JAI #465: Just Add The Season

Hi!

Hooray for a new Just Add Ink challenge! This week Nikki has decided we should add 'The Season' to our cards. What do we mean by 'The Season'? Well, it can either be your favourite season (summer/autumn/winter/spring) or the current season where you live. For me in Australia, it's the depths of winter, and we are currently having a little cold snap. Not cold enough to snow, but certainly cold enough to just want to stay home snuggled in front of the TV during the school holidays!

I decided I'd make a winter themed card, and then realised I had very little in my stash that was winter themed. Oops! I'm not one to back down from a self imposed challenge, so off I went to look for a winter themed digital stamp. I found this cutie by Graphics Dollar, called Linus Goes Camping. Even better, he was a freebie! I quickly printed him and then got colouring.

I used my Stampin' Blends to colour Linus, the fire and his marshmallow stick. I also coloured the ground with my Light Crumb Cake Blend, and then added some pebbles using my Dark Crumb Cake Blend. This was a technique I saw Paula Dobson use in her brilliant Blends Colouring video.

The trees were stamped using the trees from Waterfront. Stamping them over and over and at different heights hides the trunks of some of the images and makes the trees look a lot taller than the stamps are! I used my sponge brayer to colour the sky (after masking off the moon) so that I could flick water over to create a starry sky.

I had a bit of fun experimenting with my Blends and the Colour Lifter on this card. I used the Lifter to add some cross hatching to the jeans to add a bit of texture. I also added some strokes to the wood on the fire to give more of a rough look. I wasn't thrilled with how the hair turned out, but it was fun trying! I used a Soft Suede Blend to add streaks and then coloured over it with Daffodil Delight and Mango Melody.

I didn't have many options for the inside, as I couldn't print Linus small enough for my liking. I made do with a row of trees, which I quite like!

That's it for me for this week's challenge. Now you can head on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see the rest of this week's Design team cards, and also enter your own. Which season will you choose?

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #228: Favourite Retiring Stamp Set

Hi!

Welcome to the new CASEing the Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. I hope you've had a great weekend! I have, and got very spoiled today for Mother's Day. I'm very grateful for my beautiful family. Anyway, on to the hop! You may have arrived here from Monique's blog, or you could be starting here. It doesn't matter, just keep hopping until you get back to where you started!

This week the CTC Crew are stamping with our favourite retiring stamp set. Talk about hard to pick! As with last week, I ended up choosing a stamp set that I wish had seen more ink during the year - Treehouse Adventures.

My card was CASEd from the card at the bottom right of the picture above, which is taken from  page 87 of the Annual Catalogue. I started off by intending to CASE it completes, but once I had the stamping done I went a bit off track!

I used the same colours as the sample - Granny Apple Green, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Poppy Parade, Coastal Cabana and Mango Melody - with the addition of Pool Party for the sky. Once I'd stamped everything I used my snips to fussy cut the scene, including the little bits between the tree and the tree house.

I then added the Pool Party cardstock (embossed with the Subtle folder) to the card base and popped up a piece of Whisper White at the top and bottom of the card. The scene was then popped up over the top, with the grass and top of the tree flat to the WW sections. I hope that makes sense! I finished it off with the sentiment and a few clouds tucked behind the tree.

The treehouse was very cute, so I stamped it again on the inside to finish it off. I think this stamp set will find it's way to my 'keep' pile. I have 5 young great nephews who would love a tree house like this!

Don't forget to join us in our Facebook group to see what everyone's favourite retiring stamp set is.

Before you do though, don't forget to finish the hop! Next up is the lovely Shannon with a fun bunch of cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Bat Punch!

Hi!

LOL, I couldn't resist that blog post title, and you'll see why in a second!

It's the new Colour Creations Blog Share, and this week we are looking at a new neutral, Grey Granite. As greys go, it's an ok grey. I thought it was a bit hard to get excited about grey, until I had the idea for this card.

Its classic Batman! I went with the colours in the original TV Batman to create this fun kid's birthday card. It may in fact also be the colours from the original comic, but I dare not ask my husband or I might still be getting the answer half an hour later. He likes the opportunity to show off his super hero knowledge!

I was inspired by Batman's cape and utility belt on the front of the card. The Blueberry Bushel DSP is from the Best Route DSP - just a scrap I had left over from another project. The Grey Granite piece is from the Twinkle Twinkle DSP pack. I thought it was a bit more interesting than just a plain Grey Granite background. The Pineapple Punch ribbon was a great substitute for Batman's utility belt.

The Spooky Bats punch is a part of the Halloween range in the current Holiday Catalogue. I'm not big into Halloween, but I just had to have this punch to make Batman cards. I made the rookie mistake of asking Rob about the shape of the bat however, and yes, I did get a very extended answer!

That's it for me, as usual the rest of this week's cards are over at Catherine's blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

An Expedition Gift

Hi!

I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago, but by the time it publishes, I will have been in Salt Lake City for a couple of days with my friend and travel mate, Judy May. If all went to plan, we would have spend the weekend checking out the city and listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with fellow travellers Kathryn Mangelsdorf and Rachel Palmieri. We are off to tour Stampin' Up! Head Office today. How exciting, to see where it all happens!

Today's post is about the card and little gift I made and had made for Judy. She did an amazing job planning and organising our trip, for which I was very grateful.

I used paper from the Animal Expedition DSP, as it's so cute, and I thought a perfect choice for the card. I really love the birdie paper! The sentiment, from Treehouse Adventures, is also the perfect choice for the card - I fee like we really are off on an adventure.

I stamped and then coloured the Kangaroo with my Blends. I used the Soft Suede, Smoky Slate and Petal Pink combos. Can you see the silver around the edges? I ran out of Silver Foil paper, so I sponged the edge of the card with Versamark ink and then added Silver Embossing Powder before heat embossing. Too easy!

I also had a bone folder engraved to commemorate the trip. My friend, Alisha and her hubby did the engraving for me. I was so pleased with how it turned out!

To make the case for the bone folder I took a strip of Berry Burst cardstock that was a little wider and nearly twice as long as the folder. I rounded the corners and then scored lines for the fold at the bottom and the flap at the front. I then took a piece of Animal Expedition DSP and wrapped it around the cardstock, adhering it to the cardstock at the back. You need to do this with the bone folder inside the cardstock, otherwise it may end up too tight a fit. I then tied a length of Berry Burst ribbon around the whole thing.

How sweet is this sentiment and tag? The stamp is from the Bunch Of Blossoms stamp set, and the tag is from the Window Box Thinlits set. I punched a small heart from Silver Glimmer Paper using the Cookie Cutter Builder Punch.

I hope Judy enjoys using her bone folder while remembering our trip for many years to come.

Of course, I had to get one for myself too!

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH Blog Hop: CASEing The Catalogue

Hi!

Welcome to June's Art With Heart Blog Hop!

This month, Ros has asked us to CASE a card from the new Annual Catalogue. Do you ever CASE? It's a great way to kick start your creativity when you feel like you've lost your mojo. I also sometimes CASE when I have a new stamp set and I'm a bit stumped on how to use it.

So what is a CASE? It can mean Copy And Share Everything, or Copy And Selectively Edit. Doesn't matter which you pick - it just means you've made a card that was directly inspired by another. Of course, you should always give credit to the original! I've chosen the card at the bottom left of the picture on page 157 to CASE today, and I've made two versions.

If you have your Annual Catalogue handy and have flicked to page 157, you can see that my first card is a pretty direct CASE of the card I chose. I've used all of the same stamp sets, inks and colours - there isn't a lot that I've changed.

In this picture, you can see my two changes - I've used staples instead of stitching (I was feeling a bit too lazy to get out my sewing machine!), and I've used a stamped Pear Pizzazz flag instead of Pear Pizzazz DSP. That was simply because I don't have any current Pear Pizzazz DSP. Otherwise, the card is as close of a CASE as I could make it.

I had to imagine what the inside would look like, as it's rare that the insides are shown in the Catalogue. I just went with similar stamping to the background on the front.

Next, I decided to CASE the same card, but to make it completely different. I started by selecting a different stamp set. I recently got Treehouse Adventure, so I pulled it out for a play. My first effort went in the bin, but I was much happier with the second!

Like the first card, I've used a Crumb Cake card base. I've kept the green background, but this time I've used some Call Me Clover DSP. As I was making a kid's card, I elected to go with bright colours. Once again, my main panel is matted in a dark brown, but this time I've used Early Espresso rather than Soft Suede. The tree and grass replaces the grungy stamping on the first card, but I've used different shades of the one colour (green/brown) on each card, stamping off at times both.

You can easily see on this card, I've flipped some of the elements. The treehouse replaces the sunflower, but now it's on the opposite side of the card. I had no intention to do so, but in stamping the grass I managed to get an ink smudge in a bad spot, so the house had to hide it. I've not used twine on this card, and the banner elements are different, but still in a similar position.

I couldn't resist adding the house in again on the inside!

So there you have it - two cards that CASE the one card, but both are very different!

That's it from me, now you're hopping back to the start, as I'm last on the list. Top of this list this month is the fabulous Catherine Proctor.

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

Catherine Proctor 
Kimberly Hern 

Monika O’Neill

Caroline Manwaring

Kathryn Mangelsdorf 

Kathryn Ruddick 

Kate Morgan 

Alisha Watson

Rachel Palmeri 

Andrea Roberts 

Ros Davidson

Rebecca Jacovou

Rachel Woollard

Tina Gillespie

Bye for now,

Tina