Card Making

HLS January CAS Challenge

Hello everyone. I am very pleased to let you all know I am now on the Design Team for the Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge! Who would have thought I would be on a CAS DT, never mind for Happy Little Stampers – I am more than stoked…….

My first CAS Challenge as part of the Design Team has the theme of ‘Short and/or Tall’

……….here is my card:

I used the Heffy Doodle ‘Lil Lighthouse‘ stamp and matching die set, also stamping a few of the little rocks from Lawn Fawn ‘Christmas Fishes‘ so it looks like the lighthouse is on an island in the middle of nowhere.

All images coloured with Copics, and using the sentiment from the same lighthouse stamp set, outlining the sentiment strip with one of the colours of yellow I used on the door of the lighthouse – just so it stands out a little more.

The ‘rays’ of the lighthouse is from the matching die set, and I just coloured a piece of card and stuck it beneath the holes.

I hope you can come and join us – there is a lot of varied inspiration from the DT – be sure to keep your projects CAS using the challenge theme. I hope to see you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Jan’s Digi Stamps Challenge – anything goes

QKR Stampede – anything goes

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

Stamplorations CAS Challenge – CAS – option pink/red/orange not taken

Looking for latest Challenge Here Click Badge Below

Never Far apart…..

I new challenge is starting at The Alphabet Challenge, Having reached the letter ‘T’, Veronika has chosen the theme of ‘TRAFFIC’. I struggled a little with this theme, but eventually came up with this card:

I knew I wanted a few cars, and I knew I wanted that sentiment, but it took me quite a while to figure out what I was doing. I didn’t have appropriate car stamps or dies, so I used some ingenuity……

I used the ‘Destination Christmas‘ stamp and die set from Newton’s Nook……….I put the images on my Misti, masked the top of the cars where there are Christmas Trees and presents, stamped, then drew in the lines with a fine liner…………I was quite pleased with how they turned out.

Once coloured with Copics, and die cut with the matching dies, I fussy-cut the top to get the cars the way I wanted them.

Now for the background scene – Mama Elephant cloud die from their ‘Slim Card Basics‘ die set, and the Lawn Fawn ‘Road Border‘ cut twice to get the tarmac and then the grass verge. I did think about cutting a proper grassy verge – but the rest of the card is quite ‘clean’, so I kept it as you see.

The blue background is a textured light blue, almost a leathery texture, which I felt quite fit having as a sky.

And this time I remembered to stamp the sentiment before putting the card together!

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘Traffic’ creations – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches – anything goes

Krafty Chicks Challenge – anything goes

Crafty Creations Challenge – anything goes

Big Hugs Z Fold

Hello. A new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz. I wanted to get the year started with virtual hugs and to be able to let someone know I was thinking of them. The theme is ‘more than one fold’, chosen by Billie A:

I played around with some fancy fold cards, and even made another card for the challenge – but I wasn’t happy with it. This is Take 2…..

I made a ‘Z’ fold card – white card base – and added some Stampin Up ‘Peaceful Poppies‘ DSP – which I’ve had for ages and just never got around to using. I wanted to add some of the embellishments which came with this series – but they seem to have been ‘filed’ where I can’t find them!

Once the card and the paper layers were stuck down, I decided to add some simple die-cut sentiments in black – so they can stand out against this patterned paper.

Both the die-cut sentiments are from Lawn Fawn. The ‘Big Hugs’ in the middle of the card is white heat embossed onto black card, layered several times before being stuck down so you can see the ‘hugs’ when the card is closed, but ‘Big Hugs’ when the card is open.

‘Thinking about you’ is also Lawn Fawn – but it is very fine, and I found it a little too fiddly to layer it up, so stuck down with one layer only after die cutting.

I hope you can come and join us – and educate me into the various ways we can introduce more than one fold in our creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – atg with patterned paper

Crafty Creations Challenge – atg

Creative Moments Challenge – atg

TTCRD Challenge – atg

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Foxy Misses You…..

Hello there. A little playtime in my craft room, and I have a cute little fox card to share:

After making the little fox up in the muted colours, knowing I wanted to use a dark grey card base, I then searched my stash for the heart stencil I just knew I had somewhere. After a few minutes, I searched the Color My Life app – there it was – a Thirsty Brush and Co stencil, Bingo.

I used Catherine Pooler’s ‘Sugared Lavender‘ ink and a blending brush to create the background, and used one of the ‘geode‘ dies from Concord & 9th. I did go looking for a heart die, but when I was searching the CML app – I saw this and thought it would make a different kind of shape….and would fit the card base better.

Before I stuck anything down on the card base, I stamped and white heat embossed the sentiment from Simon says Stamp – I keep trying to remember to do this before I add anything to the base – sometimes I forget..!

I added the ‘geode’ die-cut, then the fox, and thought it looked a little plain – so I used the dies from MFT ‘Stitched Garden’ and Concord & 9th card-stock to create the flowers – and adhered as you see.

I made this card for a particular person – she is working more than full-time as a Matron at one of our hospitals, working all shifts, having to manage whatever is thrown at her – and that leaves very little time to connect. We obviously can’t meet each other in person – even at work – and sometimes it goes weeks without a moment to message or call each other………..she has been my bestie for the past 30 years – and I’m hoping we can reconnect soon………

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Animal Friends Challenge – fox or hare/rabbit

Die Cut Divas – Anything goes with die cuts

Stamplorations Stencil Challenge – anything goes with a stencil

Watercooler Challenge – anything goes

Stardust and Sequins Poinsettia

Hi. I have another card to share very similar to yesterday – I just switched the colours around and added some sequins:

I liked how the teal and ‘Stardust‘ coloured card looked, so this time I used the Simon Says Stamp ‘Cling Stamp Poinsettia‘ on white card, stamped with SSS ‘Audrey Blue’ ink, then the Altenew ‘Poinsettia 3D die‘ cut using Concord & 9th ‘Stardust’ card stock.

For that added bling, some teal and yellowy/greeny/mustardy sequins – I’d love to know what colour these are……

I again used a Simon Says Stamp sentiment, but a different one this time.

A card which came together quite quickly, as I knew what I wanted and how to do it.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Flower Challenge – Flowers and add embellishments

Watercooler Challenge – anything goes

Yappy Christmas

Hello. I have been playing with some rainbow Copics:

I used a Whimsy and Simon Says Stamp collaboration stamp set – ‘Happy Pugmas‘. I don’t have dogs – two cats – but I thought this stamp set was so funny, with cute images and sentiments, so now it was time to play…..

The colours were inspired by the current challenge at ‘The Rainbow Card Challenge’ – this time the theme is ‘Holiday Rainbow’. I don’t think I’ve coloured an actual rainbow card before, so I looked for what the colours of the rainbow are, and followed the ROYGBIV – as you can see from my Christmas Trees.

These trees are from the same stamp set, and involved some masking. I first stamped the pug – masked him, then stamped a tree either side, masked them, then stamped again etc…….

I then looked for some Copics to colour the trees following the ROYGBIV for the rainbow, and it just so happened that the pug ended up having the green for his hat and ruffle.

For the baubles, I added some green Stickles. Now – I’m not a great user of Stickles, I have a few of them, but I find I usually make a mess, forgetting it’s still wet and smudging, or the dots don’t look right. I prefer Nuvo drops – they hold their shape better, but this came out quite nicely I think:

I’ll let you into a secret – I had no idea what the colour indigo was – I thought it was a deep purple – but it appears to be a blue/purple hybrid – I did have to google it. I also googled which Copic colours were the best for colouring indigo – and then hubby showed me a new Indigo Blu stamp set just sitting there on our kitchen counter……….with their logo being – obviously – indigo blue……..doh!

The base card is a dark grey – makes a change to white I think, and frames the main layer.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Rainbow Card Challenge – Rainbow Holiday

Christmas with the Cuties – Cute Christmas Creatures

Colour Crazy Challenge – week 48 – anything goes colouring

Stamplorations CAS Challenge – CAS anything goes with option of red and brown (not taken)

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas (option quick and easy)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Hello yet again. Here is my card for the new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge – the theme is ‘Anything goes Christmas’:

I used the images from mama Elephant’s ‘Santa Baby‘, stamping, colouring and die cutting. I see I have used teal/aqua again – I must try and move away from those colours – but I do like them for Christmas cards…..

The four rectangles were ink blended – I used Distress Inks instead of Oxides – and used Twisted Citron and a blue…….I know – numpty here forgot that blue and yellow make green…….!!!!!!

Anyhoo – I like how the colours turned out, and when the images were added it made them stand out even more, I think….

The addition of some glitter, and some white acrylic splatters as well as some clear Nuvo glitter pen made the card feel very sparkly.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge – I look forward to seeing your creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cut It Up Challenge – Christmas with die cuts

Crafters Café Challenge – anything goes

Dies R Us Challenge – Christmas and die cuts

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

SPREAD THE MERRY LITTLE LOVE AND GRAB A BADGE!

Leafy Beautiful Day

Hello. I have a card to share today using a new die set with colours inspired by the current challenge at Color Throwdown:

This Altenew leaf die set has a lot of leaves – different patterns and I was tempted to try and use them all! However – I restrained myself……

I did die cut several of the leaves in the colours of the challenge, and decided to go with only a few of them.

The base card is using Lawn Fawn ‘Vanilla’ card-stock as the cream from the challenge, then I added some ‘wheat‘ card-stock from Concord & 9th for the ‘Kraft’ – die cut with a stitched rectangle.

I played a lot with my leaf die cuts, and glued some of the ‘wheat‘ coloured leaves to the background for a tone-on-tone look.

I die cut some ‘vanilla’ solid leaves, and added some ‘Cranberry’ dotted leaves on top, but the ‘Poppy‘ card-stock – such a rich red, a gorgeous true red – looked a little lost and washed-out when I put the two colours alongside each other. So – plan D ( I went through a few other thoughts) – was to not put a cream backing to the ‘Poppy‘ leaves – and had them just sitting there on the Kraft/Wheat background – I like how they stand out now.

The sentiment is from another Altenew stamp set, stamped in ‘Wheat‘ ink, and die cut with a stitched rectangle.

The ‘Poppy’ leaves are only stuck down at the bases, and the ‘Cranberry/Vanilla’ dotty leaves are stuck down with 3D foam pads – which meant they also held down the other leaves – but only at the bases, therefore creating a little movement.

Here is the colour scheme for the challenge:

As the card says – I wish you all a beautiful day……. xx

Rainy Day Hippos

Hello. I have a slimline card to share for the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge, and the new theme of ‘R’ for Rainbow:

I enjoyed making this card, though there are a lot of elements to it.

I began by stamping the hippo, duck and puddle images from Clearly Besotted, coloured with Copics, and used the matching die set to cut them out. I know this is an older stamp set, as Clearly Besotted don’t produce matching dies any more….

The base card is using Concord & 9th cardstock to match the colours of the Copics I used, and the white layer is scalloped circles from Pinkfresh Studio.

I thought the area behind each window was a little too plain, so I used a matching ink colour and an umbrella stencil from Clearly Besotted to create a muted background.

All stuck down as you see – and some matching little sequins added – they were just kinda sitting there on my craft desk – I think I have a thing for teal/aqua colours………

The sentiment is from the same stamp set – adding the ‘rainbow’ theme to the card, even though now picture of rainbows – I thought out of the box…!

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge with your ‘rainbow’ themed creations – I look forward to seeing what you create. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Polkadoodles Challenge – week 48 – anything goes

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes (colouring)

Aud Sentiments – anything goes with a sentiment

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with critters

A perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Snowman Time

Hi once again. A new challenge has begun at Cardz 4 Galz, and this time the theme is ‘It’s Snowman Time‘……

For this challenge I made some tags – out of my comfort zone but thought I’d give it another go:

I stamped and coloured the snowman from the Avery Elle stamp set, and used the two circle dies to cut them out, and added a red shiny card stock behind. I also decided to add another circle to make them bigger, so used a stitched circle from Sue Wilson.

The tag tops were die cut, and an eyelet inserted using my Crop-a-dile from We R Memory Keepers. Does anyone find that these eyelets sometimes get a little too squished? And you have to start again?

Anyhoo – I decided to stick this tag eyelet thingy behind the tag, so I die cut another white circle to put on the back to cover the ‘mess’ using a snowflake stamp to create the snowy background.

So – not a fan of making tags, but I think I’ll have to persevere and keep having a go…….

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘snowman’ themed makes – I hope to see you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Shopping Our Stash – snow

Christmas Craft Creations – Christmas and anything but a card

Creative Fingers Challenge – anything goes