JAI 635: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the final Just Add Ink challenge for 2022. Hasn't it been a fabulous year of challenges? To wrap uo the year we have one final Inspiration Challenge, suggested to us by Nikki.

Don't the rich purple and gold decorations look amazing against that lush tree? My eye was caught by the two faceted purple baubles, so I attempted to recreate the look on a Christmas gift tag.

I started by inking some cardstock with Fresh Freesia, Rich Razzleberry and Blackberry Bliss ink, blengins from light to dark across the card. I then cropped the card using my Stitched Triangles Dies. Using the Inspiration Photo as a guide, I laid out the triangles and adhered them to the tag base I'd created.

I used my Vegas Gold Shimmer Paint to splatter the front, and then added some leaves and a sentiment stamped using the Lave, Santa Tag kit stamp set. I couldn't resist adding a few loops of some Gold Thread.

To create my tag base, I took a piece of Whisper White card, folded it in half and cropped it with a Circle Die, ensuring that the die hung over the fold so that the two circles remained joined. A bit more stamping, and I was done!

This challenge will run for a fortnight and is a just for fun challenge over the Christmas/New Year Break. As always, you can link up your project over on the Just Add Ink blog - we'd love to see what you create using the photo for inspiration.

We'll be back in early January with a fun blog hop to kick off another year of Just Add Ink fun.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Old Olive

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the final Colour Creations Blog Hop for 2022. Don't worry, we'll be back in 2023 with the rest of the colours! This week we are focusing on Old Olive - a longtime staple of the colour range. As the name suggests, it's an olive green that's quite versatile.

I was intrigued by this colour combo from Brian King. I don't usually put two greens together, especially two that are as different as Old Olive and Shaded Spruce, but I was keen to give it a go!

Shaded Spruce is a great colour for succulents, so I pulled out my Plentiful Plants bundle and stamped some of the images. I think this plant is a mother-in-law's tongue? It sits perfectly in the two-handled pot, which I stamped in Rich Razzleberry.

I used my Simply Fabulous stamp set for the sentiment, cropped using a Simply Stylish Die. I had initially planned to heat emboss a sentiment on the Old Olive banner underneath, but I ran out of time. This was a great alternative.

Here's a tip for you - it you have an offcut of DSP to use, but it's not quite wide enough, snip off one end at an angle and make it look like a feature!

Thanks for hopping along with us in 2022, we hope that you continue to do so in 2023. For now though,  please do continue on your way with tonight's hop, starting with my lovely friend Di Furniss. Di's favourite colour is green, so I'm sure she's had a wonderful time creating with Old Olive.

The place to go for help if you run into any problems with links is the wonderful Cathy Proctor's blog. She does a fabulous job of keeping us all organised. She has a list of all of tonight's participants on her blog to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 633: Just Add Colour

 Hi!

Hooray for Friday and the new Just Add Ink challenge! This week, Kim has suggested a fabulous colour combination to guide our creativity!

I have finished making all of my Christmas cards for this year, but an extra never hurts, right? I thought that this combo would make for a fun, modern Christmas card, and I had just the right stamp set in mind.

I've had Concord & 9th's Mix & Match Holiday Sentiments stamp wet for a while, but it has not been inked until now! It's a big stamp with a lot of different Christmassy words that, like the name suggests, you mix and match to create phrases. It's a lot of fun!

The hardest part is arranging them into the tree shape. Sweet Sorbet and Bermuda Bay look fantastic arranged like this. I snuck the Basic Grey in by using it as the tree trunk and with the twine bow.

I had LOTS of extra words, so I was easily able to create another sentiment for the inside of my card with the leftovers. In fact, I reckon I could make another 2-3 cards with the rest of the words I have stamped. What a bonus for time-poor stampers at this time of year. Now I just need to track down the matching die to make things even easier!

Thanks for stopping by. We'd love for you to play along with our Colour Combo challenge. Just pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Design Team cards. You'll also be able to link up your card for the challenge when you're ready. We'd love to see what you create.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Night Of Navy

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we are looking at Night Of Navy, a deep blue from the Neutrals Colour Family. 

Brian King has quite a few colour combos that feature Night Of Navy, so it was tricky to narrow the choices down to just one! I decided on this bright combo though, mostly because I haven't played much with Parakeet Party yet.

I started by stamping the Rays Of Light stamp in Parakeet Party on Whisper White card and then cropping it with the largest Stitched Rectangles Die. I matted it on Night Of Navy cardstock before popping it all onto a retired Silver Foil card base.

I was struggling with how to add Poppy Parade to the card, so I decided to add the circles, cropped with the Stylish Shapes Dies, under the focal butterfly (from Butterfly Brilliance) and sentiment. A few red sequins adds to the spotty red theme!

A second butterfly, stamped in Night Of Navy, was the obvious choice for the inside of my card. I used a sentiment from the Light The Candles Card Kit stamp set to go with it. I also used the same stamp set on the front of the card. Don't overlook kit stamp sets - they are sometimes the exact sentiment that you need!

That's all from me this time around, but please do keep jumping around our Blog Hop until you get back to where you started. The next blog belongs to my fabulous friend, Kate Morgan. You won't want to miss her card!

As ever, if you get off track or find a broken link, jump on over to the wonderful Catherine Proctor's blog. You'll find a list of all of tonight's participants there to help you on your way again.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Mossy Meadow

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the third-last Colour Creations Blog Hop for 2022. Don't worry, we will be returning after a short break to continue our journey through the colour range in 2023.

This week's focus colour was Mossy Meadow, which is a colour that I really struggle with. I can't put my finger on why it's such a tricky colour - it just is! Yay for Brian King and his inspiring colour combinations.

This card wasn't originally going be a sympathy card, but when it came time to add a sentiment, the card seemed to suit a sympathy-related sentiment. I started by inking Petal Pink ink all around the edges of my Very Vanilla cardstock with a Blending Brush. I used Vanilla, as I think it works beautifully with the Petal Pink ink. The blending fades much more nicely! The Mossy Meadow leaves and Early Espresso splatters from Forever Fern were stamped over the top.

I think I need to add a glue dot behind my Very Vanilla twine bow - it's looking a little saggy! I can't have a saggy bow on a card, that just won't do. The die cut is from the coordinating Forever Flourishing Dies, I cut way the bottom two sets of leaves so that it wasn't quite so big.

A touch of coordinating stamping and inking on the inside never goes astray!

The next stop on tonight's blog hop is the lovely Theresa Gerrard. I wonder if she's struggled with Mossy Meadow as much as I have? Jump on over to her blog to find out!

Once again, the wonderful Cathy Proctor keeps us super organised with the Blog Hops. If you run into any issues with links, just pop on over to her blog to help get back on track. She has a list of all of tonight's participants there.

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 22

 Hi!

Welcome back for the final Heart Of Christmas blog hop for 2022. I can't believe we are so close to Christmas! I've made 88 cards for the blog hops this year, just by using the Sheetload Of Cards templates to make four cards each week. It's a stress free way to quickly build a decent stash!

Tonight's cards are made using the October 2019 Sheetload Of Cards template. The front of the card is folded back on itself to make a nice and easy fancy fold. The red Spruced Up Outlines bauble is a left over from another set of cards. I had planned to heat emboss the sentiment in white on the front, but I got lazy. I was just about to stamp directly on the first bauble, when I noticed that the baubles on the DSP had a circle feature. Bingo!

Speaking of the DSP, it's from the gorgeous Celebrate Everything Host DSP pack. I've used it so much this year - I especially love the black design that I've used on the inside of my cards. The colourful Christmassy images really pop against the black.

The sentiments are from Brightest Glow. I chose scripty fonts so that I didn't have to worry too much about stamping straight - they look perfectly fine on a slight angle!

Thanks again for joining us for the blog hops this year. I hope that you've found lots of Christmas inspiration and have made a good head start on your stash of cards. The next stop in our final blog hop is my lovely friend, Michele Taylor. I wonder if she'll have another of her gorgeous wreath cards for us?

If you run into any problems with links as you hop your way around the blogs tonight, please pop on over to the wonderful Sharon Davern's blog. She deserves a huge thanks for all she's done to organise the hops and keep them running smoothly. Thanks, Sharon!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 631: Just Add A Sketch

Hi! 

Welcome to the new Just Add Ink Challenge. This week we have a Sketch challenge, with the sketch designed by me!

The Design Team had a whole lot of fun with those wavy lines in the background! I needed to make a card for a rugby league loving youngster, and his favourite team just happened to have three lines across their jersey, so it was the perfect choice for this sketch.

I used my Inspiring Canopy dies to crop the coloured cardstock before adhering it to the black background. The lines aren't quite as wavy as I would have liked, but I couldn't get my brain around cutting the three stripes by hand, so I made do with what I had!

I used my T-Shirt Builder Dies to crop a black jersey for the front of the card. I briefly toyed with the idea of adding tiny stripes to it, but my eyes and fingers rebelled at the thought! I compromised with the same number as his age on the top.

On the inside I used a retired set, called Play Ball. The sentiment is an Ink Road set, called Belated. Hopefully, even though it's late, the recipient will love the card.

That's all from me for now, but please jump on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Design Team cards. You can also link up your card for our challenge. I can't wait to see what you make with my sketch.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Mint Macaron

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by on your way around our Colour Creations Blog Hop this evening. It's Mint Macaron week. Hooray! As you may have guessed, it's a favourite of mine. It began as an In Colour, but eventually found it's way back as a member of the Subtles colour family in a colour refresh.

I love Mint Macaron paired with Neutrals, so I absolutely adored this colour combo from Brian King.

The DSP on the top part of my card is from the Design A Daydream Host DSP pack. I'm a real sucker for these tile-like patterns, so I really love this sheet of DSP. I used some Neutrals DSP on the bottom section, separated by some Very Vanilla Baker's Twine.

My Plentiful Plants bundle was dusted off for the feature panel. I cropped the Very Vanilla cardstock with a Tailor Made Tags die. One leaf image and the top line of the sentiment was stamped directly on the tag, with the other leaves and pot stamped on scraps and popped up over the top.

Another pot and plant was stamped on the inside, with the last two thirds of the sentiment. I love how easy it is to split sentiments when stamping with photopolymer stamps. It's so easy to ink up just the line (or two) that you need without having to fuss around with masking off bits and pieces.

Please continue your way around our blog hop tonight by jumping on over to Christine Blain's blog. I can't wait to see what she's made.

If you run into any problems with links on tonight's blog hop, please hop on over to Cathy Proctor's blog. She will have a list of all of tonight's participants and you can get yourself back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 21

 Hi!

Welcome back to the 21st, and second last, week of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hops. I'm still a little in disbelief that Christmas is so close, but at least I have more than enough cards ready to write on and send out. If only I was so organised with my Christmas shopping!

This week's Sheetload Of Cards template is from January 2020. I was looking for a super quick and easy sketch for tonight's cards. I had two half hour windows today in which to get them made, and I was successful in my aims. 

I was really pleased with this inside of my cards. I liked just the antlers as a hint of what was stamped on the front of the card. Usually I'd stamp the whole penguin, but just a tease is nice, too.

I was going for a snowy look to the card. Hopefully the paper on the bottom, from the Celebrate Everything Host DSP, looks like snowy hills for the penguins to frolic amongst. Either way, it's a super-cute set of cards.

Thanks again for joining me, and I hop to see you again next week for the final blog hop. In the meantime though, there's plenty more inspiration to be seen on tonight's blog hop, so please jump on over to Christine Blain's blog, where she's no doubt made a gorgeous card for us to see.

As always, the lovely Sharon Davern has done a wonderful job of keeping all of the HOC hoppers organised. If you run into any issues with links, please jump on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all of tonight's participants with the correct links.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Merry Merlot

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by on our Colour Creations Merry Merlot Blog Hop. As the name suggests, it's a deep burgundy/red that's part of the Neutral colour family.

I really liked this colour combo from Brian King. It screams 'nautical' to me, but as I don't have any stamps in that theme, I had to think a bit harder about what to do.

Rugged Icons to the rescue! I used a piece of Foam Adhesive Sheet on the back of some Very Vanilla cardstock before cropping it with the beard die. It adds such lovely dimension, and is way less fiddly than trying to add foam adhesive later.

For my background, I embossed some Vanilla card with the Timber 3DEF, and then used a Blending Brush to add some Merry Merlot ink over the top. Finally, I added some splatters in Night Of Navy.

This time, I just added some Adhesive Sheet to the back of the Merry Merlot cardstock before cropping with the beard die. I love the way that the beard wraps around the sentiment!

The next stop along the way is my lovely friend, Theresa Gerrard. I can't wait to see what she's done with Merry Merlot.

If you run into any issues with links on the blog hop, please jump on over to the blog of the very wonderful Cathy Proctor. She will have a list of all of tonight's participants on her blog.

Bye for now,

Tina