Colour Creations: Soft Suede

 Hi!

Hello, and welcome to the final Colour Creations Blog Hop for the 2022-23 Catalogue. Never fear - we will start again next week with the brand new In Colours. This week, however, we are finishing with Soft Suede, a colour that we are farewelling permanently from the colour line up.

I turned to Brian King one last time for a colour combo, that added Petal Pink and Mint Macaron (sob!! It's retiring too!) to Soft Suede. It's a very retro combo, so I pulled out the retiring Nothing's Better Than stamp set, with the coordinating Love You More Than Dies. Sadly, they are both retiring, too.

I also thought that my Dots & Spots Die would work well with the retro vibe of the card. It allows little pops of Soft Suede to peek through from the card base.

I stamped each of the coffee cups in the colours from the combo, popping up the central, Soft Suede Cup. I'm really not a fan of Soft Suede, and I found it really difficult to find a nice way to make it the main colour.

I love the inside that I created for my card. The coffee cup over the banner is so much fun!

I'll likely take a couple of weeks off from the Colour Creations Hop, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I've forgotten to order any of the new colour stuff from Stampin' Up!. Oops! I'll get to it soon! In the meantime though, there's plenty more Soft Suede inspiration to be found on this blog hop, so jump on over to the lovely Caroline Manwaring's blog to see what she's done with it.

As always, even while busily setting up the next round of Colour Creations Blog Hops, Cathy Proctor is our wonderful Host. Pop on over to her blog if you run into any issues with links. She's have a list of all of tonight's participants on her blog for you to get back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Melon Mambo

 Hi!

Welcome to Melon Mambo week of the Colour Creations Blog Hops. Many years go, Melon Mambo was an In Colour (with Rich Razzleberry and Soft Suede), before becoming a part of the permanent colour range in a colour refresh. It's a fabulous, bright pink that is usually my go-to pink.

It mustn't be a go-to pink for Brian King though, as I could only find one combo, using current colours, of his that uses it! It's a fabulous combo, so I wasn't too worried by the lack of choice.

After three days in a row of 30°C temperatures, my mind immediately went to cocktails when I was thinking of what I could use these colours for. The Nothing's Better Than bundle leapt off my shelf and into my hands, LOL.

I started by stamping the 'kind of day' sentiment on the bottom of the cropped Stylish Shapes circle. The 'Cocktails' was cut three times in Melon Mambo card, and then stacked for dimension. Adhesive Sheets make short work of this! Originally, the 'today is a' was going to be stamped at the top of the circle, but I quickly realised that I didn't have room for that, so over the top it went!

To get the two-toned cocktails, I just inked one half of the filler stamp with the lightest colour, and then carefully inked the other half with the darker colour. I used the edge of the inkpad rather than the middle. Saves a lot of fussing around!

Thanks for joining me for Melon Mambo week, but please do continue hopping your way around all of the blogs tonight. There's plenty more to see, starting with my lovely friend Kathryn Ruddick.

If you run into any problems with the links tonight, please jump on over to our wonderful host, Cathy Proctor's blog. She has a list of all participants, and you can get back on track from there.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 619: Just Add Masculine

 Hi!

Hooray for the ned of the week and the new Just Add Ink challenge. It's been a long week for me, I've been home with Hudson, who has been unwell (again). He loves his cuddles with Mum when he's feeling poorly, which doesn't leave me much time to do anything. Oh well, it's all waiting for me once he's better!

Just in time for Father's Day on Sunday, Tristan has challenged us to make masculine cards. I had a quick moment while Hudson was distracted with a new Wiggles DVD to whip up a quick and easy card for the kids to give Rob for Father's Day.

Hehe, I love this stamp set and die bundle so much - it's really fun! It's from Concord & 9th, and is called Love You More Than. There's a whole lot of options to choose from for the more than bit, but this time I chose French Fries. We all know that most kids love French Fries!

The die has three layers - two fries layers and the box they are in. I added a heart, just for Father's Day. I layered the die cut fries over a masked, inked circle. I inked it with Balmy Blue ink, and faded it out as I got to the top of the circle.

Hehe, I love the inside sentiment, too. I added three die cut hearts, one for each of the kids!

That's it for me for this week's challenge, but your job is just beginning. Pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Design Team cards. You'll also find our linky, where you can add your masculine card to our challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Early Espresso

 Hi!

Hooray, it's time for the new Colour Creations Blog Hop. It's Early Espresso week, which is such a tricky week! Early Espresso is a lovely, rich brown in the colour range, but it's sooooo hard to make a card using it as the hero colour.

Brian King once again provided a fabulous colour combination to springboard my creativity. I'm a sucker for anything Mint Macaron, and it works so well with Early Espresso. It made me think of Mint Chocolate. I toyed a while with trying to make an ice-cream card, but in the end went for cookies.

My background is just a piece of watercolour paper, with the stripes created with Mint Macaron and Sahara Sand ink. I did one colour at a time, and let the paper dry completely between colours. Once it was dry for the second time, I stamped the crosses from Biggest Wish over the top in Early Espresso ink.

The cookies, from Nothing's Better Than, were stamped in Early Espresso and Sahara Sand ink. I was worried that the Sahara would be the wrong colour, but I was pleasantly surprised to be incorrect.

I used more of the same elements on the inside of my card. The side panels were offcuts from the front panel on my card.

That's all from me for tonight, but please do continue your way around our Blog Hop. I'm sure that you'll find some new and exciting ways to incorporate Early Espresso into your crafting. The next stop is my lovely friend, Kate Morgan.

If you run into any problems, please jump on over to Catherine Proctor's blog. She does an excellent job of keeping us all organised each week. You'll find a list of all participants there to help you get back on track.

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 613: Just Add Colour

 Hi!

Hello again! Friday means that it's Just Add Ink challenge time! This week we have a colour combo for you, suggested by Nikki.

I love the mix of the two softer colours with the richer Starry Sky. I went for something a little different, and used Starry Sky as my background, hoping that the lighter Mint Macaron and Fresh Freesia would pop against the deep blue.

I think it works! I used my new Concord & 9th dies, Love You More Than, to crop the flowers. The dies layer over the top of each other to give a more dimensional flower. You can see this a little more clearly in the closer photo below.

The sentiment is from the Let's Party Treat Packaging Kit. I love the fonts in the kit stamp set.

Here's one final tulip for the inside of the card. The colours look so different against a white background rather than Starry Sky.

That's all for me for this week, but your job is just starting! Pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Design Team cards. You'll also be able to link up your card for our challenge. What will you do with our colours?

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Blushing Bride

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for another week of the Colour Creations Blog Hops. Are you enjoying our alphabetical tour through the Stampin' Up! colours? I sure am! This week's colour is Blushing Bride. It's a pale pink, and it's one I don't particularly like. I prefer a more pure pink - this pink is a little dusky for my tastes.

I found this cute colour combo by Brian King. The colours really scream retro to me - kind of 50's kitchen colour scheme - so what else could I use but the Nothing's Better Than bundle?

I stamped all the coffee cups in Memento Tuxedo Black, and then filled them in using the filler stamp and the three combo colours. The Brick & Mortar 3DEF was used to emboss the Blushing Bride background.

The word 'coffee' was cropped from Blushing Bride cardstock four times, and then each piece was glued and stacked to provide a dimensional element to my card. If you can't be bothered doing this, you could easily used the Foam Sheets instead, but I liked the look of the solid pink layers.

Another row of coffee cups finishes off the inside quite nicely.

It's time to hop on over to see the next Blushing Bride creation over on my lovely friend, Kate Morgan's blog. There's lots more inspiration to be found!

If you run into any difficulties with links, please jump on over to the wonderful Catherine Proctor's blog. She has a master list of all of tonight's blog hoppers, so you'll be able to get back on track there.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Soft Suede

 Hi!

Welcome back to the final Colour Creations Blog Hop for the 2021-22 series! We are finishing up with Soft Suede, but don't worry - we will be back again next week with one of the new In Colours. Soft Suede is not a favourite of mine - it's a bit of a strange brown. I really don't know how to describe it!

I struggled for inspiration as a result, so I did a bit of a search on Google Images, and decided to CASE a Nothing's Better Than card made by Shelby Godby of Stamping Smiles. 

I used a different DSP and I also used a different pair of sentiments on the front of my card, but otherwise I stayed fairly true to Shelby's original card.

The inside sentiment is from the new Light The Candles Kit. The font doesn't match exactly, but it's close enough for me!

It's time to jump on over to the next blog in tonight's hop, which is my lovely friend, Christine Blain. She's had fun playing with a set of retiring dies.

Catherine Proctor always does a wonderful job keeping the hops running, and tonight is no exception. If you run into any difficulties with links, please pop on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all tonight's hoppers.

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