CTC #229: Favourite Retiring Punch

Hi!

Welcome to Sunday night and the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop! You may have arrived here from Rebecca's blog, or you may be starting here. Either way, just keep on hopping until you get back to where you started. This week the CTC Crew are using their favourite retiring punch. There's a few to choose from!

Some of my most used punches are my circle punches, and a whopping four (!) are retiring at the end of the current Annual Catalogue. I've used the largest three on my card: 1 3/4", 1 1/4" and 3/4" punches.

I started by punching out a heap of different sized circles from the new In Colour cardstock. I only did one in the new Pretty Peacock cardstock in the largest circle, to keep it as a subtle focal point. I originally intended to do the sentiment on a strip, but I couldn't make that work, so I ended up going with another circle.

After I'd laid out all the circles, I had a little moment of panic about gluing them all down. Do you ever have that - once you lift them to glue, you can never get them quite the same way again? Luckily I had a brain wave - Press & Seal to the rescue! I cut a small piece and laid it over the top of my circles. I could then flip the whole piece over, add adhesive to the back and then flip it again to adhere it to my card front. Problem solved!

Of course, this really only works if you want your card to be flat. Or maybe you could only put a tiny bit of tape on the back of the piece you want to pop up, so that you could lift them easily? I will have to experiment!

I finished off the front by stamping some circles around the outside of the punched circles to add to the confetti feel. I used a little round stamp from Jar Of Love. I snuck in another new stamp set for the sentiment - it's from A Good Man.

I had a few punched circles left from the front, so along with some extra stamping, they went down the side of the inside. Done! I think the whole card took under an hour - perfect for those cards you need in a hurry!

You can enter our challenge each week by posing your card over on our Facebook group.

Before you go, don't forget to finish the hop. The Crew have done a great job with their punches, so you wouldn't want to miss anyone! Next up is the lovely Elizabeth.

Bye for now,

Tina

Softly With Sea Foam

Hi!

Sigh, we are getting close to the end now! This week we are using Soft Sea Foam on our Colour Creations Blog Share cards. It's a new colour, nearly a year old, but not a colour I've used a lot. It's a softer green and not yet a colour I automatically think of when I think about soft greens.

I decided to ink up my new stamp set, A Good Man, for the first time. It's a set that went straight to the top of my 'must have' list when I first saw it. I love that it's a masculine set that's not cars, fishing, hunting or tools. My hubby is more of a gamer, so those types of sets just aren't him. He's a great dad, so this set was just perfect. Having said that, I haven't used either of the 'dad' images on my card!

LOL, Rob would quite like relaxing like this though! I coloured the image with my Blends and then layered it on some Tranquil Textures DSP. The sentiments I've used on the card are a bit of a generic, have a great day, type. I love that this means the card would work for either a birthday or Father's Day.

The man's shirt was coloured with my Soft Sea Foam Blends. I used Night Of Navy on his shorts and Smokey Slate on the chair. His legs were a mix of Ivory and Petal Pink, while the ground was Crumb Cake. The 'sky' was created by colouring around the image with the light Balmy Blue marker and then going over it with the Colour Lifter marker to soften the colour and blur the edge. It's such a cool effect!

I stamped the same image inside, this time just using Soft Sea Foam ink and leaving it as just the outline. I don't think the inside needs more.

As always, you can pop on over to Catherine's blog to see the rest of this week's Soft Sea Foam cards. Do you like the colour? I do - I just have to remember to use it more!

Bye for now,

Tina

A Birthday Blog Hop For Kelly

Hi!

Welcome to my first post of the night - there'll be another one a bit later! For now though, I am hopping with my demonstrator friend, Kelly Kent. It's her birthday (hip hip hooray!) and she's celebrating by doing a blog hop. what a fun way to celebrate! The blog before mine was Shannon's, but we are all linked in a circle, so start wherever and end where you start! Confused? LOL!

Tonight's cards are the first I made using the technique that's going totally viral, especially after all us demo's went to New Zealand and cleared them out of Press & Seal! Yes, it's the Floating Frames technique. I hope you're not too sick of it yet!

I made this card as a class sample and decided that it's far too hard for everyone to stamp, colour and cut a heap of flowers in a class, so we'd use punches with DSP instead. It really cuts down on the time involved but still makes a pretty awesome card! I used a sheet of 6x6 DSP from the Garden Impressions DSP pack combined with the Butterfly Duo punch for my card. One sheet of 6x6 gives plenty of butterflies for the front, with some left over to decorate the insides.

I'm not going to explain the technique, there are plenty of videos and tutorials out there. I will give you a few tips though. I didn't take a photo, but before I laid out my punched shapes on the copy paper, I traced the shape of the circle die onto the paper. This allowed me to see where I would cut and hopefully I could avoid teeny tiny pieces of butterfly to try to stick a dimensional to!

As it turned out, choosing a slightly mottled DSP worked well, as sometimes the Press & Seal sticks too well to the paper. If a little bit peels away, it's less obvious on a paper that already looks distressed!

Can you tell where the paper peeled away a little? Didn't think so! LOL

I kept the stamping simple by using the same sentiments on both cards, just switching the inside for outside to suit each one.

Slightly dodgy photo, but here's both cards together. I've made a few more Floating Frames cards since these, including a pair using the Balloon Duo punch. It's a bit addictive!

That's it for me, now you're hopping off to visit Monique's blog to see what gorgeous card she's made for Kelly's Birthday Hop.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #228: Favourite Retiring Stamp Set

Hi!

Welcome to the new CASEing the Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. I hope you've had a great weekend! I have, and got very spoiled today for Mother's Day. I'm very grateful for my beautiful family. Anyway, on to the hop! You may have arrived here from Monique's blog, or you could be starting here. It doesn't matter, just keep hopping until you get back to where you started!

This week the CTC Crew are stamping with our favourite retiring stamp set. Talk about hard to pick! As with last week, I ended up choosing a stamp set that I wish had seen more ink during the year - Treehouse Adventures.

My card was CASEd from the card at the bottom right of the picture above, which is taken from  page 87 of the Annual Catalogue. I started off by intending to CASE it completes, but once I had the stamping done I went a bit off track!

I used the same colours as the sample - Granny Apple Green, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Poppy Parade, Coastal Cabana and Mango Melody - with the addition of Pool Party for the sky. Once I'd stamped everything I used my snips to fussy cut the scene, including the little bits between the tree and the tree house.

I then added the Pool Party cardstock (embossed with the Subtle folder) to the card base and popped up a piece of Whisper White at the top and bottom of the card. The scene was then popped up over the top, with the grass and top of the tree flat to the WW sections. I hope that makes sense! I finished it off with the sentiment and a few clouds tucked behind the tree.

The treehouse was very cute, so I stamped it again on the inside to finish it off. I think this stamp set will find it's way to my 'keep' pile. I have 5 young great nephews who would love a tree house like this!

Don't forget to join us in our Facebook group to see what everyone's favourite retiring stamp set is.

Before you do though, don't forget to finish the hop! Next up is the lovely Shannon with a fun bunch of cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #456:Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Yay for Friday! It's been a long, wet miserable week here in Adelaide, and I'm ready for the weekend. Perhaps I can convince the family to snuggle on the lounge and watch a movie. Sounds like a good plan to me! Anyway, this week Nikki has given us our Just Add Ink challenge. It's this gorgeous Inspiration challenge.

Aren't those white on white daisies beautiful? Wouldn't that be a nice bouquet to receive on Mother's Day? Funnily enough, I didn't even think of doing a Mother's Day card for this challenge until just now. Too late for that now!

I made a thank you note card instead that is a little farewell to Lemon Lime Twist. Sob! It's a colour I've really come to love and will miss a lot, especially in gingham. I may have to put aside a little secret stash so that I can continue to enjoy it.

The daisy was made using two layers of the punched shape. I usually use three, but this time two worked nicely. I would have loved to have the new Medium Daisy punch to add another couple of layers, but alas, it's not available until June.

On the inside (and on the envelope too, even though it's not shown) I stamped the daisy twice to get the same look as the daisy on the front. Thankfully the stamp is photopolymer, so it's not too difficult to line up and stamp a second time.

Thanks for stopping by this week. Don't forget to also stop by the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see the rest of the Design Team cards, and also link up your card for the challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

So Country With Saffron

Hi!

 
Welcome to tonight's Colour Creations Blog Share. This week we are using So Saffron as a feature colour on our cards. I was happy about this, as I struggled with some of the neutrals we've done in the past few weeks. however, every time I sat down to create I was blanking for ideas! I'm still not totally thrilled with this card, but at least I got something done.

I started by inking up the flat side of my Country Floral DTIEF with Night Of Navy Ink and then running it through my Big Shot with a piece of So Saffron cardstock. It's not a technique I use often, but I like the way it turned out on this card. I was too efficient and washed my folder before I realised I should have done a second piece for the inside too. I decided to chop a piece off the front panel tout aside for the inside, which then necessitated chopping up the rest of the panel to stretch it for the front of the card. See, it doesn't alway pay to be too tidy!

I matted the sections with Whisper White to help them stand out more. The label for the sentiment was from the Share What You Love Embellishment Kit. I always get to this point of the catalogue and start madly trying to use up all the pretty stuff that I've hoarded all year!

The inked/embossed piece didn't look right with just a So Saffron border, so I added a Whisper White one first. I guess it echoes the front, so it's ok!

It's time to pop on over to Catherine's blog now, where you can find the rest of this week's So Saffron links.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #227: Favourite Retiring Bundle

Hi!

Welcome to by blog for the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop! The blog before mine was Julia's. You know the drill by now - grab a cuppa and keep hopping until you get back to where you started.

This week the crew are making projects using our favourite retiring bundle. It was really hard to pick a favourite of all those going, so I picked the one that I wished I'd used more while it was current. I think it will find it's way to my 'keep' shelf though, as I think it's great for teen girls.

It's the Follow Your Dreams bundle from page 54. The dream catchers, feathers and flowers are the perfect mix for teen girls, don't you think? As my daughter is about to turn 14, and I have 3 nieces around the same age, I have a bit of a need for teen girl things in the next few years or more!

I started by die cutting the 'dream' and the dream catcher 4 times each - one in the Gold Foil paper and three times in Bermuda Bay cardstock. I then glued all of the layers together with the foil on top. It's a great way to get dimension, especially when die cuts like the dream catcher are very fiddly to pop up with Dimensionals. I cut the gold pieces out of the panel I used to matt my main panel, as you never see it and would never know unless you (shock horror!) pulled the card apart.

If you look closely, you can see that I stamped the little star/flower image all over the main panel in VersaMark. I then sponged over the top with Bermuda Bay and Coastal Cabana ink. Finally, I splattered some water over the top to lift the colour under the splatters. It's such a cool effect. It's hard to see in the photo, but I embossed the Whisper White layer with the Pinewood Planks DTIEF - yes, there are other embossing folders besides Subtle!! Finally, I added some (retired) tiny pearls to the dreamcatcher.

I'd also cut some feathers out of the Gold Foil matt to use on the front, but didn't end up using them there. Instead, I made a home for them on the inside by sponging Coastal Cabana and Bermuda Bay inks on the bottom corner and flicking it with water before adhering the feathers over the top.

I showed this card to Miss Nearly 14 and asked her if I should add or change anything. She told me it was perfect the way it was, so I'm happy with that!

Don't forget to check out our Facebook group, where you can add your card to this week's challenge. What's your favourite retiring bundle? It can be one that's completely retiring, or one that will carry over, but no longer be sold as a bundle. Too easy!

Don't forget to complete the Blog Hop though! Next up is Rose, I wonder what bundle she'll choose?

Bye for now,

Tina