Heart Of Christmas: September

 Hi!

Welcome to September's Heart Of Christmas Creative Showcase. Each month, bloggers from the Art With Heart team bring you some gorgeous Christmas inspiration. The card I have for you tonight is based entirely around a left over piece from the letter board card that I blogged yesterday.

I used the letters on he previous card, so I had the negative left to use for tonight's card. Thankfully I'd had the foresight to cut the piece with a Stitched Rectangle Die before cutting the letters from it. I also added a piece of Foam Adhesive to the back. All I had to do when I popped out the letters was to make sure that I didn't lose all of the little pieces from within the letters.

I layered it up over some Brushed Copper Foil from the Mini Catalogue and some Brightly Gleaming SDSP on a Night Of Navy card base.

Here's a little trick for keeping the dies lined up: use your grid paper to line the dies up in a straight line (cutting side down) and then use a fully adhesive sticky note to pick them up. It must be a fully adhesive sticky note, as it has adhesive covering most of the back. You can then flip them over and use the sticky note to hold the dies to the cardstock while you run it through your die cutting machine. This trick is especially useful if you're making multiples, as the dies will stay lined up perfectly.

Once again, I used an offcut from the Brightly Gleaming SDSP on the front of my card to decorate my inside. A sentiment from Itty Bitty Christmas finished off the card.

Each month, the Heart Of Christmas is hosted by my lovely friend, Judy May. Please pop on over to her blog, where you will find the rest of the links for tonight's Creative Showcase.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #286: AC Project With A MC Twist

 Hi!

Wow, I hope that wherever you are you've had the glorious weather that Adelaide had today! We had a lovely, sunny 24ºC -perfect weather for my youngest to turn 13.

This week the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge is a mash up - we want you to CASE a project from the Annual Catalogue, but give it a Mini Catalogue twist. It sounds trickier than it really is - just pick a card and make it using stuff, or ideas, from the Mini Catalogue.

I was inspired by some of the team last week, who CASEd this card from the Annual Catalogue. The letter board is such a fun idea for a card, and I liked the idea of giving it a Chrismtassy twist.

It took me a little while to think of a Christmas message to go on the letter board. I can't stand 'X-mas', so that was a no-go. Peace & Joy fit perfectly! I cropped the letters with some Adhesive Foam Sheet on the back so that they had dimension. To add to the Christmas feel I stamped some holly and berries from the Peace & Joy stamp set and fussy cut them to go on the frame. A piece of retired Basic Black twine turns it into a hanging frame, with some more holly holding it up.

I scored the Basic Black cardstock that was the base of the frame to add to the letter board look. The wooden frame was made with some DSP from the In Good Taste DSP pack. The red DSP is from the Heartwarming Hugs DSP.

I finished off the inside with a sentiment from Itty Bitty Christmas and a bit more holly.

That's all from me tonight! As always, you can enter this week's challenge via our Facebook group. Just make your card, photograph it and post the photo in the group. Easy!

Before you go, please do finish the Blog Hop. Next up is my fellow South Australian, Michelle. She's CASEd a very fun card!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #523: Just Add A

 Hi!

Hooray for Friday! Friday means two things - it's nearly the weekend, and it's Just Add Ink time! This week it's one of my Alphabet challenges, and we are back to the beginning on the alphabet - Just Add A.

To enter our challenge, you just need to make a card with some sort of A element. It could be the name of a stamp set, technique, colour, theme - anything that you can think of that starts with A. Just make sure you let us know what your A element is. I decided to make an Asian themed card.

I won this Uniquely Creative stamp set, called Lucky You, in a Facebook competition quite a while ago. I hadn't used it yet, so this was the perfect opportunity. The prize pack also included some patterned paper with an Asian theme, so I decided to use it too. Can you see a sort of fan-like design on the paper? I used this particular sentiment from the stamp set, as it's an Affirmation - another A element for my card!

I coloured the dragon with my Balmy Blue, Night Of Navy, Bronze and Ivory Blends. I also used a Gold Sharpie to colour the dots and spikes on the dragon It's hard to see in the photo, but it gave a nice metallic look. He was popped up over a background on which I'd sponged a bit of Balmy Blue ink. A scattering of gold sequins finished off the front.

I stamped the dragon again on the inside, this time in Balmy Blue ink. A quick google search tells me that blue dragons symbolise new growth, good health and the approach of spring. I could do with a little of those!

Please head on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see the rest of this week's cards. Everyone has interpreted the Just Add A theme so differently. I wonder how you will interpret it?

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Flirty Flamingo

 Hi!

Welcome back to my blog for the new Colour Creations Showcase. This week we are up to Flirty Flamingo. It's a gorgeous, retro pink that I have come to love since it has joined the colour line up. I wasn't keen on it to start with, and I know a few of my fellow bloggers tonight aren't too keen on it, but it has certainly grown on me.

Despite it not being a very traditional Christmas colour, I decided to use it on a Christmas card, featuring my Peace & Joy bundle. I started by embossing my card front with the Dainty Diamonds 3DEF - also fast becoming a favourite! I like how it sort of reflects the 'sparkle' image I stamped on the centre square.

The other two squares were stamped with the holly image and one of the leaves. I heat embossed the 'merry' and 'and' stamps using white embossing powder. I think it's gone off though, as it's not very white! Clearly, I need to emboss more so that it doesn't have time to go off!

A second strip of the Dainty Diamonds embossing was used to decorate the inside panel. The sentiment is from Itty Bitty Christmas. I only recently purchased that set, and I'm finding it to be a great set. Lots of different Christmas sentients in different shapes, so there's always one that suits.

As always, the lovely Catherine is hosting tonight's Showcase, so please pop on over to her blog. You'll find the links for all of tonight's Flirty Flamingo cards there.

CTC #285: CASE The Sketch

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me once again for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. It's been a very long week for me - after a week of the rest of the family being home sick, I've finally caught their bug. Just a cold and not COVID, thankfully, but still not very fun. They are all well enough to go back to school/work tomorrow, so I think I'll have a quiet doona day at home.

This week our challenge is to CASE the cards on page 29 of the August-December Mini Catalogue. To make it a little easier, Rebecca has designed a sketch to follow.

It certainly helps to picture the card in a more simplified way, don't you think?

I decided to flip the layers of the sketch, and make the strips more of a feature on my card. My lovely friend, Judy, sent me a sample of the gorgeous flocked Plush Poinsettia Specialty Paper, and I thought it was too nice to hide behind other layers. I started by colouring the flocked parts with my Stampin' Blends, using Light Shaded Spruce, Light and Dark Cherry Cobbler and Dark Mango Melody. I have two hints: don't colour at night, unless you have super vision; and don't colour over one spot too much, or you will end up with a bald patch!

I trimmed the coloured paper into three strips and added them to my card, layered over a Gold Foil Stitched Rectangle piece. The rectangle was a little too long for my purposes, so I cropped out a section from the middle, which is hidden under the sentiment.

I used a left over piece from the coloured Plush Poinsettia Specialty Paper to finish off the inside. I didn't realise that I'd forgotten to stamp a sentiment on the inside until I went to photograph the card. I will blame it on a cold-addled brain! 

To play along with us in our challenge, all you need to do is join our Facebook Group and add your photo to the wall. We'd love to see what you would do with this sketch.

For now, though, please do continue on with our Blog Hop. Next up is my wonderful friend, Kathryn. I love the imaginative way she's used the sketch. So clever!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #522: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me once again for the new Just Add Ink Challenge. This week, Patrice has designed a fabulous sketch for us to use. I really loved it, and it's clear that the rest of the Design team did too.

I was wracking my brain, trying to think of what I could use for the square elements, when I spied my Pine Tree Punch. Perfect!

I used the new Heartwarming Hugs DSP for both the base of my card and the trees. I'd originally intended to use the other side of the DSP for the trees, but when it came to adhere them to the base, I actually preferred the gingham side.

The sentiment was cropped from the Trimming The Town DSP. I needed a long, thin sentiment, and this fit the bill perfectly. I matted it on some Gold Foil, to complement the strips of Gold Foil on the top and bottom of the Whisper White panel. It's hard to see in the photo - they look green rather than gold!

One final tree was used to finish off the inside, alongside a sentiment from Itty Bitty Christmas.

What do you see in the sketch? Will you stick to squares, or try a different shape? You can see what the Design team did with the sketch over on the Just Add Ink Blog, where you can also link up your card for the challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH September Bog Hop: Masculine Cards

 Hi!

Welcome to the AWH Monthly Creative Showcase. From this month forward, we will be running the Showcase as a Blog Share, rather than a Bog Hop. This means that you will find all the links to the participants over on Rachel's blog, all in one place.

For this month's Creative Showcase, we are all making Masculine Cards. Father's Day may be done and dusted for 2020, but there is always a need to celebrate the males in our lives, for reasons other than Father's Day. The littlest (and cheekiest!) male in my family is turning thirteen soon, so I decided that tonight's card would be for his birthday.

Hudson's favourite toys are his plastic bowling pins. They are always within reach, and when we go to appointments or respite he often takes a pair with him. His favourite are the blue pair, but the red and lime pairs get a fair work out too! He always has to hold two at a time - the blue pair never get mixed up, but sometimes he will mix the red and lime. I decided to use the colours of the bowling pins to create his card.

I hope you'll forgive me for using a little bit of a retired colour - Lemon Lime Twist. It was the best match to the colour of his bowling pin. Anyway, I used my Stitched Triangles Dies to cut three sizes of Equilateral Triangles in Pacific Point, Poppy Parade and Lemon Lime Twist. I also cropped a Stitched Shapes Circle and the number 13 from the Playful Alphabet Dies. I adhered some Foam Adhesive Sheet to the back of the cards tock so that the 13 would be popped up.

In fact, nearly all of the layers are popped up - luckily I don't need to post this card! Each of the triangles are popped up over the one below, with the circle adhered flat and the 13 popped up, as I mentioned before. I offset the two sets of triangles for a bit of quirkiness.

I had a third set of triangles for the inside. I got a bit Dimensionals happy, though, and popped each layer up as I did for the front. I contemplated redoing them, but decided that as I wasn't posting it, it didn't really matter. The sentiment is from the Family Party stamp set. I love that it's a heap of different names, words, numbers and phrases that can be mixed and matched to create a personalised sentiment.

That's all from me tonight. Don't forget the changed format - you now need to head on over to Rachel's Blog to find the rest of the links for this month's Creative Showcase. I can't wait to see what Masculine Cards the AWH Team have made.

Bye for now,

Tina