JAI 738: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Welcome to a new Just Add Ink challenge. This week we have a sketch challenge, with the sketch being designed by Jo.

I love the offset square in the centre of the sketch. I was keen to play with different shapes though, so after perusing my stamp collection, I decided to use my Pretty Perennials stamp set and the coordinating Perennial Petals dies.

I love the sort of watercolour look that the stamps produce. I stamped the flowers in Polished Pink ink, with an Early Espresso centre. They were cropped with the matching die and then popped up over the card base. I had stamped the leaves on the base with Granny Apple Green ink.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, cropped with a Happy Little Things die. I love the crisp look of white on white. A scattering of iridescent sequins finished off the front of the card.

I'm not sure how I will use this card yet, so I didn't add a sentiment to the inside. I just went with another flower and some leaves.

You can see how the rest of the Design Team played with the sketch over on the Just Add Ink blog. You can also add your card to our Linky to enter the challenge. We'd love to see what you do with the sketch.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Seaside Spray

 Hi!

Phew, we are getting close to the end now! The Colour Creations Creative Showcase is up to Seaside Spray this week. I had to laugh a bit when I realised that I made my Seaside Spray card while watching Prince Philip's funeral - he was in the Navy, so it's kind of fitting. 

I chose Basic Black as the main basis for my card, as I thought that the Seaside Spray flowers would really pop against it. I think that the extra Seaside Spray layer frames the card nicely, too. The flowers and leaves were cropped using the Perennial Petals dies.

I embossed the topmost Basic Black layer with my soon-to-be-retired Dainty Diamonds embossing folder. I struggled for a long time over adding a sentiment - nothing I tried seemed to work. Finally, I just went small and simple and I think it works nicely. The sentiment is from the coordinating Pretty Perennials stamp set.

I had one left over flower, so it was perfect for the inside. I also had a partial leaf die cut, so I put it to use with the flower. The white on white is not quite as impactful as white on black, but I like the look.

That's all from me, but please do pop on over to Cathy's blog, where you'll find the links for the rest of this week's Seaside Spray cards. I like this dusky blue, and will be a little sad when it retires.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Real Red

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for Real Red week in the Colour Creations Creative Showcase series. Are you a red person? I love red, but I find it very hard to create with sometimes. I especially dislike stamping sentiments in red, and I only do it if there are no other possible choices. Maybe it goes back to my days as a High School teacher!

My favourite accessory is my red handbag, and so I felt compelled to make a little handbag gift bag using my Real Red cardstock and All Dressed Up Dies. The dies make it so ease to create a stylish gift bag, complete with stitched details.

Many handbags have a little dangly embellishment, so I felt the need to add one to my bag too. I used the dies from the perennial Petals set to create the flower. I cropped two flowers from Thick Whisper White and layered them back to back with Dimensionals. The Baker's Twice was looped around the handle of the bag and also around one of the Dimensionals so that it stayed in place.

The pocket on the front is just glued around three edges so that I can pop a tiny message in it if I choose. I will decide when I know who is going to get a little gift from me 😊

Please pop on over to Cathy's Blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Real Red cards - I'm sure you'll be in for a treat!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Petal Pink

 Hi!

Here we are again, ready for the new Colour Creations Creative Showcase. We are up to Petal Pink this week. It's definitely not a favourite colour of mine - to me it's not a true pink, so I struggle with using it a lot of the time. I felt like I couldn't go too far wrong with a classic pink, white and black colour scheme though, so that's what I used on my card.

I started by embossing my Basic Black cardstock with the Subtle 3DEF. Oops, no I didn't, I cropped it with my Stitched Rectangles Dies first, then embossed, and then flicked over some Frost White Shimmer Paint. While that was drying I stamped a heap of Pretty Perennials flowers in Petal Pink ink. I cropped them with the coordinating Perennial Petals Dies, along with a few of the larger leaf die. I snipped the leaves apart though, so that I could tuck them under the flowers.

The main panel was popped up over the card base using Dimensionals. The banner was held in place with a staple, which also anchored the twine. I punched the banner with my Banners Pick A Punch - have you got one yet? I think it's a must-have for a paper crafter!

I had cut some of the leaves in Basic Black for the front, before I realised that they wouldn't stand out. A bit of a brain fade! I think I'd planned to use Black Glimmer paper before I remembered that it's retired and the black part of to stuck in my head. Nevermind - they were perfect for the inside!

As always, you can find the rest of the links for this week's Petal Pink cards over on Cathy's Blog. I'm interested to see what everyone will do with this dusky pink.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #303: CASE The Sale-A-Bration Catalogue

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. I nearly missed the deadline for this, as the Australia Day public holiday has thrown my week right out! Does that happen to you, especially when the holiday is in the middle of the week?

This week we are challenging you to CASE any project from the Sale-A-Bration Catalogue. It's a lot smaller than the Mini or the Annual, but it is still chock a block full of gorgeous projects to CASE.

I'm still in a tricky mood, so once again I started flicking from the front of the catalogue. This little gift box on the third page caught my eye because it uses flowers that are die cut from DSP rather than cardstock or stamped images. I think it's really clever, and a great way to get slight variations in colour without the mess of watecolouring or smooshing, or other techniques.

The sample used flowers cropped from the Sale-A-Bration freebie DSP, Paper Blooms. I don't have that DSP, but the Ice Cream Corner DSP has pages with similar patterns. I'm guessing so that you can punch some ice cream shapes from it, but flowers and leaves work just as well! I used my Perennial Petals Dies to crop the flowers and leaves from the DSP. The white loopy bits layered over the flowers were cropped from Whisper White cardstock. A Rhinestone finished off each flower.

I used my Dainty Diamonds Embossing Folder for the background, and my Well Written and Stitched Nested Labels Dies for the sentiment panel.

Another flower and strip of embossed card finished off the inside. I didn't stamp anything on the inside - in fact, there's no stamping at all on this card!

What inspires you from the Sale-A-Bration Catalogue? I can't wait to see what you make. Just add your photo to our Facebook group.

Before you dash off the get stamping, please do finish our Blog Hop! Next up is the lovely Sandra with her super adorable card! Hop on over *wink*!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #302: CASE Any Floral Project

 Hi!

Phew! Are you sweltering today? It's about day four of really hot weather here in Adelaide, but thankfully a cooler change (and hopefully some rain) is due tomorrow. My craft space is on the south east corner of the house, so thankfully it stays cool during the day.

But, let's get on with the show! This week we are asking you to CASE and Floral Project from ANY catalogue - the Annual, Mini or SAB. There are lots and lots of projects to choose from, so definitely no shortage of inspiration.

Just for a change, I found my inspiration at the front of the Mini Catalogue! This card is featured on both the front cover and on page 2. I'm not a big one for florals, but there were a few elements on this one that appealed to me - the blue background behind the flowers, the gold border and the sentiment on a narrow strip.

I started my card with a Gold Foil Card. I purchased a heap of packs of these cards when they were on the Clearance Rack recently, as they are a great (and cheap!) way to add a Gold Foil layer to a card. For my card background, I used the Smooshing Technique with Pool Party ink on Shimmery White card. It's such a fun technique, and in this heat it dries very quickly!!

I then stamped a heap of flowers and leaves from the Pretty Perennials stamp set on Whisper White cardstock and die cut them with the coordinating dies. I find it's easier to stamp a few more images that you think you'll need, as invariably you will need more after you've cleaned and put away your stamps! I just layered them on the front until I was happy and glued them down, some with Dimensionals. The colours I used were the colours in the Fine Art Floral DSP.

Some of the left over flowers and leaves were used to decorate the inside of the card. I layered a Stitched Rectangle die cut over a piece of Night Of Navy card, as an echo to the front of the card.

It's been great seeing more entries in our challenges lately, and I hope that you will join in too! All you need to do is join our Facebook group and post a photo of your card to the group. Easy!

Next up on this week's blog hop is the lovely Rebecca. Her card is so pretty - you won't want to miss it!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #301: CASE The Sale-A-Bration Catalogue

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. Sunday evening has rolled around very quickly this weekend, probably because my littlest boy is in respite for the weekend! We took our big kids to the drive in cinema last night, which was a whole lot of fun.

This week we are challenging you to CASE any project from the Sale-A-Bration Catalogue. It's a little catalogue, at only 20ish pages, but it packs a lot of samples into those pages!

I absolutely adore the colours in this sample, from page 17. I love the bright pop of colour against the dark background. It's such a sweet, happy card! I used exactly the same colours on my card, but I opted for a fresh, white background.

I used my new Pretty Perennials bundle to create my card. I kept the base to a Night Of Navy square, but layered a piece of White cardstock on top. The background was stamped using my Stamparatus and the stamping in the round technique. It makes stamping backgrounds like this so much easier!

I stamped an extra Real Red flower, which I die cut using the coordinating die. You can just see an extra set of leaves tucked under the flower too.

I stamped the inside of the card by hand rather than using my Stamparatus, but I stuck to a similar arrangement as on the front. I decided to omit an inside sentiment, as it's a small card (4 inches square), and I didn't want to take away from space for writing my message.

Has a particular project from the SAB Catalogue caught your eye? Perhaps prompted you to place an order so that you can earn the product? Why not CASE the project and join in our challenge? You can do that in our Facebook Group.

Before you do, please do finish the Blog Hop! I was first cab off the rank this week, so there's plenty of inspiration to go before you get to the end. Next up is the lovely Sandra. Her card is gorgeous!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Night Of Navy

 Hi!

Welcome back to the Colour Creations Creative Showcase for 2021. We are continuing our alphabetical tour through the Stampin' Up! colour range, resuming with Night Of Navy. It's a lovely dark blue, with purple undertones, and is a part of the Neutrals family.

I had yet to play with any of my new catalogue goodies, so I pulled out the Pretty Perennials Bundle for my card. I was keen to see how the flowers would go with the blue and white colour scheme - and I love it! I stamped the three watercolourish flowers on the front of my card in Night Of Navy ink and layered it over a Night Of Navy base.

The sentiment label is from the Painted Labels dies, with the Silver Foil layer hand-cut to match the corner notches. I also cut the leaf spray from the Perennial Petals Dies from Silver Foil. The full die cut is to the left of the label, with just a single leaf to the bottom right.

A few more flowers were stamped on the inside to finish off the card. Do you recognise the sentiment? I used it a *lot* at the end of last year! I was very excited to realise that the font in Pretty Perennials nearly perfectly matches the font in the Joy To The World Paper Pumpkin kit stamp set. Yay!

I simply masked off the word 'Christmas' before stamping the sentiment. The single word 'Birthday' fits in the gap perfectly. I'm so excited to realise that the sentiment works equally as well for Birthdays as it does for Christmas! If you missed it last year, the Joy Of Christmas Paper Pumpkin kit is still available 😉

Thanks for joining me tonight, please head on over to the very lovely Catherine's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Night Of Navy links.

Bye for now,

Tina