JAI #478: Just Add H

Hi!

It's Friday, which means that once again it's tie for then new Just Add Ink challenge. This week it's one of my Alphabet challenges.

We are challenging you to add H to your projects. It can be anything starting with H - a stamp set, a technique, a theme - your imagination is the limit. Just make sure that you clearly let us know what the H is in your post.

I have three H elements in my card: I made a Halloween card using Heat Reactive Foil and Heat Embossing. I don't usually 'do' Halloween, but I had seen this foiling technique and was keen to give it a go.

How cool does that look? I played up the black a little the I was editing the photo to give better effect to the copper foil. To use the foil, you basically print your design onto cardstock using a laser printer or photocopier. The foil reacts to toner, so it *must* be a laser printer or copier. You then place a sheet of the foil over the top, place all that between two pieces of copier paper and run it through your laminator. Done! Don't have a laminator? You can also use your iron. The foil sheet will peel away, leaving behind the foil where the toner has been printed. I have to confess that I didn't use the correct foil, and I ended up with some foil where I didn't want it. Thankfully, it wasn't thick and I was able to remove most of it with a sand eraser. I will definitely be off to Spotlight to grab some of the correct foil once the kids are back to school next week!

To finish the card I used Clear Embossing Powder to add the sentiment. I used two retired stamp sets, Layered Letters Alphabet, and Mr Funny Bones for the spiders. I didn't want the sentiment to take the focus from the scary face, which is why I used the Clear EP.

I used more spiders and a sentiment from Mr Funny Bones to finish off the inside. Now to work out what I'm going to do with a card for a holiday that I don't really celebrate!

Time now to head on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see the rest of this week's Design Team cards, and enter your own in the challenge. I'm sure most of the DT thought I'd go with a Harry Potter card, so I'll bet they are surprised by the Halloween card I made! What will your 'H' card be?

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC Week 8

Hi!

Welcome to the Art With Heart team's Heart Of Christmas Blog Share. We are up to Week 8, and I am having a turn to host this week! You will find all the links to this week's gorgeous cards at the end of my post.

I decided to make my card using a non-Christmas stamp set this week. I have ummed and ahhed over the Country Home stamp set ever since it first appeared, which I think was in last year's Holiday Catalogue. I finally purchased it, and tonight's card is the first time I have inked it up.

I stamped it in Memento ink so that I could colour it with my Stampin' Blends. It took three goes to stamp it correctly, as I completely misjudged the size of the foliage stamp! Thankfully, cardstock has two sides, so I wasn't wasteful. I used Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake, Granny Apple Green, Poppy Parade, Grey Granite and Pool Party to colour the image. I wanted to use lots of red and green to help with the Christmas theme.

I selected a piece of DSP from the Night Before Christmas pack as my background. I think that the tile-type pattern in reds also helps to keep the card Christmassy, but also country. The main image was cropped with the largest Stitched Nested Labels Die, and the sentiment with the smallest Rectangle Stitched Die. I finished the front with a twine bow using a scrap of Mossy Meadow Linen Thread from the Magnolia Lane Ribbon bundle.

I used Crumb Cake ink to stamp the milk tin and foliage again on the inside. So that they didn't take up too much space, I stamped them off the side of the card. The sentiments I have used on the card came from Merry Christmas To All - a set with a fabulous mix of smaller and larger sentiments. I also added a scrap of DSP left from the front of the card.

That's it from me, so why not check out the rest of this week's cards? So you don't have to keep jumping back and forth, you can right click on each link and select 'open in a new tab'.

Sharon Davern

Kate Morgan

Caroline Manwaring

Diane Furniss

Vicki Boucher

Rachel Woollard

Catherine Proctor

Michelle Taylor

And for her Heart Of Christmas debut:

Andrea Sargent

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #249: Toile Tidings

Hi!

Once again, it's time for this week's CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. The blog before mine is Rebecca's, but you can join in at any point - just keep hopping until you get back to where you started.

This week we are CASEing cards from the Toile Tidings section of the Holiday Catalogue. It's a section that I usually skip over, as I'm not a big fan of the suite. However, this card on the right caught my eye - I liked that the front was cropped on the side to reveal some of the inside of the card. I was determined to make my card very differently to the sample, but it ended up quite similar. Oh well!

I started with a base of Thick Whisper White and cropped an inch off the front. I then added a strip of DSP cut to 1 1/4 inch wide to the inside. There was the first unintentional similarity - both cards used striped DSP on that part! I then added a narrow strip of Night Of Navy cardstock to the front edge of the card, and a second piece of DSP to the rest of the card front. I found it needed the Navy strip to define the edge. The DSP is from the Come Sail Away pack, which I purchased last month in the DSP sale.

The next unintentional similarity is the circle on the front. While the sample is a wreath and mine is a solid circle, it's still a lot more similar than I wanted. Once again - oh well! My circle was cropped from our new Watercolour Paper using my Stitched Shapes Circle die. have you tried the new Watercolour Paper? It is fabulous!

I started by stamping the man and child in Stazon ink. I used my Stamparatus, as I wanted to be able to stamp a second time if the first impression wasn't good. The rest of the scene was hand painted using my inks and an Aqua Painter. I started with the ocean, creating a horizon line. I used Blueberry Bushel ink. The land, man's jeans, and child's hair were all Early Espresso. The lighthouse (I was so impressed with myself over that!!) and child's pants were Basic Grey. I used Balmy Blue for the sky, Terracotta Tile for the child's top and Garden Green for the man's top. Oh, and Flirty Flamingo (very diluted!) for the skin tones.

I kept the inside nice and simple. By using sentiments that don't reference a birthday, I can use this card for several occasions - maybe Father's Day or a retirement?

Which Toile Tidings card will you CASE this week? There's lots to choose from on pages 6 to 11. Don't forget to post your photo in our Facebook group when you're done.

Now you're heading on over to Peta's blog. I wonder what Marvi has been up to this week?

JAI #477: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

Welcome to the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week Kim has designed a cool sketch for us to use. It's fabulous, as you could interpret it so many different ways!

I had recently seen a card online that used a rectangular window in the front of the card through to the inside, and as soon as I saw the sketch, I knew that's what I wanted to do!

I started with a card base of Thick Whisper White. I used my Sponge Brayers to colour the front with Real Red and Daffodil Delight ink. I used these colours in this way because it mimics the font that was used to advertise the movie the car is famous from. I then used a Rectangle Stitched Die to cut the window. Now I have a cool rectangle to use on another card!

The car was stamped on a piece of white card and then coloured with my Copic markers. I didn't stamp directly to the card base, as I didn't want to see the bleed of the markers on the back of the card. I popped the cardstock into the card before I stamped it, so that I could stamp through the window. This way it lines up perfectly! The circle element of the sketch didn't work on the bottom, so I shifted it to the top of my window. I added a circle punched shape to the back, so that you don't see the back of the Stitched Circle on the inside of the card.

This card went to a very good friend of mine, who is mad on this movie franchise. I knew she'd laugh over the 'You're How Old?' sentiment, so I didn't stress too much about using it!

I really liked this style of window card. I can be a lazy crafter, so colouring one image that did double duty is the perfect card for a crafter like me! How will you use the sketch? The Design Team have had a lot of fun with it. You can see their cards over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card for this week's challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC Week 7

Hi!

Once again, it's that time of the week - the Art With Heart's heart Of Christmas Blog Share. Can you believe we are up to week seven already?

I received an order with a new stamp set this week - one of the Hostess Sets from the Holiday Catalogue. It's called Greatest Part Of Christmas, and has 9 different sentiments to mix and match for the front and insides of your card. I paired it with the Night before Christmas DSP. This sheet, with the trees and lights, really only needs a sentiment, don't you think?

I jazzed it up a little by adding some Shimmery Crystal Effects to each of the bulbs. It's soooo hard to photograph the shimmer, but hopefully you can see the texture that the SCE gives to the bulbs.

I also added the Shimmery Crystal Effects to the DSP I used on the inside - why not? The sentiment is another from Greatest Part Of Christmas. I'm looking forward to using this stamp set more, especially the larger 'Christmas Greetings' stamp.

Time to hand you over to Claire's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's links.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #248: Annual Catalogue With A Twist

Hi!

Welcome to the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop! Have you started here with me, or come from Shannon's blog? It really doesn't matter, but please do continue hopping until you get back to where you started.

This week we are choosing a card from the Annual Catalogue and CASEing it using our Holiday Catalogue supplies. That sounds easy, until you realise that there's over 200 pages of projects to choose from! I ended up starting at the back, and soon came across this cute little card on page 206.

I loved the subtle DSP behind the main panel, and the way the image overhangs the circle panel. Too cute!

I started with a 4 1/4" square Old Olive card base, which I covered with a piece of DSP from the Night Before Christmas pack.

The next layer was Whisper White cardstock, cropped to 3 1/2" square. I ran it though my Big Shot in my Subtle folder. I actually placed the cardstock in the folder on a diagonal, so that the pattern runs  diagonally. I wish the camera had picked it up! The Whisper White Stitched Shapes Circle was sponged with Night Of Navy ink, fading out at the bottom of the circle. I stamped a scattering of stars in Golden Glitz Delicata ink.

My cute little elf was stamped in Memento ink and colours with my Blends - Ivory, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede, Daffodil Delight and Crumb Cake. I then used my Shimmery Crystal Effects to coat the edge of his hat, collar, buttons and bottom of his jacket. An Old Olive linen twine bow and a few shapes from the Ornate Frames Dies finishes off the front of the card.

Being a smaller card, there wasn't really enough room to stamp the elf again, so I contented myself with stamping and colouring the present and then stamping the sentiment from Elfie.

Phew, that's it from me. Do you know we have a Facebook group for our challenges? You don't need a blog to enter, just snap a photo of your card and upload it to the group. Done!

Now you're off on the next stop of this Blog Hop, which is my lovely friend and SU travel buddy, Judy!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #476: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Welcome once again to the new challenge at Just Add Ink. This week Jo has found a cool picture for our inspiration. It reminds me so much of visiting Floriade when I lived in Canberra. Have you ever been? It's well worth the trip if you haven't! I love that after the event, the flowers are cut and delivered to hospitals and nursing homes.

Anyway, on to my card! I was mostly inspired by the colours and the floral theme. What grabs your attention?

I started with the DSP from Mosaic Mood SDSP pack. It's one of the textured pieces, so the design looks and feels like glossy tiles. Rather than the boded colours of the Inspiration Photo, I decided to go with the colours in the DSP for my flowers.

I used my Sweetly Swirled stamp set for the main panel of the card. I'd hoped that my Delicata Golden Glitz ink pad might have arrived so that I could use it to stamp the oval, but sadly it didn't. I had to make do with Soft Suede instead. I stamped a few flowers in Blushing Bride and Crushed Curry on the same card as the oval, and then a few more on some scrap Very Vanilla card, to be fussy cut and adhered over the oval. The two different leaves were also stamped in Mint Macaron and Garden Green. I finished it off with a bow in Mint Macaron twine.

I stamped in a similar manner on the inside, just omitting the oval. The sentiment is from the ever versatile Itty Bitty Birthdays.

That's all from me for tonight. You can pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog to see the rest of the Design Team's cards and to link up your own. I can't wait to see what you create with this photo as your inspiration.

Bye for now,

Tina