Colour Creations: Balmy Blue

 Hi!

It's Colour Creations Blog Hop time again! This week it's Balmy Blue's turn. I'm very much a 'blue' girl, and this is probably the shade of blue that I reach for most often when I'm crafting. Today's card was made for my niece, who turns 15 this week. She and her mum (my sister) taught me and my other sister how to do macrame over Zoom last year, and so when I thought of a card for her, I wanted to include some macrame on it.

LOL, yes, that was handmade, using a bamboo skewer and some retired Thick Very Vanilla Baker's Twine. My fingers aren't nimble enough to use standard Baker's Twine! The Balmy Blue DSP is from the You're A Peach DSP pack. I popped it up over the Thick Very Vanilla base so that I could attach the macrame piece to the card. I first adhered the DSP to a piece of Balmy Blue cardstock to give it enough strength.

The sentiment is from the Sweet As A Peach stamp set, cropped with a Suit & Tie Die.

Like all good macrame crafters, nothing gets wasted, so the offcuts from the front piece were used to make a feather for the inside. It's going to be a thick card to send, but it's for someone special, so that's OK.

That's all from me for now, but please do continue on with the Blog Hop. Next up is my lovely friend, Di, who grows the most delicious apples and makes the most wonderful cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

In the event that a link is broken, here is the full list of tonight's participants:

Michele Taylor
Rachel Palmieri
Kate Morgan
Catherine Proctor
Caroline Manwaring
Sharon Davern
Christine Blain
Tina Gillespie <- you are here
Diane Furniss
Ros Davidson
Theresa Gerrard
Rachel Woollard
Rosa Leyden
Fiona Bell Ryan
Vicki Boucher

Colour Creations: 2021-22 In Colours

 Hi!

Hooray!! Time for a new year of Colour Creations! To get our timeline back in whack, we are starting with all five of the new In Colours. Have you seen them yet? Picked a favourite? Hmm, I'm still deciding! Because of that, I bucked my own system of the past year of Colour Creations and made a card that used all five colours.

I started by creating my colourful panel. I used the stitched rectangle die from the Ornate Layers Dies to crop the Whisper White, Soft Succulent, Pale Papaya, Polished Pink and Fresh Freesia cardstock. I adhered these to a piece of copy paper so that I could crop the whole lot with a Stitched Rectangle Die. Copy paper ensures that it's not too thick for the die or Big Shot to cope with.

The stamping was done to match the colours on the main panel. Have you discovered the Biggest Wish stamp set yet? It's such an awesome set! I coloured a few Rhinestones with my Dark Evening Evergreen Blend and then popped the whole lot onto an Evening Evergreen card base that I'd stamped with the little crosses from Biggest Wish. I was so enamoured with the words in the set that I hadn't even noticed the crosses until I saw them used on other card!

For my inside, I simply used the offcuts from the front of the card! I cropped another Stitched Rectangle to sit inside the border piece. Too easy!

That's all from me for tonight. You've probably noticed by now that we've switched back to a traditional Blog Hop format for this year's Colour Creations. Next in the round is my lovely friend, Christine. You won't want to miss her gorgeous card, nor anyone else's! Just keep cruising around the blogs until you get back to where you started. If you find a broken link, you can click on the links below to get back to where you were.

Bye for now,

Tina

Kate Morgan

Sharon Davern

Vicki Boucher

Caroline Manwaring

Tina Gillespie <<you are here

Christine Blain

Rachel Woollard

Theresa Gerrard

Rachel Palmeri

Michelle Taylor

Diane Furniss

Andrea Sargent

Ros Davidson

Cathy Proctor

Colour Creations: Soft Suede

 Hi!

Welcome back to the latest Colour Creations Creative Showcase. We are doing the last of the Core Colours this week - Soft Suede. Many years ago, Soft Suede was an In Colour, but after a brief retirement, it made it's way back as a member of the Neutrals Family. 

I started my card by using a pencil to trace around the inside of my circle die onto the Very Vanilla cardstock. This was to give me a guideline for stamping the leaves from Forever Fern. The pencil line can be erased, but it will end up under the circle, so it doesn't really matter.

The sentiment is from a fabulous new stamp set, called Biggest Wish. It's a great mix of block and cursive words that can be mixed and matched to your heart's content. Definitely a keeper for me!

I kept the inside very simple, just more leaves along the bottom. I tried to make it look like the top of the circle of leaves, like on the front, but I'm not sure that I was very successful! I still like it, though.

That's all from me tonight, but please do pop on over to Cathy's blog, where you will find the rest of this week's Soft Suede cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Soft Sea Foam

 Hi!

Welcome back for another week of the Colour Creations Creative Showcase. This week we are looking at Soft Sea Foam. As them name suggests, it's a very soft green from the Subtles colour family.

I kept my colour palette quite pale, with just Soft Sea Foam and Whisper White. I used the Sweet Strawberry bundle for the focal panel of my card, but just the flower and leaves image. I stamped them in SSF and then used my Blending Brush to add some ink over the top. I then coloured the leaves with my Dark SSF Blend. The flowers were stamped and punched separately on Whisper White. The centre is a retired Metallic sequin.

My card actually started with the zig zags! I cut a heap of edges using the Basic Borders Dies and then adhered the layers together to form the zig zags. Just a tip - make your pieces a little wider than you want your final piece to be. This gives you a little allowance to line up the zig zags precisely. Just trim the piece when you're finished.

Both themes were carried over to the inside of the card. You can't tell in the photo, but the flowers here have Wink Of Stella on their centres rather than the sequins. 

That's all from me for tonight, but please do head on over to Cathy's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Soft Sea Foam cards. We have one more week of our Core colours before we start on the new In Colours - that's going to be fun!

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

Colour Creations: So Saffron

 Hi!

Thanks for coming back for this week's Colour Creations Creative Showcase. We are up to So Saffron this week, a lovely, soft yellow that I quite like. I was in the mood for butterflies this week, so my Brilliant Wings dies got a workout!

I started by covering the back of a quarter sheet of So Saffron in Adhesive sheet, and then run the piece through the Big Shot with as many of the detailed butterfly dies as I could fit on the sheet. I didn't worry if some were a bit cut off, as I knew that I would use them on the edge. The butterflies were then adhered to a second sheet of So Saffron card. I trimmed the edges, and then any useable pieces were added around the edges.

Another butterfly was cropped from Whisper White card and popped up over the heat-embossed sentiment strip. The sentiment is from A Good Man.

One final, partial, butterfly was used for the inside of the card, along with another sentiment from A Good Guy. I quite like this card, so I think I'm going to find it hard to give away! Maybe I will have to make it again in a different colour!

Please head on over to Cathy's blog, where the rest of this week's So Saffron cards are linked. It's sure to be a treat!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Smoky Slate

 Hi!

Here we go again with the Colour Creations Creative Showcase, and this time we are looking at Smoky Slate. It's usually more of a background colour, I guess, so making it a feature was a little tricky! I love pairing crisp white with grey, so it was a no-brainer to go with the combo for my card.

I started with the Forever Fern stamp set, stamping a few of the different fern images in Smoky Slate ink and cropping them with the matching Forever Flourishing Dies.

The labels are from the Painted Labels Dies. The largest was used to crop some Silver Foil, and the smaller the Whisper White card that the sentiment, from Seaside Notions, was stamped on. A few Rhinestones finishes off the front.

The inside is just more of the same die cut and images from the front. I'd stamped and cut a heap, so I had plenty left over!

It's time now to pop on over to Cathy's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Smoky Slate cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Shaded Spruce

 Hi!

Welcome back to a new Colour Creations Creative Showcase. This week we are highlighting Shaded Spruce. It took me a long time to warm up to this darker bright green, but now it's a colour I quite like.

I kept my card quite simple this week. I masked off the edges and used my Blending Brush with Shaded Spruce ink to create an ombre panel through the middle of the card. I love the larger head of the SU Blending Brushes for a task like this - the ink goes on so much quicker than with a smaller-headed brush.

The big fern leaf from the Forever Gold Laser Cut Paper was adhered over the top. This layout is a CASE of another card that I made last year for Christmas. It's such a cool way of showing off the gorgeous gold foil laser cut piece.

I repeated the ombre look on the inside, with another, smaller, piece of the laser cut paper over the top. The sentiments are from A Good Man.

That's all from me tonight, but please do head on over to Cathy's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Shaded Spruce cards for your viewing pleasure.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Seaside Spray

 Hi!

Phew, we are getting close to the end now! The Colour Creations Creative Showcase is up to Seaside Spray this week. I had to laugh a bit when I realised that I made my Seaside Spray card while watching Prince Philip's funeral - he was in the Navy, so it's kind of fitting. 

I chose Basic Black as the main basis for my card, as I thought that the Seaside Spray flowers would really pop against it. I think that the extra Seaside Spray layer frames the card nicely, too. The flowers and leaves were cropped using the Perennial Petals dies.

I embossed the topmost Basic Black layer with my soon-to-be-retired Dainty Diamonds embossing folder. I struggled for a long time over adding a sentiment - nothing I tried seemed to work. Finally, I just went small and simple and I think it works nicely. The sentiment is from the coordinating Pretty Perennials stamp set.

I had one left over flower, so it was perfect for the inside. I also had a partial leaf die cut, so I put it to use with the flower. The white on white is not quite as impactful as white on black, but I like the look.

That's all from me, but please do pop on over to Cathy's blog, where you'll find the links for the rest of this week's Seaside Spray cards. I like this dusky blue, and will be a little sad when it retires.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Sahara Sand

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Colour Creations Creative Showcase. This week was a challenge for me, as we tackled Sahara Sand. At the start of this Colour Creations series, I decided that I was only going to use the focal colour, plus Basics colours. It's really hard to make a Sahara Sand card with only Black, White or Vanilla to go with it!

My idea started with a new set of dies that I received in my preorder this week - Basic Border Dies. It's a super versatile set of border dies with stitched features and a variety of shapes for adding borders to a piece of card or DSP. For my card, I chose a banner-like die, that cut the bottom edge of the Sahara Sand DSP.

I layered the DSP over a piece of Subtle-embossed Whisper White card. The main image was stamped and sponged while the Stitched Shapes circle die was still in place. This leaves a nice, crisp white edge around the outside.

I've left the inside sentiment free, as it means that it could be either a birthday card or a Father's Day card. I will stamp an appropriate sentiment when I use it. Can you see that I used the off-cut from the front at the bottom? The Basic Borders Dies give a stitched feature on both sides of the cut edge, so it was an easy task to add the off-cut to the inside.

It's time now to head on over to Cathy's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Sahara Sand links. I'm curious to see if anyone else had a hard time like me!

Bye for now,

Tina

April Creative Showcase: Mother's Day

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by for this month's Creative Showcase. This month we are making Mother's Day cards, getting in nice and early, ready for the big day next month. I was struggling a bit for ideas, until I was fluffing around at my craft desk and came across some images from Grace's Garden that I'd stamped ages ago, but done nothing with in the meantime. Straight away I pictured a scene in my head, and I'm pretty thrilled with how it translated to paper.

There are a lot of layers on this card! I started by using my Sponge Brayer and Blending Brush to apply some Balmy Blue and Pacific Point ink to the top part of the background layer. I wanted this layer to look like it had a dirt path that lead through a forest. I used stamps from My Meadow to achieve this look, and then finished the layer by applying some Granny Apple Green ink to the bottom of the card. Most of it is hidden by the next layer, but I like to be thorough!

The second layer is the tall flowers (no idea what type of flowers they are meant to be!) that sit behind the fence and gate. This layer also includes the part of the path that you can see in front of the gate, and the grass to either side. The third layer is the gate, fence and cat. I left the fence white, apart from some slight touches of grey, added with My Light Grey Granite Blend. I also fussy cut it out, including the tiny pieces in between the slats - I wanted to be able to see the path and flowers through the fence. The final layer is the cluster of flowers to the right of the gate.

I couldn't find room for a sentiment on the front, so I had to put it on the inside! This one is from Dressed To Impress, and is flanked by some more flowers from Grace's Garden.

That's all from me for this month's Creative Showcase, but you can find the rest of the links for this month's blogs over on Rachel's blog. She does such a great job of keeping us all organised every month!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Terracotta Tile

 Hi!

Thanks for coming back for the new Colour Creations Creative Showcase. We are jumping out of order, just this once, as we had to fit Terracotta Tile into the series before it retires in around a month. As an In Colour, it is only in our range for two years before making way for a new set of In Colours. 

I recently repaired a broken Jar punch for a friend, and took the opportunity to punch a few shapes - I had to test that it was working, right? 😆 After punching the Jar from Terracotta Tile cardstock I used a small amount of White Craft ink and a dry water brush to apply the ink to the punched shape. I was deliberately going for a very streaky look, and I was please about how it turned out.

I then used my new Forever Flourishing Dies to crop some foliage to go into the vase. I used Basic Black card and Silver Foil. Neither shows up the embossing lines in the dies very well - I probably need to use a shim in my machine to get the full effect.

I repeated the scene on the inside, except that I cut down the black foliage a little so that it didn't take up too much space on the inside. I need room for writing a message! I also used some Terracotta Tile cardstock for the other foliage instead of foil.

Please pop on over to Cathy's blog for the rest of this week's Terracotta Tile cards. Next week we are back to our alphabetical order, featuring Sahara Sand.

Bye for now,

Tina