Goodbye, Tranquil Tulips

Hi!

I have another pair of cards for you today, both made using the Tranquil Tulips Hostess stamp set. I think that it's been one of my biggest sellers this year! It's such a gorgeous set, and it's so easy use.

This first card was my own design, and was made for a class during 2017. It's taken me a while to blog it! Looking at it now, I think just about everything I used on it is retiring! The DSP (Naturally Eclectic), sentiment (Milestone Moments), ribbon (Night Of Navy Crinkled Seam Binding) and dies (Lots of Labels Framelits) are all going alongside Tranquil Tulips. I can't recall what colour I stamped the tulips, but the stems and leaves are in Emerald Envy, and that's going too!

I particularly loved the Crinkled Seam binding, mostly because it's so soft and easy to use. If you tied a bow you weren't happy with it was easy to start again - what's a little more crinkle in an already crinkled ribbon?

I just loved how easy it was to make cards look great with the set. The trio of stems gave the perfect placement for the flowers, making them look awesome every time.

My second card was a more recent class card that was a CASE of this card by Wendy Aungst. Wendy's card was for Easter, but I liked it as a Sympathy card. I used the retiring Thoughts And Prayers for the sentiments. I thought that was a stamp set that would never retire!

I didn't change much else from Wendy's card. I used a different sheet of DSP from the retiring Delightful Daisy pack, and also a different ribbon. I used the Whisper White Organza from the Occasions Catalogue. It's another fabulous ribbon that I will miss! I may need to stock up before it retires.

Bye for now,

Tina

A Belated Farewell to Springtime Foils

Hi!

Today I have tow very different cards for you that feature the gorgeous Springtime Foils SDSP from the recent Sale-A-Bration promotion. I took a little longer than everyone else falling in love with these papers, so I didn't really use them much until they'd already retired.

This first card I made as a class sample to demonstrate the technique that was all the rage earlier this year. I can't recall what it was called, but you basically cut a slot in the front of the card so that the butterfly (which was adhered to the inside of the card) could pop through the slot. I teamed the Foils DSO with Berry Burst and some plain Gold Foil. Such a luxe combo!

After the class, I remade this card and gave it to my mum for her recent milestone birthday. I wish I'd taken a photo before I mailed it! I added a half circle under the 'celebrate' punchie and added the appropriate numbers. I won't reveal her age, but she looks young for it!

Here's a look at the side of the card so you can see how the butterfly pops through the card.

And the inside. I love how the butterfly does most of the work for both the inside and outside of the card!

My second card also uses the Springtime Foils SDSP. Funnily enough, I used the same sheet of paper but got a very different look!

My sister was invited to a wedding and asked me to make a card for her that wasn't 'girly'. She sent me through a pic of the invite, which was black with metallic leaves on it. Straight away I thought of this DSP. I coloured it black by rubbing my Memento ink pad over the paper and then buffing it with some paper towel to remove the ink from the foil part of the design. I repeated this process about 4 times until I was happy with the black. It looked too grey to start with! Just a tip - you can't use a permanent ink like Archival Black for this technique, as it won't buff off of the foil.

I matted the piece on Gold Foil to add some extra luxe to the card. I used Vellum to go under the sentiment so that I didn't lose too much of the gorgeous black foil pattern underneath.

Isn't this sentiment great for a wedding card? I combined two stamps from Beautiful Bouquet and added some tiny gold hearts to help tie in the front of the card. They were punched from the Cookie Cutter punch.

So there you go, two different cards using the gorgeous Springtime Foils DSP. Even though it's retired, I hope I've given you some new inspiration for using it.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #409: Just Add Eclipse Technique

Hi!

Hooray for Friday! Are you as excited as I am? The Royal Wedding is in less than 48 hours!

Let's pass the time waiting by checking out the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Rachael has challenged us to add the Eclipse Technique to our cards.

The Eclipse technique has been taking the paper crafting world by storm - it's so popular lately! Never heard of it? You basically die cut over the top of a stamped image. Easy!

I just can't resist a lot of pop culture stuff, and when I found these Friends stamps by The Ink Road, they found their way into my shopping cart and in the post to my house. The set is called 'The One With All The Stamps', how cool is that? They are a whole lot of individual stamps that I used to make one big background. I placed the cardstock in my Stamparatus then laid the stamps all over and played until I was happy with the placement. I then used the Stamparatus plate to pick them all up, inked them and stamped all in one go.

To create the Eclipse effect, I die cut the 'friend' (what else?? LOL) from Lovely Words and then cut around the oval using a Stitched Shapes oval. This piece was then popped up using Mini Dimensionals. Can you see your favourite Friends quote on the front? How you doin'?, or Oh My God! would have to be some of the classics, and they are both on there.

I kept my two favourite stamps for the inside. I always longed to catch up with friends and drink a cuppa on that lounge. What about you?

I may have also purchased Pitch, Please from The Ink Road, so keep an eye out for that set in the future!

Now, we are just that little bit closer to watching the wedding of the year, but there's still plenty of time to pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to check out the rest of the Design Team's cards. Will you craft while you watch the wedding? I will be sipping tea and eating scones with some of my friends. Can't wait!

Bye for now,

Tina

Kelly's Birthday Blog Hop

Hi!

Tonight I have something a little different for you. I'm blog hopping with the lovely Kelly Kent and 18 of her friends to celebrate her birthday. What a fun way to celebrate!

Being a blog hop, you should travel around each of the blogs until you get back to the blog you started on. The blog before me was the fabulous Jacqui Crouch. We don't get to see what the other hoppers have created until the blog hop starts, but I'm sure she's bound to have created something gorgeous!

I decided to make a birthday card using some new, returning and retired products. I especially loved saying a big 'welcome back' to Mint Macaron. I was sooooo happy to see that name on the list of returning colours! I was so happy that I couldn't resist sneaking a little bit of the retired Mint Macaron Glimmer paper onto the card. It's so pretty and sparkly, as are the retiring Glitter Epoxy dots.

So, let see, what's new on my card? Look at that fantastic new butterfly die! It's so pretty! It's from the new die set called Springtime Impressions, and has a whole suite of products that it coordinates with that includes stamps, DSP, ribbon and embellishments. Speaking of DSP, the paper I have used today comes from the new Nature's Poem pack. It also has a whole suite of coordinating products! Finally, I've used a new stamp set called Pick A Pennant to stamp the sentiment.

I was very happy to see that Picture Perfect Birthday is carrying over to the new Annual Catalogue. It's such a fun set!

Well, that's it for me now. The blog hop will now take you on to the blog of the wonderful Jan McQueen. Just click on the Next button to get you there. Once you've finished this hop, why don't you pop on back to Kelly's blog? She's actually running TWO blog hops tonight for her birthday, so there's a whole other 20 gorgeous projects to look at. It's like a set of steak knives - buy one, get one free LOL. Click here for Kelly's second hop, but do finish this one first!

Bye for now,

Tina

Farewell Sweet Sugarplum

Hi!

I think that of all of the colours about to retire, Sweet Sugarplum would have to be one of my favourites. It's a gorgeous, dusky pink that works beautifully with a range of other colours.

This card is a CASE of this card made by Dawn Olchefske. I liked it a lot, so I didn't really change much. It's teamed with Soft Sky (also retiring), Very Vanilla and Silver.

I left off the sentiment, as I preferred it without. I also stamped the starry swirl on the base card for a little extra something.

The swirl was also stamped on the inside, but this time in Soft Sky. It's a great backdrop for the sentiment. I love the way it follows the slant of the swirl!

I have a second card for you today, also using Sweet Sugarplum. This time I've used it to colour some Embossing Paste.

It's such a fun trick, to be able to colour the paste.

The flower was watercolored using a mix of Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive.

Will you miss Sweet Sugarplum? Is it a colour you've used a lot over the past two years?

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #408: Just Add Colour

Hi!

I'm back with the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week it's a colour combination, designed by Rochelle. It's so pretty and feminine!

Such a gorgeous mix of pinks and greens. I am hosting an ATC swap that features the Ghosting Technique, so I thought that for this card I could do a trial run. I was so pleased with how it turned out!

You can see the Ghosting on the green panel. You take a piece of glossy cardstock, stamp on it using Versamark ink and then brayer ink over the top. It's like Emboss Resist without the embossing. I started by using my Sponge Brayer to roll over some Pear Pizzazz Ink and then went over the bottom part with Wild Wasabi ink to get an ombre effect.

The heart stamp was stamped over the whole panel, it's just harder to see in the lighter parts. The stamp is from the Ribbon Of Courage stamp set, which I've used on the entire card. It's the perfect stamp set for this card, which I made for a friend who is more than determined to kick cancer's butt. You can see I've coloured the ribbon using the colours in this week's combo. I cheated a little and added some Soft Sky, as it didn't quite look finished leaving it white.

I also coloured these flowers in Powder Pink, just to help them pop a little.

Well, that's it for me, you can see the rest of the gorgeous cards the Design Team have created over at the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card.  See you there!

Bye for now,

Tina

Goodbye Lovely Inside and Out

Hi!

I have two cards for you today, because essentially they are the same card with just a few tweaks. They both used the Lovely Inside and Out bundle, which is retiring and only available while stocks last.

This first card was a direct CASE of this card by Alison Okamitsu. I loved it so much that the only thing I changed was to use cardstock behind the opening rather than ribbon. I kept the cardstock the same colours and widths as the ribbon.

It's such a cute card, it really didn't need any changes!

I was on my own for the inside though, as Alison doesn't show the insides on her blog. I used a stamp from the also retiring Thoughts and Prayers for the sentiment, masking off the bits I didn't want.

Not long after I CASEd the card, I was planning on attending a stamping day with a group of other demonstrators. I wanted to make a little card to give to each of the ladies attending, so I decided to CASE my CASE of Alison's card.

You can clearly see the similarities and differences. I kept the layout the same, but changed the size of the card to be a 4 1/4" square.

I also decided to use DSP behind the opening, rather than ribbon or strips of cardstock. It's such a different look!

Aww, how nice is this sentiment? Perfect for a bunch of like-minded Stampin' Up! demonstrators! It's from the Bunch Of Blossoms set, which is carrying over.

Bye for now,

Tina