JAI 771: Choose Two Or More

 Hi!

Thanks for joining us here at Just Add Ink! We're so excited to share with you the first challenge of our new format and hope you'll embrace the changes and have a ton of fun creating.

For challenge # 771 we have expanded our regular Choose Two to now be Choose Two or More! You can use as many of the listed options as you like to feature on your projects, as long as it's at least two, and don't forget to tell us in your post which ones you chose. You'll also have more time to create as we've moved from a weekly to bi-weekly (every two weeks) challenge!

This week, Jan has suggested this list of fun things to choose from - pets, plaid, plants, pretties, pens or patterned paper. I have a little secret: I hate plaid! Funnily enough, it features prominently on my card. LOL! I guess because it's more at the gingham end of the scale it's a little more appealing to me.

Plaid paper nicely covers two of the categories to choose from, but I also decided to throw in some pretties with the use of some Glimmer Paper. I cropped it using the Build A Stage dies from Kindred Stamps.

I coloured my dancer, from Hair Hopper by Scrappy Boy Stamps, with my Stampin' Blends, but decided to add some plaid to her outfit. I stamped her lower half onto some of the Plaid DSP, fussy cut the skirt, and glued it over the skirt on the full image.

I decided to include the beau of the beauty on the front on the inside of my card. Isn't he a cutie? I toyed with the idea of making his tie plaid in the same way as I did her skirt, but discarded that idea pretty quickly as being way too fiddly!

Which two (or more!) will you choose? We'd love to know, and to see your card. You can add it to our Linky over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll also find the rest of the Design Team's cards. Don't forget that you now have two weeks in which to pay along.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 758: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Thanks ever so much for joining me for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Kim has designed a fun sketch to inspire our creativity.

I love using circles on cards, and that wee little bow? So sweet! I wanted to make a sewing themed card for a friend, so I went hunting through my extensive paper stash for some suitable paper. This gingham print from the Country Gingham DSP pack was the perfect choice.

The paper colour is Sweet Sorbet, thankfully I had some coordinating cardstock in my stash too. A layer of Whisper White under the DSP gave it a lovely pop.

The stamp set that I used is from Kindred Stamps, called National Sewing Machine Day. It's a great choice for a sewing themed thank you card! I used my Stylish Shapes Dies to crop the banners and the stitched circle. The solid circle is from the long retired Circles Collection Framelits.

The inside uses another sentiment from the Sewing Machine stamp set, a strip of left over DSP and some sweet die cuts from the Quilt Builder Framelits dies. I love it when different products from different companies work so well together!

That's all from me for this week, but we'd love to see what you make. You can see the rest of the Design Team cards over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also add your card to our Linky.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 668: Just Choose Two

 Hi!

It's time for the new Just Add Ink challenge! This week Lou has challenged us to Choose Two from either Twine, Tearing or Timber.

Hmm, which to choose? It's a tough decision! I originally went with Timber and Tearing, but ended up with Twine on my card too.

I decided that I wanted a bit of a country theme to my card, and what's more country than a mix of timber and gingham? I used retired DSP from the Wood Textures and Country Gingham packs for the basis of my card.

The sunflowers were the next addition. I love the outlines of the Early Espresso card on the Daffodil Delight and Shaded Spruce cardstock. It gives the flowers a real pop. I played around with the twine and the sentiment, but I could not make it work. The top corner was a little empty, so the twine/banner combo solved both problems!

I used some of the left over DSP on the inside of my card. Waste not, want not!

We'd love for you to play along with us this week. Which two elements will you choose? The Design Team had made some fabulous cards using the challenge elements. You can see them over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card before our challenge ends.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 404: Country Floral Lane Suite

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by on your way around the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. It's a great way to finish the weekend, don't you think?

This week we are asking you to CASE a project from the Country Floral Lane Suite pages of the new Mini Catalogue. The projects are all a bit lovey-dovey for me, so I decided to make a birthday card instead.

My eye was caught by this card on page 8. I really loved the strips of DSP, the ribbon that has been cut in half, and the layering under the sentiment. I included all of these things in my card, but in very different ways.

I started by cutting some strips of Country Gingham DSP and cropping the edges of most of the pieces with the border die from the Penned Flowers Dies. These were layered over a Thick Whisper White card base. Shhh, I snuck in a little bit of retired Mint Macaron Glimmer Paper to finish it off.

I cropped some Balmy Blue paper from the Subtles Stack using the outline flower die in the Penned Flowers, topped it with some White Glittered Organdy Ribbon, which I'd cut in half. The butterfly over the top has one layer cut from the Mint Macaron Glimmer paper, and the second from Layering Designs Vellum. A few scattered pearls finished off the front.

I used my Simply Fabulous stamp set for sentiments throughout the card. The butterfly was cropped using my Brilliant Wings Dies from some left over DSP from the front. I don't like to waste any scraps!

All you need to do to play along with us is make your project and add a photo to our Facebook group. It's that easy!

Before you go, please do continue your way around our blog hop for plenty more Country Floral Lane Suite inspiration. The next stop is the lovely Monique Fielder.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Petal Pink

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by on your way around the latest Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we are focusing on Petal Pink, which is one of my least favourite colours in the SU range. It's quite an orangey/peachy pink, and for me that makes it a difficult colour to work with.

I did like this combo from Brian King, so that became my starting point. I also received my first box of goodies from the new Mini and Sale-A-Bration Catalogues on Monday, so I decided to use some of my new things.

Top of my must-haves from the Mini Catalogue was the Watercolour World stamp set. I'm a sucker for anything map related! I used my Stamparatus to stamp the image onto Whisper White cardstock and then trimmed it for my card front. I decided to do something a little different and cut the image in two pieces. The right side of the globe went onto the left side of my card, and visa versa. I lost a bit of the middle (sorry Africa and Eastern Europe!), but I quite like the effect.

The double matted panels were layered over another new product - Country Gingham DSP. Gingham's another thing that I'm a sucker for! The sentiment is from Biggest Wish, fussy cut, popped up and layered over some Soft Sea Foam card and Vellum.

All of the same products were used on the inside. I contemplated using the middle piece of the map that I'd cut away from the front, but it didn't really look like a map without the rest of the image - just weird blobs of colour. A strip of the DSP had to suffice!

Next up is my lovely friend, Andrea Sergeant. I'm sure that she's done wonderful things with Petal Pink, so you won't want to miss her blog!

Catherine Proctor is the lady in the know, as always! If you get lost or find a broken link, please pop on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all of tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina