Just Add Ink #381 - Just Choose Two

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Happy Friday friends ~

We've survived week one back at school - yay us! The nice weather is here, & the garden is colourful once again. I really love this time of year. Hard to believe Christmas isn't too far away either....eeeek I have another few birthdays to get through before I can even think of that!

We have a Choose Two - Embossing Paste or Colouring or Sequins challenge from Jan kicking off at Just Add Ink today. As my new Stampin' Blends arrived earlier this week I couldn't resist having a quick play. Out came my Birthday Bloom favourite again....I've used Pink Pirouette & Old Olive here, with a little touch of Cherry Cobbler in the centre. What you can't see is all the shimmer on this card, unfortunately.

I really enjoy using the Embossing Paste, & if you haven't tried it yet I urge you to get yourself a pot. So. Much. Fun!

We'd love you to join the challenge fun with us so pop over to the JAI blog, grab yourself some inspiration & get busy. We really do enjoy popping past your blogs to see what you've created, & leave you some comment love.

Now that the warmer weather is here our two youngest are doing Little Athletic's each Saturday morning again, swimming lessons have resumed & life gets that much busier for this taxi mum.

Yesterday I had my hair cut & coloured, & today I'm lunching with a friend to celebrate her birthday. This evening is my semi regular dinner with the girls (four of us have been catching up every six weeks or so for too many years to remember) & we always have so much to talk, laugh & commiserate about. Our dinners don't roll around nearly as often as we'd all like.

I hope the start of your weekend is as good as mine.

Patrice x

Just Add Ink #380 - Just Add a Sketch

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Happy Friday friends ~

The school holidays are almost over, & while it has been nice to relax & hang with the kiddos it'll be just as nice to get back into routine next week. Our weather has warmed up beautifully this past week & with daylight savings starting a few days ago I'm feeling quite content with my lot in life!

We have a great sketch challenge (designed by Narelle) over at Just Add Ink this week. I was pretty short on time (being school holidays) so whipped my card up fairly quickly & without a great deal of thought & planning - I already had the bloom stamped & waiting for colour.

I've layered a Whisper White panel on a Berry Burst card base & added a strip of the new Specialty Washi Tape. I gave the white panel a good flick of gold Wink of Stella (now retired), added some gold twine & sequins to finish. Pretty simple!

The bloom was coloured with a Watercolour Pencil, & Aqua Painter - I just moved the colour around a bit, no special skill required. Believe me!

I coloured the stamens with the gold Wink of Stella pen also. The whole card is quite sparkly in real life.

As always, the design team have created lots of lovely projects to get you inspired. Go over to the JAI blog & join the challenge fun. Here is the sketch for you.

I had a lovely week in Queensland catching up with a handful of friends. I spent a few nights on the Sunshine Coast, went to the Eumundi markets & sampled plenty of food, visited Montville for a gorgeous view & delicious cake, bbq'd & played darts with fun friends, had a tavern dinner....it wasn't all about food....well food & friends go together so I guess it was :)

The remaining four nights were spent in Brisbane visiting my BFF & gorgeous Godson. We went to Kinky Boots at the theatre, did a little shopping, visited some farm animals, went out for brunch, lunch & supper, kicked back, had nana naps...it was a really nice time. The weather warmed up a little quickly with it reaching 37 degrees the day I was flying home. Even the locals were telling me it was unseasonal to be so warm at this time of year.

Back next week. Have a great weekend, & take care.

Patrice x

Just Add Ink #307 - Just Add a Colour Combo

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Happy Friday ~

It's an exciting day, yay, yay, yay....I'm off to Sydney this afternoon to catch up with a few of my crafty friends for On Stage tomorrow.  Totally looking forward to the reveal of the new annual catalogue and playing with a few new toys as well.

Over at Just Add Ink today we're kicking off a colour challenge that Nikki has given us this week -
Delightful Dijon, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, Whisper White.  I didn't find these colours difficult to work with at all - although I admit to this being the first time I've used Dijon which is a bit slack considering it's due to retire.  My card came together in next to no time - thanks to Jan.  I loved the birthday card she sent me recently so much that I CASEd (copy and share everything) it for this challenge. You can check out Jan's original to see what I mean.  Is it not stunning?

I've given it the royal 'Wink' treatment, however, it was quite late in the day when I snapped this pic so the sun was going down and you can't see any of the gorgeous sparkly stuff here.

I'd love to see what you come up with for this challenge.  Pop over to JAI and have a look at all the lovely design team creations.  They're sure to inspire you and have you pulling out these colours, or similar, to whip up your own paper craft project.

So last week I mentioned we're off to New York soon....Hawaii is first up with a quick couple of days just to break up flights.  We'll be staying right in the heart of Honolulu at Waikiki.  My plan is to check out the beach, perhaps a little evening shopping....I might even rent a moped to get around.  On our return from NY in late May we'll be staying on the island of Kailua-Kona (about 45 minutes by air from Honolulu).  We chose this for the opportunity to unwind and completely relax after a hectic NY experience.  My Mister will go diving and I'm going to give night snorkelling a try (eeeek I'm not a fan of large bodies of water).  My main aim is to laze around with a book.  I'll share a bit more about my NY plan next week.

Have an awesome weekend, and thanks for stopping by today.

Just Add Ink #302 - Just Add a Colour Combo

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Happy Friday lovely friends ~

After a week of hot sunny weather we've woken to rain in Canberra today.  No complaints, the gardens need it, but typically it's swimming carnival day for Gorgeous Kid.  Ohhh well..... it's not at all cold but he's going to be a bit lot wetter than he expected lol.

We have a brand new challenge over at Just Add Ink for you today.  Jan has given us a gorgeous colour combo to work with this week - Blackberry Bliss, Tip Top Taupe and Rich Razzleberry.  Are these not lovely colours?  I thoroughly enjoyed putting my card together using them.

Hehehe I'm having a love affair with Birthday Blooms - lucky I don't post all that I make because I think the last 15 odd cards I've put together have been using this pretty stamp set.

I heat embossed the bloom in white and water coloured with the three challenge colours - as much as I love colouring I'm the first to admit I'm not nearly as good at it as I'd like to be.  I do love the leaves coloured in TTT though, don't you?  I added Very Vanilla as my neutral, and a few gold embellies.

If you're a fan of these colours why not pop over to JAI, check out the design team inspiration and play along with the challenge?  We really love visiting your blogs and seeing all the different creativity we crazy crafters share.

There has been some excitement in our house this week.  The Mister and I each bought new cars and got to pick them up Monday and Thursday respectively - the kids have been more thrilled than us!  Other news from me, and I wasn't sure if I was going to share here or not....I've been learning to run.  I've always enjoyed walking, but most days I find it really difficult to find the time sooooo I decided on a compromise....running.  It takes a lot less time and most importantly I'm loving it.  I drag my butt out of bed really early (no mean feat for me) three mornings a week and off I go with music pushing me along.  Fortunately I live close to a lovely big pond so I run around it which gives me about 4kms from home and back (did I mention I live on a hill - it's a killer on my way home).  I'll work my way up to a few more km's in time....

We have a three day weekend to look forward to here in Canberra, woohoo.  I'm hoping we get some gardening chores done but there are a few social activities planned as well.  I'm off to watch my first roller derby game tomorrow afternoon.  Looking forward to that!

Just Add Ink #300 - Just Add a Sketch & Prizes

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TGIF!

I'm so happy for the weekend to be here!  It's been a long and busy week.  It seems the twins birthday has gone on for days - starting last Sunday with their first official non family party to celebrate with their little day care friends, loads of homemade cupcakes to share with their preschool friends on Tuesday and a family dinner out that evening. We are all so full of cake....

Over at Just Add Ink this week we are celebrating a milestone.  Today is our 300th challenge! To make it a little extra special we'll have some brand new SU! SAB items as prizes for the winner and two honourable mention participants this week.  Be sure to check the rules over on the JAI post to ensure you are eligible to be in the running.

Kim has given us a sketch today.  I've been super short on time so pulled this card together in five minutes flat. Fortunately the bloom was already coloured (with Blendies - thanks for the inspiration to pull them out again Judy).  I used a base of Blushing Bride c/s with a mat of Tip Top Taupe, a touch of Glimmer Paper and the gorgeous Birthday Bloom popped up on dimensionals.  The stamens have some gold Wink on them and the whole card has a little sheen of glitter from working with the Glimmer Paper.

Pop over to JAI and check out the design team inspiration so you can join in the fun with us.  Here is the sketch for you, you'll see I flipped mine on its side.

I haven't downloaded any party pics yet so will share this one taken a few months ago.  It's usually very hard to get both smiling at the same time!

Gorgeous Kid received a couple of Awards at school yesterday.  One was the Principal's Award for receiving all A's and B's on each of his reports for 2015.  Way to go kiddo!

Well I'm off to lunch with a couple of girlfriends today.  I'm looking forward to a relaxing hour or two catching up and having a little down time.  Then tonight is date night.  We have a booking at a fancy restaurant and I'm looking forward to putting on a dress and heels.  Can't wait!

Whatever you have planned for the weekend I do hope you enjoy!  Thanks for stopping in today.

Just Add Ink #294 - Just Add Something New - A Blog Hop & Prizes!

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Hellooooooo ~

Oh my goodness, I truly did mean to get back here before Christmas, and then before New Year....and then all of a sudden I knew it wasn't going to happen until the very first Just Add Ink challenge for 2016!  So Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

At Just Add Ink we always like to start the year off with a blog hop to showcase the first challenge of the year. Rochelle has suggested we all add something new.  Now if you're a fan of Stampin' Up! products you'll have no problem because the new Occasions catalogue and Sale-a-bration promotion are in full swing.  If you don't have anything new from SU! please join us using whatever new product you have and be sure to let us know what it is.

To make the blog hop extra special the design team have donated brand new SU! SAB items as prizes to the winner, and two honourable mention participants.  Please note - to be eligible you must meet the following guidelines:

1. create a new project using something new to you;
2. leave a comment on all of the design team blogs;
3. be or become a follower of the Just Add Ink challenge blog; and
4. blog your project exclusively linked to Just Add Ink.  Any entrants that link to additional challenges will be disqualified.

Prizes are open to both international and Aus/NZ participants.

You can begin the blog hop here on my blog or at any of the other design team members blogs. There are 15 stops, and it's set up in a loop so it doesn't matter where you start.  All you need to do to follow along is click on the previous or next buttons at the bottom of each post and you'll be taken to the next stop.  If you get stuck just head over to the JAI blog to find all the links.

I am completely in love with the new Birthday Blooms stamp set and coordinating Birthday Bouquet designer paper - so much so that I'm about to crack open my second packet!  I'll let you in on a little secret - until now I hadn't touched my Mossy Meadow c/s.  All that has changed in recent weeks.

I coloured my flower/s with Copics, using R20, R24, R32 and R35 to get a likeness to Watermelon Wonder.  I've also used Wink of Stella on the stamens for a little shimmer.  The next pic shows the dimension of my fussy cut layered bloom.

I'm not sure what this card fold is called, but I've decided this year that I'm going to branch out a little and not just stick to my usual tent fold.  I'm looking forward to a little bit of 'fancy folding' in my life. Lol.

We at Just Add Ink look forward to kicking the year off with a celebration of new crafty goodness and inspiration and hope you will join the challenge fun with us.  Go forth using the buttons below and enjoy the hop - the next button will take you to Dely's stunning and very playful projects!

         

Thanks for stopping by today, and thanks so much for your lovely comments and encouragement. Enjoy your weekend!

Edited to add - if you are having difficulties leaving a comment (using Internet Explorer), perhaps try via another browser - Chrome, Firefox..... or feel free to email me - link in right hand side-bar.  I'll endeavour to have this problem solved as soon as possible.