Just Add Ink #734 | Just Add Something New Blog Hop Challenge

Hello, hello, hello!  Happy Friday! Welcome and thank you for joining me on my blog today! After a much deserved break and holiday over the Christmas and New Year period I'm back today to share again my crafty creations with you all. 

 I'm starting back with the team at Just Add Ink and to kick off the year and our challenges we have an all play with everyone on the team joining in for a blog hop for you. Our theme for this hop and the challenge is Just Add Ink #734 | Just Add Something New. This is such a fabulous theme to kick start the Just Add Ink year.

 I'm starting the year with my favourite thing to create with - Florals. Who doesn't love to use florals when creating? I can't resist most floral products and these products are no exception. I'm using a new bundle from the Stampin' Up! 2025 Jan - Apr Mini Catalogue - Delightful Wishes from the Floral Delight Suite. I've featured the Delightful Wishes Dies on my card today! They are just amazing!

 

These dies are perfect for layering to create a beautiful floral die cut piece. I've used the floral and leaves dies for a tone on tone look but you can layer different colours for a beautiful multi layered look. Here I've created a cluster of flowers above and below the cards sentiment.

I've started the card with a Basic White embossed base and then layered an embossed die cut piece of Crumb Cake to break up all the white. I've used the new Everyday Arches Dies to die cut the Crumb Cake. The arches are a fantastic way to add some 'curvyness' to your cards with this classic arch shape. I die cut the flowers using Pretty in Pink, Fresh Freesia, Daffodil Delight and for the leaves, Old Olive.

I've finished the card off with some Pretty in Pink ribbon, Linen Thread, the layered Wishing die cuts, an embossed sentiment, and the super gorgeous Tiny Bee Trinkets - these are just too cute.

I'm so loving this bundle, the dies especially so keep and eye out on my Pinterest Boards or on my Instagram to see more creations with these dies. I'm sure I'll be using them lots in the future.

I love the colours of these flowers together. How would you use the Delightful Wishes dies? Tone on tone or create the flowers in multiple colours? There are lots of ways to use them that makes them very versatile.

Next up on the blog hop is back to the start with Joanne Stubbings with her super cute card. Make sure you click your way around to everyone on the hop as there are lots of gorgeous creations and lots of different takes on our 'Just Add Something New' theme.

1. Joanne Stubbings

2. Narelle Farrugia

3. Lou Kitzelman

4. Nikki Spencer

5. Chantell Randall

6. Tristan Dawes

7. Ann Alexander

8. Diane Barnes

9. Kim Badelt

10. Kerry Parkinson

11. Jan McQueen

12. Tina Gillespie

13. Rochelle Blok - You are here

Will you be entering our challenge this week? We would love to see your 'Just Add Something New' creation. Click the image below to be taken straight to this week's challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

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 Recreate this project at home using the following Stampin' Up! products.  Click on the images below to see the product information and to shop from my online store.

 

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Just Add Ink #733 | Just Choose Two

 Hello stamping friends. Happy Friday! I hope you are having a wonderful day. I'm here today with the Just Add Ink Design Team for the new Just Add Ink Challenge - Just Add Ink #733 | Just Choose Two. This week our Just Choose Two Challenge has been chosen by team member Kerry.

This is our last challenge for the year. WOW! Where did the year go? This challenge will run for two weeks and then the Just Add Ink team will be back in mid-Jan after a well earned rest ready to share our creations and inspiration with you all again.

Today for our Just Choose Two challenge (to choose two items to feature on your project) we are choosing from Elves, Reindeer, and Santa. I don't have anything that has Elves but I do have Reindeers but not much Santa crafting products. It was nearly going to be a Just Choose One week.

With some creative thought and a going though of all my crafting products I've come up with a Christmas Card with a reindeer wearing a Santa hat. That's all I've got. My brain is a bit fried creatively at the moment. I've gone into Christmas overload just trying to keep on track with everything during this Christmas season. Do you get a bit 'frazzled' this time of year?

I've used the Reindeer Days DSP for my card today. The main Reindeer image I've fussy cut from the Reindeer Days DSP.  I've had a lot of fun with the whole Suite this year and have used it for a lot of my Christmas crafting. Check out my Pinterest Board HERE to see all the creations I made using this Suite.

I used one of the Sketches from the 2024 Sept-Dec Mini Catalogue for this card. The sketches make creating that little bit easier to get started and are the perfect way to get the creative ideas flowing.

Can you pick which one I used?

I've used Pool Party and Basic White for the base layers and then layered the Reindeer Days DSP with some Garden Green embossed cardstock, a die cut circle, and then some fussy cut DSP pieces, and some stickers from the Reindeer Days Memories & More Card Pack.

I've finished the card off with a heat embossed sentiment and some Real Red & White Adhesive-Backed Peppermints.

This is my last card for 2024. I've had so much fun sharing all my creations with you all and I'm looking forward to bigger and better creative things for 2025. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

I do hope that I've given you some inspiration for our Just Choose Two Challenge. Go and check out the design teams take on this week's challenge at the Just Add Ink Blog and then come and join us for this week's Just Choose Two fun!

Click on the image below to be taken straight to this week's challenge.

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

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Recreate this project at home using the following Stampin' Up! products.  Click on the images below to see the product information and to shop from my online store 

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Just Add Ink #732 | Sketch Challenge

  Hello stamping friends. Happy Friday! I hope you are having a wonderful day.  I'm here today with the Just Add Ink Design Team for the new Just Add Ink Challenge - Just Add Ink #732 | Sketch Challenge. This week we have a fabulous sketch for you designed by fellow JAI team member - Tina Gillespie.

I'm turning back to my regular crafting this week rather than Christmas Crafting. I received an order the other day with some pre-order goodies from the upcoming 2025 Jan-Apr Mini Catalogue and I was busting to use some these rather than anything for Christmas crafts.

My card today uses products from the AMAZING Friends of the Ocean Suite. The suite consists of Ocean Friends stamp set, Ocean Friends Dies, Soft Waves 3D Embossing Folder, Friends of the Ocean 12"x12" DSP, and the Sunny Day Iridescent Dots. The colours in the DSP include Berry Burst, Calypso Coral, Lemon Lime Twist, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Splash. All these gorgeous colours together will make for some bright and summery creations. Put these products on your wish list today and purchase them from 7th Jan 2025.

The sketch has a zig-zag design across the front so I've torn some Two-Tone Cardstock to replicate that zig-zag. I then embossed it with the Soft Waves 3D Embossing Folder and because the Two-Tone cardstock has a white core I lightly sanded the paper to reveal some of the white. It's a fantastic technique to give another look to your two-tone.cardstock.

Over the two-toned cardstock and the Friends of the Ocean DSP I've added some of the Ocean Friends Dies, some of the sea creatures fussy cut from the DSP, a sentiment from the Ocean Friends Stamp Set, and then finished off the card with the placement of a few Sunny Days Iridescent Dots. So fun and super cute! You'll be seeing a lot more of these products from me, that's for sure! They are so good!

I do hope that I've inspired you with my card for this week's sketch challenge.Go and check out the design teams take on the sketch at the Just Add Ink blog for some inspiration and then come and join in this weeks sketch fun. I can't wait to see what you create.

Click on the image below to be taken straight to this week's challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

 

Live in Australia?

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Recreate this project at home using the following Stampin' Up! products.  Click on the images below to see the product information and to shop from my online store. 

 

Put these products on your wish list

- Friends of the Ocean Suite 

- Ocean Friends Stamp Set

- Ocean Friends Dies

- Soft Waves 3D Embossing Folder

- Friends of the Ocean 12"x12" DSP

- Sunny Days Iridescent Dots

 - Wildflower Celebrations 12"x12" Two-Tone Cardstock   

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CASE-ing the Catty | #ctc498 | CASE a project featuring animals

 Hello Stamping Friends. Welcome to a super exciting CASE-ing the Catty Blog Hop. We at CASE-ing the Catty are about CASE-ing the samples from the Stampin' Up! Catalogues (Catty) with a different theme to CASE each week. To CASE is to Copy and Selectively Edit.

If you've come from Rochelle Laird-Smith's blog welcome, if you've started here with me also welcome. It's so good to have you here.

This week we are CASE-ing a project from either the Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue or the Stampin' Up! 2024 Sept-Dec Mini Catalogue that features animals. There are quite a few options in both catalogues to CASE from.

My cards are loosely inspired by this gift bag sample from the Nests of Winter Suite that is in the 2024 Sept-Dec Mini Catalogue. While I didn't make a gift bag like the sample I used some of the design elements from the gift tag that accompanies the bag.

While I'm still in Christmas crafting mode I made a couple more Christmas cards for this weeks CASE-ing the Catty Challenge. Like the original sample I've kept the circle element and a rectangle that is a similar size to the actual tag. I've combined the Country Woods DSP with some of the products from the Reindeer Days Suite. I've incorporated the Reindeer Fun Stamp Set, the Reindeer Days DSP, the stickers from the Reindeer Days Memories & More Card Pack, and the Real Red & White Adhesive-Backed Peppermints.

The Pool Party layer on both cards I used one of the stamps from the Reindeer Fun stamp set to stamp and heat emboss my own 'DSP' as such. I couldn't find a DSP that I liked to go on the card so I made my own.  I then cut the cardstock with the Deckled Regtangle Dies.

 

The stickers from the Memories & More card packs are a fun way to accent either your memory keeping or your cards. These images from the Reindeer Days Memories & More Card Packs are so festive and really add to the Christmas look and feel of your Christmas crafts.

On the first card I used one of the stickers for the sentiment but on this one I stamped the sentiment for a different look.

I think with these two cards I've finished making my Christmas cards for the year. I think. Time to get them in the post.

Next up on the hop is the fabulous Kathryn Mangelsdorf. Make sure you give her some CASE-ing the Catty Blog Hop love.

Julia Quinn

Rochelle Laird-Smith

Rochelle Blok - You are here

Kathryn Mangelsdorf

Peta Stephen

Rebecca Scurr

Andrea Sargent

 

We would love to have you join us over at our Facebook group to share your creation CASE-ing a project from the 2024 - 2025 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue and join in this week's challenge. You don't need to have a blog to join in!

 

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

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Recreate this project at home using the following Stampin' Up! products.  Click on the images below to see the product information and to shop from my online store.

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Just Add Ink #730 | Just Add Fruit

 Hello stamping friends. Happy Friday! I hope you are having a wonderful day. I'm here today with the Just Add Ink Design Team for the new Just Add Ink Challenge - Just Add Ink #730 | Just Add Fruit. This week our theme was chosen by design team member Tristan.

With this week's theme I'm taking a break from the Christmas crafting but will be back into it next week. Just a couple more Christmas cards to make and then I'm done. Have you finished your Christmas cards yet? I don't have many crafting products that involve fruit, but I saw another design team member thus week use the Stampin' Up! Mix & Match Ephemera I would use that too. Different ephemera pieces of course.

I first pulled out the floral image with the green strawberries and wanted that as my focal piece. From there on it was just a matter of playing around with the other pieces as to what I wanted on the card and the placement of all the pieces. I tried to find pieces of similar colours and then added a some pieces that were complimentary in colour and would go with the pinks and greens. I had some other pink flowers that I was trying to incorporate on to the card as well, but they weren't working so they got put back in the pack to be used for another day.

I gave the card a Pretty in Pink card base as I thought that would go best with my pink flowers and then layered some Basic White cardstock over that which I embossed with the Distressed Tile Embossing Folder. Over that I splattered the Pretty in Pink Stampin' Write Marker. The splatters make the white layer to be not so 'white'.

I finished the card off with some White ribbon from the Petal Pink & White Diagonal Ribbon pack and some Pretty in Pink In Colour Resin Dots. 

I know I've said it before, but the Mix & Match Ephemera are such a quick and easy way to get creating and with all the pieces that come in the packs you'll have lots of cards made before you know it. They are so budget friendly too. If you are just starting out with Stampin' Up! products and don't know where to start a cardstock mixed pack, your choice of ephemera and some adhesive would be a perfect place to start.

I do hope that I've given you some inspiration for our fruity challenge. Go and check out the design teams take on this week's challenge at the Just Add Ink Blog and then come and join us for this week's Just Add Fruit fun. 

Click on the image below to be taken straight to this week's challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

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 Recreate this project at home using the following Stampin' Up! products.  Click on the images below to see the product information and to shop from my online store 

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Encircled in Nature Christmas

Hello there stamping friends. With the lead up to the last few weeks before Christmas I'm bringing you some of my last Christmas cards for the season. I've actually used some Stampin' Up! Products not initially intended for Christmas cards but they worked so well for Christmas crafting.

I've combined the Stampin' Up! Online Exclusive Encircled in Nature bundle with the Peaceful Season Dies and the Reindeer Fun Bundle. The circles from the Encircled with Nature Bundle make for the perfect wreath and when die cut in the traditional Christmas colours the "wreath" makes for the for the perfect Christmas wreath.

I've used Mossy Meadow for the card base and embossed the base layer with the Birch Wood Embossing folder. I've then added some Basic White layers, die cut with the Deckled Rectangle Dies, and then embossed with the Snowflake Sky Embossing Folder. 

 

I've then die cut the circle and the 'twigs' using Cajun Craze. This would have to be one of my least favourite Stampin' Up! colour but it works so well  as the 'sticks and branches' of the wreath. The next layer I've then die cut with Mossy Meadow.

This card is made nearly exactly the same except I used the negative die cut from the circle on the first card and I then embossed it with the Forever Plaid Embossing Folder. I love using multiple embossing folders on my cards and I think three layers of embossing is the most I've done without it looking to over done. I wonder though how many embossed layers is too much.

I've finished the card off with some holly leaves and berries from the Reindeer Fun dies, the Merry and Christmas from the Peaceful Season Bundle and some thin gold threads from the Gold Twisted Thread.

I love all the different elements on these cards to make them special Christmas cards.

I do hope that I've inspired you with some more festive creations. Just a few more to make and then I'll be done for the year and will be back to regular crafting creations.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Live in Australia?

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Recreate these cards at home using the following Stampin' Up! products.  Click on the images below to see the product information and to shop from my online store  

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Just Add Ink #729 | Colour Challenge

 Hello stamping friends. Happy Friday! I hope you are having a wonderful day. I'm here today with the Just Add Ink Design Team for the new Just Add Ink Challenge - Just Add Ink #729 | Colour Challenge.This week our colour challenge has been chosen by Kim.

This week we have a bright and colourful colour challenge for you. We have Petunia Pop, Gorgeous Grape, Granny Apple Green, and Azure Afternoon. In all the Stampin' Up! colours I don't think we could get much brighter. Even though these aren't your usual Christmas colours I still created a Christmas card for you this week.

I've used the Decorative Trees Bundle to create this bright and fun Christmas card. I used a technique to create the watercolour background that I've not used before. It was fun to try something new (new for me). The technique was called Plastic Bag Watercolouring. It was messy but it was fun. And super easy to achieve a watercolour background.

For this technique wet down your Fluid 100 Watercolour Paper with water in a water painter, press your ink pad onto a Zip lock bag, place your hand in the bag and flip it over and 'smoosh' the colour onto your wet watercolour paper. Move the bag around and the colour until you have achieved the desired 'watercolour' look.

 

I've used Basic White as the base layer for the card as this provides a beautiful contrast to the brightness of our challenge colours. I've then layered some Granny Apple Green and Basic White for the next layer and created my own embossed background by using the paper scoring blade on my Paper Trimmer. Over that I've then splattered the Granny Apple Green Stampin' Write marker for some more colour without adding too much colour. Less is more, right?

Over the water colour trees I've layered some retired silver glimmer paper for more of a fun festive look. Silver felt like a better choice with these colours than gold and this glimmer paper was all I had in Silver. How fun are the sparkles from the glimmer paper? Love it!

I've really kept this card very CAS as I wanted the colours to be the main focus of the card. I haven't even used embellishments or ribbon & twine. Who is this person? Ha! It's very rare that I don't have embellishments and ribbon & trim on my cards.

I do hope that I've inspired you with the colours for our colour challenge. Go and check out the design teams take on this week's colour challenge at the Just Add Ink Blog and then come and join us for this week's colour fun. 

Click on the image below to be taken straight to this week's challenge.

 Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Live in Australia?

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Recreate this project at home using the following Stampin' Up! products.  Click on the images below to see the product information and to shop from my online store 

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