Colour Creations: Melon Mambo

Hi! 

Welcome to the second last Colour Creations Blog Hop of 2023. It's still so weird to think that we are so close to the end of the year! Anyway, we are focussing on Melon Mambo this week, a former In Colour that made it's way into the Brights and has remained a part of the core colour collection ever since. 

I've paired it with Granny Apple Green and Whisper White for my fun Christmas card. I love the tiny little pops of green under each layer of the card. A great way to introduce a colour with our it overwhelming the rest of the card.

I cut my Glittered Organdy Ribbon in half longways to create the smaller bow. It's such a neat trick with this ribbon!

I used my Joy To You stamp set for the sentiments on my card. I'm so sad that this stamp set is retiring at the end of the current Mini Catalogue. It's such a great set that makes a bit impact with very little work!

That's all from me for tonight, but please do keep on jumping around the blogs on tonight's hop. Just keep on going until you get back to where you started. The next stop tonight is our fabulous hostess, Cathy Proctor.

Cathy's blog is also where you need to go if you run into any problems with links. She will have a list of all of tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 402: CASE The Mini Catalogue

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by on the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. By now I hope that you've been able to have a good look at the new Mini Catalogue, because that's what we are CASEing this week.

You can choose any project from any page of the Mini Catalogue to CASE. I found this Enjoy The Moment Memories & More card on page 73. The repetitive hearts background caught my eye, and coming on top of the thought that I hadn't used my Dots & Spots Die much, it was a no-brainer to CASE.

I started by working out which size of the Stitched Rectangles Dies worked best with the Dots & Spots Dies, as I wanted all of the spots to be contained within the rectangle. I backed the resulting Very Vanilla piece with some Night Of Navy cardstock, and then matted it on Shaded Spruce Card. The whole things was popped up over two layers of Crumb Cake card.

I used my Tech Support stamp set to decorate the front. Instead of flowers tucked behind the sentiment, I used the image of keys. Hehe, I use the 'age not found' sentiment a lot - I think it's funny! I stamped it on Very Vanilla card and then cropped it with one of my Tailor Made Tags Dies. The twine is retired.

I used the second half of the sentiment on the inside of the card, along with a pointer image.

We'd love for you to CASE The Catty along with us. Just make a card that is a CASE of one in the Mini Catalogue and add a photo to our Facebook Group. It really is that easy!

Thanks again for stopping by, but don't stop here - please keep going on our Blog Hop tonight by jumping on over to Julia Quinn's blog. She's got a gorgeous, sunshiny card that's bound to make you smile.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Night Of Navy

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we are looking at Night Of Navy, a deep blue from the Neutrals Colour Family. 

Brian King has quite a few colour combos that feature Night Of Navy, so it was tricky to narrow the choices down to just one! I decided on this bright combo though, mostly because I haven't played much with Parakeet Party yet.

I started by stamping the Rays Of Light stamp in Parakeet Party on Whisper White card and then cropping it with the largest Stitched Rectangles Die. I matted it on Night Of Navy cardstock before popping it all onto a retired Silver Foil card base.

I was struggling with how to add Poppy Parade to the card, so I decided to add the circles, cropped with the Stylish Shapes Dies, under the focal butterfly (from Butterfly Brilliance) and sentiment. A few red sequins adds to the spotty red theme!

A second butterfly, stamped in Night Of Navy, was the obvious choice for the inside of my card. I used a sentiment from the Light The Candles Card Kit stamp set to go with it. I also used the same stamp set on the front of the card. Don't overlook kit stamp sets - they are sometimes the exact sentiment that you need!

That's all from me this time around, but please do keep jumping around our Blog Hop until you get back to where you started. The next blog belongs to my fabulous friend, Kate Morgan. You won't want to miss her card!

As ever, if you get off track or find a broken link, jump on over to the wonderful Catherine Proctor's blog. You'll find a list of all of tonight's participants there to help you on your way again.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 373: CASE An Embossing Project

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. Usually, I'd comment on how it's a great way to finish off the weekend, but as it's a long weekend here, there's an extra day to go. Woo hoo!

This week we are asking to to CASE an Embossing Project. It can be any type of embossing (wet, dry, paste) from either of the current catalogues. Flipping through the mini, I found this card to CASE. I think it's really eye catching, how the flowers radiate away from a central point.

You may not have even realised that it's an embossed card - I only worked it out because there is a pot of embossing powder and a heat gun in the photo! When I looked closer, I realised that the flowers are heat embossed using white powder on coloured cardstock. I took a slightly different approach because I wanted two colours, not a colour and white.

I started by stamping my new Rays Of Light background stamp onto Whisper White cardstock using Versamark ink. I had an old pot of Pool Party Embossing Powder, so I used that to heat emboss my card. If you don't have coloured powder, you could stamp the image in Pool Party ink and use Clear powder over the top. I then used a Blending Brush to apply So Saffron ink to the embossed card. I added extra ink to the sun and the outer edges to give the sun a bit of a light halo.

I thought that the cloud shapes were a great addition over the top of the sun rays. The smaller ones are from the retired Wiggly Bugs Dies, and the sentiment is from Under My Umbrella, which is also retired.

I used the offcuts from the front of the card to finish off the inside of my card. It makes it look very fancy!

I hope that you find some time to craft over the Long Weekend. We'd love to see you enter our challenge. Just take a photo of your embossing card and upload it to our Facebook Group. It's that easy!

Please continue on your way around our Blog Hop. The next stop tonight is the lovely Monique Fielder. I wonder what she's got in store for you?

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 545: Just Add Shades Of Green

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Just Add Ink Challenge. This week Lou has suggested that we use shades of green on our cards.

This one was a little tricky for me at first, as green isn't a colour I gravitate to very much. Then I remembered my pop culture stamps and an idea was born!

Who else could I choose but this big guy? He's the perfect character for this week's card. He's from a retired Kindred Stamps set, called You're Super, and I coloured him with my Shaded Spruce, Highland Heather and Basic Black Stampin' Blends. The sentiment is from another retired Kindred Stamps set, called Justice Is Served.

The background of my card was made by smooshing my Shaded Spruce ink pad onto my largest clear block, spritzing it with water and then placing my cardstock on top. I lifted it a few times and repositioned it to cover the whole piece with ink. The blotchy effect is very cool, if I do say so myself!

I used the offcut from the front of the card to matt my writing panel on the inside of my card. The icon image os from an Ink Road Stamps set, called Full Circle Vol 3: Heroes. I love it when stamps from different companies work together perfectly! The sentiment is from You're Super.

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 this week's Design team cards. I hope that you'll enter our challenge too - do you like green? Which shade (or shades) will you choose to use?

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #285: CASE The Sketch

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me once again for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. It's been a very long week for me - after a week of the rest of the family being home sick, I've finally caught their bug. Just a cold and not COVID, thankfully, but still not very fun. They are all well enough to go back to school/work tomorrow, so I think I'll have a quiet doona day at home.

This week our challenge is to CASE the cards on page 29 of the August-December Mini Catalogue. To make it a little easier, Rebecca has designed a sketch to follow.

It certainly helps to picture the card in a more simplified way, don't you think?

I decided to flip the layers of the sketch, and make the strips more of a feature on my card. My lovely friend, Judy, sent me a sample of the gorgeous flocked Plush Poinsettia Specialty Paper, and I thought it was too nice to hide behind other layers. I started by colouring the flocked parts with my Stampin' Blends, using Light Shaded Spruce, Light and Dark Cherry Cobbler and Dark Mango Melody. I have two hints: don't colour at night, unless you have super vision; and don't colour over one spot too much, or you will end up with a bald patch!

I trimmed the coloured paper into three strips and added them to my card, layered over a Gold Foil Stitched Rectangle piece. The rectangle was a little too long for my purposes, so I cropped out a section from the middle, which is hidden under the sentiment.

I used a left over piece from the coloured Plush Poinsettia Specialty Paper to finish off the inside. I didn't realise that I'd forgotten to stamp a sentiment on the inside until I went to photograph the card. I will blame it on a cold-addled brain! 

To play along with us in our challenge, all you need to do is join our Facebook Group and add your photo to the wall. We'd love to see what you would do with this sketch.

For now, though, please do continue on with our Blog Hop. Next up is my wonderful friend, Kathryn. I love the imaginative way she's used the sketch. So clever!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #283: CASE The Colours Of The Trimming The Town DSP

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me on a cold and wet Sunday evening, or at least it's cold and wet here in Adelaide, which is doubly rude of the weather gods after giving us a very Spring-like day yesterday! Hopefully we starting having more of those sorts of days as we come out of Winter.

This week the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Crew are asking you to CASE the colours in the Trimming The Town DSP. This simply means make something using Misty Moonlight, Old Olive, Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Early Espresso and Whisper White. You can use all of the colours, or just a few. I managed to get all the colours on my card.

I started by creating my background, which used blending brushes to apply ink to Whisper White card. I started with Pool Party in the middle third, then added Old Olive to the bottom third and Misty Moonlight to the top third. I then splattered some water over the top, followed by some Frost White Shimmer Paint. I did some big blobs of water, which I regretted straight away, so I've tried to hide them under my Dainty Diamonds embossed Vellum layer!

I had originally planned to have the 'peace on earth' sentiments on my circle layer, but then I realised that the only colour I hadn't used was Early Espresso. The trees from Coming Home solved that problem! They were stamped on watercolour paper and watercoloured, as there aren't Early Espresso Blends.

When I was making my background for the front, I made it slightly larger so that I could use the offcut for the inside. I die cut a Whisper White Stitched Rectangle the same size as the background and then nestled it inside the offcut on the inside of the card. This time I used Blends on the trees on the inside. I cheated a little and used Bronze for the trunks!

That's all from me for tonight. As always, you can join in with the fun over in our Facebook Group. You just need to make a card based on the challenge, take a photo and upload it to the group. Easy!

Please do continue on with the Blog Hop. Next you're off to see the absolutely adorable card that Siobhan has made. It really is cute!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Coastal Cabana

Hi!

It's time once again for this week's Colour Creations Showcase. This week we are up to Coastal Cabana, the second of the Brights in the alphabetical order list of colours. It's a colour that I love, so I was excited to see it pop up in the list.

I recently participated in an ATC swap, where we used the Faux Mother Of Pearl technique. I quite enjoyed doing my ATC, and thought that Coastal Cabana was the perfect colour for the technique. Basically, you use scrunched up plastic wrap to 'pounce' Frost White Shimmer Paint over your cardstock and then, once dry, use a Sponge Brayer to apply your chosen ink over the top. You can see the gorgeous shimmer better in the next photo.

The poppy was cropped from Whisper White card using the Poppy Moments Dies. To colour the solid layer I laid the outline die over the top and watercoloured each of the petals individually. I coloured quickly and didn't try to be too neat as I like the messy look.

On the inside I used a trick learned from my wonderful friend, Judy May. I deliberately made my Faux Mother Of Pearl Panel larger than I needed for the front so that I could use the offcuts on the inside. I made sure that when I cut the piece for the front I cut it from the centre of the panel. I then just inset a second piece of Whisper White, cut with the same sized Stitched Rectangle Die, for the inside of my card. A smaller poppy finishes it off nicely.

That's all from me tonight. The lovely Catherine is once again hosting the Showcase, so you can find the links for the rest of our Coastal Cabana cards over on her blog.

Bye for now,

Tina