JAI 746: Just Add Swirls

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Nikki has challenged us to Just Add Swirls to our cards.

There are so many different ways to interpret this challenge. In the end I decided that I would pull out an old favourite stamp set, and add a swirling dancer to my card.

To add an extra bit of movement, and another swirl, I die cut the swirling stars from my Stitched Stars dies in Bubble Bath cardstock to the background of the card.

The swirling dancer, from Born To Shine, was coloured with my Melon Mambo (and a few other) Stampin' Blends and popped up over the top.

The Bubble Bath stars came from the swirl of stars on the front. I don't like wasting perfectly good offcuts, so they were put to work on the front and inside of the card, along with sentiments from Born To Shine.

We'd love to see which swirls you will add to your card. You can see what the Design Team have made over at the Just Add Ink blog, where you will also find our Linky so that you can add your card to the challenge album.

Bye for now,

Tina

Sneak Peek...

Hi!

One of the perks of being a Stampin' Up! Demo is that we often get access to new products before anyone else. SU released a new suite of products early, they will be in the new Annual Catalogue, but demos can get them in March, and they will be available to customers in April. Happily, my preorder arrived on Saturday morning, so I was able to have a play over the long weekend.

Isn't this floral image stunning? It's such a sweet bunch of flowers. I have no idea what kind of flowers they are meant to be, other than maybe daisies at the top. I stamped it in Memento ink and coloured it with my Blends.

The colours I used were Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Purple Posy, Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, Bronze and Pool Party. How lovely is the die cut panel? It's from the dies that come in the bundle with the stamp set. I love that this one is a better size for Australian sized cards, as it's slightly longer than the largest Stitched Rectangle die.

This is another stamp from the set - a single daisy that I stamped twice. I left the inside sentiment free, so that the card is a little more multipurpose. The 'For You' on the front covers a wide range of occasions.

I also purchased the DSP from the suite, which is very retro and reminds me of sheet sets that my nana used to have. I can't wait to play more, skeet your eye out for more samples in the future!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #480: Just Add A Technique

Hi!

It's Friday, which means it's time for the new Just Add Ink challenge. Yay! This week Jan has set the challenge, which is to add a technique.

Sometimes I'm very glad that Kim does our schedule months ahead, so that I have time to think about what I'd like to do. There are so many fun techniques out there, that it can be difficult to narrow it down to just one. In the end I decided to use my Stamparatus to do some mirror stamping.

Born To Shine was still fresh in my mind, as I made a card with it last week. I decided that the dancer was the prefect stamp to use for the technique. There are lots of tutorials on the internet, but here's a *very* basic outline: to get the mirror image, you position the stamp on your Stamparatus and then stamp the image onto a silicone sheet or window sheet. Place your cardstock face down over the silicone sheet and press down with the stamp on the Stamparatus. You will end up with an image on both sides of the card, that is normal. Your then remove the silicone sheet, flip the cardstock, and stamp again (after reinking the stamp, of course!)

You may be able to see that the right dancer isn't quite as crisp as the left - she's the mirror dancer. It's a very minor difference though. The dancers were both coloured with my Watercolour Pencils in Night Of Navy, Flirty Flamingo and Cajun Craze, using my Wink Of Stella brush to blend the colours.

I stamped the dancer again on the inside, using Night Of Navy that I'd stamped off once. I used this star DSP with copper highlights, from the Brightly Gleaming SDSP pack, as I think it's great for dance cards, despite being Christmas DSP. What do you think?

That's it from me for this week, but your turn is just starting! Check out the Just Add Ink blog for the rest of the techniques that the Design Team have used, and then get stamping! Upload your card into our gallery before Wednesday evening, when the challenge closes. See you there!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #251: Brightly Gleaming

Hi!

Hello, and welcome to the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. Are you starting here, or have you come from Lauren's blog? It doesn't really matter, as we are all linked in a circle.

This week we are looking at the gorgeous Brightly Gleaming Suite, but particularly the Brightly Gleaming SDSP. It's stunning DSP, which features fabulous copper highlights with the rich colours of the paper.

As part of the challenge, we not only have to CASE the SDSP, but also a layout from page 30, which is the page pictured above. I had about 3 minutes to make my card, as my daughter had dance competitions over the weekend. I ended up going with the card at the top right of the page.

Instead of using the Brightly Gleaming DSP, I chose a more subtle paper from the Woven Threads pack. It's still Pretty Peacock, but it ins't a Christmas pattern. I wanted to make a card for my daughter to let her know how proud we were of her dancing in the competition.

I coloured the dancer using my Blends. I selected Light Pool Party and Light Pretty Peacock for her dress, Ivory for her skin, and the Soft Suede pair for her hair and the shadow under her feet. Ada danced in a similar coloured costume, so that worked nicely for my card! Although her costume had *way* more sequins than my card!

As a different feature, I decided to inset the rectangles in the design rather than layer them on top. I used my Rectangle Stitched dies to crop the opening in the DSP and then to crop a frame in the Copper Foil paper. The whole piece was then popped up over the card base.

To finish the inside I stamped the same dancer, but this time I stamped her off so that the Pretty Peacock was a lighter shade.  Ada is forever twirling around the house like this, so it really reminds me of her!

In case you were wondering, her troupe received Highly Commended awards for their Jazz, Tap and Contemporary routines.

That's it for me, but just the start for you! The challenge runs for the next week, and you can upload your card in our Facebook group. Which of the cards will you choose to CASE using the Brightly Gleaming Suite as inspiration?

I'm the last stop on the Blog Hop this week, but if you didn't start at the beginning, you should continue hopping to see the gorgeous cards the DT have created this week. just keep going until you get back to where you started. Siobhan was the starting point this week.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH July Blog Hop: Simple Stamping

Hi!

Tonight the Art With Heart team are sharing creative projects featuring Simple Stamping, which means our projects feature only paper, stamps and ink. It’s a great way to create a quick and easy card for new stampers or for when you need a card at short notice. These projects highlight how Stampin’ Up! ink, paper and card stock coordinates perfectly.

If you would like a copy of the 2019 - 2020 Annual Catalogue, contact any of the girls on the blog hop and we will get in touch with you.

Thanks for joining me! You may have arrived from Catherine Proctor's blog, or you may be starting here - it doesn't matter. Grab a cuppa and just keep hopping until you've got back to where you started.

When the topic of this blog hop was announced, I had just received the new stamp set, Born To Shine. It's a great line art/sentiment set that features a pair of ballerinas and some encouraging sentiments. My daughter, Ada, is a dancer and I thought this set would be great for little notes of support when she has performances.

To keep this card super simple, I used one of our note cards and envelopes. They come in a pack of 20, and are pre cut and scored for convenience. I stamped the twirling dancer in Memento ink so that I could blend my Watercolour Pencils with Wink Of Stella. Don't all dancers need a bit of glitz? LOL

Silly me coloured the section between her legs before I realised that it wasn't meant to be a part of her dress. Oops! Thankfully, a quick line from her right leg out to the side of the dress meant that I could cover up my mistake. Phew!

I stamped the dancer again on the inside in Melon Mambo, but stamped off once first. Ada's dance studio's colours are hot pink, black and silver, so Melon Mambo is the closest colour match for the pink.

I also stamped the envelope, this time without stamping off. It just fit! You can see the difference between the two images, where I fixed up my mistake on the card. I don't think it matters at all!

That's it from me, now you're off to visit the blog of the very arty Kathryn Ruddick.

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

Tina Gillespie

Kathryn Ruddick

Rebecca Jacovou

Rachel Woollard

Sharon Davern

Vicki Boucher

Christina Barnes

Kate Morgan

Rachel Palmieri

Ros Davidson

Catherine Proctor

Bye for now,

Tina