CASEing The Catty Again

Hi!


I had an unexpectedly free day today, so I decided to sneak in an extra entry in the current CASEing the Catty challenge. This week they are challenging us to make a card from the Love and Sympathy section of the Annual Catalogue.

I hadn't yet had a play with my Weather bundle, so I decided I'd CASE the card on the far left on page 55. I kept most elements pretty much the same, with a few little changes. I changed the blues to Melon Mambo (despite the cardstock looking more like Watermelon Wonder!). I also switched the rhinestones for clear sequins, and added an extra layer to the card.

By far, the biggest change I made was to make the umbrella 3D. It was easy to do - I just stamped and cut four umbrellas, then folded three in half and glued them together and finally glued them to the fourth umbrella. Done!

I had cut an umbrella like on the card I CASEd before I changed my mind. I really dislike waste, so it was put to use on the inside of my card with a few clouds stamped behind it. I probably should have stamped the handle in a different colour on the inside  - I will know for next time!

I had fun with my two CASEing The Catty cards this month, especially because today's was the result of unexpected time to create.


Bye for now,


Tina

A Happy Pop Of Pink

Hi!


Where do you get inspiration for your cards? I often look through the catalogue at the cards to get a bit of a spark to start the creative process. Today's card was a CASE of a catalogue card. You can find it on page 84 - it's the one on the left with the pineapple.

I don't have the Pop Of Paradise stamp set that is used on the card, but I certainly didn't let that stop me! I substituted with the Hello You Thinlits and Crazy About You stamp set.

I've made this card at a few classes this month. Some of my ladies wanted a thank you card instead of a birthday card. To do this, we simply stamped the 'you make me' stamp from Crazy About You at the top left of the card instead of the 'birthday' at the bottom. Too easy!

I love this combo of stamps from the new Thoughtful Banners stamp set. A hot pink and black card is certainly worthy of a fabulous birthday!


Bye for now,


Tina

Something Sweet

Hi!


One of the biggest benefits of being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is the teams and the friendships that you make as a result of signing up. Well, for me it's one of the biggest benefits! Today's card is about both being a part of a team, and also the friendships.

I belong to an online group that consists of the downline of Claire Daly, who is my 'grandma' upline. Along with all of the chatter and inspiration, we also have challenges occasionally. This time Claire gave us a photo of a HUGE stack of macarons and challenged us to make a card using it as inspiration. I chose to go with the colours, and used Marina Mist, Watermelon Wonder, Perfect Plum and Pumpkin Pie to create the watercolour wash background.

On the friendship side of things, I was lucky enough to be invited to a stamping day with Kathryn Mangelsdorf and her team. She was very generous in sharing her house, time and Stampin' Up! stash with us all. I cut the 'sweet' die cut from one of her new Framelit sets, Cupcake Cutouts.

I used a little more Perfect Plum ink and my Aqua Painter to do another watercolour wash on the inside to sit under the sentiment. I used the Shimmery White cardstock on both the front and inside of my card, as it's fabulous for watercolouring.


Bye for now,


Tina

JAI #317: Just Add Colour

Hi!


Yes, it's that time of the week again!

 This week Kim has put together a fantastic colour combination for our Just Add Ink challenge.

What a lovely collection of pinks and yellow/greens. I immediately thought florals, but when I looked at my new stamp sets I suddenly got a flash of inspiration.

I've used the new set, Mixed Drinks to create a row of cocktail-looking drinks. I stamped the glasses and was all set with my inkpads and blender pens to colour to get the look of the liquid, when I realised the stamp set had a liquid stamp. So easy!

After I'd finished stamping I went over the drinks with my clear Wink Of Stella pen to give them a bit of shimmer. Hopefully you can see it in the Rose Red cocktail on the left. I stamped the background of the card with another new stamp set - Playful Background. I thought the bubble-like stamp might help invoke thoughts of bubbly cocktails.

The cocktail on the inside is Flirty Flamingo. LOL, I just realised that Flirty Flamingo could be a cocktail name!


The rest of the Design Team at Just Add Ink have made some stunning cards this week using Kim's gorgeous colour combination. You can head over to the blog to check them out.


Bye for now,


Tina

MKPLxSU Blog Share: Hello Lovely

Hi!


Welcome to another Memory Keeping with Project Life by Stampin' Up! Blog Share!

This month we are all using the brand spanking new Hello Lovely Collection for our layouts. Have you checked out the new PLxSU Collections in the Catalogue yet? I certainly have, and I'm loving them all!

I have scrapped a very recent event for my family, in fact it happened last Friday. Nothing like scrapping while the memory is still fresh.

My daughter, Ada, and her best friend, Hannah, are a bit obsessed by 'Matilda' lately. Unbeknown to them, Hannah's mum, Rachael and I organised a girl's weekend to Melbourne with them to see the musical production. We did it about 2 weeks ago, and have been bursting to tell them ever since. We finally sat them down in a café and gave them a little flip book I'd made, and got them to read it out loud. I love that in the photos on this page the girls bend closer over the page as they go, and as their excitement levels increased.

The second page shows the news really sinking in. They were so happy, but kept asking if it was really true. Ada was especially excited as she's never been on a plane before. Now we just have to wait the 6 weeks or so for the trip!

I really liked this 2 inch card, as it really sums up what the girls have been thinking lately - they wished they could see the musical, and now their wishes have come true. I matted it in Basic Black to really make it pop. There are lots of cards that use Basic Black in this collection, and it adds that little bit of boldness or drama to a page.

I used a new stamp set, Labeler Alphabet on the main journaling card, but also on each photo. The number on the card refers to the number on the photo, and the journaling describes what the girls were doing/saying/thinking in each photo. It's a neat way to guide the reader through the layout, especially as each of the photos is pretty much the same.

Well, that's it from me this month, but you can check out the rest of the MKPLxSU Design Team by clicking on the links below:

Sandra Korten

Delys Cram

Julie Kettlewell

Anna Pickering

Constanze Wirtz

Caroline van der Straaten

Linda Dalke

Don't forget that you can join the MKPLxSU group on Facebook, too! There's lots of PLxSU inspiration and chatter in the group.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #316: Just Add Stripes

Hi!


How's your Friday going? I must say that I love a quiet Friday at home, where I can gear up for the busyness of the weekend. Hudson is in respite for the weekend, so it's going to be a big 'getting things done' weekend. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

I'm hoping to sneak in some crafting time, as I have a huge pile of new stuff on my desk waiting to get inky.  How about you? Hopefully you'll find time to play along with our Just Add Stripes challenge at Just Add Ink.

I decided to use a piece of striped DSP from the new Pop Of Pink SDSP pack. It's so cute, and the perfect backdrop for this sweet little girl. She's a LaLa Land stamp, coloured with Copics.

Does my card remind you a little of my JAI card from a few weeks ago? You can see it here. That would be because the cards are for my twin nieces, and they were deliberately designed to match, but not be exactly the same. I hope they like them!

You can see that I made the insides pretty much the same too.


Have a great weekend, hopefully it's one that involves some craft time so you can play along with us at Just Add Ink.


Bye for now,


Tina

Playful Palette Split Card

Hi!


One of the first things I ordered from the new Catalogue was the Playful Palette Washi Tape. I'm a bit of a sucker for the splatter patterns in the tape. I've seen quite a lot of these Split Cards on the web, so I decided to give one a go, with the washi as a feature.

They are pretty easy to make, just take a 4 inch square of Whisper White card and cut it in half on a diagonal. You could even cut it in a wavy line - whatever takes your fancy! Decorate the two halves, adhere them to the card base and add a sentiment to the gap. Done!

I used one of the now retired Wooden Expressions, but to make it a bit more dramatic, I coloured it black by pushing it into my Basic Black inkpad. Be careful not to get the ink on your fingers though, as it gets everywhere!

Washi is such a great way to add a pop of drama to a card - don't you agree?


Bye for now,


Tina

Sugarplum Swirls

Hi!


MMMMM, Sugarplum Swirls - sounds like a fabulous new lolly (candy), doesn't it? Unfortunately it's not, but it is a fabulous new In Colour. Such a gorgeous, dusky purply-pink.

For this card I paired it with Pear Pizzazz and Very Vanilla. It's a really soft, vintage inspired combo. What do you think?





I stamped the little splatters underneath the swirl for a little extra interest on the card. The tiny flowers are really sweet, and sit nicely on the swirl.

The splatters feature again on the inside, but this time stamped off first so that they didn't overwhelm the sentiment.


Have you tried out the new In Colours yet? Which is your favourite? I think I'm still deciding!


Bye for now,


Tina

Happy 13th Birthday Tyson!

Hi!


We have just got back from a birthday party for one of Hudson's friends, Tyson. As you can tell by the post title, he turned 13.  Such a milestone! I made a card for him last night using my new favourite colour - Dapper Denim.

Inspiration for this card came from a card on page 22 of the new Annual Catalogue. It's the Sweet Sugarplum card on the right. I quite liked the idea of stamping the cake multiple times on the background. My cakes were a bit more widely spaced though, and looked a little funny, so I added the sentiment to fill each gap. What a happy accident!

The largest scribble swirl was cut from the Silver Foil Paper. It's such a cool die cut, I've used it heaps! It helps to make the '13' stand out more from the background also.

LOL, when I use the 'hip hip hooray' on my cards, I'm always cheering it in my head as I read it - what about you?

I'm entering this card in the CASEing the Catty monthly challenge. It's been ages since I've been able to play along with another challenge, so it's great to finally find the time.


Bye for now,


Tina

JAI #315: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!


Oh, what a miserable, wet week it's been. The upside of that is that it's perfect card making weather. Well, any weather is perfect card making weather, if I'm really honest!

We all love card making at Just Add Ink, and this week we are doing a sketch challenge.

Lots of layers in this one! I decided to cheat a little and turn some of the layers into non-layers using some faux stitching. Does that make sense?

See what I mean? I actually did the same thing for the smaller layer under the flower, but I made it far too small to be seen behind the flower. A handy piece of DSP to the rescue!

My Flower Patch stamp set has been a little neglected lately. OK, a lot neglected. My stamp shelves are looking VERY empty at the moment as I'm waiting for my new catalogue things to arrive. It's a great excuse to drag out some old favourites to play with.

I had a spare leaf left from the front of the card, so I used it to finish the inside, along with a little more faux stitching.


The Just Add Ink Design Team have done a great job making cards based on this sketch. You can see their cards over on the Just Add Ink blog. See you there!


Bye for now,


Tina

Black Mambo Swirls

Hi!


I've been having a lot of fun playing with the new Swirly Bird bundle. I'm sure you've seen a lot of cards made using the bundle on the internet! I especially love the scribbly circles in the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits. I've been wishing for a set like this for ages. For today's card, I decided to go for a bold colour combo and let the die cuts shine.

It's been a while since I've used Basic Black, Melon Mambo and Whisper White together. They work beautifully together. On this card the front of the card is not full sized. I adhered the wavy die cut a couple of centimeters in from the right edge and then trimmed carefully to give a thin black border. The white you see on the front is actually the inside of the card.

Here you can see the card open a little more, making it easier to see how it's not a full front. You can also see better that I used silver star sequins on the front, not black as it looks in the first photo. You can also see that the scribbly circle overlaps the new edge of the card.

I punched a 2" Circle to sit behind the scribbly circle and to stamp the sentiment on. It's not a perfect fit, but I still love the look.

I had to remember to stamp the inside sentiment all the way over to the left so that it can't be seen when the card it closed. That's tricky, when the natural inclination is to centre it! I also used some black star sequins to finish off the inside.


Stay tuned for lots more Swirly cards!


Bye for now,


Tina

JAI #314: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!


As always, Friday at Just Add Ink is new challenge time!

This week Di has picked a gorgeous citrus image for our inspiration. The colours in the pic are fabulous, so that's where I decided to go with my card.

This little cutie has been sitting on my desk for a week or so, waiting for the right card. I think she's a LaLa Land stamp, and I coloured her with a mix of Copics and Blendabilities.

Her dress is a bit more vibrant than it appears in this photo - I just couldn't get Photoshop to get the colour accurate without distorting the other colours.

You can see that I used the retired Have A Cuppa DSP on my background as a nod to the citrus in the photo. Don't you just love it when you have the perfect piece of DSP in your stash?

LOL, I'm not sure why I put a balloon on the inside, as there aren't any balloons on the front. It just seemed appropriate for a birthday card!


What inspiration do you take from the photo? Why don't you pop on over to see what the rest of the Just Add Ink Design Team have made?


Bye for now,


Tina