JAI 605: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Woo Hoo! Friday once again, which means that it's Just Add Ink time! This week we have a gorgeous Inspiration Photo as the basis of our challenge, which was suggested by Kim.

Hmm, what do you see in this photo? I straight away thought of the Expressions In Ink SDSP and Waves Of The Ocean DSP. Both have now retired, but I thought that I could use the different colours and papers to make an abstract version of the scene.

I was quite please with how it turned out! I used the stitched rectangle die in the Ornate Layers dies to crop the papers - the top three are the Expressions papers, and the lower three are from the Waves pack. I tried to match up with the Inspiration Photo, but wasn't strict with placement.

The mermaid is from an Ink Road stamp set, she's Inked Girl Samantha. I quickly coloured her with Stampin' Blends in colours taken from the DSP packs. The Gold Foil 'dream' die cut is from a long-retired set, called Chase Your Dreams Framelits.

A left over strip of DSP and a sentiment from Light The Candles finished off the inside. 

I can't wait to see what you make from the Inspiration Photo. The Design team have had a lot of fun with it. You can see their cards over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card in our challenge. See you there!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Real Red

 Hi!

Hello, and thank for joining me again for the Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we are looking at Real Red, which is from the Regals colour family. I think it used to be a Bright, but got moved in a colour shuffle. Either way, it's a nice red.

I decided to make a card for a child, as I think it's a happy red, and very suitable. I started with some Sweet Talk DSP that I got in a paper share from the current Mini Catalogue. I'm not much for lovey-dovey papers (or anything, really!), so the plainer sides are more to my taste. This paper looks a bit like confetti, so works with my birthday card, I think.

I used my Penguin Place stamp set to create the focal panel. I stamped the penguin first, and then masked him off before stamping the balloon strings. Hopefully it looks like he's holding a bunch of balloons.

I don't have anyone in mind yet for this card, but when I know who will get it I will add a number to the inside - kids get excited by things like that!! People my age, not so much! LOL.

Thanks again for stopping by, but please do continue your way around our Blog Hop by jumping around the blogs until you get back to your starting point. The next blog tonight is my fabulous friend, Rachel Palmieri.

As always, the wonderful Catherine Proctor keeps us all organised each week. If you get stuck, she's got a list of all participants on her blog to get you back on track. 

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 593: Just Add Colour

Hi! 

Tine for the new Just Add Ink challenge! This week we have a colour challenge, with the combo being my suggestion. 

I love the bright, summery combination of colours. Do you agree?

The teacup image is from a new to me stamp set by Ink Road Stamps, called Beau-Tea-Ful. I couldn't

t resist the set, as I am a big tea drinker, and the image is so pretty! I coloured it with a mix of Blends and Copics.

How to get a layer without an actual layer - after die cutting a shape, leave the die in place and use Blending Brushes to apply some colour. It's a neat little trick!

Hehehehehe, I love this sentiment!! Ink Road is known for it's snarky/cheeky stamps. I don't usually buy the full on ones, but I do love this.

We'd love for you to play along with us this week. Pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see the rest of this week's Design Team cards and then add your card to our linky. Easy!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Night Of Navy

 Hi!

Here we are again for a new Colour Creations Blog Hop. This time it's Night Of Navy's turn! It's a lovely, deep blue from the Neutrals colour family. I decided to pair it with the new Butterflies & Flowers Layering Decorative Masks.

I quite like how this flowery mask takes on the appearance of lace once the ink has been applied. I used my Blending Brushes and created the ombre effect with the Night Of Navy ink.

I was very excited that the White Glittered Organdy Ribbon was carrying over from the just-finished Mini Catalogue. It's the ribbon I reach for most often in my craft room!

I did a little more ink blending/masking on the inside. I learned my lesson from last time and cleaned the mask between uses. I got a few random ink smudges in places that I didn't want them last time! I used sentiments from Peaceful Moments to complete my card. It could either be a wedding or engagement card - I think the lacy background suits those purposes.

Please do continue your way around our blog hop tonight by jumping on over to my lovely friend Rachel Palmieri's blog. You won't be disappointed!

If you run into any issues your first stop should be Catherine Proctor's blog. She's the best at keeping us all sorted!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 334: Gingerbread & Peppermint Suite

 Hi!

Happy Sunday! And Happy Father's Day to the dads out there! My kids treated Rob to a sleep in, some thoughtful gifts and pancakes for breakfast. My daughter also plans to cook dinner, so I'm sure Rob will say he's had a great day.

This week for the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge, we are asking you to CASE the Gingerbread & Peppermint Suite. We've expanded that to include pages 8 to 15, so there is plenty of choice for you to CASE. I'm very much a blue girl, so this card on page 13 caught my eye.

I loved the gold snowflakes against the deep blue, and the soft sponging over the sentiment. I'm still tossing up about buying those snowflake dies - they are very pretty, but I don't often use snowflakes on my Christmas cards.

I do have the Gingerbread Dies, and so I used the snowflake die from that set on my card. I backed a piece of the Gold Brushed Metallics paper with some Adhesive Sheet before die cutting, so that the delicate snowflake was easy to adhere to my card. 

The background of my card is a retired embossing folder, I think called Winter Snow. I sponged over the top of it with a Blending Brush and Misty Moonlight ink, making sure that it was darker around the edges and faded to white in the middle.

I did a little more sponging on the inside so that I could add another gold snowflake over the top. The sentiments I used are from Christmas To Remember, with the front on cropped using a Stitched So Sweetly Die.

After you've finished checking out our Blog Hop, don't forget to pop on over to our Facebook group. You need to be a member to enter the challenge, but that's an easy process. We can't wait to see what you make.

Next up tonight is the wonderful Peta Stephen. You won't want to miss her gorgeous metallic card.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 333: CASE The SAB Catalogue

 Hi!

Thanks for once again joining me for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. It's a great way to end the week - I always enjoy hopping with the Crew and seeing their gorgeous creations.

This week we are asking you to CASE any project from the Sale-A-Bration catalogue. It may be a little catalogue, but there's plenty of gorgeous inspiration to choose from. I couldn't go past the cuteness of this card, featuring the Penguin Playmates DSP.

I love that there are so many cute critters in the DSP to choose from, however I chose to use a different, but similar DSP, Sweet Stockings. Instead of polar animals, the DSP features domestic pets in fun Christmassy shenanigans.

I can never go past the goofy look on the Golden Retriever's face! Isn't it hilarious? Combined with the grumpy cat with reindeer ears, it makes such a fun card.

It's really, really hard to see, but I stamped some stars from the retired Label Me Bold in the background, similar to the snowflakes on the original card. The sentiment was cropped using one of my Stitched So Sweetly dies.

I chose another sentiment from Christmas To Remember for the inside. With all the animals on the card, I liked the reference to friends in the saying. They all look like they are wonderful friends, having a very holly, jolly Christmas together!

We'd love for you to play along with our challenge this week. All you need to do is make a card and upload a photo of it to our Facebook Group. Easy!

That's all from me for tonight, but please do continue on with the Blog Hop. Next up is my lovely friend, Rachel, who I'm sure has toothpicks holding open her eyes after a big weekend attending an online SU Leader's conference!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Cinnamon Cider

 Hi!

It's once again time for the Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we are featuring Cinnamon Cider, one of the 2020-22 In Colours. If you love it, you've got less than a year left to enjoy it! It's quite a creamy brown that's a lot lighter than other browns in the SU colour range.

I thought that I'd try it with the sort of sepia effect that I usually use Soft Suede for. I stamped my image, from Beautiful Moment, in Cinnamon Cider ink onto Shimmery White cardstock. I then used a Water Brush with minimal water in the barrel to 'colour' the image. I don't pick up ink from the inkpad with the brush, I just pull the ink in from the stamped image. It's a very subtle effect! The Shimmery cardstock has a bit of a grey cast, but against the Cider it nearly looks blue - which very much suited my design!

I cut the layers under the art panel while I was watching The Block on TV. Silly mistake, as they ended up being too narrow for the card base. Oops! To compensate, I cropped a scallop border using one of the dies from the Penned Flowers set. I like how it adds the stitched line, too. To make the card a little more cohesive, I cropped the art panel using the Stitched So Sweetly dies. The scallops and stitching match very well!

I just stamped the flowers on the inside. I only inked the grass portion of the stamp to fill in the empty space below the line of flowers. I thought it would get too muddy to stamp the whole flower image in the lower sections.

Thanks for joining me, but please do continue your way around the Blog Hop. Next up is the fabulous Michele Taylor. I always love the cards she makes!

Catherine Proctor is our Host for Colour Creations, so if you find a broken link along the way, just pop over to her blog. She'll have a list of all the participants and you'll be able to pick up the trail there!

Bye for now,

Tina

May Creative Showcase: New Annual Catalogue

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for this month's Creative Showcase. Naturally, as the new Annual Catalogue began this month, we are focussing on products from that catalogue. I've been a bit slow off the mark with ordering from the catalogue, but I couldn't resist the gorgeous What A Year Memories & More card pack.

My sister recently purchased her first home, and so I thought that I would use one of the cards to make her a card of congratulations. This cute little card with the house was the perfect choice! The new Polished Pink cardstock was cropped using the largest Stitched So Sweetly die, and then I trimmed the card to fit inside the stitched line.

The only current embossing folder that I have is the Bricks & Mortar folder, which I thought was an apt choice for the background. The word home was cropped from Whisper White cardstock with some Foam Adhesive Sheet attached to the back using the Playful Alphabet Dies. I used the retired Well Written Dies for the cute little heart in the centre of the 'O'.

Nice and simple on the inside, with just the Congratulations sentiment from Peaceful Moments in Polished Pink ink. I didn't think we needed another bright pink in our range, but I am coming to like this pink!

You'll find the rest of the links for this month's Showcase over on Rachel's blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Purple Posy

 Hi!

Thanks for once again joining me for the Colour Creations Creative Showcase. This week we have one of my all-time least favourite colours, Purple Posy. To me, it's just not a very interesting colour. My apologies if you're a big fan!

I had the idea with this card to sponge some Purple Posy ink around the woman to give a bit of a sunset/dusk like glow. I still have my Purple Posy ink pad , and while it's not a great ink to stamp with, it's OK with sponging. I stamped the image of the woman and then masked her off before using a Blending Brush to add the ink all around her. It's very subtle!

You can sort of see the effect in the second photo. I used the new Pearlescent Paper as my base. I think that it doesn't 'take' ink as well as plain Whisper White, which is why it's quite pale.

Just a bit of simple stamping on the inside, no sentiment. This makes the card a bit multi-purpose, as the front sentiment, "Thinking of You" is generic enough for be suitable for a few different situations.

As always, you can find the rest of this week's cards over on Cathy's blog. 

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 544: Just Add L

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new Just Add Ink Challenge. Hopefully you have time to play along with us. It's a long weekend here in Adelaide, which always means a little extra crafting time for me. I'm hoping to get the next block in the quilt top I am working on done - what about you?

If you're paper crafting, why not join in our Just Add L challenge? Your card just needs to have one thing that starts with L on it. Maybe a stamp set, or a colour, technique, embellishment, theme, whatever you can think of that starts with L!

I went for Lipstick! I haven't used my Dressed To Impress stamps much lately, so this was a good excuse to pull them out. I stamped the lipstick with Memento ink and coloured it with my Watercolour Pencils and Wink Of Stella. It's lovely and shimmery in real life!

For a bit of added texture, I ran my DSP through the Big Shot with the Subtle 3DEF. It's such a pretty effect, and makes the paper look like fabric.

The DSP on the inside got the same treatment as on the front. And I'm happy, because I now have one of the two Mother's Day cards that I need for this year made. Now just to put it in a safe spot where it won't get lost!

Time now to pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see the rest of this week's Design team cards. I love these alphabet challenges, as everyone is so creative in interpreting them.

Bye for now,

Tina