JAI #522: Just Add A Sketch

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me once again for the new Just Add Ink Challenge. This week, Patrice has designed a fabulous sketch for us to use. I really loved it, and it's clear that the rest of the Design team did too.

I was wracking my brain, trying to think of what I could use for the square elements, when I spied my Pine Tree Punch. Perfect!

I used the new Heartwarming Hugs DSP for both the base of my card and the trees. I'd originally intended to use the other side of the DSP for the trees, but when it came to adhere them to the base, I actually preferred the gingham side.

The sentiment was cropped from the Trimming The Town DSP. I needed a long, thin sentiment, and this fit the bill perfectly. I matted it on some Gold Foil, to complement the strips of Gold Foil on the top and bottom of the Whisper White panel. It's hard to see in the photo - they look green rather than gold!

One final tree was used to finish off the inside, alongside a sentiment from Itty Bitty Christmas.

What do you see in the sketch? Will you stick to squares, or try a different shape? You can see what the Design team did with the sketch over on the Just Add Ink Blog, where you can also link up your card for the challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

AWH September Bog Hop: Masculine Cards

 Hi!

Welcome to the AWH Monthly Creative Showcase. From this month forward, we will be running the Showcase as a Blog Share, rather than a Bog Hop. This means that you will find all the links to the participants over on Rachel's blog, all in one place.

For this month's Creative Showcase, we are all making Masculine Cards. Father's Day may be done and dusted for 2020, but there is always a need to celebrate the males in our lives, for reasons other than Father's Day. The littlest (and cheekiest!) male in my family is turning thirteen soon, so I decided that tonight's card would be for his birthday.

Hudson's favourite toys are his plastic bowling pins. They are always within reach, and when we go to appointments or respite he often takes a pair with him. His favourite are the blue pair, but the red and lime pairs get a fair work out too! He always has to hold two at a time - the blue pair never get mixed up, but sometimes he will mix the red and lime. I decided to use the colours of the bowling pins to create his card.

I hope you'll forgive me for using a little bit of a retired colour - Lemon Lime Twist. It was the best match to the colour of his bowling pin. Anyway, I used my Stitched Triangles Dies to cut three sizes of Equilateral Triangles in Pacific Point, Poppy Parade and Lemon Lime Twist. I also cropped a Stitched Shapes Circle and the number 13 from the Playful Alphabet Dies. I adhered some Foam Adhesive Sheet to the back of the cards tock so that the 13 would be popped up.

In fact, nearly all of the layers are popped up - luckily I don't need to post this card! Each of the triangles are popped up over the one below, with the circle adhered flat and the 13 popped up, as I mentioned before. I offset the two sets of triangles for a bit of quirkiness.

I had a third set of triangles for the inside. I got a bit Dimensionals happy, though, and popped each layer up as I did for the front. I contemplated redoing them, but decided that as I wasn't posting it, it didn't really matter. The sentiment is from the Family Party stamp set. I love that it's a heap of different names, words, numbers and phrases that can be mixed and matched to create a personalised sentiment.

That's all from me tonight. Don't forget the changed format - you now need to head on over to Rachel's Blog to find the rest of the links for this month's Creative Showcase. I can't wait to see what Masculine Cards the AWH Team have made.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Early Espresso

 Hi

Wednesday evening means that it's time once again for the new Colour Creations Showcase. This week we are up to Early Espresso, a rich, earthy brown. It's a great colour that I often use as a supporting act for other colours, I guess. It's a lot harder to use it as a feature colour! After much thought about what I could do, I remembered my Nothing's Better Than bundle, with images and sentiments about chocolate. Perfect!

I started by using my Stamparatus to create the background. Hinge Step stamping makes it a breeze! I had intended to stamp the filler image on the chocolates, too, but I decided against it in the end - I thought it might make the card too heavy and dark.

I used the coordinating Love You More Than Dies to crop the word 'chocolate', which I then adhered to a scrap of Early Espresso card. You've got to love the returned Adhesive Sheets for making that easy to do, rather than fiddle around with liquid glue. I then used my Snips to carefully fussy cut around the word, which was popped up on the card base.

Once again, the inside of my card was decorated with the off-cut from the front of the card. Such a time saving trick!

Catherine is again hosting this week's Showcase. You can find the links to the rest of this week's cards over on her blog.

Bye for now,

Tina

One More Chapter

 Hi!

Are you a big reader? I sure am, so when I can combine my love of reading with my love of stamping, I am in total heaven! I found a stamp company that made a couple of stamp sets with book quotes and images. The company is called Three Room Studio, and they are based in Canada. They are running a weekly challenge, and I finally had a little time up my sleeve to be able to enter.

Such a cool sketch - there's a lot that could be done with those squares/diamonds. I went fairly literal, although I did change the orientation of my card, as my squares were too big for a landscape card. I used two TRS stamps: One More Chapter and I Heart Books.

My Stamparatus was absolutely invaluable for stamping the background. I lined the cup, open book and glasses up on the plates and started stamping! The ability to move the plate along the hinge was absolutely essential in doing this. Luckily, too, each of the images was the perfect size for hinge step stamping!

This sentiment is soooo me! It's actually one stamp, so I masked it off and stamped each line separately on the squares. I then chose an image that I felt suited each part of the sentiment to go with it. Instead of the banner in the sketch I added a length of ribbon. I had intended to pop up each of the squares, but after I'd laid them out, adhered the ribbon under the middle square and then popped the square up, I liked the look of the ribbon laying over the top of the other two. So, flat to the card they stayed!

While I had the Stamparatus all set up with the image stamps, I decided I'd stamp a row across the bottom of my inside. I added the cute little heart to just one cup for a touch of whimsy. Of course, I then had to go back and carefully add a few hearts to the front of the card!

Bye for now,

Tina

CTC #284: CASE The Die Bundle Section

 Hi!

Thanks for joining me for the new CASEing The Catty Sunday Challenge Blog Hop. This week we are looking at the Die Bundle Section of the Annual Catalogue. I love this new section of the Catalogue, which shows the stamps and dies, and another sample for Inspiration.

After flicking through the section, I settled on this card, made using the World Of Good bundle. I softly chose it, as it's been a while since I've played with it.

I quite liked the stripes down the side of the card. I realised I haven't ever used the stripy die in the bundle, so I used it for the stripes instead. BTW - does anyone know what the die is meant to be? Some sort of ruler, maybe? I cropped two thin strips of Misty Moonlight cardstock using the die and then adhered some Brass Foil to the back so that it peeped through the stripes.

The centre section of the card was made to be an Easel Card, sort of like a Center Panel Easel Card. These are usually made to be landscape orientation, but I thought that portrait suited the globe a bit better.

The compass image is stamped on Whisper White, punched out and then layered on another circle of Brass Foil. I didn't want to pop it up, so that the card would sit better when closed, but it wasn't high enough to hold the easel open, so popped up it is!

I didn't specifically make this card as a Father's Day card, but looking at it now, it would be great to give to a dad on their special day. It would also work as a masculine thank you or thinking of you card.

That's all from me for tonight, but the fun is just starting for you! Check out pages 173-179 of the Annual Catalogue, make your card and pop it up in our Facebook group. Done!

There's plenty of inspiration still to be found though, so don't forget to finish the Blog Hop. Next up is the lovely Sandra, with her wonderful card.

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #521: Just Add Inspiration

 Hi!

Yay! Today marks the start of a super long weekend, well, for me and the kids! Poor Rob still has to work on Friday and Monday, but the kids have pupil free days. It should have been the start of the Royal Adelaide Show, and even though it was cancelled, the kids still get the pupil free days. Hooray for a good weather forecast, so we can spend some time outside.

But let's get on with the show. This week at Just Add Ink Rachael has challenged us with this fabulous Inspiration Photo. I say fabulous, because who wouldn't want to sit and celebrate at such a pretty table? However, I really struggle with these photos, as I don't tend to make super girly cards. Then I remembered that I had some retired Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper and off I went!

I started by cropping the Glimmer Paper using a Uniquely Creative Die, called Stitched 3 Window Frame. I backed it with a piece of In Good Taste DSP that is probably meant to be plaster, but could also pass as cake icing!

The cake was from last year's SAB offering. There's no cake in the Inspiration Photo, but it looks like a celebration to me, and there has to be cake at a party - right? I coloured with with my Rococo Rose, Shaded Spruce and Granite Grey Blends with a Gold Foil stand. The Inspiration Photo uses Rose Gold, but I don't have anything in Rose Gold, so plain old Gold it is!

I created a softer version of the cake for the inside. This one was stamped in second generation Blushing Bride ink and coloured using a Blender Pen and my Blushing Bride, Soft Sea Foam and Grey Granite Ink Pads. I quite like how the softer flowers turned out!

What elements do you like in the Inspiration Photo? You could explore the colours, the theme, the glitter - the possibilities are endless! Pop on over to the Just Add Ink blog, where you can see what the rest of the Design team have created. You can also link up your card to enter our challenge.

Bye for now,

Tina

Colour Creations: Daffodil Delight

 Hi!

Thank you for joining me once again for another week of the Colour Creations Showcase. This week we are looking at Daffodil Delight. As I said last week, I'm not a huge fan of yellow, but I do like the cheerful yellow that is Daffodil Delight.

I saw a card recently, where the top panel was cut on the angle like I have done.I quite liked the look and wanted to try it out. I chose to use the roses from Beautiful Friendship to use along the edge. I love how big and bold they are - they really make a statement!

Would you believe I've only just purchased the Dainty Diamonds 3DEF? I've been using it on nearly every card since! I embossed the Daffodil Delight card front and adhered it to the Thick Whisper White base. A smaller piece of Whisper White was embossed using the Subtle 3DEF and layered over the top using Dimensionals. The leaves peeking out from underneath have a coat of Wink Of Stella for a little bit of bling.

I repeated the look for the inside, minus the Subtle 3DEF and the leaves. 

The lovely Catherine is once again hosting the Showcase, so please do pop on over to her blog, where you'll find the rest of this links for our Daffodil Delight cards. They are always a fabulous collection of cards, well worth the look.

Bye for now,

Tina