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

HOC Week 20

 Hi!

Yay! It's time for the new Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. Week 20 of the hops means that I've made 80 cards ready for sending in December. Woo hoo!

This week, I used the December 2021 Sheetload Of Cards template. I simplified it a little, by leaving off a second layer that went under the main panel. I thought that this allowed the simple Lights Aglow DSP that frames the sentiment to shine.

I used the coordinating Brightest Glow stamp set for the sentiments on my card.

I've made good use of my Lights Aglow SDSP, so sometimes it's a struggle to find four matching pieces of DSP left in the pack. Both these patterns are Evening Evergreen/Soft Succulent papers, which provide a lovely, soft Christmas card. I think I prefer the sparkly paper over the bokeh version. How about you?

The next stop on tonight's blog hop is my lovely friend, Catherine Proctor. She's bound to have some Christmas gorgeousness for us to see!

A big thanks to Sharon Davern for keeping us all organised each week. She can help you too, if you run into a problem with any links. Just pop on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all of tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 629: Just Add Wings

 Hi!

Yay, time for the new Just Add Ink challenge! What a wonderful way to start the weekend.

 

This week, Jo has challenged us to add wings to our cards. I like to cast my mind through my pop culture stamps when these kinds of challenges pop up, and this new stamp set from Kindred Stamps, Galactic Travel, came to mind.

Lots of wings on this card! I stamped the spaceship and coloured it with my Stampin' Blends. I used Light Pool Party, Dark Poppy Parade and Light and Dark Gray Granite. The sentiment is from the same stamp set, cropped with a Stylish Shapes Die.

I really love the background - it's a super wide washi tape from Altenew, called Galaxy Washi Tape. It covers the whole card front, so it's a really quick and easy way to create a lot of impact on a card.

I stamped the same spaceship on the inside, this time with an Ink Road Stamps sentiment from Droid Please.

I hope you can play along with us this week at Just Add Ink. What can you think of that has wings that you could add to your card? I can't wait to see how imaginatively this theme is interpreted. You can see the rest of this week's Design Team cards over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can link up your card for the challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Melon Mambo

 Hi!

Welcome to Melon Mambo week of the Colour Creations Blog Hops. Many years go, Melon Mambo was an In Colour (with Rich Razzleberry and Soft Suede), before becoming a part of the permanent colour range in a colour refresh. It's a fabulous, bright pink that is usually my go-to pink.

It mustn't be a go-to pink for Brian King though, as I could only find one combo, using current colours, of his that uses it! It's a fabulous combo, so I wasn't too worried by the lack of choice.

After three days in a row of 30°C temperatures, my mind immediately went to cocktails when I was thinking of what I could use these colours for. The Nothing's Better Than bundle leapt off my shelf and into my hands, LOL.

I started by stamping the 'kind of day' sentiment on the bottom of the cropped Stylish Shapes circle. The 'Cocktails' was cut three times in Melon Mambo card, and then stacked for dimension. Adhesive Sheets make short work of this! Originally, the 'today is a' was going to be stamped at the top of the circle, but I quickly realised that I didn't have room for that, so over the top it went!

To get the two-toned cocktails, I just inked one half of the filler stamp with the lightest colour, and then carefully inked the other half with the darker colour. I used the edge of the inkpad rather than the middle. Saves a lot of fussing around!

Thanks for joining me for Melon Mambo week, but please do continue hopping your way around all of the blogs tonight. There's plenty more to see, starting with my lovely friend Kathryn Ruddick.

If you run into any problems with the links tonight, please jump on over to our wonderful host, Cathy Proctor's blog. She has a list of all participants, and you can get back on track from there.

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 19

 Hi!

Welcome back to a new Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. we are definitely on the home stretch now! The latest Sheetload Of Cards template was released a week ago, so that's what I decided to use for my cards this week.

I haven't used the gorgeous Lights Aglow SDSP for a while, so it was well past time to pull it back our for my cards this week. The Sheetload template was for a split front card, and with some clever cutting I was able to use just three sheets of DSP to create my four cards.

Here's a little tip for making sure that the decorated parts of the inside are hidden behind the joining piece of the front - I laid the outline of the bauble from the Spruced Up Outlines dies face down on the joining section, after first removing the lining sheet from the Adhesive sheet. If you forget to use the Adhesive sheet, be sure to add some glue. Then close the card so that the outline adheres to the inside of the card. Done!

I stamped my sentiment, from the coordinating Brightest Glow stamp set, inside the bauble to ensure that it can't be seen when the card is closed.

Don't the Gold Glimmer baubles on the fronts of the cards look fantastic? I used some retired Mint Macaron Glimmer paper for the tops of the baubles. If you squint a bit, it looks like Soft Succulent!

Thanks for joining me, but please keep hopping around to the rest of the team, starting with my lovely friend, Christine Blain.

As ever, the wonderful Sharon Davern keeps us all organised for the blog hops, so please head on over to her blog is you run into any issues with tonight's links. She'll have a list of all participants on her blog.

Bye for now,

Tina