Colour Creations: Balmy Blue

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by for our Colour Creations Blog Hop. We are looking at Balmy Blue this week, a lovely, light blue. It's a blue that I really like and use a lot.

I've once again chosen to use a Brian King colour combo for my card. I thought it suited a masculine card, so I pulled out my On The Horizon bundle. I'm so sad that it is retiring at the end of the month!

I had fun playing with the Horizon Dies to create a scene on my card front. The Navy hill is actually in reverse - I felt it suited the layout better to have the bigger hill on the left. I had to creatively trim the piece so that it would fit across the card - it's more suited to a landscape card. 

I messed up the stamping on the front of the card - I forgot to stamp the Happy Birthday until after I'd put the Dimensionals on the back. I gave it a try, but as you can see, I had to cover the mess with a stamped banner instead!

Nice and simple on the inside. I really like the combo of the die cut trees and the stamped birds.

That's all from me for tonight - short and sweet! Next stop along the way is my lovely friend, Rachel Palmieri.

Catherine can help if you get stuck. She has a list of all participants on her blog, so jump on over there is you find a link that isn't working.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 368: CASE A New Catalogue Favourite

 Hi!

Welcome back to the start of a new challenge week for CASEing The Catty. This week we are delving inside the new Annual Catalogue and asking you to CASE your favourite project.

I'm sure that, like me, you'll find it super hard to narrow it down to one favourite! Alas, it must be done! I found this stunner on page 28 and loved it immediately. 

The white borders, simple layers and the gorgeous bouquet all caught my eye and insisted that I *must* make this card! I don't own the stamp set, nor the Dots & Spots Die used to make the background, so I substituted for things that I had in my stash. 

I kept the monochrome theme for the background, however I used the recently retired Friendly Hello SAB DSP in Fresh Freesia. I really loved the splatter effect of the paper. 

If you're thinking that you've missed this stamp set in the Annual Catalogue, it's because it's actually from the  Bouquet Of Hope Paper Pumpkin box. It's currently on the Clearance Rack at half price! It was also used to stamp the flowers behind the oval. it was a dreary day when I photographed my card, so you can't see that I 'coloured' those flowers with my Wink Of Stella pen.

I repeated the bouquet again on the inside, coloured with Fresh Freesia, Granny Apple Green, Petal Pink and So Saffron Stampin' Blends. Hopefully my mum will love this card - it's on the way to her now.

W'd love for you to play along with us for our challenge. I'm sure that the hardest part will be choosing a project to CASE. Once you have your card made, just upload a photo to our Facebook Group before next Sunday's challenge begins. Too easy!

Please don't forget to finish our blog hop, though. There's plenty more inspiration to be seen, starting with the very lovely Michelle Stradz.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 364: CASE An Easter Project

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. This week we are asking you to CASE an Easter project from either of the two current catalogues.

I don't usually send Easter cards, so I went looking for a project that could easily be made into a birthday card. I found this gem on page 77 of the Jan-June Mini.

I loved the three horizontal stripes on the background of the card, and the cluster of strips that makes up the bunch of stems. 

I don't own the Daffodil Daydream bundle, so I substituted for the soon-to-retire Pierced Blooms Dies. I just trimmed some strips of Soft Succulent cardstock and DSP to use for the stems.

I also used some Pale Papaya Shimmer Vellum instead of the stamped stripes. I embossed it with the long-retired Decorative Dots EF. I am a bit lacking in embossing folders lately, so this was my best option.

I used some offcuts to complete the inside of the card. The sentiments on the card are from the Sweet As A Peach stamp set

We'd love for you to play along with us for our challenge. Just make a suitable card and add a photo to our Facebook group. It's that easy!

For now though, please continue your way around our Blog Hop. The next stop is the lovely Julia Quinn, with an absolutely gorgeous card.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Shaded Spruce

Hi! 

Wow, it feels like forever since I've posted to my blog. Unfortunately I tested positive to COVID two weeks ago, with the rest of my family testing positive a week later. I'm two weeks post-diagnosis and I'm still feeling unwell, but I missed my card making too much, so I found the energy to create for this week's Colour Creations blog hop. We are looking at Shaded Spruce this week. I did not like this green to start with, but I have found myself using it more and more lately.

I wanted to create an inked green backdrop for my card this week. I initially thought I'd use the smooshing technique, but in the end I decided to use a piece of bubble wrap. I tapped my Shaded Spruce ink pad onto my largest clear block and then spritzed the ink with water. I laid a piece of bubble wrap over the top, pushing down to help pick up the ink. I then laid the inked bubble wrap over a piece of Shimmery White cardstock. It's probably a technique that works better with paint rather than ink, but I liked the end result.

I used my Plentiful Plants bundle to create the feature. At first I only had the two stamped and die cut leaves, but they didn't stand out enough from the background for my liking. Of all the things I tried to do to give them some lift, the plain black die cut leaves worked the best - even though you can barely see them!

My pots were created by cropping the outline layer from Basic Black cardstock with a piece of Adhesive Sheet on the back, adhering the outline to another piece of Basic Black card and then carefully cutting around the edge with my snips. I then used Wink Of Stella on the outline piece for a bit of extra shimmer.

It's good to be back hopping with the team for the Colour Creations hops. The two hops that I missed while I was sick were the only two I have ever missed, so I was a little sad to ruin my perfect record. Aren't I lucky that that's my biggest problem? LOL!

You won't want to miss out on the rest of the hop, so please do continue on your way. The next stop is Caroline Manwaring's blog. I can't wait to see what she's made!

As always, Catherine Proctor is doing a wonderful job of keeping us all organised. If you have a problem with any of the links, just jump on over to her blog and pick up the trail again.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 359: CASE A Die Project

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me at the end of another weekend that has gone by in a flash! I need another weekend to recover from my weekend, LOL! But the end of the weekend means the start of the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop, so it's not all bad 😁

This week we are asking you to CASE a Die Project from any current catalogue. I decided to choose a die bundle from the Annual Catalogue that hasn't seen any love for a few weeks - my Perfect Plants Dies.

I chose this card to CASE, as I liked that the background DSP was cut on an angle - I quite like little quirks like that! 

I'm really not much of a gardener, but I wish I was! I chose my background DSP because I'd love to have a lush garden like that, but I'm realistic enough to know that it's beyond my talents. I can have it in paper form instead!

I used the Perfect Plants Dies to cut all of the focal elements - the hanger (trimmed), the pot and the different leaves in the pot. All but the hanger were cropped from the Bloom Where You're Planted DSP. I really must buy another pack of this paper before it retires in a few months!

I used my off cut DSP from the front to decorate my inside. It's also a great opportunity to use up images from the sides of your DSP that may not be full images. In this case, the pot was cropped at the side, so I just lined it up with the edge of my card.

We'd love for you to join in with us for our challenge. Do you have a favourite set of dies? Just CASE a card from the Annual or Mini catalogue made with those dies and you're good to go! Add a photo to our Facebook group to inspire us all.

As always, thanks for stopping by, but please do continue your way around our Blog Hop - there's plenty more inspiration to be found. My lovely friend Rachel Palmieri is next, with an absolutely stunning card!

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

JAI 592: Just Choose Two

Hi! 

Hooray, it's both Friday and time for the new Just Add Ink challenge - both of which bring me joy! Nikki has challenged us to Choose Two from Texture, Patterned Paper, or Layers to add to our cards.

After a bit of thought I decided that I'd go with layers and texture, with the layered element being my Butterflies & Flowers Layering Decorative Masks.

I dug up some of my long-retired Corrugated Cardstock to provide the textural element of my card. The flowers were stencilled over the top using Flirty Flamingo, Polished Pink, Granny Apple Green and Just Jade. I also snuck in a bit of layering with the sentiment.

My husband saw my card this morning and confessed that he'd had to run his fingers over it to see if it was inked or embroidered. I was thrilled, as the faux-embroidery look was exactly what I was going for!

I repeated the stencilling on the inside - it looks so different on flat cardstock! The textured is definitely more forgiving on errors.

Which two will you choose for this week's challenge? I can't wait to see what you make. You can join our challenge by adding your card to the linky on the Just Add Ink blog. You can also see the rest of the Design Team cards - well worth a look!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Poppy Parade

 Hi!

Are you enjoying this week's Colour Creations Blog Hop? Poppy Parade is such a happy red! I was finally able to place an order, which scored me the Driving By stamp set as a Sale-A-Bration reward. I have a friend who has a restored Combi van that is red, so I used it for inspiration for my card tonight.

I used my Poppy Parade and Basic Black Stampin' Blends to colour the combi, which was then fussy cut.

The road is simply cropped using one of the Suit & Tie Dies, and then I used a white gel pen to hand draw the lane markings. If you don't have the S&T dies, there's a similar die in the All Dressed Up Dies.

I repeated the scene again for the inside, but oriented it to the left. I quite like stamping the sentiment at the bottom of the card rather than in the middle. Just something a little bit different!

That's all from me for this week's Blog Hop, but please do continue your way around our hop. Just keep going until you get back to where you started. The next cab off the ranks is my lovely friend, Christine Blain.

If you get stuck along the way, please jump on over to Catherine Proctor's blog. She's got a list of all participants, and you'll be able to pick up your trail again there.

Bye for now,

Tina