JAI #458: Just Add Q, X, Y Or Z

Hi!

Yay for Friday and a new Just Add Ink challenge. This week it's one of my alphabet challenges, and we are doing what I called the 'nasty letters' while I was trying to think of what to do!

I had a brilliant idea and went full tilt on the card, only to realised I'd lumped 'V' in with the letters and made completely the wrong card! Oops. In the end I made a similar card, based on the same pop culture universe (you may be able to guess what my V card was if you're familiar with the universe).

I ended up going with the letter Q to create a card based on a game that's played in the skies on broomsticks. The aim of the game is to get large balls through one of the hoops, while avoiding other balls that are thrown at you by the opposition, all the while trying to catch the tiny golden ball that has wings. LOL! If you're really confused, that's ok! I showed Ada the card (she's a big fan) and he thought it was pretty awesome, so I must have got it right.

This was my first ever Bendy Card, so called because the two flaps at the side create curves where they slot into the card base. There are heaps of tutorials on the web, just google 'bendy card'. The style allowes you to add dimension to a scene, but still fold the card flat for mailing.

The scene I created for the background was a mix of stamping, stencilling and watercoloring. The trees were stencilled using a Kindred stencil, and then I stamped over the top with the trees from Waterfront. The mountains, sun and ground were all stamped and then the lake and sky were watercoloured. Would you believe I didn't base it around the sentiment? It came last, and just happened to perfectly fit the space. Phew!

You can see that the goal posts are attached to the back of the left flap, and the golden ball is attached to the right flap. I used a sliver of Window Sheet so that it looked like it was floating through the sky.

I carried over the banners from the front of the card to the back - there is no 'inside' on this card. You can see where I used a craft knife to slice through the card to allow one of the flaps to slot into place.

Well, that's my card for challenge - I hope you like it! You can see what the rest of the team have created by visiting the Just Add Ink blog. Which letter will you choose to create with?

Bye for now,

Tina

A Bike Ride Through The Highland Heather

Hi!

Time for the new Colour Creations Blog Share!

This week it's Highland Heather's turn. It's another new purple in the range. It's lighter than Gorgeous Grape, which we featured a few weeks ago, and they work wonderfully together.

My first thought was to use the purple to stamp a bike. I haven't used my Bike Ride stamp set much, so this was a good excuse. While I was stamping with a set I hadn't used much, I decided to use a few more from that same category - Handwritten and Pick A Pennant.

To make the pennant I first stamped the banner, stamping it off on some scrap paper first. I then stamped the letters over the top. I hand cut the banner because I haven't got the coordinating framelits. I found I had to snip right up between the sections on the 'birthday' banner so that I could bend it enough to fit on my card.

How cute is that little birdie? He's from the Pick A Pennant stamp set too. I couldn't resist adding him onto both the front and inside of the card.

Catherine is hosting this week's Colour Creations Blog Share as usual. You can pop on over to her blog to see the rest of this week's cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #429: Just Add Vellum

Hi!

Let's finish off the week with the newJust Add Ink challenge! This week Di has challenged us to Just Add Vellum to our cards.

My first thought was to use the Graceful Glass Vellum on my card, but then my son, Alex, got invited to a birthday party. I decided to kill tow birds with the one stone and use vellum on the card. As lovely as the Graceful Glass Vellum is, it certainly isn't suitable for a 16th birthday card for a young man!

I started by sponging some Frost White Shimmer Paint through a Kindred Stamps stencil onto Poppy Parade cardstock. The stencil featured a scattering of stars of all different sizes. I layered a large vellum circle over the top so that the stars could still be seen.

The stamp set I used was also a Kindred Stamps set called Plumber Brothers. The party Alex was going to was a go-karting party, so if you know the character, you know why it was perfect for this card! The retired Large Numbers dies and Number Of Years stamps were used for the 16. I wanted the number to be prominent, but not the main element, so I tucked them under the sentiment.

Alex thought the card was fantastic, except I was chastised for colouring the mushroom the 'wrong' colour - apparently the 1UP mushrooms should be green! Oh well - green just didn't work with the rest of the card. I'm pleased to say that the birthday boy (young man!) liked the card too.

You can see what the rest of the team has done with the vellum challenge at the Just Add Ink blog. Will you join in the fun with us this week?

Bye for now,

Tina

A Delightful Blushing Bride

Hi!

It's Tuesday evening, which means it's time for the new Colour Creations Blog Share. Are you enjoying our trip through the Stampin' Up! colour collection? I am!

This week the focus colour is Blushing Bride. It's such a lovely, dusky soft pink. A soft colour needs a soft paper, so I decided to use some of my Delightfully Detailed SDSP. The oval piece was perfect for my plans. I wanted the main panel of my card to be Blushing Bride, so I decided to brayer some ink over the paper. To stretch the paper even further, I cut a piece of Whisper White the same size as the oval panel and layered the two pieces before I brayered. The result was two pieces with an oval feature in Blushing Bride. You can see what I do with the second piece on Friday.

For today's card I used the DSP piece. I love Blushing Bride paired with Early Espresso, don't you? And even better with a piece of the dark Wood Textures DSP!

I pulled out my Animal Outing Stamp set and stamped the Kangaroo on some Watercolour paper. I coloured her with my Aqua Painter using the following inks: Crumb Cake (Kangaroo), Early Espresso (Kangaroo shading), Grey Granite (Koala), Blushing Bride (Kangaroo chest, ears and nose, and koala nose), Pear Pizzazz (grass) and Balmy Blue (sky).

How adorable is that banner? I used my Pick A Pennant stamp set to make it. I don't have the matching dies, but it was easy enough to trim around the banner. I snipped up between each section of the banner so that I could curve it a little more across my card. Don't you love the rustic texture the wood paper adds to the background? It's such a sweet contrast against the lacy paper.

I added and coloured another Kangaroo on the inside using my Aquapainter and inkpads. It's just on Whisper White this time, so it's never as good a result as when I used Watercolour paper, but it's good enough. And look - I managed to stamp the 'Little One' stamp correctly first time! LOL

You can see what the rest of the ladies have created over at Catherine's blog. Just a little tip - when you get to the list of links you can right click on the link instead of left clicking. A little box should pop up and you can choose to open the link in a new window or new tab. This little trick saves you from jumping back and forth between each blog and Catherine's. You can just click on each window/tab in turn and close it when you're done looking and hopefully commenting!

Bye for now,

Tina

Kelly's Birthday Blog Hop

Hi!

Tonight I have something a little different for you. I'm blog hopping with the lovely Kelly Kent and 18 of her friends to celebrate her birthday. What a fun way to celebrate!

Being a blog hop, you should travel around each of the blogs until you get back to the blog you started on. The blog before me was the fabulous Jacqui Crouch. We don't get to see what the other hoppers have created until the blog hop starts, but I'm sure she's bound to have created something gorgeous!

I decided to make a birthday card using some new, returning and retired products. I especially loved saying a big 'welcome back' to Mint Macaron. I was sooooo happy to see that name on the list of returning colours! I was so happy that I couldn't resist sneaking a little bit of the retired Mint Macaron Glimmer paper onto the card. It's so pretty and sparkly, as are the retiring Glitter Epoxy dots.

So, let see, what's new on my card? Look at that fantastic new butterfly die! It's so pretty! It's from the new die set called Springtime Impressions, and has a whole suite of products that it coordinates with that includes stamps, DSP, ribbon and embellishments. Speaking of DSP, the paper I have used today comes from the new Nature's Poem pack. It also has a whole suite of coordinating products! Finally, I've used a new stamp set called Pick A Pennant to stamp the sentiment.

I was very happy to see that Picture Perfect Birthday is carrying over to the new Annual Catalogue. It's such a fun set!

Well, that's it for me now. The blog hop will now take you on to the blog of the wonderful Jan McQueen. Just click on the Next button to get you there. Once you've finished this hop, why don't you pop on back to Kelly's blog? She's actually running TWO blog hops tonight for her birthday, so there's a whole other 20 gorgeous projects to look at. It's like a set of steak knives - buy one, get one free LOL. Click here for Kelly's second hop, but do finish this one first!

Bye for now,

Tina