Colour Creations: Polished Pink

 Hi!

It's Wednesday, which means that it's Colour Creations time! Woo hoo! This week we have Polished Pink, one of the outgoing In Colours. If it's a colour that you love - stock up now!

I quite like Polished Pink. It's a bright pink, but not too overpowering. I absolutely adore this combo by Brian King. Such a great idea to pair it with Blackberry Bliss and Crumb Cake. I chose my new Taco Fiesta stamp set to use for this week's card. Probably not what you'd expect with this colour combo - but I love the card I made!

When I buy a new stamp set, I often start by CASEing another card that I like that uses the set. In this instance, I CASEd a gorgeous card by Heidi Collins from On Y Go Stamping. Her card used different colours, but I kept the layout basically the same.

I stamped the piñata on Shimmery White cardstock with Crumb Cake ink, and then watercoloured the body with the same ink. I wanted a very soft effect. The rest was coloured with my Stampin' Blends to get the bolder, rich colours.

I used the hat on the inside of the card, but I'm a bit worried that it doesn't look much like a hat! Maybe I should have left it uncoloured, or stamped it in black. You may notice that I've split the sentiment over the front and inside of the card - I just masked off the section that I didn't want in each case. Easy!

The next stop in our Blog Hop tonight is the lovely Caroline Manwaring. We've missed her on the hops, so it's great to see her back.

As always, the wonderful Catherine Proctor keeps us all organised each week. Jump on over to her blog if you run into any issues with links - she'll have a full list of all of tonight's participants on her blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC 404: Country Floral Lane Suite

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by on your way around the CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. It's a great way to finish the weekend, don't you think?

This week we are asking you to CASE a project from the Country Floral Lane Suite pages of the new Mini Catalogue. The projects are all a bit lovey-dovey for me, so I decided to make a birthday card instead.

My eye was caught by this card on page 8. I really loved the strips of DSP, the ribbon that has been cut in half, and the layering under the sentiment. I included all of these things in my card, but in very different ways.

I started by cutting some strips of Country Gingham DSP and cropping the edges of most of the pieces with the border die from the Penned Flowers Dies. These were layered over a Thick Whisper White card base. Shhh, I snuck in a little bit of retired Mint Macaron Glimmer Paper to finish it off.

I cropped some Balmy Blue paper from the Subtles Stack using the outline flower die in the Penned Flowers, topped it with some White Glittered Organdy Ribbon, which I'd cut in half. The butterfly over the top has one layer cut from the Mint Macaron Glimmer paper, and the second from Layering Designs Vellum. A few scattered pearls finished off the front.

I used my Simply Fabulous stamp set for sentiments throughout the card. The butterfly was cropped using my Brilliant Wings Dies from some left over DSP from the front. I don't like to waste any scraps!

All you need to do to play along with us is make your project and add a photo to our Facebook group. It's that easy!

Before you go, please do continue your way around our blog hop for plenty more Country Floral Lane Suite inspiration. The next stop is the lovely Monique Fielder.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI 637: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Hello, there! It's Friday, which means that it's time for the new Just Add Ink challenge. This week it's a sketch challenge, designed by me.

I've been doing a lot of hand quilting for the past 6 months or so, and the triangles in the sketch made me wonder if I could translate some of my new skills with fabric to paper using the gorgeous Lovely Linen DSP. It's a lot like quilting fabric, so I was pretty sure I'd be able to make something awesome.

I was right! I used my Stitched Triangles Dies to fussy cut the paper, and then adhered it to a Night Of Navy base. I always love the new patterns that this process creates.

I couldn't bear to cover any of the card front up with something to represent the circle part of the design, but then I realised that the square cross that's formed in the middle of the card works for the circle element. The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted's Bedtime Story stamp set.

I'm not yet sure who will get this card, or for what occasion, so I've chosen not to stamp on the inside of my card for now. A strip of the DSP will do for now!

We'd love for you to play along with us this week at Just Add Ink. I'd especially love to see what you do with my sketch! You can see what the rest of the Design team have done with it over on the Just Add Ink blog, where you can also link up your card for the challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Petal Pink

 Hi!

Thanks for stopping by on your way around the latest Colour Creations Blog Hop. This week we are focusing on Petal Pink, which is one of my least favourite colours in the SU range. It's quite an orangey/peachy pink, and for me that makes it a difficult colour to work with.

I did like this combo from Brian King, so that became my starting point. I also received my first box of goodies from the new Mini and Sale-A-Bration Catalogues on Monday, so I decided to use some of my new things.

Top of my must-haves from the Mini Catalogue was the Watercolour World stamp set. I'm a sucker for anything map related! I used my Stamparatus to stamp the image onto Whisper White cardstock and then trimmed it for my card front. I decided to do something a little different and cut the image in two pieces. The right side of the globe went onto the left side of my card, and visa versa. I lost a bit of the middle (sorry Africa and Eastern Europe!), but I quite like the effect.

The double matted panels were layered over another new product - Country Gingham DSP. Gingham's another thing that I'm a sucker for! The sentiment is from Biggest Wish, fussy cut, popped up and layered over some Soft Sea Foam card and Vellum.

All of the same products were used on the inside. I contemplated using the middle piece of the map that I'd cut away from the front, but it didn't really look like a map without the rest of the image - just weird blobs of colour. A strip of the DSP had to suffice!

Next up is my lovely friend, Andrea Sergeant. I'm sure that she's done wonderful things with Petal Pink, so you won't want to miss her blog!

Catherine Proctor is the lady in the know, as always! If you get lost or find a broken link, please 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

CTC 403: CASE The SAB Catalogue

 Hi!

Welcome back to the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. Isn't it a great way to end the weekend - or start your week - depending on your perspective?

This week we are asking you to CASE a project from the Sale-A-Bration Catalogue. The catalogue may be tiny, but there's a lot of inspiration to be found.

I found this fun card on page 15. I really liked the diagonal lines in the card and the circular focal point. In thinking about how to recreate the card, my newish Timeless Greetings Kit with the globe and the pocket watch came to mind.

I cropped one of the card bases for the topmost piece of DSP on my card. I inked around it with Crumb Cake ink to help it stand out from the Crumb Cake card base. The bottom black check plate print DSP was cut on an angle and popped up over the top. I cut one of the Cajun Craze sentiment mats in half longways to use as the feature strip on top of the black. The join in the two halves is hidden under the globe!

Isn't this sentiment great? It fits with the globe element perfectly. It didn't fit on the angle, so I popped it on the card straight.

Some of the smaller left over paper scraps from the front of the card were put to great use on the inside of my card. Waste not, want not!

To play along with us, all you need to do is add a photo of your card that CASEs a card from the SAB Catalogue to our Facebook group. Easy!

We'd love for you to continue on with the blog hop, the next stop along the way is the lovely Peta Stephen with a gorgeous card in some of my favourite colours.

JAI 636: Just Add Your Favourite

 Hi!

Welcome back to another wonderful year of Just Add Ink challenges. As we do every year, we kick off the new challenges with a blog hop. Hopefully you've either started the hop here, or arrived from Tristan Dawes' blog. Either way, just keep on hopping until you get back to where you started.

For this challenge we are asking you to Just Add Your Favourite.... whatever you'd like! It could be your favourite colour, theme, stamp set - your imagination is the limit. I recently purchased a new stamp set that is based on one of my all-time favourite movies, The Sound of Music. It's from Scrappy Boy Stamps, and is called Climb Every Mountain.

I decided to recreate the iconic opening scene, and thought that a Bridge Fold Card would give my card the perfect dimension for the scene. I started by masking a horizon line and then stamping the mountains across the width of the card. These were ink using a blending brush and lots of masking. While the masks were in place, I also inked the sky using a template made from the cloud line die from the Basics Borders Dies. The trees are from Snowfront. The grass was also masked and inked. I splattered gold ink over the top, trying to get the look of flowers in the grass.

Maria was coloured using my Copic markers, as were the Edelweiss blooms.

The mountain part of the scene was recreated on the back of the card, where a message can be written to the recipient.

That's all from me and my favourite movie. Hmm, now I feel like watching it! While I go do that, please do keep going around our hop by jumping on over to Fiona Bradley's blog. I love her take on the favourite theme!

When you've finished hopping, get creating! You can link your card up for our challenge over on the Just Add Ink blog. So long, farewell!

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Pear Pizzazz

 Hi!

Welcome to my blog for the new Colour Creations blog hop. This week it's Pear Pizzazz's turn to get some time in the spotlight. It's a lighter green from the Subtles colour family.

This week I went for a softer colour combo from Brain King as my inspiration. Evening Evergreen is a lovely, rich colour to match with Pear Pizzazz and Pale Papaya. I'd been recently sorting out eat kits that I had, and the combo made me think of the chameleon in the Let's Party Treat Packaging Kit stamp set.

I started by stamping him in Evening Evergreen and then colouring him with my Pear Pizzazz Stampin' Write Marker. The eyelid and the mosquito on top were coloured with my Pale Papaya Stampin' Blends. Now that I had hm coloured and fussy cut, I had to decide what to do with him!

Pale Papaya makes me think of a sunset, so I cropped a circle using a Stylish Shapes Die and inked half the circle with Papaya, and the other half with Evergreen. I popped it over a background of Stitched Greenery, with a few Forever Flourishing leaves peeking out from underneath. The banner sentiment finishes off the front nicely.

I chose to use one of the birds on the inside of my card. He's stamped and coloured the same way as the chameleon on the front.

Please keep on jumping around the blog hop tonight to see the rest of the Pear Pizzazz magic from the rest of the talented group hopping tonight. Just keep on hopping until you get back to where you started, with the lovely Kate Morgan up next.

If you run into any issues with links along the way, please head on over to Catherine Proctor's blog. She does a wonderful job of keeping us all organised each week.

Bye for now,

Tina