JAI 779: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Welcome back to the newest Just Add Ink challenge. This time around it's a sketch challenge, designed by Jan.

My first thought was of a polaroid photograph! What fun would that be to incorporate into a card? Ultimately, though, I went in a very different direction.

I decided to use my Stitched Shapes Dies to create some dimension in my card. I started by stamping the flowers from Pretty Perennials and the leaves from Beautiful Friendship in Strawberry Sluch, Powder Pink, Garden Green and Mint Macaron. I do love the watercolour look of the images!

I then cropped the image with the largest square die. I glued the die cut piece to my card base and then popped up the rest using Dimensionals. I love the idea of the main part of the image being inset rather than popped up. A sentiment and a scattering of sequins finished off the front of the card.

I used similar stamping on the inside of the card. I really loved revisiting these older stamp sets!

What do you see in the sketch? You can see what the rest of the Design Team created over on the Just Add Ink blog. You can also add your card to our challenge gallery when you are ready. I can't wait to see what you make!

Bye for now,

Tina

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

Bron's Birthday Blog Hop - September

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the sixth and final Birthday Blog Hop, held in honour of our lovely friend, Bronwyn Eastley, turning 60. She's currently on a tropical holiday celebrating, and so that's the theme for the final hop - Tropical Holiday.

I pulled some old favourites out of my retired products stash for my card. The paper is from the Tropical Oasis DSP, and the sentiments are from the Pretty Perennials stamp set.

What about the pineapple, I hear you ask! I had planned it to be a little different - I found a layered SVG file and was going to make an awesome layered pineapple, but my Scan'n'Cut had other ideas. It did not like how intricate the final layer was, so in the end I just printed the jpg of the file instead. It still makes an awesome background - perfect for the Tropical Holiday theme!

I had a solid pineapple that I'd made when messing around with the svg, so I just added a little ink and it was a great embellishment for the inside of the card. It was too small for the front, but just perfect for the inside.

Time now to jump on over to the next blog in the hop, which belongs to Monica Formosa. She's the very clever gal who designed the Next button for the hop.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 567: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week we have an Inspiration Challenge for you, suggested to the team by Nikki.

Aren't the colours fabulous? Such a rich palette. I took my inspiration from both the colours and the rug on the floor for my card. I used Island Indigo, Very Vanilla, Cinnamon Cider, Calypso Coral, Mint Macaron and Basic Black.

I started with my Stitched Greenery Die on the Island Indigo cardstock. It's a great base on which to nestle the Calypso Coral Pierced Blooms flowers, don't you think?

The sentiment is a mix of Biggest Wish and Pretty Perennials. I finished off the front with a scattering of black sequins, and a swish of Wink Of Stella on the flower centres.

When I used my Stitched Greenery die on the front of the card, I cut the cardstock a little wider so that I could trim off the extra width to use on the inside. The sweet little flower was a good way to finish decorating the inside of the card.

That's all from me for tonight, but please do head on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll find the rest of the Design Team's cards. You can also link up your card for the challenge. I can't wait to see what you make!

Bye for now,

Tina

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

Colour Creations: Blackberry Bliss

 Hi!

Welcome back to this week's Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we are focussed on Blackberry Bliss. It's a gorgeous, deep purple that has a tendency to get messy. Many times I have come away from a stamping session with the colour, only to have Blackberry Bliss stained fingers! It's the only colour that it seems to happen with, though.

I had the idea to do some crisp, white daisies with a Blackberry Bliss background. The DSP is from the Dandy Garden pack. I knew I wanted to wrap the ribbon around the piece, so I adhered it to some Blackberry Bliss cardstock before cropping it with the scalloped Basic Borders Die. This just gives the card some strength to hold the ribbon in place.

The daisies are three layers each of Whisper White card, sponged with Blackberry ink in the middle, and with a centre of Basic Black card dotted with a white gel pen. The leaves are from the Pierced Blooms Dies, and the sentiment from Pretty Perennials.

All the same supplies and techniques were used on the inside of my card. I had planned to use the DSP offcut from the front, but it looked a little strange so I just trimmed the edge straight. Much better!

That's all from me for this week's Colour Creations, but please do continue your way around the Blog Hop. The next blog to visit is Theresa Gerrard's. Blogger has not been playing nice lately, so if you get an error message when you click though to Theresa's blog, just click on her 'Home' button, which should take you to her post.

Bye for now,

Tina

If you find a broken link, or get lost, here are the links of all participants:

Michele Taylor

Kate Morgan

Sharon Davern

Ros Davidson

Catherine Proctor

Rachel Palmieri

Andrea Sargent

Diane Furniss

Tina Gillespie

Theresa Gerrard

Christine Blain

Caroline Manwaring

Rosa Leyden

Vicki Boucher

CTC 324: CASE A Retiring Mini Project

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. This is the last week that products from the January-June Mini Catalogue will be available, so of course we are doing one last hurrah from the Mini.

In deciding which card to CASE, I thought about which stamp set was at the top of my 'must-have' list when the catalogue was released. The stamp set was Pretty Perennials, and as it didn't make the cut into the new Annual Catalogue, I thought it was fitting to give the set one last outing.

I thought that this card in the catalogue was sooo pretty, so it was my choice of card to CASE. I don't usually CASE a card exactly, but in this instance I couldn't resist - why change perfection?

To create my stamped background, I started with half of a sheet of Whisper White A4 cardstock. I stamped the images across about 2/3rds of it, so that when I trimmed it down for the front and inside of my card I had stamping on both pieces. I hope that makes sense! 

It's very difficult to photograph, especially as the day I took the photo was very gloomy, but I had a happy accident when flicking ink over the card. I used an Aqua Painter that I must not have cleaned well last time I used it, as the Pool Party ink came out shimmery! I must have used Shimmer Paint last time. It was a very happy accident!

Here you can see the other half of the half-A4 sheet that I stamped in one go. It really does make things easier!

How will you choose a project from the Mini Catalogue to CASE? A favourite stamp set, like me, or maybe just a project that catches your eye? Either way, we'd love to see it, so please join our Facebook group and post your photo there. Can't wait to see it!

Before you go and get inky, please do finish our Blog Hop. Next in the line up is the lovely Peta, with an absolutely stunning card! You won't want to miss it!

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

CTC 310: CASE A Layout

 Hi!

Oh, goodness, this weekend has gone so quickly! Sunday evening really snuck up on me! I had a really lovely night last night at the Adelaide Fringe Festival with some school mums, which meant that today was a bit slower of a day. Luckily I already had my card made, I just needed to do the photography and blogging.

Anyway, on with the show! This week at CASEing The Catty we are challenging you to CASE the layout of the card with the three bow ties - isn't it a fun card? Here's a sketch to help you see the different elements.

I liked the three repeated elements, but I decided to go for blocks rather than shapes. I won a sample pack of the Fine Art Floral DSP a while back and hadn't used any yet, so this was a great opportunity to finally crack it open.

I used my Stitched Rectangles Dies to crop the DSP into three panels, and layered them on some Old Olive card. The three panels were then layered over a piece of Petal Pink card, which I'd embossed with the Subtle 3DEF.

The sentiments are from Pretty Perennials. The 'birthday' part is stamped on a strip that was cropped using one of the All Dressed Up Dies. It's meant to be the handbag strap, but I use it a lot for adding sentiments!

I used the same die to crop a long, thin strip of the DSP to decorate the inside of my card. It's a great way to give a scrap a pretty edge to jazz up the inside of your card.

That's all from me tonight, but this is where is just begins for you! We'd love to see what you do with this sketch, so please pop on over to our Facebook Group, where all you need to do it add a photo of your creation to enter our challenge. 

Before you go, please do finish our hop! Next up is the wonderful Julia - I adore her card, especially as it features my favourite colour!

Bye for now,

Tina