JAI #536: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Just Add Ink challenge - the last one for 2020. We have an Inspiration Challenge that will run for two weeks. How cute is this picture that Nikki has found for us to use?

It is super cute - but very Northern Hemisphere! I started wondering what a similar decoration would look like for the Southern Hemisphere's summery Christmas, and that's the theme I ended up using on my card.

I pulled out my Sun Lovin' Santa stamp set and stamped and coloured a whole lot of images. I really had no plan for a card at that point. By a happy coincidence, the colours I used worked perfectly with the retired Tropical Escape DSP.

I love the bright, fresh feel of the card, provided by the Flirty Flamingo card base. Santa looks pretty cool in his Flirty Flamingo Hawaiian Shirt too!

There's that Joy To The World Paper Pumpkin stamp again - I am getting so much use out of it!

I had a lot of images left over from my stamp and colour session, so I decided I would make another card rather than let them float around on my craft desk until next Christmas.

I used the exact same colours, DSP and layout, I just switched it to portrait orientation rather than landscape. I sort of wished that I'd coloured a few more palm trees to put behind the vehicle, but it was getting late and I was feeling a little lazy by that point!

Hehehe, I couldn't resist adding the flamingo to the inside - coloured with Flirty Flamingo, of course!

Here's the two cards together. They were very fun to make - I will definitely have to use this stamp set way more next year!

As always, you can find the rest of this week's Design Team cards over on the Just Add Ink Blog, where you can also link up your card for this challenge - remember that it goes for two weeks!

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I will be taking a blogging break until early January so that I can spend some quality time with my family.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Mossy Meadow

 Hi!

Welcome back for the final Colour Creations Creative Showcase of 2020. We'll be back in 2021 with the remaining colours, but we are closing 2020 out with Mossy Meadow. It's a colour that I haven't really used much of, as it's a bit of a dirty, dark green. If you're a vintage fan you've probably used it heaps! I tend to prefer brighter greens.

I started my card with a piece of Whisper White cropped with the largest Stitched Rectangles Die. I stamped it all over with the flower image from the Joy To The World Paper Pumpkin stamp set using Mossy Meadow ink. I left quite a gap between each flower, as I wanted to keep the card light and airy. I find Mossy Meadow to be a heavy colour! The focal flower was stamped three times and then fussy cut so that I could layer it up. The bottom layer was the whole image, the middle layer was the large flower and the top layer was just the smaller flower, finished with a Rhinestone centre.

Hopefully you can see here how I embossed the floral base layer with the Subtle 3DEF in both directions. I then matted it with a thin border of Mossy Meadow card before adhering it to a Silver Foil card base.

I used the Stitched Rectangles agin on the inside, this time choosing the third largest rectangle to crop both my Mossy Meadow and Whisper White card. I stamped the floral image around the Mossy Meadow piece, leaving a space in the bottom corner. After I'd adhered it to the card base and inset the WW piece, I stamped the final floral image over both the WW and MM cardstock. I was quite pleased with how this looked!

Thanks again for joining me for the final (for 2020) Colour Creations Creative Showcase. You can find the links for the rest of this week's cards over on Catherine's blog. We'll be back on January 6th with Night Of Navy.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #298: CASE An Embossing Folder Project

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me again for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. 

This week Bec has challenged us to CASE a project that features an embossing folder. You can choose a project from either of the two current catalogues, so there's plenty to choose from!

I chose my project to CASE from the back of the August-December Mini Catalogue. It's a card designed to show off the Coming Home bundle, but it features the Winter Snow Embossing Folder.

I recently purchased the Tag Buffet Project Kit, and at the end there are 5 of these Christmas Tree laser cut pieces left. I couldn't let them go to waste, so I made a set of cards for them. The sentiment banners were also left over pieces from the kit. I used the plain curved die in the Home Together Dies to cut the Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper. It's the same curve as on the original card, just upsized!

I used the inked embossing folder technique to add a little something to my card. I simply tapped my Balmy Blue inkpad all over the indented side of my embossing folder, placed my cardstock in it and ran it through my Big Shot. The ink stays on the flat sections of the cardstock, leaving the raised snowflakes white. It's so pretty!

The stamped sentiments are both from the Joy To The World Paper Pumpkin kit. I am getting so much use out of them!  I also added a little offcut from the embossed panel to the inside.

I forgot to trim one of the snowflake pieces, so I ended up with one card with a narrow border rather than the wider border, as in the CASEd card. I'm not sure which I like best! What do you think? The Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper looks much nicer in this photo too!

To join in with our challenge, just make your card, take a photo and upload it to our Facebook group. It's that easy!

I'm the last stop on this week's Blog Hop if you started with Julia or in the Facebook group. If you started mid way though, please hop on over to Julia's blog. Her cards are stunning!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #535: Just Add Magical Creatures

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Just Add Ink challenge. It's one I've been looking forward to doing since we got our schedule of challenges. It was a great idea from Kelly!

Just Add Magical Creatures - that's right up my alley! The hardest part for me was deciding which stamps to use. In the end I settled on a set that I hadn't used yet, called Forrest Elves from Kindred Stamps.

I started by stamping my Elven Queen on a piece of Whisper White and then used a sticky note to mask her off. The big tree from the retired favourite, Lovely As A Tree, was stamped behind her to create a forrest. I then masked the area for the moon and used a blending brush to add ink for the sky and ground. The sentiment is from another Kindred Stamps set, called Wizard Friends.

The moon had a tiny bit of Soft Suede ink added. I just used the dirty brush I'd used to create the ground, as I only wanted minimal ink. I then stamped some of the splatters from Waterfront over the top to give the look of craters in the moon. I used the same stamp for the forrest floor. The Queen was coloured using my Copic Markers in the softest blues, greens and yellows that I own. I went a bit bolder for her hair and her amulet. I liked that the masking left a bit of a halo around her, as it looks a little like she is glowing - very elvish!

The inside sentiment says 'I love you' in Elvish, so I will likely give this card to my daughter or someone very close to me.

Which Magical Creature will you choose to add to your card? I nearly went with Santa, but I'm a little ready to be finished with Christmas cards, so I chose something fun instead. The Design team have had fun with this challenge, and you can see their cards over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH December Creative Showcase: Summer

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the final Creative Showcase for 2020. Rachel has chosen a Summer theme for our projects tonight. For a lot of people, Summer means lazing on a beach, so that't what I decided to do for my card tonight. I've used a mix of Stampin' Blends, ink blending and stamping on my card.

I started this card by stamping my umbrella in stamped-off Soft Sea Foam. I then used a pencil to lightly draw in my lines for the beach, island and horizon. Then I got to the fun part - colouring! The beach was coloured with my Light Crumb Cake and So Saffron Blends. I stamped the shadow and the dotty stamp from Waterfront over the top with Crumb Cake Ink. The island was coloured with my Crumb Cake Blends, and the palm trees were stamped with Early Espresso and Garden Green, with the shadow in Crumb Cake. The umbrella, from Under My Umbrella, was coloured with Poppy Parade and Daffodil Delight Blends with a Dark Smoky Slate pole. The sky was coloured using my Blending Brush with Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight inks.

Finally, the ocean was coloured with lots of Blends. The horizon was drawn with my Light Night Of Navy Blend, and then a small section underneath was coloured with my Light Bermuda Bay Blend. The rest of the ocean was coloured with my Balmy Blue Blends. I finished it off by using my scoring tip to dot some Frost White Shimmer Paint to create some foamy water. I then stamped a few birds and a sentiment from Beautiful Moments.

On the inside I used the Waterfront stamp set to create a little scene that matches the one on the front.

That's all from me for tonight, please do pop on over to Rachel's blog were you can find the rest of this month's Creative Showcase links.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Misty Moonlight

 Hi!

Welcome back for the second last Colour Creations Creative Showcase for 2020. We will be back in 2021 with the remaining colours, but we are taking a well deserved break for Christmas/New Year after we do Mossy Meadow next week. For this week, we are all making cards using Misty Moonlight. It's a gorgeous dirty blue, a bit like denim.

I started my card by cutting a Thick Whisper White card base and then two smaller pieces for the front. The curves were cut using the curved die from the Home Together Dies. I laid them over the top of the card and then used a pencil to draw along the top edges to give myself a guide for stamping the trees. The tree stamp is from Waterfront, and was stamped in Memento ink.

I then used a sticky note and a 1 3/4" circle punch to mask off the moon. My blending brush was used to apply Misty Moonlight ink to the top half of the card, making sure I kept the colour very light around the moon and darker further out. I then splattered some Frost White Shimmer Paint over the inked area. The hill pieces were glued flat to the card front, after I'd stamped the top one with the sentiments from Peace & Joy.

The offcuts from the hills on the front were used on the inside - I rarely waste anything! I related the same process as for the front, I just didn't do a moon. I was thrilled with how the card turned out, and I found it quite easy. The hardest part was waiting for the Shimmer Paint to dry!

That's all from me for tonight, but please do head on over to Catherine's Blog, where you'll find the rest of the links for this week's Misty Moonlight cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #297: CASE A 3D Project

 Hi!

It's the end of another busy week, which means it's time for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop! What a great way to end the week.

This week Bec has set us the challenge of CASEing a 3D project from either of the two current catalogues. I'm still very much in Christmas card making mode, so I went straight for my August-December Mini Catalogue and started flipping from the back.

It didn't take too long to find this cute little gift box using the Christmas Gleaming bundle, seen on page 72 of the Mini. I loved the way that the two baubles overlapped each other, and also the two fonts in the sentiment. I don't actually own this bundle, so I had to look through my stash for something to substitute.

Cherish The Season had the perfect substitute with the bells that overlapped! I stamped them on Whisper White with Memento and coloured them with my Petal Pink Blends. I had the plan of using the same Petal Pink ribbon on my card as is on the box, but the bows were far too big! Instead I had to make do with pink bells and a pink layer under the DSP.

Speaking of the DSP, I used the same DSP as in the sample - Brightly Gleaming SDSP. I just chose a different pattern with the gorgeous Copper designs, hence the extreme sideways photo trying to get a good image of the copper! The sentiment is from the Joy To The World Paper Pumpkin kit, and it stamped in both Mossy Meadow and the retired Celestial Copper Delicata ink. The bows were the last scraps of some copper trim I had left over from a kit a year or so ago - the name escapes me!

I stamped and coloured two of the smaller individual bells for the inside so that it matched the front. Those bows sure were tricky to tie!!

As always, you can play along with our challenge by simply taking a photo of your card or project and upload it into our Facebook group. It really is that easy!

Before you do, please finish the Blog Hop, as there's lots more to see! Next up is Peta and her wonder-cat, Marvi. I wonder what he thinks of Peta's 'pawsome' projects this week?

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #524: Just Add Colour

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for this week's Just Add Ink challenge. I missed last week's challenge, and so I was super keen to get back into it this week!

This week Nikki has set us a very Christmassy colour combination, which also just happens to be the colours used in the Heartwarming Hugs DSP. Convenient!

My Joy To The World Paper Pumpkin stamp set was still floating around on my craft desk, so I decided to use it too! It's a good match for the colours and the DSP. I stamped the wreath in Mossy Meadow and then used my Pear Pizzazz ink pad and a Blender Pen to colour the open leaves. I then stamped some berries over the top in Real Red.

I love the way the sentiments in the Joy To The World set can be mixed and matched to suit the theme of your card. It's such a cute mix of fonts, too.

I stamped the wreath again on the inside, this time in Pear Pizzaz ink which I'd stamped off first. This let the sentiment, stamped in Mossy Meadow, really shine.

You can join in the challenge over on the Just Add Ink blog. Add your card to our gallery to be in the running!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Mint Macaron

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Colour Creations Creative Showcase - isn't that a mouthful to say?! This week we are working with one of my all-time favourite Stampin' Up! colours, Mint Macaron. It was originally an In Colour, and I was very excited to see it back in the line up after a colour refresh. It's a lovely, dusky mid green.

I pulled out the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set to play with tonight for no other reason than it's been a while since I've played with it. In fact, I'd never used the small sunflower stamp before! I stamped is all over my Mint Macaron cardstock with the matching ink. I'd pre-cut cut the cardstock using the largest Stitched Rectangles Die, and after I'd finished stamping I ran it through my Big Shot twice using the Subtle folder, once in each direction. I love that it gives the cardstock a fabric-like look.

The large sunflower was cut from Silver Foil card. I'd originally intended to just use the outline, but when I pulled it from the die, all the pieces stayed in place. I quickly cut the coordinating solid shape from Mint cardstock and glued it to the back, making sure I got a dot of glue on all of the tiny pieces. I was quite pleased with how it turned out, even if it wasn't what I'd intended! I tucked a few die cut leaves underneath, just to finish it off.

I stamped that cute little sunflower image again on the inside, along with a sentiment from Under My Umbrella. My card base was one of the retired Silver Foil cards, as it has that lovely Silver Foil border to match the foil sunflower.

That's all from me for tonight, but please do head on over to Catherine's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Mint Macaron cards. We have two more weeks of 'M' colours before we take a little break over Christmas and the New Year.

Bye for now,

Tina