Floating Bay Window Christmas

Hello again. It seems really strange to have created a Christmas card when the temperature in the UK was over 30 degrees – but I was so inspired by the current technique challenge at 52 CCT that I just had to have a go.

The challenge was to create a floating bay window card, a couple of videos were provided to follow, and here is what I created:

Now – this card was really hard to photograph – I used a lot of silver and shiny papers, and it just wouldn’t happen whilst indoors, so I too the photos outside in daylight – though in the shade.

I followed the instructions for the base card – quite easy to follow, then found a paper pad with lots of silver and shiny Christmas sheets. The papers were cut and matted with brushed silver card stock, then attached where instructed.

For the acetate front panel, I used a piece of acetate – a long time in my stash – which had white polka dots on it, almost like falling snow, then die cut a couple of larger Pinkfresh Studio snowflakes out of white glitter card and attached them

This is how it closes to be able to be posted – please excuse the fingers holding it closed – it did like to pop open:

A great fancy fold, quite easy to put together once you understood where it was going, and could be used for all kinds of occasions.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

52 CCT – Christmas & floating bay window card

Love Those Pretty Papers – patterned papers, option of fancy fold taken

Peace On Earth – Christmas anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – Christmas anything goes


You Are Amazing

Hello everyone. I’ve had a little break – a few nights in Tenerife with hubby – and then after we returned home, we had to say goodbye to another of our cats, which would be the second in 5 weeks. Needless to say – we are heartbroken and been trying to come to terms with the double loss, so close together. We do still have 2 other cats – one is 10 years of age, the other is 19 years of age – both getting extra cuddles – when they allow it….

I have been crafting but not really had my head right to be able to post anything, but hopefully I can continue.

I start with a card inspired by the current colours at Color Hues:

The colours they provide this time are lime green and violet. I wanted those two colours to stand out, so kept this quite simple – for me, anyway.

I first die cut the flowers from Concord & 9th ‘Handpicked’ die set, just using the smaller florals in this large die set, and lime green card from my stash, and the ‘Grape Soda’ card from Concord & 9th. The flowers were assembled, and set to one side.

The background panel was embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder, and glued to the card base.

The oval frame was created by die cutting a Pinkfresh Studio die set, which was then applied to the embossed panel with thin 3D foam strips.

The flowers were arranged and each of the flowers has a little piece of 3D foam, with glue on the base of the stems.

The sentiment is from Pinkfresh Studio, stamped, then die cut with the matching die, and also layered with 2 more die cuts. To attach this, I had to cut some teeny tiny 3D foam pieces for the part inside the oval, then glue where it was on the oval.

The final touch was to add some Spellbinders gems to the centre of the flowers.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Hues – lime green and violet

Aud Sentiments – embossing wet or dry and/or flowers, and a sentiment

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of embellishments taken

Have a (gum)ball

Hello again. It is time for the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge. Dawn is hosting, and has chosen the theme of:

B is for Balls

Here is my card:

I decided to go with a quirky take on the theme, by using a stamp set from Lawn Fawn. I stamped and heat embossed the image onto water-colour card stock, the water-coloured with my Zig markers. This was die cut when dry, then the sentiment stamped and die cut with a fishtail banner die.

The background is patterned paper, matted with white, and all put together with glue and 3D foam.

I hope to see all sorts of ‘ball’ themed creations in our gallery and hope you can come and join us. xx

Paper Circles

Hello again. It is time for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and Johanna has chosen the theme of:

A circle, or anything with circles

Here is my card:

fir this card, I wanted to use some of my patterned paper pieces, and also decided to go with a slimline card base.

I first die cut several circles out of different papers, different sizes, using Hero Arts nesting circle dies. I wasn’t sure which I wanted to sue, so cut quite a few.

I used a cream piece of card for the background, and used a Spellbinders embossing folder, arranging the circles to suit my eye, which did involve a lot of moving around…

The white circle was cut using a Gina K Designs circle tag, and stamped with a heart and small piece of foliage – I can’t remember which stamp set and which company now.

All the circles were die cut again with white card to make them a little thicker, then attached to the card base with 3D foam, strategically placed so I could overlap them.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations following our theme. xx

ABC Christmas Challenge – J & K

Hello there. It;s been a busy week, but I am here with a couple of cards for the new challenge starting at ABC Christmas Challenge. We always have themes for our letters, and this time they are:

J is for Just Enough (CAS)

&

K is for Knitwear

Here are my cards:

J is for Just enough (CAS)

K is for Knitwear

For my first card, I chose a Polkadoodles stamp set, and stamped directly onto the white card base, then coloured with pencils. I find Copics show through on the revers side, and I wanted this card to be one layer, no additional elements, to keep it very purely CAS.

My second card took a little more time. My first step was to stamp the Lawn Fawn critters, then colour them with Copics, before die cutting them out. The sweaters were also stamped, coloured, then die cut, and attached to the critters. The edges of the sweaters I also added some Lawn Fawn Prisma glitter for a little more sparkle.

All of these stamps came from the same stamp set – ‘Ugly & Bright’.

The background is some patterned paper from Heffy Doodle.

I used the Waffle Flower postage collage die, then a couple of the Waffle Flower Christmas postage collage stencils – picking which images were going where after placing my critters – then ink blending , adding more glitter to some of the elements, before stamping and die cutting the small bubble sentiments.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas creations following one or both of our Christmas themes. xx

Sending A Coneflower Note

Hello. I have another card to share following the list of items from Festive Friday:

Looking at the list of items, I started with the golf foiled background panel. This was created using a hot foil plate from Spellbinders called ‘Dazzling Diamonds’.

The flowers were created using a layering die set from Honey Bee Stamps ‘Lovely Layers: Coneflower‘, with the layers of the flower die cut from Concord & 9th card stock – and including the ‘Marmalade‘ orange card stock which was retired a year or so ago. I have a stash of this colour as it is a gorgeous orange, and was sorry to see it go from their product line.

From darkest to lightest, I used ‘Spiced Cider‘, ‘Marmalade‘, ‘Clementine‘ and then ‘Creamsicle‘. The leaves were die cut from ‘Grasshopper‘. The centre of the flowers were a back layer of black, with a yellow upper layer from my stash of bits.

To include a hexagon, I die cut two of the Pinkfresh Studio ‘Nested hexagons: Double Stitched‘ – you can part of the two hexagons under the flowers.

The gold diamond panel was adhered to a white card base, the two hexagons adhered flat also – there are lots of layers to the flowers, therefore enough dimension.

I applied 3D foam to the flower heads and placed them onto the hexagons, then added two of the leaves for each flower – also with 3D foam.

The final steps were to add some black gems, then the foiled sentiment.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Festive Friday – at least 3 items from the list – I used yellow/black/orange/black gems/gold foil/hexagons/flowers

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Dragonfly Dreams – use die cuts

Shello…..

Hi everyone. I am here with a card to share following the inspiration theme from As You See It, and using some layering stencils to enter the Stencil Fun challenge:

The theme for As You See It is ‘Beach Combing‘, and I knew I had plenty of shell ‘stuff’ in my stash, so I searched through the CML app and found this background die from Waffle Flower. The die is called ‘Seashell Texture‘ and comes with a layering stencil to colour the images in.

I used Neenah card stock, die cut the panel, then used Pinkfresh Studio inks in pastel or more muted colours for the shells. Some of the shells had layers with the stencils, but with the other smaller shells, I added my own bit of darker shading for a little dimension.

I searched again in the CML app for suitable sentiments – wanting a bigger and bolder look – but couldn’t find anything big enough. So – I used a Pinkfresh Studio alphabet die set ‘Kelly Alpha‘ and die cut the letters to create this word out of Concord & 9th ‘Blueberry‘ card stock.

The little hearts on each letter actually stayed in the die cut – so I left them there, and die cut each of the letters two more times and layered them together to create a make them thicker and more sturdy.

As the letters weren’t all the same height, and instead of placing them all on the same line – I went a little quirky and put the smaller three letters in the middle of the height of the larger letters.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

As You See It – Beach Bombing

Stencil Fun – use stencils, option of a see through element not taken

Have A Pawsome Day

Hello again. I have a card created from the current Colorful Options Challenge. This month they are celebrating black and white, and one of their options is to use a pop of colour:

I began by stamping two of the images from Waffle Flower Crafts ‘Postage Collage Cat Silhouettes’ and die cut them with the matching die. I then stamped the picture frames to match the size of the cats I had chosen, then die cut them out.

All of my die cuts are layered three times, as I like stability and dimension.

I then die cut the bowl and the ball of string in red card stock.

The background panel is from Pinkfresh Studio, a cover plate which adds floral stitching ‘Charming Stitched Florals‘.

The panel was glued to a white card base, then the frames, cats, bowl and ball of string were placed.

The sentiment is also from Waffle Flower – stamped then die cut, layered once again.

I wanted some additional red, so I looked through my bling stash and found these hearts – I think I received them in a packet for a virtual event at some point – so added them as you see.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Colorful Options – black and white, option taken for a pop of colour

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Dragonfly Dreams – use die cuts

Thank you

Today’s card is using the current colours at Color Hues – yellow and blue. Certain neutrals are allowed:

I chose to use a Pinkfresh Studio stencil and die set called ‘Wildflower Elegance‘. There is no stamp with this set, so once you have ink blended the image and cut it out – there are no white areas.

I chose a selection of blue and yellow inks from Pinkfresh Studio, and used two tones of grey for the stems and leaves, and a light brown for the centre of the flowers. The die also adds some details to the flowers and leaves.

I also die cut two more layers to add stability to the floral arrangement.

Now for the background – this was a light blue piece of Concord & 9th card stock, onto which I glued a Pinkfresh Studio die cut to act like a trellis, called ‘Scalloped Grid cover plate‘.

The sentiment is a stand-alone die, cutting the shadow layer out of the light blue card, and using a darker blue for the words themselves. The words were layered three times -a little fiddly – but I do like the look this gives.

The sentiment was placed, and I snipped the bottom of the florals off so they would lie better behind the sentiment.

I did have to die cut the shadow layer three more times so it would sit evenly when glued down – just snipping off the top of the letters T & H as that area would be sitting on the base of the floral stems.

Looking now at the photos, I maybe should have gone with a darker yellow for the second layer on the florals – something else to remember in the future.

The final touch was to add three blue gems – also from Pinkfresh Studio.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Hues – blue and yellow

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

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner I Spy – I Spy Spring Flowers or April Showers


Pastels for Baby

Hello again. I have a baby card to share using a previously bought but unused die set from A Pocket Full of Happiness:

I chose to follow the colour scheme from Sparkles Forum, which is to use pastel colours, and to include a rabbit. This die set comes with dies to create a rabbit, tiger, monkey, and a horse, and includes the square stitched die in the packet, as well as the letters.

I chose card stock from Concord & 9th, and some random scrap pieces, cutting out the rabbit in four different pastel colours, the die cut them all again in a darker pink for the ears, mouth and nose, as well as black for the eyes and eye brows.

I applied some double sided sticky tape to the rear of the rabbit die cuts, then inlaid the respective pink and black pieces.

The letters for the word ‘baby’ were die cut in each of the four pastel colours, then layered with a couple of white die cuts for dimension.

The background panel was created using a Pinkfresh Studio cover plate called ‘Stitched Octagons‘, which was adhered to a white card base.

The squares were attached with 3D foam, as was each of the rabbits, then the stacked letters glued down.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Sparkles Forum – pastel colours and rabbits

Die Cut Divas – die cuts and celebrations

Dragonfly Dreams – use die cuts