree EF, Tree Punch, Confetti Stars Punch, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Metallic Silver Twine, Crystal Effects, Silver Metallic Twine, Shaker Frame Adhesive (retired), fun foam sheets (non SU)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the fabulous creations the Team have made to inspire you this week and I look forward to seeing what you will make with these fabulous photos too :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Blue Steel Joy

Welcome to the last Saturday before Christmas - hasn't it seemed to come so quickly this year?! I do love Christmas and the joy of Carol singing and celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and friends but this year I am not quite as organised as usual and so have a number of cards yet to do. So I turned  to Wondrous Wreath (again!)  to try another colour scheme :-)

Quite handy as a stack of cards :-)

Card stock: Island Indigo, Whisper White, Silver Foil Specialty

Inks: Pool Party, Island Indigo, Real Red'

Stamps: Wondrous Wreath, 

Accessories: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath Framelits,Large Polka Dot EF, Satin Silver ribbon,  Blue Sequins (Non SU)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Special gift box and card

Some time ago I started to put together the awesome Merry and Bright star boxes and as I did so, I wanted to make them usable gift boxes and so I added another inside layer so there is a base and a lid. And today I used my first one for some chocolates :-) Of course this called for a matching card but first the box!

So this is the largest of the Cherry cobbler boxes - and it fits a whole pack of Lindt chocolates! And yes, it has been quite surreal in Australia this week with the terrorist situation in the Sydney Lindt Cafe. This gift is nothing to do with that but I did consider that buying the brand of chocolates might just mean standing in solidarity with the brand. But at the heart of it, they are beautiful chocolates and always bring joy wherever they go :-) And you can see here in the filled box, that I used some Kraft card stock to make the inside of the box - and as it holds the whole of it (despite temptation!) it is a very handy size!

And I was up early this morning to get a card made in time to go with this……and here it is :-)

Yes, it is similar in design to some I shared earlier in the week - just this time in more traditional colours.

And some touches of gold :-)

Card stock: Real Red, Whisper White, Gold Foil

Ink: Pear Pizazz, Garden Green, Real Red

Stamps: Wondrous Wreath

Accessories: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath framelits, Large Polka Dots EF, Gold sequin trim, Real Red ribbon

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope that you have a great day today and enjoy getting together all your Christmas cards and gifts!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Joyful Wreath and Snake alert!!

Good evening! It has been a warm Saturday today and one that has had a fair share of drama for us….it is Summer here in Australia and that means it is snake season. So supposedly they are commonplace. Except I grew up in New Zealand - snake free land - and I am not comfortable even walking into the reptile house in the Zoo. So you can imagine my shock and horror when I opened the French door to take out washing to hang and there on the doorstep was a snake - that quickly wiggled away! A Tiger snake by all accounts…venomous of course! First thing I did was scream as I closed the door and went to keep Sally the Lab away/ Of course, I had spent most of the afternoon at the craft table - leaving the French doors open…..Oh my goodness!! So a quick phone call and the "Snake catcher" came but by then the snake couldn't be found…so we are not going to sleep well tonight I suspect!! The Catcher will come tomorrow and I will certainly keep a look out in the meantime. Is amazing and a relief the snake didn't come inside …and I was working in the garden this afternoon too….is scary what might have been. I am told the Tiger snake is more afraid of me than I of it but those who know me will tell you that is not likely!!! We haven't had snakes here before but there is  major construction going on next door so that is the likely source….better not be any more is all I can say!

In the meantime, before the snake drama I was working on a couple of Christmas cards using the Wondrous Wreath set - the first is using Traditional Colours and some retired Tule Ribbon to match the Cherry Cobbler Embossing powder.

Card stock: Pear Pizzaz, Whisper White, Gold Foil Specialty

Inks: Pear Pizzaz, Garden Green, Versamark

Stamps: Wondrous Wreath

Accessories: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath Framelts, Large Polka Dots EF, Gold Sequin Trim, Cherry Cobbler EP, Cherry Cobbler Tule Ribbon (retired)

And the second is a revisit of the Gold and Silver Themed Challenge card I made earlier in the week for the Friday Mash Up where I was Cindy's pick as a Glamette - such a lovely surprise!! And you can see my original  post here

This time I embossed the greeting on the card first and then embossed the white card with the Large Polka Dot EF only above the greeting.

So I started by embossing the many leaves in Silver, then allowed time for it to cool and rubbing with the Embossing Buddy before adding the other layers - also one at a time. And of course added some silver and gold sequins. 

Card stock: Brushed Silver, Whisper White, Gold Foil specialty

Inks: Versamark

Stamps: Wonderful Wreath

Accessories: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath Framelits, Large Polka Dot EF, Silver, Gold and Cherry Cobbler EP, Silver Satin Ribbon, Gold Sequin trim, Frosted Sequin embellishments, Tombow glue, Dimensionals, glue dots

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope your preparations for Christmas are going well!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Silver and Gold Christmas

It's been a typical "four seasons in one (Melbourne) day" - we woke at 5am to overhead crashes of thunder and flashes of lightening followed by heavy rain. This was blown away by a gentle breeze and replaced this afternoon with such glorious warm sunshine that as the rhyme goes "dried up all the rain" but as I type the clouds are closing in again and I'm sure there will be at least rain coming down through the "spout" again :-)
And "the patient" is resting comfortably (Sally, the black Lab had surgery to remove a mass from her leg mid week) so I will gladly take the opportunity to sit at the craft tablet and make a card!

At The Friday Mashup this week is a great challenge to use Silver and Gold - and for the Mashup, to make a Christmas project as well.

And as I still haven't quite finished all my Christmas cards, I thought I'd opt for the whole Mashup :-)

For the card base I used some Brushed Silver card and then there are three layers of embossing powder to make up the wreath - Silver,  Gold and the berries in Cherry Cobbler. The matching framelits mean cutting out the wreath is so easy and is added with dimensionals. The gold foil Joy is all part of the set too :-) A sprinkling of gold and silver sequins and a Silver Satin ribbon bow and the card is complete!

Card stock: Brushed Silver, Whisper White, Silver Foil

Inks: Versamark

Stamps: Wondrous Wreath

Access: Big Shot, Wonderful Wreath Framelits, Large Polka Dots EF,  Silver, Gold and Cherry Cobbler EP, Frosted Sequins assortment, Gold Sequins, Silver Satin Ribbon

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you have a moment to check out the great challenge at The Friday Mashup and the wonderful projects their Team have made to inspire - and maybe you might be the next to enter :-)

EDITED TO ADD: A huge thank you to Cindy for choosing my card as your Glamette this week! Such a lovely surprise :-) 

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Joy Case

Good evening! Well it has been a cold and wet day today for the first day of Spring! I have the odd new plant in the garden so am not that unhappy about the rain but poor Sally has spent the afternoon hiding in the bathroom from the rain and hail! Of course she came out for food - ever the food loving Labrador :-) - but quickly returned there. At least she is happy!

So I decided to break out some new stamps - the Wondrous Wreath bundle and for my first card I wanted to CASE the card in the Holiday Catalogue :-)

For the card base I used some Pear Pizazz and for the background used the berry image in Pear Pizazz ink. The long tartan banner is cut from DSP in the beautiful Trim the Tree DSP Stack - it's perfectly sized for cards so easy to use!

And the white banner is also run through the Big Shot using the Woodgrain EF for some added texture.

To stamp the actual wreath, I kept close to the original colour mix - Pear Pizazz, Mossy Meadow and Versamark ink and Cherry Cobbler embossing powder.

The beautiful Joy is cut from gold foil card stock and is so shiny and adds a beautiful texture.

And the gold ribbon is literally two bows folded and affixed to the sides of the card.

Card stock: Pear Pizazz, Whisper White, Gold Foil Specialty

Designer Series Paper: Trim the Tree Stack

Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Meadow Moss, Versamark

Stamps: Wondrous Wreath

Accessories: Big Shot, Wondrous Wreath Framelits, Cherry Cobbler Embossing Powder, Woodgrain EF, Gold Ribbon

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Jan