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 744: Just Choose Two

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Just Add Ink Challenge. This week it's a Choose Two challenge, suggested to us by Di.

Hmmm, what to do? I'd recently purchased the Gnomes For Summer Thin Cuts, and thought that I could put him at the end of a rainbow with a pot of gold, but that's a leprechaun, not a gnome! I was determined to use him, though, so I gave him a background of rainbow paper.

Isn't he cute? I had lots of fun choosing different colours of card stock and Glimmer paper to use on him. I cheated a little by colouring his feet, hand and nose with my Ivory Stampin' Blend. How fun is the sentiment? I thought that it suited the theme of the challenge perfectly. It's from and Altenew set, called Crafty Life.

The sun is cropped using a Uniquely Creative die, called Stitched Sun. I thought that it went perfectly with the sun in the rainbow paper. It's a retired pack, called Sunshine & Rainbows.

I used an offcut on the inside, along with another sentiment from the Crafty Life set - again, it worked very nicely with the challenge theme!

We'd love to see which two that you choose for our Choose Two challenge. You can see what the rest of the Design Team chose over on the Just Add Ink blog. You'll also find our Linky so that you can add your card to our challenge gallery.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 682: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Welcome to the new Just Add Ink Challenge! This week we have a Sketch challenge for you, designed by.... me!

When I design sketches, I try to make tham as open to interpretation as I can. I just love what the Design Team has done with the sketch. So many gorgeous cards.

I decided to play with my Beary Christmas DSP again. I thought that the mini scenes with the animals would be a great choice for the oval panel. To suit the paper, I rotated the oval, but otherwise kept the card the same as the sketch.

The glittery strip behind the polar bears was very difficult to photograph. It's gorgeous in real life - you'll just have to take my word for it! I finally cracked open my Navy Glitter ribbon too. Yum!

Did you notice that I didn't use a sentiment on the front of the card? I didn't think needed one, so I left it off. It's pretty easy to tell what occasion the card is for! Just in case the recipient can't work it out, there's a lovely big sentiment on the inside, stamped using my Joy To You stamp set.

That's all from me for tonight. Please pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created with the sketch. You can also link up your card to enter the challenge. I'd love to see what you do with the sketch.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 670: Just Add Wildlife

 Hi!

Welcome to the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week we have a theme challenge for you, suggested to us by Fiona. She's like us to Just Add Wildlife to our cards this week.

I was a bit stumped for a while, but then my new pack of Beary Christmas DSP arrived, and I was back on track! I instantly loved the sheet of paper that has the full page scene of the polar bears on icebergs - the challenge was how to make it work on a card without chopping the bears in half or wasting too much. I think I succeeded!

I loved this polar bear straight away, sitting on the ice and gazing at the sky. He was a great choice for the front of the card.

To give him something a little more exciting than just the sky to gaze at, I used my Tim Holtz Moon Masks to create a moon for him. The sentiment is a partial image from another new purchase, the Joy To You stamp set from the new Mini Catalogue. I think it works brilliantly with the scene that I created.

Below the polar bear on the front was this little grouping. It's so sweet! I fussy cut around the family and then lightly inked the cardstock underneath, before gluing it over the top. I don't like wasting anything, so this was a great choice for the inside of my card.

What do you think of when you see 'wildlife'? You can see what the Design Team have made over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card for the challenge. I'm keen o see what you make!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 656: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Hooray for Friday on a Long Weekend! Do you have any crafty plans? I have a few cards that I need to make, but I also have plans to get a lot of sewing done. Wish me luck - best laid plans, LOL!

This week at Just Add Ink we have an Inspiration Photo as our challenge, suggested to us by Kim. I struggled a lot with ideas and had just decided to watercolour a background using the colours in the photo. As I was taping the paper down I remembered the alcohol ink backgrounds, and decided that I'd rather do that!

I used my Dark Calypso Coral Blend on a piece of vellum first, scribbling some splotches and then dripped some isopropyl alcohol over the top, blowing to get some movement in the ink. Once it was. dry, I repeated the process with my Dark Night Of Navy Blend.

The Inspiration photo has a strong horizontal line through the middle. I flipped it to vertical with the addition of some black twine. The Black Glimmer butterfly die cut serves as the silhouettes in the image. I was quite pleased with how it turned out!

I had an offcut of vellum left over from the front - I always make the fronts too big so that I have an offcut to work with on the inside. It was just he right size for the inner of my card, with some more twine and a smaller Glimmer butterfly. The stamp set that I used is from Altenew, called Family Matters.

That's all from me for now, but we'd love for you to play along with our Inspiration challenge. The Design team have done a marvellous job with using different elements of the photo to create their cards. Pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see their cards. You'll also find out linky there when you're ready to add your card to our challenge. I can't wait too ee what you make.

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

HOC Week 22

 Hi!

Welcome back for the final Heart Of Christmas blog hop for 2022. I can't believe we are so close to Christmas! I've made 88 cards for the blog hops this year, just by using the Sheetload Of Cards templates to make four cards each week. It's a stress free way to quickly build a decent stash!

Tonight's cards are made using the October 2019 Sheetload Of Cards template. The front of the card is folded back on itself to make a nice and easy fancy fold. The red Spruced Up Outlines bauble is a left over from another set of cards. I had planned to heat emboss the sentiment in white on the front, but I got lazy. I was just about to stamp directly on the first bauble, when I noticed that the baubles on the DSP had a circle feature. Bingo!

Speaking of the DSP, it's from the gorgeous Celebrate Everything Host DSP pack. I've used it so much this year - I especially love the black design that I've used on the inside of my cards. The colourful Christmassy images really pop against the black.

The sentiments are from Brightest Glow. I chose scripty fonts so that I didn't have to worry too much about stamping straight - they look perfectly fine on a slight angle!

Thanks again for joining us for the blog hops this year. I hope that you've found lots of Christmas inspiration and have made a good head start on your stash of cards. The next stop in our final blog hop is my lovely friend, Michele Taylor. I wonder if she'll have another of her gorgeous wreath cards for us?

If you run into any problems with links as you hop your way around the blogs tonight, please pop on over to the wonderful Sharon Davern's blog. She deserves a huge thanks for all she's done to organise the hops and keep them running smoothly. Thanks, Sharon!

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 19

 Hi!

Welcome back to a new Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. we are definitely on the home stretch now! The latest Sheetload Of Cards template was released a week ago, so that's what I decided to use for my cards this week.

I haven't used the gorgeous Lights Aglow SDSP for a while, so it was well past time to pull it back our for my cards this week. The Sheetload template was for a split front card, and with some clever cutting I was able to use just three sheets of DSP to create my four cards.

Here's a little tip for making sure that the decorated parts of the inside are hidden behind the joining piece of the front - I laid the outline of the bauble from the Spruced Up Outlines dies face down on the joining section, after first removing the lining sheet from the Adhesive sheet. If you forget to use the Adhesive sheet, be sure to add some glue. Then close the card so that the outline adheres to the inside of the card. Done!

I stamped my sentiment, from the coordinating Brightest Glow stamp set, inside the bauble to ensure that it can't be seen when the card is closed.

Don't the Gold Glimmer baubles on the fronts of the cards look fantastic? I used some retired Mint Macaron Glimmer paper for the tops of the baubles. If you squint a bit, it looks like Soft Succulent!

Thanks for joining me, but please keep hopping around to the rest of the team, starting with my lovely friend, Christine Blain.

As ever, the wonderful Sharon Davern keeps us all organised for the blog hops, so please head on over to her blog is you run into any issues with tonight's links. She'll have a list of all participants on her blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Flirty Flamingo

 Hi!

Here we are again, for a new Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we a featuring Flirty Flamingo, a lovely bright pink. I wasn't a fan when Flirty Flamingo first appeared in our colour range, but it's a colour that I quite like now.

Brian King's Flirty Flamingo colour combo is super bright, but I was in the mood for a happy card, so Daffodil Delight and Granny Apple Green seemed like the perfect choice to pair with Flirty Flamingo.

I started my card with a piece of copy paper, to which I adhered the three strips of cardstock. I stamped it all over using flowers and leaves from Simply Fabulous, using Versamark ink. It was then cropped using a Stitched Rectangle Die. The sentiment was cut using the Stylish Shapes Dies. I also cropped a smaller banner, snipped it in half, and adhered it to the back of the Whisper White banner. I love the little peek of Flirty Flamingo from behind the white.

Ooops, I've jus noticed a few drips of rain on my card! I thought I was far enough under the pergola when I was taking the photo, but obviously not! Oh well! The butterfly was cut from White Glimmer Paper. It's very sparkly in real life!

I used the offcut from the front panel on the inside of my card. I don't like to waste anything!

That's all from me for tonight, but please do continue your way around our blog hop. The next stop along the way is my lovely friend, Kate Morgan, with what's bound to be a fabulous card.

As she does every week, the lovely Catherine Proctor is keeping us all organised with our links. If you run into any troubles, jump on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all of tonight's participants.

Bye for now,

Tina