HOC Week 13

 Hi!

Can you believe we are up to the thirteenth week of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hops? Time is flying by, crazy fast! Tonight I have another set of four cards to show you that have gone into my stash, ready for sending in December.

This is one of the more simple designs of the Sheetload Of Cards templates, and it's from September 2021. I decided to let the Gold Foil in the Lights Aglow SDSP do all the hard work. I also used that gorgeous circle die from the Labels Aglow Dies to highlight the Gold Foil layer on the card.

My sentiments are from the Christmas To Remember stamp set. I really love the hand written style fonts for a Christmas card that is slightly less formal.

Here's my group of four cards. Unfortunately it was a gloomy day when I took the photo, so you don't get the full effect of the Gold Foil. You'll just have to imagine it!

That's all from me for tonight, but the hop continues on, starting with my lovely friend, Theresa Gerrard. 

If you run into any problems with links on tonight's hop, jump on over to Sharon Davern's blog. She'll have a list of all of tonight's participants, and you can get yourself back on track.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 388: CASE An Embossing Project

 Hi!

Welcome back to a new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. It's been a few weeks since I have played along - life just got a bit busy. It's good to be back!

This week we are asking you to CASE an Embossing Project. It can be from either catalogue, and can be heat, dry or paste embossing.

I chose this card from page 38 of the Mini Catalogue to CASE. I'm usually a bit lazy about getting my heat embossing stuff out, but it already happened to be out because I'd used it on another card. I also loved the distressed look to the dry embossed background on the card.

I changed the card to be a regular sized card, rather than the mini slimline in the catalogue. I also made the dry embossed panel smaller, so that more of the Celebrate Everything Host DSP underneath can be seen. To get the distressed look on the Melon Mambo card, I simply swiped my Craft White ink pad over the top, after it had been embossed with the Whimsical Woodland 3DEF.

I stamped the tree, as in the sample, with the Trees For Sale stamp set. I stamped the baubles over the top, and then realised I hadn't opened my Pearlised Enamel Effects yet. Perfect opportunity! It's so easy to use - just a little dot of the thick liquid over the stamped bauble and let it dry! I cut the panel with my Beautiful Shapes Dies before stamping and adding the Enamel.

I'd made a full card front sized panel when I did the embossing and distressing for the front of the card, so I was able to use the offcuts for the inside. I couldn't resist adding more Enamel to the tree, too. Isn't the dimension wonderful?

That's all from me, but we'd love to see which embossing project you will CASE this week. When you've decided, just add a photo of your card to our Facebook Group before next Sunday's blog hop.

My fellow South Aussie, Michelle Strazds, is the next stop in our blog hop this week. She's created a super-sweet card that you won't want to miss! It's so pretty.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 622: Just Choose Two

 Hi!

Hooray for Friday and a new Just Add Ink challenge. This week we have a Choose Two challenge for you, suggested by Nikki.

If you're new to our challenges, a Choose Two challenge is just that: choose two of the three options and make a card using them. This time it's Friend, Foliage or Masking. One of the two was a no-brainer for me, I was just left to choose between masking and foliage.

Masking won, as it made more sense for the friend on my card! I used a Hefty Doodle Cityscape stencil to mask off the bottom of my card. I used some Wild Honey Distress Oxide on the Basic Balck cardstock. My aim was to get a yellow glow of lights, but the cardstock just soaked up the ink and made it more green than I wanted. Oh well!! I flicked some Frost White shimmer paint over the top, before removing the mask, to look like a starry sky.

My friend comes from a Kindred Stamps set, called The One With The Friend. I coloured him with my Copic markers and popped him up over a die cut layer. The die I used was Cityscape, from Mama Elephant. Finally, the sentiment is from an Ink Road Stamps set, called The One Where It's Your Birthday.

I used the same Mama Elephant Die, Distress Oxide and Ink Road Stamps set to finish off the inside. The inking behind the city was what I was going for on the front, it was just a bit too ambitious on black cardstock!

That's all from me for this week's challenge, but we'd love for you to play along with us. Which two will you choose? You can see the rest of this week's Design Team cards over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you'll also find our Linky for the challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Fresh Freesia

 Hi!

Thanks for once again joining me for the new Colour Creations Blog Hop. It's Fresh Freesia week, one of the 2021-23 In Colours. It's a lovely, soft purple that I will miss once it retires in mid-2023.

I chose Brian King's combo that paired it with the other softer colours in the 2021-23 In Colour family - Pale Papaya and Soft Succulent. I had plans to make a floral card, but then I had the need to make a sympathy card and decided to turn the colours into a sunset scene.

I started by working out where the sun part of the Rays Of Light stamp would go on my card and then used a Blending Brush to apply some Pale Papaya ink. Fresh Freesia was used for the rest of the sky, and Soft Succulent for the forest. I then spritzed water onto my Rays Of Light stamp and stamped the inked panel. The water lifts the colour, giving this gorgeous effect. I use my Stamparatus to do this, by laying the stamp on the bed of the platform and adhering my cardstock to the plate. I didn't want to get drips of water in the wrong place, and this was a good way to avoid it.

The trees are from Trees For Sale. I stamped them on a strip of cardstock and then fussy cut the top edge. It was popped up over the main panel using Dimensionals. The back layer were stamped off, and the front were full strength Soft Succulent ink.

Of course, my inside was stamped and inked to match. 

That's all from me for tonight, but please do keep hopping around our blog hop tonight. The next stop along the way is Theresa Gerrard, with what I'm sure will be a gorgeous card.

Catherine Proctor does a wonderful job of keeping us all organised each week, so jump on over to her blog is you run into any problems with links. She'll have a list of all participants on her blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 12

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for Week 12 of the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hops. We are inching towards Christmas, and it's nice to feel a little more organised by having my cards well under way.

This week I used the February 2022 Sheetload Of Cards template. I really like the three strips of DSP on the front, so it's a template that I return to often. It's a great way to use up those long, thin strips of DSP that I always seem to end up with!

The stamp set that I used is Penguin Place. It's such a fun stamp set! I really love the sentiment that I used on the inside. It's very different to a lot of other Christmas sentiments!

I chose to dress the penguin with a beanie this time, rather than the antlers. Lazy me decided that it was far easier to fussy cut the beanies than the antlers! I finished off the front with a few Iridescent snowflakes.

Thanks again for joining me, but please do continue your way around our blog hop. Just keep on going until you get back to where you started! The next stop in the hop is my friend, Theresa Gerrard.

This week, I am hosting the Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. If you get stuck with a link, please jump back here and use these links to get to the next blog in the hop:

Theresa Gerrard

Kate Morgan

Rosa Leyden

Andrea Sargent

Caroline Manwaring

Kathryn Ruddick

Catherine Proctor

Christine Blain

Tina Gillespie <you're here!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Flirty Flamingo

 Hi!

Here we are again, for a new Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we a featuring Flirty Flamingo, a lovely bright pink. I wasn't a fan when Flirty Flamingo first appeared in our colour range, but it's a colour that I quite like now.

Brian King's Flirty Flamingo colour combo is super bright, but I was in the mood for a happy card, so Daffodil Delight and Granny Apple Green seemed like the perfect choice to pair with Flirty Flamingo.

I started my card with a piece of copy paper, to which I adhered the three strips of cardstock. I stamped it all over using flowers and leaves from Simply Fabulous, using Versamark ink. It was then cropped using a Stitched Rectangle Die. The sentiment was cut using the Stylish Shapes Dies. I also cropped a smaller banner, snipped it in half, and adhered it to the back of the Whisper White banner. I love the little peek of Flirty Flamingo from behind the white.

Ooops, I've jus noticed a few drips of rain on my card! I thought I was far enough under the pergola when I was taking the photo, but obviously not! Oh well! The butterfly was cut from White Glimmer Paper. It's very sparkly in real life!

I used the offcut from the front panel on the inside of my card. I don't like to waste anything!

That's all from me for tonight, but please do continue your way around our blog hop. The next stop along the way is my lovely friend, Kate Morgan, with what's bound to be a fabulous card.

As she does every week, the lovely Catherine Proctor is keeping us all organised with our links. If you run into any troubles, jump on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all of tonight's participants.

Bye for now,

Tina

HOC Week 11

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new Heart Of Christmas Blog Hop. Can you believe that we've been going for 11 weeks now? Time is flying by! Speaking of time, I was very time short this week, as I got sucked into the vortex of a new hobby - I've started English Paper Piecing, and it's very addictive! As such, I was racing to get my cards made this morning. I had an hour to spare, and I just squeaked into that time frame. 

I used the June 2020 Sheetload Of Cards template, which makes things a lot quicker - all the thinking has been done for me. The banners were offcuts from a previous set of Heart Of Christmas cards, so there was very little cutting to do. The paper is from the Lights Aglow DSP, which is just gorgeous.

The sentiments are from the coordinating stamp set, called Brightest Glow. I love the mix of fonts and sentiments from the set. I also used a couple of offcuts of DSP to decorate the bottom of the inside.

Here's my group of four cards. The bokeh paper makes a really nice base for the sparkly paper banners. This was a great way to use up more of the black DSP from the pack, as it's mostly hidden by the other banners!

That's all from me for tonight, but please do continue your way around our blog hop. There's plenty more Christmas gorgeousness to be seen, with my lovely friend Andrea Sargent up next.

Another of my lovely friends, Sharon Davern, does a marvellous job of keeping us all organised each week. It's a big job, and the work she does is very appreciated. If you run into a problem with links, jump on over to her blog, where you'll find a list of all participants.

Bye for now,

Tina