JAI #448: Just Add J

Hi!

It's time for a new Just Add Ink challenge. This week it's one of my alphabet challenges, with the letter J coming up for our inspiration. Hmmm, what can you do with the letter J? A stamp set, technique, colour?

I decided to go for a fancy fold and make a Joy Fold card. It's been a while since I've made one, I'm not sure why because they are so easy and have a huge impact. For some reason my mind went to Christmas (joyeux noel - another J!), so that's what I did for my card.

Once again I used the gorgeous Painted Seasons stamps and DSP for my card. I was a little worried that the green patterned paper would be too busy and dominate, but by the time I had adhered the second 'card' I realised that you can't actually see much of the DSP.

To make a Joy Fold card you take a tent fold card and chop off half of the front. Lay it on the side, decorate with DSP and then cut a smaller card and adhere it on the inside of the base with the fold facing the other way. Decorate this and you're done! I added the circle with the pinecone on the front so that the smaller card tucks under and keeps it shut.

So there you have it, a Joyous Noel Joy Fold card. What will you make? Join in the fun over at the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see what the rest of the Design team have created with J, and also link up your own J card.

Bye for now,

Tina

Poppies On Parade

Hi!

Welcome to the new Colour Creations Blog Share! This week is another favourite colour of mine - Poppy Parade. I was very excited to see it back in the lineup after a bit of a hiatus.

Once again, I decided to try a new to me technique for the blog share. I receive the Splitcoast Stampers emails, and the latest had a tutorial for Die Embossed Watercolouring. The sample looked stunning, so I couldn't resist giving it a go.

Basically, you use you embossing mats and a die to create an embossed impression on your cardstock. I used Shimmery White, as it copes pretty well with watercolouring and is a cheaper alternative to watercolour paper. I used the large flower die from Springtime Impressions to create the base of my image. You then just watercolour the image. I used Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Green Apple Green, Garden Green, Highland Heather, Soft Suede and Balmy Blue.

I have said many times that I am very much a 'slap on the colour' watercolourer. This perhaps isn't the best way to approach this technique! What do you think? Do you like the look and am I being too critical of myself? You can see that Poppy Parade is a very orange red, and watercolouring really brings this out. I used a second layer of ink in the embossed sections to add a bit of shading to the flower. I think that maybe this card is one of those 'stand back and unfocused your eyes a little' types of cards. LOL!

I think I will give this technique another go when I'm a bit less time poor and have more patience. Done correctly, I think it would be wonderful!

That's it for me, now you can pop on over to Catherine's blog to see the ret of this weeks Poppy Parade cards.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #219: Gingham Gala

Hi!

Welcome to the CASEing The Catty Sunday Blog Hop, and hooray for a long weekend! Is it a long weekend in your part of the world? It certainly is here, and I am making the most of it by making my very first quilt. I took a break to make a card for today's Blog Hop. The blog before mine was the lovely Lauren's.

This week we are focussed on the Gingham Gala suite in the Occasions Catalogue. I love gingham - it reminds me of my nana and doing embroidery with her.

For my card this week I was partly inspired but he Thank You card on the right of page 34, but I was also inspired by memories of my Year 7 Home Economics classes in my first year of High School. I went to school in NSW, where Year 7 is High School. I can't recall exactly what the task was, but it involved cross stitching on a piece of gingham. I was mad on the boy band Bros, so that's what I embroidered! LOL! You'll be pleased that I didn't do that for my card!

Instead, I used my Real Red and Night Of Navy Stampin' Write Markers to add a faux cross stitched border around my gingham piece, which I'd cropped with a Rectangle Stitched Framelit. For a fun touch, I added an extra cross in each corner.

These cute little flowers are just the right amount of sweet to add to the gingham. Did you notice the new punch shape? It's the Story Label punch and you can purchase it this month to coordinate with many of the Sale-A-Bration offerings. It's a really lovely shape.

I kept the inside simple, using the offcut from the gingham on the front to provide a mat for the writing panel. This card is going to someone special, and I hope she loves it.

I hope you can join in our challenge this week over on our Facebook page. In the meantime though, hop on over to Kelly's blog to continue on the hop.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #447: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

Welcome to another week of Just Add Ink! This week Narelle has designed an awesome sketch for us to use. It's fabulous - certainly open to many different ways to interpret.

I happened to be looking at the sketch as I heard the song 'Purple Rain' on the radio, and so my card was born from that!

I started by brayering some Gorgeous Grape ink over a piece of the retired Shine On SDSP. The card is Kraft with a silver foil pattern, so the purple turned out very differently to how I expected. It's a lot closer to Fresh Fig. Oh well, it's still purple! I embossed a piece of Silver Foil with the Subtle DTIEF. I love how the texture looks a bit like rain, which certainly fits with the theme of my card!

To create the sentiment I pulled out my old typewriter. It took a few goes to get it right, as I typed too fast and I ended up with spaces in the middle of words. I got there in the end! My rock star is from a Kindred Stamps stamp set called Rock On.  He was a fun one to colour! I used my Highland Heather, Basic Grey, Basic Black, Bronze and Ivory Blends to colour him. I also used a silver metallic sharpie to colour his guitar. I wasn't sure about those little triangles on his face - I thought maybe they were his collar, but perhaps it's meant to be facial hair? Anyone know?

I repeated the same elements on the inside. I really love the sparkly black ribbon, and I'm so glad it carried over from the Holiday Catalogue so that I can use it for a bit longer.

That's me done for this week, why not pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see the rest of this week's cards? You won't be disappointed!

Bye for now,

Tina

A Christmas Pool Party

Hi!

Welcome to the latest Colour Creations Blog Share. This week we are making cards using Pool Party. Thankfully it's a colour I love as it's been a busy week and I was struggling a bit for inspiration. If you're a regular visitor to my blog you may have seen this card that I made for CASEing The Catty. It happened to be sitting on my desk when I sat to make my card for Colour Creations and so I decided to CASE my CASE of a catalogue card!

It was so easy to do, as conveniently Pool Party is one of the colours in the Painted Seasons DSP. So instead of Sunday's wintery Christmas card, I now have a summery, succulent Christmas card.

I CASEd myself nearly exactly, only switching out the paper, stamps and colours. Why mess too much with something I was happy with?  The stitched elements all work so well together, don't you think?

So, yay! Another Christmas card added to the stash, and it's only March. Haha, I don't think I'll keep up the pace though - it's always a mad rush in November, or even December if I'm being honest with myself LOL.

That's it from me, now you can hop on over to Catherine's blog to see the cards that the rest of the team have created using Pool Party.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #218: Sale-A-Bration

Hi!

It's the end of the weekend  - boo - so it's the for the new CASEing The Catty blog hop - yay! The blog before mine was the lovely Lauren and I'm the last stop if you started at the beginning. If not, just keep hopping - the link to the next blog will be at the end of the post.

This week we are back to CASEing the Sale-A-Bration catalogues. You can choose something from either of the two brochures. This week my eye was caught by the Christmas card in the second release brochure. Did you notice it?

The Painted Seasons suite covers all the seasons, and the concept artist has made a Christmas card for winter. Which is weird for Australia, but let's not let a little weird stop us!

I sort of reversed the card, by cropping a piece of Poppy Parade cardstock using the Rectangle Stitched Thinlits. I then popped it up over the top of a piece of the winter DSP and adhered the whole lot to my Poppy Parade base.

Keeping with the stitched theme, I cropped a circle and a long, skinny rectangle for the sentiment. The pine cones were stamped using the Painted Seasons stamp set - one in Soft Suede, the other in Crumb Cake.

This was then repeated for the inside of the card. Yay, one more Christmas card to add to the stash!

That's it from me. Don't forget our Facebook group, where you can add your card for the week's challenge. Just click on the image below.

First though, if you have't finished the hop, jump on over to see what the lovely Michelle has made this week.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #446: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Time for the new Just Add Ink challenge! This week Rachael has found this absolutely gorgeous Inspiration photo to guide our crafting.

What a feast for the senses - can you imagine the texture and the scent to go with those glorious colours? So pretty! I went straight for the equally pretty Beautifully Detailed Laser-Cut Specialty Paper for my card.

I lightly brayered over the panel I selected for my card with some Bermuda Bay ink to match the card base. It turned out quite patchy with some white areas showing though - exactly as I'd hoped! I then mounted it on a piece of Bermuda Bay Cardstock cut ever so slightly smaller than the panel, and popped the whole piece up on Dimensionals.

A few layered pieces on the front and I was done! I tore along the bottom edge of the Mango Melody cardstock for a different look, and then adhered it on top of a length of Melon Mambo cardstock. The DSP underneath is from the Garden Impressions DSP pack. I thought the colours and patterns worked well to represent the vases in the Inspiration photo.

I cropped the butterflies on the inside from another sheet of the DSP. I finally caved and purchased the Butterfly Duo punch after I'd fussy cut quite a lot of butterflies!

Is your mind turning over what you're going to do with the Inspiration photo? I hope so! It's a great picture, full of lots of elements to draw ideas from. I can't wait to see what you make! Don't forget to link it up over at the Just Add Ink blog.

Bye for now,

Tina