It’s week two of school holidays over this way, and I would have to say that it’s been one of the most enjoyable school holidays I can remember.

Despite the fact that we have had a couple of overly crisp weeks in terms of weather, which was promptly followed by rain in large bucket loads, and a bit of a head cold on my part, we have have been enjoying several sleep ins, a bunch of pyjama days, loads of visiting, a number of play dates, a movie and large amounts of pottering at home.

The girls have been absolutely delightful, reveling in each others’ company and being quite honestly, completely delicious!

So I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this relaxed time, which hasn’t left a whole lot of room for blogging, so apologies for that

I have been stamping though, and have spent some time this week playing along with a number of challenges, hence the title of this post.

You may have noticed that the Design Team over at Just Add Ink has been expanded by about double, meaning that we only have to design fortnightly for the challenges.  We are free to play along in our off week though, and this week I decided to do exactly that – leaving it to the very last minute as is my standard OP, but anyway, here it is…

I especially wanted to play along with this one, as it involves Elegant Eggplant – a colour that I need as much practise with as I can get.

Despite needing practise though, I do tend to use Elegant Eggplant very much as a highlight rather than a feature colour, but at least it’s there!

I combined the colour challenge with a sketch from the Clean and Simple blog – a place that I head to on many an occasion when I’m in need of a fabulous yet simple layout

So there you have challenge number one!  Next up I’ll show you a card that I made up for a challenge on my team stamping blog, and later this week the next JAI challenge!

All this is after we head to the park tomorrow followed by dinner with my bestie and her gorgeous family.

It’s a tough life, but somebody has to do it

“Just Add Ink #25″
Stamps: Seeing Spots, Polka Dot,
Paper: Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red, Very Vanilla, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink: Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, Rose Red
Accessories: 1-3/8″, 1-1/4″ and 3/4″ Circle Punches, Rich Regals brads, Vintage brads, Elegant Eggplant 1/4″ Grosgrian Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This week over at Just Add Ink, we have a sketch challenge for you.  It’s a beauty of a sketch, with so many possibilities, two of which I discovered for myself when I wasn’t sure about the first card I made, so made a second.

Here’s the sketch…

And here’s my first go at it…

The colour combination is a bit left of centre, and came about as a result of having tidied my computer desk and finding a selection of cardstock under the various debris.

This brought about a vague recollection of having seen a picture online somewhere and taking inspiration from the colours in it, then being distracted by some other random cyber stampin’ sighting and forgetting about it until the long overdue desk clean up.

I wasn’t super happy with the result (that will teach me for tidying up!) so I made a second one…

The colours in this one are much more my speed

I also had fun with the scallops around the edge, wanting to something a little bit different.

In fact, let’s make a game of it – you tell me how I did it

And then tell me which card you like better, ’cause I’m still undecided…

“Just Add Ink #21 – Take 1″
Stamps: Pick a Petal, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Summer Sun, Whisper White, Raspberry Tart (just $11.02 until Tuesday!)
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Rose Red
Accessories: Rose Red 1″ Double Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon, Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon, Clear Buttons, Soft Subtles brads, Scallop Border Punch, Crimper, Stampin’ Dimensionals

“Just Add Ink #21 – Take 2″
Stamps: Petal Pizzazz, Teeny Tiny Sentiments
Paper: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, So Saffron, Whisper White, Bella Rose DSP, Sweet Always DSP
Ink: Rose Red, Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: 1/2″ Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

My word these weeks are passing quickly and it’s time once again for a new Just Add Ink challenge.

This time it’s another sketch challenge – love these – and here it is for your inspiration…

This one shouted “scrapbook layout” to me, so after I had asked it to please use its inside voice  (we don’t shout in our house… ) I set about creating a layout according to the guidelines of the sketch.

And here it is….

You will notice that I flipped the sketch around as there was more empty space to overlap the smaller pictures on the left hand side of the large one, but other than that, I stuck pretty faithfully to the original layout.

To the left of the small pictures, you will notice some little tabs…

These were created using the “left-over”  part of the Round Tab Punch as you can see in the following “how-to”:

These tabs have function as well as a decorative purpose, as they actually indicate that the photo’s can be lifted up to reveal the journalling underneath…

The journalling is divided between all three of the lift-up photo’s and following on from the first bit that you can see above, says:

A couple of days after Christmas, we got to work on creating a fabulous ‘do’ for her.  One hour and a very patient 6 year old later, she had a head full of bouncing barrel curls.

Then it was time for the photo shoot…  Sophie hadn’t been too keen on the hairstyling thing, but definitely wanted in on the modeling action…

27 December 2009

To balance the page, I added a little embellishment in the top right, using the Eyelet Border Punch to create a pretty photo corner, then layered on some stamped images and small embellishments to fancy it up a bit more.

Truthfully, the main photo is just a tad pageant-ish for my liking, but since we were just messing about and playing hairdressers, I figured she could get away with being a bit of a diva for the camera just this once

So now it’s your turn!  Head on over to the challenge at Just Add Ink and see what you can turn the fabbo sketch into!

“Just Add Ink Challenge #6 – Stylin’ Layout”
Stamps: Framed with Love, Always
Paper: Close to Cocoa textured, Rose Red, Whisper White, Bella Bleu DSP
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White craft
Accessories: On Board Lots of Letters, Eyelet Border Punch, Round Tab Punch, Flower Fusion and Flower Fusion Too, Button Bouquet, Pretties Kit, White Embossing Powder, Stampin’ Sponges

So I mentioned yesterday how much fun I had with the first sketch challenge over at Just Add Ink…

Here is the second card I made using this very fun and versatile sketch…

It’s very different to the first, which is precisely what I love about sketch challenges – the variety of results that can be obtained from a single “map”, if you will.

To get the watercolour-ish effect in the flowers, I coloured directly onto the gorgeous silhouette image from Upsy Daisy using Summer Sun, Cameo Coral, Rose Red and Old Olive Markers, starting with the lightest colour and working upwards to the darkest.  That way, when you overlap the colours a little bit, it won’t ruin your markers.

Next I grabbed my spray bottle filled with water and with the coloured stamp approximately arms length away (the bottle has a fairly serious spray attachment!) I gave the stamp around 3 spritzes of water, then stamped it onto my cut out circle of Naturals Ivory.

This card was sent off to a lady that has a son a couple of years below my big girl at school.  She turned up at a garage sale I had a couple of weeks ago (a long overdue clear out of toys and clothes that have been outgrown at various stages since my girls were born…  procrastinator much?!) and offered to sell off anything that I had left at the Baby and Kids Market where she had a stall the following weekend.

How nice is that?!  Thanks again Penny

If you haven’t tried the sketch challenge yet, you have until midnight next Wednesday to take part.

Actually you can try the sketch whenever you want, three or more times over as I did if you like, but if you want to enter it in the running to be judged one of the Top 5 or Honourable Entries, you have until midnight next Wednesday.

Get to it!

Just Add Ink Challenge #3 – Take Two
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Trendy Trees
Paper: Naturals Ivory, Old Olive, Raspberry Tart DSP
Ink: Rose Red
Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, Summer Sun, Old Olive, Cameo Coral & Rose Red Markers, Very Vanilla wide grosgrain, Button Bouquet,  Stampin’ Dimensionals, yellow embroidery thread (non SU!)

In case I haven’t mentioned how much I am enjoying being part of a design team, I am SO enjoying being part of a design team!

The girls running the show, Danielle and Amanda are super organised and the team as a whole is so friendly and so flippin’ talented!

And I have been stamping much more than usual these past couple of weeks, also partly due to having a brand new kickin’ morning routine that leaves more than five minutes here and there for stamping.

Gotta love routines

The other reason I have been loving stamping so much this past week in particular, is because of the AWESOME challenge the girls came up with for Just Add Ink Challenge #3!

I ended up creating three cards – all completely different- using this sketch and no doubt I will be going back to it again and again, due in no small part to the fact that it lets me use my fabulous Circle Scissors Plus!

LOVING this tool!

Here is my first card, and the one that is also up at Just Add Ink, along with the jaw dropping creations of the rest of the design team…

I have a number of baby cards to make at the moment – four for girls and one baby boy card, plus I have several that I made towards the end of last year that I must show you too.

I think I feel another Baby Card Parade coming on….!

This card was inspired by a thank you card I received from one of the mums at school who had a gorgeous baby girl at the end of the last school term.

I’ll show you the card and gift that I made for her later in the week, once I have got through the other versions of this sketch that I made.

They’re up tomorrow and Sunday!  Stay tuned…

Oh, and don’t forget to have a go at this sketch yourself and enter it over at Just Add Ink.

And one other thing….  when you get tired of tracing around various sized plates, bowls, CD’s and another other circular paraphernalia you have around the house, contact me to get yourself some Circle Scissors.

I promise you won’t be sorry!

“Just Add Ink Challenge #3″
Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Kraft, Pink Pirouette Patterns DSP
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Close to Cocoa, Whisper White Craft
Accessories: Circle Scissors Plus, Pink Pirouette Striped Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals