Month: September 2023

Monochrome Thoughts

It is time for the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge. Helen has chosen the theme this time round, and she wants to see your monochromatic creations,. Here is my card:

I decided to give the Gina K wreath builder stamps and wreath builder templates a try. I haven’t used them before, so I watched a few of her YouTube videos and went for it. I chose black and white for the monochrome look and I am really pleased how this turned out.

I did go on to create several more panels with different stamps from the wreath builder set, but this was my favourite.

There are so many little stamps in this stamp set tp be able to fill in those nooks and crannies, and I found starting with one of the larger images first felt right to me, then I just built the design around those.

The sentiment is white hot foiled onto black card stock from a previous hot foiling session.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

The Crafty Addicts – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

Pink and Green Birthday

Hello there. I am back from my annual holiday to Turkey, and ready to get back into the craftiness.

Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge, Dawn is hosting, and has chosen the theme of ‘use a stencil, a sentiment, and an image’. Here is my card:

The stamped images of the florals/leaves and the butterflies are from Pinkfresh Studio, coloured with their layering stencils, then die cut with the matching dies.

I then worked on the background, by using another Pinkfresh Studio die – the Daisy Chain Cover Plate – die cut out of white and added to a white card base. The frame is also from Pinkfresh Studio – placed on top of the cover plate die cut.

Then the flowers and butterflies were added as you see.

The sentiment is a foiled strip from a previous hot foiling session, and then some pink, green, and purple sequins added for some glimmer and shine.

I hope you can come and join us with your creation matching our theme. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Flower Challenge – flowers and use a die

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Unicorn Challenge – layer it up

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Pinspirational – birthday and leaves

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

Merry Christmas Wreath

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

For this card I used Gina K designs wreath builder and some elements from her stamps sets. I haven’t done this for a while so I watched some YouTube videos and set to it.

I cut that panel down and layered with some gold and black card stock, and added a foiled sentiment.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Creative Fingers – anything goes

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Unicorn Challenge – layer it up

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes

Most Magical Time Of The Year – anything goes Christmas or Halloween

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

E-I-E-I-‘Ello

Hello everyone. I have a Guest Design Team card to share for Elli Belle’s I Spy Challenge, which is also partnering with Double Trouble Challenge. Here is my card:

I just know you are now singing ‘Old MacDonald had a farm…..e-i-e-i-o‘ in your head right now – I can’t get it out of mine….

The theme for Elli Belle’s challenge is ‘something from or on a farm‘, and the themes for Double Trouble are ‘use a punch or die cut‘, and ‘include a farm animal’.

My first job was to stamp all these images from a Clearly Besotted stamp set and colour them with Copics. As they don’t have a matching die set, I used my Scan’n’cut to cut them out.

I then layered a white panel with a red panel onto my card base, and played with the placement of the images, until I decided on what you see here.

The sentiment was stamped, and a red strip attached above and below that pieces, added with 3D foam.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations matching the themes, and I look forward to seeing your creations in both. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Critter Crazy Challenge – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Challenge Up Your Life – anything goes

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

The Crafty Addicts – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

Three Snowmen

Hello. ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘S’ and ‘T’. Fabiola is hosting, and the themes are ‘S for Snowmen’ and/or ‘T for Three of a kind’. I used both the themes on my card:

For the background, I die cut the Lawn Fawn ‘Four Square Backdrop’ and then each of the four insert panels I ink blended with Distress Oxides. I then splattered with water, and also splattered with some silver shimmer acrylic paint and set aside to dry.

I stamped the images from Time For tea Designs, coloured them with Copics, and die cut with the matching dies.

Onto a white card base I adhered the frame with 3D foam, added the ink blended panels and the images, found a foiled sentiment to add to the fourth opening, and adhered some sequins for even more shimmer and shine.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas creations following one or both of our themes. xx

You Are A Friend-A-Saurus

Hello there. I have a fun card to share today for the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge. Veronika has chosen the theme of ‘L for Literature – inspired by a book’. Here is my card:

I certainly had some fun creating this card. The book I was inspired by is ‘The Lost World‘ by Arthur Conan Doyle.

I used an older MFT stamp set for the images, stamped onto water-colour card, then coloured using my Distress water colour pencils. Once dry, I die cut them with the matching die and set them to one side.

The background is also water colour card stock. For the top I used a cloud stencil and some light blue Distress Ink, and the bottom is Distress water colour pencils again, swashed then splattered.

The sentiment is also from the same stamp set.

I loved creating the different coloured dinosaurs – those Distress Pencils work a treat for me. I don’t colour straight onto the card stock, as I find there are pencil scores left behind and they don’t blend enough for me – maybe I’m too heavy-handed – but I like to wet the tip of the pencil, then use a brush the the wet tip to add colour to the images.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations inspired by a book. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Crafting Happiness – anything goes

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes

Mix It Up – anything goes – option to create your own background

Sending A Note

The new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz has started, Caz has chosen the theme of ‘Leaves’. Here is my card:

This card was created using Gina K Designs Poly-Glaze stencil-mates foiling sheets. I followed the YouTube video, used a laminator and some green Decofoil I had from goodness knows when, then used the matching stencil to colour in the foiled leaves, with a yellow and a light orange to create some depth.

I have a couple of the poly glaze sheets for different stencils, and when I get my laminator out again, I’ll probably do batch foiling with different coloured Decofoil to them ready for future quick cards.

I also used Gina K Designs Master Layouts to die cut the black panel, then the leaf panel, adding a previously foiled sentiment and some goldy/orangey sequins.

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘leaves’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Challenge Up Your Life – anything goes

Crafting Happiness – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

Mix It Up – anything goes – option make your own background

Christmas Penguins

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started the new ‘anything goes Christmas’ challenge. Here is my card:

I used a slimline card base and die cut the Mama Elephant frame. The inner part was ink blended with Distress Oxides, and some glitter paste was added through a stencil and then out to one side to dry.

The penguin and igloo images from a Time 4 Tea Designs were stamped, coloured with Copics, then die cut with the matching dies.

I also created a silver glitter card strip using a stitched wavy die – and even though it wasn’t long enough for this card, I cut the strip first, then die cut twice to get the wavy stitching at the top.

The ink blended panel was now dry, so all the elements were added with either glue or 3D foam.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/Festive creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Shopping Our Stash – any wild animal

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Creative Artiste Mixed Media challenge – anything goes mixed media (Copics, ink, paste)

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media (Copics, ink, paste)

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts

Thanks So Much…..

Hello I have a card to share using some Spellbinders products:

These floral dies were part of the products received when attending a virtual event with Bibi Cameron and Spellbinders. The layering florals are actually meant to be snowflakes – but I chose colours which are not necessarily meant for snowflakes and Christmas, to make a thank you card.

I die cut the outer layer with the shiny gold card stock, then used Concord & 9th green and cider for the florals – a lighter green for the stem, and a darker green for the leaves.

I also die cut another of the ‘snowflakes’ and layered behind the main one so you can see the itty bitty point showing in the gaps on the outside.

The background is a dry embossed panel using a Spellbinders embossing folder, matted with the darker green of the leaves – die cut using a Gina K designs Master Layouts die – so handy for those layers.

The sentiment strip is from a previous foiling session.

I’m so pleased with the versatility of this die set and how it turned out – not Christmas related at all. I like how the colours of the card stock and the gold go together, and the dry embossed panel adding some interest to the background.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of poppies not taken

Festive Friday Challenge – choose three items from the list (I chose four) – flowers, thank you, embossing folder, die cuts

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts

Mix It Up – anything goes option make your own background

Foiled and stencilled birthday

Hello there. I am Guest design Team Member at Dragonfly Dreams challenge for this coming month.

The theme for the challenge is ‘birthday‘. Here is my card:

The main floral images are from Pinkfresh Studio, stamped twice, then coloured using the matching layering stencils. I varied the colours on each layer of the stencils, not just sticking to one colour each layer, and used a liberal amount of masking/low tack tape to cover some areas up – I am quite a robust ink blender when it comes to stencils.

I gave a deeper pressure towards the centre of the flowers to try and give some dimension, then die cut with the matching die set.

The background is a hot foil plate – also from Pinkfresh Studio – and used as more of an interest in the background. Once this panel was adhered to the card base, I attached both of the floral images as you see with 3D foam, added a foiled sentiment strip, and some gold sequins dotted around.