Friday 8 March 2024

JAI #692 Enjoy the Rhythm and Brusho

 



Happy Friyay everyone and welcome to...March and Autumn. And, if you're in Melbourne this coming weekend you will likely be looking for an escape from the heat so what better thing to do than hit the craft room and use our latest Just Add Ink challenge for inspiration!


This week at Just Add Ink challenges we have a very cook Sketch Challenge from the lovely Tina!
Sketch challenges are great as they provide the layout for your project and then you only need to find a stamp set and colours. Many of the design team also tweaked the sketch including by flipping it on it's side too. I hope you can pop over to the blog and be sinspired to join us!


For my card I was in need of a Teenage boy themed birthday so I started by clear embossing some musical notes (all part of the Enjoy The Rhythm set) onto some water colour paper. Then I sprinkled some Brusho on either side of it and gently sprayed with water. You have to be quite careful that the water doesn't move the crystals too much but they give such a bold intensity and you can always add more til you have the layers just right and achieve the texture that you want. I find having a paper towel on hand really helps too.



Then I added some layers across the centre: metallic silver, embossed musical notes and even some ribbon. 

The drumkit from the stamp set forms the focal image and then all that was needed was a rather Charming Sentiment. 😀


Thank you for stopping by today! I hope that you are able to pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog and that you'll join us in this challenge. I hope that you have as much fun as I did creating and I look forward to seeing your completed projects!

"Til next time,

Jan







Friday 23 February 2024

Thank you Pop up Balcony Card for JAI #690

 



Happy Friday and welcome! It is incredible to think that February is almost over already and the mornings are starting to get darker - despite the very hot day here in Melbourne yesterday. It was a good excuse to stay inside out of the heat and do some crafting. 


This week's Just Add Ink Challenge is from Tristan and she has asked us to Just Add a Fancy Fold. The design team had a lot of fun with this one and you'll see that in all the fun cards that we created and we hope that you will be inspired to join us too.



For my card, I had a recipient and theme in mind - I was needing a thank you card for a dog trainer.
As they've trained a lot of Labradors, the Happy Tails set and co-ordinating punch was the obvious choice of stamp set. The Labs were all coloured with Copics and there are different versions of them all to represent both yellow and red labs as well as how they each have slightly different fur colour combinations.


For the design, I want to thank Lisa Curcio for her Balcony Pop Up card.  I did add another level to help fit in all the Lab's I'd coloured so my card's mechanism is quite thick. Because of this, I recommend gifting this card in person but if you're following the original design with only two pop up balconies, then you should be able to mail this just fine.


The above picture is just to show you that us design team members can have bloopers too!  
The top Lab (coloured with a pink collar to represent Sally of course) was obviously laughing too hard at a joke one of her friends told her as she started to fall off her perch.....oh the challenges of taking photos of a card with many elements! LOL! 


Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope that you are able to pop on over to  Just Add Ink to see the challenge details and I hope that you might be inspired to join us and create a fun, Fancy Fold card.


"Til next time,
Jan






Friday 26 January 2024

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










Friday 19 January 2024

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

Friday 15 December 2023

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
















Friday 1 December 2023

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













Friday 10 November 2023

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