Month: May 2020

Color Throwdown Featured Stamper

Hello once again everyone. I am extremely pleased to announce I am the featured Stamper for the new challenge beginning at Color Throwdown, after winning the challenge with this card HERE.

This week, the swatch is:

Black, Turquoise, White

And here is my card:

I was drawn towards a Christmas themed card and decided to use my Simon Says Stamp Card Kit of the month from January 2020. I remember the colours in that kit, and the range of layering snowflakes.

I began by stamping the snowflake background in a light grey ink (neutral fee colour) using most of the layering snowflakes in the stamp set. I then used a couple of rectangles from a stitched die set – but putting the central piece back in.

The turquoise shiny card stock was embossed using a dotty embossing folder – I think it looks like little drops of snow in the background – and placed so it peeked through.

The same turquoise card stock was used to die cut the three snowflakes, adding some double sided tape on the back in case I wanted to glue the down completely – but I only stuck the centres down, leaving the rest kinda just hanging there – more dimension.

The sentiment and the banner outline heat embossed in Wow! embossing powder white detail, and then I actually fussy-cut the banner out. Yep – another but of fussy-cutting….wonders will never cease!

So there we are – I hope you can join this challenge. These colours are amazing, and leave a lot of scope for different themes – I look forward to having you join us this week. xx

I shall also be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option to use silver

52 card Christmas Challenge – Christmas and Embossing (wet and dry embossing)

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Sending You Sunshine

Hi there. I have a card to share completely different to the card from yesterday – CAS AND one layer……..:

The theme from CASology, and the one layer and dots from Simply Less Is More. I used the colours from the current challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches, though I don’t have the actual colours, I have obviously tried to match as best I can………..

The stamp set I used is from Clearly Besotted – and a little bit of masking and creative license with the colours…………

I first stamped the sunflower in a yellow which I hope matches enough for Crushed Curry, and stamped the second layer with the red. After masking, I stamped the second layer of the leaves – I didn’t want full leave shapes – then masked these leaves fully and stamped some dots in grey. The dots are from Concord & 9th ‘Stuck On You‘ stamp set.

Again, I am using encouraging sentiments as much as I can, to try and spread some smiles…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CASology – PLANT

CAS Colours and Sketches – Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry, Cherry Cobbler

Simply Less Is More – CAS one layer, going dotty

Never Doubt Yourself

Hi once again. I hope you are all well. I have a card to share today using Brushos and playing:

I have had this stamp set from Thirsty Brush and Co for quite a while – it was a members gift from Create and Craft. I knew I wanted to colour it at some point, but whilst I was adding items to Color My Life app – I came across it again – just after I was sorting through my Brusho and water-colours……

Again – finding things and playing whilst also sorting – that’s why it’s taking me so long…….well – and the fact I have so much stuff!

I used some Arteza water-colour card, stamped then white heat embossed the butterfly image, and then played. And got messy……so much fun!

I wet the card, then dropped in a couple of Brusho colours – some I moved around, some I left very vivid – then let it dry.

When it was dry…………………I didn’t like it. I didn’t think the butterfly and the flowers on the butterfly were obvious enough. I was ready to throw it in the bin – when I remembered what the stamp set is called. ‘Never Doubt Yourself’.

So – I made a card anyway – and the more I look at it, the more I like it – the colours, the wildness, the sentiment…….so here we are! An encouraging card – maybe I should send it to myself…………..! 🙂

I shall be entering the following challenges:

IAAS – Flowers and butterflies -(on the one stamp)

Animal Friends Challenge – see an insect

Crafty Card Makers – Butterflies

Happy Little Stampers Water-colour Challenge – watercolour with option to emboss

Arty Divas Challenge – anything goes

Fusion Card Challenge – sketch =/- photo (photo)

Alphabet Challenge – ‘D’ for Dry Embossing

Hi there. A new challenge is beginning at The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘D’ – and we want to see your Dry Embossing. Here is my card:

I had a piece of green luminous and extremely shiny card stock from when I had been playing with my Craft Box Lumi Spray. I knew I wanted to put an open die-cut on top of it, and this die from Simon Says Stamp seemed perfect – especially as it had an outline die to go with the flower die.

I die cut the outline into the white card stock, then dry embossed using an old Sue Wilson embossing folder. I layeered this on top of the green luminous card with foam pads and inserted the due cut flower through the aperture.

The sentiment is from Thirsty Brush and Co – she has some fabulous sentiments on her stamp sets, and I always seem to find what I’m looking for to suit either my mood at the time – or when I want to send a card to someone with a special and personal thought, with no particular occasion in mind.

It’s been a little difficult to capture the true shine of the green spray, and to capture the embossing at the same time – hence three pictures.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge. I see the Design Team have put together some fabulous projects for your inspiration. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A Bit More Time To Craft – challenge 116, anything goes

Crafters Castle – anything goes

Crafty Creations Challenge – anything goes

Cardz 4 Galz – CASE your wardrobe

A new challenge is starting at Cardz 4 Galz – and from the title you may get our topic this time – CASE an item or your wardrobe. Use an item of your clothing and use it as your inspiration.

Here is my card:

Here is my item of clothing:

Yes – I used polka dots………….

I began by stamping the flowers and stems from Altenew ‘Angelique Motifs’ – mixing the colours a round a little – I do like to use colours not ordinarily seen with particular flowers!

I then used the Avery Elle ‘Polka Dot Plate’ die and some dark blue shiny card stock.

The sentiment is also from Altenew, from the ‘Wild Flora’ stamp set.

I hope you can come along and join us. I’d love to see your creations in our gallery, and to see what item of your wardrobe you took inspiration from.

xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers dies challenge – anything goes with dies

Simply Create Too – use flowers

Creatalicious Challenge – atg – option pink and purple (not taken)

Crafters Cafe – Feminine

We Are All Like a Snowflake

Hello there. A new challenge is beginning at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge, with the theme of ‘Anything goes Christmas’ – here is my card:

I began by printing out the ‘Iced Berry’ digital stamp from JMC Designs, onto Make-It Colour Blending card, adjusting the dimensions to suit my card size, and also printed out the sentiment from the same company, which says – ‘we are all like a snowflake, all different in our own beautiful way’..…

Once printed, I used Copics to colour her, then added some white gel pen dots to the green berries – kinda like ice – then added some gold gel pen dots to the poinsettia.

I also die-cut a large tag, inked around the edges a little with some purple ink to stop the edge being quite so stark, then added her with dimensionals.

I used the oval to die-cut the sentiment, inking around the edge again.

The olive looking base card – no idea where from – was die-cut, then I added a really, really, dimensional paper from one of the Tonic Craft kits last year – maybe even the year before – as this gave an embossed an pearlised-looking layer.

I didn’t want to cover that green paper too much, which is why I used a tag for the lady image.

I hope you can come and join us, and please check-out the inspiration from the Design Team.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option candy canes (not taken)

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option ornaments

Polkadoodles Craft Challenge week 20 – atg

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

To A Very Sweet Friend

Hello yet again. I have a CAS card to share today:

I used the Altenew ‘Folksy Florals’ stamp set and played around with the images, and added black details with the dots, as I knew I wanted a bold and black sentiment, and wanted to tie the images into that.

One layer, no fuss, just playing with colour.

I ‘found’ this stamp set again when I was adding my craft supplies to the Color My Life app – recently moved into the Android market, instead of just Apple!

Using the app to add items using the bar-code, or the universal search button – which brings pictures up of the items and all you have to add are the tags you want. Bingo!

There’s still quite a lot of my stuff to be catalogued – but I’m doing it bit by bit. The main problem is that I then ‘find’ things and want to play with them then and there……..not a bad thing, I know – but it means I am doing several things at once – and my desk is never clear.

At least I haven’t yet come across duplicates………….yet!

I’m also trying to keep up with the YouTube and Facebook live shows – Tim Holtz, Finnabair…..the list goes on. I seem to always be playing catch-up. It’s not too bad a problem, is it – but it can stress me out when I have a few to watch – a little bit of the O.C.D. anyone?

And also having to work a few days a week – thankfully not called to the critical Covid cases – just carrying on with clinics – but telephone clinics instead of face-to-face………….people are being so friendly, and very grateful that we are still contacting them when they have been referred into our department.

This situation has certainly brought out the best in people – most of the people I have had dealings with anyway.

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges

Color Throwdown – pink, blue, yellow

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – atg with option outdoors

Addicted to CAS – CAS flower

Aud Sentiments – atg with a sentiment

White and Cream

Hi once again. I have a couple of cards to share today:

I used some slightly textured cream card from my stash as a layer, then die cut three leaf images out of white card stock and stuck them down as you see. Simple but effective, I feel………

I am currently trying to make support and encouraging cards, so I can give them out rather than having them around the house. I’m particularly liking this sentiment – support more than encouraging – but I think is quite perfect for quite a few people and circumstances at the moment.

I liked how the cream and white looked together, and would never have thought of pairing these two – so I made another card.

This one has a heat embossed white element. I actually heat embossed it with extra thick embossing powder – but for some reason it didn’t want to stick to this little die cut – so I used detail white embossing powder – again, and again, and again…………I think I heat embossed it about 5 times to try and get a double thick and smooth layer….

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Less Is More – White and Cream

AAA Cards – CAS up to one third with option of repeating image (option not taken)

Addicted to Stamps and More – CAS

CAS on Friday – CAS and use a die

Purple and Grey Daffodils

Hi there. I have a couple of cards to share today – both made with the same stamp set – yet completely different looks:

I used the Altenew ‘Build-a-flower Daffodils‘ stamp set, but this time went for purple daffodils. I know – artistic licence anyone?

For the first purple card, I stamped the outline, then the darker two layers in purple – I didn’t stamp the base colour layer. The leaves are from another Altnew stamp set – I wanted two layer leaves, and not daffodil stems, as I knew I wanted to create a whole bunch of flowers bunched together.

Once stamped and die cut with the matching dies, I arranged as you see.

The second card is where I stamped the outline of the daffodils, and one of the detail layers to create a background, with a couple of the little daffodil centres stamped to fill any gaps – all in shades of grey. The sentiment is also from Altenew – white heat embossed on a black strip.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Twofer Card Challenge – flowers

Trimmies Craft Challenge – birthday

Unicorn Challenge – use dies

here Is A Place to Start – create your own background

Happy Little Stampers atg with dies Challenge – use dies

Rainbow Card Challenge – Vivaciously Violet

Flower-Butterfly-Vase

Hello again. I am delighted and honoured to be the Guest Designer for the new challenge beginning at All Fun Challenges.

For this challenge – the theme is always ‘anything goes’ and we were given a choice of images from Bugaboo. I chose this gorgeous ‘Flower Butterfly Vase’ digital image.

Here is my card:

I began by printing out the image onto ‘Make It Colour Blending card’, then picked colours of Copics………several greens, several blues, some pinks, and a couple of reds – not forgetting the grey for the shadow.

The blue patterned paper underneath the panel is a cut-down piece from Craft Box UK – and I even added a blue then grey Copic edge to it to try to match to the colours I had already used on the image.

The little sentiment tag is from a package of tags – I have no clue where they came from, and no clue how long I’ve had them – I found them during my Covid-19 lock-down ‘tidying’.

Well – I say tidying – but I then find things I haven’t seen for ages, or even forgot I had – and then of course you have to create something then and there – don’t you? Or is it just me……………..?

I’d love to see your creations for this challenge – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Paper Minutes – Butterflies

Lil’ Red Wagon – flowers

Digi Doodle Studios – flower power – must include a hand coloured image

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring