JAI 650: Just Add Large Letters Or Numbers

 Hi!

Welcome to Friday and the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Lou is challenging us to add either large letters or large numbers to our cards.

This was an easy one for me, as my oldest had his 20th birthday recently. He's just gotten into Dungeons and Dragons, and so I had the idea to make a card featuring a dice.

Conveniently, D&D is played using a 20-sided dice, so it worked out nicely that for his 20th birthday I could use a D20 on his card. I just found a free image on the internet and printed it onto Thick Whisper White cardstock. It's big - about 5 inches wide and 6 inches tall. I coloured it with three different Copics from the R20's to give it dimension.

I also managed to include Large Letters on my card using my Alphabet A La Mode dies. The letters were adhered flat using Adhesive Sheet, but in hind sight I should have used Adhesive Foam, which would have eliminated the need for the popped up star. Oh well!

We'd love to see which option you choose - letters or numbers? Or will you use both like me? You can see what the rest of the Design team has chosen over on the Just Add Ink blog. You can also link up your card to enter our challenge over on the blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Soft Suede

 Hi!

Hello, and welcome to the final Colour Creations Blog Hop for the 2022-23 Catalogue. Never fear - we will start again next week with the brand new In Colours. This week, however, we are finishing with Soft Suede, a colour that we are farewelling permanently from the colour line up.

I turned to Brian King one last time for a colour combo, that added Petal Pink and Mint Macaron (sob!! It's retiring too!) to Soft Suede. It's a very retro combo, so I pulled out the retiring Nothing's Better Than stamp set, with the coordinating Love You More Than Dies. Sadly, they are both retiring, too.

I also thought that my Dots & Spots Die would work well with the retro vibe of the card. It allows little pops of Soft Suede to peek through from the card base.

I stamped each of the coffee cups in the colours from the combo, popping up the central, Soft Suede Cup. I'm really not a fan of Soft Suede, and I found it really difficult to find a nice way to make it the main colour.

I love the inside that I created for my card. The coffee cup over the banner is so much fun!

I'll likely take a couple of weeks off from the Colour Creations Hop, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I've forgotten to order any of the new colour stuff from Stampin' Up!. Oops! I'll get to it soon! In the meantime though, there's plenty more Soft Suede inspiration to be found on this blog hop, so jump on over to the lovely Caroline Manwaring's blog to see what she's done with it.

As always, even while busily setting up the next round of Colour Creations Blog Hops, Cathy Proctor is our wonderful Host. Pop on over to her blog if you run into any issues with links. She's have a list of all of tonight's participants on her blog for you to get back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 461: Retiring Mini Catalogue Project

 Hi!

Welcome back to my blog for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. We are right in the thick of two catalogues finishing up, so this week we are asking you to case your favourite project from the retiring Mini Catalogue.

There are a lot of awesome projects in the Mini Catalogue, but I've been wanting to CASE this card, using On The Ocean, for a long time. Today was the day!

This bundle was the top of my use-have list when the catalogue went live, and I'm so thrilled that it's carrying over to the new Annual Catalogue. I get a whole 'nother year to play with it!

I was very time poor this week (it's school holidays here!), so I didn't change much about the original card. I forgot to stamp the sentiment before I adhered the ocean and the ship, so my greeting was popped up over the scene at the end. 

My other change was the ocean - I don't have the DSP that was used for the catalogue sample. To replicate the look, I just dragged my Balmy Blue inkpad over a piece of Whisper White cardstock before cropping it with the wavy die. The second layer was just the water stamp used multiple times with Balmy Blue ink over Whisper White cardstock. The final layer was just plain old Balmy Blue cardstock. Easy!

The inside was nice and easy, just the boat stamped again and some leftover ocean pieces from the front. It doesn't get easier than that! 

We'd love for you to join in with our challenge. You just need to join our Facebook Group if you aren't already a member, and then add a photo of a card you've made that CASEs a favourite project from the about to retire Mini Catalogue.

Please continue your way around our hop, by jumping on over to the blog of my lovely friend, Kathryn Mangelsdorf. I adore the card she's made!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Soft Succulent

 Hi!

Ooops! Tonight I was supposed to be participating in the Colour Creations Soft Succulent Blog Hop, but school holidays has me all out of whack, and I completely forgot to even make a card!

I even had another gorgeous combo from Brain King saved and ready to go. I was thinking that it would have worked well with the retiring Forever Fern. You'll just have to imagine the beautiful card I would have made, LOL!

Please jump on over to see what my lovely friend, Kathryn Ruddick has for you. I'm sure it's way better than an imaginary card!

As ever, the brilliant Catherine Proctor is way more organised than me, so jump on over to her blog if there are any issues with links. She'll have a list of all of tonight's participants there.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 415: Favourite Retiring DSP

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. It's been a while since I've been able to play, so it's great to be back!

This week we are asking you to CASE a project made sing your favourite DSP from either of the current catalogues. There's so many great packs, that it's hard to narrow it down!

I have to say though, that my favourite DSP is the Lovely Linen pack. I love the mix of floral and geometric patterns. They reminded me a lot of tiles or patchwork quilts. I chose this card from page 24 to CASE, as I loved the strips of DSP all higgledy-piggledy in the background. It's a fabulous way to use a lot of different papers from the pack.

While the catalogue sample leant towards the Sweet Sorbet and Night Of Navy papers, I went for the Pale Papaya and Soft Succulent colour ways. I also changed the card to be portrait layout, and only used a single die cut shape over the top, rather than a row of punched shapes. It was a little simpler and cleaner for my tastes.

The DSP strips are 3.5" by 1", and I adhered them to a piece of Whisper White cardstock before popping the whole lot up on the Navy card base. Adding the extra layer underneath gives a bit more stability to the design.

One last strip of DSP was put to use on the inside of the card, along with my retiring favourite stamp set, Simply Fabulous. I will miss both the DSP and the stamp set!

We'd love to know what your favourite retiring DSP is. To play along with us, just CASE a card from the catalogue that uses the DSP and add a photo to our Facebook Group before next Sunday's blog hop. It's that easy!

My lovely friend, Rachel Palmieri is up next in our DSP Blog Hop. I think that I would have successfully guessed which DSP she'd used if I'd been put to the test. You won't want to miss her gorgeous card.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 648: Just Choose Two

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week it's my suggestion for the challenge. I didn't think it was a tricky one, but it certainly challenged the Design Team. Like always, they rose to the occasion, and I hope you will too.

I've suggested a Choose Two challenge - choose two of water, wall or garden to add to your card. I know that I had an idea of what I was going to make when I made the suggestion, but that idea was long gone by the time I had to make my card. Oops! 

I found the bubble bath stamp during a deep dive into my stamp collection. It's called Bubble Bath Day and is by Kindred Stamps. That worked perfectly for the 'water' part of the challenge. The bath mat was hand-drawn, and then the scene was coloured with my Copic markers.

Now for the wall part of the card - I just used a ruler and marker to draw the lines for the skirting boards and tiles on the wall. LOL, it was only later that I realised that tiled walls don't usually have skirting boards. It's very hard to see in the photos, but I added a little bit of grey to some of the corners of the tiles to add a little shading and dimension. The flower from Simply Fabulous added a few feature tiles to the wall, and broke up the grid a bit.

By the time I get to the inside of my cards, I'm rarely in the mood to colour a full image, so I often just stamp a small section to colour. Lazy, or clever? I'll let you decide, LOL!

That's all from me, but there's lots more inspiration from the Design Team over on the Just Add Ink blog. I hope that you've got some ideas swirling already, and that you can join our challenge by linking up your card on the blog. Which two will you choose?

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Soft Sea Foam

 Hi!

Did you miss me? I missed the Colour Creations blog hop! I had COVID, which made me miss the last two hops. The ole mojo went a bit AWOL, but hopefully I've been able to coax it back. 

I love this soft, feminine colour combo from Brian King. Soft Sea Foam is our feature colour this week, and I think it works beautifully with the two purples - Fresh Freesia and Blackberry Bliss.

I was so sad to see one of my favourite stamp sets on the retiring list - Simply Fabulous. I use it so much! I decided to pull it out and use it for my card this week.

I used my Stamparatus (another retiring item!) to stamp the sentiment, and luckily that I did, as it did not stamp cleanly the first time.

I stamped the same flowers on the inside of my card, as a nice finishing touch.

Thanks for joining me this week, but please do continue your way around our Soft Sea Foam blog hop. The next stop is my lovely friend, Cathy Proctor.

Cathy is also our wonderful host, so if you find any problems with broken links, just jump 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 647: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Just Add Ink challenge. I've been a bit MIA lately - I was struck down with COVID and needed the time to rest and recover. This was my second go-around with it, but thankfully this time was milder than last. Having said that, it still took a lot out of me.

This week we have a fabulous sketch for you, designed by Di. I really love the layering under the sentiment, and how the layers are all offset. I needed a card for a nephew turning 17, so I pulled out some retired products from my stash.

You'll also notice that I turned the sketch on it's side - it suited the car better to be this way. I felt that this left too much white space to the left, so I added the banner and key charm for a bit of balance. I think it worked well.

The paper is all from the Classic Garage pack. The muscle car was fussy cut from one of the sheets, and scraps of DSP were used for the layering under the sentiment. I typed the sentiment on my old typewriter and cropped with a punch. The typewriter was a fabulous op-shop find, and was only $5!!

I used a few scraps of DSP to decorate the inside of my card, and the Alphabet A La Mode dies to add the 17. Hooray that these dies are carrying over to the new Annual Catalogue.

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 to enter our challenge. What will you do with Di's fantastic sketch?

Bye for now,

Tina