Just Add Ink #374 Inspiration

Hello there,
we are making progress, I am almost over the germs and there are signs of spring in the air. As much as I enjoy winter, I truly do, the sight of blossoms appearing in the garden, bringing the colour back, is something that makes my heart lighten. Speaking of colour I have lots of it in my project for this week's Just Add Ink challenge. This week Jan suggested we Just Add Inspiration. You can use the colour, patterns or objects from the image as inspiration for your project.

Ok I now have a confession to make -  I do not drink coffee, I never have. But I love a cup of tea and that first big mug in the morning is very important! So while I can see the attraction of the Coffee Cafe set what I really like is that I can also make it be a cup of tea. The key to that is masking!

The secret weapon in my masking arsenal is....sticky tape! Yes, with sticky tape you can almost do anything ;) With it I was able to alter the stamp set sentiment to say "cuppa", a Aussie term for a hot drink that can be a tea or coffee. You just lay sticky tape over the areas of the stamp you don't want to ink up. Ink up the stamp, now this is important . . . remove the sticky tape, and then stamp. Every cup of tea needs a tea bag (ok well leaf tea might be better, especially my favourite blend, but it's not always practical to have that) so I added a tiny tag hanging out of the cup. I finished the inside off with a water coloured cup cake, because tea and cake is always a yummy combination!

The Just Add Ink team have lot of fun inspiration for you so do go and check out all the projects and then join us!

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Project Recipe:
To see and order any items used in today's project, just click on the items below to see them in my Online Store. You can order from me if you live anywhere in Australia. I would love to be your Demonstrator if you don't already have one. Please allow "Demonstrator contact" in your preferences so I can thank you properly when you place your order.

Product List

Coffee Café Photopolymer Stamp Set $37.00	Playful Backgrounds Photopolymer Stamp Set $28.00	Melon Mambo A4 Card Stock $14.00	Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock $14.00	Whisper White A4 Card Stock $15.75
Watercolor Paper $8.75	Wood Textures Designer Series Paper Stack $17.50	Coffee Cups Framelits Dies $50.00	Lots Of Labels Framelits Dies $45.00	Berry Burst Classic Stampin' Pad $11.50
Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad $11.50	Powder Pink Classic Stampin' Pad $11.50	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad $12.25	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad $11.50	Chocolate Chip Classic Stampin' Pad $11.50
White Stampin' Emboss Powder $8.75	Twine Baker's Whisper White $5.25	Sponge Brayers $14.00	Iridescent Sequin Assortment $8.75	Stampin' Dimensionals $6.00
Tear & Tape Adhesive $9.00	Fine-Tip Glue Pen $12.00	Big Shot $159.00	Big Shot Platform $45.25

JAI #373 Stencils

Hello there,
home has been awash in germs for the last two weeks and all of them, and I mean ALL, decided to come and live up close and personal with me - urgh! I literally spent a solid week on the couch feeling miserable, so it's just as well I had to make my project for this week's Just Add Ink challenge a few weeks ahead to meet a family birthday deadline. This week Karren has suggested we Just Add Stencils. I went with a simple emboss resist technique to create a starry background. If you'd like to see a more complicated way to use a stencil to create a background, drop past my last Colour INKspiration post here. 

Here's what I came up with for my uncle's birthday - a big milestone birthday!

Many years ago in his professional life he worked for the European Space Agency so I figured a big starry sky was a good way to go. 

The how to:
To start I pulled out my stencil and dabbed Versamark on using a sponge dauber, carefully lifted it off and embossed the stars in gold. Then out comes the sponge brayers this is where the magic of creating a sky comes in, and is truly really simple. I used three tones of blue. First start with your lightest colour, concentrate that on the lower half of the card. Next using the mid tone work down from the top, creating a solid layer there and blending it, carefully over the lightest tone, you don't want to lose all that light blue! Now add the darkest shade, very carefully blend it over the mid blue, so you get a lovely gradient from really dark down to that bright gleam at the bottom. Once that's done, get a dry cloth and wipe over the panel to take any excess ink off the embossed stars.

To finish it off the night sky I splattered some fine flecks of white gouache over the panel and then layered up my focal panel. I added lots of gleams of gold, nothing fussy and a simple knotted ribbon.

The JAI design team have an inspirational array of ideas for using stencils so make sure to stop past all their blogs and then show us your project!

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Number of Years
Cardstock: Island Indigo, Whisper White
Ink: Night of Navy, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Versamark
Accessories: Large Number Framelits, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Circles Collection (R), Hearts and Stars stencil (R), Gold foil, Gold glimmer, Gold and White embossing powder, Gold 3/8" edged metallic ribbon, Sponge brayer, White gouache, Dimensionals, Tear and tape

JAI #372 Just add a colour combo

Hello there,
Nikki has given us all a lovely colour combo at Just Add Ink the week. It's filled with the promise of spring, perhaps a bit early for my neck of the woods, my bulbs have burst their greenery above the ground but we have yet to see the first flowers! The fact that there was snow on the mountains this week might have something to do with that. Here are the colours.

And here is what I made of them.

The Powder Pink said flower to me, so out came my favourite bloom. To get the intensity of pink I wanted I pretty much coloured with the undiluted reinker. Let that dry did another layer and then for the last one added some Wink of Stella. The background was a whole lot of smooching fun, using Pool Party and Tranquil Tide. I made it darker to the bottom so there was more contrast against the pink bloom. Right as I was at assembly I decided to add in some silver elements so out came the sewing machine for a stitched border, some silver thread to mix in with the pink baker's twine and a little sliver of silver glimmer to accent the sentiment - oh and some sequins - can not forget those ;)

The JAI design has a beautiful array of projects to show you so go check them out and then join in the challenge with us!

Thanks for visiting,
Kim

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Birthday Blooms, Jar of Love
Cardstock: Powder Pink, Pool Party, Whisper White
Ink: Powder Pink, Tranquil Tide, Pool Party, Basic Black
Accessories: Watercolor paper, Aquapainter, Clear embossing powder, Silver glimmer paper, Sewing machine, Sponge brayer, Wink of Stella, Metallic sequins, Blushing Bride baker's twine (R)(shh you wouldn't know its not Powder Pink - really), Silver thread, Dimensionals, Fine Tip glue pen, Tear and Tape

Colour INKspiration 15

Hello there,
welcome to the Colour INKspiration 15 blog hop. If you are hopping your way around the blog hop, you will have arrived from the inspirational Bronwyn Eastley's blog. I'm sure you were wowed by her project! If you are starting the hop here but would like to go to the start at the  Colour INKspiration challenge page over on Facebook, just click the link to be redirected and ask to join the group, that way you can load your projects directly to the Facebook group and join in the fun every 2nd and 4th Wednesday. Our INKspiration for this round is filled with bold jewel like colours!

Here's what I came up with.

The ornate wrought iron patterns in the door caught my eye and an idea was born! I pulled out one of the Pattern Party stencils and got to work creating the background. Not hard to do but a little time consuming. I actually only had to move the stencil four times in total to cover the whole front and with a geometric pattern it was easy to match up. And honestly I wasn't looking for perfection so I was just dolloping colour wherever I felt it should go. One tip to note is that while I used my aqua painter I actually took the brush tip off the water reservoir. I found with it attached too much water was coming through and the ink would leak under the stencil. To add a little shine I clear embossing my Elegant Eggplant sentiment and also swished over my flowers with a little Wink of Stella. I loved working with the bright tones of blue, green and purple - very happy making :)

The challenge runs till August 21st. Hope you can join us! Next up, on the blog hop is Mel Pagano with another awesome project. Enjoy!

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Colorful Seasons, Happy Birthday Gorgeous
Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Shimmery White
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Bermuda Bay, Lemon Lime Twist, Pool Party
Accessories: Pattern Party Decorative Masks, Watercolor cardstock, Sponge Brayers, Clear embossing powder, Wink of Stella, White baker's twine, Sequins - Iridescent, Dimensionals, Fine tip glue pen, Tear and Tape

JAI #371 Just Choose Two

Hello there,
I felt the need to create something pink and sparkly this week. The depths of winter was part of the reason but it was also because I needed to make a birthday card for my soon to be seven year old niece. The new challenge at Just Add Ink this week was just perfectly suited as this week Di has asked us to Just Choose Two and the choices...

See what I mean! Perfect. Here's the pink and sparkly creation. The cat is my 'pet' element and as you'll see, rather usually for me, I used 'patterned paper' for my background.

The kitties head wobbles! 

The inside.

Big kids and little kids all like an interactive element so as soon as I decided to use the cat for my nieces card I knew I had to add something that would capture her attention and what could be better than a wobble head! It was super easy to put together having little double sided tape attachments for the base and top. Aside from pink, sparkle is right up there as an essential ingredient for seven year old, so I die cut some glimmer foliage to frame the cat and then finished the card off with a fun birthday sentiment.

The JAI design team have a lots of gorgeous projects to show you so make sure you stop by their blogs, then join us for the challenge! Thanks for visiting!

Kim 

Recipe: All SU! unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Foxy Friends, Labeler Alphabet
Cardstock: Powder Pink, Smoky Slate, Whisper White
Ink: Blushing Bride, Smoky Slate, Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Accessories: Stitched Shapes framelits, Rose Garden thinlets, Fox Builder punch, Mini action wobbler (Hampton Art), Wood Textures DSP, Bundle of Love Specialty DSP, Silver and Dazzling Diamonds glimmer paper, Wink of Stella, Powder Pink 1/2" Finely Woven ribbon, Sewing machine, Dimensionals, Rhinestone Basic Jewels