JAI #643 Choose Two Dance

Hello everyone and welcome back! It's hard to believe that Summer is over already and the mornings are definitely darker and cooler lately. The veggie garden is still producing lots of tomatoes and other summer goodies so it doesn't quite feel like Autumn yet. Saleabration is over and I placed a late order so it's been fun to play with some new goodies from the Occasions Catalogue this week.

It's new challenge time at Just Add Ink and Nikki has suggested we Choose Two of Blending, Embossing or White. These elegant techniques really create a lot of options and the design team have created a beautiful array of cards to inspire you so I hope that you can pop on over and take a look and I'd love to see what you create!

My card with its white embossing has proven difficult to photograph so I hope that you can see the musical notes on the white background. I chose Blending and Embossing - and yes, there is white too.

The ballerina image from the new Ballet Beauty set is stamped and then coloured using a few different pink coloured Blends and then covered in a liberal layer of Wink of Stella. Fussy cut and added above a white and silver ribbon. My oldest niece has just started using point shoes in her ballet classes and so this card is to celebrate her wonderful achievement. 

The cut apart sentiment is part of one in the same stamp set.  The Dance is created using the Playful Alphabet dies, a few layers of each letter and a generous layer of Fine Tip Glue Pen to make it 3D and shiny. 

The white background layer is embossed with the Merry Melody 3D embossing folder.

Card stock: Petal Pink, Basic White

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Blends: Petal Pink, Rococo Rose

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Merry Melodies  EF, Playful Alphabet Dies, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Fine Tip Glue Pen, White and Silver Ribbon, Metallic Sequins Assortment

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed my card and are inspired to join in this week's Just Add Ink challenge. I look forward to seeing what you will create for this fun and elegant challenge!

'Til next time,

Jan

 

JAI #641 Happiness Birthday

 Happy Friday everyone and welcome! It's the last Friday in February, last Friday of Summer. That seems to have gone so fast although it has been quite warm to make up for the shorter time.

It's time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink. This week we have a beautiful Inspiration Photo from Nikki.

Beaches and Summer go hand in hand. The salty, fresh breezes and gentle, warm water are so lovely and relaxing! I just love to walk along the water's edge and watch Sally my Labrador walk through the water - she does this slow  'high kick" walk with her back legs that is quite hilarious but she is so happy! What do you do at the beach?
The design team have all created a beautiful array of cards to inspire you. So I hope that you can take a moment and go and have a peek as we would love you to join us!

My card for this challenge was inspired by the colours in the Photo. I picked up on the blues in the sea. the tones in the sand and yellow in the shells to create a Birthday card.

The card is coloured using  Zig Brush tip watercolor markers. These have been languishing in my craft room for too long so it was lovely to give them a workout. Zigs have vibrant colour that softened using a water painter.

Using Water color paper, I embossed the images using Black EP and added a little water to a section using my water painter before adding a little colour with a Zig marker. Then the water painter helped move the colour around - a little or a lot. And then I was able to drop in some darker colours to add depth.

The Happiness Abounds bundle is beautiful to colour and there are dies to cut out all the pieces and then it is just a bit like floral lego to work out what pieces go where! This sentiment is from another floral beauty, Artistically Inked and a scattering of rhinestones complete this card.

Thanks for popping by today! I hope that you were inspired to have a look over at Just Add Ink and join us for this week's challenge. I look forward to seeing what you will create!

'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

JAI #637 Birthday Sketch

 

Happy Friday everyone and hope you are just about ready for school term time to begin for the year! 
It's a long weekend here in Australia and many families are coming back from a trip away or even a short, weekend break before the school year starts again next week. 

I hope you all enjoyed our Just Add Ink Blog Hop last week?! I loved seeing the entries pile in and hope we will have more of the same with this rather fun sketch this week from Tina! 

Our lovely design team created a wonderful array of cards with different themes and colours. So beautiful.

I needed to create a pink 21st card and had been saving the beautiful Expressions of Ink DSP for just such an occasion. I added the DSP pieces to card stock and then cut these too to give added dimension.

The gold foil 21 and the white die cuts aim to add to the elegance factor. The "st" created from cutting individual letters from the "thanks" word in the Well Worded set.

Card stock: Basic White thick and standard, Gold Foil, Vellum

DSP: Expressions of Ink

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Stitched Shapes Dies, Large Numbers dies, Well Worded dies

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope that you have been inspired and I look forward to seeing what you will create with this fun sketch at Just Add Ink this week.

JAI #636 Blog Hop - Just Add Your Favourite

 

Hello and welcome to the annual Just Add Ink Blog Hop!! Every year we have a Blog Hop for the first Challenge week and we have a wonderful theme for the challenge that we hope you will all enjoy! 

So whether you've just arrived from the lovely Di Barnes's blog or you are starting here, it might be time for a cuppa as you click around the whole design team's beautiful project's!

It's the beginning of a new year with new lots of new things. But there is something that we all love to hold on to whether new or old - our Favourites!!

That's right!! This Just Add Ink challenge you can have free range adding as many favourites as you like - but you must please tell us what your favourites are in your post! Our design team have many favourites from techniques to colours to stamps - and we are sure you do too! We hope this Hop inspires you to share your favourites with us over at the Just Add Ink blog.

I have two cards this week to share with you this week. My favourite flowers are sunflowers - I love how they follow the sun and are so dramatic! And colouring is a favourite technique for me too!

This, Clean and Simple version in particular, is inspired by a favourite photo of my much loved Black Lab, Sally sniffing a Lemon Bling sunflower plant in our garden.

You can see in the photo that the sunflower is a dwarf bloom and is a brilliant lemon colour...and a few Hungry Caterpillars have found the leaves.

This is what inspired my colouring of the first card. 😊

You can also see the sparkle here from the Wink of Stella - another favourite of mine to bring a subtle and often surprising sparkle.

I kept the same layout for this more traditionally coloured Sunflower. And added die cuts from the coordinating bundle of dies to a white background instead of using an embossing folder. The white on white technique for adding texture is yet another favourite!

Add a few rhinestones and more Wink of Stella and we have another beautiful sunny day to remember!

These are my favourites.

 Next you are off to see the favourites of the beautiful Rochelle Blok and you are in for a treat with her gorgeous creation. Enjoy!

Blog Hop list - in case you get lost along the way,  you can click on the Just Add Ink Blog Hop graphic to go to the JAI blog. Alternatively you can look at the list below:

1. Chantell Randall 

2. Kim Badelt   

3. Annie Alexander      

4. Lou Kitzelman

5. Nikki Spencer

6. Di Barnes

7. Jan McQueen - you are here

8. Rochelle Blok

9. Kerry Bunting

10. Narelle Farrugia

11. Joanne Stubbings

12. Tristan Dawes

13. Tina Gillespie

14. Fiona Bradley

'Til next time

Jan

 

JAI #634 Visa Gift Card Wallets

 

Happy Friday everyone! It's hard to believe that we are half way through December already! Christmas is coming and here in Melbourne it has been unusually cold. I wonder if that means that we will have a White Christmas even though it's supposed to be Summer?

This week at Just Add Ink, we have a fabulous challenge suggested by Tristan, to Just Add... Anything But a Card". That could be a Gift Card, a gift box or bag or a seasonal frame. So many different things you could create that are not cards. Our lovely design team have made some amazing projects to inspire you so I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over and see and we'd love you to join us.

I decided to make some large Gift Card holders and decorate them like wallets.

Visa gift cards come in large packets and are sealed so you cannot open them. The packet is more than twice the size of the actual card.

These I am sending overseas to my nieces and nephew amongst other things.

The wallets all have a silver strip along the bottom of the front flap that help it make look more professional.

And inside, they have an image from North Pole Mischief. 

Rather obviously, this recipient is a cat lover. 

This one for my Teenage nephew. He has indeed been good this year!.

I love the fun nature of both the DSP and the NP Mischief sets.

And some florally, girlie sets with the initial set over a delicate ornament. 

My nieces and sisters are all cat people so that is reflected in this fun  set. 

The main idea was to present the gift card in a fun way and make it special for each person. 
I hope they all like their gift holders this year!

What will you make that is not a card for this second last Just Add Ink challenge for 2022? We'd love to see what you are creating for friends and loved ones.

'Til next time,

Jan