April Creative Showcase: Mother's Day

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by for this month's Creative Showcase. This month we are making Mother's Day cards, getting in nice and early, ready for the big day next month. I was struggling a bit for ideas, until I was fluffing around at my craft desk and came across some images from Grace's Garden that I'd stamped ages ago, but done nothing with in the meantime. Straight away I pictured a scene in my head, and I'm pretty thrilled with how it translated to paper.

There are a lot of layers on this card! I started by using my Sponge Brayer and Blending Brush to apply some Balmy Blue and Pacific Point ink to the top part of the background layer. I wanted this layer to look like it had a dirt path that lead through a forest. I used stamps from My Meadow to achieve this look, and then finished the layer by applying some Granny Apple Green ink to the bottom of the card. Most of it is hidden by the next layer, but I like to be thorough!

The second layer is the tall flowers (no idea what type of flowers they are meant to be!) that sit behind the fence and gate. This layer also includes the part of the path that you can see in front of the gate, and the grass to either side. The third layer is the gate, fence and cat. I left the fence white, apart from some slight touches of grey, added with My Light Grey Granite Blend. I also fussy cut it out, including the tiny pieces in between the slats - I wanted to be able to see the path and flowers through the fence. The final layer is the cluster of flowers to the right of the gate.

I couldn't find room for a sentiment on the front, so I had to put it on the inside! This one is from Dressed To Impress, and is flanked by some more flowers from Grace's Garden.

That's all from me for this month's Creative Showcase, but you can find the rest of the links for this month's blogs over on Rachel's blog. She does such a great job of keeping us all organised every month!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Terracotta Tile

 Hi!

Thanks for coming back for the new Colour Creations Creative Showcase. We are jumping out of order, just this once, as we had to fit Terracotta Tile into the series before it retires in around a month. As an In Colour, it is only in our range for two years before making way for a new set of In Colours. 

I recently repaired a broken Jar punch for a friend, and took the opportunity to punch a few shapes - I had to test that it was working, right? 😆 After punching the Jar from Terracotta Tile cardstock I used a small amount of White Craft ink and a dry water brush to apply the ink to the punched shape. I was deliberately going for a very streaky look, and I was please about how it turned out.

I then used my new Forever Flourishing Dies to crop some foliage to go into the vase. I used Basic Black card and Silver Foil. Neither shows up the embossing lines in the dies very well - I probably need to use a shim in my machine to get the full effect.

I repeated the scene on the inside, except that I cut down the black foliage a little so that it didn't take up too much space on the inside. I need room for writing a message! I also used some Terracotta Tile cardstock for the other foliage instead of foil.

Please pop on over to Cathy's blog for the rest of this week's Terracotta Tile cards. Next week we are back to our alphabetical order, featuring Sahara Sand.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 312: CASE Your Favourite Retiring Dies

 Hi!

Happy Easter! Have you had a lovely day? I hope so! My teenagers slept in today, so we were able to do our egg hunt at a much more reasonable hour. Yes, even though they are 17, 15 and 13, they still want the chocolate! It's the only day of the year that I let them eat as much junk as they want. They used to go nuts, but they've finally worked out that they end up feeling sick, so they are a bit more cautious these days!

This week for our CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge, we are asking you to CASE a project made with your favourite retiring dies. There are so many of my favourites retiring this year, it was nearly like asking me to choose a favourite child! In the end I went for my World Map Dies. I got the because my husband is interested in maps, particularly antique maps, so this suite was a must have, and will stay in my permanent collection.

I found this little tag on page 26 to CASE, but I decided to turn it into a full size card.

Because this gave me more room to play with, I decided to add two globes to the front. I used the dies to crop the globes from some Brass Foil, and then used a left over piece of Foil to anchor the two globes to the card. 

The backing for the globes was made with watercolour paper. I used my Water Painter and some Misty Moonlight ink to colour the paper, making sure that the colour went on very unevenly.

I made a third globe in the same manner for the inside of my card. A pair of sentiments from A Good Man finished off the card nicely.

What is your favourite retiring die set? There are so many to choose from, so I can't wait to see what you choose. Don't forget to upload your photo into our Facebook group when you've made your card.

Before you dash off to get inky, please do finish the Blog Hop. Next up is the lovely Lauren. Hmmm, I wonder which set of dies she has chosen?

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 548: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me (a little late!) for this week's Just Add Ink Challenge. The Easter long weekend has thrown my days out - but an extra long weekend is a good reason to be a bit out of whack!

This week we have a sketch challenge, designed by Jan. It looks a bit sporty to me - maybe a bit like a sports team logo? Having said that, my card is anything but sporty! I still had the new Butterfly Brilliance bundle out on my desk, so I decided that rather than make more mess, I would play with it again.

I sometimes forget to use Early Espresso as a neutral colour. I decided that it worked better with the limited edition Natural Touch Specialty paper. The paper is a lovely woodgrain, and I think black would have been the wrong choice with it, especially with the Rococo Rose butterfly.

It's really hard to see in the photo, but the butterfly has a layer or two of Wink Of Stella over the top. It's lovely and sparkly in real life. Instead of having the long thin strip under the circle, as in the sketch, I decided to shorten it and use it for my sentiment. It's a good balance for the butterfly hanging over the other side of the circle.

Another Wink Of Stella-ed butterfly adorns the inside of the card, alongside a sentiment from A Good Man. Thankfully that stamp set is carrying over to the new Annual Catalogue!

Please hop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Design Team cards. You can also link up your card for our sketch challenge. What do you see in the sketch? So many possibilities!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Rococo Rose

 Hi!

Welcome back to my blog for the new Colour Creations Creative Showcase. This week we are featuring one of the soon to be retired In Colours - Rococo Rose. At this start of this Showcase series, I would have described it as a dirty pink, but I have changed my ways and will now describe it as a dusky mid-pink. LOL! It's duskiness is what makes it a favourite pink that I will have a bit of trouble saying goodbye to.

Another thing that I will have trouble farewelling is the gorgeous Beautiful Friendship stamp set. I'm not really big on floral stamp sets, but I loved how this one does all the hard work for you because the stamp itself is designed to leave different intensity of ink for different parts of the image.

I also used another favourite, retiring, stamp set for the sentiments - Seaside Notions. It's been a go-to set this year, especially for the sentiments, as I love the mix of fonts and the size is usually perfect. Speaking of retiring, I have cropped the sentient with one of the dies in the Stitched Shapes set, which is also retiring. Sob! The Layering Oval underneath is also on the way out.

I stamped the flower stamens in Memento ink, and then dotted over the top of them with a white gel pen. It helps to soften the starkness of the black ink.

That's all from me for tonight, but please do pop on over to Cathy's Blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Rococo Rose cards. I can't wait to see what everyone has made!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Rich Razzleberry

 Hi!

Thanks for once again joining me for the new Colour Creations Creative Showcase. This week it's Rich Razzleberry's turn. Razzleberry was one of a trio of In Colours (alongside Melon Mambo and Soft Suede) that was released mid way through a catalogue year, with the goal of bringing the South Pacific market into line with the North American market. I was thrilled when it later returned as a core colour, as it's a gorgeous, rich purple,

For this week's card I pulled out three products that I love, but haven't played with much lately - Under My Umbrella bundle, Ornate Layers Dies and my Watercolour Pencils. The focal images were stamped in Memento ink and then coloured with my Rich Razzleberry Watercolour pencil. I used my usual Wink Of Stella to blend the colour rather than water. I find I have much more control over the colour this way.

My background was stamped using the two smallest flower clusters. I popped both onto one block and away I went until the Whisper White cardstock was covered. I then embossed it with my Subtle 3DEF folder, to give the effect of fabric. I was hoping that this photo would capture the sparkly boots, etc, but it was a dull day here in Adelaide, with no sun to help show the shimmer. Oh well, you'll just have to imagine it!

I used an offcut of Rich Razzleberry card and the same Ornate Layers Die as on the front to crop a little feature piece for the bottom of the writing panel. I think that it looks quite pretty!

That's all from me for tonight, but please do pop on over to Cathy's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Rich Razzleberry cards. We are close to the end now, I think only about 9-10 weeks to go.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 310: CASE A Layout

 Hi!

Oh, goodness, this weekend has gone so quickly! Sunday evening really snuck up on me! I had a really lovely night last night at the Adelaide Fringe Festival with some school mums, which meant that today was a bit slower of a day. Luckily I already had my card made, I just needed to do the photography and blogging.

Anyway, on with the show! This week at CASEing The Catty we are challenging you to CASE the layout of the card with the three bow ties - isn't it a fun card? Here's a sketch to help you see the different elements.

I liked the three repeated elements, but I decided to go for blocks rather than shapes. I won a sample pack of the Fine Art Floral DSP a while back and hadn't used any yet, so this was a great opportunity to finally crack it open.

I used my Stitched Rectangles Dies to crop the DSP into three panels, and layered them on some Old Olive card. The three panels were then layered over a piece of Petal Pink card, which I'd embossed with the Subtle 3DEF.

The sentiments are from Pretty Perennials. The 'birthday' part is stamped on a strip that was cropped using one of the All Dressed Up Dies. It's meant to be the handbag strap, but I use it a lot for adding sentiments!

I used the same die to crop a long, thin strip of the DSP to decorate the inside of my card. It's a great way to give a scrap a pretty edge to jazz up the inside of your card.

That's all from me tonight, but this is where is just begins for you! We'd love to see what you do with this sketch, so please pop on over to our Facebook Group, where all you need to do it add a photo of your creation to enter our challenge. 

Before you go, please do finish our hop! Next up is the wonderful Julia - I adore her card, especially as it features my favourite colour!

Bye for now,

Tina