AWH HOC Week 11

Hi!

I hope you're not tired of the Christmas inspiration just yet - there's still a lot of weeks to go before Christmas, but it will be upon us before we know it!

I got a little silly with this week's card. I'm waiting not so patiently for my Holiday Catalogue preorder to arrive, and I've used my other Christmas themed sets a lot, so I decided to try something different this week.

What do you think? A bit silly, but still a Christmas card! I usually only get to spend every second Christmas with my side of the family, so often the day starts with texts back and forth until later in the day when we can speak to each other.

Did you notice the new Basic Black shimmer ribbon in the background? It is soooo lovely!

Apologies for the not-so-great photos of my card this week - I've been doing a lot of purging and rearranging at home, and I still haven't found a permanent home for my photo booth. That job is top of the list for next week!

As usual, you can see the list of who has made a card this week over at Claire's blog. There's usually around 10 of us, so lots of Christmas inspiration. Just wait 'til next week, when we all have our preorders to play with!

Bye for now,

Tina

Happy 40th Birthday To My Superman

Hi!

A bit of a special card today, as I made it for my wonderful husband, Rob. He turned 40 last week, so. special card was certainly in order!

Rob is very much a comic book loving, superhero geek. I've made him superhero themed cards a few times, but this time I wanted to do something that was just that little bit extra. Superman is his all time favourite, so I found a line image online and printed it onto some Whisper White cardstock. I then coloured it with my Copic markers. You can see a little better in the next picture that I coloured a bit darker at the top of each part of the image, and graduated to slightly lighter towards the bottom. It was difficult to achieve the look in such small areas!

Did you notice I the first photo that I'd die cut the number 40 over the top of the logo? I wanted it to be quite subtle. After I die cut the numbers, I flipped over the piece with all the little bits still in place. I then ran some double sided tape across the back of the panel to keep everything in place. You can see that I used LOTS of white on white layers behind the logo. I was going for a very stylised Fortress of Solitude look, with the split down the middle of the lowest layer representing Superman pulling apart his white shirt to change from Clark Kent into Superman. Rob loved all the meaning I put into the card!

Here's a quick side look at the layers. Not counting the card base, there are 5 layers on the front, and one on the inside. Each of the layers is in pairs, with the bottom of the pair stuck flat to the one below and the top layer raised Dimensionals. I think I used half a sheet of Dimensionals, but the end result was well worth it!

The inside of the card features the retired You're My Hero stamp set - a keeper for me, with all of the geeks in my family!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #371: Just Choose Two

Hi!

Whoops! A bit of a technical glitch this morning, meaning my post went up late.

This week at Just Add Ink, Di has challenged us to Just Add Two to our cards. The choice is kids, patterned paper or pets.

I'm not too much of an animal person, so I went for kids and patterned paper.

My niece, Zoe, turned 13 last week, so this was a great opportunity to make her a special card for her special birthday. I chose the Foil Frenzy SDSP, as it's card weight card stock, so perfect for a card base.

I saw this style of Pop Up card, made by Jolanda Meurs, so I decided to give it a go for Zoe's card. When folded flat, the front of the card has a window that the 13 sits in. When you open it, this is what you see:

I thought it was such a clever fold, and even better that it lies flat for posting. I added some extra balloons to the inside front of the card, just to help hide the balloons on the front that hung over the window. If I were to make this card again, I would definitely write my message on the inside before adhering it to the card. It was very difficult to write on after sticking it down!

I hope you can join in with the fun this week at Just Add Ink. Which two will you choose? Pets, patterned paper or kids? Check out what the rest of the Design Team have created over at the JAI blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH HOC Week 10

Hi!

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a stamping day organised by the lovely Kathryn Mangelsdorf. There were a group of eight stampers, and we decided to run a shoebox swap with a Christmas theme. My first thought was to do a card I'd made previously, but then I decided I'd do a new one, so that it could be this week's Heart Of Christmas card.

A shoebox swap is one where each person designs a card and then puts everything required to make that card in a box, including a kit for each person in the swap. The boxes then get passed around the table and everyone makes one of everyone else's card. It's a great way to get your stash built quickly, and also to play with new stamps that you may not own.

I decided to make a fancy fold card using the new Carols of Christmas bundle. I can't think of the name of the fold just now, but you basically cut a long card, with the fold at the left, and then fold the front in half back on itself. The smaller front panel is then adhered to the front flap of the card, and overhangs the base. You can see a little better in the next photo.

I used one of the framelits in the bundle to cut the corner decorations. The poinsettia flowers were then stamped, fussy cut and popped up on Mini Dimensionals. Can you see that I also stamped in Cherry Cobbler around the cut out bits? There are 4 little dots in a cluster. I like that they extend the design of the die cut, and also add a little extra colour to the grouping.

This is the inside. I didn't stamp a sentiment there just yet - maybe I'll add one later. I wanted room to write a bit in the card in such a way that the writing wouldn't be seen when the card was closed.

Are you enjoying the Heart Of Christmas blog shares each Wednesday? I certainly am! You can see the rest of this week's cards over at Claire's blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

Wood Texture Daisies

Hi!

Today's card was a fun little card that I made as a class sample, mostly to show off the gorgeous new Wood Textures DSP stack. It's one of my favourite DSP's in the new catalogue. I think it's so versatile. My immediate tendency is to hoard it, but I have to squash that impulse and chop it up!

In this case I've paired it with the new Thick Very Vanilla cardstock, a Dapper Denim scalloped border, and a So Saffron and Soft Suede daisy.

I really love this sentiment! Have you noticed it in the catalogue? It's in the new Soft Sayings Card Kit. You don't need to only use the stamps on the kit cards - they are great on any of your cards.

I think these little daisy stamps can be a little overlooked in favour of the large daisy, but they certainly deserve a bit of attention. I will certainly be using them more!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #370:Just Add A Sketch

Hi!

Oops! I'm a bit late this week - Friday snuck up on me!

This week Narelle has designed a sketch for us to use in our card making at Just Add Ink. I quite liked this one, and found it difficult to narrow down and settle on one idea.

In the end I decided to have a bit of a play with the returned Glossy cardstock.

I started by using my Aqua Painter to colour the large circle in Lemon Lime Twist. After it dried, I coloured the smaller Wisteria Wonder circles. When dry, I stamped over the top of each of the circles with some of the swirly stamps from Swirly Bird. They looked a little too stark against the watercolour background, so I ended up going over them again with a little water to soften the look.

For the leaves, I dabbed a little bit of water where I was going to stamp each one, and then stamped over the top. You can see how the water and ink pooled differently on each one, giving a lovely, individual look to each leaf.

I used the smaller flowers and leaves again on the inside. I couldn't get the same look, as I was using Whisper White cardstock, but I still like the way they turned out.

You can play along this week over at the Just Add Ink blog. You can also see the incredible cards the rest of the Design Team have created.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH Blog Hop: Favourite Colour Combination

Hi!

It's time for the monthly Art With Heart Blog Hop. This month is a fun one, and I'm very keen to see what the rest of the team has created!

The Art with Heart Team ladies are selecting their favourite colour combinations to share with you tonight. Choosing the right colour scheme can be essential to your design and with Stampin’ Up!'s stunning collection, there are 50 colours to choose from. There’s sure to be some combinations that work really well together and you can take inspiration from.

Now sit back and enjoy some time out of your day to cruise through our blog hop and soak up some colour explosion eye candy!

If you're a bit like me, choosing a favourite colour combination is a bit like choosing a favourite child - it depends on the time of the day, the mood of the children, my mood.... I could go on! I've been on a bit of a vintage roll lately, and using a lot of Tranquil Tide. It's one of the colours that I thought was yucky when I first saw it, but I'm a total convert!

As you can see, this time around I've paired it with Fresh Fig, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla to create my card.

You may notice that the pattern in my Fresh Florals DSP doesn't look white, as it should. I used a clever trick for 'ageing' it - I used my sponge brayer to roll over some Crumb Cake ink. It works a treat for subduing the white in the pattern.

The tulips were stamped in Fresh Fig onto some scrap Very Vanilla, fussy cut and then popped up on Dimensionals. I used my new Sheet Music stamp on the oval, and then went around the edge using one of the stamps in Timeless Textures. I also used the stamp to go around the edge of the sentiment panel.

I think the inside is one of my favourite parts of the card. I selectively inked the Sheet Music stamp, and then pressed parts of the cardstock onto the inked stamp while holding up the rest of the cardstock. I used my fingers to press the cardstock to the stamp so that I got a soft edge to the stamped image. I sponged a little Crumb Cake ink over the top, and then stamped the stamp from Timeless Textures along the edges.

Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the very talented Kathryn Ruddick. 

If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:

1. Catherine Proctor
2. Sharon Davern
3. Tina Gillespie
<-- br="" me="">4. Kathryn Ruddick
5. Andrea Roberts
6. Rebecca Jacovou
7. Monika O’Neill
8. Caroline Manwaring
<-- br="" me="">9. Rachel Woollard
10. Kimberly Hern
11. Ros Davidson
12. Amie McIlroy
13. Kate Morgan