JAI #416: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

Hooray for school holidays! I've been on the count down for weeks, and now they are here. Two weeks of chilled time home with the kids - I can't wait!

In the meantime, it's time for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Patrice has given us this fabulous sketch to work with.

It's so versatile - you could really do anything with that square! I went very literal with the sketch this week, as it suited the theme of my card.

Who doesn't love those colourful plastic building blocks? Until you step on one, that is! My kids are mad on it, but this card was made for a friend who, as you can probably guess, was turning 40. The figure stamp was from a set by Kindred Stamps called Building Blocks. The paper was some I had in my stash by Creative Imaginations.

I had a lot of fun colouring the little man with my Copic markers. Unfortunately I didn't have the correct colours among my Stampin' Blends. It was great practice for trying to show a curve in a shape by using highlight and lowlights. It's hard to see in the yellow head, but you can certainly see it in the top pant of his pants.

Anyone else got a certain song from a movie soundtrack stuck in their heads right now? LOL! Alex used to sing the famous line from it all the time, and it drove me nuts!

Why not pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see the gorgeous cards the Design Team have come up with this week? You'll be just as amazed as I was how everyone has interpreted the sketch. What will you do with it? You can link up and join in the challenge on the blog. See you there!

Bye for now,

Tina

Welcome Back, Blackberry Bliss

Hi!

Welcome back to the new Colour Creations Blog Share by some members of the Art With Heart team.

This week we are featuring a colour that has been welcomed back to the line up in the Colour Revamp - Blackberry Bliss. I know there were a lot of cheers when this was announced, as it was a favourite of many.

As Blackberry Bliss is such a rich, dark colour, I decided to have a bit of messy fun with it.

I started by placing a sheet of Shimmery White cardstock in my Stamparatus and stamping the dream catcher from Follow Your Dreams in Call Me Clover ink. I then took my spritzer and spritzed the card with water, holding the cardstock vertically so that the ink would run off the bottom. When it had dried I stamped the image in Clover again (yay for the Stamparatus!), and spritzed it again, this time leaving the cardstock flat so that the colour wouldn't run, only spread a little from the image. Finally, when it dried again, I stamped the dream catcher in Blackberry Bliss over the image. Because I used the Stamparatus to stamp each time, I was able to line up the image perfectly - I especially love the effect where the dangly bits of the dream catcher are. Is there a technical name for the dangly bits? LOL

The asymmetrical top wasn't a planned part of the card, but when I was stamping the dream catcher for the second time I accidentally got a green fingerprint to the top of the image. It looked pretty cool, but still a bit strange, and there was no way I could recreate the mistake to make it look like a part of the design. Cutting straight across wasn't an option, so asymmetrical it was! You can see that I stamped the flower image in Blackberry Bliss on the top of the card base to make it more of a feature. I love the way it turned out - a happy mistake in the end!

It took me 3 days on and off to make the front of the card, so by the time I got to the inside I was more than ready to get the card finished. Rather than play around with ink and water a but more, I decided to play with my new Embossing Mats. Have you tried them? So much fun! In this case I cut the feather shape and then used the new mats to emboss the texture provided by the decorative ejection holes in the die. You'll be seeing more of this in the future, for sure!

You can find the rest of the team's Blackberry Bliss cards by visiting Catherine's blog. Be sure to leave comments - we all love a compliment!

Bye for now,

Tina

Springtime in Colour

Hi!

Today's card is not one I've CASEd from anyone in particular, but it's similar to a lot of cards that others have made. I've used the new Springtime Impressions Thinlits. I first loved them for the butterfly, but at second glance the other two dies, which I've used on this card, are pretty lovely too.

This card was fairly quick and easy to put together. I cut the large flower image with my Big Shot and then used my Stampin' Sponges to add colour to the flowers and leaves. The colours I used were Berry Burst, Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Garden Green and Lemon Lime Twist. There's no trick to adding the colour - it's literally jut sponged over the top.

Underneath where the die cut was going to lie I also sponged some Pool Party ink. It helps to make the colours in the flowers pop. A few pearls, a sentiment and a die cut flower (the third die in the set) and the card front was done!

The little flower die is so sweet that I couldn't help add a couple more to the inside of the card. So now, in the cold depths of winter, I am dreaming about Spring and new flowers!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #415: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Woo hoo for Friday - one more week until the school holidays, and I can't wait!

This week for our challenge at Just Add Ink Rachael has given us an Inspiration photo to guide us.

Isn't it pretty? It makes me think of being in Europe....

Even though I've just purchased the Bike Ride bundle, I didn't want to add a bike to my card. That meant I really had to think about what I wanted to do instead. In the end, I decided to go with the white wall, the basket and the flowers.

The basket and flower stamps are both from the Bike Ride stamp set. I used my Stamparatus to create the mirror image of the flowers so that I could have a bunch hanging over each side of the basket. It's such a cool technique - you should give it a go!

It's hard to see in this photo, but I used the new Subtle embossing folder to emboss the front of the card. Have you noticed it in the catalogue? It turns the cardstock from plain to textured in a few turns of the Big Shot handle. So easy!

LOL, in the end I decided to sneak the bike onto the card! It was a bit hard to resist.

What inspires you in the picture we've used for this week's challenge? You can see what the rest of the Design Team have done over at the Just Add Ink. Once you've made your card, link it up so we can all enjoy your creativity!

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

Smooshed Berry

Hi!

Hooray for a Colour Creations Blog Share with one of my favourite colours!

This week we are featuring Berry Burst. It's such a luscious, rich pink - very aptly named! I needed to make a card for one of my nieces, so I decided to make it a little special.

Have you tried the smooshing technique? That's how I created my background. I used an Aqua  Painter to spread some water over my 'F' clear block (that's the background stamp sized one), and then picked up some Berry Burst ink and mixed it around in the water. I kept going until I was happy with the pink colour, and then I took my cardstock and smooshed it onto the block. I love the variations in colour you get, and the little runs where some water has pooled.

Once it dried, I roughly sponged some more Berry Burst through the diamond mask in the Pattern Party set.  I then finished with some Pear Pizzazz Shimmer ribbon, Black sequin trim, and some Basic Black Faceted Gems. With all that colour, I left the daisy crisp Whisper White on top. I layered three of the punched daisies to give a very full look, probably more of a gerbera.

To finish the inside, I sponged with the mask again and then dragged my wet Aqua Painter over the sponged area to spread the colour.

As usual, you can find the links to the other blogs over at Catherine's blog. Berry Burst is a popular colour, so there's bound to be plenty of inspiration to be found!

Bye for now,

Tina

Polished Stone in Pink

Hi!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I'd been playing around with the Polished Stone technique for my June classes. Today I have the first card I made using the technique.

I used Melon Mambo and Basic Black as the main colours on my card. I wanted to keep the colours dramatic but simple so that the focus would be on the Polished Stone panel.

Speaking of which, how lovely does that Polished Stone panel look? I used Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight reinkers on Glossy Cardstock to achieve the effect. It's important to choose colours that are beside each other on the Colour Wheel, or you risk ending up with brown blobs instead of lovely colours. I went with a little more PP and DD, as I knew MM would dominate the combination.

I used the dotty stamp from Dragonfly Dreams on the inside, trying to recreate the Polished Stone in a small way.

Have you tried the technique yet? It's a fun one, so well worth trying!

Bye for now,

Tina