Amazing You for JAI #424

Hello and welcome 😊The days are flying by in our household with a new puppy to get to know and grow to love. Sally (Junior), a 15 month old black Labrador was chosen for us 2 weeks ago as a Companion Dog by Guide Dogs Victoria. She has taken no time at all to realise that I need her help occasionally and soon she will be ale able to accompany me when needed in public. Such as for On Stage local - here in Melbourne in November 😊Spring is only a day away, and thanks to young Sally, a new lease on life is coming for me too!

And it's also time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink! This week, Di has suggested that we Just Add....Texture to our projects. There are many ways to add texture - embossing paste, glitter, die cuts and layers. Our lovely design team have created fabulous projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and see and we'd love you to join us!

For my card this week, I went with layers, die cuts and embossing. The floral image from Beautiful Day was water coloured x3 and fussy cut and layered with dimensionals.

Underneath the flower,  are several more layers - some pretty metallic DSP,  the diamond panel die cut from the Eclectic layers and some Gold Foil and Organza ribbon.

Adding to the texture this week, is the Subtle embossing folder - so subtle in fact that it's very hard to see! And some black layers underneath the amazing die cut as well as the white embossed You finish the textural details.

Card stock: Basic Black, Lovely Lipstick, Gold foil,
Designer Series Paper: Springtime Foils (Saleabration 2018)
Inks: Lovely Lipstick, Pear Pizazz, Garden Green, Black Stazon
Stamps: Beautiful Day, Amazing You (Saleabration 2018)
Accessories: Big Shot, Celebrate You Thinlits, White EP, White Organza Ribbon, Gold Faceted Gems

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see what our fabulous design team have created to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create for this fun challenge!

So Sally is the name she came with from Guide Dogs....of course it is also the name of my previously much loved black Lab that passed away in March. We won't change her name as having come from GD's her name was always going to be special...so we decided to change her collar and lead colour from red to Pink. The harness came first - and we couldn't not choose Melon Mambo, and finding a collar to match was easy. It is covered in diamantes which for some reason means the song "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" just won't go away" She could be a Lucy I guess, but Sally Jr has so many similarities to her namesake that it just seems meant to be 😊

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Petals Birthday for JAI #423

Happy Friday and welcome back!  It's been a rather busy fortnight with Honey the sweet foster dog heading off to her lovely forever home and my new Companion Dog has arrived from Guide Dogs. She is a 15 month old black lab called Sally. Quite incredible  - especially the name - as her much loved predecessor was also a black Lab called Sally!! Sally (Junior) is settling in and we are looking forward to happy days ahead 😊

It's also time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink. This week we have a beautiful colour combination suggested by Kim to help kick start your projects. Our talented and lovely design team as always, have created a wonderful array of projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and we'd love you to join us.

 For my card, whilst these colours could indeed be used for a masculine card, I decided to go feminine and floral. The pretty image from Petal Palette is embossed in Silver and then coloured  using an Aqua Painter and ink pads. The other elements are also all from the same Bundle. It's a bit hard to see in the photo but the grey leaves have also had a generous dose of Wink of Stella and are so sparkly in real life.

Card stock: Bermuda Bay, Soft Suede, Silver Foil, Basic Grey, Whisper White
Inks: Bermuda Bay, Basic Grey, Versamark
Stamps: Petal Palette, Sunshine Wishes
Accessories: Big Shot, Silver Embossing Powder, Metallic Sequins, Petal Framelits

Thanks for stopping by today and hope you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and I look forward to seeing how you use this fun and pretty colour combo in your projects this week.

Of course, this post wouldn't be complete without a photo or two to welcome young Sally....here we are on meeting at Guide Dogs.

Yes, rawhide bones are what she is used to...and no, we couldn't find a bigger one 😀

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Pet Sympathy for JAI #421

Happy Friday everyone and welcome back :-) It's been a busy and rather chilly week here in Melbourne but we are over half way through Winter now so the days are getter longer again.

It's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink and this week we have a fabulous clean and simple and ever so versatile sketch for you to use from Narelle. Our design team have created a fabulous array of cards to inspire you so we hope that you will pop on over and take a look and join us :-)

For my card, I created a pet sympathy card for a lovely friend. I moved the Sentiment Panel to the bottom of the circle and it just needed a little heart 😊
The gorgeous images are all from a Whimsy stamp set called Fill My Heart and I added some shading underneath it with a Watercolor Pencili. The paw print stamp used for the background is also part of the same set.

Our pets are part of our families and give so much more than they receive so when their time comes to say goodbye it is as heart wrenching as losing any human. When a lovely friend shared her loss this lovely stamp set came to mind and I hope it will bring some comfort.
On a happier note...a family is coming to meet Honey, the very sweet young Lab/Kelpie I've been fostering this weekend so fingers crossed all goes well and she is settled soon. 😊

Card stock: Not Quite Navy, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Real Red
Inks: Early Espresso, Versamark
Accessories: Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits, White EP, Heart Punch (retired), Basic Rhinestones

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the fabulous inspiration from the design team and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this great versatile sketch too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Rainbow Happy Birthday for JAI #420

Happy Friday everyone and welcome! Winter is officially 2/3 down and only one month to go - Hip hip hooray!! Slowly but surely, the days are getting longer again and it won't be too long now til we will be welcoming Spring :-)

Yes, it's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink and this week we have this fabulous and vibrant Inspiration Photo from Nikki for us all to use in our projects. Yet again, our design team have created absolutely gorgeous projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look and we'd love you to join us.

Of course, I absolutely adore the vibrancy of this image and the circular shape was something that stood out to me too so that was what inspired my card.
Using one of the lovely Pattern Party masks, I inked up spatula after spatula of Embossing Paste with different re-inkers and had fun spreading the love - and paste - around :-)

To complete the card, I used the Happy Birthday thinlits with a mixture of Whisper White and Melon Mambo card. Then this was layered over a vellum circle to continue the theme and all was smothered in Fine Tip Glue Pen for some shine and dimension.

A sprinkling of sequins of different sizes and this bright and happy, no stamping needed card is ready to go in the mail!

Card stock: Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Vellum
Inks(re-inkers): Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral, Lemon Lime Twist, Bermuda Bay, Blackberry Bliss,
Accessories: Big Shot, Happy Birthday Thinlits,  Stitched Shapes Framelits, Fine Tip Glue Pen, Embossing Paste, Pattern Party Decorative Masks, Fine Tip Glue Pen,
Non SU: Crystal Reflections Sequins (SSS), Water colour Card Stock (TH/ Ranger)

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 wonderful inspiration from our lovely design team and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this beautiful Inspiration Photo too.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Creating natural Bath Bombs and Scrubs for JAI #419

Happy Friday and welcome back :-) This week has had it's up's and downs.... and a lunar eclipse as well!  Please note that this is a rather photo heavy post this week - enjoy :-)

This week's new challenge at Just Add Ink is suggested by Kelly and she'd  like us to add a Twist - that is using a product in a way that's not intended as it's obvious use. Our lovely design team have again excelled themselves and created a wonderful array of projects to inspire you so I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over and we'd love you to join us.

For some time, I've been thinking about trying to make some natural bath products both for personal use and for gifts. This was the perfect challenge to put those ideas to work! There are many ideas and recipes on Pinterest to try. I decided to go with this one to start with and make some bath bombs for this challenge. To make the large bath bomb the mould I am using is a plastic Christmas Bauble pack I got at Spotlight. 

I did of course change the flavour - this one using essential oils is a mixture of lavender and grapefruit and for colour, I did source some soap colourants so as not to colour the bath or recipients!! After you mix the dry ingredients, and add the colours and scents to the oils, whisk the mixture together and add a few little sprays of witch hazel toner in a spritzer til the mixture holds together when it is squeezed.

Then pack it in tightly to the bauble moulds, add more to allow for some wastage when closing and leave for about 5 mins to set before opening.

This one is a yummy Orange and Lemon  combo.

Then remove from the moulds and allow to dry  for 24 hours or so as otherwise, they will continue to release air and the pressure will cause the  moulds to crack....how do I know??

Also following the Twist theme, I filled some cute star Ice Cube trays to create smaller versions.

Then, I must admit, the creative juices were flowing and I went on to create 2 sugar scrubs and a salt one too. As far as scent goes...just follow your nose! For decoration, I used a mixture of sets that you wouldn't expect to see.

For this Lavender and Graperfuit salt scrub, I've used a retired Christmas Tag bundle for the tags. The Christmas Pines dies for the lavender sprigs and the Little Letters alphabet dies as labels.

Here,  the same Christmas bundle is used as a tag base, the "orange" is created from the wheel stamp of "Build a Bike" and the Letters name this, my favourite  - Orange and Clove sugar scrub.

The same stamps and dies are used here for this Lemon and Orange Sugar Scrub.

Yes, there are lavender and grapefruit star ( ice cube) mini bath bombs as well :-)

So it's Christmas all year round here and the house smells pretty amazing as well:-) 

Using moulds and bundles for creating every day products makes them so much more versatile and useful - and fun!

Card stock: Lovely Lipsitck, Mango Melody, Pineapple Punch, Whisper White, Silver Foil

Inks: Pineapple Punch, Mango Melody

Stamps: Build a Bike

Accessories: Big Shot, Merry Tags Framelits (retired), Little Letter Framelits (retired), Pretty Pines Framelits, Jute Twine

Non SU: Plastic Christmas Bauble pack (Spotlight), Small Jars ($2 Shop), Cellophane, Dead Sea Salt, Soap Colourants (Aussie Soap Supplies)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink and see all the gorgeous inspiration from our lovely design team and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this fun new challenge too!

A Big Welcome for JAI #418

Happy Friday and welcome! It's officially Mid - Winter and tonight is one of the rare occasions we have the sound of rain on the roof to help us lull off to sleep. So much of the country is in drought and even the local parks known for being soggy in Winter are cracked and dry so it is very welcome.

It's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink and this week's soft and pretty colours have been suggested by Jo. As always, our lovely team have created beautiful projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment and pop on over and join us.

I will say that pastels are not my go-to colours....so this was a bit a challenge. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and pastels are mine. But challenges  (like in life) are all opportunities to grow and to the rescue here was Soft Sea Foam. When I first saw this colour I thought it looked to be a lovely "neutral" baby colour. So this was the perfect opportunity to explore that ....tho it didn't end up so neutral :-)

The background uses an Aqua Painter and it is much easier to get a smooth effect with a new brush. Over time the rough, water colour paper causes the brush bristles to split like hairs and that means a rough finish. I opened a new brush today and really noticed it gave me more water and a softer finish which was perfect for this project.

Once the background was dry, the sentiment was stamped also in Sea Foam.
And the cute images from A Little Wild were embossed in white and added over layering circles.

And the leaves die cut is also part of the same cute little bundle.

Card stock: Sea Foam, Blushing Bride, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White

Inks: Sea Foam, Blushing Bride, Versamark

Stamps: A Little Wild

Accessories: Little Loves Framelits, Layering Circles Framelits, Iridescent Sequin Assortment, White EP, Aqua Painter

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to head to Just Add Ink and see all the fabulous projects the team have created to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this soft and pretty colour combo too.

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan