Colour Creations: Poppy Parade

 Hi!

Welcome to Poppy Parade week of the Colour Creations Blog Hop. It's a bright, happy red that is my most used red. I was a bit time poor this week, and I had visions of doing a quick and simple card. Sigh. I should have known that it would end up a bit more complicated than I expected!

Hehe, I decided to go with a pun to suit the Trusty Toolbox DSP. I used my Mini Alphabet Dies to cut the sentiment, and thanks to the doubled up letters on the die, I cut all that I needed in one pass through my Big Shot. Yay! The drill DSP was roughly cut, adhered to a piece of Thick Whisper White card and then fussy cut once dry. As I was popping it up over the Everyday Details die cut, the extra layer of cardstock helps to prevent sagging.

I was tempted to go with another pun on the inside, but I restrained myself. The Happy Birthday sentiment, from Level Complete, will have to do!

That's all from me this week, but please do keep making your way around all of tonight's blogs. The next stop is my lovely friend, Rachel Palmieri. I'm sure that she'll have something fabulous for us to see.

If you come across any broken links in tonight's blog hop, please jump on over to our wonderful hostess, Cathy Proctor's blog. She will have a list of all tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Moody Mauve

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by on your way around our Colour Creations Blog Hop. We re starting with the new In Colours, and this week it's Moody Mauve's turn. I wasn't a big fan of the colour, but after a play I'm starting to come around.

I've seen a few cards lately using strips of cardstock to create a background panel, so that was my starting point for this card. I alternated Moody Mauve with the new pink, Bubble Bath, and Whisper White. I quite like that combo! I layered it over some Gold Foil for a bit of extra zing.

To decorate, I cropped a daisy from the Fresh As A Daisy DSP with one of my circular Stylish Shapes Dies. The sentiment, from Biggest Wish, was cropped using one of the banner dies from the same pack. I used my Layering Circles Dies to add a matt of Gold Foil under the daisy. The gold works nicely with the Wild Wheat in the daisy DSP.

As always, when I made the front panel I made it a bit bigger than I needed for the front so that I could use the rest on the inside of my card. It ties it all together so nicely. The smaller daisy is a nice finishing touch, too.

That's all from me, but please do keep hopping your way around all of the blogs on tonight's hop. The next stop is Christina Barnes - I can't wait to see what she's made.

If you run into any issues with links on the hop, just pop on over to the wonderful Cathy Proctor's blog. She will have a list of all tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 415: Favourite Retiring DSP

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. It's been a while since I've been able to play, so it's great to be back!

This week we are asking you to CASE a project made sing your favourite DSP from either of the current catalogues. There's so many great packs, that it's hard to narrow it down!

I have to say though, that my favourite DSP is the Lovely Linen pack. I love the mix of floral and geometric patterns. They reminded me a lot of tiles or patchwork quilts. I chose this card from page 24 to CASE, as I loved the strips of DSP all higgledy-piggledy in the background. It's a fabulous way to use a lot of different papers from the pack.

While the catalogue sample leant towards the Sweet Sorbet and Night Of Navy papers, I went for the Pale Papaya and Soft Succulent colour ways. I also changed the card to be portrait layout, and only used a single die cut shape over the top, rather than a row of punched shapes. It was a little simpler and cleaner for my tastes.

The DSP strips are 3.5" by 1", and I adhered them to a piece of Whisper White cardstock before popping the whole lot up on the Navy card base. Adding the extra layer underneath gives a bit more stability to the design.

One last strip of DSP was put to use on the inside of the card, along with my retiring favourite stamp set, Simply Fabulous. I will miss both the DSP and the stamp set!

We'd love to know what your favourite retiring DSP is. To play along with us, just CASE a card from the catalogue that uses the DSP and add a photo to our Facebook Group before next Sunday's blog hop. It's that easy!

My lovely friend, Rachel Palmieri is up next in our DSP Blog Hop. I think that I would have successfully guessed which DSP she'd used if I'd been put to the test. You won't want to miss her gorgeous card.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 642: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week we have a sketch for you, designed for us by Kim.

I really loved the strip down the left side, and the way that the matt on the square panel disappears under the strip. It's such a fun idea. I decided to pull out my Taco Fiesta stamp set to play with.

The paper I used is long retired, from the Festive Birthday DSP pack. It suits the Taco Fiesta stamp set perfectly.

I stamped the guac and bowl with Memento ink, and then coloured them with my Stampin' Blends. I thought that the bowl looked a little plain, so I used a tiny strip of DSP that was floating in the pack to decorate the bowl. Problem solved!

Guac is nothing without corn chips, right? I just had to include them on the inside of my card!

That's all from me tonight, but we'd love to see what you do with this sketch. Pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see what the rest of the Design Team have made. Then link your card up using our Linky to enter the challenge. Done!

Bye for now,

Tina

World Cardmaking Day Blog Hop

 Hi!

To celebrate World Card Making Day, I am participating in Kathryn's Blog Hop of Stampin' Up! Demonstrators from All Around the World to share a card that I have made today (or recently). She has also challenged us to post it within a week to someone special, as we all forget sometimes to send cards that we make and they just sit in a box.

I've slightly cheated with my card, in that the recipient already has it! I was asked to make a card for a lot of people to sign that was for the conductor of a development band. She unfortunately had to step down, and we wanted to acknowledge her hard work over the years. I don't like making oversized cards, so I try to look for cards that open up to allow for many people to sign. The closed card is 6 inches square.

The design is based upon a tutorial I found on Lisa's Stamp Studio website for a Diagonal Explosion Card. Her original was 4 inches square, so I played around with the measurements to make it just that little bit bigger. The photo above shows it half way open.

And here it is, fully open. Lots of space for people to write on! I knew that the recipient was a fan of this singing bookworm and the house full of magical objects, so I was sure to include them on the card. I coloured them with my Copic markers.

It's time now to jump on over to the next hopper, Elizabeth Gross. We'd love for you to hop your way around all of the blogs tonight, so just keep on going until you get back to where you started.

Bye for now,

Tina

Bron's Birthday Blog Hop - August

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the second to last Birthday Blog Hop for Bronwyn Eastley, as she celebrates her 60th birthday. If you've followed Bron for a while, you know that she's the Queen of Fancy Fold cards. She creates the most amazing cards! Fittingly, this month's theme is Fancy Folds!

My daughter, Ada, celebrated her 17th Birthday last month, and she'd always talked about the ABBA song, Dancing Queen. I decided to make her card in this theme. The front pink panel was a download that I purchased from Etsy and printed to card front size. I then purchased a disco themed SVG bundle, which included the mirror ball. I used my Scan'n'Cut to crop it to size. I used a circle die to cut an opening in the pink panel so that the Be Dazzling paper would show through. I think it makes a fabulous mirror ball!

The inside of the card is where the Fancy Fold shines through - some more images from the disco SVG pack were used to decorate the Twist And Pop Fancy Fold. The text at the top was another Etsy purchase.

Here's a video so that you can see how the card opens up. Hopefully it works! I'm pleased to say that Ada loved it, and it has pride of place on her desk.

I wanted to get my money's worth out of the Etsy purchase, so she also got a custom made top. She hasn't worn it yet, but it will likely get an airing in summer.

And last, but not least, was the cake topper!

That's me done for tonight, but please do continue your way around our Blog Hop. There's also an Instagram Hop - you'll find the details over on Bron's blog. Next up though is my Kiwi friend, Jan Clothier.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Cherry Cobbler

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we are featuring Cherry Cobbler, a deep red from the Regals colour family. With all the new Christmas offerings out recently, I'm sure we'll see more than a few Christmas cards tonight. Not from me though!

I'm pairing the new Tech Support stamp set with this fabulous, masculine colour combo from Brian King. Tech Support was one of my first purchases from the new Annual Catalogue. This next bit may sound strange, but it's not a stamp set that I like particularly much, and I'm struggling to create with it. However, I want Stampin' Up! to create more stamp sets for gamers and computer peeps, and they will only do this if there is demand for it. By buying this stamp set, I hope to show a level of demand, and if you want more sets like this, I hope that you will, too!

Now, on with the card!

I started by stamping the keys and cursor in Crumb Cake ink onto Crumb Cake card then embossed it with my Subtle 3DEF. I then layered some banners over the top.

I used the binary code stamp in my Stamparatus to create the background layer for my sentiment. I was aiming for it to mimic the 'thinking' symbol in the sentiment. By the way, thanks to a hint from our fabulous Colour Creations coordinator, Catherine Proctor, I watched a SU video on Facebook that talked about the inspiration for different sets. Tech Support was one of those sets, and I discovered that the binary code reads 'for you' in English. How cool - a lovely hidden message on my card!

For those not in the know, an ERROR 404 is a page not found error, so it's a cute play on words to change it to an age not found message. LOL! Maybe I am liking this stamp set, after all!

That's all from me for tonight, but we'd love for you to continue your way around our blog hop. The next stop is my fabulous friend, Kate Morgan, who I'm sure has something wonderful for you to see,

Catherine Proctor keeps the Colour Creation blog hops running smoothly, so if you run into any problems, just jump on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all of tonight's participants.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 379: Sale-A-Bration Catalogue

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. Can you believe that it's the end of the week - and for me, the end of the school holidays - already? 

This week we are returning to the Sale-A-Bration catalogue. You can CASE any project on any page. I found this fun card on page 4.

Rays Of Light was one of the very first stamp sets I purchased from the Annual Catalogue, so I'm always on the lookout for samples using it. I loved that each individual ray was cut out and applied to this card, so like a crazy woman, I decided to CASE it.

There's a LOT of rays! LOL. I stamped the image on two pieces of Flirty Flamingo cardstock. One was cropped with a Stitched Rectangles Die. I fussy cut each ray from the second piece of cardstock and layered it over the top. I adhered the inner part of the ray directly to the cardstock, and the end of the ray was popped up on Dimensionals. It gave a really cool effect to the card.

Once I finished, I trimmed the edges and adhered the piece to a Gold Foil card. The Nothing's Better Than bundle was used to decorate the card. I cropped the word 'Cocktails' five times - four in Basic Black and one in Gold foil. I made sure I used Adhesive Sheet on the back so that I was able to adhere the layers together easily. 

I couldn't resist adding another cocktail to the inside. This card will be going to a niece, who is celebrating her 18th birthday later in the month.

We'd love for you to play along with us this week, and every week! All you need to do is make a suitable card, take a photo and add it to our Facebook group. Easy!

Please keep on hopping around our blog hop, as there is plenty more gorgeous Sale-A-Bration inspiration to be found, starting with the lovely Julia Quinn. 

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 599: Just Add Your Favourite Animal

Hi! 

Here we are once again on a Friday, ready for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Tristan has challenged us to add our favourite animal to our projects.

Hmm, what's your favourite animal? I'm not really sure that I have a favourite, so I decided to go in a bit of a lateral direction for my card!

Hehe, are you old enough to remember this animal? I recently purchased the Kindred Stamps Showtime box, which featured a motley group of friends who love putting on shows. This dude is the drummer, and he loves bursting through walls.

I popped him up on a wobble spring to add to the movement in the card. To create the opening in the wall, I used a circle die to cut an opening and then tore little sections away from the circle. I folded them back on themselves to keep the brick paper exposed rather than the pattern on the back of the paper.

The inside features another character, and animal, from the Showtime box. I gave this card to my oldest son for his birthday. He's just turned 19 and is being left at home on his own for the first time, as we take the younger two away for a long weekend. He has to work, which is why he's not coming. So the sentiment on the front is a play on this - I've told him 'no wild parties' while we are away. Thankfully, he's not the type anyway!

That's all from me, but please jump on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's favourite animal cards. You can also link up your card when you've decided which animal is your favourite.

Bye for now,

Tina