Month: September 2026

Beyond Happy For You

Hello there. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in my exercise game on MetaQuest and also in the craft room – playing, just playing, as we have had to say goodbye to another of our cats. He was 20 years of age, and time just got away from us. That will be three cats in 6 months we have lost……to say we are heartbroken is putting it pretty mildly. Hence – the need to switch my mind to other things.

I have been spending some time with Pinkfresh Studio washi tape from the ‘Pretty Blooms’ collection. I created a couple of panels of the washi, die cut them, and made three cards – to begin with. Here is the first card:

Taking inspiration from the current challenge at Tic Tac Toe, I created a background wood grain effect by swiping a light and slightly darker grey across the panel. I learned this from Gina K on one – if not several – of her videos.

This panel was cut down slightly and adhered to an A2 card base.

One of the floral washi bunches was added with 3D foam, then the sentiment, stamped and gold heat embossed, die cut, then added to the bottom corner.

The final touch – as per usual – was to add some Spellbinders gems.

A simple card – for me – with the bunch of florals being the centre of attention.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Tic Tac Toe – top left to bottom right diagonal – woodgrain/free/die cut

Addicted To Stamps & More – make your mark (ink swiped background)

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

Ellibelle’s Corner Garden Party – anything in or from the garden

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes with florals

Pink Peony Thanks

There is a brand new challenge starting from Heart’s Quest, and to show my support for the new challenge and the Design Team, I have created a card for it. The name of the challenge is ‘Heart’s Quest Pretty In Pink’ and the theme is to use mainly pink, with an optional pink washi/decorative tape for this month.

Here is my card:

When I saw that the theme was pink – not my usual choice of the main colour – I thought of peonies. I searched through my CML app with that tag, and decided to use the Honey Bee Stamps ‘Lovely Layers: Peony‘ die set.

I started by die cutting all the floral layers in Concord & 9th card stock, then ink blending a darker pink in strategic areas. To make sure this ink blending was in the areas which would be seen, I placed the next upper layer on top, saw what would be seen, then ink blended. I did this trough all the layers.

The leaves and stems were die cut from a green card also form C9, and then ink blended also with a slightly darker green.

The layers were glued together, then I added some white acrylic splatter and set aside to dry.

I used a 5×7 inch card base – large enough to place all the elements rather than an A2 – and created the background white panel by using a Spellbinders embossing folder onto which I had pressed some green ink, creating this distressed looking basket weave pattern.

The central pink panel was cut to 5×7, but I used Pinkfresh Studio ‘Slim Edgers‘ die to create the stitch and pattern. This piece was then run through with the same Spellbinders embossing folder, and a white pigment ink pad over the top to catch the basket weave detail.

Once the inks and splatters were dry I attached each of the layers, adding the flowers with 3D foam, then gluing down and tucking in the leaves, foliage, and buds.

The final touches was a gold foiled sentiment then some Pinkfresh Studio ombre gems.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Heart’s Quest Pretty In Pink – mainly pink

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of cloud day not taken

Craft Rocket – use dies

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

Ellibelle’s Corner Garden Party – anything in or from the garden

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes with florals

Christmas & New Year

Hello once again. I have a card to share as Guest Designer for 52CCT. The new Christmas theme is:

Here is my card:

Now, this theme stumped me for a few days. How to get those numbers onto a Christmas card…….I tried a couple of ways, but finished with this one – I did have to check with the 52CCT design team if it was ok……..I obviously needed some reassurance….

I began by stenciling the background panel. This is from a layering stencil set by Kristina Werner called ‘Holiday Icons‘. I used the same light blue/teal colour for the different layers, not using all of them, and then on one layer I used Tim Holtz Distress sparkle paste.

This was set aside to dry, then I concentrated on die cutting the other elements.

The holly and Berry sprigs are from The Greetery, and the numbers are cut from gold glitter card using a Tim Holtz/Sizzix set, cut a couple more times out of white to layer them up.

Now to arrange…..I gold foiled the sentiment and used a circle die. This would enable me to arrange and tuck the holly sprigs. I stuck this down with a piece of 3D foam in the centre, and arranged the holly around it, adding glue to the bases, and then glued down the numbers.

I hope you can come and join the team for this theme – I am interested in how this is interpreted. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Stencil Fun – use stencils, option of mainly yellow not taken

Addicted To Stamps & More – make your mark

Craft Rocket – use dies

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Kitty Capers

Today is the day the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge goes live. It is the turn of Billie A to choose the theme, and she has chosen:

K is for Kittens

Here is my card:

The Images are from an older Mama Elephant stamp and die set – ‘My Pet Kitties‘ – coloured with Copics, keeping most of the colouring neutral.

The 6 window cover plate die is also from Mama Elephant, die cut out of white.

The ensure the background in each window was light enough, with enough detail so the cats wouldn’t get lost, I used a previously created gel print paper.

Once the layers were added to a white card base, the kitties were placed using 3D foam, and then the sentiment stamped and added – from the same stamp and die set.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Inkspirational – word prompt – furry friends

Critter Crazy – anything goes with a critter

Addicted To Stamps & More – make your mark

Love To Craft – anything goes

Unicorn Magic

Hello. I have a card to share following the theme for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz. The theme has been chosen by Dawn and is:

Fantasy – fairies, dragons, witches, wizards etc

To create the unicorns, I used a Spellbinders die set ‘Cozy Toes Friends’ with a mixture of Spellbinders and C9 card stock.

The background patterned paper is also from Spellbinders, and glued to a white card base.

When I first placed the unicorns on the paper, they did get a little lost, so I die cut a bright yellow circle, and used a Spellbinders embossing folder to give it some interest ‘Could Nine‘.

The sentiment was stamped and gold heat embossed, to pick out the gold in the background paper, and layered with some gold glitter card.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of cloudy day taken

Critter Crazy – anything goes with a critter

Craft Rocket – use dies

Love Those Pretty Papers – use pretty papers

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of embossing taken – heat and dry

Birthday Tree

Hello there. There has been a lot going on the past week, but I must get back to posting and crafting. I seem to have less time for this despite retiring a few months ago – so much to do…. A new challenge has started at Ally’s Angels. The theme is always ‘anything goes’. Here is my card:

I used an older die set from Spellbinders ‘Flowering Tree’ to create the main image. The sentiment is also part of the same die set.

Once the tree and sentiment were created, I used ‘Alabaster‘ card for the background and ran it through with a Spellbinders embossing folder.

To ensure I had all the elements on there I wanted, the card base is 5×7 inches, the embossed panel cut to that size, and the tree added with 3D foam.

I hope you can come and join us with your projects, the challenge ends on October 12th.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of cloudy day not taken

Craft Rocket – use dies

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

Ellibelle’s Corner Garden Party – anything in or from the garden

Crafting From The Art – anything goes

Snowmen & Transport

Hello again. We have a new challenge starting at ABC Christmas Challenge. Or Christmas themes this time are:

S is for Snowmen

T is for Transport

Here are my cards:

For my snowmen card, I used a die and embossing folder set from Simon Says Stamp. The images were die cut, coloured with Copics, ink blended round the edge of each snowman, then ran each through the embossing folder.

The background panel is white glitter card – the oval die cut from the centre before adding the patterned paper – covered up the oval missing piece nicely – oval added, then the snowmen added with 3D foam.

The sentiment was stamped then die cut.

For my second card – very die cut heavy – I used a Spellbinders die set from their ‘All Aboard’ kit from several years ago.

All the elements were die cut and assembled – took quite a while – all those itty bitty pieces – then put to one side whilst I thought about the background

I chose a couple of pieces of patterned paper – cream and a lilac shade -ran through with a Spellbinders embossing folder, cut down to 5×7 inch landscape, adding a strip of gold glitter card.

The train was added with 3D foam – this too was a little fiddly to get everything as lined up as I could, then the glitter words and stars added. These were die cut sticky glitter.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Snowman card:

Peace On Earth – Anything goes Christmas

Christmas Crafts All Year Round – Christmas with R & S – snowman

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Train card:

Addicted To Stamps & More – dies cuts and/or stencils

Daisy Chain Challenge – transportation

Craft Rocket – use dies

Mix It Up – anything goes, option of embossing taken

Jolly Greetings

Hello again. I may not have posted for a few days, but I have been playing in my craft room. I thought it was time to play with my Spellbinders BetterPress system again, and created a lot of backgrounds and sentiments – all ready to go for future cards.

Whilst playing, I found the package from recent ‘Oh! What Fun‘ event, so decided to use some of the rub-ons and ephemera in the kit to enter the current challenge at 52CCT, which is a sketch challenge.

Here is the sketch:

and here is my card:

The two rectangles and the two squares were die cut with Gina K Designs Master Series dies which gave a stitched edge

Once cut, I then used rub-on images for the squares, adding a rub-on sentiment too. I then chose two ephemera pieces from that kit – larger and longer – more suited to the size of the rectangles.

Before adding the ephemera, I used a Spellbinders embossing folder on a white 7×5 inch panel, and ran a small light blue ink cube over the embossed panel to highlight some of the detail.

I ink blended the same blue along the bottom of each square and rectangle, then ran those pieces through the same embossing folder.

The ephemera were added to the rectangles, and all four pieces adhered to the background embossed panel. The final touch being the sentiment.

As an aside, I am going to join the Mona Toth online class this weekend to teach me how to take better photos of my cards – I really struggle with lighting – so hopefully these will be better once I have completed the class.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

52CCT – sketch

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of bees not taken

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Christmas Cards All Year Round – Christmas with R & S – rub-ons & snowflakes

Have An Udderly Fabulous Day

Hello again. It is time for the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge. Having reached the letter ‘J’, Veronika has chosen the theme of:

J is for Just Kidding (a funny one)

Here is my card:

I decided to break out thew Copics for this card and the stamp and die set from Heffy Doodle ‘Udderly Fabulous‘.

The animal images were stamped, coloured, the die cut with the matching dies.

The barn is also from Heffy Doodle ‘Barns & Boats’, a die set which has elements to create a barn or a boat. After I die cut the red for the barn, I ran the piece through a Spellbinders embossing folder to give the plank effect.

The background panels are two pieces of patterned paper, one used for the sky background, and the other for grass – die cut with a Lawn Fawn die.

First I added the blue panel, then the two green grassy pieces, making sure not to glue down completely as I wanted to cow to just be sitting there – as you can see.

The barn was added, the the animals, and then the sentiment was stamped, ;layered with a white piece to make it stand out a little more, then glued down.

I hope to see you in our gallery with your projects following our theme. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Allsorts – all creatures great & small

Critter Crazy – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Sending Bright Thoughts

It is time for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz. Jill has chosen the theme of:

Interactive/Kinetic

Here is my card – using the Lawn Fawn Magic iris dies:

I started by getting all my Magic Iris dies together, and choosing to use the ‘Floral Wreath‘ add-on. All the elements were die cut in Spellbinders card stock, then I took time to watch a YouTube video on the way to put the magic iris together.

The background blue paper and the window paper is also from Lawn Fawn.

The sentiment was stamped at the right time for construction of the card, all things added as you can see.

I hope you can come and join us with your interactive projects. The Design team has some amazing variations on the theme – I look forward to seeing what you create. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes with florals

Addicted To Stamps & More – die cuts and/or stencils

Love To Craft – anything goes