Just Add Ink Blog Hop

At Just Add Ink challenges we're starting off the new year with a blog hop and the theme is 

If you've come from Rochelle's blog then you're in the right place. If you're starting here, you'll be able to keep following all the links to take you around the hop. 

My two favourites pasttimes are crafting (naturally) and reading - I'm rather a voracious reader and always have been and it's something I wanted to pass down to my girls. Elder Daughter seemed keen for a while  but her interest began to wane when she was in year one.

Then something happened that changed everything.

She came out of school one day chattering and excited about a book all her friends were talking about. Having never heard of it, I asked some of the other mothers, to be told it was a new phenomenon everywhere and that some of them had read it too. So I bought the book and we took turns reading it - and thus began her love for the fantasy genre and reading in general.  

The book? Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

So for my favourites project, I'd like to share an item that combines my two favourite pasttimes as well as being something I made for one of my two favourite people. 

There were lots of steps in making this, as you can imagine, but it was a labour of love. I began with making the 'book' base to support all the other bits - this is made from a wooden box (Tim Holtz vignette box) and I pretty much followed a tutorial by Tami Bastiaans here but changed a few things to suit, using a copy of the original bookcover, which is the edition we have. 

The suitcases were made using the SU retired matchbox die and some TH cracked leather cardstock. Luckily we live in a digital age, so I was able to find copies of the Hogwarts letter to Harry and his ticket for the Hogwarts Express. 

For the inside of the 'textbooks' I scanned pages from the actual book and cut them to size. The covers are TH ephemera. For the 'potions' inside the bottles I coloured glossy accents with alcohol ink, mixing them together with a toothpick. The bottles were grunged up a bit with collage medium and touches of distress crayon. I rolled up vellum for parchment (in the cauldron and down front with a quill die).

The owl was bought from a dollhouse miniatures place here in Melbourne. I did have to shave a bit off the tail to make it fit in the birdcage, lol.

As this represents Harry at the train station ready to head off to Hogwarts for the first time, I know that strictly speaking the broomstick shouldn't be there, but it was so adorable I just couldn't resist. Call it poetic licence, lol.

If you're a fellow Harry Potter fan, I hope you enjoyed that walk down memory lane! And I'm very happy to report that ED loves it.

Materials used:

• card - Coastal (Kaisercraft), basic white, vellum
• Tim Holtz Idea-ology - birdcage, cauldron, broomstick, potion bottles, vignette box, Memoir ephemera pack, 
• other TH products - collage medium matte, walnut stain and vintage photo distress crayons, vintage photo archival ink, antique linen distress paint, jump rings, alcohol inks,Regions Beyond die
• other - linen thread, computer and printer, Wee Creations miniatures, glossy accents

Thanks for calling in. I hope you find plenty to love along the hop and of course we'd love to see YOUR favourites on our challenge board this week.

Cheers

Kerry

Click on the icon below to hop to the next blog, which is Narelle.

JAI #586 - Just Add a Blog Hop!

♬  Summertime and the living is easy... ♪♫

Hello and welcome to the Just Add Ink blog hop for 2022 where our theme is SUMMER. You may have just arrived from Annie's blog but if not you can start here and carry on around the hop.

The bucket and beachballs in the inspiration pic immediately made me think of trips to the beach, both as a child and as a parent, so that's what gave me my original inspiration. Then, while I was browsing ideas, I discovered that my new home town of Melbourne has 82 bathing boxes or beach huts. I've only ever seen these in the UK and Europe, so I was charmed to learn there are locals and decided my make would be an homage to these delightful constructions. And so my framed piece was born.

A weathered old anchor rests in the corner.

And the sea sparkles in the background.

I had an almost illegal amount of fun putting this together! Lol. It will be put on display in my brand new craft room and stimulate so many happy memories. 

Materials used:

• card - distress watercolour, basic white, crumb cake, Cool Collab paper pad (MFT)
• distress oxide inks - antique linen, frayed burlap, walnut stain, peacock feathers, tumbled glass, cracked pistachio
• dies - Village Collection (Tim Holtz/Sizzix), Birds in Flight (Poppystamps), Under the Sea (SU)
• other - translucent grit paste, collage medium, Art Stones (Prima), mounting strips, blending brushes, antique linen distress paint, slimline cloud edges stencil (MFT), 8"x8" dimensional frame (Nicola Spring), barn door and black distress archival inks, celestial copper ink (Delicata), chipboard anchor (Kaisercraft), twine, shells (Island Living Australia), white gel pen, clear Wink of Stella, black marker

Next up is Narelle, then you can keep hopping around until you've seen the whole team's offerings (there are 16 altogether). And, of course, it's always very much appreciated if you leave everyone some comment love. If you feel inspired to create your very own summer themed project, we'd love to see it in the JAI gallery on the blog HERE. 

Thanks so much for calling in!

Cheers

Kerry