Colour Creations: Blueberry Bushel

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Colour Creations blog hop, otherwise known as Tina's 20 minute cards.Sigh, once again I found myself short of time and racing to make a card using one of my favourite ever colours, Blueberry Bushel. I was so excited to see it return in the colour refresh, as it's a really lovely blue.

I finally received my Sending Smiles bundle, so I decided that it would be my stamp set of choice this week.  As I was short on time, I decided to CASE a card by Teneale Williams using the same bundle. I pretty much CASEd exactly her card, I just changed the colours to feature Blueberry Bushel.

LOL, from this angle it looks like I've used Wink Of Stella on the flowers. I haven't, I think it's just that the stamps are new and inked a little unevenly as I didn't take the time to clean them before I stamped. I like it, though!

One more sweet little stem completed the inside of my card. I had a lot of fun with this bundle, and I can't wait to explore it some more.

Please continue your way around out blog hop tonight - there's lots more Blueberry Bushel goodness to see, starting with my lovely friend, Kate Morgan.

If at any time you find a broken link, please head to the blog of this week’s host of the AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop, Cathy Proctor, and she will have the list of all participants.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Balmy Blue

 Hi!

Welcome back to this week's Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week it's Balmy Blue's turn to get a run. Hopefully you are well familiar with the soft blue, as it's been in the colour line up for a while now!

I recently purchased the Level Complete stamp set - it was a must-have for me, as three out of five of my family members are gamers. I'm sure that the fourth would be too if it was possible! I had fun with this card, starting with the arrows on the left side. I just measured and hand cut the arrows and layered the cardstock to get the effect. The sentiment actually says 'levelled up', but I chose to mask off the 'ed' so it just says level up.

I debated which colour to colour the controller. The temptation is to go the classic black/grey, but I didn't want a solid lump of dark colour on my card. Balmy Blue it was! I'm also aware that usually the buttons are all different colours, my brain was just too tired to think about that!

A bit of partial stamping and another sentiment, and my card was done! I really love the retro, boxy, computer game look of the fonts in this stamp set. It's a keeper, for sure!

Thanks for stopping by, but please do continue your way around tonight's blog hop. The next stop is the lovely Amie McIllroy.

As always, if you run into issues with links, Cathy Proctor is the lady in the know. Just jump on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 406: Love and Valentine's

 Hi!

Welcome back to my blog for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we are asking you to CASE a love or Valentine's project from any of the three current catalogues.

There's a lot of projects to choose from, especially in the Mini Catalogue. I found this card towards the back of the Mini on page 74. It shows some of the carry over items from the pervious Mini Catalogue.

I really liked the grouping of three houses with the layering underneath. I don't really make love cards, so I decided to make a birthday card instead.

I recently received some of the Sale-A-Bration Favoured Flowers DSP, and decided to use some of the flowers instead of the houses. I roughly cut the flowers and then glued them to Basic Black cardstock before fussy cutting. LOL, I just realised that I've left off the circular layer. Oops! 

The layers of flowers and DSP were adhered over some Blackberry Bliss cardstock, dry embossed with the Brick & Mortar 3DEF. The position of the leaves on the larger flower didn't suit my design, so I snipped them off and repositioned them. The DSP makes this easy, as there is a deep shadow in the design that makes it easy to snip the leaves without leaving evidence of them around the edge of the flower. I hope that makes sense!

I used a partial flower from the edge of the DSP on the inside of my card. The sentiments are from Simply Fabulous, one of my favourite stamp sets for sentiments.

We'd love for you to play along with our Love themed challenge. You don't actually need to make a love card, just use one as the basis for your card, as I have done. When you've made it, just add a photo to our Facebook Group.

For now though, please do continue your way around our blog hop. There's lots more love inspiration to see, starting with my lovely friend, Rachel Palmieri. Her card is gorgeous!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Gray Granite

Hi! 

Welcome back to my blog once again for the new Colour Creations Blog Hop. It's Gray Granite week this week, and I will certainly admit that it's a tricky colour to make the hero colour of a card!

Brian King paired it with Crushed Curry and Basic Black, in a combo that I really liked. Neutrals with a pop of bold colour is always a winner.

I thought that it was quite a masculine colour combo, so I pulled out my Tech Support stamp set. I am still struggling with inspiration for this set, but the colours were a great starting point. Who doesn't think of old school computers and gaming units when they see a pale gray?

I really liked the use of the three Stitched Rectangles as a base for my other layers. The strip of Crushed Curry anchors them all together. I originally had the other part of this sentiment stamp on the front of the card, but I couldn't make it work with the rest of the elements. A Stylish Shapes banner to the rescue!

I couldn't not have the rest of the sentiment, so I put it to use on the inside, along with a few more Beautiful Shapes hexagons to match the front. 

Thanks for stopping by, but please do continue your way around our hop tonight. The next stop is my lovely friend, Kate Morgan.

Catherine Proctor is once again hosting the blog hop tonight, so if you run into any problems with links, just jump on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all of tonight's participants.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Evening Evergreen

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Colour Creations Blog Hop. It's Evening Evergreen's turn to shine. I nearly wrote that it was one of the new In Colours, but I'm a year too late - it's actually an 'old' In Colour that will retire mid-next year. It's a lovely grey-green that I quite like.

Brian King has paired Evening Evergreen with Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride. I like the mix of a Neutral and soft pink with the deeper green.

I began my card with a Evening Evergreen base, and a layer of Brick & Mortar Embossed Crumb Cake over the top. A strip of Evening Evergreen DSP and White Baker's Twine proved a lovely anchor point for the Stylish Shapes die-cut circle.

My Plentiful Plants stamp set was a great choice for the focal stamping. I stamped one set of leaves onto the circle, and stamped and die cut two more sets to go in the Blushing Bride pot. I looked to Forever Fern for the sentiment, which fits perfectly into the Stylish Shapes banner.

My choice for the inside sentiment is a little controversial - I know some people don't like it, as one word is grammatically incorrect, not that I'm naming names! I created the pot plant in the same way as the one on the front of my card.

Well, that's all from me with Evening Evergreen, but please do keep jumping your way around our blog hop, as there's plenty more to see. Just keep on going until you get back to your starting point. The next stop along the way is the very lovely Kate Morgan.

We are kept organised each week by the very capable, and delightful, Catherine Proctor. If you get stuck, 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

CTC 382: Sale-A-Bration Sketch

 Hi!

Welcome back for a new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. I find these hops a lovely way to finish off the weekend, don't you?

This week we are asking you to CASE a card from page 10 of the Sale-A-Bration Catalogue, using our sketch as a guide.

Here's a closer look at the sketch. The main features are the strong vertical line, and the shaped layer on top.

I had a stamping day with a couple of friends recently, and took the opportunity to crop a few shapes from the Gnomes Dies. Silly me, I had in my head that they were dwarves, so my card was based around the idea of a dwarf in a mine - I've recently re-read the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings books. It was only when I went looking for the names of the dies to write my post that I realise they are meant to be gnomes. Oops! 

I cut the gnome pieces in white, so that I could make them any colour I wanted. I just coloured the die cuts with my Stampin' Blends markers. The background DSP is from Lovely Linen. I thought it worked well for the rustic clothing that a dwarf might wear.

The sentiments are from Amazing Phrasing, an awesome SAB choice from this round's offerings.

We'd love for you to play along with us this week for our Sketch challenge. I can't wait to see what you make, and to enter all you need to do is post a photo of your card in our Facebook Group.

Don't forget to finish our blog hop, though! The next stop along with way is the lovely Julia Quinn, who has made a stunning Christmas card. Don't miss it!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Blushing Bride

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for another week of the Colour Creations Blog Hops. Are you enjoying our alphabetical tour through the Stampin' Up! colours? I sure am! This week's colour is Blushing Bride. It's a pale pink, and it's one I don't particularly like. I prefer a more pure pink - this pink is a little dusky for my tastes.

I found this cute colour combo by Brian King. The colours really scream retro to me - kind of 50's kitchen colour scheme - so what else could I use but the Nothing's Better Than bundle?

I stamped all the coffee cups in Memento Tuxedo Black, and then filled them in using the filler stamp and the three combo colours. The Brick & Mortar 3DEF was used to emboss the Blushing Bride background.

The word 'coffee' was cropped from Blushing Bride cardstock four times, and then each piece was glued and stacked to provide a dimensional element to my card. If you can't be bothered doing this, you could easily used the Foam Sheets instead, but I liked the look of the solid pink layers.

Another row of coffee cups finishes off the inside quite nicely.

It's time to hop on over to see the next Blushing Bride creation over on my lovely friend, Kate Morgan's blog. There's lots more inspiration to be found!

If you run into any difficulties with links, please jump on over to the wonderful Catherine Proctor's blog. She has a master list of all of tonight's blog hoppers, so you'll be able to get back on track there.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Early Espresso

 Hi!

It's time for our regular Wednesday evening Colour Creations Blog Hop, with the feature colour this week being Early Espresso. It is, as the name suggests, a very rich, dark brown colour that falls into the Neutrals colour family.

I started my card with the background. I inked up one side of my Brick & Mortar 3DEF with Early Espresso ink and then ran it throughly Big Shot with a piece of Vern Vanilla cardstock. I was very pleased with the mottled effect of the bricks.

The focal panel was created using my Perfect Plants dies. I cropped a circle first, with the Layering Circles Dies, and then ran the circle  through my Big Shot again with the leaves die, and then a third time with the pot die. Another circle was cropped from Very Vanilla card, and then embossed with my Tasteful Textile 3DEF. I quite like the use of the negative die cut.

As I'm not one to waste anything, I used the cropped leaves and pot on the inside of my card. The sentiments I've used are both from the Sweet As A Peach stamp set.

That's all from me tonight, but the Hop does continue! Just keep going until you get back to where you started. Next in line is Caroline Manwaring, who makes the most beautiful cards each week for Colour Creations. I'm sure you won't want to miss her card this week!

If you find a broken link at any point along the way, please take note of where you're up to and then jump to Catherine Proctor's blog. She has a complete list of participants on her blog to help you get back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

May Creative Showcase: New Annual Catalogue

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for this month's Creative Showcase. Naturally, as the new Annual Catalogue began this month, we are focussing on products from that catalogue. I've been a bit slow off the mark with ordering from the catalogue, but I couldn't resist the gorgeous What A Year Memories & More card pack.

My sister recently purchased her first home, and so I thought that I would use one of the cards to make her a card of congratulations. This cute little card with the house was the perfect choice! The new Polished Pink cardstock was cropped using the largest Stitched So Sweetly die, and then I trimmed the card to fit inside the stitched line.

The only current embossing folder that I have is the Bricks & Mortar folder, which I thought was an apt choice for the background. The word home was cropped from Whisper White cardstock with some Foam Adhesive Sheet attached to the back using the Playful Alphabet Dies. I used the retired Well Written Dies for the cute little heart in the centre of the 'O'.

Nice and simple on the inside, with just the Congratulations sentiment from Peaceful Moments in Polished Pink ink. I didn't think we needed another bright pink in our range, but I am coming to like this pink!

You'll find the rest of the links for this month's Showcase over on Rachel's blog.

Bye for now,

Tina