Month: June 2020

Winter Bouquets

Hello there. A new challenge has begun at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is ‘anything goes’ as long as it is Christmas. Here is my card:

I used the Honey Bee Stamps ‘Winter Bouquet‘ Honey Cuts and took lots of inspiration from watching YouTube and Nicole Spohr when she was making cards with this set.

The main thing for me was to use Copics on the die-cut elements to create some dimension – a game changer for me. I never thought of doing that to die cuts when using a coloured card.

I die cut the elements out of coloured card, used some matching Copics, then assembled as you see. The centre of the poinsettias are actually a very bright yellow glitter card – no idea where it came from – and then I just used a brown Copic to tone it down.

The sentiment is white heat embossed, and is from a Stampin Up set and white heat embossed onto a die cut panel.

I stuck most of the element down with 3D glue gel, only the tiny sprigs where stuck with glue.

The background is a piece of water-colour card and spritzed with Lumi spray – I wanted a bright shimmer to the background. then came the Nuvo drops – I’ve not used them for a few weeks so here we go – making up for the loss!

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasions

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option snowflake (not taken)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

Crafting Happiness Challenge – atg

More Mod Birds

Hi there. A short little post to share a card using an older stamp set from MFT:

I stamped the outline of the birds from MFT ‘Mod Birds‘ then used Catherine Pooler inks for the colours. I also used some leaves and flowers from the same stamp set, as I knew I wanted to use this cover panel from Mama Elephant, and wanted to use the leaves and flowers to occupy some of the circles.

Once all die cut, I then played with placement of each element until I was happy, then used a combination of foam pads and wet glue to stick them down.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – pink, blue, green, yellow,

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

The House That Stamps Built – anything goes

Butterfly Star Trails

Hello. I have another CAS card to share using a mix of a couple of stamp sets:

I took the theme from Krafty Chicks, the colour inspiration from CAS Colours and Sketches, and the image inspiration from Fusion Card Challenge.

I ‘found’ this butterfly stamp set from Stampin Up when adding to Color My Life app – and am finding and revisiting a lot of my old stash. I knew I had a lot of products dotted around my craft room and the spare bedroom – but I didn’t realise how much I had forgotten I had.

Adding to this app is bringing back to me the reasons I bought a lot of my products in the first place – and never utilised them…….

I stamped all three layers of the water-colour butterfly as you see, then used the matching die set to cut it out.

I wanted some swirly trails behind the butterfly, and – again – found this stamp set from The Ton which has several star trails stamps. I used one trail stamped in red, then added the yellow and navy stars individually.

Once I had decided where the butterfly was going to be, I then stamped the antennae – that took a little fiddling around – the most difficult part of the card……

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Basket Bouquet

Hello once again. I have card to share using die cuts alone – my Junior was getting a true workout for this card:

all that shiny gold……

I used Honey Bee Stamps ‘Spring Bouquet’ die set – and my goodness there are loads of dies in this set. I made the mistake of die-cutting them all out without separating them – and realised – too late – that some of those dies have other dies within them! Doh! So – a die-cut within a die-cut……

I therefore separated them all and die cut them again in some Heffy Doodle card stock in an aqua and pink colour. These two colours of card stock are the ones I have been saving. You know what I mean – we save them and save them – and never actually use them! I’m sure I’ve had these for over a year……………….so – out they came as they matched the colours perfectly for one of the challenges.

The basket was cut out of a paper which had the wood-grain on it – I think it’s Stampin Up but not sure, and the background is a Reverse Confetti die. The centre of the flowers were die cut then gold heat embossed – now that was tricky on those small little blighters!

I haven’t added a sentiment yet – I just wanted to put this card together – no particular reason other than to create a card inspired by several challenges. When I know who I want to send it to and for what reason – then of course a sentiment will be added………….although sometimes I just put one inside the card instead of on the front.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – pink, aqua, gold, white

If You Give a Crafter a Cookie – photo inspiration

Creativ Fusion – Nature’s Garden

Happy Little Stampers anything goes with dies Challenge

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Alphabet Challenge – Flora or Fauna

Hello once again. I hope you are doing OK. There is a new challenge beginning at The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘F’ – and we want to see your Flora or Fauna. I decided to go with Flora:

I began by stamping then heat embossing in white the Honey Bee Stamps ‘In Full Bloom’ stamp, then water-colouring with my Altenew water-colour pan set. I only used one navy blue for the water-colouring, but did three layers at least, to try and create some dimension to the flowers.

I also coloured the leaves from that same water-colour set, but these are so small, I just did a simple wet and drop in the colour kinda thing.

Strangely enough, I tried to find a navy blue in my full Arteza water-colour pens – but despite my having the complete brush pen set – I couldn’t find a blue that was navy enough! Hence the use of the Altenew set.

I die-cut the outside with the matching die set and pondered on die-cutting the centre. As you see, I did cut out the centre, as the water-colour card is from Arteza and has a cream tinge to it – not white.

Then I thought this was too plain on the card base, so I took a piece of navy card-stock and dry embossed using a Crafters Companion 3D embossing folder. The first attempt – I didn’t get the plates right in my Junior, so it reversed it back out to me. Then when I did get the plates right – the depth of the folder created such dimension – the card split!

So – another piece of card, sprayed some water on it to dampen a little – hey presto! It worked. I think I’ll write down the combination ready for the future.

The sentiment is from a Simon says Stamp die and added with foam pads slightly higher than the floral frame.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Craft Rocket Challenges – dry or wet embossing (both on this card)

The Flower Challenge – flowers and navy plus one other colour (navy and green)

Arty Divas Challenge – anything goes

Seize The Birthday – anything goes birthday with option water-colour

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Cardz 4 Galz ‘steampunk’

Hi there. A new challenge has begun at Cardz 4 Galz, and this time the theme – chosen by Deborah – is Steampunk.

Now – this is not something I’m familiar with, but a Kit and Clowder class featured this gorgeous PowerPoppy digital stamp – which I thought suited the theme perfectly. (I see it’s also on sale at the moment too!)

Here is my card:

This is my first go at colouring this stamp using the directions from Alyce at Kit and Clowder – and I like how this turned out.

Coloured with Copics – the whole thing took me about 5 or 6 hours – following her directions and advice as close as I could. I also have some process pictures:

the butterflies first
then the clock
then the cogs and flowers

I still have some work to do on my fine-line colouring – but I suppose that is the point of taking these classes.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge – I’d love to see your take on the ‘steampunk’ girlie theme………… xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Polkadoodles craft challenge – anything goes colouring

Colour Crazy Challenge – challenge 23 – anything goes colouring

Crafty Creations – anything goes

Jan’s Digi Stamps – anything goes colouring

Butterfly Congratulations

Hello once again. I have a card to share today I made for a particular person. It is for a man – but who says a man can’t like a CAS butterfly?

One of our dear registrars has just successfully obtained a consultant post – he is going to be a Consultant Neurosurgeon with us – after years of specialist training. We are all so pleased for him, and particularly pleased he is staying with us in Sheffield……………..it also means his girlie can stay with us too! A win-win situation!

The card is one layer, the leaves and butterfly stamped as you see, and the sentiment added from an Altenew stamp set.

CAS – I’m trying hard to conquer this type of card-making – sometimes I win, sometimes I lose – but I keep trying! And – enjoying the process. I do have to restrain myself sometimes – but I like how this turned out.

It did take me a while to figure out where I was going to stamp which element – and there’s only four of them for goodness sake – the actual stamping went quickly though……is that the way with CAS? Is that also the way with one layer cards?

Anyhoo, I shall be entering the following challenges:

AAA Cards – one layer card with twist of using the graphic

Aud Sentiments – anything goes with a sentiment

Moving Along With The Times – things with wings

Stamplorations CAS Challenge – Anything goes CAS with option to use purple (option not taken)

Beautiful Heart Birthday

Hello. I have a card to share inspired by several challenges.

I used Altenew ‘Beautiful Heart‘ stamp and matching die set. I stamped the outline in a grey ink, and both layers of the flower, but only the outline and detail layer of the leaves – not the main base layer. I wanted there to be quite a bit of white on this card, to ensure the colours stood out.

The sentiment is also from Altenew and stamped directly onto the base card.

I ‘found’ this stamp set again whilst putting my stash into Color My Life organisation app – I am ‘finding’ quite a bit of stuff to use again. Not necessarily that I had forgotten they were there – but seeing them again and going through them again makes me use my older stash – not a bad thing. But – it doesn’t mean I don’t buy new stuff………………..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenge – Occasions

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

Seize The Birthday – anything goes birthday (option summer not taken)

Color Throwdown – blue, purple, light blue, green

Peaceful Scene

Hi there. I have a CAS card to share today. Here is the card:

I used an image from a Funky Fossil stamp set called ‘Adventure’ , and a little masking of the stamp.

I first masked the bottom half of the stamp – the water – then inked the trees – and remembered to remove the masking tape (!!) before stamping. Then I masked the top half of the stamp, inked the top half – again removing the masking paper – then stamped the bottom half.

I had to ink the stamp a couple of times – I think my ink pads are getting a little dry………….but they are old. I may have to see of they have been retired or see if they still sell the re-inkers.

I stamped the bird, then die cut the image using a square off-set to make a triangle.

I don’t have many washi tapes, but after using my one and only washi tape as a DT card and struggling a few months ago – I ordered some more. This washi is quite wide, so I cut three strips down the length…..my goodness that stuff is sticky! I ended up with bits all over the place initially….

Then I stuck three pieces down along the edge of the card, overlapping a little. The washi has images of the world, an old fashioned map, which I thought suited the stamp set and image quite well.

I then turned to the sentiment – I know, it seems it’s always the last for me to stamp…..but if I use my Misti it seems to work each time. Thank goodness. Just imagine if I messed the sentiment stamping and the card had to be binned – or at least have an extra banner placed over the mess……

Anyhoo – it stamped correctly!

There are few adventure sentiments in this set, about exploring, but with the current global situation – I went for one which meant you didn’t really have to leave home – maybe?

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

CAS Colours and Sketches – pool party, crumb cake, pear pizzazz (Substitutes used)

Creative Knockouts Challenge – use washi tape

Roses everywhere….

Hi once again. I have a couple of cards to share today using the same stamp set – but different layouts. The reason I made two cards is because I absolutely loved these roses once I started stamping them, and I used a variation of the template technique that I saw Jennifer McGuire do a few years ago.

I first used the roses die cuts to cut into a piece of white card, then die cut loads of the rose shapes. I then placed the template in my Misti, and stamped the base layer of colour onto every rose die cut, then swapped to the second layer, and stamped them all again – and so on. I did the same with all the leaves.

I made lots of roses – but used them all on my two cards. The first card is using the colours from the current challenge at Color Throwdown:

And this second card using the left-over red roses for another look, and another sentiment:

I didn’t realise how many rose stamp sets I owned – until I was putting everything into the Color My Life app – I have quite a few! My favourites are the layering stamps from Altenew, as they give such a realistic and vibrant look – and using these colours really made the detail stand out, I think so anyway.

One of the bonuses of creating two cards into one session, is that I can enter different challenges for each of the cards. I seem to be on a crafting weekend marathon – and putting my stash into this cataloging app has reminded me what I have, what I haven’t actually used yet (!!!) – and what I probably won’t ever use. I feel some de-stash selling coming on……

The first card will be entered into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, orange, green

Hand Stamped Sentiments – photo inspiration (red and orange flowers)

Krafty Chicks Challenge – use a stamp

Time Out Challenges – inspiration words

The second card will be entered into the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments Challenge – flowers and a sentiment

Watercooler Challenges – feminine

ElliBelle’s Crafty Wednesday Challenge – In the summer garden

CCEE Stampers – roses

Just Add Ink – add an ‘F’ (flowers)