HOC Week 20

 Hi!

Yay! It's time for the new Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. Week 20 of the hops means that I've made 80 cards ready for sending in December. Woo hoo!

This week, I used the December 2021 Sheetload Of Cards template. I simplified it a little, by leaving off a second layer that went under the main panel. I thought that this allowed the simple Lights Aglow DSP that frames the sentiment to shine.

I used the coordinating Brightest Glow stamp set for the sentiments on my card.

I've made good use of my Lights Aglow SDSP, so sometimes it's a struggle to find four matching pieces of DSP left in the pack. Both these patterns are Evening Evergreen/Soft Succulent papers, which provide a lovely, soft Christmas card. I think I prefer the sparkly paper over the bokeh version. How about you?

The next stop on tonight's blog hop is my lovely friend, Catherine Proctor. She's bound to have some Christmas gorgeousness for us to see!

A big thanks to Sharon Davern for keeping us all organised each week. She can help you too, if you run into a problem with any links. Just pop on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all of tonight's participants to help get you back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 629: Just Add Wings

 Hi!

Yay, time for the new Just Add Ink challenge! What a wonderful way to start the weekend.

 

This week, Jo has challenged us to add wings to our cards. I like to cast my mind through my pop culture stamps when these kinds of challenges pop up, and this new stamp set from Kindred Stamps, Galactic Travel, came to mind.

Lots of wings on this card! I stamped the spaceship and coloured it with my Stampin' Blends. I used Light Pool Party, Dark Poppy Parade and Light and Dark Gray Granite. The sentiment is from the same stamp set, cropped with a Stylish Shapes Die.

I really love the background - it's a super wide washi tape from Altenew, called Galaxy Washi Tape. It covers the whole card front, so it's a really quick and easy way to create a lot of impact on a card.

I stamped the same spaceship on the inside, this time with an Ink Road Stamps sentiment from Droid Please.

I hope you can play along with us this week at Just Add Ink. What can you think of that has wings that you could add to your card? I can't wait to see how imaginatively this theme is interpreted. You can see the rest of this week's Design Team cards over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can link up your card for the challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Melon Mambo

 Hi!

Welcome to Melon Mambo week of the Colour Creations Blog Hops. Many years go, Melon Mambo was an In Colour (with Rich Razzleberry and Soft Suede), before becoming a part of the permanent colour range in a colour refresh. It's a fabulous, bright pink that is usually my go-to pink.

It mustn't be a go-to pink for Brian King though, as I could only find one combo, using current colours, of his that uses it! It's a fabulous combo, so I wasn't too worried by the lack of choice.

After three days in a row of 30°C temperatures, my mind immediately went to cocktails when I was thinking of what I could use these colours for. The Nothing's Better Than bundle leapt off my shelf and into my hands, LOL.

I started by stamping the 'kind of day' sentiment on the bottom of the cropped Stylish Shapes circle. The 'Cocktails' was cut three times in Melon Mambo card, and then stacked for dimension. Adhesive Sheets make short work of this! Originally, the 'today is a' was going to be stamped at the top of the circle, but I quickly realised that I didn't have room for that, so over the top it went!

To get the two-toned cocktails, I just inked one half of the filler stamp with the lightest colour, and then carefully inked the other half with the darker colour. I used the edge of the inkpad rather than the middle. Saves a lot of fussing around!

Thanks for joining me for Melon Mambo week, but please do continue hopping your way around all of the blogs tonight. There's plenty more to see, starting with my lovely friend Kathryn Ruddick.

If you run into any problems with the links tonight, please jump on over to our wonderful host, Cathy Proctor's blog. She has a list of all participants, and you can get back on track from there.

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 19

 Hi!

Welcome back to a new Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. we are definitely on the home stretch now! The latest Sheetload Of Cards template was released a week ago, so that's what I decided to use for my cards this week.

I haven't used the gorgeous Lights Aglow SDSP for a while, so it was well past time to pull it back our for my cards this week. The Sheetload template was for a split front card, and with some clever cutting I was able to use just three sheets of DSP to create my four cards.

Here's a little tip for making sure that the decorated parts of the inside are hidden behind the joining piece of the front - I laid the outline of the bauble from the Spruced Up Outlines dies face down on the joining section, after first removing the lining sheet from the Adhesive sheet. If you forget to use the Adhesive sheet, be sure to add some glue. Then close the card so that the outline adheres to the inside of the card. Done!

I stamped my sentiment, from the coordinating Brightest Glow stamp set, inside the bauble to ensure that it can't be seen when the card is closed.

Don't the Gold Glimmer baubles on the fronts of the cards look fantastic? I used some retired Mint Macaron Glimmer paper for the tops of the baubles. If you squint a bit, it looks like Soft Succulent!

Thanks for joining me, but please keep hopping around to the rest of the team, starting with my lovely friend, Christine Blain.

As ever, the wonderful Sharon Davern keeps us all organised for the blog hops, so please head on over to her blog is you run into any issues with tonight's links. She'll have a list of all participants on her blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 628: Just Add Colour

Hi! 

Hooray for Friday and the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week we have a colour challenge for you, suggested to us by Annie.

Isn't it fabulous? I really love the teal/purple combo, and adding pink to the mix is such a great idea. I decided to use some new purchases, the Layered Books Dies from Waffle Flower.

I started by cutting and layering up a whole lot of the books from the dies - as you can see, some are laying flat and others are on their sides. I love that the die set gives so many options - there's even open books. I just used some Basic Black offcuts to create the bookshelf, all popped up on Dimensionals to add to the scene.

I laughed so much at this sentiment, which is from Bedtime Story by Clearly Besotted. Are you a quitter? LOL! I am not - well, I try not to be, but sometimes my drooping eyes late at night defeat me, haha.

I had a few books left over from the front, so they were put to good use on the inside of my card, along with another Bedtime Story sentiment. I definitely agree with this one, too!

What do you think you'll do with these colours? You can see what the Design Team have created using them over on the Just Add Ink blog. You'll also find the link for the challenge on the blog. I can't wait to see what you create!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Mango Melody

 Hi!

Mango Melody sounds very tropical, doesn't it? I tell you what, I could do with some tropical right about now! It's been cold, wet and gloomy here for days, and we are only a month away from the start of summer. Brrr! I will have to be content with the colour Mango Melody, which is the feature colour for this week's Colour Creations Blog Hop.

I'm using another Brian King colour combo this week, which pairs Mango Melody with Smoky Slate and Basic Black.  I was determined to use my Dots & Spots Die, as I purchased it a while ago, but have been yet to use it.

Doesn't it create an awesome background? The black really pops!

I pulled out my Tech Support stamp set to play with. I think it's the grey in the combo - I'm old enough to come from an era when all computers were grey and so it just goes with Tech Support. LOL! I really  love this sentiment, but I always seem to split it so that I have something appropriate to go on the inside of my card.

I roughly stamped the keyboard stamp on the Stylish Shapes circle on the front of my card, and then carried it over to the inside. I deliberately stamped the image on a lean - there's no way I'd get them all lined up and even without a massive amount of effort, so my trick is to do it deliberately wonky!

Thanks for stopping by, but please keep on jumping around our Blog Hop tonight - there's lots more to see, starting with the lovely Rachel Woollard.

If at any time you find a broken link, please head to the blog of this week’s host of the AWH Colour Creations Blog Hop, Cathy Proctor, and she will have the list of all participants.

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 18

 Hi!

Welcome back for another week of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hops. We are up to Week 18, can you believe? Tomorrow it will be November!

I used the March 2021 Sheetload Of Cards template this week. I liked the simple design and thought that it would work well with the tree paper from the Celebrate Everything Host DSP pack.

I liked the rounded corners on the front of the card, and couldn't resist carrying it over to the inside of my card. The outline portion of the tree was also used - I can't bear to waste the extra bits, especially when they can be put to good use on the inside.

The circle dies from the Stylish Shapes pack were the perfect choice to frame the Christmas To Remember sentiment. There's another four cards added to the stash!

That's me finished for tonight, but please do continue your way around our blog hop. There's plenty more Christmas inspiration to be seen, starting with the fabulous Cathy Proctor.

As she does every week, Sharon Davern has done a marvellous job keeping us all organised this week. If you run into any problems with links, just jump on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all of this week's participants to help you get back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina