Card Making

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

A Penguin Merry Christmas

We are starting a new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge. Veronika is hosting this challenge and has chosen ‘Holidays‘ for the letter ‘H’.

Here is my card:

I used some Lawn Fawn images, coloured with Copic, and die cut with the matching dies.

The background is another ink smooshed panel – I think I’m addicted to making those panels.

I die cut the sentiment, layering it with white – slightly offset to make it stand out – and added some clear glitter pen.

I also added the glitter pen to the hat, and a slope of glitter card stock for the penguin and the babies to stand on.

I hope you can come and join us with your Holiday makes – it doesn’t have to be Christmas – any holiday celebration. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Colour Crazy Challenge – week 27 – anything goes with colouring

Moving Along With The Times – inky background

Paper Dragonfly Challenge – Christmas in July

Unicorn Challenge – Christmas in July

12 Months of Christmas – anything goes Christmas

ABC – N for New and/or O for Old

Hello there. I am hosting the new challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge. The themes for the new challenge should be Christmas creations, and ‘N’ for New, ‘O’ for Old. Here is my card:

I chose a slimline base card with a black layer. My ‘New’ is a new embossing folder I purchased at a recent craft show. The folder creates such a deep embossing of the poinsettia, and also comes with a die to cut out one of the flowers.

I therefore created the embossed base, then embossed another, die cut the flower, and placed on top, I even fussy-cut more leaves from the second embossed panel, coloured them with green Copics, and added underneath for even more dimension.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas creations – following our themes – and one lucky random winner will receive these two stamp sets from two UK companies:

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Peace On Earth Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – anything goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

CYHTP – anything goes with an embossing folder – option of summer not taken

Creative Fingers Challenge – anything goes

Sending You Peace…..

Hello. I have a CAS card to share today:

I always find this style of card seems to take a lot more planning than other cards. I thought about what colours to use for the ink blended panel – and then how to do it……..some broad masking tape did the trick.

I used Pinkfresh studio inks – darker orange, lighter orange, and yellow. These do blend wonderfully, and as I used some Distress Heavyweight card stock – a match made in heaven!

I have quite a bit of the older batch of heavyweight card stock from Ranger – this was a batch which had some coating issues – it does not like water – which is bizarre as this is what the card stock is meant to work very well with.

I first noticed when doing a virtual class with Jenn Shurkhus – she advised us to contact Ranger….I did, sent them some photos, and the picture of the receipt – and a new batch was sent to me – over here to the UK – what a brilliant customer service.

However – the new batch from them has the same issue – but I have decided to use that for ink blending – when I don’t want to use a lot of water – it does ink blend beautifully.

Anyhoo – back to the card – ink blended panel, and then an image from a Simon Says Stamp set ‘Dandelion Messages’ which has been sitting there wanting to be used……..I thought it was perfect for a couple of challenges:

The Flower Challenge – Flowers and CAS

CASology – Windy

Be Kind To Yourself……

Hello. I have a card to share using layering stencils from The Ton:

I used Pinkfresh Studio inks for the flowers, and was then thinking of using Distress Inks for the brown, but then remembered I had a drawer full of Stampin Up inks I hadn’t used in a while, so I used a couple of those.

The sentiment is a mix of three different ones from a Clearly Besotted stamp set to create what I was after.

I used Gina K Master layout dies to create the floral layer and the Kraft layer, attached with 3D foam, and also added some of the same kraft behind each sentiment strip to make them stand out more against the background.

I ‘found’ some cream sequins and added some of those too.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – yellow, orange, Kraft, brown

Time Out – be kind

Beyond The Blue – use two or more stencils (6 altogether in this layering set)

Crafting Happiness – anything goes