JAI 711: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week we have an Inspiration Challenge, suggested to us by Kim.

Brrr! It's been very cold here in Adelaide, so the hot chocolate/winter Christmas image seems appropriate. I loved the colours in the image, especially the red, white and soft blue/grey. I decided to make some Christmas packaging.

I used a pre-made pillow box as my base. The gorgeous shimmery ribbon was from my 'that may come in handy' drawer, and was just the right length for the box. The flowers are from Kaisercraft, that I've had in my stash for a very long time. The colours worked perfectly with the challenge image.

The sentiment is from Brightest Glow, stamped in Boho Blue ink. I cropped it with a Tailor Made Tags die and popped it up on the top of the pillow box. The other flowers were tucked in underneath. I think it's pretty, and would be a great idea for a gift card or cash.

You can see what the rest of the Design Team have created based on the Inspiration Photo over at the Just Add Ink blog. You can also add your card (or gift pack!) to the Linky. We'd love to see what you make.

Bye for now,

Tina

Heart Of Christmas Week 17

 Hi!

Welcome to the final Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop for 2023. I haven't been able to participate as often as I have in previous years, but I was determined that I wouldn't miss the final week. I've missed not hopping each week, but life had other things in store for me.

This week I've used the April 2022 Sheetload of Cards template for my cards. I was determined to fussy cut some of the animals from the Beary Christmas DSP, and the layout of the card was chosen to suit. I think that this polar bear and bunny are adorable!

The cards have a shortened front, so that the snowflake DSP does double duty. An economical way to decorate both the front and the inside of your card. As a bonus economy, the trimmed section from the card base was used to matt the sentiment panel on the front of the card.

Here's my two cards together. I used my Brightest Glow stamp set for the sentiments. It's certainly been a favourite sentiment set for Christmas for me.

I hope that you've enjoyed this series of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hops as much as I have. Sharon Davern has done a wonderful job of keeping us all organised along the way. Thanks, Sharon!

It's not quite over yet, though! Please keep on hopping around the blogs until you get back to your starting point. The next stop on the way is my lovely friend, Kathryn Mangelsdorf.

For one last time, if you run into issues with links tonight, jump on over to Sharon Davern's blog. She'll have a list of all tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

Heart Of Christmas Week 12

 Hi!

Welcome to another week of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hops. I've taken a break from making cards using the Sheetload Of Cards templates this week, as I was extremely time poor. Although they save a lot of time by having all the dimensions set out, I still need to convert to Australian A4 size and then cut out all the pieces.

Beary Christmas DSP to the rescue! All I needed was a sheet of the paper, a card base, and a sentiment. The hardest part was working out where to put the sentiment panel so that I didn't obscure too much of the gorgeous DSP.

My sentiment is from Brightest Glow, cropped with the Modern Oval Punch. It just arrived in my latest order, and I can see that I will use it lots! I added a little piece of ribbon under the sentiment, just to help it pop a little from the DSP.

I love that the little strip of DSP that I used on the inside of my card has a polar bear peeking in from the side. I didn't plan that cut, it just happened. Serendipitous!

Please keep on hopping around the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop tonight. The next stop is my lovely friend, Andrea Sargent.

If you run into any difficulties with links, please jump on over to our wonderful Hostess, Sharon Davern's blog. She will have a list of all of tonight's participants with the correct links to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

Heart Of Christmas Week 10

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for another Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. We are up to Week 10, can you believe? We are creeping ever closer to Christmas. Hopefully you've been inspired to start your Christmas crafting along with us, so it's not such a rush at the end.

My card this week uses the June 2019 Sheetload Of Cards, which I think was the first one ever. I thought that it was a great way to show off the different papers from the Beary Christmas DSP pack.

I used my Brightest Glow stamp set for the sentiments, and the coordinating Labels Aglow Dies on the front of the card.

I made two cards, and constructed both of them slightly differently. The sentiment placement was to suit the DSP on each card, as I didn't want to cover up the polar bears. The longer Real Red label on the right side card was because I was worried that the one on the left was too short. Which do you prefer?

Please continue your way around our Blog Hop tonight - there's lots more Christmassy inspiration to be found. My lovely friend, Judy May, makes gorgeous Christmas cards!

Hopefully all tonight's links are working as they should for you, but if you do run into a problem please pop on over to Sharon Davern's blog. She will have a list of all of tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

CASEing The Catty 439: Joy Of Christmas

 Hi!

Phew! It feels like ages since I've managed to play along with the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenges. Life has got in the way, but I was determined to play this week.

We are CASEing from the Joy Of Christmas Suite, which is in the current Mini Catalogue.

This card, on page 30, caught my eye. I loved the layering around the sentiment, and the shaped feature panel. When I looked at my Christmas stamp sets, I realised that I have no sets with images - they are all words!

Thankfully, I do have the Beary Christmas DSP, which was a great alternative. All the hard work is done for me! I carefully cropped a scene using my elongated hexagon die from the Nested Essentials Dies. The polar bears and the tree fit perfectly!

I used another strip of Real Red DSP from the same pack to layer under the Brightest Glow sentiment. The pop of colour ties in nicely with the gifts on the bear's back.

Some left over strips of DSP were used to decorate the inside of my card. The row of trees is really cute!

We'd love for you to play along with us by CASEing a project from the Joy Of Christmas Suite. All you need to do is add a photo to our Facebook Group before the challenge ends in a week.

That's all from me for tonight, but please do continue your way around our blog hop. The next stop is my lovely friend, Rachel Palmieri with a gorgeous card. You won't want to miss it.

Bye for now,

Tina

Heart Of Christmas Week 7

 Hi!

Welcome to the seventh week of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hops. I finally have some new stuff, so I was excited to play along this week.

How gorgeous is the Beary Christmas DSP? It really doesn't need much else, so I used the May 2023 Sheetload Of Cards to show off as much of the paper as possible. I paired it with the new Joy To You stamp set for the sentiment.

As I used the More Dazzling paper on the front, I also used a small strip on the inside. I changed my stamp set to Brightest Glow, as I didn't want to put a big sentiment on the inside of the card.

I've decided to make only two cards each time using the Sheetload templates. I was in the enviable position of having too many cards last year, so I don't need to make as many this year. You can see hat I varied the position of the sentiment panel, mostly to try not to cover too many of the polar bears.

That's all from me for tonight, but please do keep going around the blog hop until you get back to where you started. The next stop along the way is my lovely friend, Kate Morgan.

If you run into any issues with links, just pop on over to the wonderful Sharon Davern's blog. She will have a list of all of tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 22

 Hi!

Welcome back for the final Heart Of Christmas blog hop for 2022. I can't believe we are so close to Christmas! I've made 88 cards for the blog hops this year, just by using the Sheetload Of Cards templates to make four cards each week. It's a stress free way to quickly build a decent stash!

Tonight's cards are made using the October 2019 Sheetload Of Cards template. The front of the card is folded back on itself to make a nice and easy fancy fold. The red Spruced Up Outlines bauble is a left over from another set of cards. I had planned to heat emboss the sentiment in white on the front, but I got lazy. I was just about to stamp directly on the first bauble, when I noticed that the baubles on the DSP had a circle feature. Bingo!

Speaking of the DSP, it's from the gorgeous Celebrate Everything Host DSP pack. I've used it so much this year - I especially love the black design that I've used on the inside of my cards. The colourful Christmassy images really pop against the black.

The sentiments are from Brightest Glow. I chose scripty fonts so that I didn't have to worry too much about stamping straight - they look perfectly fine on a slight angle!

Thanks again for joining us for the blog hops this year. I hope that you've found lots of Christmas inspiration and have made a good head start on your stash of cards. The next stop in our final blog hop is my lovely friend, Michele Taylor. I wonder if she'll have another of her gorgeous wreath cards for us?

If you run into any problems with links as you hop your way around the blogs tonight, please pop on over to the wonderful Sharon Davern's blog. She deserves a huge thanks for all she's done to organise the hops and keep them running smoothly. Thanks, Sharon!

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 20

 Hi!

Yay! It's time for the new Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. Week 20 of the hops means that I've made 80 cards ready for sending in December. Woo hoo!

This week, I used the December 2021 Sheetload Of Cards template. I simplified it a little, by leaving off a second layer that went under the main panel. I thought that this allowed the simple Lights Aglow DSP that frames the sentiment to shine.

I used the coordinating Brightest Glow stamp set for the sentiments on my card.

I've made good use of my Lights Aglow SDSP, so sometimes it's a struggle to find four matching pieces of DSP left in the pack. Both these patterns are Evening Evergreen/Soft Succulent papers, which provide a lovely, soft Christmas card. I think I prefer the sparkly paper over the bokeh version. How about you?

The next stop on tonight's blog hop is my lovely friend, Catherine Proctor. She's bound to have some Christmas gorgeousness for us to see!

A big thanks to Sharon Davern for keeping us all organised each week. She can help you too, if you run into a problem with any links. Just pop 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

HOC Week 19

 Hi!

Welcome back to a new Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. we are definitely on the home stretch now! The latest Sheetload Of Cards template was released a week ago, so that's what I decided to use for my cards this week.

I haven't used the gorgeous Lights Aglow SDSP for a while, so it was well past time to pull it back our for my cards this week. The Sheetload template was for a split front card, and with some clever cutting I was able to use just three sheets of DSP to create my four cards.

Here's a little tip for making sure that the decorated parts of the inside are hidden behind the joining piece of the front - I laid the outline of the bauble from the Spruced Up Outlines dies face down on the joining section, after first removing the lining sheet from the Adhesive sheet. If you forget to use the Adhesive sheet, be sure to add some glue. Then close the card so that the outline adheres to the inside of the card. Done!

I stamped my sentiment, from the coordinating Brightest Glow stamp set, inside the bauble to ensure that it can't be seen when the card is closed.

Don't the Gold Glimmer baubles on the fronts of the cards look fantastic? I used some retired Mint Macaron Glimmer paper for the tops of the baubles. If you squint a bit, it looks like Soft Succulent!

Thanks for joining me, but please keep hopping around to the rest of the team, starting with my lovely friend, Christine Blain.

As ever, the wonderful Sharon Davern keeps us all organised for the blog hops, so please head on over to her blog is you run into any issues with tonight's links. She'll have a list of all participants on her blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 15

 Hi!

Welcome to Week 15 of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hops.Each week a group of Art With Heart friends put on a blog hop with lots of Christmassy inspiration. We'd love for you to do the hop each week and be inspired to get a start on your Christmas crafting.

My cards this wee are made using the Lights Aglow Suite, which includes the SDSP, dies and stamps. I thought that the May 2020 Sheetload Of Cards was a great way to show off the DSP, as the design features two different papers.

The Brightest Glow stamp set has some really lovely fonts!

Here's my group of four cards. You can see that I didn't have enough Cherry Cobbler paper of one design, so I had to choose a second. Which of the papers do you prefer? I think that they are both nice!

Thanks for joining me, but please do continue your way around our Blog Hop. The next stop along the way is my lovely farmer friend, Kathryn Ruddick.

As always, the lovely Sharon Davern is keeping us organised this week. If you run into any issues with any links, just pop on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all of tonight's participants. 

Bye for now,

Tina