Card Making

ABC Christmas Challenge – P, Q, R

Hello again. The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached P, Q, and R – the themes for those letters are P – for Pink, Q for Quarters, R for Reindeer. This time round I created a card for all three letters:

Q for Quarters

Using some ephemera and patterned paper from Tim Holtz, some matting and layering, some Distress Ink blending around the edges.

R for Reindeer

More Tim Holtz ephemera and patterned paper, some Distress Ink around the edges of the frame.

P for Pink

Not Tim Holtz for this card! Hero Arts sentiment die cut from an ink smooshed background, layered with white. A patterned paper background, some pink ink blending, and then some pink sequins.

I hope you can come join our themed Christmas challenge this time round – I look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

P if for Pink:

Love To Craft – anything goes

Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge – Christmas and sentiment as main focus

Q is for Quarters:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Mix It Up Challenge – anything goes – option CAS not taken

Moving Along With The Times – anything goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – anything goes with patterned paper

Christmas Kickstart – Christmas and never in a nativity

R is for Reindeer:

TTCRD – anything goes

Cards Galore – anything goes

Winter Wonderland Challenge – Christmas and reindeer

Merry Cardinal Christmas

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

This cute little bird is from the new Spellbinders release, of which I must admit I bought quite a lot of the products. There will be more cards coming with those products in the near future.

Onto white card base I layered a red panel, then the white dry embossed panel.

I die cut the scallop oval, matted with a plain white piece, and then set-to putting the little birdie together.

I decided on what colours I wanted to go where on the birdie – and stuck down a piece of white on the back behind the eye and neck, placed him onto the oval and stuck down the 3D foam tape.

I stamped the sentiment onto white, and layered that small panel with the matching red card to enable it to standout a little more from the background.

I hope you can come and join us – thereby creating your stash for later in the year. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – emboss it

Christmas With The Cuties – cute Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Crafty Animals Challenge – anything goes with an animal

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

Monster Hugs

Hello there. I’ve had fun playing with this monster die set from Elizabeth Craft Designs – and getting inky and messy:

I first created a piece of card sprayed with a Tim Holtz green mica spray, layered several times and splattered with water. Once dry, I die cut the monster body.

The monster legs were die cut from a piece of card I had made previously – I think created with black soot, splattered with water and white acrylic paint, and a varnish added to create some shine.

The arms were die cut from a Distress Ink green background panel from a previous messy crafting session.

The eyes, flower and horns from the same panels used on the rest of the monster – but of course bright white teeth!

The background is a piece of patterned paper, dry embossed with a swirly embossing folder, and then Hero Arts white pigment ink swiped across the catch and highlight the raised areas.

The sentiment is from Elizabeth Craft Designs also – and placed as though the little monster is balancing on one leg on top of it.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – black, brown, green, white

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – emboss it

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

Moving Along With The Times – anything goes

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – anything goes with patterned paper

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

Happy Little Stampers – atg Birthday

Hello there. Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge has now changed to an ‘anything goes birthday’ challenge – and it doesn’t have to be CAS at all. I hope you are able to come and join us with your birthday themed creations, and fill our gallery with your birthday makes.

Here is my card:

The stamp used is a turnabout stamp from Concord & 9th, received as part of their recent virtual event. I used different coloured inks for each ‘turn’ to create the background.

This panel was matted onto black card stock – I knew I wanted to stamp the sentiment in black – and adhered to a white card base.

The sentiment strip was die cut and I then ‘bent’ the sentiment to match the line of the die cut, which actually wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I then added some pink sequins – three tones of pink – for some added glitz.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Stamping Sensations – stamping and summer flowers

Creative Knockouts – anything goes

Krafty Chicks – occasions

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Happy Birthday

AAA Birthday – anything goes birthday

Tender Leaves

Hello once again. I have created two cards whilst playing in my craft room today:

The first was the original idea I had, and the second was made using the same colour scheme and dies – just a different look.

For the first card, I used a Kraft card base, and layered a Lawn Fawn ‘Quilted Backdrop’ layer in cream card, a panel of textured cream card, a frame out of Kraft card – both die cut using stitched rectangles – and then added the blue Simon Says Stamp ‘Tender Leaves‘ dies. Some blue sequins added for decoration.

For the second card, a white card base, then created a larger frame with some stitched rectangles, and added the cream textured card behind that window. The same leaves were die cut from blue and Kraft – layering slightly off-set. The sentiment is from Altenew, stamped onto cream card, and two Kraft borders added – as well as some blue sequins.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – powder blue, Cream, Kraft

Aud Sentiments – anything goes with a sentiment

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Lil Red Wagon – stitching – real or faux

Krafty Chicks – occasions

Love To Craft – anything goes

Crafting Makes Everything Better

Hi there. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the letter ‘I’, and Helen has chosen the theme of ‘Interests/Hobbies’. Here is my card:

I created a background using different crafty images from a Gina K stamp set – one I received as part of a kit last year – I think!

The images of scissors, card and envelope, paint palette, glue gun, ink pad – all stamped haphazardly onto a white panel.

I then took a Uniko stamp ‘Splatter’ and three colours of ink and just stamped once for each colour.

The sentiment was stamped, and the background panel and the sentiment were matted with black card stock and adhered to a white card base.

I just had to – had to – add some facetted gems – it would be rude not to!

I hope you can come and join us and share your hobbies and interest creations with us. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

TTCRD – anything goes

We Love Stamping – anything stamped – option hot summer colours

Dragonfly Dreams – indoor hobbies

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Creative Fingers – anything goes


Sea You Soon

Hello. I have a card to share using some small – and fiddly – dies and a nautical scene:

This set of dies – the lighthouse and the boat -are quite fiddly to work with. Tweezers and the sticky pick-up tool came in very, very handy for creating this card.

Once I had die cut the two main images, I coloured extra die cuts with a dark blue Copic marker and layered them together.

The sentiment and the rock the lighthouse is standing on are from Lawn Fawn. I also added some little white birds – I do make it difficult for myself!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS – CAS – Nautical

Mix It Up Challenge – atg option CAS

Let’s Have A Brew

I’d like to share a card using some new products from Time For Tea Designs here in the UK:

I die cut the scalloped slimline using Mama Elephant dies, and used the white inner to create a cloudy background and grassy base using a Simon Says Stamp stencil. The stencil comes with a flower part too – but I just ink blended the grassy part. I ink blended the clouds darker at the top, and lighter towards the grass.

I then stamped the images, coloured with Copics, and used the matching dies to cut them out – some white gel pen to add interest to the cup.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set,. but I cut it out using a speech bubble die – I think that’s Mama Elephant too but not sure.

The scallop and cloudy piece were stuck down with glue, the panda, the sugar cubes, and the speech bubble were raised with 3D foam.

I found some little sticky hearts in my stash which matched the green and blue, and also attached some small silver gems with them.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – yellow, green, aqua, Kraft

Cut It Up Challenge – summer themed – include a die cut

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Colour Crazy Challenge – week 28 – anything goes with colouring

Here Is A Place To Start – anything goes – option of balloons and flowers not take

TTCRD – anything goes

A Tweet Hello

Hi there. I have a card to share whilst escaping the heat here in the UK. My craft room has aircon – so I’ll be playing quite a bit this next couple of days.

This cute little bird is from Spellbinders, and die cut using a few pieces of coloured card. I am not sure what a chickadee colour really is – but I am sure you’ll allow me some artistic license here as it’s so cute….

The circle background is a stamp from Hero Arts, white heat embossed, then some of the images water-coloured with Distress Inks.

The panel I did this on, I managed to get two circles, and one strip out of it – so I’ll be using those for a couple more cards soon.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CAS Mix Up – CAS – things with wings – watercolour

The Flower Challenge – flowers and CAS

Pearly Sparkles – CAS

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Balloon Dog Birthday

Hello there. I have a card to share using a new die set from Spellbinders:

For the background, I ink blended some yellow and aqua distress inks, then used an embossing folder – also from Spellbinders.

I then took a brayer, and some Distress Ink ‘Picket Fence’ and rolled it over the background, to give more dimension and interest to the embossing, without diminishing the colours.

I then ink blended some Saltwater Taffy and Abandoned Coral onto two separate pieces of card and die cut the balloon dog elements. Once I had glued the layers together I added some white gel pen marks, and a little further Abandoned Coral to some of the edges.

The layered sentiment is also from Spellbinders – and my goodness those letters are fiddly – I was going to layer them but they are too thin – and the letters are separate from each other – the ‘sticky specks’ came in handy here and worked very well.

Before I added the background to the panel, I splatted some gold Liquitex metallic acrylic ink and then some white metallic ink onto it, and when dry added to the base card with 3F foam strips.

I adhered everything as you see, and added some purple sequins from Catherine Pooler.

I can see that I will be making this balloon dog in different colours moving forward – such a great die set.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

MMM Challenge – splatters

Shopping Our Stash – use ink blending

Color Throwdown – aqua, yellow, purple, coral

Seize The Birthday – birthday – option metallic

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of summer