Friday 25 November 2016

Star of Watercolour for JAI #338


Happy Black Friday folks :-) No, It's not the 13th or related at all...but a huge world wide Sale day! I hope all those in the USA had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family - such a lovely reason to have a holiday - and are all ready for the sales due to happen just in time for Christmas!

And it's also time for a new challenge at Just Add Ink. This week's photo for us all to use was suggested by me:-) The lovely colours and brushes had me excited to water colour so I hope you enjoy this challenge and can take a moment to pop over and see the fabulous cards our team have made to inspire you too.
Here's the Photo:

And here's one of two cards:


For the background, I used a technique that Shelli Gardener shared at On Stage in Sydney where she used soon to be coming Watercolor Pencils (hip hip hooray!) to colour on watercolor paper and then spritzed the paper with water til the ink ran to create a soft look. 
As I don't have the Pencils, I used Zigs. But first, I embossed the sentiment in beautiful Copper :-)

Here's the before:

I recommend taping the paper down to a board so it stays as flat as possible :-)

And after spritzing and mopping a little with a paper towel...



Water colouring always dries lighter - here's the finished card (version 2).



To finish both cards, there is a sprinkling of embossed stars and some die cuts stars from the same Bundle both in the lovely Copper Foil and some vellum. I was going for a Northern Lights kind of effect so the first one is my favourite :-)

Card stock: Bermuda Bay, Copper Foil, Vellum, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Versamark
Stamps: Star of Light
Accessories: Big Shot, Starlight Thinlit Dies, Copper EP, Brights Enamel Shapes
Non SU: Stitched Rectangle Dies (SSS)
               Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers: Red Carmine, Cornflour Blue, Turquoise Green, Light                Blue, Violet

Well, I'm taking it easy the next few days having just had surgery for a jaw bone infection in an old wisdom tooth site where they scraped the bone etc....so I look forward to seeing what you will create for this fun colour and brush themed challenge at Just Add Ink this week and I hope you get a moment to check out our talented teams's lovely designs to inspire you too as they are amazing!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Friday 18 November 2016

Give Thanks for JAI #337


Happy Friday and welcome! Today, Spring has become Summer with our first 30 degree day in Melbourne since last Autumn. So lovely to see clear blue skies and finally feel a bit of heat :-)

And we have a great NEW challenge for you at Just Add Ink this week. Kim has suggested a challenge where you can Just Choose Two - of three options - to use in your paper crafting this week. Our lovely and talented design team have all created fabulous projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look.



For my card, I chose Die Cuts and Designer Paper. I needed another thank you card and wanted to use the saying "give thanks" and the rest came from there.  The leaves from Rose Garden are cut using Copper Foil - as is the "thanks" from the Hello You Framelits. And I've paper pieced the inserts from the different autumnal DSP colours...not that I am wishing Summer away btw, just the colours looked better with the lovely Copper :-)
The background stamping is an ombre effect created by simply stamping the lowest image at full strength and stamping off each time above.


Card stock: Whisper White (thick and standard), Copper Foil
Designer Series Paper: Rich Regals Stack (Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Calypso Coral)
Inks: Black Archival, Garden Green
Stamps: Labeller Alphabet, Timeless Textures
Accessories: Big Shot, Rose Garden Thinlits, Hello You Framelits, Metallic Sequins, Snail, Dimensionals, and Fine Tip Glue Pen


Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a moment to pop on over to Just Add Ink  and see the wonderful cards our design team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create this week too :-)

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan

Friday 11 November 2016

Just A Note for JAI #336

Welcome and Happy Friday to you! We are settling into the new home and making some new routines. It is so peaceful here after moving from a busy road and we now get to welcome birds into our garden which is so lovely :-)

And also lovely is the new challenge at Just Add Ink this week. Nikki  has suggested a soft and elegant colour combo for us all to use and our lovely team have all created beautiful projects to inspire you so I hope you can take a moment to pop on over and take a look!

Here are the colours:


And here is my card:


This is the first card made in the new craft room and I wanted to create a floral and leafy card to encourage a lovely friend back home in NZ.  Sadly, you can't quite see the shimmer to the flower from the Wink of Stella...One thing with everything being new is finding the best place to take photos - so still working on that  - and then of course remembering to take another view to show the layers before popping the card in the post ...(yes, I forgot!! ) but am sure will have it all worked out by next week :-)

Card stock: Night of Navy, Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Mint Macaron
Ink: Smoky Slate, Blushing Bride, Night of Navy
Stamps: Flourishing Phrases
Accessories: BS,  Flourish Thinlits, Subtles Enamel Shapes, Clear Wink of Stella

This is a native Rosella feasting on the nectar on the flowers of one of our two red Callistomen (or Bottlebrush) trees. Isn't he gorgeous :-) 

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you can take a moment to pop over to Just Add Ink and see the beautiful projects the design team have made to inspire you and I look forward to seeing what you will create with these pretty colours too!

Happy stamping until next time,

Jan