Card Making

ABC Challenge – Elves, Foliage, Gems

Hello everyone. The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters E, F, & G. We want to see your Christmas creations following the following three themes for this challenge:

E is for Elves, F is for Foliage, G is for Gems

Here are my cards:

I first decided on the background for this card, using a piece of light blue card stock and running it through with a Spellbinders embossing folder.

Before attaching that piece to the card base, I decided where I wanted the hat to be, then used the Waffle Flower ‘Elf Hat‘ die set, die cutting the hat out of Spellbinders glitter foam.

The face part of the elf was die cut with white and ink blended some light peach, attaching the the corner of the blue panel, then the hat pieces glued to fit. I trimmed the edges to make them square with the base piece.

This was then glued to the card base, and the sentiment added after stamping and trimming to fit.

For my second card, I stamped and silver heat embossed the image twice – a Pinkfresh Studio set called ‘Magical Holiday’.

I then used the matching layering stencils to colour the two images in, and then the matching die to cut them out.

The white background panel was created by using an old Stampin’ Up embossing folder, and attaching to the card base.

The silver frame was created by using two nesting rectangle dies, then two ink blended images attached to the back, then glued down onto the dry embossed panel.

The sentiment was also silver heat embossed and die cut, adding to the centre, then the silver gems glued as you see.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Elf card:

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of sympathy not taken

Addicted To Stamps & More – Christmas

A Cut Above – anything goes with a die cut

Mix It Up – anything goes, option of die cuts taken

Foliage & gems card:

Inkspirational – use stencils, option of plaid not taken

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Love To Craft – anything goes

Birthday Wildflowers

Hello once again. I have a card to share for the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘W‘, and Tee has chosen the theme of:

Wildflowers

Here is my card:

I decided to go mixed media with this, as I already had the background panel made from a class with Jenn Shurkus.

The background was created using ink blending onto a white panel, adding water splatters and then ink splatters. I created two panels – one slightly darker. Once dry, I cut down the lighter panel using the Tim Holtz ‘Deckle’ guillotine to give a torn edge effect, then with the darker panel I used a Gummiapan die from their 2024 Advent Calendar to create two tickets which I overlapped.

I like the torn edges, the holes, and the lines on these dies, which added further interest.

The next step was to create some wildflowers, and for this I turned to a Tim Holtz die set. I die cut them out of white water-colour card stock, but left them in the panel. To colour them I used Distress water-colour pencils in varying shades, keeping the colouring quite ‘rough’ for want of a better word, and left them to dry.

I found a big loopy bow die in my stash, and pulled out a previously created wax seal.

All the elements were now ready for me to assemble the card.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

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

Seize The Birthday – birthday – option of anything goes with wings not taken

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

AAA Birthday – birthday and die cuts

Thanks So Much

Hello everyone. The new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz, and Debbie has chosen the theme of:

embossing – heat or dry

Here is my card with dry embossing:

I chose to make a very tall card here, as I wanted to use two of the floral images. These florals are from The Greetery and are called ‘Botanicuts Morning Glory’.

The layers were die cut and assembled, choosing to use a lighter green for the veins of the leaves instead a darker green. I don’t know why – it just looked pretty…..

I then took the slimline card base, cut a piece of white card the same size, and ran that through with a Spellbinder embossing folder.

When I placed everything down, I felt the background needed just a little something more, so I added some splatter – small splatters, not too much – just enough for interets.

I was happier with the look, so when it was dry – it didn’t take too long – I attached the images with 3D foam, and added the foiled sentiment:

I hope you can come and join with your dry or heat embossing creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

A Cut Above – anything goes with a die cut

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

Mix It Up – anything goes with the option of die cuts taken

Green & White

Hello. I made this card the past couple of days inspired by the current challenge at The Card Concept, and their photo inspiration. I was inspired by all the different greens, the white flowers, and the plaid background – as well as the vase, of course:

My first job was to search the Color My Life app to find a vase, this one popped up which is from Spellbinders, and one of their ‘Fresh Picked’ die sets. This was die cut twice and layered, for a little more stability, and then run through with an older Darice embossing folder to add detail.

The next step was to search through the app again for a plaid background – this is an embossing folder, again from Spellbinders – which I used with a plain white piece of card, then ran a light green ink pad across the top after embossing, so it ‘grabbed’ the raised areas. This panel was cut down very slightly, and adhered to a white card base.

Now to the flowers and foliage – the dies are from The Greetery, die cut with tones of green card from Spellbinders and Concord & 9th for the stems, then die cut again to obtain the white florals, and layering together.

The abundance of floral elements was glued onto the card base – using the vase as a guide – then the vase adhered with 3D foam so it caught the stems.

I was then searching through for sentiments, but didn’t find what I wanted – they all seemed to interfere with the overall look I wanted – so I didn’t add one.

I will be entering th3e following challenges:

The Card Concept – photo inspiration

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of sympathy not taken

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Heat Emboss Resist Christmas

Hello. I thought I had posted this card a day or two ago – but obviously forgot to even write it – never mind post it.

This card was created as I was intrigued by the current challenge at 52 CCT – their Christmas technique theme this time is for using heat emboss resist. I thought of a Gina K Designs stencil I had of a large snowflake, so decided to give it a go:

The first step was to tape the 6×6 inch stencil onto a piece of white card which measured slightly bigger, and pounce some embossing ink through it. I think I remember doing this on a previous virtual event, so I had a blending brush already set aside for using this embossing ink.

I first brushed some anti-static powder onto the card stock, then taped the stencil down round the edges. It took a little doing, a lot of pouncing instead of brushing, but I managed to get the whole image done, then used white embossing powder and heat set the design.

I then took three colours of Pinkfresh Studio inks and blended them all around, wiping it down between each colour to not cross-contaminate.

The blending was taken to the edge of the larger piece of card, so I could choose which part to use, and die cutting with a Gina K Designs Master Layout die set to get a stitched rectangle.

This rectangle was then matted with brushed gold card stock from Spellbinders, then a deep purple card, and attached to a white card base.

The foiled sentiment was then added.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

52 CCT – heat emboss resist

Inkspirational – use stencils – option of plaid not taken

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Happy Spring

Hello everyone. I was thrilled to be the random winner for the November – December challenge at Christmas (or not) Bingo, and as such, invited to be Guest design team member for an upcoming challenge.

The new bingo board for March 1st is:

I chose to follow column ‘O’ – Easter/Spring/free/foil or vellum with this card:

I first created the vellum panel, by using a Spellbinders embossing folder, and set to one side whilst I then created the main image.

This stamp and die set is from The Greetery, and is called ‘Spring Crest’. It is a layering stamp set and I chose light colours for the florals, a sage green for the greenery, with a light brown for some of the other accentes.

I also used the ‘Bitty Botanicals’ stamp, stencil and die set to create some small florals to use at the bottom of the frame.

The first step was to add the frame to the vellum, then tuck the separate bitty floral in place. This way, I knew what I could add to the back of this arrangement to be able to stick the vellum down onto a white card base. The vellum is not, therefore, stuck down completely, only at the back of the arrangement on the front.

The final step was to stamp and die cut the sentiment – also adding more glue on the back of vellum behind the sentiment.

So quite a soft and ethereal make for me – obviously inspired by the Spring theme.

I hope you can visit the challenge and have a go at joining, the Bingo board is such a novel idea, and there are so many different ways of playing. The challenge runs from March 1st and finishes 15th April. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ellibelle’s Garden Party – anything in of from the garden

Sending Sunshine

Hello everyone. It;s been a fairly busy week, but I have time to create another CAS card:

For this card I used a stamp set from an SCT ‘Let’s Stamp Together‘ kit, I believe is from Taylored Expressions.

I first took a white panel and stamped the sun image, then stamped again onto some masking paper, cut it out, stuck it down on top of the stamped image, then stamped the rainbow image on top.

Once the sun mask was removed, the sun covers the cloud on the other end of the rainbow and looks like one image.

Once both images were stamped in dark brown amalgam, I heat embossed with clear, as I wanted to colour straight away, and didn’t want to wait until the ink dried. Even when I dry the ink with my heat gun, I find alcohol markers sometimes still smudge and smear the outline.

I chose to colour with Copics, adding a little shading, then stamped the sentiment, cut down the white panel slightly and adhered to a white card base.

Even though it is CAS, I don’t like that Copics will show through a card base if coloured directly onto it.

I hope I will have more time to craft these next few days, and so you may see more of my cards coming up. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps & More – make your mark

Addicted to CAS – CAS – theme of weather

CAS Birthday

Hello again. I’m venturing into the CAS genre again – a struggle for me as I do like dimension and embossing folders and gems – all the things, really. Whether this is a true CAS card – with die cuts and wax seal – it certainly is for me…… :)

This was really quick to put together, as I had the bluebells and lilac pieces from The Greetery already made from a previous session, as well as the wax seal.

I placed the florals, adding wet glue to the base of their stems only, then glued down the wax seal to cover the bottom of the stems.

The wax seal from Spellbinders says ‘Happy Birthday’ – difficult to photograph with this colour. I could have used some gold or white pen to highlight the words, but I like to simplicity as it is.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks – CAS

Simply Clean & Simple – CAS – option greenery

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Craft Rocket – flowers

Daffodil Dimension

Hello again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge, having reached the letter ‘V’, Helen has chosen the theme of :

‘volume – use foam pads or gel to raise apart of you design’

Here is my card:

I decided to go with a springtime fell with these daffodils. Having had what seems like months of rain here in the UK, the snowdrops are appearing, and I felt a spring card was needed to encourage brighter weather.

The daffodils are from Hero Arts, die cut and then a little ink blending to the petals before adding the corona, which was attached with 3D foam pieces.

The background panels of green, then the stitched white layer were cut using a Gina K Designs Master Layouts set, and the green circles die cut with nesting dies to be slightly larger than the two white scalloped circles – also cut with a Gina K Designs die. Before attaching the white circles to the green, I ran them through an embossing folder to give a little more interest.

The sentiment is foiled and die cut from Pinkfresh Studio.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafts Galore – anything goes

A Cut Above – anything goes with die cuts

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Craft Rocket – flowers

I’m A Lucky Duck

Hello and welcome. Cardz 4 Galz has started anew challenge, this time the host is Helen, and she has chosen the theme of:

Wings – butterflies, fairies, dragons etc

Here is my card:

For this card, I created my own background panel using techniques learnt from a Jenn Shurkus virtual event and Distress water-colour pencils. I loved this particular technique, and made several panels with different colours.

The technique consists of using a wet small brush, taking colour from the Distress pencil, then just scribbling a patchwork of colour down onto a panel….that’s it……

After the panel was dry, I spritzed with the dirty water from my little water pot thingy (I know – but as per Jenn Shurkus – it works well!!), then added a stamp of musical notes to the top – no idea why I chose that stamp – and you also use a wet distress pencil to colour the stamp – then stamp it. It gives a faint and blurry image.

This was drying to one side, and I die cut the ducks from a Simon says Stamp set, layering them together and adding small black gems for their eyes.

The sentiment was stamped and die cut using s trip die – I think it is two sentiments I stamped to make one – but I can’t find the second half of the sentiment now – this first half is definitely Lawn Fawn.

The panel was adhered to a white card base, th3e sentiment and ducks arranged as you see.