JAI #686 Citrus Splash Birthday

 

Happy Friday and welcome back! I hope that you enjoyed our Blog Hop for our first Just Add Ink challenge of the year last week? It was lovely to see the gallery full with so many beautiful cards! 

This week at Just Add Ink we have a Summery Inspiration photo to kick start our creative processes from Nikki. With Inspiration photos you can take what you appeals to you from the photo to help you create your project. Our design team have created a great variety of cards to inspire you. I hope you can pop on over to the main blog and we'd love to have you join us.

For me, it is that little slice of cut lime in the image that inspired my card! 

I created several pieces of both lime and lemons using a retired SU set called Lemon Zest. I also created an ombre blue background because of the fabulous blue in the photo too.

Thanks for stopping by this week! I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink as we'd love to see what you create for this fun Photo Inspiration Challenge.

'Til next time,

Jan

Just Add Ink #685 Blog Hop!

 

Happy New Year and welcome to the first Just Add Ink Challenge for 2024! To Just Add....Flowers.
And as is our tradition, this first challenge is a Blog Hop from all our Design Team. So a big welcome if you've just come from Kim's blog and her gorgeous flowers and inky background.

After spending the last few weeks of the year making Christmas cards, I always love to revisit the SU Main Catalogue and especially stamp sets that I might've had for a little while and try something new with them.

Well, this isn't a new technique - a bit of rock 'n roll - but it has made for a new look.

I used the background image from the Artistically Inked set and inked it up using Granny Apple Green with a little Shaded Spruce for the effects. I stamped this twice - to created a sort of inky butterfly. 

The same sort of thing is done with both the flowers and leaves though the darker colour is sponged onto the stamps to give a softer image. For the flowers I used Fresh Fresia and Berry Burst and the same colours for the leaves as the back ground. The sentiment is from the same set and a little bling is all that is needed to complete my first challenge card of the year!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you are enjoying seeing all the different flowers from all the team.
Next you are off to see Di Barnes and her gorgeous Lavender project . If you happen to get lost at all along the way, just click on the JAI Blog challenge picture to return to the main Blog with a full list of all design team members links.  And whilst you're there, have a look at the wonderful new JAI Team graphics that we have for this year! So fresh and lovely don't you think?!

'Til next time,
Jan

Christmas Ornament for JAI #683

 

Welcome everyone to another happy Friday! Christmas is only 11 days away and I'm sure if celebrating it is something you are looking to do, then you will be busy! It is quite a crazy busy time of year - especially for us card makers. So I hope that you are getting through your list of things to do and staying safe and well. 

This week at Just Add Ink  we have a fun challenge that we hope that will help you with all the Christmas preparations that you may be doing. There are such a variety of amazing projects both cards and 3D that I hope that you can pop over to the JAI blog to see. We'd love to see you join us!

I chose Trees and Ornaments to create my card. Whilst there are no actual trees on my card, there is wood in the Woodgrain EF on the background and there are of course the lovely tree leaves!

The lovely Handcrafted Elements dies hasn't quite made it into my craft room yet. A lovely friend sent me white die cut of the Ornament and I love how detailed it is. 

To turn it into silver, it is quite easy! Just emboss the whole die cut by covering it with Versamark ink and dip it in Silver Embossing Powder - at least twice. It is a way that you can change any piece of card to a metallic look. Just be careful how you hold it near the heat tool as it gets very hot!

This simple card is on it's way to a recipient now and I hope that she likes it. 

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope that you enjoyed how I made this card and I'd love to see what sort of project that you would like to make for this challenge over at the JAI blog.

Card stock: Pretty Peacock, Basic White, Glimmer Paper Assortment Pack (retired).

Inks: Versamark

Stamps: Christmas Classics

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Woodgrain 3D EF, Silver EP, Christmas Classics Dies, Metallic Sequins Assortment

I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has spent time reading my posts and writing comments both here and on other Social Media. Thank you! It is so lovely to recieve a little encouragement along the way whether we are new or not so in our crafting journey and I am very grateful for all of this throughout the year. I hope that you all have a happy and safe Christmas and a wonderful start to the New Year! 

'Til next time,

Jan

Festive Fun with JAI #671

 

Welcome and happy December 1st! I hope that your preparations for Christmas celebrations are going to plan so far. Cards are the one thing that as a card maker that are difficult to buy and handmade are also expected. I hope that your Christmas card making pile is growing and quickly! 

If you are still looking for ideas for cards for Christmas we hope that this week's Just Add Ink's Inspiration Photo Challenge will help you! Suggested by Nikki, the image is so fun, colourful and celebratory that we hope will be perfect for any occasion. As always, our design team have created a variety of cards to inspire you and we would love you to join us.

Yes, I did originally see the middle of the tree as PINK and this influenced my partial re-creation attempt of the Challenge image. Oops!! But it does definitely make for a fun card and not surprisingly, we have some young, pink loving members in our the family so I'm sure this will come in handy!

The image from Festive and Fun is coloured with a mix of Blends and Copics and the sentiments come from the Peace & Joy bundle. The sentiments are well suited to being cropped, chopped and sprinkled over a card. 

Thanks for popping by today and I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink. I will look forward to seeing what you might create for this fun challenge.

'Til next time,

Jan

Merry Christmas Wreath for JAI #679

 

Happy Friday everyone and thanks for coming to see my creations! How amazing is it that Christmas is just 5 weeks away! I hope you are on your way to being as prepared as you need to be.

This week at Just Add Ink  we have a soft and pretty colour challenge for you that was chosen by Di! 

Our design team have created a lovely array of cards to show you how you could use these colours for many themes of cards. So I hope that you can take a moment to pop on over and take a peek as we'd love to see you join us.

I decided to use the colours to create a Christmas wreath. I had just received the lovely Christmas Classics and the Joy of Noel bundles. Usually when I order, I have a first card partially in mind and I knew that I wanted to create a wreath with it these. And I also love to create Christmas cards with non- traditional colours. 

And no, it's not very Clean and Simple but as I started to add layers of texture, I felt to keep going and soon the colours and layers just seemed to need each other as I went along. 

I hope that you might be inspired to join us at Just Add Ink  with this pretty Colour Challenge and I look forward to seeing what you might create this week. 

Card Stock: Basic White, Pool Party, Gold Foil

Stamps: Joy of Noel, Christmas Classics

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Blends: Claypso Coral, and Copics

Accessories: Die cutting machine, Joy of Noel and Christmas Classics Dies, Linen Thread, Sequins Assortment.

'Til next time,

Jan

JAI #677 Festive Winter Sketch Fun

 

Happy Friday and welcome! It's still been a rather chilly week here in Melbourne despite it being the first week of November. Summer is just around the corner but it does feel like a little way off so far. I hope that it has been nicer in your part of the world. This coming Tuesday I would normally be riding a horse at Riding for the Disabled. But, its an annual Public Holiday for the Melbourne Cup, a horse race. My lovely riding coaches were rather funny - "there's no riding next week Jan unless you want to ride fast!" Not likely. 😂

We have a Sketch challenge for you at Just Add Ink this week. I hope that you like this Clean & Simple Sketch as it was designed by me lol! Sorry if you don't like it! It's pretty versatile though and that is what I like about it. The design team have created some really beautiful cards to inspire you this week so I do really hope that you can pop over to JAI and take a peek and join us.

I really wanted to create a card using this  cute rhino and his friends from the Festive Fun stamp set this week. So the coloured panel is one piece from that set and the tree dies and chopped up sentiment are arranged together to form the other sketch element. Can you see the sketch in my card ok??

The background DSP is from an old pack called Trimming the Town and was originally using the Tree Lot Stamp Set. I coloured the rhino's scarf and boots and the gifts etc on his sleigh to coordinate with this. 

The stamps set and coordinating dies are still available to purchase online which is great news for me as this was my favourite Christmas Bundle last year and now knowing it is still current, it will get used for this Christmas as well. Do you have a favourite stamp set that you were pleasantly surprised to later learn was still available? I'd love to hear your stories.

Thanks for stopping by today to see my card. I hope that you can pop over to Just Add Ink as I look forward to seeing your cards each week. You inspire me with your creations every week and I'm so grateful to be able to still be able create and share cards I've made for friends and family.

'Til next time,

Jan

Spotlighted Christmas for JAI #675

 

Happy Friday everyone and welcome back! I hope you've had a good week? This time of year is so busy and in the midst of it all there is a lot going on in the world. I hope that you and your loved ones are safe wherever they may be.

This week at Just Add Ink, lovely Lou has suggested we Just Add the Spotlight Technique.

As always, our fabulous design team have created a number of different cards to inspire you, so we'd love for you to join us.

I created two similar cards for this challenge using a reverse Spotlight Technique. This was very fun to do.

For both cards, I started by embossing an image that was of an outline - I chose a Christmas Tree. One was embossed in white, the other in silver.

Next, the image was stamped on masking paper and cut out and applied over the image.

After this, the page was covered with ink - all except what was under the mask which remained white and clean.

When the mask was removed, the white of the inside of the image is spotlighted against all the colour of the background.

Finally, a sentiment was stamped and embossed on a strip of card stock that also was sponged with colour. The embossed sentiments resisted the colour and remain white, like the insides of the image.

Silver twine, glimmer paper and sequins complete both cards.

Thanks for stopping by this week and I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink and join in the challenge. I always look forward to seeing your projects!

Card stock: Watercolor Paper, Basic White, Bedazzled Specialty Paper

Stamps: Santa's Sleigh (retired)

Ink: Versamark

Accessories: White EP, Silver EP, Silver Twine, Metallic Sequin Assortments

Non SU: Distress Inks: Salty Ocean, Twisted Citron, Bluepoint Sketch

'Til Next Time,

Jan