CTC 338: CASE The Sketch

 Hi!

Thanks for popping by to see the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. It's a great way to spend an hour or so! This week we are asking you to CASE A Sketch of the red Thinking Of You card in the challenge image below.

To make it even easier for you, we've created a sketch to guide you in your card making. It's nice and simple when you look at it this way, but our Crew have certainly come up with some interesting and clever ways to interpret the sketch.

I had big plans to create a card with a window through to the inside where the circle is in the sketch, but my littlest boy finished the school term by getting a cold. He most kindly shared his germs with me, and I've been feeling a little low, so quick and simple became the best option for me this week.

I had decided that instead of a ribbon under the circle, I would use some kind of die cut element instead.  This (retired) Forever Gold Laser Cut paper did the trick without too much fuss.

The hardest part was cutting the hexagon from Whisper White card - the gold hexagon part is not symmetrical! In the end I sort of traced the gold onto the white card and then cropped about 3/16th of an inch inside the lines. It worked well!

The sentiments I have used on the card are both from Words Of Cheer. I just have the stamp set, and it was a great, inexpensive, Christmas set to purchase.

We would absolutely love for you to join in with our challenges. You just need to be a member of our Facebook group. Once you join you can just add a photo of your card to the group each week. Nothing fancy required!

Before you race of to get creating, please do finish our hop - the Crew have obviously enjoyed this Sketch challenge, and have a fabulous collection of cards to spark your creativity. The next stop along the way is my Kiwi friend, Sandra, with a very pretty card that I adore!

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

JAI 551: Just Add 3D

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Rachael has challenged us to add 3D. Hmmm! Thinking cap on!

I decided that this might be a good opportunity to make a 3D card. I was originally searching for a tutorial for that card that looks like a stack of blocks. As you can probably guess, I had no luck as I couldn't think of the name of it, and Google wasn't helpful with the descriptors that I was using to search for it. I did come across a Bay Window card, though, and as it's another Fancy Fold I've wanted to try for a while, it was the winner.

Most Bay Window cards that I've seen don't actually have a window in the front, which seems a little strange to me! I had the idea of using one of the Forever Gold laser cut pieces to frame the window. Great idea, but as I only had hexagonal ones left, it did make it a little more trickier to cut the opening. I got there in the end though. I was even able to get the sentiment in the right spot to be seen through the window. Go me!

Here you can see how the front of the card sits out from the back. The Forever Gold leaf to the side holds it in place, but the card also folds flat for easy postage. I think that it would be really cool to create a little scene on the inside to view through the window - I will have to try that another time.

Here's the inside of the card. I used another of the Forever Gold leaves on the inside. It's funny how you can be a bit stingy using these during the year, but when you realise that they are about to retire you are suddenly throwing them around like confetti, LOL! Luckily, the In Good Taste DSP is carrying over.

That's all from me tonight, but please do head on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see the rest of this week's Design Team 3D projects. There's a fabulous mix of dimensional projects! You can also enter your 3D project up using our Linky. Can't wait to see what you make!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Pretty Peacock

 Hi!

It's Colour Creations Creative Showcase time! This week we are featuring Pretty Peacock - pretty by name, pretty by nature! It's a gorgeous, deep teal that is fast becoming a favourite. I will be very sad when it retires in a few months. I may have to stock up on some of the cardstock before it does!

Such a gorgeous colour doesn't need much else to dress it up, so I stuck to a Pretty Peacock and Gold Foil combo. The feature panel is a piece from the Forever Gold Specialty Paper pack. I just popped it out, added a heap of Black Mini Dimensionals to the back, and layered it over my Subtle-embossed card front.

The sentiment, from Blossoms in Bloom, was heat embossed in gold and just layered over the top. Such a quick and easy card that really packs a punch. The hardest part was peeling all the backings off of the Dimensionals!

I used some left over Gold Foil, embossed cardstock and another foil element from the Forever Gold pack on the inside. Done!

Please head on over to Cathy's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Pretty Peacock cards. I can't wait to see what everyone has made!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Pool Party

 Hi!

Thanks once again for joining me for this week's Colour Creations Creative Showcase. It's time for Pool Party to shine! This blue-green colour always makes me think of Tiffany Blue, so I went with that girly theme for my card.

I started by using my Stitched Rectangles Dies to cut an opening in the card front, and then adhered a piece of the Forever Gold Laser Cut DSP to the back. I popped the piece up over the top of my card base using Dimensionals. I probably should have added a piece of Window Sheet behind the laser cut, as it's a little more saggy than I'd like. Hopefully it's one of those tiny details that only the creator of a card would notice!

I used my All Dressed Up Dies to cut a strip of Pool Party card to go across the front of the card as a base for me to glue all of the other elements to the card. The perfume and flowers are from the coordinating Dressed To Impress stamp set. The perfume had a very light wash of Pool Party ink, and the flowers were coloured with Blends. A swish of Wink Of Stella finished it all off.

The shoes and flowers on the inside were also coloured with the Blends, and then given the Wink Of Stella treatment. I figured that a girly, Tiffany inspired card couldn't be too glittery!

Time now to pop on over to Cathy's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Pool Party cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #531: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Welcome back for the new Just Add Ink Challenge. This week Lou has found a super cute Inspiration photo. Aren't the pompom trees adorable?

It took a bit of thinking to work out what I was going to do this week, and then I saw a video by Alisa Tilsner where she played with Stampin' Blends and Isopropyl Alcohol to create cool backgrounds.

I chose to use the following Dark Stampin' Blends: Blackberry Bliss, Pumpkin Pie, Bermuda Bay and Magenta Madness. To get the background, I simply scribbled a small circle of colour onto Vellum Cardstock using the Blend, and then dripped a drop of the alcohol onto it. You need the good stuff from Bunnings, not the chemist's rubbing alcohol. Alisa played with hers more to get a more blended look, but I wanted the dots like the pompoms in the Inspiration Photo. It's such a cool effect!

The vellum was wrapped around a piece of Whisper White card, which I've embossed with the Subtle 3DEF. I then added a Forever Gold Laser Cut element over the top. I think it's meant to be a fern leaf, but I think it works nicely as a Christmas tree! I finished the front with a white heat-embossed sentiment from Itty Bitty Christmas.

While I was playing with the larger piece of vellum, I also made a smaller piece, so that I could use it on the inside. You can see that I've blended the colours more, rather than let them form circles. I just punched the vellum with my Pine Tree Punch and ran the tree through my Xyron sticker maker so that I could adhere it to the cardstock.

I definitely think I'll be trying this technique again! In the meantime, I'll be heading off to the Just Add Ink blog, where the rest of this week's Design team cards are linked. You can also link up your card for our challenge. What inspires you from the photo?

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Gorgeous Grape

 Hi!

Hooray for Colour Creations Showcase time! This week we are looking at Gorgeous Grape, which is a colour that I like, even though I don't use it much. It's in the Brights colour family and pairs beautifully with Highland Heather. Like all of my Colour Creations cards this year, I have opted to use it on it's own, with just neutral colours.

Hehe, I was watching The Block while I was making this card and guess what rooms they were working on? Yep, bathrooms! So many bathrooms feature subway tiles and it's a look I really like, so I decided to incorporate it into my card. I started with a 5 x 7 inch piece of Gorgeous Grape cardstock, which I backed with a similarly sized piece of Adhesive Sheet. I then chopped up the piece to create 10 strips that were 1/2 x 7 inches. These were then adhered to a 5 x 7 inch piece of Basic Black cardstock, leaving a small gap between each strip - the Adhesive Sheets make this a super easy task!  After applying a second 5 x 7 inch piece of Adhesive Sheet to the back of this piece, I turned it sideways and cut it into 1/4 x 5 inch strips. As with the first strips, these were adhered to a second 5 x 7 inch piece of Basic Black cardstock, leaving gaps between each one. This time, however, I staggered the placement of the strips so that I got the brick wall pattern. All that was left to do was to trim the piece to be card front size and adhere it to my Basic Black base. 

To finish the front, I selected a wreath design from my Forever Gold Laser Cut Paper pack and adhered it using some glue dots. A few flowers with Gorgeous Grape Rhinestones in the centre, a Gold Twine bow and a sentiment from A Good Man and it was done. I didn't want to cover up too much of the background!

The reason I created such a large background before trimming it down was so that I could use a left over piece on the inside. It's so much easier to do it all in one go, even if you end up needing a bit of muscle to trim all the layers down!

As always, Catherine is playing Hostess for our Creative Showcase. You can find the links to the rest of this week's Gorgeous Grape posts over on her blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Cherry Cobbler

Hi!

Thanks for once again joining me for the Colour Creations Showcase. This week we are all creating with Cherry Cobbler, a lovely, rich red. It's a colour that I associate with Christmas, and given that I have just received my new Christmas goodies, it was a no-brainer for me.

I started by embossing my Whisper White card front with the Subtle 3DEF, and then layering some of the double sprigs from the Sunflowers Dies in opposite corners. I used three sprigs on each side, and just adhered them at the base so that the ends would sit away from the base.

I then layered one of the Forever Gold Laser Cut accents over the top using Dimensionals. Before I did, though, I die cut the word 'Joy' from the Joy Dies from the centre of the accent piece. As it was going to be covered up anyway, it's a great way to be a little more thrifty with your supplies.

I used another, smaller, Forever Gold accent piece on the inside. It matches the leaves in the piece on the front, so I think it suits perfectly. I tried layering more of the sprigs underneath, but it just wasn't working, so I opted for just the simple leaves.

As always, this week's Creative Showcase is hosted by the lovely Catherine. Please pop on over to her blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's links.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #511: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Yay, it's Friday! Time for the new Just Add Ink challenge, a gorgeous Inspiration Photo chosen by Rachael.

I have a couple of these plants - Mother-In-Law's Tongue? - but mine certainly don't look this healthy! I'm not a gardener, but I do try. I have managed to keep them alive, even if they are a little droopy.

Anyway, on to the challenge! I think Inspiration Photos are the challenges that I find hardest, and it takes a lot of thought to finally settle on a design. 

One thing I noticed about the photo was lots of long, tall lines. The plants themselves, and the candlesticks in the background. These were the inspiration for the strips on my card. They were cropped from the In Good Taste DSP using the stitched rectangle die in the Ornate Layers set. To make the middle one longer, I simply snipped in in half and hid the gap under the sentiment layers.

The second part of my card was all about the textures. I reached for my go-to embossing folder (Subtle) for the background, but as I flipped through my folders I saw my Pinewood Planks folder and thought that it suited the theme better. The retired Burlap Trim was a nod to the basket that one of the plants sits in, and the Sprig punched shapes were to add a little more of the green of the plants. Finally, the leaf from the Forever Gold SP added a touch of luxe.

I used another little strip of the wood DSP for the inside of the card. The sentiments, both front and inside, are from Itty Bitty Birthdays. 

It's time now to pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see the rest of this week's Design Team cards. You can also link up your card for the challenge. I'd love to see what inspires you in the photo.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #510: Just Add A Fancy Fold

Hi!

Yay, it's one of my favourite times of the week - Just Add Ink time! This week Jo has challenged us to Add A Fancy Fold to our creations!

I do enjoy a good Fancy Fold, although it's been a while since I've made one. I tossed up making a Bridge Fold card using the World Of Good suite, but in the end I reached for my In Good Taste DSP and the Forever Gold Laser Cut Specialty Paper.

 A bit of googling for a Fancy Fold that I hadn't tried before lead me to Qbees Quest and her tutorial for a card she called a Pull Out Fancy Fold Card. It looked a fairly easy one to try, and I was right. I changed mine to a 5" square card, to better suit the Forever Gold element.

I used my Layering Circles Dies to cut a hole in the centre of the In Good Taste DSP, which I then adhered to the Early Espresso card base. I then used the same die to cut a hole in the card base, lined up with the DSP. The same die was also used to crop the centre of the Forever Gold element.

A slightly smaller card base in Whisper White was adhered to the inside of the Early Espresso base, with the front piece folded back on itself. The Gold paper, cropped from the front element, was adhered to the WW flap by lining it up through the front opening.

Here's the card fully open. Another piece of the wood In Good Taste DSP was added to the inside. I think it breaks up the white card nicely.

I quite enjoyed making this Fancy Fold card, so thanks for the challenge, Jo! To see the rest of this week's Design team cards, please pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog. You can also link up your own Fancy Fold card there. Which Fancy Fold will you choose? There are lots to pick from!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #271 Week 1: CASE The Annual Catalogue

Hi!

Welcome back once again to the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. With the launch of the new Annual Catalogue only days away, we are kicking off with CASEing the front cover of the catalogue.

You can choose any element of the cover to CASE - the cards themselves, the colours, the techniques, the stamp sets - you imagination is your limit! I chose to CASE the cover photo itself.

The wattle was one of the first things that caught my eye on the cover. To replicate that, I used one of the Gold Foil wreaths from the Forever Gold Laser Cut Specialty Paper. I'm not a Gold person, so I'd originally skipped over these, but after a Zoom chat with my lovely friend, Judy May, I decided I had to have them! If you're not much of a gold person, you can use the flip side, which is white. There are pops of Bermuda Bay on the cover, so I did the same on my card. It's a nice balance to the blonde wood paper from the In Good Taste DSP pack.

I used a second piece of wood paper from the pack as my circle. I deliberately chose this section, with the strong lines created by the wood planks, as I thought it reflected the strong lines between the cards on the cover. I split the sentiment, from Celebrate Sunflowers, into three pieces to represent the three cards, and a scattering of sequins to finish it off.

I used a smaller gold leaf piece from the Forever Gold pack to decorate the inside, layered over a couple of sprigs cropped using the new Sunflowers Dies, with some more In Good Taste DSP over the top. I've left off a sentiment for the inside, as 'Let's Celebrate You' could work for a few occasions. I can easily stamp an inside sentiment when I know how I'll use this card.

The Annual Catalogue challenge runs for two weeks. To enter all you need to do is make a card that is a CASE of some element of the front cover and post the picture in our Facebook group. Make sure you add a little description of when you are CASEing, especially if it's not obvious.

Before you go, however, don't forget to finish the Blog Hop! Next up is the lovely Michelle, with her gorgeous green card.

Bye for now,

Tina