Colour Creations: So Saffron

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for So Saffron week of the Colour Creations Blog Hops. So Saffron is in the Subtles colour family, and is a lovely, soft yellow. Having said that, I paired it with black and white for a gorgeously bold card.

I used my retiring Blossoms In Bloom bundle for the card, cutting the top layer from Whisper White (with Adhesive Sheet attached) and the second layer from So Saffron. Black Mini Stampin' Dimensionals pop the two layers up over the Basic Black background.

The resting Tasteful Labels dies were used to crop the sentiment, with the gorgeous Glitter Organdy ribbon layered underneath. The Black version of the ribbon is retiring (sob!), but the White will carry over (yay!).

I used the top layer die again to crop a piece of So Saffron for the inside. Using Adhesive Sheets on these delicate die cuts makes them so much easier to adhere to the layer underneath!

That's all from me tonight, but please do continue on your way around our blog hop. Just keep jumping until you get back to where you started. The next stop along the way is my lovely friend, and fellow South Aussie, Andrea Sargent. I'm sure she'll have a visual treat for your eyes!

As always, if you run into problems with links, Cathy Proctor is the person to know! Pop on over to her blog to get yourself sorted out.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Merry Merlot

 Hi!

Hello, and thanks for joining the Colour Creations Blog Hop once again. This week is our third-last hop for the year, before we pick up again in January. We are featuring Merry Merlot this week, a rich burgundy colour. It's not one I use a lot, probably because my high school uniforms were burgundy. Do you have a bias against your school colours? I've heard that it's quite common!

I googled a little bit for inspiration, and found a Forever Fern card by Debra Burgin, of Heartfelt Inkspiration. I liked how she's stamped the one image all over her background, so that's where I started. I found the colour a bit too strong, so I decided to tone it down with a layer of vellum. Both layers were die cut with the largest Stitched Rectangles Die and adhered to my card front.

I played with the Stitched Rectangles again to create the frame for my card. To keep them in place, I glued both to a slightly smaller piece of Whisper White cardstock. This also helps to prevent the popped-up panel from sagging, so double win!

I've used the off-cut from the front of the card to frame my writing panel on the inside. It's good to repurpose a piece that would usually get thrown away.

In hind sight, this card probably would have worked better as a Sympathy card, but I think it's still fine as a birthday card. What do you think? 

That's all from me for tonight, but please do continue your way around our blog hop. The next cab off the rank is my lovely friend, Rachel Palmieri. She's certain to have a ripper of a card for your viewing delight!

If you run into trouble with missing or broken links, please jump on over to Catherine Proctor's blog. She's the super-organised and super-wonderful host of the Colour Creations Hops.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 332: CASE Your Favourite AC Suite

 Hi!

Thanks for once again joining me for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. As the name suggests, we are all about CASEing the Catty, and challenge you to join us!

This week we are asking you to CASE a project that uses your favourite Suite of products from the Annual Catalogue. You'll find a list of all of the Suites, and their catalogue page number, on page 3 of the catalogue. I decided to use products from the Hand-Penned Suite, but I chose to CASE the card from the Suite that is in the Bundles Section of the catalogue, on page 159.

I really loved the colours in this card, and the mix of stamped images and die cuts.

As you can see, I changed very little about the card. I coloured my main image with Stampin' Blends, rather than watercolouring, as in the sample. I had another time-poor week, and even waiting for the watercolouring to dry would have taken too long!

I also really liked the way the original artist drew over the lines in the Pattern Party DSP with her Dark So Saffron Stampin' Blend. I did the same.

I had a few extra die cuts, and a scrap of the DSP left, so they came in handy for decorating the inside of my card. I didn't want to make a congrats card, so I used sentiments from Blossoms In Bloom to make it a birthday card instead.

We'd love for you to join us in our challenge to CASE our favourite AC Suite. What's your's? You don't need to own everything from the suite to join in - just adapt your card to suit what you have! When you've made your card, just add it to our Facebook group.

Next on our Blog Hop tonight is my birthday twin (and fellow South Aussie), Michelle! It's our special day today, and we were lucky enough to have a warm, sunny, 'summer is on the way' day to celebrate.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Coastal Cabana

 Hi!

Hello - welcome to Coastal Cabana week! Can you tell that I'm excited? I like Coastal Cabana, it's such a gorgeous blue-green.

A relatively simple card for me tonight, as I was a little time poor this week. It's been a while since I've played with the Blossoms In Bloom bundle, so it was my first choice for the card. When I opened my dies, I found the Basic Black outline piece already cut, so that guided my card.

I always struggle a bit with sentiments when using the bundle. Making it look deliberate, and not plonked on the side can be tricky! I didn't want a label too big, as that would cover too much of the flowers. I think the Sweet As A Peach sentiment and Tailored Tag punch combo is a winner.

Just a little bit of the image was stamped on the inside of my card. I didn't want to take up too much writing space!

That's all from me for tonight, but please do continue your way around our Blog Hop. The next blog on your journey belongs to the very talented Michele Taylor.

As always, if you find a broken link you can view the full list of participants on Catherine Proctor’s blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Bermuda Bay

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we are looking at Bermuda Bay, a gorgeous blue/green that sits in the Bright colour family. Although it's a colour that I love, I don't use it a lot. I wonder why?

I recently purchased the Hand-Penned bundle, but hadn't had a chance to play with it yet. This was a great excuse! I started by stamping the main floral image all over my Bermuda Bay card base in coordinating ink. I then stamped it again on my main panel, but I also stamped the flower filler stamps before layering the white die cut over the top. 

A get well sentiment from Blossoms In Bloom and a few Rhinestones and the front was finished. I stamped the sentiment onto a conveniently sized scrap of Whisper White and snipped either end with my scissors.

I also stamped the flowers again on the inside. This time, however, I stamped off the filler stamps before stamping them on my card. I like the softer colour this provides.

That's all from me tonight - short and sweet! I've been busy with Hudson, who is home sick with a cold. He laughs his little head off each time he sneezes (which is a lot!), because he knows it means I'll come running with a tissue. Funny little guy!

Please jump on over to Vicki's blog to continue on with the Blog Hop. 

Bye for now,

Tina

If you get lost, or find a broken link, here's the list of participants to help get you back on track:

Michele Taylor

Kate Morgan

Sharon Davern

Ros Davidson

Catherine Proctor

Kristine D'Auria

Rachel Palmieri

Christine Blain

Rachel Woollard

Diane Furniss

Theresa Gerrard

Caroline Manwaring

Rosa Leyden

Tina Gillespie <You are here

Vicki Boucher

Andrea Sargent

CTC 319: CASE A Technique - Embossing

 Hi!

Phew! It's the end of another busy weekend, so that means it's time for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. Hooray!

This week Bec has set us the task of CASEing a project that uses an embossing technique. When I think of embossing, I think of heat embossing, dry embossing or embossing paste. That's a lot of choice!

I found this card on page 111 of the Annual Catalogue that uses the Emboss Resist technique. It's been ages since I've done that, so I was keen to give it another go.

I've only recently purchased the Forever Fern bundle, and I'm not sure why to took me so long!! It's such an awesome set. I started with Very Vanilla cardstock and used clear embossing powder on the leaves. These leaves make me think of eucalyptus trees, but I have no idea if that is correct or not!

I then used a Blending Brush and Soft Succulent ink to colour over the embossed leaves. Finally, I used a tissue to buff away the ink from the leaves. The catalogue sample watercoloured over the feathers, but I didn't have the patience to wait for it to dry. The sentiment is from Blossoms In Bloom, and is cropped using a die from the Suit & Tie set.

I did more of the same on the inside. It's much easier to do the two lots of embossing in one go, so often when I am making the front of my card, I am also thinking about what I am going to do on the inside.

That's all from me for tonight, but you are just getting started! Just find a project in the catalogue that uses an embossing technique, CASE the card, and upload your photo into the Facebook group.

Before you get creating, please do finish our blog hop! Next up is my lovely friend, Rachel, which has used my favourite bundle from the Mini Catalogue to create her card.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 318: CASE A Mini Die Bundle

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. I hope you've had a wonderful weekend. The blog hop is the perfect way to wind down a weekend, don't you think?

This week the Crew are challenging you to CASE a card from the Die Bundle Section of the Mini Catalogue. I chose this card, which showcases the Art Gallery bundle.

I don't actually own the bundle, but that's OK when you're CASEing - use what you have to put your spin on the card. In my case, I used the Pierced Blooms dies.

Just before making this card, I was sorting my new In Colour stuff into my storage, and it was a great change to have a good look at the colours. I've decided I quite like Pale Papaya, so that was my starting point for this card. I chose to use my Shimmery Embossing Paste as the background, rather than sponged ink.

The sample card has strong lines in the DSP under the flowers, so I chose to tear the edges of my DSP to give a similar look. I added some Shimmery Crystal Effects to the centres of each flower to add some subtle bling. I should say that the flowers are Whisper White, Fresh Freesia, Blushing Bride, So Saffron and Soft Succulent.

I had a few left over bits and pieces, which were perfect to use to decorate the inside of my card. The sentiments used are from Blossoms In Bloom, stamped with Pale Papaya ink.

That's all from me for tonight, but it's just starting for you! We'd love for you to join in our challenge, which is as easy as posting a photo of your card in our Facebook group.

In the meantime, though, please do keep hopping! Next up is Peta - I'm yet to see a sneak peek of her card, so I can't offer a tantalising clue to what she's made, but it's bound to be wonderful!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Pretty Peacock

 Hi!

It's Colour Creations Creative Showcase time! This week we are featuring Pretty Peacock - pretty by name, pretty by nature! It's a gorgeous, deep teal that is fast becoming a favourite. I will be very sad when it retires in a few months. I may have to stock up on some of the cardstock before it does!

Such a gorgeous colour doesn't need much else to dress it up, so I stuck to a Pretty Peacock and Gold Foil combo. The feature panel is a piece from the Forever Gold Specialty Paper pack. I just popped it out, added a heap of Black Mini Dimensionals to the back, and layered it over my Subtle-embossed card front.

The sentiment, from Blossoms in Bloom, was heat embossed in gold and just layered over the top. Such a quick and easy card that really packs a punch. The hardest part was peeling all the backings off of the Dimensionals!

I used some left over Gold Foil, embossed cardstock and another foil element from the Forever Gold pack on the inside. Done!

Please head on over to Cathy's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Pretty Peacock cards. I can't wait to see what everyone has made!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Old Olive

 Hi!

Welcome back to the latest Colour Creations Creative Showcase. This week we are looking at Old Olive, an earthy green from the Regals colour family. The temptation was strong to describe it as a dirty green, but I get in trouble for using that word! LOL!! Old Olive has been a SU colour for a very long time, I think it was the first green I purchased when I joined SU nearly 11 years ago. Although I use other greens, I find myself reaching for Old Olive most often.

I wanted to make a floral card, but that was proving a little tricky, as I have limited myself to just using the focal colour with black/white/metallics this year. Then I had the idea to heat emboss the flowers using white embossing powder, and what better stamp to use than Blossoms In Bloom? I took it one step further and created a split card front, so that I got two cards from the one stamped and heat embossed image.

I liked the flowers on the left, so I flipped the second card front to keep the flowers in my preferred position. One big hint is to lay the outline die cut over the stamp before stamping using the Stamparatus.  The die cut extends beyond the stamped image, so you get a much better idea of the proportions by also including the die in the planning stage.

My first attempt at the card was messed up because I forgot to put the foam mat back into my Stamparatus. Parts of the image didn't emboss fully, and I nearly chucked it in the bin. Then I realised that I could use the parts of it that did stamp nicely on the inside of my card. I just used my snips to trim around the outside of the black border and adhered it to the inside of the card.

You can find the links for the rest of this week's cards over on the lovely Catherine's blog. I can't wait to see what the rest of the ladies have made!

Bye for now,

Tina