Happy Ornament Clear Block Stamping

Hi!


At the recent On Stage event, one of the stamping techniques we saw during a stamping demonstration was stamping with your clear blocks. I was very intrigued and decided to try it when I got home.

I used the new single stamp from the Holiday Catalogue called Happy Ornament. It was a stamp I overlooked a bit at first, but ended up buying, It's a great one for quick and easy Christmas cards.

So, onto the technique! To colour the bauble I scribbled on the clear block with my Tempting Turquoise marker, huffed on it, and then pressed the clear block to my cardstock to transfer the ink. You can repeat if you aren't happy with the result. I then stamped the bauble over the top and cut out just the bauble section with my snips. I stamped the bauble a second time, and adhered the coloured bauble over the top. I then coloured the rest of the bauble with my markers. Doesn't it look great?

I used the Playful Backgrounds bubbles on the background of the front, so I carried it over to the inside as well.


Bye for now,


Tina

A Bloomin' Hearts CASE

Hi!


Today is the last day to grab a bargain in the Online Extravaganza - have you had a look yet? Today's card uses one of the products that is discounted by 30%, the Bloomin' Heart Thinlit Dies. I also used the coordinating stamp set Bloomin' Love.

The card is actually a CASE of this card made by Valerie Moody, a member of Stampin' Up!'s Artisan Design Team. I loved the white on white elegance of Valerie's card.

The Real Red heart was stamped with the heart from Bloomin' Love before being cropped with the Sweetheart punch, The little birdie comes from the Tree Builder punch.

I'm not usually one for lovey-dovey cards, but it can be handy to have a few in your stash for the odd occasion that you need one.


Bye for now,


Tina

JAI #338: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!


Phew! I've had a busy week! How about you? Is it time to sit a bit and relax over the weekend? I hope so!

This week's Just Add Ink challenge is a fun inspiration photo, put forward by Jan. I deliberately didn't think about using paint brushes to paint a wall, because that's no fun! Well, not for me anyway. Instead I thought about paint on an artist's palette and went from there. What do you think of?

I decided to have a play with some of my reinkers and my Stampin' Spritzer to create an arty background using the colours in the picture. It took me 5 goes to get a piece I was happy with, but then I ended up going back to the first piece after they had all dried!

To get the background I spritzed a piece of Shimmery White cardstock with water using my Stampin' Spritzer. I then dripped ink from my reinkers onto the cardstock. If the colour didn't spread well, I gave it another spritz. Once I was happy, I placed a paper towel over the top to soak up some of the extra water and then left the pieces to dry. I then used my largest die in the Layering Circles Thinlits set to cut the circle. I laid it on the paper and moved it about until I was happy with the mix of colours within the circle.

From memory, the colours I used were Tempting Turquoise, Island Indigo, Real Red, Watermelon Wonder and Elegant Eggplant. The dragonfly (a sneak peek from the upcoming Occasions Catalogue) was cut from Gold Foil paper.

The sentiment stamp set I used is also from the Occasions Catalogue, it is a set that is designed to coordinate with the Dragonfly dies. You can see that I've also used a small dragonfly on the inside of the card. The bundle was one of my first 'must-haves' from the catalogue.


I hope you have a fabulous weekend, with hopefully some time to join us at Just Add Ink.


Bye for now,


Tina

AWH Christmas Blog Hop

Hi!

Today some of the Art with Heart Stampin’ Up! team girls have created some amazing Christmas projects to inspire you with the theme, It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! We have tags, gift bags, teacher gift ideas, decorations and many more fun projects to create this holiday season.

I have decided to use Merry Mice for my projects. It's my absolute favourite set out of the Holiday Catalogue, and it's also been a favourite among my customers - especially as it's currently 25% off in the Stitched From The Heart promotion. It's a ripper bargain for just $22.50!

I stamped the singing mouse on Shimmery White cardstock and coloured him using Dapper Denim, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay and Pool Party.

I love the subtle little scalloped border the Layering Circles Thinlits provide. In this case, a cute touch of Real Red that doesn't overwhelm the rest of the card.

I love the cute little star stamps in this set. They give a nice finishing touch to your card.

I had a bit of extra time up my sleeve and some extra stamped images, so I decided to make a set of tags using the Merry Mice. I masked the little mice so that I could stamp them as individual images. My Stitched Shapes Framelits finally arrived, so I kind of went a little nuts with them!

I hope you've been inspired by my Merry Mice projects, but now you're off to be dazzled by the lovely Kathryn Mangelsdorf.

Bye for now,

Tina

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

1. Rebecca Jacovou
2. Ros Davidson
3. Kathryn Ruddick
4. Kate Morgan
5. Rachel Palmieri
6. Claire Daly
7. Mary Kelly
8. Monika O'Neill
9. Tina Gillespie
10. Kathryn Mangelsdorf
11. Catherine Proctor
12. Judy May

MKPLxSU Blog Share: Hello December

Hi!


This month at MKPLxSU we have decided to try something different - instead of all posting our pages on one day, we are spreading them out through the month. Today it's my turn to share my pages.

This month we have decided to focus on the Hello December 2016 kit that you can find in the Holiday Catalogue. While it's mainly designed to be used for a December Daily type project, you could really use the kit in any way you'd like! As a bonus, it is also among the products discounted this week in the Online Extravaganza. Nice!

This is the fifth year I have started (and completed!) a December Daily album, so for me it was a no-brainer to get the kit and plunge straight in. I usually leave the title page until last, but I was so excited by the 2016 transparency card that I just had to make it first.

The kit didn't come with sequins this year, so I used some from the Metallics and Brights packs in my stash. I also managed to find some sequins that were pretty close to Emerald Envy among my hoarded bits and pieces. I think they came from a kit that Ada had where you push pins through the sequins and into a foam board to make a picture. I sealed the pocket with my Fuse tool to ensure they stayed put.

I usually have a page or two at the front of my album from November, as we often attend some Christmas events that are held early. In this case, the second page of my DD documents the Adelaide Christmas Pageant. Rob, his mum and the big kids took some silly selfies while they were waiting for the pageant to start. I think these kinds of memories are the best kind to preserve!

The very next day Rob, his mum and the big kids went to a Christmas party at the Adelaide Zoo. They had far too much of a good time to remember taking photos, so all I had was this one of Alex playing Pokémon Go as they walked around. He's so obsessed with it at the moment, and it was far more interesting to him than the animals!


I should point out that I would usually go to these events with the rest of the family, but as I was still recovering from my ankle surgery it was best for me and Hudson to stay home and let the more energetic members of the family enjoy a couple of special days out without having to worry about us keeping up. Hud and I had some fabulous mother-son bonding time at home.

This is my last page for now! Usually the Christmas tree would go up on Pageant day, but we had such a huge weekend that we just didn't get time. I was going to wait for Dec 1, but Ada nagged until we gave in on Sunday. It's not decorated yet, but as it's a fibre optic tree it still looks great at night with the lights glowing.

Did you see that I created another transparent pocket? I used one of the metal paper clips that come in the kit, as well as some more sequins. I didn't actually realise it was a paper clip until after I'd sealed the pocket. Oh well, it still looks great floating around in the pocket with the sequins!

Are you planning a DD album this year? Have you started it, like me? Please join us in the Facebook group and post your pages for us to see and enjoy!

Bye for now,

Tina

A Sticky Outy Embellished Ornament

Hi!


Today's card was made using the Embellished Ornaments stamp set. Did you know it's on sale today only as a part of the Online Extravaganza?  My class ladies asked for a sticky outy card - their words!- so this is what I made for them.

The actual design of the card is quite simple, but the 3D bauble gives it a lovely pop that will certainly surprise the recipient.

The ornament will fold nice and flat for postage, but a little fluffing will restore it to it's 3D state. It's so easy to create - stamp and punch three circles, plus a fourth plain circle. Fold the stamped circles in half and adhere them back to back to each other. Adhere the bauble circles to the plain circle. I also sponged around the edges of the circles.

I love using the holly stamp to decorate the card, both the front and the inside.


Don't forget to pop over to my Online store to check out what's on sale in the Online Extravaganza.


Bye for now,


Tina

JAI #337: Just Add Two

Hi!


Yay! it's the tail end of the working week, and the weekend is just around the corner! I'm excited because Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them has just opened. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go see it with the family very soon.

But that's not why you are here - you're here for the new Just Add Ink challenge! This week Kim is challenging you to Just Add Two to your cards. What two? You have the choice of either doilies, die cuts or Designer Series Paper. Just choose two and off you go!

I ummed and ahhed a little before having a little bit of a brainwave while I was in the shower. It's a great place to think! I went with die cuts and DSP.

In order to fit all the letters in, I had to make my card a tad longer than usual. It's actually 7 inches in length, and the usual 4 1/4 inches tall. It will fit in a business sized envelope, so it will still be easy to post.

You can see in this picture that I popped all of the letters up on Dimensionals. The edge pieces of the sheets are great for this, as they are already smaller than whole Dimensionals so they fit nicely behind the letters. I don't like wasting things, and this is a fab way of using up the edge pieces.

Speaking of not liking to waste things....

I also used the negative piece created when I cut the letters. I made sure to cut them in a straight line so that I could use this piece.

I used lots of Dimensionals to pop the piece up from the DSP underneath, including the two pieces in the top of the R's.

I made both of the insides of the cards the same. The cute little holly sprig is from the Hostess set, Time Of Year. I had intended to use the Christmas banner image from the set on the front of the cards, but in the end I decided they looked OK without it.

Here are the two cards together so that you can see how they are opposites.


Which two items will you choose for this week's challenge? You can see what the Design Team have chosen over at the Just Add Ink blog.


Bye for now,


Tina

An Emerald Envy Christmas Tree

Hi!


I ran a card class this month based on the Santa's Sleigh Framelits Dies. I wanted to show that, while the bundles are fabulous, you don't necessarily need both parts to create fabulous cards.

For the first card, I used the tree to cut a window through the Whisper White layer. The tree could be used on another card. If you wanted to make this card a bit more fancy, you could turn it into a shaker card using the Mica Flakes from the Holiday Catalogue.

You can see I used DSP underneath the window. It's from the Moroccan DSP pack, but you could really use any paper that suited your colour scheme. For me, it was the only DSP I had that was Emerald Envy.

My class ladies are big fans of the starry swirl stamp from Star Of Light, so of course I had to include it on the card!


I'll share the two other cards I made for this class in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for them.


Bye for now,


Tina

A Merry Mice CASE

Hi!


On Saturday Adelaide put on the Annual Christmas Pageant. It always signals the start of the Christmas season for us. Many Adelaide families come home from watching the Pageant and put up their Christmas tree. We didn't quite get that done, but we are definitely feeling the Christmas spirit! Rob took Alex and Ada to the first Christmas party of the year on Sunday, so it's on like Donkey Kong.


After all that lead up, I have a Christmas card for you today. It's a CASE of a card by Claire Daly, but I can't link to the original as she hasn't blogged it yet. I saw it in our team FB group. It uses the Merry Mice stamp set, which is on sale at a 25% discount this month. Grab it now and get a bargain!

I love that sentiment - Merry Christmouse! Adorable! The mouse was stamped on Shimmery White cardstock and then watercoloured with my inkpads and an Aquapainter. I'm very much a 'slap on the colour' type water colourerer - how about you?

I used the small star stamps in the set to add a subtle little touch to the base card. The DSP is from the Candy Cane Lane DSP pack, which is where I pulled most of the colours I used.

There's some more of those cute little stars surrounding the sentiment on the inside.


Have you started your Christmas cards yet? I think I counted around 30 in my stash already, so I'm well on my way to the 100 cards I usually send out.


Bye for now,


Tina

JAI #336: Just Add Colour

Hi!


Phew, what a whirlwind week I've had! On Stage in Brisbane was fabulous - so many fun and exciting new products on the way, so watch this space! The best part, though, was catching up with so many of the Just Add Ink girls, including some past members. We had a lovely dinner one night, with over 20 of us laughing and sharing our love of stamping.

In the meantime, though, we have a new Just Add Ink challenge! This week we have a gorgeous colour combination, suggested by Nikki.

Isn't it lovely? My aunt and uncle recently moved into a new house, so I immediately thought of making them a happy housewarming card. I don't own any house stamps, but I did have the MDS version of a retired stamp set, so I fired up the computer, had a play and pressed print. Easy!

I used my Copics to colour the house, but that mean trying to guess some of the equivalent colours. Well, I thought it would involve guess work, until I found this clever chart by Judy May.

The only colour I didn't have a close match to was Mint Macaron. The house probably looks a bit too much like Pool Party. The rest were pretty close though!

I hope you have fun with this colour challenge - I know I did! Pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog too see what the rest of the Design Team have done with it.


Bye for now,


Tina