Lots of Thanks

Hello there. I had the need for quite a few ‘thank you’ cards. Having recently retired from the NHS after over 40 years, I had a small leaving meal last Saturday. There was the nurse practitioner team I first started 26 years ago – now a team of 8 people. There were consultants there who I did clinics with up until my final day – who actually paid for the whole thing…….to say I was emotional is putting it lightly. Such a lovely gesture….

Anyhoo – I wanted to batch make some thank you cards for them, and decided to go down the route of complicated. These cards actually took me over 3 hours to make – why did I go with heat embossing and ink blending? Well – I enjoyed the process – but I don’t usually like to make the same card more than once. Here are the cards:


The stamp, die, and stencil set called ‘Chirpy Mithu‘, is from Pinkfresh Studio, and was part of their Create & Connect event in February this year. I hadn’t played with them yet, so I though it was time to bring them out.

I began by stamping and heat embossing the image in gold, then colouring with the provided layering stencils. Pinkfresh Studio inks were used for this. As there were seven images, and there were 6 stencil layers – this took quite a while, especially as I used different ink colours on some of the stencils.

Once coloured, I then used the die to cut them out, cutting out an extra white layer to make the image a little more sturdy.

I then used a couple of the sentiments from that same event, heat embossed those in gold, then die cut them, also adding an extra white layer.

For the background, I used a over plate to create the stitch details in two colours of card stock – just for a little variety.

The background was adhered directly onto the card base, after cutting down slightly to create a white edge. The image was added with 3D foam – another fiddly job of cutting pieces to fit – and then the sentiment was glued down.

The final touch was to add some gold gems.

I shall probably pop in and give them out one day this week.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Make My Monday – add texture with dry or het embossing

Love To Craft – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner Garden Party – anything in or from the garden

Allsorts – anything goes from the garden

Triple B – birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option of butterflies not taken

Make A Splash

Hi there. Today’s card was inspired by the colours at Color Hues – Pink & Turquoise:

The two colours made me think of a nautical theme, and I remembered their recent ‘Under The Sea‘ release. I actually had bought quite a bit of the release, so gathered all the products to see what I could do with those and the two inspiration colours – certain neutrals and metallics are allowed.

The first job was the background. I took a teal/turquoise piece of card and used the ‘Under The Sea Background stencil‘ and a Pinkfresh Studio turquoise ink. The stencil is in two layers and also has fish and turtles, but I only wanted the water details, so a little masking was needed.

Then I looked at the dies in this collection. As I wanted the coral to be like a silhouette, it was die cut out of black, as well as the fishes – cutting some pink and turquoise fishes at the same time. I didn’t know how many fishes and out of which colour I needed, so I cut quite a few.

The submarine and divers helmet were die cut, and both assembled, then came the playing with placement.

Once all was arranged to my satisfaction, I adhered the elements using glue or 3D foam. There was some over-hang of the black coral, so this was trimmed with some large scissors.

The sentiment is from Spellbinders, and I added some clear drops for a bubble effect, as well as glossy accents to the two windows on the submarine:

Color Hues – Pink & Turquoise

White Flowers

I was working on this card yesterday, and managed to finish it today, following the inspiration photo at Beautiful Blossoms:

Here is the inspiration photo I worked with:

The first thing I did was to search my CML app for flowers/florals. As you can imagine, literally hundreds came up. I narrowed the search to dies only, and as I knew that The Greetery had quite a few, I narrowed the search for that manufacturer only.

Taking several die sets, I used water-colour card and die cut the stems and then the flowers. The stems I coloured in my Zigs – quite roughly – then added some very light grey to the centre of each flower.

There were some wooden looking stems, so I used a dark brown for those.

Once I had a collection of coloured and layered elements, I used some other dies from The Greetery – the capsule series – to create the scalloped blue layer to bring in the blue of the vase in the inspiration photo, then added a frame which I also embossed using one of their embossing folder.

This frame was attached with thin strips of 3D foam, more towards the outside of the frame, as I knew I wanted to tuck some of the elements behind and under it.

The elements were arranged and attached with a mixture of 3D foam pieces – some very tiny – and other parts with glue.

I was thinking of adding a sentiment, but decided against it – I will put something together for the inside instead.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes with flowers – inspiration photo

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Give A Crafter A Cookie – in the garden

Die Cut Divas – dies cuts and/or dry embossing – both were added

Berry Big Thanks

Hello again. I have another CAS card to share. I must be in the zone for these cards at the moment.

For this card, I took inspiration from the current challenge at AAA cards. The sketch is here:

As you can see, I used Strawberries instead of the flowers in the sketch and rotated it.

The strawberries were die cut from a Spellbinders die set, with some ink blending on the bottom of each of the top layers of the berries.

The sentiment was stamped directly onto the card base, then the strawberries attached.

AAA Cards – CAS sketch

CAS Rainbow

Hello once again. I am here with another try and a CAS card. It’s a style I try every now and again when a challenge theme inspires me:

The current theme at CAS on Friday is ‘Rainbows‘. I searched through my CML app – it’s surprising how many items I have in there which I have tagged with that word – and a stamp set from Simon Says Stamp popped up. This stamp set is from 2021 and a kit they put together.

I used the four solid arch stamps to create the rainbow, and four colours of Concord & 9th inks. These inks stamp the best on solid images, in my humble opinion.

The process, for me, was quite involved…….I placed the card base in my Misti, then added another piece of card on top – like a practice panel. I arranged the first arch, stamped the red on the practice panel, liked how it looked, then removed that panel and stamped the card base.

The other three arches were aligned and stamped the same way, using an orange, yellow, and green, trying the keep the bottom of each arch and the distance between the arches the same.

The sentiment is also from that same stamp set and stamped in blue.

I was quite pleased I didn’t get any ink smudges. That usually happens to me when I attempt a CAS card, especially when I am stamping directly onto the card base.

As mentioned, I am entering the current challenge at CAS on Friday.

Party Like A Sea Captain

Hello. This card was inspired by the current challenge at The Card Concept:

Here is the challenge inspiration picture:

The nautical theme and the ship caught my eye, as well as the maps on the wall behind.

I searched through my CML app for ‘map’, and this die from Tim Holtz/Sizzix called ‘Destination’ popped up, so I die cut with a previously created alcohol ink and Yupo paper background panel. I had a couple of blue panels – some lighter, some darker, but I loved the vivid blue of this panel.

Once die cut, I layered it a couple of times with white card, as the Yupo paper itself is quite thin and flimsy.

I searched again in the CML app for ‘boat’ and one of the items which came up was this die from Gummiapan, which I die cut it several times out of Distress water-colour card stock. I snipped the sails off, and coloured them with Zigs, adding on top of the base die cut, choosing a colour which would stand out from the blue map die cut, then coloured with boat hull with another Zig marker in a similar blue to the map.

I found this sentiment from Spellbinders, stamped then die cut.

For the distressed wooden background panel, I used a Stampin’ Up piece of patterned paper, cut to the size of the A2 card base, then added all the elements on top.

As mentioned, I shall be entering the challenge at The Card Concept.


Floral Birthday

Hello there. I have a card to share inspired by the current challenge at Festive Friday:

This floral strip is an off-cut from a previous card I ink blended, using a Kristina Werner layering stencil set (Aubrey Blooms). I thought these florals looked too good to be thrown away, so came up with this layout.

I took a white panel and ran it through my machine with a Spellbinders embossing folder. I then aligned the floral strip with that panel, and ran that through too.

I then took a sentiment die from a Simon Hurley/Spellbinders set. Usually the letters would fall out – but they stayed in – so I stuck them in more securely at the back with sticky tape, then added another sentiment banner die.

This was then adhered to the card, and three green gems from Concord & 9th added to complete the requirements of the challenge.

Festive Friday – 3 items from list – ink blending + epoxy embellishment + birthday sentiment

Peaches & Cream

Hello once again. I have a card to share inspired by the colours at Cupcake Inspirations:

For the cream part of the theme, I used Ivory card stock from Concord & 9th, and stencilled the florals on using a Kristina Werner stamp and stencil set ‘Aubrey Blooms‘. I didn’t use the stamp, just stencilled the florals using two peach tones from Pinkfresh Studio, adding slightly darker blending towards the centre of the flowers.

For the green, I initially used Sage from Pinkfresh, but decided it wasn’t dark enough on the ivory card, so I used the next green up in the family – Eucalyptus.

The panel comes out even larger, and you can get two A2 pieces pout of the blended panel, but I created a 5X7 inch card so I could get as much of the design on there as possible.

I layered a piece of card onto the card base, and to match the green on the design, I ink blended around the edge of a piece of white card, then matted the design onto the top of that.

The foiled sentiment was added, silver foil on black for a little drama, and then added three enamel dots, to include items in the current Festive Friday challenge.

Even though the background card stock is not smooth enough for perfect ink blending, I felt the outcome gave an almost vintage feel.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cupcake Inspirations – Peaches & Cream

Allsorts – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

Speedy Tulips

Hi there. I decided to have a go at the current challenge at As You See It. This time, it is a speed challenge – make a card within 10 minutes, and the theme is ‘tulips, or other spring bulbs‘.

This is the second attempt at this challenge, as my first attempt – I dropped a die into my machine, my glue was blocked – and I hadn’t figures out where each die cut piece went – so the time went over, hence the second attempt:

I used an older Sizzix die set, then all the Concord & 9th card stock I wanted to use for the flower and the leaves, got out my Spellbinders embossing folder and a white panel, my card base, and the sentiment die from Time 4 Tea Designs.

Off we go. The panel was embossed first and taped to the card base.

The layers for the flowers and leaves were die cut – several pieces through at once – then the sentiment with it’s shadow. That took over 6 minutes…..

I then assembled all the layers with glue, stuck them down onto the panel, added the sentiment – done – phew!

Only just though – it was tight:

A couple of errors found whilst speedily gluing – the left hand leaf has the lighter green attached to the back……and I missed off one of the mid pink layers on the tulip – so added it anyway on top……but it still looks pretty, I think.

On a previous speed challenge I did stamping and (bad) colouring, which is why I thought die cutting would be a better way to go……..perhaps not such an intricate one – not realising until I did the first card how many little pieces there were – but I was going to get it done, no matter how many times I had to try…

I shall be entering the following challenges:

As You See It – speed challenge and tulips or other bulb flowers

Make My Monday – say it with flowers

Blow Bubbles

Hello. It is my turn to host at The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘C‘, and I have chosen the theme of:

C is for Circles

Here is my card:

I remember having a Lawn Fawn stamp and die set with bubbles, so I hunted it out, stamped all the images, then coloured with Copics. These were then die cut and set to one side.

I wanted a grass and sky background, but not the traditional way of doing it, so I searched through the CML app for ‘circle’ and this fun stencil popped up from Heffy Doodle.

Onto a white panel, I laid the stencil, then ink blended in two colo0urs of blue and then two colours of green, darker at the edge of each colour, then lighter where the two colours met.

This was then glued onto a card base, and then I spent quite a bit of time placing the images, and the bubbles until I was happy, then used 3D foam pieces to attach them.

The sentiment is from the same Lawn Fawn stamp set, and stamped onto the background panel – very, very carefully and using my Misti……Maybe it should have been stamped before adding the images……

I hope you can come and join us with your creations following our theme. I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option of see through it not taken

Allsorts – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes