JAI #542: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Hooray for Friday, and hopefully the start of a cooler weekend! It's been 30+ here for most of the week, so I'm looking forward to a few cooler days. But let's get into the challenge! This week at Just Add Ink, we have an Inspiration Photo, suggested by Lou, to spark our creativity.

It's such a fun mix of colours and textures, don't you think? You can be inspired by anything in the photo, like the colours and textures as I mentioned. You don't have to recreate the photo, but having said that, that's pretty much what I did! LOL!

I started by pulling my retired Tropical Chic bundle down off the shelf. I kept it for the gorgeous, lush fern stamps. I knew they would come in handy one day! I used the mirror stamping technique with my Stamparatus so that the fat leaf would bend in both directions. Apologies to any gardeners that I may have offended - I have no idea what the different types of ferns are, or even if fern is the right word to describe them!

The pot for the ferns was cropped using the Balloon punch. I just trimmed off the top and bottom and wrapped some of the Blushing Bride Snail Mail Twine around it. I also used some Blushing Bride DSP, from the retired Tropical Escape pack. To replicate the wall in the Inspiration Photo I used some rendered wall DSP from the In Good Taste pack.

I had a fe left over bits and pieces from the front, which were put to good use on the inside. The sentiments on the card are from the A Good Man stamp set, stamped in Shaded Spruce ink.

That's all from me for tonight, but please do pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can link up your card for this week's challenge - after you've checked out eh rest of the Design Team cards, of course!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #536: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Just Add Ink challenge - the last one for 2020. We have an Inspiration Challenge that will run for two weeks. How cute is this picture that Nikki has found for us to use?

It is super cute - but very Northern Hemisphere! I started wondering what a similar decoration would look like for the Southern Hemisphere's summery Christmas, and that's the theme I ended up using on my card.

I pulled out my Sun Lovin' Santa stamp set and stamped and coloured a whole lot of images. I really had no plan for a card at that point. By a happy coincidence, the colours I used worked perfectly with the retired Tropical Escape DSP.

I love the bright, fresh feel of the card, provided by the Flirty Flamingo card base. Santa looks pretty cool in his Flirty Flamingo Hawaiian Shirt too!

There's that Joy To The World Paper Pumpkin stamp again - I am getting so much use out of it!

I had a lot of images left over from my stamp and colour session, so I decided I would make another card rather than let them float around on my craft desk until next Christmas.

I used the exact same colours, DSP and layout, I just switched it to portrait orientation rather than landscape. I sort of wished that I'd coloured a few more palm trees to put behind the vehicle, but it was getting late and I was feeling a little lazy by that point!

Hehehe, I couldn't resist adding the flamingo to the inside - coloured with Flirty Flamingo, of course!

Here's the two cards together. They were very fun to make - I will definitely have to use this stamp set way more next year!

As always, you can find the rest of this week's Design Team cards over on the Just Add Ink Blog, where you can also link up your card for this challenge - remember that it goes for two weeks!

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I will be taking a blogging break until early January so that I can spend some quality time with my family.

Bye for now,

Tina

Spruced Up Flamingo

Hi!

Gosh, we are getting to the end of our Colour Creations Blog Shares now. I will miss them! Hmmm, I wonder if I can convince everyone to continue for a further 5 weeks with the new In Colours? Maybe!

Anyway, this week we are up to Shaded Spruce. It's a fabulous deep green, new to the range this year as a part of the Regals colour family.

I recently saw this card by my JAI friend Lou, and thought it was a simple, but very effective fancy fold. Before I explain, let me show you how it folds out. You can see that there's a round window in the front of the card. I used my Tropical Chic stamp set to create a little frame for the window. It's carrying over to the new Annual Catalogue - yay!

The first flap opens to show the image from Fabulous Flamingo. I used my Stamparatus to line up all of the layers, making it so much easier to stamp. Sadly, the flamingo is retiring at the end of May. I used a piece of Tropical Escape DSP to anchor the flamingo panel. I will miss that DSP! You can see another little strip of it down the left side of the card....

...which is actually on the inside of the card. I like how it adds interest to both the middle layer and the inside layer - much like the flamingo for the front and middle.

So how do you make this card? Just take a piece of A4 card and cut it in half longways. Score at 4 inches and 8 inches and you're done! Oh, cut your window in the first 4 inch section so that it becomes the front of the card. This way the shorter panel becomes the middle flap, showing that little strip of DSP from the inside. It also folds much more nicely this way.

Time to pop on over to Catherine's blog for the rest of this week's Shaded Spruce cards. Don't forget that if you right click on each link you can open the link in a new tab or window to avoid having to jump back and forwards from Catherine's blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

A Roaring Good Time With Pumpkin Pie

Hi!

Wowee, the Art With Heart team are ripping though the colours in the Stampin' Up! range. We are up to Pumpkin Pie this week. When deciding what to make I reached for my Brights cardstock tub, but I didn't find Pumpkin Pie. Oops! I forgot that in the last Colour Refresh, Pumpkin Pie was moved to the Regals.

I have a great nephew turning two in a couple of weeks, and so this was a great opportunity to make a fun card for him. I was originally thinking a lion, but they are yellow, not orange! Tiger it was, then! I did a google search for tigers made using the fox builder punch and found a few. The one I followed was just marked as 'Alana'. How cute is he?

He was a little fiddly to make, but soooo worth the effort. I made his stripes by stamping just the ear part of one of the heads in the Foxy Friends stamp set. I repeated this for the 2, which I think looks super cute!

I had the foresight to make a second tiger at the same time as the first. Usually I only make one and then wish for a second one for the inside but can't be bothered as they are so fiddly. I got smart this time! You may notice that his tail is on the other side - that was a bit of an oops moment that worked out nicely.

Why not pop on over to Catherine's blog, where you can find the links for the rest of this week's Pumpkin Pie cards? They're gonna be great!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #436: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

It's Friday - time for the new Just Add Ink challenge! This week we have a sketch deigned for us by Narelle, which is funny because as I was making my card I was thinking how very 'Narelle' this sketch is, not realising it was one of hers!

I straight away knew I wanted to use my Tropical Escape suite of products.

My first pick was the striped DSP from the Tropical Escape DSP pack. I then chose the darker colour DSP to help anchor the two papers. The circle that the flowers sit on is the reverse of the striped paper. I stamped the palm leaves and flowers in ink that coordinates with the DSP, except fo the pop of Berry Burst.

You can't see it in the picture, but the Blushing Bride layer (not the card base) is embossed with the Subtle 3DTIEF. Have you got this yet? It's such an awesome embossing folder.

I'd stamped and die cut some extra leaves and flowers for the front - there's nothing worse than cleaning your stamp or putting away your dies only to realised you need just one more! They never go to waste, as I just use the extras on the inside.

Why not pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can find the rest of this week's cards made by the Design Team? You can also link up your card - who could resist this awesome sketch?

Bye for now,

Tina

K For Kaleidoscope

Hi!

This week at Just Add Ink our challenge is to Just Add K. You can see the card I made for the challenge here.

Today's card is a reject card for the challenge. Don't get me wrong - I like the card - I just decided to go in a different direction.

So the "K" in this card is the technique - it's called a Kaleidoscope card and you can find instructions for making it here. Basically you create a little triangle template from acetate and use it to outline each of the 8 wedges in the card. They are then fussy cut and arranged in a circle.

This card ended up quite large - about 6 inches square. What I thought were smallish triangles turned into a big card! Those hippos were just begging to be turned into a kaleidoscope, don't you think?

To make the the strip across the bottom of the inside, I used my trimmer to cut a straight line. I lifted the blade when I ran into a hippo and dropped it back down after it. I then used my snips to fussy cut around the hippos. A little bit of extra effort, but worth it I think.

So now I'm off to think about what other DSP I have that I could use to make a Kaleidoscope card. Are you thinking about it too?

Bye for now,

Tina

It's Good To Be Green

Hi!

Is that a Kermit quote? I can't remember, it just popped into my head when I was thinking about a title for this post. Anyway... on to toady's card! This week I have a card that I CASEd from the Annual Catalogue. I recently purchased Swirly Frames and this was my first time using it. I liked the green card on page 137, so away I went!

I made a slightly simpler version of the card. While I own both the Tropical Escape DSP and Tropical Thinlits, I do not own the Tropical Chic stamps. I am still in two minds about them - do I really need the stamps? The Concept Artist used the stamps on the squares in the catalogue card, but I just chopped some of the DSP. Easy substitution!

I also used a pair of sentiments from Dragonfly Dreams on my card. That's what CASEing is all about  - taking the bits of a card that work for you, and finding something in your stash for the bits that don't.

I used some more of the Tropical Escape DSP for the inside. This card is a great way to use up all those tiny scraps that seem to accumulate. The squares on the front were about 1 1/4 inches, and the strip on the inside could be as narrow or as wide as you wish. If your scraps are too narrow, just add a second or third. Too easy!

Bye for now,

Tina

Clover In The Tropics

Hi!

Welcome to the new Colour Creations Blog Share.

This week it's Call Me Clover's turn. The lush green made me think of the Tropical Chic suite.

I started by using my sponge brayers to create the ombre panel. I used Call Me Clover, Lemon Lime Twist and Pineapple Punch on Shimmery White paper.

I used the dies to cut the leaves in both Basic Black and Call Me Clover, and then layered them in pairs. Isn't it a dramatic look?

On the inside I used the larger die to create a window and the smaller die to add the Call Me Clover accent.

Short and sweet for me tonight! You can find everyone's links at Catherine's blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #414: Just Add A Window

Hi!

Whoops! I'm running a bit late with my Just Add Ink post today! This week Nikki has challenged us to add a window or a frame to our cards.

I wasn't sure which one I wanted to do, so I just added both!

I recently received the new Tropical Thinlits and the coordinating Tropical Escape DSP. Quite conveniently for this challenge, the thinlit set has a window die that I was very eager to use. I cut the window into my Granny Apple Green front panel, and then used some Blushing Bride with my Layering Squares Thinlits to cut a narrow frame to go around it. The colours really pop with the Shaded Spruce card base peeking out. I tried Whisper White, but it didn't pop in quite the same way.

I didn't buy the Tropical Chic stamp set to match the dies and DSP, and I'm sort of regretting that now! Instead I used the flamingo from Fabulous Flamingo, stamped in Early Espresso, Berry Burst (stamped off) and Blushing Bride.

The hibiscus flowers on the front and inside were fussy cut from the DSP. I had hoped that they could be cut by the die, but they are a bit smaller. Looks like that stamp set will be on my next order - you'd think I'd know this by now, always get the bundle!

The Design Team have had a fun time with Nikki's challenge. You can see their cards over at the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card. See you there!

Bye for now,

Tina