Birthday Plants for JAI #698

 

It's Friday and schools are back from holidays here in Victoria. That doesn't effect me except that the Riding For the Disabled classes that I attend only happen during Term time. So it was a happy reunion with the lovely Harley (the horse) for me this week. I hope that you have had a lovely week are ready to craft too!

This week's challenge at Just Add Ink  is a fun one - Choose Two out of Leaves, Flowers or Pots and it was suggested by me so I hope that you enjoy it!!
 There are so many fun options of all three that most of us have in our crafty stash and I hope that you enjoy looking through your options to make something for this challenge. The design team had fun with this and I hope that you do too!

My cards are always created with a recipient in mind - especially these days as I am finding my fingers are much less responsive than they used to be and I can't make the volume of cards that I have done in the past. I still enjoy it, it just takes much more time and effort but is stil worth it for now.

So this card is made for a friend who loves her indoor plants - we have often chatted about care and propagation techniques and plants that we love... it makes for a change from when we chat puppies!😀

Sadly the Plentiful Plants stamp set has retired but I held onto it and the DSP,  for just such a friend and indeed, JAI Challenge! There is something else I must say about this card - this is the first time in over 15 years as a SU Demo that I have used Cajun Craze ink! In reality, it's not as bad as I thought and even suits this card quite well! Who knows, I might use it again in another 15 years or so!!😀

I do like that the leaves of these plants appear to have movement. It adds to the "real" look of the plants. As usual there is a liberal scattering of sequins which in real life, catch the light and add small touches of girly sparkle!

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope that you enjoyed my card for the Choose Two of Leaves, Flowers or and Pots.  And I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink and choose your Two elements as I look forward to seeing what you create!

Card stock: Cajun Craze!!! (not something I usually use at all but it went with the pot colours). Basic White.

DSP:Bloom Where You are Planted

Stamps: Pretty Perennials 
Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Metallic Sequin Assortment

Here is Harley. He loves a snuggle and is licking my hand after I gave him his post-ride carrots and a small piece of his favourite treat, licorice. If anyone else would like SU to do more HORSE stamps then please let them know. Thank you!

'Til next time,

Jan

Lavender Sympathy for JAI #696

 

It's School Holidays here in Victoria - incredible that the first Term of 2024 is over already! 
And for those of us in the Eastern States of Australia, Daylight Savings is set to end this weekend too. That means a sleep in on Sunday morning but it sadly is also the last goodbye to warm, light evenings and a reminder that Winter is on it's way. It has been a lovely Summer, not too hot here in Melbourne but not a lot of rain either. 

This week at Just Add Ink we have this yummy Inspiration Photo Challenge, suggested by Kim, to spark your creativity. Inspiration Photos are great as you can take whatever inspires you from the photo. That may be the individual items - the cake or berries - and/or anything else! Our design team have a real variation of card styles and focal elements because of that. I hope that you will pop on over to the JAI blog and be inspired to join us!

My card is inspired by the colours - the two different purples, the white of the icing and the green of the cake stand. and also the patterns seen in the cake's icing.

These colours reminded me of the pretty Painted Lavender images and I am grateful to a lovely friend for stamping and die cutting these images especially for me to use for this challenge.

It's paired with the 3D  Lace Embossing Folder, matching ribbon, twine and a sprinkling of sequins.

 Lavender is something I have a lot of in the garden and its fragrance and oils are well known for their anti allergy, antiseptic and relaxing properties. So I am hoping that this card also brings comfort to it's recipient.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope that you can pop on over to Just Add Ink as we'd love to see what inspires you to create from this photo. And I look forward to seeing what you create!

Card stock: Gorgeous Grape, Lost Lagoon, Silver Foil, Basic White

Inks: Versamark, Gorgeous Grape, Fresh Freesia, Lost Lagoon

Stamps: Painted Lavender, Well Said

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Painted Lavender Dies, 3D Lace EF, Stitched Rectangle Dies,White EP, Silver Twine, Metallic Sequins Assortment, Lost Lagoon Ribbon

'Til next time,

Jan

JAI #694 Colourful Birthday

 

Happy Friday everyone and welcome back! It's incredible to think that that Easter is almost here and with that, the first Term of 2024 is almost complete! But then when we look out the window in the early mornings and it is quite dark, then I guess we understand that Summer is sadly over.

This week at Just Add Ink, the lovely Nikki has suggested this fun Colour Combo for us all to create with. Our design team made a fabulous array of cards to help you get started and we hope that you might join us this week!

I'm not going to lie....I struggled with this one! Us designers are just humans too at the end of the day!

Fresh Freesia is easily one of my favourite colours of all of Stampin Up's colours past and present. And since signing up as a Demo back in 2009...some 15 years ago....well I still haven't opened a Cajun Craze inkpad. There, I've said it! 😂 I came pretty close this week...but found some long retired DSP that once upon a time was part of the Regals stack of DSP just in the nick of time! 😂😂 

For stamps, those with a keen eye will see the Pretty Perennials stamp set and the soon to be  retiring Artistic Etchings. Also used was a stencil to just give some soft background colour to contrast with the white background and otherwise quite bold colours.

Card stock: Pretty Peacock, BasicWhite, Watercolor paper

DSP: Regals Stack (long retired print)

Inks: Versamark, Pretty Peacock, Fresh Freesia

Stamps: Pretty Perennials, Artistically Inked

Accessories: Die Cutting Machine, Perennials Petals Dies, Artistic Mix Decorative Masks, Metallic Sequins

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope that you can pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog and see all the different projects from our fab design team and I look forward to seeing what you will create with these fun  colours.

'Til next time,

Jan

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

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

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