JAI 775: Just Add A Celebration

 Hi!

Welcome to the new Just Add Ink challenge! Are you loving the new fortnightly schedule? I sure am!

This fortnight, Lou has challenged us to add a Celebration to our cards. That was an easy choice for me, as I recently attended a very special event to celebrate a book launch. You may know that my youngest son, Hudson, has severe disabilities. One of his classmates, Tahlyiah, wrote a book called The Monster And The Vet. That deserved an extra special card, don't you think?

I purchased this stamp set, Friends Forever from My Favourite Things, several years ago. I know lots of young people who are wheelchair users, so it was a great addition to my stash. The imaged was cropped with a Stitched Shapes oval die, and the DSP is from the Full Of Life pack. The book is illustrated with bright, watercoloured images, so this paper was the perfect choice! The sentiments are from Amazing Phrasing, a SAB set from a few years ago.

I thought that this sentiment, from Here Comes The Sun, was fabulous for the inside of the card. Miss T has severe disabilities too, but has persevered to have her creative voice heard and published! She's so amazing.

We'd love to see which Celebration you add to your card. There are so many choices! You can see what the rest of the Design Team have made over on the Just Add Ink blog. You can also enter your card in our challenge. We'd love to see what you make. Oh, and if you'd like to see and order Tahlyiah's book, you can find it here.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 581: Just Add Legs

 Hi!

Thanks for popping back to see what the Just Add Ink Design Team are up to this week. Our challenge has been set by Lou, who is asking us to Just Add Legs to our cards. And thanks to Lou, I've had 'Legs' by ZZ Top on repeat in my head all week! Argh!! LOL!

But seriously, what a fun challenge - a great chance to think outside the box. When you think about it, there are lots and lots of things with legs. For me, it was a chance to use my Sun-Lovin' Santa stamp set from My Favourite Things.

I love that Santa is set for the beach and his legs are peeping out from under his boardies! Then I spotted the flamingo stamp in the set and had to find a spot for him on my card. He's got the longest legs of all!

My background was created by masking off the palm trees and gifts and using my Blending Brushes with Balmy Blue, Blueberry Bushel and Bumblebee inks. I used sticky notes to give the crisp lines for the sand and ocean. I didn't want to spend too much time on the background when the focus is Santa.

I used a few more of the same images on the inside of my card. They were all coloured with Stampin' Blends. I was tempted to add another flamingo, but I couldn't get the proportions to look right, so I satisfied myself with just the palm, ball and gifts.

Is your mind madly spinning though your craft stash, wondering what you could use that has legs? I hope so! We'd love to see what your creative mind comes up with, so don't forget to link your entry over on the Just Add Ink blog. You can also see the cards that the rest of the Design Team created. 

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 580: Just Add Colour

 Hi!

Oh, yay! It's the new Just Add Ink challenge dropping, just in time for the weekend. I hope you have some crafty plans that include making a card for our challenge!

It's a Colour Challenge this week, with the combo selected by Rochelle. To me, it's a very Aussie bush combo, so I used a stamp set from Paper Rose called Flowering Gum on my card.

I had received this stamped image as a part of a kit for a colouring class I attended recently. I hadn't got around to colouring it yet, so I pulled it out of the kit to use for this challenge. The colours work beautifully, don't you think? I mounted it on a retired Gold Foil card base to pull in the Gold from the combo. I also splattered some Vegas Gold Shimmer paint over the top.

The gold splatter was an attempt to abstractly replicate the warty growths that are sometimes on gum leaves. I'm to sure that it translated well, but I like the effect! The sentiment I used is from a My Favourite Things set, called Sun-Lovin' Santa. 

That's all from me for this challenge, but I do hope that you're able to play along with us. You can see the rest of the Design Team's cards over on the Just Add Ink blog. You can also link up your card when you're ready. I'm interested to see what you make with this combo.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #541: Just Add A Blended Background

 Hi!

Hooray for Friday - it's been a long week, and I'm glad that the weekend is nearly here! This week at Just Add Ink, Nikki has challenged us to add a Blended Background to our cards.

How do you do your blended backgrounds? Are you a brayer fan, or daubers, or brushes? I was a brayer girl all the way until I got my hands on a blending brush, and now that's what I use most of the time.

Instead of doing a plain background, I decided to do my blending through a stencil, just for fun. This stencil is Circle Burst by MFT. I started in the middle with Coastal Cabana ink, Bermuda Bay in the middle and Island Indigo around the outside of the burst. I then cropped it with the largest Stitched Rectangles Die, matted it with Island Indigo cardstock and popped it up over a Silver Foil card base.

The character is from a Kindred Stamps set, called Plumber Brothers. I coloured him with my Blends to coordinate with the background. The sentiment is from another Kindred set, called Legendary. It's such a fun sentiment for a gamer birthday card!

This card is going to my nephew, who celebrated his birthday over a week ago. Oops! Luckily, I have the perfect sentiment for that! It's from an Ink Road Stamps set, fittingly called Belated. Another character from Plumber Brothers finishes off the inside.

That's all from me for now, but please pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll find lots of blended inspiration from the Design Team. We clearly had fun with this challenge, and I'm sure that you will too. Don't forget to link up your card when it's done!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #513: Just Add Two

Hi!

Just Add Ink time means that it's nearly the weekend. Woo Hoo! This week Di has challenged us to Choose Two of Flowers, Trees and Texture to add to our cards. Hmmm, what to choose?

When I first started thinking about what I was going to make for this challenge, I had ideas of stencilling some trees, both with ink and Texture Paste. As it always seems to be lately, time got away from me and I had to adjust my plans. I still stuck with trees and texture, but I opted to colour my images.

I used a cute stamp set I purchased a while ago when I was wanting a more Summery Christmas stamp set. It's from My Favorite Things and is called Sun-Lovin' Santa. Palm trees are probably not your first thought when you think of trees, but you really can't have a sun-lovin' Santa without a palm tree. I coloured both images with my Copics, using bright colours. I sort of imagined Santa as being a fan of crazy colour/pattern combos when it comes to his vacation wardrobe!

The texture part of my card is the background. I used the Subtle 3DEF to emboss a large Whisper White oval and then, using Blending Brushes, applied So Saffron, Pacific Point and Balmy Blue ink to represent the beach, the ocean and the sky. It gives a really cool effect, I think!

I used the same palm tree image on the inside, but added some gifts so that it becomes a Christmas Tree. I'm looking forward to making more Christmas cards with this stamp set, as it also has a flamingo and a Combi van, all decked out for Christmas in the sun.

It's time now to head on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see the rest of this week's Design Team cards. You can also link your card for the challenge, once you've decided which two of Flowers, Texture and Trees you will use.

Bye for now,

Tina