CTC #214: Sale-A-Bration

Hi!

Sigh, the end of the weekend is always a little sad, but not anymore, as it's also when the CASEing the Catty blog hop happens! This week you may have come to me from Lauren's blog, or you may have started here. Does't matter, just keep hopping until you've visited everyone.

This week we are CASEing from the Sale-A-Bration catalogue. This card, with it's stunning colouring, caught my eye.

Isn't it gorgeous? I don't have that stamp set, nor any stamp set to replicate the card, so I had to think a bit laterally this week. The card uses the Spotlight Technique, where you cut away part of the image and just colour that part, so that's where I went with my card.

I've been wanting to colour this sheet of the Botanical Butterfly DSP since I first saw it, but found it very overwhelming to start - it's such busy paper! This was the perfect way to do it. After cutting my front piece, I used the Stitched Shapes Circle die to crop a section and then sat with my Blends to colour.

I didn't bother with shading using the Blends, it's just straight colouring. I ended up with quite a pile of markers after I'd finished! I then cropped another circle in Balmy Blue and popped up the two circles on Dimensionals. The sentiment banner is a nod to the original card.

I trimmed a small part of the DSP for the inside, and just decided to colour a couple of flowers rather than attempt the Spotlight Technique on such a small strip of paper!

Are you going to play along this week? I hope so! You can join in the fun over at our Facebook group, where you can add your card for the challenge.

But first, you need to hop on over to the next blog, which belongs to the wonderful Kathryn Mangelsdorf.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #207

Hi!

I'm playing along again with the CASEing the Catty Challenges, which this week was to CASE anything but a card from either of the current catalogues. After a quick flick through each, I decided to CASE the middle tag at the top of page 20.

I kept the basic parts the same - I used the same Botanical Tags die over the same piece of Wood Textures DSP, and used the same layout for the sentiment section, but otherwise I changed a lot around. If you have a look at your catalogue you can see that while I used all the same colours, I flipped a lot of them around - my tag is Fresh Fig, not Crumb Cake as in the catalogue.

I don't actually own the Botanical Bliss stamp set, so I had to improvise with what I had instead. I used the leaf die from the Botanical Tags set to create the textured base of my card. I simply cut a heap of the leaves in Crumb Cake and glued them to the base using my Fine Tip Glue. The Wood Textures DSP was brayered with Mint Macaron ink, as was the bird die from the Birds and Blooms Frameilts set. The button is from the True Gentleman pack, and sentiment label is from the Stitched Labels Framelits set. The stamp is from the Soft Sayings Kit. Finally, the Mint Macaron Twine is from the Nature's Twine set. it was took thick as it comes, so I simply pulled one of the strands out to use on the front.

I used the left over twine to finish off the inside, alongside the extra bird I cut from the scrap I'd brayered for the front. Sometimes it pays to think ahead to the inside when you're making the little bits and pieces for the front! The inside sentiment is from another card kit, this time it's the Notes Of Kindness kit.

Bye for now,

Tina

Milestone Moments Farewell

Hi!

One of the stamp sets I have loved the most from the current catalogue is Milestone Moments. It's one of those unsung hero sets. There aren't any images, just words, but that's what makes it great! There are a heap of special numbers, as well as words to make happy birthday, or happy anniversary, etc. Such a versatile set!

I've only used the happy and birthday stamps on this card. It's such a fun font - especially as it doesn't need to be stamped exactly straight to look great. I've also used some Jute Twine on the card. It's a fabulous, chunky thread that looks great on masculine cards. It retired when the last Holiday Catalogue ended, but you can currently find it on the Clearance Rack at an absolute bargain price. I must admit that a couple of rolls found their way into my last order!

I'm very happy that the Wood Textures DSP stack is carrying over to the new Annual Catalogue. It's such fabulous paper - I've used it heaps in my cards this year, so I'm very glad to get another year to add it to more cards. I wasn't very keen on this pattern, but I've changed my mind - I now think it looks great as a feature.

The stamp I've used on the inside is from the Soft Sayings kit, which is also carrying over. I'm yet to make only of the cards from the kit, but I've used the stamps quite a bit. One day I'll get around to making the cards, hopefully before the kit retires!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #164: Occasions Catalogue Kits

Hi!

EDIT: I was so excited to be a Crew Pick for this card!

I'm pretty happy to be 4 for 4 with the CASEing The Catty Challenges this year. They are announced each Sunday evening, and I've been mostly able to get straight into the challenge and get a card made pretty quickly. This week the challenge is the kit cards from pages 14-17 of the Occasions Catalogue. I don't have either kit, so I had to improvise. My card is a CASE of one of the trio at the bottom of page 17.

The card in the catalogue is square, but I decided to make a full sized card. I used exactly the same colours and ribbon, but I had to use different stamps. I remembered that the Soft Sayings kit had a similar flower stamp, and so I decided to use it.

I stamped the swoosh from Work Of Art, the flower and the leaves from Soft Sayings, and then I spritzed the cardstock lightly with some water. Once it dried I stamped the sentiment from Bunch Of Blossoms. I finished it off with the Berry Burst ribbon and some retired Pearls for the centre of the flower. The dotty stamp from Dragonfly Dreams provides a nice background for the main panel.

I used a few of the same stamps on the inside to finish off the card. It's always so much nicer to have a finished inside, don't you think?

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #382: Just Add Colour

Hi!

I hope you've had a lovely week. We've had a few hot days here in Adelaide, and I've loved it! Bring on summer!

During the week, I also created a card for this week's Just Add Ink challenge. It's a colour combo this week, suggested by Patrice.

Isn't it lovely - the yummy neutrals with the pop of Fresh Fig.

There's lots of different bits and pieces on this card. Do you create like that, or do you stick to one stamp set? I do a bit of both. In this case I've stamped with the flourish from Timeless Textures, the flowers from Oh So Eclectic and the sentiment from Jar Of Love. Chuck in some vellum, Black Thread, silver sequins, some Pick A Pattern Washi tape and leaf dies from Eclectic Layers, and you have a card!

I coloured the flowers with my Fresh Fig ink pad and a Blender Pen. I wanted a heavy concentration of colour at the base of the flower, fading to a super pale shade near the tips of the petals.

I used a lot of the same elements on the inside, but I opted to leave out the black elements, as they dominated too much in the smaller space I was decorating.

This was such a fun colour combination. You can see what the rest of the team have created over at Just Add Ink. You can also link up your card there when you're ready.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #381: Just Choose Two

Hi!

Welcome to a new challenge!

This week Jan has set the challenge for us at Just Add Ink, and it's a Just Choose Two week.

As you can see, you need to choose two from embossing paste, colouring and sequins. Now, if you had of asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would have said I'd most likely go for the paste and colouring, but to my surprise, I went for sequins instead of the paste.

I actually started this card with the intent of using it in last night's Art With Heart blog hop, but somewhere along the way I realised it would be better for this week's JAI challenge.

I started with a piece of the garden themed Just Add Colour SDSP. I was only going to colour a few bits and pieces of the design with my watercolour pencils, but before I knew it, I'd coloured the whole piece. It was far too busy to use sit the girl from Garden Girl on top, so I decided to tone down the SDSP with vellum. I decided to stitch it down, and then thought that I may as week go the whole hog and turn it into a shaker card by adding sequins under the vellum.

I really loved colouring the girl from Garden Girl, but I think this little bit on the inside is my favourite part. I recently made a similar scene for an ATC swap I hosted, and thought that a simpler version of it would be a great way to finish off the inside.

You canopy on over to see what the rest of the DT at Just Add Ink have made for the Just Choose Two challenge. They re all fabulous, as usual!

Bye for now,

Tina

Wood Texture Daisies

Hi!

Today's card was a fun little card that I made as a class sample, mostly to show off the gorgeous new Wood Textures DSP stack. It's one of my favourite DSP's in the new catalogue. I think it's so versatile. My immediate tendency is to hoard it, but I have to squash that impulse and chop it up!

In this case I've paired it with the new Thick Very Vanilla cardstock, a Dapper Denim scalloped border, and a So Saffron and Soft Suede daisy.

I really love this sentiment! Have you noticed it in the catalogue? It's in the new Soft Sayings Card Kit. You don't need to only use the stamps on the kit cards - they are great on any of your cards.

I think these little daisy stamps can be a little overlooked in favour of the large daisy, but they certainly deserve a bit of attention. I will certainly be using them more!

Bye for now,

Tina