Tinstar Designs

In previous posts I mentioned that I’m taking a break from coffee. I’m trying to kick sugar and I worked out I was having 4 coffees a day with 2 sugars in each which meant 8 teaspoons of sugar a day – clearly not a good thing.

It’s been tough and to compound my pain all I seem to be doing is playing along with challenges that focus on coffee – sucker for punishment I say!

All items on my card are from Stampin Up – Coffee Cafe stamp set, Early Espresso ink, Petal Passion DSP, Linen thread and Whisper White cardstock.

Using the ink and the DSP I sponged an ombre effect for the background piece, stamped and die cut the coffee cup then added it to my base with some dimensionals and linen thread for the final touch.

I’m entering this card in the following 3 challenges:

• SUO Challenge 192: Fun With Just One Color!
• Addicted to CAS Challenge #128 – Ombre
• Coffee Loving Cardmakers – Cuppa Joe!

2 more detox weeks to go then I’m going to try some coffee without sugar  – wish me luck.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Hi there – it’s Australia Day here and we’ve expecting a hot one, so trying to keep my cool I decided to play with a couple of winter based challenges.

The challenges I’m playing along with are:

• Little Red Wagon Challenge #430 – Bundled Up!
• AAA Cards – CAS Game #107 – Chilled
• WWC154 – Judy’s “All About Christmas” Challenge

I kept it pretty simple and decided to create a ‘sweater’ for Santa! I used an embossing folder from Stampin Up to create the sweater using some Real Red card stock and then made the belt, buttons and buckle out of some scrap pieces in my stash. I added a little bit of Wink of Stella to the belt for additional sparkle and mounted it all on a white card base and I was done!

After making my card, all I could think about was how hot I’d be if I put it on today so my original thought of keeping myself cool failed!

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Today my card is a technique card. The current challenge over at The Flower Challenge is all about spotlight stamping and I really love the effects you can get with this technique and surprisingly it’s easier that I first thought.

I stamped my main floral image on two pieces of card stock and then coloured just one of them in. When I was starting to construct my card, I realised that when I punched out the spotlight portion  I would have the makings for a second card, I like that my colouring wasn’t wasted!

Card 1: 

Card 2: I stamped the sentiment into the space created when I cut the spotlight piece out.

For both cards I used a gorgeous set from Concord & 9^th – Hello Lovely and the sentiments on Card #1 is from The Ton – Basic Labels. I used my Stampin Blends in Old Olive, Rich Razzelberry  and Calypso Coral to colour the flowers and added a bit of gold thread for the finishing touch.

Thanks for looking and I hope I’ve inspired you to try this technique.

Today’s card is brought to you via the Tic Tac Toe #031 Challenge.

For my card I chose the middle line of Red/Ribbon/Watercolour.

I stamped the Peony Garden background stamp from the Ton and heat embossed it with Stampin Up Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I then used some Brushos is brilliant red and leaf green to water-colour the main flower . The sentiment is from Altenew Label Love which I popped up on some dimensions and added a bow to the side for some balance.

I really like how this card turned out and it is super super sparkly in real life. Check out this close up.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Today was Miss K’s bunny Bugsy’s 6th birthday and of course she had to throw him a birthday party with party bunny food, decorations and a card (made care of me)

I looked to the current Sisterhood of Crafters challenge for inspiration for my card for Bugsy. Their challenge is to make a card with a fame.

I’ve had these little critter from the Mama Elephant set “Up and Away” coloured for a while and even though they’re not bunnies I thought they’d be ok on my card. I created a panel that looked a bit like a cloud and punched out some circles to form frames for the critters and their balloons to poke through. I sponged the background piece with Distress Oxide Twisted Citron. The sentiment is from Altenew called “Label Love’ and some sequins for that final finish.

Here are some additional party pics.

Bugsy (the brown one) with Connie, their treats and my card.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Today I was going through my emails and came across a couple of challenges that were all about coffee and they made me want to have a large cup but since I’ve started this new health kick I’m off caffeine (shock horror) so the next best thing was to make a card with a cup and dream about how delicious it might taste!

I used a retired digital image from Stampin Up called “Perfect Blend – Coffee & Friends ” which I printed directly to scraps of DSP which I then fussy cut out and added to a background piece I made with some ink smooshing on watercolour paper to simulate spilt coffee.

I’m entering this card over at the following challenges:

• CAS-ual Fridays CFC 191 More Coffee Please
• Watercooler Wednesday Challenge 153 – Gail’s Masculine Anything Goes
• Fusion – Coffee and a Book (I was inspired by the image)

Thanks for looking and think of me trying to stay strong and not giving in to the coffee urge!

Today I created another card with another new to me stamp set from the Stampin Up 2018 Occasions catty called – Bubble Over. I also bought the matching dies as I’m not very good at fussy cutting, don’t really have the patience. This is a great set for creating masculine cards, so I’m entering this card over at Little Red Wagon for their current challenge #428 Boy oh Boy!

I used all Stampin Up cardstock in Bermuda Bay, Lemon Lime Twist, Calyso Coral and Vellum. I coloured the straws with my Smokey Slate Blend marker and added a little bit of Pool Party baker’s twine for the finishing touch.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

I received my Stampin Up 2018 Occasions catty order the other day and finally got a chance to play with one of the new sets called ‘Cake Soiree’.

It is a gorgeous versatile set – Weddings, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Valentines  – got them all covered with this set!

I thought I’d make a card for my 10th anniversary in March using my favourite colour of the moment – Berry Burst from Stampin Up and it pairs beautifully with the gold die cut cake stand on this card. I also got a little bit of ink smooshing in for the background – my favourite technique of the moment!

I’m entering this card over on the following three challenge blogs:

• SIP Challenge 132 – Cake Walk
• WWC152 – Kath’s All About Occasions Challenge
• ACASC124 – Love – Make a card for love/Valentine’s Day

Thanks for looking and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Anyone who knows me or has been following my blog knows I like a bit of snark or pun on my cards and when I saw the current challenge over at The Paper Players I just knew I had to play along. Sandy has a theme challenge to create a Punny Valentine card.

When I started making my card, I also realised that it fit the challenge over at CASology which is all about hugs this week.

As you can see I went to one of my favourite sets by Katzelkraft Les Jungles and that flat elephant certainly looked like he could do with a big hug.

I stamped him and coloured him in with my water colours, then added him to a piece of white cardstock with a sentiment I created on my PC and some lightly stenciled hearts from SU in Pink Pirouette. I added a cute little paper bow ribbon for the finishing touch and mounted it onto a SU Pink Pirouette card base.

I think I might give this card to my daughter, Miss K, who is still struggling with the loss her bunny Rosie prior to Christmas.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

 

Today is my last day of leave before returning to work tomorrow. I wanted to get some final crafting in before returning to reality! I’m expecting a very busy year at  work, I only had 2 weeks at my new job before we had the Christmas shutdown which was great as I got a chance to get to know people and then have the break I didn’t get between changing jobs but now the real work will start. I’m looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into my new role and the challenges it will bring.

So first card of the day fits the bill for 2 challenges :

• Just Us Girls #422 – WORD Week
• Less Is More Challenge #362 – Purples

I used a stamp set from Technique Junkies LLC called ‘Fluff your tutu’ which I coloured with my SU Blends in Wisteria Wonder. I water coloured her shoes in gold for that bit of pop and added some ribbon to emulate the fluffy tutu.

I love the sentiment on this stamp and think it should become my mantra for 2018!

Next up is a card that I think fits another 2 challenges:

• The Male Room Challenge #76 – New Beginnings
• The Ton – January – Cheers

I used The Ton set called ‘Fireworks’ which in my mind symbolises new beginnings and celebrates the start of a new year.

I created the background with my alcohol inks in sunset orange, cranberry and watermelon. Then stamped the firework in Versamarc and used SU gold embossing powder. Here’s a close up of the sparkle.

Next up another card fitting the bill over on 2 challenges:

• Seize the Birthday – Anything Goes
• Addicted to CAS Challenge #127 – Music

I’ve been having way to much fun with the Les Jungle set from Katzlekraft and how cheeky you can make them dependent on the sentiment you add. In this case I used a set from CAS-ual Fridays called ‘Love Notes” which might come in handy for a friend who has a birthday on Valentines Day and we always joke about how gets sung more than just happy birthday when cutting her cake!

Well that’s it for today – thanks for looking and have a great rest of your weekend.