You Really Are The Sweetest…

Hello there. I have a ‘berry’ sweet card to share today – pun intended:

See what I mean?

I used the Clearly Besotted ‘Pick a Plushie‘ stamp set and – obviously- the strawberry. Once stamped with Gina K amalgam ink and coloured with Copics – I then had to fussy-cut them out……I know – not usually my thing, but these were quite easy.

I then used some white gel pen for details and turned to the sketch layout, using three die cut squares which were left over when I die-cut the Heffy Doodle ‘Stitched Slimline Trio die’ a few cards ago – I always keep these little squares or circles for future uses – but sometimes I forget I have them! These were still on my craft desk and just begging to be used.

The inner small squares were cut using a Stampin Up ‘Stitched Squares’ die set – a staple in my craft drawer and used frequently.

The sentiment is from the same Clearly Besotted stamp set and stamped directly onto the card base.

I am continuing to make cards for non-specific reasons and just sending them to friends as a little encouragement and contact.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Fusion Card Challenge – sketch and/or photo – photo inspiration of the berries

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

Arty Divas Challenge – anything goes

Inkspirational – word prompt ‘Face‘ – my strawberries have faces :)

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Curvy Girl with Diamond

Hello once again. I have a card to share today as a new challenge has started at The Alphabet Challenge – this time we have the letter ‘J‘ and we want to see ‘Jewels or Jewelry’. Here is my card:

This curvy girl is from Stamping Bella, stamped with Gina K amalgam ink then coloured with Copics.

Once die cut, I turned to plan my layers and colours for the card, raiding my stash of coloured card to find some that would match the dress – I didn’t think of that before I coloured her – and cut the layers as you see.

I thought it needed a little more bling/jewels, so I used some blingy purple tear-drop thingies……….no clue where I got them from but the colour seemed to match to dress…….and also found some Nuvo drops that matched too, but I restrained myself with those and only added eight drops….. :)

There is a lot of shiny jewels and jewelry from the design Team, such a joy to see. I hope you can come and join us – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments – anything goes with a sentiment

Crafty Calendar Challenge – anything goes

QKR Stampede – anything goes

Dragonfly Dreams Challenge – anything goes

QKR
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Monochrome Magnolia

Hi there. A new challenge is beginning at Cardz 4 Galz, and this time we want to see your MONOCHROME creations.

Here is my card:

I began by stamping the outline of the Altenew ‘Build-a-flower Magnolia’ in Concord & 9th grey ‘Dove‘ ink from the mini cube set, and the second layer, missing out the base and more detailed layer as I wanted some white within the grey. Once they were die-cut, I played with the layout on a piece of black card embossed with a Crafters Companion 3D embossing folder until I came up with the placement you see.

Sentiment-wise – this is from Heffy Doodle – a vertical sentiment for a ‘just because’ reason. I am missing so many of my friends that I’m going to keep sending out little snippets like this – so they don’t forget me!

As if!!!!

I hope you can come and join us this time round – the Design Team has a whole variation of monochrome creations waiting to view – hope to see you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

Crafters Cafe – Anything goes

All Fun Challenges – anything goes

A perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Mix It Up Challenge – anything goes with option of embossing

Die Cut Divas – flowers including die cuts

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A White Daisy

Hi there. I hope you are all well. I was lucky to obtain the new ink cubes and card stock from Concord & 9th when it was first released over here in the UK.

This card features just the card stock – all die cutting – mixing the three Concord & 9th ‘Fresh Cut Florals‘ die sets for several challenges:

A close friend of mine has a birthday on 11th August, so this card was made withe her in mind. I knew I could go a little more dimensional as I could take it to her so I wasn’t worried about giving the daisy a little bit of dimension and life – whilst still keeping the look CAS.

She has been shielding since March, so I haven’t seen her – though we have kept in contact. Her family has been doing the shopping etc. It’s only recently that people who have been shielding have been ‘let out’ of the house. I’ll be picking up some real flowers and maybe a little treat as well.

After die-cutting the three sets a dies a few times in the blue, white, marmalade and red pieces of card, I then played with the colours of each element. I knew the white daisy was going to take centre stage, but the other elements were moved and changed around until I had the layout you see above.

I have some huge white daisy in our garden which were also an inspiration:

I didn’t ink the leaves of the daisy – just clean lines and colours. I looked for a sentiment – and I have a lot of them – but in the end I decided to put the sentiment on the inside to keep the outside kinda ‘pure’.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, coral, blue, white

Watercooler Challenge – atg with feminine twist

Simply Less Is More – CAS Summer Flowers

Give a Crafter a Cookie – photo Inspiration (white flowers)

Clean and Simple On Sunday – CAS Nature

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P, Q and R Christmas

Hellooooo. There is a new challenge beginning at ABC Christmas Challenge. We have reached P, Q and R – and we want to see your Christmas makes with Pine Trees, Quiet, and/or Robins.

I went with all three:

Pine Trees

This first card is using the Clearly Besotted ‘Scene It Around 2‘ stamp set, and coloured with Copics.

Quiet

Santa and the sleeping cat – shhhh – is from Gerda Steiner Designs, again coloured with Copics. I’m owned by two cats actually, and until hubby and I have finished our travels and working less – then it will continue to be cats – they are so much more independent – and don’t need walking in bad weather!

Robins

These cute little Robins are from Clearly Besotted – stamped the layers, adding glitter to the white on the hats, and added to a stenciled background.

I am looking forward to seeing what you create with these topics for a Christmas make – hope to see you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Scene card:

PolkaDoodles Challenge – week 31 – atg colouring

Pink Gem Challenge – atg colouring

12 Months Of Christmas Challenge – Christmas with option shimmer and shine

Santa and Cat:

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics – Santa

As You Like It Challenge – Favourite Dogs or Cats – and why

Christmas with the Cuties – cute Christmas Animals

Di’s Digi Designs – Cute and Cuddly Animals

Rockin’ Robins:

Christmas Blog Challenge – Christmas and Square card

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option reindeer (not taken)

Crafty Animals – anything goes with animals

Stamping on Kraft

Hi everyone. A new challenge has begun at Cardz 4 Galz, and this we want to see you stamping on Kraft………

I did another card recently where I enjoyed creating my own background whilst stamping on kraft – I got my DT cards and themes kinda mixed up!

So for this challenge I went retro:

Very simple – but I think very effective. This is a stamp from Picture This/Creative Endeavours and once again ‘found’ whilst putting items into the Color My Life app. It’s called ‘Terry and June‘ – which also brings to mind an old UK sit com.

This stamp set also brought back memories of the early 1980’s – hubby and I were often off on his motorbike – sometimes camping at rallys with lots of other bikers, and sometimes off on our own just travelling the roads.

He has had loads of motorbikes over the years – and still has some – but my days of doing that are over – I like my creature comforts too much!

I must say, when I showed him the card he wasn’t very pleased – we were the rockers – completely opposite to the scooter gang! You know the ones I mean – we had long hair, scruffy leather jackets with denim cut-outs on them – head-bangers we were called because of the way we ‘danced‘.

Anyhoo – I love this image – bringing back memories of biking and camping with such joie de vivre……

I hope you can come and join us in this challenge, I’d love to see you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafting Happiness Challenge – anything goes

CAS on Sunday – CAS summer

Christmas Spirits….

Hello once again. I hope you are keeping safe. I have a CAS card to share today:

I took a square base card and stamped some images from a newly purchased Clearly Besotted stamp set ‘ Drink and Be Merry’ in Gina K Amalgam ink, then very simply coloured with Copics.

The berries are one of the gold’s from my Gansai Tambi set – and those little berries are exactly that – little!

The sentiment is from the same stamp set – and there are loads of sentiments with this actually quite small set – you certainly get a lot for your money.

I have a confession to make – this is my second attempt! The first did go in the bin – I couldn’t save it……………I took ages creating a mask for the glasses on the original card, then used a circle stencil and Distress Oxide Speckled Egg as a background – it looked absolutely horrendous!

Really – I mean horrendous! It was only because the Speckled Egg is a greyish-blue, and covered some of the black lines up – my fussy-cutting isn’t the best in the world – so I drew over them in black pen – went squiggly without even touching a drop of alcohol……..I still thought I could save it – coloured the images, stamped the sentiment……nope! Binned.

The version you see here is much better and I feel a whole load happier. I keep trying new things – but sometimes going back to what you know is better. I’m not having a very patient day………………..warn hubby now!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – blue, green, peach, metallic gold

Aud Sentiments – Christmas in July with a sentiment

Simply Less Is More – CAS one layer Christmas

Christmas Blog Challenge – Christmas and a square card

christmasblog

White on White Christmas Foliage

Hi there, After a few days making cards for my DT posts for the next few weeks, I decided to make a card to enter some challenges. A few caught my eye. Here is my card:

I really am a fan or white on white cards, especially for Christmas. For this card, I hunted out a lot of my oldie but goodie Sue Wilson dies – some dating back to 2014 – I am never, ever getting rid of these dies – my ‘go-to’ when it comes to die cutting and Christmas in particular.

I have found with white on white cards, that leaving some of the elements to – well – hang around creates some shadow and dimension. For instance – I don’t glue every single branch and leaf down – I just glue the stem, or a leaf or two, and let the rest wriggle around there. This creates movement when the card is handled by the recipient, too.

The Gemini Junior went through a work-out for this card – all that die cutting! I have also bought some new plates so it cuts better – not warped currently – and I have even followed Jennifer McGuire when she taped some of the plates together to try and prevent warping……you can check the video out HERE.

Now, she does state several times that she is defying the rules – but hey – anything which gives me a chance of reducing the warping on my plates – then I’ll try it.

You can see each element I have die cut and how they are arranged, adding a little pearl to the middle of the poinsettia – even the pearl is a white one!

All this die-cutting takes me back to when I first started crafting – rather card making. Lots of die-cutting, very little stamping…..purely because I couldn’t stamp correctly, the images where never clear and solid.

We all know the arrival of the Misti stamping tool was revolutionary – it was for me anyway. From there onwards my whole way of crafting changed – I even took to trying some colouring…….!

So – this card brought back happy memories of years gone by, and made me realise how my card making has changed – I feel I am so much more versatile now – I will try a lot more techniques – some you win, some you lose – but hey – as long as we are having fun, right?

Anyhoo, I digress – I seem to be in a chatty mood – somebody better warn my hubby……………….. :)

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Christmas 24 Challenge – Christmas Foliage

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics – anything goes festive

52CCT – Christmas and all white (you can have black for the sentiment)

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas – option to use red (not taken)

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Die Cut Divas – Christmas and die cuts

Sending Sunshine and Smiles…

Hi there. I have a card to share to day using some of the new release stamp sets from Clearly Besotted:

I stamped the floral scene twice along the bottom of a piece of Make It Colour Blending Card, and stamped the cute little plushie with the flower onto another piece.

I coloured the images using Copics – very simple, very little shading, then added some gold gel dots to some of the flowers – I tried to catch that in the bottom photo – and some darker dots on the other flowers.

The plushie image die–cut with two nesting circle dies as you see, and the sentiment from the same plushie stamp set attached.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – Aqua, Teal/Turquoise, grey, metallic gold

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

Fusion Card Challenge – sketch +/- photo inspiration

Krafty Chicks – use a stamp

Fab’n’Funky Challenge – cute critters

Colour Layering Trimmings

Hello everyone. I am pleased and excited to announce that here is the first post as fully-fledged Design team member at ABC Christmas Challenge.

The current challenge is the start of the New Year, and the start of the alphabet. Goodness – there are some amazing themes coming up – I hope you can play along. I have discovered an amazing and friendly team, I have learnt how to use blogger – a little, anyway – and I’ve discovered that I’m going to be making Christmas cards all year long. All. Year. Long.

All those will be posted here, and will all be posted on Instagram. Please say hello when you see our cards.

The first challenge is ‘A’ and ‘B’, of course. The theme being anything goes, and/or berries. Now, I hunted everywhere for berry stamps or dies, and couldn’t find anything with berries that I really wanted to use. What I did find, was this unused, yet been with me for ages, Hero Arts Colour Layering Trimmings stamp and dies.

Here is the card – anything goes (Christmas):

I stamped the layers of the leaves on a white piece of card, then added to a green and white card base – then stamped some more, die cut them, and added to the edge for dimension.

I wanted to give the impression of a Christmas Tree hanging over the edge of the card.

I hope you are able to come and join the fun, and I look forward to seeing your makes – and I even get to comment officially now – yay!

I shall also be entering this card into the following challenges:

AAA cards – three of something – (three added branches)

Clean and Simple on Friday – CAS Christmas card

The Alphabet Challenge blog – ‘T’ for Trees