JAI #293: Just Add A Gift Card

Hi!

Phew!  It sure has been hot here in Adelaide for the past 2 days. Both Wednesday and Thursday have been 40 C or hotter (that's 104 F), and the next two days are looking to be the same. There's nothing else to do but close the blinds, crank the air conditioning and try to stay cool. At least the kids are on school holidays now, so there's no school run to do in the scorching heat. It's also a good excuse to get some crafting done. I've been busy creating for the new Just Add Ink challenge.

This week Kim has challenged us to make a Gift Card Holder. It can be for any occasion you'd like, not necessarily Christmas.  Having said that, I've made a Christmas themed holder, mostly because that's the DSP that was lying on my craft desk and I was too hot to be bothered looking for different DSP.

This is a really simple holder.  I took a piece of Pacific Point cardstock that was 4 1/8" by 5 1/2" and scored it at 2" and 4 1/2". I rounded the corners and then folded along the score lines.

I cut a piece of Rel Red cardstock to 4" by 1 7/8", rounded the top corners and then adhered it to the bottom flap.  I then took a strip of DSP cut to 1 1/2" by 9" and wrapped it around the folded cardstock, adhering as I went. The top flap was Real Red cardstock cut to 4" by 7/8" with the bottom corners rounded and then Whisper White cardstock cut to 3/4" by 3 7/8", also with the bottom corners rounded.  Stamp and decorate as desired!

I had to borrow a card from Rob's wallet to show what it would look with a card inside the holder. To hold it closed I will use a glue dot.

This challenge will run for 2 weeks, and will be the final challenge for Just Add Ink for 2015. We will be back in 2016 with a Blog Hop to kick off another year of fun challenges.

Bye for now,

Tina

MKPLxSU: Hello December 2015

Hi!

One of my favourite things in December is doing a December Daily album.  This year is my 4th year doing one, and I still love doing it as much as I did the first year.  I've got a little smarter along the way though - the first year I tried to document everything we did every day and I very quickly got bogged down in it.  Now I just pick one thing each day to document.  One photo, one story - easy!

This month the MKPLxSU Design Team have a Blog Share that highlights the Hello December 2015 Project Life Collection.  This collection makes it super easy to complete your December Daily album, and it's so very pretty!

The thing I struggle the most with on my DD Albums is the wording on the front page! I usually leave it til last, which is why the card on the bottom right is blank.  The right words will come to me eventually!  I used the gold alphabet stickers to write 'twenty fifteen' on the top card.  Part of my DD method is to get the photos and cards into pockets each day and then come back once I've finished to pretty up the pages.

I quite frequently start my DD with a page or two from November. Adelaide has a huge Christmas Pageant in November, which traditionally starts the Festive Season in South Australia.  We didn't go to the big Pageant this year, but I marched in our smaller, local pageant so I've started my DD with that.

Quite a lot of the earlier pages have nothing to do with Christmas! School is winding up for the year and there are a lot of events to do with that.  On these pages is Alex's last flute lesson for the year, and also his High School transition visit.

Alex and Ada have signed up for the local library's Summer Reading Program. The theme this year is Lost Worlds, which includes Star Wars and Dr Who.  They are both big fans, so they are keen to go to the themed events.  On the 5th we went to the library to see the Tardis and watch a Dr Who episode.

Of course, we had to include the Santa Photo. The photo I've put in my DD album was not the one we had printed.  The 'official' photo had all three smiling at the camera.  However, I loved this photo more than the smiling one.  Hudson really doesn't like sitting and having his photo taken. His missing tooth just adds a touch of humour to the photo.

Ada had an excursion in the last week. They went to the pool and the movies.  I forgot to get a photo in the morning (we are usually rushing out the door at the last minute) so I got one after she returned home. I try not to stress if I don't get the 'perfect' photo, sometimes it's just not possible.

So there's a little look at my DD album. I hope you've found some inspiration in my photos.

You can also check out the blogs of the rest of the MKPLxSU Design Team to see how they've used the Hello December 2015 kit.

Julie Kettlewell, UK

Delys Cram, New Zealand
Linda Higgins, Australia

Constanze Wirtz, Germany 

Janet Morrow Wakeland, USA - http://remarkablycreated.com/ 

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #292: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Woo Hoo!! It's school holidays! My big kids finished school for the year yesterday and Hudson has his last day today.  Boy, has that year flown by! I say this all the time, but I love the holidays - plenty of time to relax, fewer appointments and lots of time with the kids.  Oh, and heaps of time to get some crafting done!

Speaking of which, it's time to show you the latest Just Add Ink challenge!

This week Nikki has challenged us to use these gorgeous Christmas images to inspire our creativity. Aren't the colours stunning? I didn't think I was going to get an entry in this week, but then I realised that I'd used Christmas trees on the kid's classmate gifts so I was actually all set!

Looking at them now, I can't quite believe we made 90 of them! It took us a few days, but the end results were worth it.

I made Hudson's for him while he was at school one day.  They were my prototype batch to show Alex and Ada - luckily they liked them! I used a 1.5" by 5" piece of Whisper White cardstock, scored at 2.5". Ada, Alex and I stamped and coloured them in a production line and then the back was stapled to the cello bags.  The front was stuck to the other side of the bag using a bit of SNAIL.

I had previously filled the 1"x8" cello bags with Christmas M'n'M's while watching TV at night.  The trick to it is using a 'chute' to feed the chocolates into the bags.  I cut a strip that wasn't quite 2" wide and 8" long, folded it in half and then inserted it into the bag.  The lollies rolled down the cardstock and into the bag very easily.

By all accounts the children who received these were very excited to get them.

I hope you can find time in your busy week to play along with us at Just Add Ink this week!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #290: Just Add Colour

Hi!

Oops, where did that week go? They are rolling past very quickly at this time of year! But, on to the new Just Add Ink challenge - a colour combo suggested by Jan.

Isn't it pretty? There's a part of me that sees green with pink in a colour combo and automatically thinks flowers. One day I will resist that urge, but this time I went with it!

I only recently purchased the Garden In Bloom stamp set, but it's fast becoming a favourite, especially the cute little buzzy bee. The stem that comes with the set it straight, but as the stamps are photopolymer it's easy to gently bend the stamp into a curved shape.

The bees were fussy cut and popped up on the front of the card.

I hope you've got time to join us this week at Just Add Ink.  It's such a busy time of year!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #289: Just Add Music

Hi!

Are you ready for a new Just Add Ink challenge? I sure am!  This week Patrice has challenged us to add Music to our creations. This was really great timing for me, as I have just started playing my clarinet again after 22 years.  I decided to do a PLxSU layout to document my return to music.

Alex has been learning flute all year, which was the inspiration for me to pick up my clarinet again.  I've joined my council Concert Band and have been playing with them for the last 6 weeks. I have my first performance with them in a couple of weeks, which is both exciting and scary!

How great is this quote? There's something about playing that is magical for me.  As a teenager I used to be able to sit at the piano and play for hours on end, and I didn't realise how much I'd missed it until I played with the band.

Anyway, enough of my rambling! Why don't you pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created to inspire you this week?

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH Blog Hop: Project Life

Hi!

Welcome to the Art With Heart Team Blog Hop for November. This month we are focusing on Memory Keeping (Scrapbooking/Project Life). We all take photos right? Well, capturing every day moments is so special and we need to document these to cherish. We are all passionate about memory keeping and we want to continue to inspire each other, and you, as we move forward in 2016!

Since 2010 I have been documenting our family life month by month.  When Stampin' Up! partnered with Project Life it made the task so much easier! A few years ago my computer crashed and of course I hadn't backed it up in a while, so I was terrified I had lost all of my photos. My month by month albums took on a whole new level of importance! Even if I'd lost my digital copies at least I still had the albums.  Thankfully a mate of Rob's was able to recover the majority of my hard drive, but the lesson was well learned.

My main focus when completing these albums is getting the photos in and the memories written down. Even as I completed this page from a year ago I was struggling to remember the event that some of these photos documented.  Thankfully I keep a written diary so it was easy to go back and fill in the blanks!

My monthly pages are very photo heavy, which doesn't leave much room for prettying up the page.  Luckily the PL cards do all the hard work for me! On this page I've used cards from the This Is The Life Collection, which have a range of bright, happy colours.

I like to use matching cards where possible, but in this case the matching smaller card didn't have any blank space for me to be able to stamp the date information directly onto it. A handy scrap of Whisper White cardstock on my desk and the problem was solved!

I used the Day To Day Project Life stamp set to stamp onto the scrap, trimmed the two banner shapes, adhered them to the card and popped it in the pocket. Easy! The whole page took me around half an hour, and most of that time was printing the photos and tracking down my 2014 diary to refresh my memory on some of the photos.

The rest of the group also have some fabulous Project Life by Stampin' Up! inspiration for you.  The next stop in the hop is Kathryn Ruddick. 

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

1. Claire Daly
2. Alisha Watson
3. Ros Davidson
4. Tina Gillespie
5. Kathryn Ruddick
6. Kate Morgan

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #288: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

Here we are at the end of the working week, time for some "it's nearly the weekend" fun!This week at Just Add Ink Narelle has designed a fabulous sketch for us.

Isn't it great?  I needed to make a card for a wedding I was attending, so I decided to switch the stars for hearts.

The wedding stationery was black with hints of white and silver, so I went with that colour scheme for my card.  I'd been playing with glitter and Heat and Stick powder for my classes, so I kept it out to use with my Dotty Angles stamp.

Doesn't it give a fabulous shimmer?

They are a little difficult to see, but I also used a few small hearts on the inside to tie in with the front of the card.

What will you do with this sketch? Why don't you pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog and see what the rest of the Design Team have done with the sketch?

Bye for now,

Tina

MKPLxSU: My Favourite Kit

Hi!

This month the Memory Keeping PLxSU Design Team have decided to run with the theme of our favourite kit.  Which is your favourite kit? Mine is the Seasonal Snapshot Collection, which is funny as I was never going to buy it. In the catalogue it didn't appeal to me, but in my hands it's gorgeous.

The Seasonal Snapshot Collection is perfect for scrapping Halloween layouts. My husband and kids go out Trick Or Treating each year.  Hudson doesn't usually last long, so this year after we visited homes in our street he and I stayed home while the rest of the family went out. I took some photos before they left and then grabbed the bottom right photo from Facebook.  I was literally finished scrapping the page before they arrived home!

I'm not as into Halloween as the rest of the family, but I did have a lot of fun helping Ada put her outfit together. She wore a tutu from her dance performance a few years ago and we made her up to look like a zombie. She took a bit of convincing to dress up like this, but once she was finished she loved it.

The title and journalling cards were Kraft and Whisper White.  I added a few witch punchies to add a bit of interest and I was done!

What's your favourite PLxSU Collection? We'd love to see a layout over on our Facebook group.

Here's the rest of the Design Team Blogs for you to check out:

Julie Kettlewell, UK - http://www.juliesjapes.blogspot.com
Delys Cram, New Zealand
Constanze Wirtz, Germany
Janet Morrow Wakeland, USA
Elizabeth Richards Peterson, USA
Kate Denyer, UK
Linda Higgins, Australia

And our Guest Designer

Denielle Bernauer

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #287: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

First up, apologies for this post going up late - Blogger has not been playing nice with me, playing hide and seek with the log in button all week. Anyway, I'm in now and here with the current Just Add Ink challenge. This week Jodene has inspired us with a collage of gorgeous photos.

Aren't the colours fabulous? Having said that, I went for a mostly yellow card in homage to the picture on the right.

I really loved the geometric centre of the flower and thought of the Joy Folding technique straight away.  I'd never tried it before, so it was a good opportunity.

It's a little time consuming, but the end result is well worth it. I used strips of Daffodil Delight DSP from the Brights Stack and the Schoolhouse DSP pack on my card.

I had a few strips left over so I decided to use them to jazz up the inside of the card.

What do you see in the inspiration photos? Why don't you check out what the Design Team have created over at Just Add Ink?

Bye for now,

Tina

Tap Tap Tap To Say Thanks

Hi!

I found this card in my 'To Blog' folder on my computer and realised I was yet to post it on my blog. I made it quite a while ago, so it was probably about time I shared it.

The typewriter was stamped in Momento and coloured with my Blendabilities. I also used my Silver Marker to colour some of the metal bits on the image. I deliberately used a quick, messy style of colouring, as I think it suits the image.

I love the 'tap tap tap' stamp for finishing off the inside of the card.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #286: Just Add W

Hi!

This week we have a new type of challenge at Just Add Ink.  It's a bit of an "anything goes" type theme, but with a twist! The twist being that we will give you a letter of the alphabet and this shapes your creation.  Confused? You shouldn't be - it's very easy! To kick of this new challenge type we have given you the letter W, now just go forth and create using things, techniques or themes that start with W. Think wood, waves, watercolouring, Wisteria Wonder, wire, etc. See - easy!

I've gone with Webs and Witches to create a Halloween shaker easel card. I wanted to make a card to send to my nieces for Halloween, but I don't actually have any Halloween stamps. Luckily my dilemma was solved when I received my Seasonal Snapshot PL Cards Collection, which has a selection of Halloween cards. I went with two of the 3x4 inch cards to use on my easel card. 

When I saw the PL card I used for the front of my card I thought it would make an excellent base for a Shaker card, and I think I was right!  I used my 1 3/4 inch circle punch to create the window (another W!). The witch punchies are from a non-SU punch that I bought years ago.  They are very cute - only about 1cm tall/wide, so great to use in a shaker card.  I threw in a few gold star sequins to add a little something extra to the window.  I had hoped to punch some witches out of the new Black Glimmer Paper but the tiny punch just wouldn't cope with the weight of the paper.

Some more webs and witches on the base of the card. The witches are popped up on tiny pieces of Dimensionals so they look like they are flying.  I stamped the sentiment using my Alphabet Rotary Stamp - a 'must have' tool for creating sentiments when you don't have the right stamp!

So, are the Wheels turning in your head (see what I did there? LOL!)? The Design Team have used a heap of different W things on their cards - you can pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see their fabulous cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

Sprinkles Of Life Flower Basket

Hi!

Today I have a card for you that is a CASE of a card by one of the Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team members, Kaitlyn Zumbach. Her simple little card caught my eye while surfing the internet one evening. You can see Kaitlyn's card here.

I made a few changes, including making the card square and making the card base Whisper White.  I also used Dazzling Details on the flowers instead of pearls.  I used Hello Honey for the yellow flowers, but I think I actually prefer Kaitlyn's, as she used So Saffron.

I really love the leaves stamped behind the flowers.  The flowers would still look good without it, but the stamping adds a little something to the final image.

I used the same sentiment as Kaitlyn, but on the inside instead of the outside. Did you notice my little oopsie on the bottom of the card? It got dropped into the Mint Macaron inkpad.  I think I might need to trim it off before I send the card - luckily it's just a thin little strip so hopefully it won't be noticeable!

Bye for now,

Tina

Easy Watercolouring With Blended Bloom

Hi!

Have you ever wanted to give watercolouring a go but have been put off by how difficult it seems?  It's really not that difficult, but this technique makes it super easy to do!

Isn't the flower gorgeous? I darkened the Watermelon Wonder a little using Photoshop so that you could see the variation in colour in the flower.

I think the technique is called Watercolour Splash.  To get the look you simply heat emboss your image using White Embossing powder onto Watercolour Paper. Then you take your Aqua Painter and brush a fair bit of water over the areas you want to colour (no ink used yet!). Then you use the Aqua Painter to pick up some ink from the lid of your inkpad and simply dip the tip of the brush into the water you brushed over the image. It's like magic watching the ink spread through the water! If you want parts of the image to be darker just add a little more ink. I did the petals in Watermelon Wonder first and then waited for it to dry before doing the centre of the flower in Daffodil Delight and Crumb Cake.

So there you have it - watercolouring is really not that hard. Why don't you give it a go?

Bye for now,

Tina