CTC 327: Holiday Section

 Hi!

Welcome back to this new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. We are celebrating our seventh anniversary this evening. How exciting! I've been part of the team for around two and a half years, and have enjoyed every moment.

This week for our challenge, we are asking you to CASE  a card from the Holiday Section of the Annual Catalogue. Have you started making Christmas cards yet? I've been making them for around a month now, with the hope that I won't have to madly rush to get enough made in December.

I chose this card from page 95, as the simple design really appealed to me and I liked how the branch hung over the sides of the main panel.

I started by rotating the orientation of the card. The main panel stretched to become the long, thin strip that the sentiment sit on, and the polar bear still overhangs each side of the panel. Sort of the same, but also very different!

The DSP I have used is a cute new Sale-A-Bration option, called Penguin Playmates. You can earn it free in August and September with a $90 catalogue spend. To jazz up the images a little, I coloured the polar bear's scarf and nose with Wink Of Stella. Some trees in the background DSP also got the same treatment. It's an overcast day here, so no sun to help capture the sparkle in a photo - you'll just have to imagine!

The sentiments I've used are from a stamp set in the new Mini Catalogue, called Christmas To Remember. It's a lovely sentiment only set that I'm sure I will use a lot. The tree is fussy cut from the Penguin Playmates DSP.

That's all from me tonight, but your part in our seventh anniversary challenge is just beginning! Choose a card to CASE from the Holiday Section, and after you've made it, just upload a photo to our Facebook group. Easy!

Please do continue on with our blog hop before you dash off to get inky. Next up is my lovely friend, Rachel.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC Week 16

Hi!

Welcome back to week 16 of The Heart Of Christmas! I'm once again hosting this week's round, as Claire is with her family. I hope you're being inspired by our Christmas cards to get started on your own - slowly but surely Christmas is coming!

This week I have made a fairly simple card, using the new Merry Music SDSP. It's a fabulous pack that I have found my self reaching for over and over again.

How cool is this way to add colour to the DSP? The pack is entirely white and black, but there's nothing stopping you from adding some colour. In this case, I used my sponge brayer to roll on some Garden Green ink. I wanted the ombre look, so I rolled up from the bottom each time, allowing the colour to fade away the closer I got to the top of the card.

Aren't these large sentiments fabulous? I like that this one has a bit of a curve, so it's less obvious if your stamp it a little crooked!

I originally only intended to stamp a few of the little twinkles around the inside sentiment, but once I got going, I couldn't stop!

Thanks for stopping by again. Here's the links to the rest of the team that are participating today. I'm sure they'd love it if you popped over to their blogs to look at their gorgeous cards and to give them a little comment love.

Kate Morgan

Ros Davidson

Caroline Manwaring

Rachel Woollard

Andrea Roberts

Monika O'Neil

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC Week 10

Hi!

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a stamping day organised by the lovely Kathryn Mangelsdorf. There were a group of eight stampers, and we decided to run a shoebox swap with a Christmas theme. My first thought was to do a card I'd made previously, but then I decided I'd do a new one, so that it could be this week's Heart Of Christmas card.

A shoebox swap is one where each person designs a card and then puts everything required to make that card in a box, including a kit for each person in the swap. The boxes then get passed around the table and everyone makes one of everyone else's card. It's a great way to get your stash built quickly, and also to play with new stamps that you may not own.

I decided to make a fancy fold card using the new Carols of Christmas bundle. I can't think of the name of the fold just now, but you basically cut a long card, with the fold at the left, and then fold the front in half back on itself. The smaller front panel is then adhered to the front flap of the card, and overhangs the base. You can see a little better in the next photo.

I used one of the framelits in the bundle to cut the corner decorations. The poinsettia flowers were then stamped, fussy cut and popped up on Mini Dimensionals. Can you see that I also stamped in Cherry Cobbler around the cut out bits? There are 4 little dots in a cluster. I like that they extend the design of the die cut, and also add a little extra colour to the grouping.

This is the inside. I didn't stamp a sentiment there just yet - maybe I'll add one later. I wanted room to write a bit in the card in such a way that the writing wouldn't be seen when the card was closed.

Are you enjoying the Heart Of Christmas blog shares each Wednesday? I certainly am! You can see the rest of this week's cards over at Claire's blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC: Week 9

Hi!

I nearly didn't think I'd make it with my Heart Of Christmas card this week. Now the kids are back at school, I'm doing all of the jobs I couldn't get done while I had them home. I do make crafting a bit of a priority though, so I eventually found a little time.

This week I feel like I was a little adventurous. I recently purchased the Foil Frenzy SDSP, even though at first glance I wasn't too thrilled with it. I do like the spotty design, so in the end it won me over.

Using metallics on a card automatically gives the card a bit of a luxe feel, which is sometimes what you want in a Christmas card. The Lemon Lime Twist gives the card a very modern look - it really is a light, fresh colour.

After stamped the baubles on either side of the sentiment, I added a rhinestone to each to finish them off. The smallest ones in the packet are just he right size for the little ornaments.

I carried the ornaments over to the inside too. They are from a new stamp set that SU will have available to purchase next month. It's called Carols Of Christmas, and has a matching Thinlits set called Card Front Builder Thinlits. I think the name thinker-uperer was having a bad day - it's not a great name for a fabulous set of dies! You'll be seeing lots of cards using them on the 'net I'm sure.

You can pop on over to Claire's blog to see the ret of the cards that the Art With Heart girls have made this week. I always enjoy looking at them, and commenting on each of the blogs. It's a great way to spend an hour or so of a Wednesday.

Bye for now,

Tina