CTC #236: Love, Thanks and Support

Hi!

Welcome! Have you arrived here from Rebecca's blog, or are you just starting here? Either way, please keep hopping and enjoy all the stops on our blog hop this week.

It's the end of the weekend, but for me this means the start of school holidays. Hooray! Hopefully the kids will sleep in a bit so that I can too! Wish me luck 😉

This week we are CASEing any project from the Love, Thanks and Support section of the Annual Catalogue. It's a big section, so there should be plenty to choose from. I flicked through until I got close to the end of the section, and then decided I would CASE the card at the bottom left of page 89.

I think it was the stamped sentiment around the circle layer that caught my eye. I do like a card with an extra level of difficulty! I don't have the Above The Clouds Bundle, so I scanned my shelves and decided upon my Beautiful Bouquet bundle.

I used Blushing Bride, Rococo Rose, Soft Sea Foam, Pear Pizzazz, Very Vanilla and Early Espresso on my card. To stamp the 'Congratulations' in a circle, I adhered the Stitched Shapes circle die to my clear block using washiest tape. I then added a piece of double sided tape to the back of my stamp and adhered it to the block, using the die to shape the stamp. I used tape to hold the stamp in place, as the photopolymer had lost a bit of it's stickiness and I didn't want to wash it and wait for it to dry. I'm too impatient for that! I then temporarily adhered the Very Vanilla circle to my card and used it as a template to stamp in the correct position. I started stamping at the bottom, where I knew the stems were going to sit, so that if the words ended up overlapping (and they did!), it would be hidden by the stems.

I die cut the stems and then adhered them together. I wrapped them with an offcut of the Burlap ribbon and tied a bow using some retired Very Vanilla Baker's Twine. The flowers were then added to the bouquet, making sure some were under the stems.

I had several flowers left over, so naturally I used them on the inside of the card. Nothing goes to waste! I've sort of left the card a little vague - I intend it to be a wedding card, but if push comes to shove it could work for an engagement or anniversary too.

Time for you to be hopping on your way, but first I will remind you of our Facebook group, where you can join in the fun and enter your card in our challenge.

But first, you're off to see what the wonderful Siobhan has created!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 231: CASE Anything!

Hi!

Welcome to the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. This week, for the final week of both the Annual and Occasions Catalogues, we are free to CASE anything from either catalogue.

After a bit of searching and thinking, I decided to CASE something with Best Birds, using the new Free As A Bird stamp set. I selected the card at the bottom left of this photo:

I started by stamping the feathers in Sahara Sand, stamped off once. The feather stamp is actually from the Hugs From Shelli Paper Pumpkin stamp set.

I then coloured each flower using my Watercolour Pencils and then blended the colour with my Wink Of Stella pen.

I kept the vellum and twine elements from the original, but I switched from a sympathy card to a birthday card. The sentiment was much smaller, so I used a narrower strip of vellum.

I used the feather again on the inside, with my favourite Bermuda Bay pencil and ink.

What will you choose to CASE? You can see what my friend, Rachel, has CASEd by clicking 'next'.

Don't forget to enter the challenge on our Facebook group too!

Bye for now,

Tina

Petals In The Springtime

Hi!

Tuesday night means it's time for the Art With Heart Colour Creations Blog Share. I've lost count of the number we are up to, but we are well past half way, and I'm impressed that I've managed to join in every week so far. Hopefully I haven't jinxed myself by saying that!

It's Petal Pink this week, which isn't a colour I particularly like. It's a little on the coral/peach side of the pinks and I prefer a pinker pink, if you know what I mean! It is a useful pink though, great for Caucasian skin tones, among other things. Anyway, on to the card! I used the partial die cutting technique to create the band across the middle of the Springtime Impressions Thinlit for the sentiment. I love how it creates one seamless piece for the front of the card.

To get the band, I lightly drew two lines across the Whisper White cardstock to mark where I wanted the band. I then ran my sandwich through the Big Shot, with one end of the top plate lined up with one of the lines. The older style plates with the straight edges work best for this technique. I then repeated for the other line. I then used my trimmer and snips to cut along the two lines, but just to remove the excess cardstock, I didn't cut through the die cut design. Does that make sense? If not, google it - Jennifer McGuire has a great video tutorial.

I finished the inside with a few of the coordinating flowers from the die set, adding a sequin to each centre to add a bit of glitz.  This card will go to Ada's dance teacher, who is getting married in April. She likes her glitz!

Time to pop on over to Catherine's blog, where you can find the links to the rest of this week's Colour Creations cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

Jai #442: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

It's time for the new Just Add Ink challenge! This week Kim has designed a sketch to kick of our creativity!

I really love this sketch, and the Design Team have done some fabulous things with it, so clearly they love it too! What comes to your mind when you see it? The elegant curls to the side made me think of a wedding card, so that's what I decided to make.

I wanted to go really subtle with the curls, so I cut them from Soft Sea Foam Cardstock, which is the same as the layer underneath, which was embossed with the Subtle 3DTIEF. The little flourishes were from the new Well Written Framelits dies. Aren't they pretty? I wanted to add a little splash of colour, so I used some of the Petal Promenade DSP on the card. The gorgeous rose paper is perfect for a wedding card, as it looks just like a bouquet of roses.

How much fun I this stamp set? It's a new purchase from Ink Road Stamps, and it's called 'As You Wish' and is full of quotes and fun images inspired by the movie The Princess Bride. In case you're not familiar, the priest doing the wedding ceremony in the movie has a speech impediment and can't pronounce the letter r. Now I just need to find a bride and groom who love the movie so I can give them this card!

On the inside I used one of my favourite sets for sentiments - Beautiful Bouquet. There wasn't another quote in the As You Wish set that would work on the inside, so I thought a simple congratulations would be best. Oh, and more of that gorgeous DSP!

The Just Add Ink team have had a lot of fun with this week's sketch. You can see all the cards, and then link up your own over at the blog. See you there!

Bye for now,

Tina

CASEing Colour Combinations

Hi!

Papercrafters often talk about CASEing, but usually it refers to copying the design of a card and maybe changing a few things to make it a little more unique. Sometimes though, it's the colour combination that grabs you and begs to be made into something totally different. That's the challenge this week for CASEing The Catty - take a colour combo from a card in the Holiday Catalogue and use the colour combo to make a new card.

I flicked through the catalogue for inspiration and stopped on page 42 when I got to the Country Lane suite of products. I don't actually own any of it, apart from the Chicken Wire Elements, but the Blackberry Bliss, Mint Macaron, Crumb Cake and Whisper White combo on the first card was one I loved.

In the end the only things the same were the Chicken Wire Element and the use of a circle, but otherwise I went in a completely different direction with my card.

I hope this gets you thinking about looking at cards in a whole new way now. Another great reason to flip through the catalogue - colour inspiration!

Bye for now,

Tina

Double Folded Grapefruit

Hi!

Thanks for joining me for another Colour Creations Blog Share.

This week we are looking at Grapefruit Grove. At the risk of becoming an outcast, this isn't a colour I've yet warmed to. I like that it's a very different colour to anything else in our range, and I will acknowledge that it's a useful colour, but it's just not one that I find myself reaching for unless I have to. I'll duck for cover now!!

I often start my Colour Creations process by looking at which DSP has the colour of the week. In this case it was the Petal Promenade DSP. As soon as I realised and saw the pieces with the frames, I knew exactly what I was going to make.

I can't recall what this fold is called, but it's super easy to make. It's just two top fold cards, one slightly smaller than the other that is adhered upside down to the front of the larger base, and then folded to create the extra little bit at the front. The floral frames are actually quite small, so I started with them and built my card up from there.

I had to use one and a half of the frames to make the card, and the trickiest part was cutting the half piece so that it lined up exactly with the full frame behind it. The photo doesn't show it very well, but I managed to get it pretty spot on. I was quite chuffed!

The DSP piece along the bottom was from the same sheet of paper as the frames on the front. The flowers reminded me of a wedding bouquet, so that's where I went with the inside of the card.

Why not pop on over to Catherine's blog so that you can see the rest of this week's Grapefruit Grove cards? Maybe the colour will warm on me by the end of the Blog Share!

Bye for now,

Tina

Beautifully Gorgeous Grape Bouquet

Hi!

Welcome to the new Colour Creations Blog Share - and hooray for this new, fabulous purple, Gorgeous Grape. Stampin' Up! has been missing a purple like this from it's range for a while now, so Gorgeous Grape is a very welcome addition to the family.

For my card tonight, I decided to make a more classic card. I started with the striped section at the bottom. Can you guess which stamp set I used to create the stripes?

Did you guess Waterfront? Well done! I had intended to use the stamps on the rest of the card, but as I got to making the main panel I went in a completely different direction. Before I go that way, let's take a moment to admire the Black Glittered Organdy Ribbon. isn't it stunning?

It's hard to see in the photos, but the Whisper White panel on the base is embossed with the Tin Tile DTIEF. To make the main panel, I stamped the stems from Beautiful Bouquet in Granny Apple Green (next week's colour!), and then a few of the clusters of four petal flowers in Gorgeous Grape. I then adhered some die cuts of the coordinating flowers from the Bouquet Bunch Framelits using Mini Dimensionals. It adds just that little touch of dimension to the bouquet.

I used a similar process for the inside, except that I adhered the die cut flowers flat to the card. Hopefully you can see that I've also embossed the Gorgeous Grape card stock to match the front of the card.

You can find the rest of this week's Gorgeous Grape cards over at Catherine's Blog. I can't wait to see what everyone's done with this lovely colour.

Bye for now,

Tina

A Beautiful Day For Cherry Cobbler

Hi!

Are you excited for a new week of Colour Creations? This week's it's an old favourite - Cherry Cobbler.

I always try to do something a little different on my Colour Creations cards. It could be a new technique or stamping style, or just a new way to use my stash. I actually used two techniques for the first time on today's card.

The first technique is called Ghosting - and it's why I had to photograph my card at a weird angle! I cut some Glossy White cardstock for the card background and then stamped the large flower all over using Versamark ink. I then used a sponge brayer to go over the top with Cherry Cobbler ink. The versa mark resists the ink, leaving a soft outline. It's just like Emboss Resist without the heat embossing.

The second technique is called Pointilism, and it's how I coloured my focal flower. I used my Blends markers on Whisper White Cardstock, after stamping with Memento. Here's a little breakdown of how to do it

I worked one petal at a time. First, I coloured all over with my Light Calypso Coral Blend.

Next, I took my Light Cherry Cobbler Blend and used the pen nib end to gently add some dots onto the petal. I kept them fairly spaced and more towards the outer edge of the petal.

Lastly, I used my Dark Cherry Cobbler Blend to add more dots over the top. These were a little closer together, especially towards the bottom of the petal where I wanted the shading effect to be darker. I used the same technique on the leaf using the Dark Pineapple Punch and both Old Olive Blends.

I mimicked the front of the card on the inside, but in reverse.

Are you inspired to try Pointilism with your Blends? I think I need to practice a little more to perfect my technique, but I certainly had a lot of fun with it.

You can see what the other ladies participating have done with Cherry Cobbler by following their links on Catherine's blog. Don't forget that you can right click on each link to give you the option of opening the link in a new tab or window.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #418: Just Add Colour

Hi!

Yes, it's Just Add Ink challenge day! This week Jo has given us a very pretty colour combination to work with.

What a coincidence for me to have two projects requiring Blushing Bride in one week! Tuesday I showed you some brayering I'd done with Blushing Bride ink and the Delightfully Detailed SDSP. You can see that post here. Today I'm using the other piece of cardstock that I produced.

There's something about white lace that says wedding to me, so that's where I went with the card. It was pretty quick and easy to cut and assemble the bouquet. Unfortunately my photo doesn't show the Daffodil Delight blooms very well - they are much softer than the photo makes them look.

This was my first time playing with the new Soft Sea Foam colour. It's such a lovely green, and a perfect accompaniment to Blushing Bride. I can see myself using it lots!

On the inside I stamped one of the flower stamps from Beautiful Bouquet multiple times across the bottom using Blushing Bride ink and then brayered some Blushing Bride ink over the top to soften the look. I love how it turned out!

Pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see the other gorgeous creations the Design Team have made this week. They always stun me with how beautiful they are!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #187

Hi!

It's been a while since I've played along at CASEing The Catty, but I found time last night to make a card that suits this week's challenge. The DT are CASEing cards from the Kids and Babies section of the Annual Catalogue, which covers pages 80-91. I chose the card at the top left of page 91.

I kept the same basic layout of the card, but I changed the colours, stamps and purpose of the card. I don't really have many baby sets, and I've made a few baby cards lately, so it was time for a change! It was nice to stamp with two old favourite sets - Jar Of Love and Beautiful Bouquet. They combine rather nicely, don't you think?

The DSP I used is from the 2018-2020 In Colour DSP Stack. It's a cute little 6 inch stack that's the perfect size for card fronts. I used Lovely Lipstick - a colour I haven't used much of at all yet. I can't quite decide if it's a red or a pink! I love the addition of the Stitched Shapes square under the main panel. One of those subtle little details that can make a big difference to a card.

Isn't that sentiment lovely? I can just imagine the smile it will bring to the face of the recipient!

Bye for now,

Tina