A Beautiful Ride in Red

Hi!

I recently purchased the It's My Party DSP Stack. There a lots of bright colours and patterns in the DSP - perfect for happy, celebratory cards. Many of this flip sides have more subdued patterns though, and it's some of these subdued patterns I've used today on my card.

This card took a while to come together. I originally had it in a landscape orientation with the car looking like it was 'driving' along the Basic Black strip. It just wasn't working though. Rob had the idea of switching the orientation to portrait, which I obviously thought worked much better.

The VW was stamped and watercoloured on Shimmer Paper. It's really pretty paper, and handles the water very well. I used Real Red on the car, with a Soft Sky wash over the windows and Sahara Sand on the tires and metal bits of the car.

I used a second strip of the Basic Black DSP in the middle, with another Real Red banner.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #300: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

WOW, what an exciting milestone for Just Add Ink - this week marks our 300th Challenge. So many fabulous cards, Design Team members, and most importantly - you, the challenge entrants! We wouldn't have made it this far without the gorgeous cards you enter into our challenge week after week, so thank you.

As an extra special thank you, we are giving away some prizes to the people who are voted our Winner and two Honorable Mentions. Make sure you read the rules carefully on the Just Add Ink blog to ensure you are eligible for the prizes.

So, let's get to the challenge! This week Kim has designed a sketch for us all to interpret how we will.

I quite enjoyed this sketch, and thought the bold stripe across the bottom was the perfect opportunity to break out some of my new Sale-A-Bration Glitter Tape. It's so cool - all the fun of glitter without the mess!

I did stuff up a little and put the banner the wrong way around on my card. Whoops! Just goes to show that I should refer to the sketch while I'm creating and not after!

The balloons and sentiment are from a new Occasions Catalogue stamp set called Balloon Celebration. The matching punch is super cool and makes cropping the balloon shapes super easy.

Well, there you have it, my card in the 300th Challenge. I just had a quick look at my computer archives and I think I started on the Design Team way back in late 2012, at around the 144th challenge. I can't believe it's been that long! Time certainly does fly when you're having fun.

See you over at Just Add Ink.

Bye for now,

Tina

PLxSU: January 2016

Hi!

Are you a Project Lifer? Have you heard about it, but not sure what it is? Are you wanting to know what all the fuss is about? Why don't you come along to one of my new Project Life by Stampin' Up! classes and find out all about it? For the past few years I have been completing a double page layout each month that is a look into the everyday things we did that month.

Now I really should confess that I often don't complete my pages in a timely manner - in fact I only finished 2014 over the weekend! I haven't even started 2015 yet, although I have sorted the photos ready to print. Does this sound like you? If so, my monthly class is perfect for you. Each month we will complete the previous month's layout. I ran the first class yesterday, where we completed January's double page.

It really is so easy - choose 10-14 photos, print them (you can do this for a small fee at the class), pop them in the pockets and then complete a title and journalling card.  Done! The actual scrapbooking isn't the difficult part at all, the hard part is often making the time to do it. Another reason why my class is a great solution - by having a set time each month to get it done, it will be easy to keep on top of it and stay up to date. Plus, you get to make a mess at my house, and not yours!

You can find more information about the classes here, which just takes you to the Project Life tab at the top of my blog. If you're super keen, but the times I have listed don't suit please get in touch, as I'm sure I can come up with a solution.

Bye for now,

Tina

Watercolour Wings On A Brick Wall

Hi!

Today's card is an older one that's been sitting patiently in my "To Blog" file on my computer waiting for it's own blog post. I've been doing a fair bit of Project Life scrapbooking lately and haven't made many cards, so this card is getting it's turn today.

I'm pretty sure this card was a CASE of some sort. I don't think I copied directly, more made this using another card as inspiration, but I really can't recall. Do you think I can find the card I CASEd though? Sigh. If you think it's yours, please let me know so I can give credit.

The Crumb Cake background was embossed with the Brick Wall TIEF and then lightly sponged in Crumb Cake ink to give the bricks a bit of definition. The ferns were then stamped over the top. The smaller butterfly was cut from Silver Foil paper - so pretty!

The inside, as usual, got a similar treatment as the outside. I think it's so important to 'do' the inside as well as the outside - it really is a lovely finishing touch to a card.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #299: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Oh my! I just realised that Just Add Ink is only one challenge away from our 300th challenge! How exciting! But first we have our 299th challenge, which is a gorgeous Inspiration photo chosen by Jan.

Mmmmm, don't those drinks look amazingly yummy? They look like they'd be very refreshing on a hot summer day. My first thoughts when looking at the picture were vellum and a watercolour wash, so that's what I went with for my card.

I selected one of the UV Resist cards from the Memories In The Making Project Life Collection, which is a Sale-A-Bration choice. The little tear droppish shapes reminded me of watermelon pips, so I thought it worked well with the inspiration photo. I used Watermelon Wonder ink and an Aqua Painter to create the wash background.

This was the Valentine's card I made for Rob. He hadn't seen the inspiration photo, but when I gave it to him he said that it made him think of watermelon and Dr Who. I was pleased he said watermelon, but then my brain registered the Dr Who bit. Huh? He explained that the early TARDIS had a circular motif on the walls! I used the Large Polka Dot TIEF on my background. It's funny how these things work out!

I don't often make Valentine's cards, as it's not something Rob and I celebrate. I was pleased to note that Rob had it on his bedside table, so he obviously liked getting it!

What inspiration do you take from the photo? The Design Team had a lot of fun with it. You can see their work on the JAI Blog.  I hope you can share your card with us at Just Add Ink.

Bye for now,

Tina

A Nice Cuppa CASE

Hi!

Today's card is a CASE of this card by Patsy Waggoner.

I loved Patsy's card, but as this was for a class, I also wanted to showcase the coordinating Have A Cuppa DSP Stack. Hence, I changed all the colours to suit the DSP, but kept most of the layout elements the same as Patsy's card.

Here's I've use Bermuda Bay, Wisteria Wonder and Melon Mambo on Whisper White. The sentiment is from Sky Is The Limit, which retired from the SAB line up on Monday.

I finished my card off with another teacup on the inside.  I like the way the DSP heart ties it in with the front of the card, plus it's just a bit cute.

Bye for now,

Tina

Perfectly Artistic Large Numbers

Hi!

Just popping by to remind you that three of the current Sale-A-Bration items will no longer be available after today.You'll find them at the back of the SAB catalogue - Sky Is The Limit, Hello, and the Perfectly Artistic DSP. As you can probably tell from the blog post heading, today's card features the Perfectly Artistic DSP.

I really like that the DSP has two different patterns - a marbled look and a water colour look. On this card I used the Melon Mambo water colour pattern. I love that it has subtle (and not so subtle in places) variations in colour.

I've paired it with some Newsprint DSP, which I've stamped on using the flower stamps from the Number Of Years stamp set. Stamping on DSP gives a great effect, I really should do it more often!

Here on the inside is the only thing I'd change about this card. I think I stamped the 'Happy' and 'Birthday' too far apart.  What do you think?

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #298: Just Add V

Hi!

This week at Just Add Ink it's my turn to set the challenge and I'm challenging you to Just Add V to your cards.  It can be anything to do with V - violet, van, VW, vase, you could even go for the obvious and make a Valentine!

I decided to make a 'Vest' card for the V challenge. I have to say though, my kids looked at this and thought I'd made a Dr Who card - I think it was the bow tie that did it.

I used a sheet of DSP from the Going Places DSP Stack for my vest.  I drew up a template on the back of the DSP and then hand cut the curves. I used some Real Red Candy Dots and Candy Dot bases for the buttons.

I went super simple for the inside, just using Crazy About You to stamp the sentiment.

What can you think of for a V card? Can't wait to see it over at Just Add Ink.

Bye for now,

Tina

MKPLSU Blog Share: Sale-A-Bration

Hi!

Are you ready for some Memory Keeping with Project Life by Stampin' Up! inspiration? I hope so, because it's Blog Share day!

This month the MKPLxSU Design Team are sharing their Project Life pages done with the Memories In The Making Project Life Specialty Card Collection, which is one of the current Sale-A-Bration offerings. It is designed to coordinate with the Memories In The Making Collection featured in the current Occasions Catalogue.

As you can see, I chose to complete a double page of my oldest son's first week at High School. I was originally going to do a single page of his first day, but I ended up with too many photos for one page but not enough for two, so I decided to cover the whole week in the layout.

The MITM Specialty Card Collection consists of two types of cards - acetate and UV resist. In the photo above I've used a printed acetate card to highlight Ada waiting at the bus stop for Alex to come home. I had the wrong lens on my camera with no time to change it, so I couldn't get a closer photo of her waiting. This is a great way to highlight the fact that there is something in this photo to see!

I've use another printed acetate card to highlight Alex in his uniform. Some of the cards, like this one, are silver on one side and gold on the other, making them even more versatile. The journalling card is from the MITM PL Card Collection. Yes, the photo above the card is meant to look funny - Alex was playing around with a photo distorting app on his iPad!

Here I've used another acetate card to frame this selfie Alex took on his iPad on his first day.

The title card is from the MITM PL Specialty Card Collection.  It is one of the UV resist cards. I used my Aqua Painter and Crushed Curry inkpad to very roughly wash the yellow ink over the card. The pattern in the card (in this case stripes) resists the ink. Once it was dry I stamped some of the splatters from Gorgeous Grunge over the card in Basic Black and Tempting Turquoise to match the journalling card in the previous photo. The letter stickers are from the MITM PL Accessory Pack.

I had a lot of fun playing around with the Memories In The Making Project Life Specialty Card Collection.  Have you made a layout using them? You can see the Design team layouts on the links below, or check out our Facebook group.

Julie Kettlewell
Caroline van der Straaten
Linda Higgins
Delys Cram
Constanze Wirtz
Janet Morrow Wakeland

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #297: Just Add Colour

Hi!

Woo Hoo!  We survived the first week of school - how about you? There were a few new things for us to get used to this year - a new school, catching the bus, new uniforms - but we seem to have it all under control (touch wood!). But let's move on - it's the end of the week, so it's time for a new Just Add Ink Challenge.

This week Nikki has chosen a colour combination to inspire you.

As soon as I saw the combo I instantly thought 'baby card', so that's what I went with.

Polka dots are so cute on a baby card! This DSP comes from the Schoolhouse DSP pack.

I really love the way the Circles Framelits Die Cut fits nicely within the Deco Labels Framelit Die Cut. It makes an extra little feature on the front of the card.

How cute is that giraffe in Blushing Bride?

What do you think of when you see the colour combination? I hope you can share your creation with us at Just Add Ink.

Bye for now,

Tina

An Ikea Hack

Hi!

Something a bit different today! A week or so ago I posted this photo of Rob on my Facebook page. I said he was helping me with an Ikea hack and promised more details later - well, here they are.

But let's back track a little first. I LOVE Ikea, and a lot of the storage in my craft room comes from there. My A4 cardstock has been housed in these Magazine Boxes from the Kassett series for a few years now. The boxes have been discontinued for over a year now, so I've been on the hunt for something to replace them.  As you can see, the boxes are looking very ratty, and are starting to collapse on one side.

I use these Summera Drop Files, also from Ikea, to hold each colour of cardstock. I also have a zip ock bag for scraps in each drop file. They are smaller than regular drop files, but the perfect size for A4. However, their smaller size made replacing the Kassett boxes problematic.

Then I happened to come across these Forhoja Letter Trays at Ikea. They looked around the right size, but I wasn't 100% sure. At nearly $20 a pop (I needed 6), I decided to just get one and see how it went. I forgot to take a photo of the letter tray when I first tried it out, but the drop files were 1cm too short. I was a little frustrated, but then I had a thought - what if I could trim the 1cm off the letter tray and make the files fit? I ran it by Rob and he agreed it might work.

It did work! Once the letter trays were cut down and reassembled, the drop files fit perfectly, so it was back to Ikea to buy the other 5 I needed. As you can see, I've tipped the letter trays up on their sides so that the drop files hang. I've also removed the shelf, as it just took up space and was unnecessary.

Here's one of the letter trays sitting on my shelf. At some point in the future I will probably add some kids of handle/pull to the front to make it a little easier to slide off the shelf so I can access the drop files.

So that's my Ikea Hack. What do you think?

Bye for now,

Tina

Sky Is The Limit

Hi!

I'm finding that the Sky Is The Limit stamp set has been a very popular choice in this year's Sale-A-Bration line up. Are you aware though, that you only have a couple of weeks left to get your hands on it? There are a few SAB items marked 'Limited Time Only', and Sky Is The Limit is one of them.

Sky Is The Limit coordinates brilliantly with the Going Places Suite in the Occasions Catalogue.  On this card I've paired it with the Going Places DSP stack and used colours from the DSP, including Sahara Sand, Lost Lagoon, Basic Black and Very Vanilla.

There's lots of paper piercing on this card, as it's a great way to add a feature to the card.

The plane on the inside was stamped in Lost Lagoon, but I stamped it off once first. This just helps the sentiment to stand out more.

Bye for now,

Tina