Month: January 2020

Alphabet Challenge – Vegetables

Hello there. I am pleased to be hosting the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge – and I chose the theme of ‘Vegetables’. I know, I know – quirky huh?

The Design Team has come up with some amazing inspiration – I do hope you can come and join us – I’d love to see your take on this theme.

Here is my card:

I used a stamp set from Heffy Doodle, stamped with Gina K amalgam ink, and coloured with Copics – which I haven’t done for a while.

Then I turned to the layout, and utilised a sketch challenge. To adhere to the sketch, I decided to use the ‘Welcome Wreath’ from W Plus 9 to create the six circles. First layer with a dark green ink, then thought the wreath needed more, so added a browny ink layer, and finally a lighter green layer.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, and I copic coloured the orange strips underneath the white strip, just to make it stand out more, and cut it to a jaunty angle – just like the carrots..

I hope you pop along to see what the Design Team have created – there are lovely inspiration cards over there – some quirky, some funny, and some just plain sweet. Here’s hoping to see your creations in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – all loved up

The Paper Players – sketch

Watercooler Challenges – occasions (Valentine)

Time Out Challenges – affectionate

Simon Monday Challenge Blog Logo

Using Kraft Card

Hi there. A new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz, and the theme this time is ‘use Kraft paper/card‘. Here is my card:

I used a newly purchased stencil from Funky Fossil called Leafy Tree, so I juts had to use some green Tonic Glacier Paste to showcase this delightful design.

It was stenciled straight onto the Kraft card – no warping – and left to dry overnight.

The sentiment is from Altenew, and also using one of their alphabet stamps for the ‘You‘ as I wanted this a little bigger. Embossed outline in white, then using the fill-in stamps in the alphabet set with a white ink pad.

I simple design, but it took a little planning with the paste, and leaving it to dry overnight, and that tree is quite large – the card base is 5 x 7 inches….

I hope you can come and join us, and I look forward to seeing your ‘Kraft’ creations in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More – CAS

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

The Sisterhood of Crafters – newly acquired stash (stencil)

Lemon Shortbread – atg

Shiny Red Christmas

Hi there. There is another challenge starting at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is – as always – anything goes Christmas. Here is my card:

A few more photos from different angles:

I enjoyed re-visiting my past style of cards with the Wonderfully White card last week, I decided to do another die-cut card for this challenge.

The base layers are from a new purchase for me from Card Making Magic – ‘A5 Ornate Rectangles’ die set, using quite a few of the the larger layers in white and a shiny red card.

The sentiment is from Time For Tea Designs, and the poinsettia and leaves are from Sue Wilson.

The smallest rectangle is embossed using a We R Memory Keepers Next Level embossing folder, for some added interest.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge, and I look forward to seeing you in our gallery.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasions

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

Crafty Friends Challenge – anything goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas with option no sentiment

Heart Caught in Crystal

Hello once again. I have a card to share utilising a technique I haven;t tried for ages – years in fact. It is the ‘caught in crystal’ technique I first saw from Sue Wilson.

The current challenge at CASology made me think of that technique again – so I went hunting through my stash for products I could use. Here is one of the results:

I started with a piece of acetate and added some glue, smoothed it out a little, then added alcohol inks, mica powders, ink sprays – well, I added a whole load of stuff to the background, but tried to keep it a deep red/purple look, as I knew I wanted to use this Simon Says Stamp ‘Streaming heart’ die – a recent purchase.

I then added some pink tissue paper – I didn’t have any white, so used the pink. Once dry it looked like this on the tissue paper side:

And on the shiny acetate side it looked like this:

It’s very difficult to picture the shine and metallic look to this – but I promise there is some in there somewhere………..I chose which area of the acetate piece I wanted showing through the die-cut heart, cut out a square piece, and glued it down beneath the white heart piece.

The sentiment is from an Altenew set called ‘Wishing You’ – I wanted a short but sweet sentiment.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CASology – Crystal

As You Like It Challenge – anything goes

Mowing Along With The Times – all things new (heart die)

Crafters Cafe Blog Challenge – CAS

Stamplorations CAS January Challenge – CAS option metallic

Aud Sentiments – anything goes with a sentiment

The Crafter's Cafe Challenge Blog

Fusion Regal Beauty

Hello once again. I have a card to share today which I made over the weekend – a craftathon weekend for me:

The colours and layout are based on the current challenge at the Fusion Card Challenge:

The colours in the photo were greys and a touch of brown, so I used those colours to stamp the flowers from Altenew ‘Regal Beauty‘ and a combination of their grey and browns inks.

I used the sketch layout to arrange the flower and leaves to mimic the semi-circle, using a lot of the leaves and only one flower, once I had cut them out using the matching die set.

The sentiment is from Thirsty Brush and Co, heat embossed on white onto a grey piece of card, and the ends of the sentiment piece cut using the Heffy Doodle ‘More Strips of Ease‘ die set to create the banner look. I always seem to go wonky when I cut those banners free-hand, so this die set and those small triangles are just great for this.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Fusion Card Challenge – sketch and photo

Trimmies Craft Challenge – atg

Arty Divas Challenge – atg

A Perfect Time To Craft – atg

Dies R Us Challenge – birthday including dies

Wonderfully White

Hello there. I have been die-cutting and die-cutting yesterday and today, whilst an alcohol ink creation was drying for a future project.

This card is paying homage to the first kind of cards I liked to make – and realise I still do! I used to take a lot of the Sue Wilson die sets and just cut them out, then add them to a card base – lots of layers and dimension.

There are some die sets here that are new to me – I used a Christmas gift token to buy some older Sue Wilson die sets – so – new to me, though older sets.

Here is my humongous card:

It has become clear to me that taking a good photograph of a project which is white is near-on impossible. I tried outside in the daylight, I tried using my mobile camera with and without the flash, I even tried some photograph ‘fixing’…………I’m not 100% happy with any of the photographs, but I have provided quite a few so you get the idea.

I used the same white card on all of these die-cuts – even though the picture sometimes gives the impression of different types or make of card, and even some of the photos means the card looks cream or ivory – all the same card, and all the card is white………………

I used a card base from a pre-scored pack – does anyone else have lots of card bases is shapes and sizes? – as I wanted a really large card base to add all my elements.

The dies sets and embossing folders are listed, but the process began with die-cutting the poinsettias, then embossing the flowers with the ‘Ice Crystals‘ embossing folder to add some interest to the flower leaves.

I stuck the flowers onto the card base with 3D glue, as this allows some moving around and slotting in of other elements. The added leaves and branches placed as you see.

The sentiment is die cut three times and stacked for dimension, and adding the outline die-cut too, to bring the sentiment more into focus.

The white accents to the centre of the flowers came about because I was looking for some white glittery Nuvo Drops – but found these instead

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Rainbow Card Challenge – Wonderfully White

Water Cooler Challenge – Occasions

Cut It Up Challenge – die cuts and snow – (white and frosty with snowflake and icicle embossing folder)

My Time To Craft – use new stash

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Happy Little Stampers atg with dies Challenge – atg with dies

Christmas 24 Challenge – atg Christmas

Use Washi Tape

Hello – This is the theme of the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge – to use some washi tape.

I actually don;t have very much Washi tape at all. It isn’t something I use – at all. I must have bought some at some point, because I used the only washi tape I could find in my stash – and I have been looking for ages:

That’s the tape – right there at the bottom of the card – those two strips of tape. That’s it – my supply of washi tape……..

I decided to use it as a border – as you see – by sticking to the bottom of some patterned paper that came with a recent Tonic Craft Kit which is still sitting on my craft table.

Also sat on my table were these red snowflakes. I had cut them out of some red shiny and textured paper – also from Tonic – but hadnlt got around to using them them. I had a plan for another card, but that plan changed drastically, so these were sitting there all forlorn – I just had to put them to use.

The snowflakes are from Uniko, and I think they look stunning in this red paper, and I tried to capture the shine:

The word is also die cut from that same red paper, but for some reason the Gemini Go squishes the pattern – the Gemini Junior didn’t. The word is also layered with white card for added sturdiness.

I hope you can come and join us, as I certainly want to see your creations with washi tape – I need inspiration!

I shall also be entering the following challenges:
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – atg Patterned Papers

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Happy Little Stampers atg with dies Challenge – atg with dies

Here is a place to start – atg

White and Blue

Hello everyone. I have a card to share as there is a new challenge starting at Cardz 4 Galz. The theme this time is ‘White and Blue’.

I began by creating a 6×6 inches card base, and die-cutting a stitched square frame just slightly smaller.

Then embossing the white card with the Apple Blossom embossing folder, and cutting it down slightly to ensure a slim white border around it.

The heart circle die is from Heffy Doodle, and another stitched circle die to cut around that heart frame – as it only cuts into the card, and using another die from the Heffy Doodle set for the blue inner die-cut. I think this is supposed to be the waste from that die – but there is no waste here!

The little hearts that came out of the Heffy Doodle die fit quite nicely into those embossed dotty circles – so with a little patience – I went round and stuck them all in as you see.

The ‘Thanks‘ word is from Altenew ‘Enchanted Iris’, die cut twice in white card stock and then in the same blue – for some extra dimension. I decided to stick this at a jaunty angle – for no reason in particular. 🙂

The photo is taken indoors in natural light – it’s very, very blowy here at the moment – but you can see the fabulous dimension and embossing that folder creates.

I do hope you can come and join us this time. I look forward to seeing what you create. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Just Us Girls – create dimension

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

Lemon Shortbread Challenge – anything goes

Stencilled Snowflakes

Hello once again. I have a card to share as part of the Design Team inspiration for the new challenge beginning at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge.

Our first challenge of the year, and the theme is – as always – anything goes as long as it’s Christmas related – that also means anything other than cards – boxes, tags, bookmarks, etc – so I hope you can come and join us.

I tried to capture the shine and shimmer on this card, but it wasn’t easy:

I used a new stencil from Funky Fossils Designs as I was inspired by some of the creations on Instagram. I don’t use stencils very often, and yet have many of them just laying around in one of my craft drawers.

Having just received one of the Tonic Craft kits, and some glacier paste I ordered – I decided to have a play. This stencil had just arrived, and was laying on my craft table waiting to be used, so I went with it.

I think I;m out of practice with stencilling, and perhaps I over scrape – there is a little snowflake that looks a little, erm, blurred (!!) – but I like how this turned out – the colours and shine in particular.

The glacier paste from Tonic is truly a very shimmery and shiny paste when it dries, and so I thought the sentiment needed to shimmer and shine too. I heat embossed the sentiment on vellum, to allow the snowflakes to still shine through, and attached to the back of that piece of card before sticking it to the base card.

I hope you can come and join us, and I look forward to seeing what you create. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Give a Crafter a Cookie – Photo Inspiration

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Christmas cards all year round – atg Christmas

Try Something New

Hi there once again. I have a card to share using a new piece of equipment, and new technique – which just so happens to be the theme of the new challenge starting at The Alphabet Challenge.

The letter is ‘T’, and the theme is ‘Try Something New’

I am sure you can guess – The Gemini Foilpress machine.

I have resisted this machine for the past year – having had a little play at 2018 Craftaganza, then another little play when a friend of mine brought hers over to my house. Why would I need foiling? What would I do with it? How would it enhance my card-making?

Well – I gave in. I bought one. And………….loving it!

Here is one the best – even though longest – YouTube videos which gave me all the hints and tips – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR8rr2fUJj4&t=2805s

Now – bear with the video – there are a lot of hints, tricks, and ideas. I even did the foiling of the ‘waste’ – and it worked. So basically – no waste.

On my card, it is one of the foil stamp dies…….done the ‘correct way‘…. and one of the sentiments I bought separately. A few little ‘dew drops’ added for some dimension, and card done.

So – it would be fabulous for you to come and join us for this challenge, and show us your new crafty goodies, or new techniques. The challenge runs for two weeks. I look forward to seeing your creations and techniques in our gallery. xx

Challenges I shall be entering:

Lil Red Wagon – never before used schtuff

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – something new

Craft Rocket Challenges – something new

Moving Along With The Times – all things new