JAI #268: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

Are you ready for some fabulous Just Add Ink inspiraiton?  I am!  This week Narelle has designed an awesome sketch to guide our creativity.

Lots and lots of possibilities with this sketch.  I decided to make a colourful kids' card using the new Cherry On Top DSP Stack.

I didn't want the fabulous patterns competing with each other so I stuck to a fairly neutral pattern for the background and stepped it up on the next layer.

I used my Bermuda Bay Stampin' Write marker to only ink up the 'happy' bits of the stamp from Amazing Birthday.  The birthday on the flag came from Remembering Your Birthday.

I really love the fun colours in the Cherry On Top DSP stack. They are so perfect for kid's cards.

Why don't you pop on over to have a look at the rest of the Design Team at the Just Add Ink blog before you play along with us?

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH Blog Hop: New Annual Catalogue

Hi!

Today I bring you another AWHT blog hop with some of the awesome ladies in the Art With Heart Stampin’ Up! Team. Today our focus is on our New Annual Catalogue!

I would also like to highlight the joining special for the month of June. Our group is one of the largest teams in Melbourne and offer support, fun and friendship to anyone who would like to join us; from Hobby demonstrators to Business demonstrators to anyone in between. And for the month of June, there is a bonus special, you get to choose any two stamp sets of your choice for free along with your starter kit ($169). What are you waiting for, contact me today to find out more.

My card for this Blog Hop uses three new items: one of the new In Colours, Mint Macaron, a new stamp set called Endless Birthday Wishes, and the new Essentials Piercing Template.  I think Mint Macaron is about to become my favourite green - it's a really pretty, dusky green.

On a side note: do you pronounce it macaron or macaroon? I use the former, but everyone seems to have differing opinions!

I also used some old favourites - the confetti stamp from Dotty Angles and some Dazzling Details.  I used the Dazzling Details to highlight the icing trim on the cake and also some random dots in the confetti background.  It adds a lovely feature to the card without introducing a third colour.

Endless Birthday Wishes is a photopolymer stamp set, which means it's totally clear.  They cling brilliantly to the clear blocks, and lining up your images is a breeze!  There are a ton of words and phrases in both the printed and handwritten fonts that you can mix and match to make a custom sentiment.  Too easy!

Now you're off to see the work of the fabulous Judy May.

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

1. Kathryn Ruddick
2. Jenny Van Dijk
3. Kathryn Mangelsdorf
4. Nikki Sadler
5. Ros Davidson
6. Kate Morgan
7. Kayleen McLean
8. Genna Gifford
9. Tina Gillespie
10. Judy May

World Map and The Open Sea

Hi!

Is it just me, or are the World Map and The Open Sea stamp sets the perfect pairing?  I use them together lots.

This time around I've also paired them up with Gorgeous Grunge (splatters on the map) and Butterfly Basics (sentiments).

The colour combination of Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Real Red and Whisper White is fabulous for a male card.

Do you find making male cards easy or difficult? I must admit that if I have no set card to make I usually tend towards the feminine, but I do enjoy making masculine cards too.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #266: Just Add Colour

Hi!

Gee, these weeks are flying by!  Before I'm ready, it's another Friday and time for the new Just Add Ink challenge.  This week Nikki has set a colour challenge for us.

Pink Pirouette - tick.  Night of Navy - tick.  Gold - Argh!!! I am so not a Gold person, but I guess that's what challenges are all about - pushing you out of your comfort zone.

I made this card over the long weekend when I had a few new goodies from the new Annual Catalogue to play with,

The first thing that caught my eye about the You've Got This stamp set was the fabulous crosshatch type background stamp.  I can see myself using it heaps!

The huge flower is pretty awesome too.  On my card I've heat embossed it in Gold.  It's very hard to capture in a photograph, but it looks really pretty.  I coloured the flower using my Blendabilites, but you could just as easily use Stampin' Write Markers. In fact, in some places the Blendies pulled some colour out of the embossing and muddied the pink a little.

I wasn't sure what to put on the inside so in the end I just left out a sentiment and stamped the flower again in Pink Pirouette at the bottom left.  I hope you can see it, as it's quite pale and therefore hard to photograph.

What fun will you have with this colour combo? Are you a fan of Gold or not?  Doesn't matter, take the plunge and play along - I can't wait to see what you make on the Just Add Ink blog!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #264: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

Are you ready for another Just Add Ink Challenge?

This week Kim has designed a sketch to inspire our creativity.

It's a fabulous sketch and the Design Team have done a great job with it.  I decided to use some of my new Bohemian DSP paired with Perfect Peacock.

I really love the jewel colours in the DSP and thought they worked perfectly with the peacock image.

Just for something different I popped only the stamped circle and left the Bermuda Bay circle flat against the card.  I contemplated putting the Bermuda Bay circle behind the Blacberry Bliss banner, but I don't think it looked as good.

I haven't stamped a sentiment on the inside yet - I'm not sure what I want to put there yet.

I hope you are inspired by Kim's sketch and have time to play along with us at Just Add Ink this week.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #263: Just Add Weddings!

Hi!

I'm back with my first Just Add Ink challenge in 8 weeks - I really missed doing the challenges, so I'm glad to be back.

This week Jan has challenged us to create with weddings in mind.  It can be anything to do with a wedding - think shower teas, invitations, congrats, anniversaries.... anything!

It may be a little predictable, but I went with the Something Borrowed suite of products from the Occasions Catalogue.  Can you believe that this is the first time I've cracked open that roll of gorgeous Sahara Sand Lace Trim? Neither can I!

I went with Blackberry Bliss as my accent colour.  I wanted the drama of a dark colour but I wasn't in the mood for using black or navy.  I was thrilled to see that the Crazy About You stamps and Hello You thinlits were carrying over to the new catalogue as I've had a lot of fun playing with them.

Now, the worst thing about Blackberry Bliss is that you have to be ULTRA careful not to get it anywhere it shouldn't be. In this case I noticed a small smudge of it at the top right of my inside.  I had intended to make a more elaborate inside using one of the Something Borrowed Embellishments.  I still will, but I ran out of time so this inside will do for now.

Are you inspired to play along at Just Add Ink this week?  I hope so!

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH Blog Hop: Farewelling My Favourites

Hi!


Today I bring you another AWHT blog hop with some of the awesome ladies in the Art With Heart Stampin’ Up! Team. Today our focus is on our Favourite Retiring Product!

For my projects I decided to focus on the Flashback DSP.  It's a fabulous paper pack to use for slightly grungy male cards, as many of the pages have a distressed look.

I mostly like to keep male cards bold but clean and simple.  In this case I use the retiring What's Up punch to bracket the sentiment.  To do this I slid the DSP into the punch far enough to punch only the fatter arrow shape, and then repeated for the other side.

The sentiment is from another retiring stamp set/framelits combo: Just Sayin' and the Word Bubbles framelits.  I'm really going to miss the word bubbles - they are a lot of fun to use on cards!

To finish off the card I used the punched out pieces from the front and an old favourite (thankfully not retiring) Sassy Salutations.

On this card I have also used the Flashback DSP.  I wanted to make another male card, but a little more stepped up than the first card.  I decided to use the retiring Triangle punch to create a subtle feature that would help ground the sentiment panel. The geometric look of the triangles is fab on a male card.

The stamp set I used is from the Hip Hip Hooray Card Kit, which is retiring. I used my Real Red and Pool Party Stampin' Write markers to colour the image before I stamped it.

The inside was finished off with some more DSP and Triangles.  I also used another stamp from the Hip Hip Hooray set.

Let’s keep this blog hop hopping. Next up we have the amazing Genna Gifford.

Sorry, Blogger isn't playing nicely and allowing me to add the link to Genna's blog on the image.  Just click here instead.

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

1. Judy May
2. Tina Gillespie
3. Genna Gifford
4. Ros Davidson
5. Claire Daly
6. Nikki Sadler
7. Kathryn Mangelsdorf
8. Kayleen McLean
9. Kathryn Ruddick
10. Jenny Van Dijk
11. Kate Morgan
12. Rachel Woollard
13. Barbara Lindsey