Colour Creations: Bumblebee

 Hi!

Welcome back to this week's Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week it's Bumblebee's turn. Are you a fan of this mustardy-yellow? I am not! I much prefer a 'cleaner' yellow, so I really struggled with this week's card. In looking through the products I own that featured Bumblebee, I came across my What A Year Memories and More card pack, and an idea was born!

I loved the tile pattern on this card, and so it became the basis for my card. I started by cropping the curve in the bottom of the card using one of my Basic Borders Dies. I then matted the piece on some Bumblebee cardstock and cropped it again, so that I had a thin Bumblebee border all around the piece.

I couldn't resist using the retired Dainty Diamonds 3DEF on the Whisper White card - it is the perfect match with the M&M card! A few pops of black with the Matte Black Dots finished off the front nicely.

You can see that on the inside of my card I used the offcuts from the M&M card and the Bumblebee matt on the front. Not much gets wasted in my house!

Please continue your way around our Blog Hop, as there's plenty more inspiration to be seen. Next up is the AWH Team leader, Claire Daly.

If you find a broken link at any point in the Blog Hop, you can view the full list of participants on Catherine Proctor’s blog. 

Bye for now,

Tina

May Creative Showcase: New Annual Catalogue

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for this month's Creative Showcase. Naturally, as the new Annual Catalogue began this month, we are focussing on products from that catalogue. I've been a bit slow off the mark with ordering from the catalogue, but I couldn't resist the gorgeous What A Year Memories & More card pack.

My sister recently purchased her first home, and so I thought that I would use one of the cards to make her a card of congratulations. This cute little card with the house was the perfect choice! The new Polished Pink cardstock was cropped using the largest Stitched So Sweetly die, and then I trimmed the card to fit inside the stitched line.

The only current embossing folder that I have is the Bricks & Mortar folder, which I thought was an apt choice for the background. The word home was cropped from Whisper White cardstock with some Foam Adhesive Sheet attached to the back using the Playful Alphabet Dies. I used the retired Well Written Dies for the cute little heart in the centre of the 'O'.

Nice and simple on the inside, with just the Congratulations sentiment from Peaceful Moments in Polished Pink ink. I didn't think we needed another bright pink in our range, but I am coming to like this pink!

You'll find the rest of the links for this month's Showcase over on Rachel's blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 546: Just Add Steampunk

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Chantelle is daring us to make a card or project in the Steampunk style. It had quite a lot of the Design Team wondering what is Steampunk?

To me Steampunk is the blend of mechanical/industrial and arty/fantasy elements. Sort of the Industrial Revolution meets Alice In Wonderland, I guess! Either way, it was out of my comfort zone but I was bound to have a bit of fun with it. 

Cogs are a bit of a no-brainer for Steampunk, so I added a good handful to my background. I layered them over and under some DSP and a Memories and More card from the World Of Good Suite. The words are also from a M&M card. Texture is often used in Steampunk cards, especially corrugated card, which I used to layer under my main sentiment.

Let's talk about my butterfly. I googled some images/pages and found this one, which became the inspiration for my butterfly. I really love how the butterfly looks like it's made from metal plates, riveted together.

My only butterfly stamp was the one from A Touch Of Ink, so I stamped it in stamped-off Gray Granite ink. I then used my Copic Multiliner to draw in the plates and rivets, following the basic outlines from the stamp. Then I just coloured it with my Smokey Slate and Soft Suede Stampin' Blends.

I was very pleased with how it turned out! I reckon the seahorse from Seaside Notions would look pretty cool drawn and coloured like this, too.

I finished the card with some more cogs on the inside. You might be able to see the Wink Of Stella that I added to all the cogs on my card. I couldn't resist adding a top hat to the inside, either - it seems to be a common image used in Steampunk cards, although usually with the cool goggles over the top.

Overall, the Steampunk theme wasn't as scary as I though it would be. Have you ever tried it? Why not give it a go? You can link your card up over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also find the rest of this week's Design team cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

Happiness Blooms With Pineapple

Hi!

This week for the Colour Creations Blog Share we are looking at another colour that I'm not really fond of  - Pineapple Punch. It's just a bit too fluro for me! However, after using it this week I have to concede that it's not too bad after all.

I don't actually have a lot of Pineapple Punch stuff, so I decided to see what I could do with some of the cards from my Happiness Blooms Memories and More kit.

I made a gift box! The Memories & More card I used was one of the specialty cards that has a glossy design on them. In this case, the flowers are the glossy part. To make the box lid I simply scored each side at 3/4 inch and then cut, folded and glued to make the lid. The base of the box was made in a similar fashion. I did sketch it out in a notebook first to make sure I got all of the dimensions correct. Measure twice, cut once!

The tag is one of my favourites from the Occasions Catalogue - the Sweet Pins and Tags pack. I coloured the tag using a sponge brayer and Night Of Navy ink and then layered some stickers from the Memories & More pack. The flowers were white, so to turn them Pineapple Punch I simple coloured them with the Dark Pineapple Punch Blend.

I used a length of Pineapple Punch 1/8" Grosgrain Ribbon to hold the box closed and to anchor the tag. It didn't stand out very well, so I added a belly band of Night Of Navy underneath. Much better!

That's it for me, so why not pop on over to Catherine's blog to see the rest of this week's projects?

Bye for now,

Tina

Scrappy Saturday: Colour Theory

Hi!

While you've been looking at the catalogue, did you notice that Stampin' Up! now has it's own line of pocket scrapbooking products? It's called Memories And More, and I think it was a fabulous move by SU. The company is well known for coordinating products, and Memories and More allow a greater range of coordination than before.

On to my pages. This was my first layout completed with the new Colour Theory Collection. Many of the cards have a seasonal theme in this collection, and they are designed to coordinate with the Colourful Theory suite of products (page 146). I have selected some of the more generic cards for my layout though.

I've put together a quick double page of a trip to Melbourne that my daughter, her bestie and her mum, and myself took last August to see Matilda The Musical.

We had a full weekend in Melbourne, seeing the sights. It was the girl's first time in a plane, and they were lucky enough to get to sit in the cockpit after we landed.

I wanted to keep the layout symmetrical, but I was struggling to find a suitable card to put in the top left pocket on this page. Thankfully I'd saved my ticket, and as it contained similar blues to the Colour Theory cards, I decided to chop it and use it in the pocket.

I'm looking forward to scrapping more with this range, and also the other three packs. What about you?

Bye for now,

Tina