Kinda Eclectic CASE

Hi!

Today I have a card for you that I CASEd from the very talented LeeAnn Greff.  You can see her original card here.

I kept the basic layout of the card the same, but I changed the colours completely.  I also added some DSP where LeeAnn had plain cardstock.

I really love that speckled DSP - so very cute!  It's from the Confetti Celebration DSP pack.  I'm also loving the new Tangelo Twist In Colour.  I'm not usually an orange person, but it's such a delicious colour!

I liked the card so much I decided to make a second, but changing it to a birthday card.  I quite like it!

Thanks for the inspiration LeeAnn!

Bye for now,

Tina

Punch Art Penguin

Hi!

Today I have a card for you that I used as a sample for a card class.  I had been asked to make a card that used the Owl Builder Punch in a different way to the usual owl.  I've seen a few cute penguin Christmas cards that are made using the Owl Builder Punch, so I decided to go with that.

How cute is that little fella! We created the snow he's playing in by tearing some Whisper White cardstock in half, sponging the edges and layering the pieces on the front of the card.  Then our little penguin was popped up on top and the whole thing was sprayed with a shimmer mist.

Quite a few of my ladies decided to give the little bloke a playmate or two.  I guess he does look a little lonely all by himself on the front of the card.

So, there's my first Christmas card done for the year.  Only 99 or so more to go!

Bye for now,

Tina

Layouts 55 and 56

Hi!

I'm a bit late this weekend, but here are the next installments from my Paris album.

After out trip out to Rouen, we had just enough time to dash off the train, get changed and walk down the rue to the Moulin Rouge.  We'd decided to splash out on tickets for a dinner and the show at the Moulin Rouge.  The photo above was actually taken on a different night - we weren't allowed to take our camera into the show so we left it at home rather than risk cloaking it.

The top left and bottom right photos are ones we took, the others are stock photos off the internet.  The middle left photo was one I was pleased to find, as it showed pretty much the exact table we sat st for the show!  We were about 3 rows back in the tiered section and nearly directly in the middle.  Perfect view!  We shared our table with a lovely couple from South Africa who we enjoyed chatting with during breaks in the show.  We loved the Moulin Rouge, it was a fabulous dinner and a spectacular show.

The next day we were up and going early, with our first stop being the Cemetery Montematre, near where we were staying.  There were lots more famous people buried there, including Adolph Sax, Offenbach, Degas and Alexandre Dumas.  Actually, Dumas has been shifted to the Pantheon, but his grave is still there. It was a pretty cemetery, not as gothic as the other one we visited - I can't recall it's name right now!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #224: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Do you ever have one of those days where your memory plays little tricks on you? It seems I had one of those days while making my Design Team sample for this week's Just Add Ink Challenge.  Sigh...

This week Kim found these gorgeous images to inspire our creations.  Most of the DT went with the Christmas in July theme, and so did I.  I think poinsettias and Christmas are nearly inseparable for me!  I have had a foam wreath lying around since Christmas waiting to be decorated, so now was the time to do it.

I cut a whole lot of strips from the retired First Edition SDSP and spent a long evening in front of the telly gluing them onto the wreath.  Each strip was only half an inch wide, so it took a lot of time and a lot of strips!  Thankfully it was a good telly night so I was able to watch while I glued.

Here's where the dodgy memory comes in.  Firstly I forgot where I'd stashed the baubles I'd put aside for this project way back in January.  Took me half an hour to find them.  The dodgy memory came in again when I finally found than and realised they were gold, not red like I'd imagined them to be.  Sigh...  It was too late to go back, so I decided to add the red and green ribbon to bring in the colours from the inspiration pic.

Overall I'm really happy with the wreath, dodgy memory and all.  It's not OTT, it's just my style and I'm going to love displaying it at Christmas time.  So - what do you see in the picture?  The DT have come up with a huge variety of ideas for your inspiration.  You can see them over at Just Add Ink.

Bye for now,

Tina

Some More Stamped Candles

Hi!

A little while ago I showed you some stamped candles I'd made as a gift on commission.  Well, when the recipient's friend saw them she loved them, and so I was asked to make another set for her birthday. Because they were for the friend of the first recipient I had to make them differently.

This time I used the floral stem from Thoughts And Prayers as well as a small butterfly from Papillion Potpourri.  My brief was flowers and butterflies so I thought these two in combination worked well.

The DSP on this card was from the retired Modern Medley DSP that I brayered over with Melon Mambo ink to match the pink in the stamping.

I used my markers on the floral stem stamp to give the two colour effect.  It's a great trick!

Here is the candle and the card together.  I actually made 4 candles and boxed them up in a set.  Silly me forgot (again!) to take a photo of the gift box.

Bye for now,

Tina

A Crooked Card

Hi!

Today I have a bit of a shocker of a card to show you.  Now, I really should clarify.  I love the card itself - the 'shocker' part is the construction and stamping.  It's the most crooked card I have put together in a long time!

Can you see just how crooked this card is? That's all I can see now!

Moving on from the crookedness, I thought I'd also show you how I did the multicoloured sentiment.  It was as easy as stamping twice in two different colours, trimming one and popping it up on Dimensionals.

I did the same thing on the inside, minus the Dimensionals, just to keep it flat.

Bye for now,

Tina

Layouts 53 and 54

Hi!

In my last Paris post I showed the layouts about the Eiffel Tower and our behind the scenes tour.  I'd booked a late afternoon tour so that we could watch the sun set from the Tower. We also ascended to the top of the Tower to watch the light display.  Every hour, on the hour, for about 5 minutes the Tower sparkles as thousands of lights twinkle on and off.  It's so very pretty!

After watching it from the top of the Tower we descended and crossed the Seine to watch it again from the huge open space opposite the Tower.  While we settled in to wait we munched on crepes (what else!) and people watched.  It was about 11pm by this stage but the city was still bustling.

The next day we travelled out to Rouen to meet up with Rob's cousin.  Unfortunately the day was a shambles from start to nearly the finish!  We didn't realise it was the start/end (?) of Daylight Savings, so we slept in and only just made it to the train on time.  This was the only day I let Rob organise and he did a pretty poor job of it!  He hadn't managed to get in touch with his cousin before we got on the train, so we didn't even know if we'd meet him or not.  Rouen is a beautiful, old city and is the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.  So much history that we totally missed because we were waiting around!

We did tour their Notre Dame Cathedral, but there was so much more we could have done.  You may notice that in all the photos of me I had my arms crossed and in some I'm even scowling.  I was so very cross at Rob that day!

In the end we did catch up with Rob's cousin and his gorgeous son for a lovely, but very quick, lunch.  We were strongly encouraged to try some of the more rustic local cuisine but after watching a lady on the next table eat her frog's legs I just couldn't face it!  We then had another dash (uphill!) to make the train back into Paris as we had tickets for the Moulin Rouge that night.  I think we got onto the train about 30 seconds before the doors closed!

I can laugh now, another memorable day and memory of Paris!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #223: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

It's nearly the end of the school holidays here.  One weekend to go!  We are having a group of giggly girls for a sleep over tonight for Ada's birthday.  She turned 9 a week ago, but we delayed her party until the end of the holidays.  I mention her birthday because the card I made for the new Just Add Ink challenge was her birthday card.

This week it's s sketch designed by yours truly.  I love designing sketches, but I love seeing what people do with them even more!

Here's the card I made for her.  I turned the sketch into an easel card and stamped it using the new Flower Patch Photopolymer stamp set.

I really love this set and the endless possibilities for combining the images and colours.  Ada's favourite colour is blue, so I stuck with blues for her card.

All little girls love some bling, so the 9 was the perfect way to add it to her card.

A bit more bling on the base to keep the card propped open!

I'm pleased to say that she loved the card!

I hope you find time to play along with my sketch at Just Add Ink this week.

Bye for now,

Tina

Tap Tap Tap

Hi!

In my last post I showed you a card that I'd made for a sketch challenge on the Art With Heart Cyber Crop day.  Today I have another card I made used using the sketch and a new stamp set called Tap Tap Tap.

As soon as I saw this set in the catalogue I loved it! I started by stamping the tap tap tap stamp repeatedly to create the circular element of the sketch.  The typewriter was stamped and the coloured using the lightest Coastal Cabana Blendabilities Marker and the Silver Stampin' Dazzle Marker.

I used the alphabet stamp on the inside to tie it in with the front of the card.

It's a fabulous stamp set and I can't wait to play some more with it.

Bye for now,

Tina

Kinda Eclectic In Neutrals

Hi!

Over the weekend I have been participating in a Cyber Crop with some of the Art With Heart team.  A Cyber Crop is basically a stamping session done over the internet.  I was asked to design a sketch and a sample card for a challenge during the Cyber Crop.

Here's the sketch I designed and the card to go with it.

I used the new In Colour Blackberry Bliss as the base for the card.  It's fast becoming one of my favourite colours!  I love it teamed with the Neutral colours I've used on the rest of the card.

I stamped the sunburst from Kinda Eclectic in Hello Honey that I stamped off once before stamping on the card.  The vellum circle over the top helps to soften the card too.

The other main colour I used was Crumb Cake.  I need to reink my pad, but I like the effect the drier pad gives on this card.

I made another card using this sketch during the Cyber Crop, so I'll be back later with that one and some of the other cards I made for the challenges over the weekend.

Bye for now,

Tina

Layouts 51 and 52

Hi!

I'm a day late with my usual scrapbooking post, but better late than never I guess! It's a photo heavy post today as my layout of the Eiffel Tower spread over 4 pages!  First was the Musee Rodin though.

We pretty much went to the Musee Rodin to see the Thinker sculpture.  We'd seen the back of it from the Hop On Hop Off bus several times but we wanted to see it up close.  The Museum had 2 entry prices.  It was only €2 to tour the gardens and a bit more to add in the Museum.  As the Thinker was in the gardens we only paid the €2.  It was a lovely day to wander the gardens and see the sculptures.

I was actually a little surprised by the number of his sculptures I knew, even though I didn't know they were Rodin's.  I think most tourists pose by the top left sculpture.  The cheeky ones do the Beyonce pose, but I wasn't feeling cheeky that day!  Outside the museum was a light post where people leaving the museum leave the stickers you are given upon entry. We skipped that 'tradition'.

We then strolled around to the Eiffel Tower.  I'd prebooked a behind the scenes tour and we had a little time to kill before it started so we grabbed something to eat and sat and people watched.  We got scammed into having a portrait drawn of us and paid a ridiculous amount for a really bad caricature.  Sigh, you live and learn!  I'm glad I booked the tour as only one of the three lifts was working on the day so it was at least a 2 hour wait in line to ascend unless you wanted to take the stairs.  No thanks!  We got to go underground near the tower to a radio control room that was used during the War.  It's now mostly used as storage and as a secondary kitchen area for the restaurants on the Tower.

We then got to skip the line (yay!) for a behind the scenes look at the Tower itself.  We saw the machinery that powers the lifts and heard more about the history of the Tower.  We were then taken to the second level of the Tower and some of the landmarks pointed out to us.  I'd planned the timing of the tour so we would be on the Tower as the sun set.  It was very romantic!  It was also very cold up there, so we enjoyed a hot chocolate while we waited for the sunset.

We also went right up to the top of the Tower.  It was a bit scary in the lift as you can feel the structure swaying a little in the wind.  The views are incredible though!  We were up there while the lights were flashing on the Tower so we could see all the flashes going off as people took photos of the lights from the Trocedero.  The bottom right photo shows the finishing line of a marathon race.  It was on the second level of the Tower.  I felt so sorry for the runners - they started out near Versailles and after running all that way they had to finish the race by running up the stairs to the second level of the Tower!  There were quite a few runners getting treated for cramps at the finishing line.

As we were waiting in line to catch the lift back to the ground level we heard a few Australian voices, and then a whole lot more!  Some of them were runners and their support people and others were diners in the very posh Jules Verne restaurant.  We all had a chat while we waited and laughed about how you can't get away from Aussies - you're bound to find some no matter where you go!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #222: Just Add Colour

Hi!

It's Friday so I'm here with the new Just Add Ink Challenge.  This week we have a gorgeous colour combination for you courtesy of Mae.

It took me a little while to think of what to do with this card, but once I got an idea it came together pretty quickly.  I used a lot of retired product on this card - some recently retired, some has been retired for a while.

I started with the DSP on the base.  It's from the long retired Twitterpated DSP - a favourite of mine.  I didn't have enough to cover the entire front so I trimmed it into four pieces.  To soften the gaps I covered the bottom one with the retired Flower Trim and the top ones with the leaf die cuts.

I was a little worried that the Bermuda Bay would be too strong a colour for the rest of the card so I stamped it off once before I stamped on the card.

I liked the leaves so I added a few more to the inside to finish it off.

I hope you can play along with us at Just Add Ink this week - it's a great colour combination.

Bye for now,

Tina

Wildflower Meadow Candles

Hi!

I have been doing a little bit of stamping on candles lately.  They have been on commission - my client wanted a set of 4 candles with a card to match.

The brief was pink and floral, so I thought that Wildflower Meadow in Melon Mambo and Old Olive fitted perfectly.

I used my Stampin' Write markers to colour the rubber to get the mulitcoloured image.  I also added some Rhinestones to the centres of the flowers.

I like using the sweet little flower stem on the inside - such a perfect little touch for the card, and easy to achieve using the markers to selectively colour the image.

I also used the markers to create the image for the candles, as well as rhinestones to finish off the flowers.

My client loved the gift set, and the recipient does too. Great result!

Bye for now,

Tina