JAI #357: Just Add Colour

Hi!


A little sad today, as it's the last day of the school holidays. I really enjoy the downtime and the lazy days. Anyway, it's Friday, which means it's Just Add Ink day!

This week we have a colour challenge, suggested by Jan. I really love the combination of Sweet Sugarplum and Rich Razzleberry, so I was happy from the start! The addition of Sahara Sand and Island Indigo adds a fresh take to the combo.

I thought I'd give you a little sneak peek of a new stamp set that's from the upcoming Annual Catalogue. I was lucky enough to receive this set, Daisy Delight, at the On Stage event I attended in Perth recently.

It's so pretty! To get this flower, I stamped the outline three times on Very Vanilla cardstock in Rich Razzleberry and then watercoloured them in Sweet Sugarplum using a fairly dry Aqua Painter. Too much water makes the VV cardstock pill, and I certainly didn't want that! I then punched the flowers using the new Daisy punch and layered them so they were offset. It gives such a lovely, full flower, more like a Gerbera.

Can you see another sneak peek in the centre of the flower? The new Faceted Gems are gorgeous! They were certainly a must-have for me when I saw them at On Stage.

Did you notice the stamping under the daisy on the front of the card? I used my Timeless Textures stamp set, which is carrying over to the new catalogue. Yay!


Why don't you pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see what the rest of the team have created? I'm certain they will inspire you to stamp along with us this week.


Bye for now,


Tina

A Sugarplum Jar Of Love

Hi!


I've been a bit neglectful of my poor little blog lately! Today I have a post for you that celebrates some of my favourite stamps that are carrying over to the upcoming Annual Catalogue. I could get sad about the stuff I'm losing, but let's be happy and enjoy what's staying.

I love the bouquets you can create with the Jar Of Love stamp set, and the matching dies make cropping the images so easy! I also use the bubbly image from Playful Backgrounds a lot - as the name says, it really does make a playful background on a card.

I'm really looking forward to more opportunities to play with these stamp sets for another year at least.

How about you? Are there stamp sets or other products that you're glad aren't retiring?


Bye for now,


Tina

AWH Blog Hop: Retiring Products

Hi!

Today I am participating in a blog hop along with the super talented ladies in the Art With Heart Team. We thought it would be fun to share some projects using our favourite retiring products from both the 2016-2017 Annual and 2017 Occasions catalogues!

Select retiring products have discounts of up to 50% off but are only available until sold out. Be sure to place orders before the sun sets on these items on 31 May. You don’t want to miss out – ask me how!

At first I really struggled with deciding which of my retiring products to use. I'm not losing too many stamp sets this year, but I am losing a lot of punches, so I decided to go in that direction. My son Hudson has a classmate that is in hospital at the moment, so I wanted to make a card for his mum to let her know that we were thinking of them.

I think the two punches featured here - Elegant Butterfly and Decorative Label - are two of my very favourites. I'm not sure I'll be able to bring myself to part with them.


I started with the Very Vanilla strip on the front of the card, and punched the Elegant Butterfly shape from it five times, making sure that I overlapped the punched holes. It was popped up on the front of the card using Dimensionals, making sure that the Basic Black Background showed through.

I then punched five more Elegant Butterflies in a mix of Mint Macaron and Watermelon Wonder (both retiring In Colours). After I curled the wings up a little, I adhered them in the correct spots in the Vanilla piece. Hopefully you can see what I mean in the picture! I finished the bodies with a short strip of Rhinestones. The Rhinestones are also retiring - kind of. They are actually being reconfigured, so they will be back in the new Annual Catalogue, just a little different.

I finished off the inside with another strip of the Blooms and Bliss DSP. It's also retiring, as is the Bitty Butterfly punch.


You're off to see the work of the lovely Monika next. Happy Hopping!

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. Catherine Proctor
2. Ros Davidson
3. Tina Gillespie --> That's me!
4. Monika O'Neill
5. Rebecca Jacovou
6. Kathryn Mangelsdorf
7. Rachel Palmieri
8. Kate Morgan
9. Judy May
10. Rachel Woollard
11. Claire Daly
12. Andrea Roberts

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #355: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!


Waaa Hoo! The school holidays are finally here in South Australia! I'm really looking forward to some lazy days at home with the kids, with hopefully a bit of time for crafting. But for now, I have the new Just Add Ink challenge for you.

This week Narelle has designed an awesome sketch for us to use. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to use a die I purchased some months ago, but hadn't had a chance to use yet.

The male members of my family are rather map-mad, so I knew that a die like the globe wouldn't go unused for too long in my stash! Before you ask, it's not a SU die, it's a Tim Holtz Sizzix die.

I also pulled out some long retired colours and papers for this card. Do you remember the Going Places DSP? It was one of my favourites for male cards. I made this card for my son Alex's 14th birthday. Then I remembered I used the same papers and colours for his 13th birthday card too!

The blue in the card is also a retired colour - Lost Lagoon. I just couldn't bring myself to part with it when it retired as an In Colour last year.

The inside stamp is still current though - I couldn't use ALL retired stuff on this card!


What do you see in the sketch? There's lots of room to play with it. I turned my card sideways, as the size of the globe suited a landscape card rather than portrait. I hope to see your creation over at Just Add Ink this week.


Bye for now,


Tina

JAI #354: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!


As you read this, I'm probably in Perth attending the Stampin' Up! On Stage event. It's a fabulous day of stamping, sneak peeks, and best of all, catching u with some of my stamping friends. I've never been to Perth before, so I jumped at the chance to go.

While I'm away, you can get cracking on the new Just Add Ink Challenge. This week Trish is inspiring us with this gorgeous tea cup image.

I do love my tea, so this challenge was right up my alley! I decided to use the retired stamp set, A Nice Cuppa, to create a free standing pop-up card. I followed this tutorial.

Coincidentally, the colours in the retired Have A Cuppa DSP were very similar to the colours in the tea cup in the inspiration photo, so I decided to drag them out of retirement too.

The pop up card is actually quite easy to make, and the best part of all is that it folds down nice and flat so that it is easy to post.

What inspires you in the photo? I hope to see what you create over at Just Add Ink. In the meantime, I'll be back when I get home from Perth!


Bye for now,


Tina

Dragonflies in Ombre

Hi!


I may have mentioned once or twice that I have been playing a lot with the sponge brayers. Today's card is another of my creations. It's one of my favourite cards I've made using the brayer ombre backgrounds.

This card was given to my sister for her 40th Birthday. Her favourite colour is purple, so that's naturally the colour I used. I first tried Perfect Plum, but it turned a brownish, dusky purple - lovely, but not the look I was going for. I tried Rich Razzleberry next, and it was perfect.

After I'd brayered the background, I clear heat embossed a few dragonflies over the front. The main dragonfly was heat embossed in Silver and watercoloured with Rich Razzleberry ink. So pretty!

A special birthday like a 40th deserves a special card - and I think this one fills the brief. What do you think?


Bye for now,


Tina