JAI 688: Just Choose Two

 Hi!

Welcome to another week of Just Add Ink challenges. This week we have a fabulous Choose Two challenge for you, suggested to us by Lou.

We'd like you to Choose Two of Sequins, Stars or Stitching to add to your card. I immediately thought of my Stitched Stars dies, which meant that I got my two in one go!

I've been doing a bit of rearranging in my craft space and picked up the Showtime Limited Edition kit from Kindred Stamps. I thought that this little piggy was the perfect choice to go with sequins, stars and stitching. I coloured her with my Comic markers and popped her up over the foil Stitched Stars die cuts on top of some Expressions In Ink SDSP.

I love the swirly star die cut on the front of the card, especially as you end up with five stars that can be used to decorate there rest of your card. I used three on the front and the final two to jazz up the inside of my card.

We'd love to see which two elements you choose from our challenge this week. You can see what the Design Team chose over on the Just Add Ink blog. You can also find our Linky when you're ready to enter your card in the challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 605: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Woo Hoo! Friday once again, which means that it's Just Add Ink time! This week we have a gorgeous Inspiration Photo as the basis of our challenge, which was suggested by Kim.

Hmm, what do you see in this photo? I straight away thought of the Expressions In Ink SDSP and Waves Of The Ocean DSP. Both have now retired, but I thought that I could use the different colours and papers to make an abstract version of the scene.

I was quite please with how it turned out! I used the stitched rectangle die in the Ornate Layers dies to crop the papers - the top three are the Expressions papers, and the lower three are from the Waves pack. I tried to match up with the Inspiration Photo, but wasn't strict with placement.

The mermaid is from an Ink Road stamp set, she's Inked Girl Samantha. I quickly coloured her with Stampin' Blends in colours taken from the DSP packs. The Gold Foil 'dream' die cut is from a long-retired set, called Chase Your Dreams Framelits.

A left over strip of DSP and a sentiment from Light The Candles finished off the inside. 

I can't wait to see what you make from the Inspiration Photo. The Design team have had a lot of fun with it. You can see their cards over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card in our challenge. See you there!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 355: Sale-A-Bration Catalogue

 Hi!

I don't know about you, but my weekend has vanished in a blink! LOL, I guess that's what happens when you get stuck into a good book! The end of the weekend means the start of the new CASEing The Catty Challenge, so it can't be all bad.

This week we are asking you to CASE a project from the Sale-A-Bration Catalogue.

I chose this sweet little card, as I really loved the butterflies stamped over the inked cardstock. Aren't they pretty? I don't tend to make smaller cards, and so I decided to switch to a full sized card, and once I started switching things up my card came out very differently to the original.

So it still has butterflies and orange, and has the same die-cut label and white trim, bit otherwise not much is the same. I got a bit lazy with the inked cardstock and decided to stamp on some DSP from the Expressions In Ink SDSP pack using my Butterfly Brilliance stamp set.

The sentiment is from A Good Man - I found that I don't have many sentiments that are suitable for the vertical label from the Tasteful Labels Dies. A few sequins finished off the front of the card.

I don't want to add more butterflies to the inside, so I satisfied myself with a left over strip of the Expressions SDSP and another sentiment from A Good Man.

We'd love for you to play along with us this week while we CASE the SAB Catalogue. All you need to do is add a photo of your card to our Facebook group. Too easy!

Have you finished our Blog Hop? I'm the last stop this week, but if you started somewhere in the middle, then please keep on going until you get to where you started. The first blog this week is Julia Quinn's blog, with her delightful 3D card.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 351: CASE The SAB Catalogue

 Hi!

Welcome to another week of the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. Have you had time to have a good look at your new Catalogues yet? I hope so! They are live now to customers, with plenty of gorgeous new products.

Our focus this week for our challenge, is the Sale-A-Bration catalogue. It may be small, at 20 pages, but there's still plenty of inspiration to be found.

I loved this card from page 17. I liked the layering and the DSP and the textures. Funnily enough though, in the end my card looks nothing like it!

I used the new In The Moment stamp set as my focal image, colouring it with a variety of Stampin' Blends. I took inspiration for my colours from the Expressions In Ink SDSP, that forms the background of my card.

In an attempt to replicate the layered leaves on the original card, I die cut some of the leaves from the Sunflower Dies in Gold Foil and layered them underneath the main banner.

I stamped the same image again on the inside. I deliberately left the inside sentiment-free, as it makes the card more flexible. The 'relax your way' sentiment (from A Good Man) on the front could apply in a few different scenarios, don't you think?

Our weekly challenge is run through our Facebook page, so all you need to enter is a Facebook account and a photo of your card. A blog is not essential. We'd love to see what inspires you from the Sale-A-Bration Catalogue.

Now it's time to continue your way around our blog hop. The next cab off the rank is my friend, Julia. She made a gorgeous scrapbook page for last week's challenge - I wonder what she'll make this time?

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 347: CASE A Mini Catalogue Bundle

 Hi!

Hello, and welcome back to my blog for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. Do you enjoy CASEing projects from the catalogues? Then we are the Challenge for you!

This week we are asking you to CASE your favourite Mini Catalogue Bundle. Hmm, that's tricky to narrow down!! I ended up choosing this card, made with the Sweet Stockings bundle.

Somehow, my card ended up looking nothing like the original!!

I had big plans to stamp three of the cocktails from Nothing's Better Than on the largest of the tags, but they didn't quite fit. I decided to go with one cocktail on each of the second largest tags - which are from the Tailor Made Tags Dies.

I used Polished Pink as my feature colour. The word 'Cocktails' was cropped from a piece of PP card with some Foam Adhesive Sheet attached to the back for a lovely bit of dimension for the card. The DSP is from the Expressions In Ink pack.

I couldn't resist adding another pink cocktail to the inside, with a sentiment from Sweet Ice Cream.

That's all from me for tonight. We'd love to know which bundle from the Mini Catalogue is your favourite. Just CASE a card made using it and post a photo in our Facebook group before next Sunday evening. It's that easy!

Before you go, though, please do finish our Blog Hop. The next stop along with way is my good friend, Judy May. You won't want to miss her gorgeous card!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 343: CASE An Animal Card

Hi!

Have you had a lovely weekend? I hope so! I play the Bass Clarinet in a concert band, and I just got home from playing in a concert to celebrate the 45th anniversary of our local choral society. Our local bagpipe band also played - it was so great seeing the three groups supporting each other with a fabulous concert.

Our CASEing The Catty challenge this week asks your to CASE a project that features an animal. It can be from either catalogue, so there's a heap of different choices. After a flick through of both catalogues, I chose this gorgeous butterfly card from page 106 of the Annual Catalogue.

I don't have the DSP that was used for the catalogue sample, so I decided to make a completely different background for my card. I chose the gold striped DSP from the Expressions In Ink DSP. I cut it a little narrower than usual so that you get peeks of the Misty Moonlight card base underneath.

I cheated a little with the butterflies - once again I had a time-poor week. The retired Butterfly Bijou DSP was recently on the Clearance Rack, and I was lucky enough to score a pack. The butterflies are cropped from a sheet of the paper using my Brilliant Wings Dies. Of course, if you don't have this DSP you could stamp and colour the butterflies. If you're not in the mood to colour, stamp the butterflies on some DSP and then crop them - instant colour!

A Gold Foil Butterfly and sentiment from Sweet As A Peach, cropped with a Peach Die, were some of the finishing touches for the front of the card.

The inside of my card was made using leftovers from the front. The DSP strip was left after I'd cropped the front piece, and the butterfly was an extra from the sheet I die cut for the front. It certainly makes it easier to have these left over bits and pieces.

We'd love for you to play along with our challenge, which you can do by making a card and adding it to our Facebook group. You don't need a blog or anything fancy, just join the group, take a snap and upload the photo. Easy!

Before you dash off to get creating, please do finish our hop! The next stop along the way is my fellow South Aussie, the lovely Michelle Stradz. Her card for tonight's hop is a super-adorable card that made me go "awww" when I saw it.

 Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Gorgeous Grape

 Hi!

It's Wednesday evening, which means it's Colour Creations time! This week we are featuring Gorgeous Grape, which is a colour that sits in the Brights colour family. It's my 'Goldilocks' purple - not too dark and not too light, it's jut right. LOL!! One of my younger sisters' favourite colour is purple, so I try to make her a purple Christmas card each year, so I took this opportunity to make her card, ready for December.

I started by using a Blending Brush on a piece of Expressions In Ink SDSP to create the ombre background. The snowflakes over the top are from the Gingerbread Dies. They looked a little sparse to me, so each snowflake is actually two layers, with the top layer offset from the first. The fuller look is very pretty! I also swished some WinkOf Stella over the top, but unfortunately is was too dull on the day I took toe photos for the glimmer to be seen. You'll just have to imagine how shimmery they are.

While I had the brush out, I also cut the sentiment label from Whisper White card with one of my new Tasteful Labels Dies. I then lightly brushed ink around the very edges before I removed the cardstock from the die, leaving a gorgeous white border all the way around the label. It's such a cool effect, as it allows the embossed detail in the border shine and frames the Christmas To Remember sentiment perfectly.

When I created the ombre piece for the front of the card, I cut the DSP an inch wider than it needed to be so that I could use the offcuts for the inside of my card. Such a great, time-saving idea. I finished off the inside with another double layer snowflake, this time in Gorgeous Grape.

Thanks again for joining me, but please do jump on over to the lovely Vicki Boucher's blog next. A few of her Gorgeous Grape cards came up in my google search for inspiration for tonight's card, so I'm sure that she's made another stunner this time.

As always for Colour Creations, pop on over to Cathy Proctor's blog if you find a broken link, or if you simply want to see the list of all the ladies participating in tonight's hop.

Bye for now,

Tina