JAI 788: Colour and Inspiration

 Hi!

Hello, and welcome to another challenge from Just Add Ink. This fortnight we have a Colour & Inspiration Challenge, suggested to us by Nikki.

It's a wet, windy, cold evening here in Adelaide as I write this post, and the cat snuggled up in a blanket is the perfect image to describe where I'd like to be. Although, being human, I'd like a cup of tea and a good book with me as I snuggle!

I'm definitely a blue girl, so this colour scheme was right up my alley. I don't have any suitable cat themed things in my stash, so I decided to go with birds instead. I fussy cut these birds from a sheet of Flight & Airy DSP. The backing DSP is also from the same pack. The watercolour effect is so pretty!

I'm not sure why I chose to make a sympathy card. I (fortunately) don't have need for one at the moment, but it never hurst to have a few in the stash, just in case. The sentiment is from Heal Your Heart, cropped with a Tasteful Labels die. I layered it over a Layering Ovals diecut, that I embossed with my Subtle DTIEF. It's hard to see in the photo!

The inside of the card includes both another bird and another sentiment from the supplies that I mentioned that I used on the front of the card.

What will you take inspiration from in this fortnight's challenge? You can see what the rest of the Design Team have created over on the Just Add Ink blog. You can also find our challenge gallery there when you're ready to link up your card.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Soft Sea Foam

 Hi!

Hello and welcome to the new Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week it's Soft Sea Foam's turn to shine. It's a lovely, soft green that I like, but don't really use much.

I decided to play with a new stamp set that a lovely friend gifted me recently. It's from the upcoming Annual Catalogue, and is called Leaf Collection. I can see myself using this leafy background stamp a lot. I stamped it in SSF ink onto the coordinating cardstock, matted it on Whisper White, and then layered it over a SSF card base.

A scrap oval of vellum helped to distinguish the white Paper Butterfly Accents piece from the background. A scrap of ribbon was used to highlight the Biggest Wish sentiment. I cropped it using a banner from the Stylish Shapes Dies.

My card inside ended up a little differently than I planned. The butterfly was meant to be in the bottom left corner, but after I finished inking it, I noticed a smudge at the top right. I just flipped the card and stamped 'friend' over the top of the smudge to hide it. Phew!

The next stop on tonight's hop is the wonderful Cathy Proctor. I'm sure that she's made something fabulous that you won't want to miss out on seeing.

Cathy is also our amazing go-to-gal for when things go wrong with the links on the blog hop. Pop on over to her blog if you run into a problem. She'll have a list of all of tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 682: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Welcome to the new Just Add Ink Challenge! This week we have a Sketch challenge for you, designed by.... me!

When I design sketches, I try to make tham as open to interpretation as I can. I just love what the Design Team has done with the sketch. So many gorgeous cards.

I decided to play with my Beary Christmas DSP again. I thought that the mini scenes with the animals would be a great choice for the oval panel. To suit the paper, I rotated the oval, but otherwise kept the card the same as the sketch.

The glittery strip behind the polar bears was very difficult to photograph. It's gorgeous in real life - you'll just have to take my word for it! I finally cracked open my Navy Glitter ribbon too. Yum!

Did you notice that I didn't use a sentiment on the front of the card? I didn't think needed one, so I left it off. It's pretty easy to tell what occasion the card is for! Just in case the recipient can't work it out, there's a lovely big sentiment on the inside, stamped using my Joy To You stamp set.

That's all from me for tonight. Please pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have created with the sketch. You can also link up your card to enter the challenge. I'd love to see what you do with the sketch.

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 10

 Hi!

Monday night is Heart Of Christmas night in this neck of the woods! I hope you've been hopping with us for the previous 9 weeks to see a lot of fabulous Christmas inspiration. So many wonderful Christmas cards and tags have been made by the HOC hoppers.

I've made a group of mini slimline cards this week, using the September 2022 Sheetload Of Cards template. It's a sweet little sized card, sound 6" x 3", which fits nicely into a regular envelope. I've decorated mine with the Celebrate Everything Host DSP. I love the bright, cheerful papers.

The writing space is very small, as the card base is approximately 4" x 3". I chose a smaller sentiment from Brightest Glow so that I didn't take up too much writing space.

Here's my usual group of four cards. I used the Spruced Outlines Dies to crop some Poppy Parade cardstock. They frame the Brightest Glow sentiment perfectly!

That's all from me for tonight, but please do continue hopping your way around all of our blogs. There's lots more Christmassy gorgeousness to be seen, starting with my lovely friend, Kate Morgan.

As she does every week, the fabulous Sharon Davern is keeping the HOC hoppers super organised. If you run into an issue with any links, pop on over to her blog, where she'll have a list of all of tonight's blogs.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Coastal Cabana

 Hi!

Welcome back to another week of the Colour Creations Blog Hop! This week it's Coastal Cabana week, a colour that I really like. It's a gorgeous, soft blue-green from the Brights family.

I went for a super bright colour combo this week, and a new-to-me stamp set that I'd been umming and ahhing over since the start of the new catalogue. I finally took the plunge, and I'm glad that I did.

Have you noticed Simply Fabulous in the Annual Catalogue? It's stylised floral style really suits me! I created my own DSP by using the floral images and the combo colours.

I really love the fonts in this stamp set, too!

I actually couldn't decide which colour combo to use this week, and I was loving the stamp set so much, that I made two cards!

This one is a little different, in that the background stamping is much closer together than on the first card.

Here's the two cards together. Which one do you prefer? 

I think that my favourite is the left card.

That's all from me for tonight, but please do continue your way around the blog hop tonight. There's plenty more Coastal Cabana goodness to see! The net stop on the way is my lovely friend, Kathryn Ruddick.

As always, Sharon Davern is the wonderful lady keeping us all organised. If you run into any issues, pop on over to her blog to find a list of all of tonight's participants.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Cajun Craze

 Hi!

It's time once again for the new Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week it's Cajun Craze's turn to be featured. It's quite a divisive colour, but I think that it has a great place in the colour line up. It's a lovely deep rust/terracotta from the Regals colour family.

I think that Brian King made a wonderful choice to pair it with Basic White and Night Of Navy.

I started my card by masking the negative of the oval shape using our new Masking Paper. Sadly, I found the paper a bit *too* sticky, and my first effort was lost trying to remove the paper. The second attempt saw me remove some of the stickiness of the Masking Paper by sticking it to my pants a few times. Worked a treat! I then used a Blending Brush to apply some Cajun Craze ink to the edges of the oval.

The images from Forever Fern were stamped over the top and then a few scraps of coordinating cardstock were punched with the Banners Pick A Punch to layer over the top.

Similar techniques were used on the inside of my card. I"m not quite sure why the photo is showing a yellow streak though the middle, though! Perhaps a raindrop dripped on my card as I was taking the photo?

That's all from me for tonight, but there's lots more Cajun Craze inspiration to be found in our blog hop tonight. Jump on over to the next blog, belonging to the wonderful Rachel Palmieri.

As ever, the equally wonderful Catherine Proctor is keeping us all organised, so if you lose your way or find a broken link, just on over to her blog to get back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 603: Just Add Colour

 Hi!

Woo hoo for Friday! It's been a busy week, so I'm looking forward to the weekend. I hope that you are, too. 

This week at Just Add Ink, Nikki has given us a pretty colour combo to create with. Hehe, I think that a lot of the Design Team thought that it was a very floral combo, as there are lots of flower cards in the gallery. I was no exception!

These colours work so beautifully with the Butterflies & Flowers Layering Masks, don't you think? I started with a base of Blushing Bride and added the Rich Razzleberry over the top. The final layer was the Mint Macaron leaves.

I had some Mint Macaron Glimmer Paper in my stash, so I used the long-retired Expressions Thinlit Dies to crop the word 'love'.

I made this card to give to my Mother-In-Law for Mother's Day, so finished it off with some more stencilling and a sentiment from Timeless Tulips. She loved the card (and the gift) that we gave her.

You can see the rest of this week's Design Team cards over on the Just Add Ink blog. You can also link up your card for our challenge. What do you see in our colour combo this week?

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 594: Just Add Masking

 Hi!

Are you ready for the weekend? It's a long weekend here in Adelaide, so I'm sneaking off for a quick girl's weekend by the sea. I can't wait! There'll still be plenty of crafting time to be had, though, so get your entries in for the new Just Add Ink challenge.

This week Kerry has challenged us to add Masking to our cards I think I went a little overboard, but why not? LOL. To put it simply, masking is protecting one area so that you can apply ink to another area without getting ink on the first area. Got it? I hope so!!

I've just received this Clearly Besotted stamp set, called Picture It Castle. I can't resist anything from this fandom!! My first mask was the large oval. I cut it from copy paper and laid it over my cardstock before stamping the image over the top. I left it in place while I coloured the image. I also stamped the castle on a sticky note and fussy cut it, creating another mask so that I could use a cloud stencil (another masking tool) to create the sky. I'd also cut away the lake part of the image so that I could use a Blending Brush to ink the lake. How fab does the moonlight on the lake look? I just faded out the ink over that section.

I'd also used a circle punch to crop a mask for the moon, which I used while I was sponging the clouds. After I'd completed the clouds I removed the mask and then used the negative to allow me to colour the moon without getting the ink into the clouds. Finally, I popped the could stencil back in place so that I could do one cloud covering the moon. My final masking technique on the card was to mask off part of the bird stamp so that I only inked one bird. The stamp is from On The Horizon. I also used this technique to mask off part of the sentiment. I used the first line on the front and the second line on the inside. The stamp set is Expecto Stampo from Ink Road Stamps.

So much masking! But it was worth it, I really love this card! I celebrate my 20th Wedding Anniversary next month, so I think this would be a good card to give to my hubby.

What are your favourite masking techniques? I can't wait to see what you make. To see what the Design team made, and to link up your card, please pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog. See you there!

Bye for now,

Tina

Heart Of Christmas Week 18

 Hi!

Welcome to another Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. We are up to week 18 of the hops, and with only four more weeks of hops to go after this week, we are certainly on the downhill run into Christmas.

I have used the August 2021 Sheetload Of Cards template for this week's cards. If you've been following closely, I have actually skipped a few months and jumped to August. It's mostly because I wanted to make a card that featured this goofy pupper, and this was the most suitable template. I really love the Sweet Stockings DSP!

I couldn't resist adding a couple of extra pets on the inside. All three animals are from the same sheet of DSP, so they go well together. My class ladies made this card last weekend, and it made planning their kits even easier!

Here are the group of cards together. I really love how the Christmas lights DSP echoes the lights wrapped around the dog. Super cute!!

Next up on our Blog Hop tonight is the very talented Michele Taylor. I have several of her HOC cards into my 'To CASE' file, and I'm sure tonight's card won't be any different!

I am the Host of this week's Blog Hop, so please pop back here if you run into any problems. Here's a list of all participating tonight:

Michele Taylor

Kate Morgan

Ros Davidson

Catherine Proctor

Sharon Davern

Christine Blain

Theresa Gerrard

Andrea Sargent

Rachel Woollard

Caroline Manwaring

Rosa Leyden

Bye for now,

Tina