Just Add Ink #264 - Just Add a Sketch

Happy Friday friends ~

If you read this post you'll know we were off to a house auction last Saturday morning.  I'm very pleased to say we won the auction!  Woohoo!  The next two months are going to be busy busy with putting our current house on the market, packing and sorting...the logistics of a move can be quite daunting.  I'm already having sleepless nights because my mind is churning with all that needs to be done.  Sigh.

Over at Just Add Ink this week Kim has given us a lovely sketch challenge to work with.

I've used a Blackberry Bliss base - love this rich colour.  The softer, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla toned dsp is an old SU paper from my stash.  The Sweet Life roses are inked with Wisteria Wonder, Rich Razzleberry and Blackberry Bliss.

This card went all the way across to Western Australia for a lovely birthday lady - hope your special day was wonderful yesterday Chantell.

If you'd like to give this sketch a whirl head over to JAI for the details, and lots of design team inspiration.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Just Add Ink #263 - Just Add Wedding - Last Convention pics

Good morning ~

Another Friday rolls around...I love weekends!  The new Just Add Ink challenge is from Jan this week and she wants us to add a wedding theme.  Sooooo many options.  I had a ton of different ideas and found it really hard to settle on just one.  My decision was made with the timely arrival of my new Vintage Roses stamp set from Altenew.

I used a tutorial from Linda Higgins for this fun fold scallop tag concertina card.  My base uses the Shimmery White c/s - such a pretty sheen and really sturdy on its own.  The mat layers are Brushed Silver c/s.  So pretty together and the two add that extra elegance for a special card.

I heat embossed the large sentiment using Smoky Slate embossing powder as it's a little less glitzy than the Silver ep and I didn't want overkill with all the shimmer in the c/s already.  I used the same ep on vellum for my butterflies and popped them up on dimensionals.  I left one panel blank for writing on :)

I used my new MISTI to get the rose layers perfect.  OMG I love that gadget.  Best. Invention. Ever!  My roses use the colours Real Red, Strawberry Slush and Pink Pirouette.  The leaves are Wild Wasabi and Pear Pizzazz.  My card is finished with the beautifully luxe Silver Satin ribbon.  Honestly this card is a lot prettier irl, the photos just don't do it justice :(

It would be fabulous to have you join our wedding challenge this week.  Pop over to JAI and check out the design team inspiration, and don't forget to link your project up.  We love visiting your blogs and checking out your interpretation of these challenges.

It's a very exciting (and nerve wracking) weekend for us.  We're in the process of buying a new house and the auction for the one we really really want is tomorrow morning.  We've spent weeks getting to this point; lots of running around and doing pre settlement jobs that you normally have time to do after purchasing.  I've learnt that auctions work very differently.  If we win, then the contract is signed and deposit handed over on the day.  Wish us luck!

Nearly forgot to add a couple of last Convention piccies for you.

Jodene and I with a message for our friend Karen!

Narelle and I having a moment away from the noise on one of the foyer sofas

Jodene, Narelle and I hamming it up with the props - considering the thunder storm and extreme rain going on outside our hair is sitting fairly reasonably lol

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hope I've given you a little inspiration to try a scallop tag concertina card soon. They're really not at all difficult.

Just Add Ink #262 - Just Add a Colour Combo - More Convention Pics

Woohoo it's Friday ~

This week the new Just Add Ink colour challenge was suggested by Di.  Her colours for us to use are Crumb Cake, Calypso Coral, Pool Party and Pear Pizzazz.

I knew what I wanted to do with this card ... but I was struggling adding the Pool Party ... as it was I ended up having to substitute my seam binding with Soft Sky.  Anyway it all came together in the end.  Once again I left it to the very last minute to photograph so it was taken in poor light and I've over exposed it in editing - the upside is that you can see the shimmer I added to the Stippled Blossoms :)

This is already in the post to a special birthday girl, although I doubt it's going to make it on time. Happy birthday for Saturday dear Narelle.  Hope your boys spoil you thoroughly and your day turns into a whole week of celebrations.

We'd love you to join the colour challenge fun this week.  For more inspiration head over to JAI and check out what the design team have posted for you.  Don't forget to link up.

As mentioned in my previous post here are a couple more Convention pics (I'll share the last of them next week).

A bit blurry but this is the only pic I have of my beautiful friend (and upline) Christine Blain and myself

Poor lighting has made this a very pink pic - from left Jodene, me, Nikki and Narelle

Look at this bunch of fresh faced girls early Sunday morning - a quick selfie before saying our goodbyes and heading home to our respective States (and Territories)

A quick wrap up of my week ... I had a really lovely Mother's Day and was thoroughly spoiled with lots of kisses and cuddles from the kids, all meals cooked for me, no housework and lots of time to sit and read my book which resulted in a little afternoon nap!  The weather was freezing so it was the perfect indoors day.  Canberra has cooled significantly this past week! Not at all looking forward to more of the same as Winter gets closer.

Special birthday wishes today to my mum.  I'm sure you're watching over us and know we are all thinking of you today.

Just Add Ink #261 - Just Add Inspiration - Convention Pics

Good Friday morning lovely friends ~

Well Convention is done and dusted for 2015!  I had such a wonderful time with my beautiful JAI girlfriends. We all shared a fabulous, large house on the canal and had so many laughs together. Think ... Narelle putting on some 'oh so fun' dance moves, Jodene the selfie queen showing us how to take perfect pics (kept forgetting the new selfie stick though), and Nikki and I struggling to keep our curly hair straight.  It was a hoot.  Those who didn't stay together (Tina, Rochelle, Susan, Paula, Di and Bronwyn) met up for dinner on a couple of the nights.  It's always terrific to see blog friends in real life.  See a few pics at the bottom of this post.  There are more to come so stay tuned.

The Gold Coast showed us some pretty attrocious weather with gale force winds and torrential rain. Fortunately that was only two days of our stay, the remainder of the week was glorious sunshine and perfect temps.

Now that we're all back and (hopefully) refreshed we have a lovely Inspiration Pic from Trish for the new Just Add Ink challenge this week.  I'll add the pic below.  Meantime here's my card.

This was my first play with the Indescribable Gift stamp set, which is unfortunately retiring :o( not that I'll be getting rid of mine.  I used a Sahara Sand base, a panel of Something Borrowed dsp and coloured the blooms with my blendies - lots of fun.

It would be lovely to have you all play along with our challenge this week.  Pop over to JAI for some inspiration from the design team, and then link your own creation up - it can be a card, scrapbook layout, 3D project....whatever your heart desires.  Here is the pic.

South Pacific Convention pics, Gold Coast, 2015 - some of the Just Add Ink gals.

Back left to right Christine, Jodene, Di, me, Narelle, Nikki, Rochelle

Front from left Kim and Tina

Photo booth fun - from left Kim, Tina, Jodene, Nikki, Narelle and me

Jodene and me taking silly pics for our friend Karen Thomas - we love you Karen!

I love this pic of Narelle and I taken at Make & Takes, first day of Convention

To all my mum friends in the South Pacific (and wherever else it is celebrated during May) I wish you a very special Mother's Day on Sunday.  This is BFF's very first Mother's Day and I know she has lovely plans so an extra special wish for you, mwah!