Month: June 2023

There once was a cat and a ladder….

Hello. This sounds like the start to a limerick or other funny story, doesn’t it? I just couldn’t think what to call the post so I just wrote what I saw…..

The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. We have reached the letter ‘G’, and Debbie has chosen the theme of ‘G is for Green as the dominant colour’. Here is my card:

I used a previously created green ink smooshed [iece of card, and added an alcohol ink banner at the top. Some different shades of green, with a little gold on the alcohol ink portion.

The cat, ladder, and the leafy sprigs are from Charlie and Paulchen, a German company I have ordered from a couple of times. They have some amazing die sets – very small but perfectly formed – as they say…..

The cat and sprigs were die cut out of white so they stood out from the green background, and the ladder die cut from some brown card, layered a couple of times for dimension.

I added a previously foiled sentiment at the top as it seemed to fit better that way.

Although there are a few layers, I still feel this is quite CAS – compared to recent cards anyway.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations which feature green predominantly. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes – option summertime

Die Cut Divas – die cuts and critters

The Crafty Addicts – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Thank You Triple Flap

Hello once again. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge. Helen is the host this time round, and has chosen the theme of ‘more than one fold’. Here is my card:

This is a triple flap card, quite easy to do, but as fancy folds aren’t my usual style – I really had to concentrate for this one. It is held closed by the belly band.

My goodness – these are a challenge to photograph.

I chose some coordinating patterned paper from Spellbinders, adding them to each part of the card. The back piece I wanted quite plain as I knew I was going to add a little something more.

The frames and puffy sentiment are also from Spellbinders, and not too bulky for the card to close.

The triple flap is held closed by a belly band, to which I stuck a larger floral image from the same card kit.

As you know, I’m not one to use a lot of patterned paper usually, but I really like these colours, and as the whole pad has a lot of coordinating paper, it makes it just that bit easier to match .

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Here Is A Place To Start – anything goes

Get Creative – more than one fold

Allsorts – atg option bunch of flowers

Dragonfly Dreams – fancy folds

Creative Creases – anything goes with a fun fold

Ho Ho Ho

Hello once again. A new challenge has started at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

The snowflake background was created using a Simon Says Stamp embossing folder with blue card, then swiping some white pigment over the top for highlights.

I cut this down slightly and adhered to a white card base.

Now onto the construction of the main image – lots of die cutting and layering, using different combinations of red and gold card stock.

I added some silver glitter foam die cuts to the hat and the cuff of Santa.

I hope you can come and join us with your festive creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Most Magical Time of the Year – anything goes Christmas or Halloween

Die Cut Divas – die cuts and critters

12 Months of Christmas – Christmas – option inspired by Christmas Song

Inkspirational – emboss your background

Sparkles Forum – no stamping allowed

Flowery Birthday Truck

I was inspired by a few challenges to create the following card:

One of the challenges I am entering was to create a birthday card with a car or a truck. I knew I had one or two somewhere, so I searched the Color My Life app and found this truck which came with last year’s Spellbinders Advent Calendar.

I die cut the truck with Concord & 9th card stock, then added the black and gold wheels. I added some light blue card stock to the windows.

The background was created using a piece of Spellbinders patterned paper which has some gold embossed detail to it, and a dry embossed strip – another Advent Calendar item – placed at the bottom to ground the truck.

The flowers are also from the Advent Calendar – die cut and assembled as you see – and added to the card so it would seem they are bursting from the back of the truck.

I added a foiled sentiment strip to the embossed area, and a couple of sequins, also adding some faceted gems to the centre of the flowers.

Another quite fiddly creation – but again – very satisfying.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps and More – birthday

Krafty Chicks – occasions

Crafty Catz – anything goes – option of for a baby not taken

Pinspirational – birthday with a car or a truck

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of butterflies not taken

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

Hello Friend – Mushrooms

Hi once again. I have used this sentiment quite a lot in the past few weeks. I obviously like it, but I can’t keep having the blog post with the same title, so I just added the theme. Here is the card I created:

I have had this stencil and die set from Pinkfresh Studio since attending one of their virtual crafting events. I haven’t completed that class yet, but I wanted to use the set when I saw the colours for the current Color Throwdown challenge.

I stencilled the mushrooms in red and blue inks from Pinkfresh Studio, then stencilled the leafy sprigs in a brown from Altenew. A little grey for the ground/sand stuff at the bottom.

I then used the matching die and played around – for quite a while – with the layout and design.

The final card has a light brown dry embossed background, using a Spellbinders embossing folder. I then die cut the glass dome from some vellum, played around a little more, and decided the brown leafy sprigs were best going behind the vellum. In that way, they aren’t disturbing my trio of mushrooms, and yet still create some background interest.

The sentiment strip was added to the vellum, and behind the solid elements of the mushrooms and sentiment I added glue to adhere the vellum to the light brown embossed panel.

The mushrooms needed something more, so I added some gold shiny dots:

And juts a little more bling with some blue sequins.

This card looks deceptively simple – and yet it took me while to get the ink blending, the layering, and the final composition to where I was happy.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, blue, brown, white

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Stencil Fun – stencils – option layering stencils taken

Inkspirational – emboss your background

A Rose Note

Hello once again. I’m dropping in with a card created for a couple of challenges:

My favourite flower is the rose – all colours. I have a couple of rose bushes in my garden which we transplanted last year, and they are just getting back into the swing of things.

One of them was bought for our silver wedding anniversary (quite a few years ago) and is already flowering well. The other was already in the garden when we came to live here. It’s taking it’s time adjusting to it’s new place in the garden, but it is just starting to bud. The roses usually come later in the summer, and have the most gorgeous scent…..I can hardly wait to smell them again.

This multi layered rose die is from Honey Bee Stamps. There are seven – yes seven – layers to the rose itself, and I also added some very small foam squares between a couple of the layers for even more dimension. I used a selection of concord & 9th card stock to get maybe 4 different tones of purple – it could be five – but I lost count.

For the Tic Tac Toe Challenge I went with the bottom row, so I made a black card base, and used a Pinkfresh Studio die to create the white panel, cutting the three inlaid pieces so allow some of the black base to show through.

I was going to adhere the rose directly onto the black card base, which is why you can see a slightly off-set white layer behind the rose, but I didn’t like that stark appearance so I added the die cut white panel.

The sentiment is white heat embossed and die cut with a matching die, and I added some shimmery purple enamel gems here and there around the rose.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – lots of layers

Tic Tac Toe Challenge – tic tac toe – bottom row – black card base, white heat embossing, roses

The Flower Challenge – your favourite flower – the rose

Friendly Hibiscus

Hello once again. I have been playing with a new die set from The Greetery:

The ‘Botanicuts Hibiscus’ is a layering die set, with three flowers, a bud, and some leaves. I die cut the layers with Concord & 9th card stock, to create this central design.

I added a previously foiled back panel, created using a Spellbinders foil plate, and added a foiled sentiment – a black strip so it would stand out.

I feel it’s quite a simple card, with many layering elements. I gave the flower petals some dimension by curling them slightly.

I also toyed with the idea of adding some shading to each of the flower petals and leaves with Copic markers, but decided to keep the colour of the card stock as it was for a cleaner finish.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – aqua, red, yellow

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – lots of layers

Allsorts – anything goes option birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

Sparkles Forum – no stamping

A Butterfly Paper Hug

A new challenge has started at The Alphabet Challenge. Having reached the letter ‘F’, Deborah has chosen the theme of ‘Flying – anything that flies’. Here is my card:

I chose a stamp, die, and stencil set from Concord & 9th to create this card. The background is stenciled in muted tones of some Altenew brown inks/grey inks to provide some interest without taking away from the main butterfly image.

The butterfly was die cut and assembled, and added with 3D foam, and some gold gems added to the wings in strategic places.

The sentiment id also from that same stamp/die/stencil combo, the banner layered with some gold. I had to do some partial die cutting to make the gold match the curve of the banner – I don’t like fussy cutting so I’d rather work out the partial die cutting. Some small gold gems added to this banner also.

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘anything that flies’ creations – so many options to choose from. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ellibelle’s Corner – something with wings

2 Craft Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Paper Dragonfly Creative – anything goes or summer creatures

Die Cutting Divas – die cuts and critters

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

Happy Blooming Birthday

Hello there. I am the host for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz. I chose the theme of ‘use die cuts and/or punches‘. Here is my card:

And so continues my fascination with die cutting and layering – all that fiddlyness – I think I made a new word!

These tile dies are from Spellbinders, and I die cut a whole bunch of each – the diamond background, the floral elements, the gold stars – and assembled them before I even thought about how I was going to put them on a card base.

I decided to go a heart shape as I could use a lot of the tiles – even though you can see I had some left over.

The background is a dry embossed panel – using the deboss side – and matted onto a black rectangle to make it pop a little more.

The sentiment is a debossing sentiment, which I quite like the look of, especially in gold.

There was enough going on with this card so I didn’t even think about adding extra gems or enamel dots.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations following our theme – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Allsorts – anything goes option birthday

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Seize The Birthday – anything goes birthday

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of weddings not taken

Craft Rocket – use dies

Christmas Fireplace

A new challenge has started at ABC Christmas Challenge. Having reached the letters ‘L’ and ‘M’, we want to see your Christmas/Festive makes with ‘L for lots of layers‘ or ‘M for Mice’. Here is my card:

It is very obvious I went with the ‘lots of layers’ theme to create this card.

The background panel is dry embossed using a Simon Says Stamp embossing folder.

The main image and additions are all from Spellbinders. This is another card where I had to watch a YouTube video to see how everything came together, and from that video made the decisions for each colour.

I wanted the stockings hanging on the mantle to be a pop of colour, and added them with gold string through their loops, but didn’t glue them down, so they move around when the card is picked up.