A Crumb Cake CASE

Hi!

Here we are with another Colour Creations Blog Share. I've lost track of the week number, but I've managed to play along every week now - Im happy with that! This week we are focussed on one of my very favourite neutrals - Crumb Cake. Is it a colour that you use lots?

I can't remember why I was flicking through the catalogue, but a card on page 139 caught my eye. I'm sure you will work out which one when you have a look. I don't have the Eastern Beauty suite, so I decided to substitute with other stuff from my stash. I was a bit stumped on what to use for the window part until I came across the piece of Crumb Cake I used on my card. I'd cut it ages ago and not used it. Once I trimmed it for the front it was perfect!

I went for some lovely bright colours for the flower and leaves - Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape and Crumb Cake for the flower and Lemon Line Twist with Granny Apple Green for the leaves. The epoxy dots I used on the front are retired, but you'll soon be able to purchase something similar from the Holiday Catalogue 😉

The flower on the inside was my first attempt. I used Early Espresso on the centre, but thought it turned out too dark. Instead of wasting the effort, I popped it on the inside!

Why not pop on over to Catherine's blog, where you can see the rest of this week's Crumb Cake cards? You can bet I will!

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH Blog Hop: CASEing The Catalogue

Hi!

Welcome to June's Art With Heart Blog Hop!

This month, Ros has asked us to CASE a card from the new Annual Catalogue. Do you ever CASE? It's a great way to kick start your creativity when you feel like you've lost your mojo. I also sometimes CASE when I have a new stamp set and I'm a bit stumped on how to use it.

So what is a CASE? It can mean Copy And Share Everything, or Copy And Selectively Edit. Doesn't matter which you pick - it just means you've made a card that was directly inspired by another. Of course, you should always give credit to the original! I've chosen the card at the bottom left of the picture on page 157 to CASE today, and I've made two versions.

If you have your Annual Catalogue handy and have flicked to page 157, you can see that my first card is a pretty direct CASE of the card I chose. I've used all of the same stamp sets, inks and colours - there isn't a lot that I've changed.

In this picture, you can see my two changes - I've used staples instead of stitching (I was feeling a bit too lazy to get out my sewing machine!), and I've used a stamped Pear Pizzazz flag instead of Pear Pizzazz DSP. That was simply because I don't have any current Pear Pizzazz DSP. Otherwise, the card is as close of a CASE as I could make it.

I had to imagine what the inside would look like, as it's rare that the insides are shown in the Catalogue. I just went with similar stamping to the background on the front.

Next, I decided to CASE the same card, but to make it completely different. I started by selecting a different stamp set. I recently got Treehouse Adventure, so I pulled it out for a play. My first effort went in the bin, but I was much happier with the second!

Like the first card, I've used a Crumb Cake card base. I've kept the green background, but this time I've used some Call Me Clover DSP. As I was making a kid's card, I elected to go with bright colours. Once again, my main panel is matted in a dark brown, but this time I've used Early Espresso rather than Soft Suede. The tree and grass replaces the grungy stamping on the first card, but I've used different shades of the one colour (green/brown) on each card, stamping off at times both.

You can easily see on this card, I've flipped some of the elements. The treehouse replaces the sunflower, but now it's on the opposite side of the card. I had no intention to do so, but in stamping the grass I managed to get an ink smudge in a bad spot, so the house had to hide it. I've not used twine on this card, and the banner elements are different, but still in a similar position.

I couldn't resist adding the house in again on the inside!

So there you have it - two cards that CASE the one card, but both are very different!

That's it from me, now you're hopping back to the start, as I'm last on the list. Top of this list this month is the fabulous Catherine Proctor.

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

Catherine Proctor 
Kimberly Hern 

Monika O’Neill

Caroline Manwaring

Kathryn Mangelsdorf 

Kathryn Ruddick 

Kate Morgan 

Alisha Watson

Rachel Palmeri 

Andrea Roberts 

Ros Davidson

Rebecca Jacovou

Rachel Woollard

Tina Gillespie

Bye for now,

Tina

Butterfly Basics No Longer

Hi!

I'm squeezing in an extra blog post this week so that I can show you some more cards that use very soon to be retired products. As is usual lately, I have two cards for you today. This pair both use the retiring Butterfly Basics stamp set. There were a lot of shocked people when they realised all of the current butterfly stamps and dies were being retired, me included. After a little thought though, I was OK with it, as it means new stuff, and the new butterfly die is gorgeous! Time for a change!

On to today's cards! The first card is a CASE of this card by Jenny Hall. I had a request from one of my class ladies to do it in a class, and I was happy to comply. There's not much I changed, apart from locating my main panel a bit higher on the card, and using the sentiment from Butterfly Basics instead of from Painted Harvest.

Sadly, the Painted Harvest set I used was faulty, so the detail isn't visible in the sunflower petals. Thankfully Stampin' Up! replaced the set with a brand new copy that wasn't faulty.

I also did a different inside to Jenny's card - it was a great excuse to stamp the sunflower again!

This second card was also a class card, designed to show my ladies how to do the wreath technique on the Stamparatus. We used the leaves and flowers from the also retiring Number Of Years stamp set. Can you see a new colour on the card? Grapefruit Grove is an early favourite from the batch of new In Colours.

It's a little easier to see in this photo that I used Soft Sky (retiring) to stamp some scattered dots in the gaps between the leaves. It's a subtle effect, but helps to reduce the stark look of the blank space.

 I really love the mix of fonts in the Butterfly Basics sentiments, especially the script font. It's so deliciously like old fashioned hand writing.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH April Blog Hop: Retiring Products

Hi!

Tonight the Art with Heart team are sharing creative projects featuring products from the Last Chance Products list. There are lots of products to choose from with retiring stamp sets, inkpads and ink refills guaranteed to be available until 7 May (and all other products while supplies last). Contact anyone on the blog hop to place your last chance order today.

I've chosen to make a card using several retiring products.

The first retiring product are the Lovely Words Thinlits. They coordinate with the also retiring Lovely Inside & Out stamp set, which I haven't used today. I selected the 'friend' thinlit for my card, as it paired nicely with the inside sentiment. One of the ribbons I have used in the top corner is also retiring - the 1/8" Gold Ribbon. It's Silver twin is also retiring.

The front of the card uses a subtle crackle paper from the Colour Theory DSP Stack. Some of the leaves from the Painted Harvest stamp set were stamped directly to the DSP. Do you ever stamp on DSP? It's a great technique that often gets forgotten. I've backed the word 'friend' with some of the Wood Textures DSP, which is carrying over to the next Annual Catalogue. Yay!

The final retiring products are two of the retiring colours. I've used Chocolate Chip (sob!) as my card base, and also for the centre of the sunflowers. Peekaboo Peach is also retiring. I used it as the top, darker layer of my sunflowers, with Crushed Curry underneath.

There's always some mixed feelings at this time of year - sadness at some retiring favourites, but also excitement over the new stuff about to hit my craft desk. I think this year I'm mostly excited, as there's lots of great stuff on the way.

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the very talented, Kimberly Hern.  

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

Catherine Proctor

Sharon Davern

Leanne Mitchell 
Judy May

Caroline Manwaring

Ros Davidson 

Rebecca Jacovou

Monika O’Neill

Kate Morgan

Rachel Palmieri 
Tina Gillespie

Kimberly Hern
Rachel Woollard

Alisha Watson 

Kathryn Mangelsdorf 

JAI #401: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

Welcome to another week of Just Add Ink challenges. This week it's a sketch challenge, designed by little old me! I'm usually a 'nope, no way' person when it comes to tilted panels, so I designed this sketch to push myself out of my comfort zone a little.

How's that for tricky - not one, but TWO tilted panels. Oh dear!

LOL, it's not really tricky at all!

My Petal Garden DSP stack has been looking a bit neglected, so I decided to get it out to have a bit of a play with this card. I love soft flowers juxtaposed against the lines of dots in the paper.

The Everyday Label punch, which I used to crop my sentiment, carried over from the previous Holiday Catalogue. I hope it carries over to the upcoming Annual Catalogue, as I haven't used it nearly enough yet.

I love using little strips of left over DSP on the inside of my cards. There always seems to be little strips left over, and it's a great way to use them up.

You can see what the rest of the team have created over at the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card fr the challenge. I can't wait to see what you can do with my sketch.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #390: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

This week we have our second last challenge for the year. It feels so weird saying that- just a minute ago it was February!

This time round at Just Add Ink, Narelle has designed this really cool sketch for us to work with.

I think it's fab - chock a block full of ways to interpret.

I'm sure I said in a previous post that I'd had no intention of buying the Painted Harvest stamp set. Somehow, it found it's way to me and I've enjoyed playing with it. I hate it when I'm wrong!! LOL!  I certainly didn't come up with this cutie-pie hedgehog, but he sure was fun to stamp.

The circular panel involved masking and stamping and sponging, and more masking and stamping and sponging, but the end effect was well worth it

So worth it that I decided to give him a little friend on the inside. Hahaha, that sounds a bit like he's in jail. Oops! This little friend (accidentally) has a darker face than the hedgehog on the front. Serves me right for having too many open ink pads on my craft desk!

I hope you find time in your no doubt busy December to play along with us this week. Hopefully the sketch and the cards the Design Team have created are great inspiration for those last minute Christmas cards! You can see the ret of the cards over at the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #387: Just Add Colour

Hi!

Yay! Friday again,which means the new Just Add Ink challenge is ready to kick off. This week Nikki has given us a pretty classic colour combination to work with. And when I say classic, I think classic Christmas.

What do you think? Christmas, or will you be adventurous and try something different? I couldn't go past Christmas.

I swore I wasn't going to get Painted Harvest. It wasn't really my thing, and there were other stamps, etc, that I liked better. Somehow though, once I got hold of it, I've really enjoyed using the set. The Christmas wreath isn't new to me - I've seen heaps around the web, and I'm sure you have too.

I cheated a little with the colour combo, by adding a layer of Lemon Lime Twist to the wreath. I like the extra little pop it gives the wreath. I added a bit of a luxe touch to the card with the strip of Gold Glimmer Paper, which I also carried over to the inside.

You can see the cards that the rest of the team have created this week over at the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card. Can't wait to see what you create with these colours!

Bye for now,

Tina