JAI 622: Just Choose Two

 Hi!

Hooray for Friday and a new Just Add Ink challenge. This week we have a Choose Two challenge for you, suggested by Nikki.

If you're new to our challenges, a Choose Two challenge is just that: choose two of the three options and make a card using them. This time it's Friend, Foliage or Masking. One of the two was a no-brainer for me, I was just left to choose between masking and foliage.

Masking won, as it made more sense for the friend on my card! I used a Hefty Doodle Cityscape stencil to mask off the bottom of my card. I used some Wild Honey Distress Oxide on the Basic Balck cardstock. My aim was to get a yellow glow of lights, but the cardstock just soaked up the ink and made it more green than I wanted. Oh well!! I flicked some Frost White shimmer paint over the top, before removing the mask, to look like a starry sky.

My friend comes from a Kindred Stamps set, called The One With The Friend. I coloured him with my Copic markers and popped him up over a die cut layer. The die I used was Cityscape, from Mama Elephant. Finally, the sentiment is from an Ink Road Stamps set, called The One Where It's Your Birthday.

I used the same Mama Elephant Die, Distress Oxide and Ink Road Stamps set to finish off the inside. The inking behind the city was what I was going for on the front, it was just a bit too ambitious on black cardstock!

That's all from me for this week's challenge, but we'd love for you to play along with us. Which two will you choose? You can see the rest of this week's Design Team cards over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll also find our Linky for the challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 556: Just Add A Slimline Card

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Lou has challenged us to make Slimline cards. Fun!

Are you a fan of Slimline cards? I haven't made many - mostly because I never think to! When I do remember to make one, I have fun. The extra space to play with is great, especially when creating a scene, which is where I went with this week's card.

I started by cutting my base card, which is sized to fit in a business sized envelope, so it's 8 1/4"square, scored at 4 1/8". The next two layers are just 1/2" and 5/8" smaller and popped up on Dimensionals. The background die is from Mama Elephant, and is called Cityscape. I wish I'd popped out more windows before I popped it up on my card, but I was feeling very lazy at the time!

The characters on my card are all very much at home in the big city, so the die was the perfect choice for the background, I think. As I mentioned, I was in a lazy mood when I made the card, so I've not done any fancy colouring on the characters, they are all coloured with just one Blend shade per colour.

Were you wondering where the other two characters were? Here they are! Even with the extra space of a Slimline card, they would have crowded the front too much, so I held them back for the inside. The characters and sentiments are all from a Kindred Stamps set, called The One With The Friend.

That's all from me tonight, but please do pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Design team cards. You can also link your card to our challenge. Hmm, what will you put on your Slimline card?

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #488: Celebrating 10 Years!

Hi!

Welcome back to a new year of Just Add Ink challenges! This year is our 10th Birthday year, and so in our annual first challenge of the year Blog Hop, the theme is Celebrate! I have been a part of the team for nearly 8 years - February 4th marks my 8th Anniversary. I started on the Scrapbooking Team, but played along with the main Design Team when I could, and then just the Design Team when we stopped the scrapping challenges. It's such a fun Design Team, the years have flown by!

My family and I spent New Year's Eve at a friends house. It was a lovely evening of just food and chatting - a BBQ and gathering around the table while the kids played pool and swam. Perfect! I wanted to make the hosts a card to say thanks for having us celebrate the new year with them.

This card was take two on my attempts to use hot foiling techniques on a card. I found an image of some fireworks online and printed it onto Night Of Navy cardstock using my laser printer. I then sat a layer of gold foil over the top and ran it through my laminator in a paper sleeve. It worked a bit better than last time, but still not perfect. I'll just have to keep trying!

The buildings are a Mama Elephant die called Cityscape. I cut three each of Basic Grey and Smoky Slate. I used the left over foil from the fireworks to back the windows on one of each colour die cut, and then stacked them with the other two die cuts. They were then popped up on Dimensionals.  The 'Thanks' is a Uniquely Creative die that I cut from Gold Foil card.

I used the same die to finish the inside. The sentiment comes from an Ink Road Stamps set called Pitch, Please.

Now for some good news: we want to celebrate with you! We are doing this by giving away some gifts. The Top Pick and Honourable Mentions will each receive a gift, but so will some of our other entrants! To qualify for one of the random gifts you must live in either Australia or New Zealand, enter the challenge (duh!), but you must also comment on all 14 blogs in the Blog Hop. Too easy!

That's it from me, now you're off to see what the fabulous Denita has created. Don't forget to comment to be in the running for a gift!

Bye for now,

Tina

Here's a list of blogs in case a link is broken or missing:

Denita
Kim
Jan
Rachael
Di
Narelle
Patrice
Chantell
Nikki
Joanne
Jackie
Kelly
Lou

JAI #461: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

It's time for the new Just Add Ink challenge! This week Rachael has found a stunning Inspiration Photo to kick start our creativity. Just look at those colours!

I have no idea what those trees are, but the yellow foliage is gorgeous. I'm not sure I'd want to park my car under one of them though!

When I see a photo like this, my first instinct is to try to recreate it. I struggled for along time with the perspective, and in the end I gave up on recreating it exactly. Plan B was a 3D card of some sort, either a Bridge fold or a Bendy card. Ultimately, the Bridge fold won.

I started by sponge brayering some Balmy Blue ink onto Whisper White cardstock for the background of the card, fading it out as I got towards the bottom. To make the trees I used the Bouquet Bunch dies. I cut the large bunch of stems from Basic Black and then to make it more trunk like, I adhered the bottom of the stems to a scrap of Basic Black and then hand trimmed around the edges. I then used the cluster of four pointed flowers for the foliage, cut from Daffodil Delight cardstock.

The buildings and roads are a Mama Elephant Die that I've had for ages but never used. I cut three of the buildings in Basic Black, Basic Grey and Smokey Slate and layered them on the background using Dimensionals between each layer. I didn't pop out any of the windows, but those that fell out were backed with Whisper White cardstock.

I used some left over flower clusters and another row of buildings to finish the back of the card. This time I popped out all the windows, and I must say that I think it looks fantastic!

The Design Team have used the Inspiration Photo in so many ways for their cards. You can see their cards over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card for the challenge. What inspires you in the photo?

Bye for now,

Tina