Happy Spring

Hello everyone. I was thrilled to be the random winner for the November – December challenge at Christmas (or not) Bingo, and as such, invited to be Guest design team member for an upcoming challenge.

The new bingo board for March 1st is:

I chose to follow column ‘O’ – Easter/Spring/free/foil or vellum with this card:

I first created the vellum panel, by using a Spellbinders embossing folder, and set to one side whilst I then created the main image.

This stamp and die set is from The Greetery, and is called ‘Spring Crest’. It is a layering stamp set and I chose light colours for the florals, a sage green for the greenery, with a light brown for some of the other accentes.

I also used the ‘Bitty Botanicals’ stamp, stencil and die set to create some small florals to use at the bottom of the frame.

The first step was to add the frame to the vellum, then tuck the separate bitty floral in place. This way, I knew what I could add to the back of this arrangement to be able to stick the vellum down onto a white card base. The vellum is not, therefore, stuck down completely, only at the back of the arrangement on the front.

The final step was to stamp and die cut the sentiment – also adding more glue on the back of vellum behind the sentiment.

So quite a soft and ethereal make for me – obviously inspired by the Spring theme.

I hope you can visit the challenge and have a go at joining, the Bingo board is such a novel idea, and there are so many different ways of playing. The challenge runs from March 1st and finishes 15th April. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

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

Sending Sunshine

Hello everyone. It;s been a fairly busy week, but I have time to create another CAS card:

For this card I used a stamp set from an SCT ‘Let’s Stamp Together‘ kit, I believe is from Taylored Expressions.

I first took a white panel and stamped the sun image, then stamped again onto some masking paper, cut it out, stuck it down on top of the stamped image, then stamped the rainbow image on top.

Once the sun mask was removed, the sun covers the cloud on the other end of the rainbow and looks like one image.

Once both images were stamped in dark brown amalgam, I heat embossed with clear, as I wanted to colour straight away, and didn’t want to wait until the ink dried. Even when I dry the ink with my heat gun, I find alcohol markers sometimes still smudge and smear the outline.

I chose to colour with Copics, adding a little shading, then stamped the sentiment, cut down the white panel slightly and adhered to a white card base.

Even though it is CAS, I don’t like that Copics will show through a card base if coloured directly onto it.

I hope I will have more time to craft these next few days, and so you may see more of my cards coming up. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps & More – make your mark

Addicted to CAS – CAS – theme of weather

CAS Birthday

Hello again. I’m venturing into the CAS genre again – a struggle for me as I do like dimension and embossing folders and gems – all the things, really. Whether this is a true CAS card – with die cuts and wax seal – it certainly is for me…… :)

This was really quick to put together, as I had the bluebells and lilac pieces from The Greetery already made from a previous session, as well as the wax seal.

I placed the florals, adding wet glue to the base of their stems only, then glued down the wax seal to cover the bottom of the stems.

The wax seal from Spellbinders says ‘Happy Birthday’ – difficult to photograph with this colour. I could have used some gold or white pen to highlight the words, but I like to simplicity as it is.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks – CAS

Simply Clean & Simple – CAS – option greenery

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Craft Rocket – flowers

Daffodil Dimension

Hello again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge, having reached the letter ‘V’, Helen has chosen the theme of :

‘volume – use foam pads or gel to raise apart of you design’

Here is my card:

I decided to go with a springtime fell with these daffodils. Having had what seems like months of rain here in the UK, the snowdrops are appearing, and I felt a spring card was needed to encourage brighter weather.

The daffodils are from Hero Arts, die cut and then a little ink blending to the petals before adding the corona, which was attached with 3D foam pieces.

The background panels of green, then the stitched white layer were cut using a Gina K Designs Master Layouts set, and the green circles die cut with nesting dies to be slightly larger than the two white scalloped circles – also cut with a Gina K Designs die. Before attaching the white circles to the green, I ran them through an embossing folder to give a little more interest.

The sentiment is foiled and die cut from Pinkfresh Studio.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafts Galore – anything goes

A Cut Above – anything goes with die cuts

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Craft Rocket – flowers

I’m A Lucky Duck

Hello and welcome. Cardz 4 Galz has started anew challenge, this time the host is Helen, and she has chosen the theme of:

Wings – butterflies, fairies, dragons etc

Here is my card:

For this card, I created my own background panel using techniques learnt from a Jenn Shurkus virtual event and Distress water-colour pencils. I loved this particular technique, and made several panels with different colours.

The technique consists of using a wet small brush, taking colour from the Distress pencil, then just scribbling a patchwork of colour down onto a panel….that’s it……

After the panel was dry, I spritzed with the dirty water from my little water pot thingy (I know – but as per Jenn Shurkus – it works well!!), then added a stamp of musical notes to the top – no idea why I chose that stamp – and you also use a wet distress pencil to colour the stamp – then stamp it. It gives a faint and blurry image.

This was drying to one side, and I die cut the ducks from a Simon says Stamp set, layering them together and adding small black gems for their eyes.

The sentiment was stamped and die cut using s trip die – I think it is two sentiments I stamped to make one – but I can’t find the second half of the sentiment now – this first half is definitely Lawn Fawn.

The panel was adhered to a white card base, th3e sentiment and ducks arranged as you see.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Critter Crazy Challenge – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Addicted To Stamps & More – make your mark


Black & Gold Christmas

Hello everyone. As you probably know, I love making Christmas cards – all year round. I enjoy making them for challenges with a set theme, and this card is no exception. I was inspired by the current challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown – their current Christmas theme is to ONLY use black and gold – here is what I created:

I used dies from The Greetery to create these two sprigs of holly, die cutting the main elements out of Spellbinders brushed gold card stock, and the berries out of mirror metallic gold.

I created a black card base, and the used a piece of Pink Frog Crafts Black Ice card stock – this has a pearlescent finish, but felt it was a little too stark behind the holly sprigs……..so out came my Spellbinders hot foil machine!

I used this dotted background plate from Pinkfresh Studio and a mat gold foil. This plate has two sides of dots – this one I used, and the other side is dots which are closer together. I made two panels – one of each – but went with this one. The other will definitely be used later….and I must say that this card stock foiled like a dream…..

Whilst I had my foil machine out and running, I also foiled several Christmas sentiments – from Spellbinders – and used the one you see.

Assembly was quite straight forward – the black dotted panel adhered to the card base, the holly sprigs arranged using small itty bitty pieces of 3D foam tape on some areas ( I found some black 3D foam pieces to use) and the sentiment added to cover the ends of the sprigs.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

52 CCT – Christmas with black and gold

Krafty Chicks – Christmas

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Get Well Wishes

Hello everyone. A little time to play in my craft room today, inspired initially by Time Out Challenges and their ‘pick two’ list, die cutting and using an embossing folder – my favourite way to create, and my happy zone:

The die set used for the floral and the circle frame are from Spellbinders. The die set was part of their Weekender from 2024. I haven’t played with this diet set yet, so I thought it was time.

The circle and frame is supposed to be an embroidery hoop – but I left it at a framed circle, using some circle nesting dies from Hero Arts to create the slightly larger frame in red, then cutting the die again, out of white glitter card to give the slightly smaller frame – glued to the larger red circle – and the white glitter inner circle.

The florals were all die cut and assembled separately, and set to one side, whilst I used a light pink card stock panel and ran it through with a Spellbinders embossing folder, a small edge of black, then attached to a white card base.

The hoop was assembled then glued down, the flowers arranged how I wanted them, and as I though I needed something to cover the bottom of the stems, I used a previously created wax seal. The final step was to add the white foiled sentiment.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Time Out Challenge – choose at least 2 – sparkle, red, heart, pink – not using aperture and twine out of the 6 options

Cut It Up – die cuts and this makes me happy

Addicted To Stamps & More – die cuts and/or stencils

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of using die cuts taken

Christmas Poinsettia and Bells

Hello there. It’s been a busy few days but I am here with two cards for the new challenge at ABC Christmas. I am hosting for this month, and as we are using the letters ‘C’ and ‘D’, the Christmas themes are:

C is for Crimson & D is for Ding-Dong(bells)

I have provided a prize for the randomly drawn winner of the challenge, open worldwide, a stamp and matching die set from WPlus9:

Here are my cards:

C is for Crimson

D is for Ding-Dong

For the poinsettia card, I created the poinsettia using a die set from The Greetery, then used there capsule basics die set to create the fancy oval. I die cut an inner oval piece with another lighter green card, then used an embossing folder to add detail to that, as well as the same embossing folder on a white panel.

This white panel was adhered to a card base, the oval layers stuck together and attached using thin 3D foam, the poinsettia added with more foam pieces, and the foiled sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio added.

The final touch was to add some Pinkfresh Studio ombre glitter gems.

My second card was started by creating the bells. These are from Tim Holtz, and simply die cut with the same brushed gold card stock from Spellbinders – no different coloured layers – and glued together. I created 5 of these bells as I didn’t know where I was going other than to use these bells….

Finally deciding on where I wanted to go with this, I then took a white panel and stamped the word ‘jingle’ down the side using a Simon Says Stamp set and embossing ink. (Thank goodness for the Misti – it certainly made the lining up of these four words easier) These words were then heat embossed using gold embossing powder.

I thought the background was a little plain when I laid everything out, so I then ran this white panel with the words heat embossed through my machine with a Spellbinders embossing folder.

This white panel was layered with a shiny red card stock piece, the same card as I die cut the bow from, the bows added down the side with some gold DMC thread and the bow attached to the top.

The small sub-sentiment was also heat embossed and a red shiny mat added so it stood out more.

I hope you are able to join us with your creations following one of both of our themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Poinsettia card:

Love To Craft – anything goes

Addicted to Stamps & More – dies cuts and/or stencils

Make My Monday – use two dies

Craft Rocket – flowers

Bells card:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

A Cut Above – anything goes with a die cut

12 Months of Christmas Link-Up – anything goes Christmas, option of cozy cocoa Christmas not taken

You Got This

Hello once again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new themed challenge. We have reached the letter ‘U’, and Melanie has chosen the theme of:

‘Uplifting – positive and encouraging’

Here is my card:

The background was created using a Waffle Flower die and layering stencil set. When the panel is die cut, the elements stay in place – it is only partially die cut so you can create added dimension if you wish – and then I used the matching stencils and Pinkfresh Studio inks to colour each element in.

The butterflies were also die cut and coloured with their own matching layering stencils, then attached to the background with 3D foam pieces.

The sentiment is from Concord & 9th (So Many Sayings) stamped then die cut, and attached as you see.

I hope you can come and join us with your encouraging and positive – uplifting – creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes floral

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

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

Bunny Hugs & Kisses

Hello everyone. It is my turn to host at Cardz 4 Galz, and I have chosen the theme of:

Hugs & Kisses

Here is my card:


I first created the little bunny using a die set from The Greetery, which also included the little flower it is holding.

The florals to either side are a layering stamp and die set – also from The Greetery, and created using Pinkfresh Studio inks.

The background was created die cutting a panel out of white card stock using a cover plate die – I think from Pinkfresh Studio – then attaching that to a white card base.

The bunny and the florals were then added with thin 3D foam pieces.

The sentiment is from Heffy Doodle.

The final touch was to add some black gems as the eye for the bunny, and three more as you see.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Inkspirational – hugs & kisses

Critter Crazy – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

A Cut Above – anything goes with a die cut