CASEing Colour Combinations

Hi!

Papercrafters often talk about CASEing, but usually it refers to copying the design of a card and maybe changing a few things to make it a little more unique. Sometimes though, it's the colour combination that grabs you and begs to be made into something totally different. That's the challenge this week for CASEing The Catty - take a colour combo from a card in the Holiday Catalogue and use the colour combo to make a new card.

I flicked through the catalogue for inspiration and stopped on page 42 when I got to the Country Lane suite of products. I don't actually own any of it, apart from the Chicken Wire Elements, but the Blackberry Bliss, Mint Macaron, Crumb Cake and Whisper White combo on the first card was one I loved.

In the end the only things the same were the Chicken Wire Element and the use of a circle, but otherwise I went in a completely different direction with my card.

I hope this gets you thinking about looking at cards in a whole new way now. Another great reason to flip through the catalogue - colour inspiration!

Bye for now,

Tina

Swiping Mango

Hi!

Wowee, these weeks are wizzing by so fast! Here it is, Tuesday again, and time for the new Colour Creations Blog Share.

We are up to the M's this week - more specifically Mango Melody. What perfect timing, just as summer and the mango season begins! Yum, I love a good, juicy mango!

Today's card features a technique that was showcased at OnStage in Orlando. It's not a new technique, but sometimes it's fun to revisit old favourites. The technique is ink pad swiping, where you turn an ink pad upside down and swipe it over your cardstock. The base of tonight's card was actually my second attempt, as the cardstock slipped the first time and I ended up with seriously wobbly lines! Not a bad look, just not the look I was after. Anyway, it's a fun technique that looks different every time you do it.

I then took one of the large pieces of the Delightfully Detailed Laser Cut DSP and snipped a few flowers from it. I chose three of the five pointed flowers so that I could layer them. The largest one was coloured Mango Melody with a sponge brayer, and I left the medium one white. The flower centre is a clear epoxy droplet that I coloured with my Dark Mango Melody Blend.

I ended up using the smallest flower on the inside of my card. I'd intended it to go on the front, but it got a bit lost among the other two. Instead, it's now the star of the inside!

As ever, the rest of the links to this week's cards are over on Catherine's blog. I always enjoy seeing what everyone else has done with each colour. Don't you?

Bye for now,

Tina

An Inspired Christmas Card

Hi!

Today's card is a fun, bright Christmas card that has a little story to go with it.

A week or so ago, Just Add Ink had an Inspiration Challenge with a picture of snowy trees. We get the challenge list a while in advance, so I had a bit of time to think about what to do. Lucky, because I was a bit stumped by it! While I was in the USA, I saw this piece of Christmas decor in Joanns.

Straight away, I thought, why not use a card based on this for the Inspiration challenge? I wasn't sure about it, because it's quite a departure from the original photo. I let the idea simmer away in the back of my brain for the rest of the trip, but then when I got home I found that my JAI teammate, Jo had made this card! I decided not to make the card after all. I posted my Joanns photo in our FB group and Jo and I had a little laugh. Then she challenged me to make a card anyway, so here it is.

I tried to colour match the original piece, so left to right I used: Poppy Parade, Lemon Lime Twist, Melon Mambo, Pacific Point and the retired Lost Lagoon.

I used the two trees from Foxy Friends to stamp with - the large trees direct to the cardstock and the smaller trees on scrap pieces that I fussy cut out. The small trees are then popped up over the top with Dimensionals.

So there you go - it's funny how two people can come up with similar ideas completely independently!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #436: Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

It's Friday - time for the new Just Add Ink challenge! This week we have a sketch deigned for us by Narelle, which is funny because as I was making my card I was thinking how very 'Narelle' this sketch is, not realising it was one of hers!

I straight away knew I wanted to use my Tropical Escape suite of products.

My first pick was the striped DSP from the Tropical Escape DSP pack. I then chose the darker colour DSP to help anchor the two papers. The circle that the flowers sit on is the reverse of the striped paper. I stamped the palm leaves and flowers in ink that coordinates with the DSP, except fo the pop of Berry Burst.

You can't see it in the picture, but the Blushing Bride layer (not the card base) is embossed with the Subtle 3DTIEF. Have you got this yet? It's such an awesome embossing folder.

I'd stamped and die cut some extra leaves and flowers for the front - there's nothing worse than cleaning your stamp or putting away your dies only to realised you need just one more! They never go to waste, as I just use the extras on the inside.

Why not pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can find the rest of this week's cards made by the Design Team? You can also link up your card - who could resist this awesome sketch?

Bye for now,

Tina

Humming Along In Lipstick

Hi!

Its time once again for this week's Colour Creations Blog Share. This week we are looking at Lovely Lipstick. It's a colour I haven't used much as it intimidates me a bit! I can't decide if it's a red or a pink! What do you think? Today's card definitely leans towards pink. What ever you think, it's bold colour, and so I toned it down a little with a layer of vellum.

I have used a stamp set that was an All Attendee gift at OnStage, called Humming Along. It will be available from January when the Occasions Catalogue goes live. Isn't the flower gorgeous? It's a lovely big bloom, just right for colouring. Does anyone know the type of flower? I'm a bit horticulturally challenged! EDIT: My friend Rachel tells me it's a hibiscus!

 When we are at OnStage we get to see a lot of different stamping presentations. One which really stuck with me was Dale Hampshire's presentation on colouring for people who have problems with holding markers - maybe they have shaky hands, as Dale does. I've been thinking off and on about other ways to colour.

I decided to give smooshing as a method of colouring a go, and I was quite pleased with the results. Do you remember how to smoosh? You basically just transfer some ink to a clear block, spritz with some water, pick up the watery ink with a bendable plastic sheet and then smoosh the sheet onto your cardstock.

This time I stamped first in Stazon ink so that my outline wouldn't run. I was then able to be a bit more selective about where on my Shimmery White cardstock I smooshed each colour (Lovely Lipstick, Old Olive and Mango Melody). It looks quite messy like this, doesn't it? Look closer though - the water and the way you bend the plastic help to create colour variations in the different parts of the flower and leaves. It's not a perfect way of colouring, but it's not meant to be! Take a look at how it ends up once it's fussy cut (BTW: there's a gorgeous set of dies to match the stamp set, but I don't have them yet!):

I was so pleased with the results, and I can't wait to try it with my class ladies! It really is a cheat's watercolouring.

I finished off the inside with another of the blooms and a strip of DSP left from the front. The sentiment comes from the Varied Vases set. You may be interested to know that there's a new stamp set to match the lunch in the Occasions Catalogue too!

Why not pop on over to Catherine's blog, where you'll find the rest of this week's Lovely Lipstick cards? It's a bold colour, and I can't wait to see what the other girls have done with it.

Bye for now,

Tina

CASEing The Catty #205

Hi!

EDIT: Oh, wow, I was a winner at CASEing The Catty with this card!

It's been a long while since I've managed to play along with the CASEing The Catty challenge, but after a busy weekend with Rob and the kids, I decided I'd make sure I made the time to give the challenge a go. For challenge #205, the CTC have asked us to choose a birthday card from the catalogue and give it a Christmas twist. What fun! I made a cuppa and settled in with my Annual Catalogue and eventually decided I'd CASE the Mint Macaron/Gorgeous Grape card at the top right of page 136.

I kept the layout pretty much the same, and I also used Swirly Frames on my focal panel, but to give it the Christmas twist, I went with the Hometown Greetings Edgelits.

I started by stamping and cutting two of the large Swirly Frames circles in Night Of Navy and using my Layering Circles dies. I then took my Aquapainter and Night of Navy and Gorgeous Grape ink to create the evening sky on one of the circles. I was so thrilled with how that turned out! I also flicked over some Frost White Shimmer Paint to represent the stars. I cut the second circle with the edgelit, trimming off the second house as it didn't look quite right to me. I then used Dimensionals to pop it up on top of the first circle.

The inside was kept fairly simple so that I'll have plenty of room to write a Christmas message when I send the card. Thanks to the CTC team for a fun challenge!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #435: Just Add Inspiration

Hi!

Welcome to the new Just Add Ink challenge!

This week we have a gorgeous, wintery picture that Kim found to inspire us. Funnily enough, it's been very cold here in Adelaide, even though Summer is nearly upon us!

On my recent trip to the USA, I was excited to be able to tour Stampin' Up!'s Home Office. It was fascinating to see where it all happens! At the end of the tour, the four of us were gifted a Paper Pumpkin kit, which we were all very excited to receive. Mine just happened to be perfect for this week's challenge!

The kit was called Manly Moments, and featured a card with a mountain/forrest scene. I didn't make the card as designed in the kit, instead I used the components to make a bridge card. I had to add a piece of Mossy Meadow cardstock to make the card base, but otherwise, everything is from the kit.

The original card was wider than the back of the bridge card, so I chopped the card base and wrapped it around the sides of the card. The woodgrain paper is actually the inside of the matching envelope! I added a strip of Mossy Meadow across the middle of the box part of the card and attached the forrest part of the kit. I like how it gives the card an extra bit of dimension.

I love this style of card, because even though it's very dimensional, it folds flat and is the correct size for a standard envelope. Winning!

I didn't want to use more stickers on the back, as I'd have to 'steal' them from another card to allow it. Instead, I stamped the trees from Waterfront and added a spare strip of paper from the envelope. I was so happy with how this card turned out!

The rest of the Design team have done an amazing job with Kim's Inspiration Challenge this week. You can see their cards, and link up your own, over at the Just Add Ink blog.

Bye for now,

Tina