Blueberry Farewell Booklet

Hi!

LOL, I nearly typed 'Welcome to this week's Colour Creations...' before I remembered that we are finished. I hope you were inspired by our posts each week. I will try to continue to post on Tuesday evenings, as it's a good habit!

Tonight's card uses the new Noble Peacock Specialty DSP. Each of the sheets are heavy weight and have foil accents. The sheet I used is the Blueberry Bushel pattern, and I love that the design looks a bit like a stylised peacock tail.

I paired the Noble Peacock SDSP with some Black Foil cardstock, with some Silver Foil die cuts. The sentiment from Flourishing Phrases is very 'punny' for a musical themed card, don't you think?

When is a card not a card? When it becomes a booklet! This card was made for the members of the band I play in to sign so that we could farewell one of our musicians. Due to poor health, he's unable to continue playing. There's over 40 people in the band, so I needed to make enough pages to allow everyone room to write a message. I also added some ribbon as a belly band so that the booklet can be tied closed. I find that a card like this is preferable to a super sized card, as they are much easier for the recipient to store, and is therefore less likely to be thrown out!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #455: Just Add Sympathy

Hi!

Welcome to this week's Just Add Ink challenge. This time Kim has challenged us to make a sympathy card. I was a bit pleased when I first saw this challenge, as the sympathy section of my card box is empty, and I saw this as a chance to restock it a bit. Nobody likes making sympathy cards when they actually need them.

However, fate sometimes laughs at our plans, and as it happens, I needed to make a sympathy card this week. We very sadly learned that one of Hudson's little school mates passed unexpectedly last week and her memorial service is tomorrow.

The little girl's family are religious, and so I wanted to make a card to reflect this. I chose a piece of the Graceful Glass vellum that reminded me of a church stained glass window, and paired it with a piece of Wood Textures DSP that had the look of a church pew. Can you see it?

I coloured the vellum with some of my Blends and then wrapped it around a piece of Whisper White cardstock cut slightly smaller than the panel. This was to avoid having visible adhesive on the front.

On the inside I stamped a butterfly from my Painted Glass stamps set to bring a piece of the front to the inside. I think a sympathy card for a child is especially hard to make, but I hope this card will bring some comfort to her family.

The Design Team have made some beautiful cards this week. Quite a few of us were in the same boat of needing to make the cards to give straight away. You can find the cards at the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your sympathy card.

Bye for now,

Tina

Calypso Statements

Hi!

Welcome to the new Colour Creations Blog Share. This week we are featuring Calypso Coral.

Did you know that in Greek mythology Calypso was a nymph who was the daughter of Titan Atlas and Pleione and is famous for trying to keep Odysseus captive so she could marry him - sadly for Calypso, he was already married! Thanks, Wikipedia! Totally irrelevant to my card, but interesting nonetheless.

I've had this image from Floral Statements stamped and ready to colour for over a year, and I decided that this week's Colour Creations was finally the time to use it. I coloured the flower with my Calypso Coral and Old Olive Blends.

I also used my Light Cherry Cobbler Blend to add some darker highlights to the flowers, and finished by using my Light Pool Party Blend to draw an outline around the outside of the image. It's a simple trick that helps the image to pop against the white background.

I finished the inside with a sentiment and some leaves from Flourishing Phrases. I found that the leaves were a bit stark for what I wanted, so I went over them with a Blender Pen (not to be confused with a Blend marker!). This pulled some of the colour into the veins of the leaves and softened them a little. Much better!

As always, you can find the links to the rest of the blogs over at Catherine's blog. It's always worth a look - the ladies do such a great job with the colours each week.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #395: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Are you ready for a new Just Add Ink challenge? I am! This week Kelly found this gorgeous Inspiration photo for us to base our cards on.

Isn't it stunning? It made me think of two very special places - my hometown, where the cherry blossoms in Spring made the streets come alive with gorgeous pink colour. It also reminded me of my time with Rob in Paris, where we strolled through parks and gardens that were so lush with foliage and so immaculately maintained. Two sets of very happy memories!

The picture is very romantic to me, so I decided it was best to make a wedding card. The sentiment suits the picture so well!

Here's how I made it: first, I masked the top two thirds of the card and sponged Crumb Cake ink on the bottom third using my Sponge Brayer, trying to get the colour darker along the edge of the path. I then stamped the splatter from Swirly Bird over the top. Next, I masked off the middle section of the card. I used my sponge brayer to add Tranquil Tide ink, again trying to make it darker along the edges. I then removed the bottom mask and stamped the dotty stamp from Dragonfly Dreams along the edge of the colour, making sure that some of the stamping fell in the Crumb Cake section. I was trying to blur the hard lines created by the masking.

I then repeated the process with the top section of the card, this time with Flirty Flamingo ink. I used the largest floral stamp in Beautiful Bouquet over the top, and also the dotty stamp from Dragonfly Dreams to soften the edge. I then stitched around the vellum sentiment and the edge of the card. It still needed more, so I ended up adhering some clear heart shaped sequins to the front. You may just be able to see them to the bottom left and top right of the sentiment panel.

I was a bit sponge brayered out by the time I got to the inside, so a few of the dotty stamps had to do!

I've been astounded at the variety of ways the Design Team have interpreted this image, and I'm sure you will be too! Pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to check it all out, and to link up your card.

Bye for now,

Tina.

JAI #372: Just Add Colour

Hi!

This week at Just Add Ink, Nikki has chosen a gorgeous selection of colours to inspire creativity. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them as soon as I saw the palette.

Aren't they just stunning? I pulled out my trusty sponge brayer, and off I went!

I started by using sticky notes to mask off the area I wanter to brayer. I held it all down with some sticky tape too - just to be sure nothing moved while I was using the brayer, as that would have been disastrous! I started by rolling on some Powder Pink ink from the bottom up, and then some Pool Party ink from around 3/4 of the way to the top, running down into my Powder Pink area. I finished by brayering some Tranquil Tide ink down from the top. I had to be really careful to go easy with the Tranquil Tide, as I didn't want the darker colour to overwhelm the paler colours. I was very pleased with the end result!

I die cut the large flourish from the Flourish Thinlits in Basic Black to add a lovely, strong point of interest to the card.

I always find the inside of Sympathy cards the hardest to do - I'm not sure why. I do think that the leaves provide a nice backdrop to the sentiment though.

The rest of the Design Team have had a blast with these colours. You can see their gorgeous cards over at the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your entry for the challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH Blog Hop: Favourite Colour Combination

Hi!

It's time for the monthly Art With Heart Blog Hop. This month is a fun one, and I'm very keen to see what the rest of the team has created!

The Art with Heart Team ladies are selecting their favourite colour combinations to share with you tonight. Choosing the right colour scheme can be essential to your design and with Stampin’ Up!'s stunning collection, there are 50 colours to choose from. There’s sure to be some combinations that work really well together and you can take inspiration from.

Now sit back and enjoy some time out of your day to cruise through our blog hop and soak up some colour explosion eye candy!

If you're a bit like me, choosing a favourite colour combination is a bit like choosing a favourite child - it depends on the time of the day, the mood of the children, my mood.... I could go on! I've been on a bit of a vintage roll lately, and using a lot of Tranquil Tide. It's one of the colours that I thought was yucky when I first saw it, but I'm a total convert!

As you can see, this time around I've paired it with Fresh Fig, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla to create my card.

You may notice that the pattern in my Fresh Florals DSP doesn't look white, as it should. I used a clever trick for 'ageing' it - I used my sponge brayer to roll over some Crumb Cake ink. It works a treat for subduing the white in the pattern.

The tulips were stamped in Fresh Fig onto some scrap Very Vanilla, fussy cut and then popped up on Dimensionals. I used my new Sheet Music stamp on the oval, and then went around the edge using one of the stamps in Timeless Textures. I also used the stamp to go around the edge of the sentiment panel.

I think the inside is one of my favourite parts of the card. I selectively inked the Sheet Music stamp, and then pressed parts of the cardstock onto the inked stamp while holding up the rest of the cardstock. I used my fingers to press the cardstock to the stamp so that I got a soft edge to the stamped image. I sponged a little Crumb Cake ink over the top, and then stamped the stamp from Timeless Textures along the edges.

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the very talented Kathryn Ruddick. 

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

1. Catherine Proctor
2. Sharon Davern
3. Tina Gillespie
<-- br="" me="">4. Kathryn Ruddick
5. Andrea Roberts
6. Rebecca Jacovou
7. Monika O’Neill
8. Caroline Manwaring
<-- br="" me="">9. Rachel Woollard
10. Kimberly Hern
11. Ros Davidson
12. Amie McIlroy
13. Kate Morgan

A Pretty Tranquil Label CASE

Hi!

Today's card is one that I CASEd from the magazine that Stamping' Up! sends out to all demonstrators. It uses the new Label Me Pretty stamp set and coordinating punch, which I hadn't yet inked up! The card in the magazine was a birthday card, but I'd had a class request for a sympathy card, and I thought this design worked well.

The sentiment is from the Flourishing Phrases stamp set. I was quite surprised at how well the two colours worked together - Tranquil Tide and Powder Pink. I never would have thought to put them together, but quite like it when I did. Do you ever find that?

I really loved the ribbon as a layer under the punched sentiment. I think it can be easy to forget to use ribbon in this way, but it adds so much more to a card than a strip of card or DSP.

Sadly, I had to use this card much sooner than I expected. It was definitely handy to have it in my stash ready to go, than to try to sit and make it when I needed it. What do you think? Do you have sympathy cards ready to go, or do you prefer to make them at the time they are needed?

Bye for now,

Tina

Delicate Details

Hi!


I don't usually blog on a Thursday, but I made a little bit of a discovery and I just had to share!


Waaaaayyyy back when the Annual Catalogue was released I was invited to a friend, and fellow demonstrator's, house to join in with her team on a stamping day. Thanks, Kathryn! The idea was that we would bring stamps, etc that the rest of the group didn't own. We made cards and stamped with these so that we could have samples of sets we didn't actually own. This generosity and sharing is one of the things I love so much about Stampin' Up!


Sadly, mine have sat pretty much untouched since that day. Time to rectify that!

The flower is from the Hostess set Fabulous Flora. I had originally intended to colour it with my markers and blender pen, but I couldn't resist giving the new watercolour pencils a go. I used a combination of the Real Red and Daffodil Delight pencils to colour the flowers, and Old Olive for the stem and leaves.


My exciting discovery was that if you carefully bend the lace stamp in Delicate Details to follow the curve of the largest Stitched Shapes Oval Framelit and then stamp it twice, it nearly perfectly frames the oval die cut. I was so excited when I realised it would work! I think the lace provides a lovely frame for the floral image. What do you think?

The gap you see here on the side is just because the oval panel is popped up on Dimensionals. From front on the gaps are pretty tiny - only someone who was really looking would see it.

Thankfully I also stamped a flower for the inside of the card. A little something on the inside just finishes it off so nicely I think.


Bye for now,


Tina

JAI #326: Just Add Project Life

Hi!


I hope you've had a fabulous week - I certainly did! I celebrated a birthday earlier in the week and was very spoiled! But enough about me - it's time for the new Just Add Ink challenge!

This week Rochelle has challenged us to Just Add Project Life. I do a lot of PLing, so creating a page sounded like fun. Strangely though, when I sat down to create I actually made a card!

The cute little 2 inch card came from the Hello Lovely PL Accessory Pack. I'm often a bit stumped on how to use the cards, but this pre-cut card was just screaming 'Shaker Card!', so I went with the flow! The Soft Sky sequins are also from the same pack.

It is really, really hard to see in the photos, but I also stamped the dandelion type stamp from the accessory pack on the front of the card - just a sprinkle of them from top left to bottom right. If you look closely you may be able to see one just below the shaker part of the card. They look gorgeous in real life.

The dandelions might be easier to see in the inside of the card - this time some in the top right and bottom left.


Project Life is so versatile - as you can see it's not just for scrapping. What will you create? Link your projects over at the Just Add Ink blog for us all to see!


Bye for now,


Tina