Uncategorized

Surfing Dog….

Hi there. I’ve been struggling to get my crafty head on – after the Altenew day last weekend, working, and also having the builders in doing two bathrooms – it’s been a bit difficult to sit and craft. I just didn’t seem to have enough ideas – I played with stuff, but making a complete card escaped me for a few days.

I managed to start one yesterday, and completed an actual card this morning – in the middle of all the banging, and sanding – I sat there with my headphones on listening to some music to try and drown things out. (I may have been helped by Justin Timberlake and Neil Diamond………!) :)

Here is the card:

I first stamped, coloured, and then die cut several of the images from Simon says Stamp ‘Chillin’ Frenchies’. You can see which one I went for……….

The background took a little more thinking about…….

I used the Waffle Flower ‘Cloudscape’ panel die and cut it out of a light blue card-stock, then added a couple of colours of Distress Oxides to the edges, blending a little – but actually not much. Using a blue card-stock to begin with made that a little easier. You can see the original blue card in the gaps between the layer elements, which I separated, just to add more interest and dimension. I do like to play with die-cuts sometimes…..

The other background squares were cut using Sue Wilson ‘Noble Stitched Squares’.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Paper Players – watersports

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Life on the ocean waves

Animal Friends Challenge – feature a dog

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Simply …Hello….

Hi there everyone. I am so excited to be the Featured Stamper this week at Color Throwdown. The colours are white, black, gold, and pink:

Here is my card based on the above colours:

I started by stamping the Altenew flower with a range of pinks, then heat embossed the second layer of the leaves onto white card stock. Once these were die cut, I played around with the layout so much – different black parts, different gold parts, plain white, black and gold…..until I saw these die sets when hunting through my stash.

The black die-cut is from Avery Elle, and the white wood frames are from an infinity die set from Hero Arts.

The sentiment is from the same Avery Elle set – cut out of white card, double sided sticky tape on both sides, Altenew gold embossing powder added – and then stuck down.

I hope you can come and join us this week using these colours – I think they are so versatile………..I look forward to seeing what you create. :)

Let’s Celebrate

Hello there. It’s the 100th Challenge at Cardz4Galz, and we want you to come and join us in celebration. In fact – that’s the theme for this challenge – Celebrate.

We’d like to see any of your paper-craft creations which follows this theme. This is my rather colourful and sparkly card:

I used the Mama Elephant Birthday Bash stamp, coloured with a few Copics – some shading, but a fairly restricted colour-scheme. Well – for the actual stamp, anyway.

I used a Catherine Pooler ‘celebrate’ die, and cut it out of gold, then added a drop white shadow, then added a further drop black shadow.

The balloons were coloured with Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens, and then I went overboard creating the background.

I basically wet a piece of water-colour paper, painted on some sparkle pens, and washed it around. Then splattered the same colours. Once dry, I added some ink blending through a Tim Holt stencil to crate a very subtle sun-ray effect – very subtle…..I didn’t want to wipe any of the glitter away.

The edges were die-cut with a Catherine Pooler border die.

So – there we have it. A very bright and sparkly card for celebrating. I hope you can come and join us, and I hope to see you there. :)

I shall also be joining the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – make your own background

Crafty Sentiments – bright colours

Inkspirational – use 3 or 5 of something (three bunches balloons)

ABC Challenge ‘N’ and ‘O’

Hello there. It’s time for another challenge at the ABC Christmas Challenge. The themes for this challenge are ‘N’ for No Peeking’ or ‘O’ for Ornament.

Samantha is hosting and she has 8 prizes up for grabs as she is celebrating a ‘noughtie’ birthday………..you’ll have to check the challenge blog out to see which one (!!)

My card is ‘O’ for Ornament:

I used a digital stamp from Stamp On It and coloured with Copics. There was also some use of a white gel pen for highlights.

The image die cut with a Sue Wilson die set and the background card die cut with a Spellbinders die I have had for absolutely ages.

The card for the background was a lucky find in my stash – I was looking for a piece of card to emboss and perhaps add some details, but when I saw the colours of this card, and that it seemed to match the colours I used on my image – well – there we are. Bingo.

I hope you can come and join us this month, and I look forward to seeing your Christmas creations with ‘No Peeking’ and ‘Ornament’…….. :)

The Design Team have some amazing creations, so please go and visit them. :)

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes with colouring

Moo-mania – animals

Addicted to stamps – holiday

Cute’n’crafty Christmas – cute and Christmas

Enjoy this moment….

A quick post to share the card I have made for the photo inspiration from (Pin)spirational:

I have been thinking about the photo inspiration for quite a few days now, and was going along the sparkles and the word ‘love’ – but then I saw how beautiful the tree was in the corner of the photo – and remembered this stamp from Altenew – ‘Moments in Time‘.

I began by cutting a circle out of some masking paper, and using the cut-out to ink blend two distress oxide colours. I used the circle shape to kinda represent the ‘o’ in the word love…..

Once dry, I then stamped the tree, then the sentiment, in Altenew Obsidian ink. I didn’t smudge anything! I am so pleased with myself!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Pinspirational – photo inspiration

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Moving along with the times – CAS

{PIN}spirational Challenges

Clean and Simple Shapes

Hello again everyone. I have a card to share today which – even though looks quite simple – took ages to sort out the angles and design:

I did another card whilst I was at it, using the off-cut, and placing the sentiment in a slightly different place:

trying to show the colours:

I took one of the shapes from the Altenew ‘Simple Shapes XL‘ stamp set, and Catherine Pooler inks – because they give fabulous coverage on such a solid stamp – and just stamped a design. I then die-cut that piece of card, creating two triangles as you see.

It took me ages to try and get the correct shaped triangle for this card – I first die-cut the rectangle, then played with the final cut.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

AAA Cards – CAS one corner – option of flowers (obviously not using the option!)

Crafty Sentiments – anything goes

Moving Along With The Times – CAS

Aud Sentiments – anything goes with a sentiment

Alcohol ink and vellum peony

Hello again. After a couple of days at work, I’m looking forward to a few days off – and to the better weather promised us.

I have a card to share using inspiration – once again – from the Altenew 3D Floral Focus course by Therese Calvird. This time I swapped some of the layers around, using an alcohol ink background to die cut some layers, and using vellum:

I’ve so far missed the alcohol revolution – I have some inks, and some Yupo paper, but not yet got into the groove – until a couple of days ago. I played around with some colours, finding which ones I liked.

I created a few panels, and when I saw day 5 of the course, and then the colours for the current challenge at Color Throwdown – this card came together quite quickly……….in my head, anyway!

It actually took quite a bit of sorting – which layer would be the alcohol ink, which would be the vellum, how to arrange them, what to put the flower onto, what colour for the leaves……..well, I am sure you get the picture.

Anyhoo – using the Altenew 3D Peony Dream, I made the flower as you see. I used another blue base layer for the flower, slightly off-set, as I thought the vellum kinda got lost….

The white panel is using the Altenew water-colour stripes cover die, the leaves using a couple of shades of grey card-stock.

As Altenew currently have a discount on their courses – I’m off to have a look to see if there is anything else I want to do – even though I have a few I haven’t even started yet! And – this time next week I’ll be travelling down to Coventry ready for the Altenew UK show on the Saturday – can’t wait for that one!

Challenges I will be entering:

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge – sketch

Color Throwdown – blue, orange, grey

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Lil’ red Wagon – no occasion

White Wild Rose

I have another card to share today as I had a few left-over white roses die cut from Altenew ‘Wild Rose 3D die set‘, and took the opportunity to make a card inspired by the colours at Color Throwdown:

I die cut the flowers and leaves out of white card stock, with double-sided sticky tape of each layer, but inserting a mint coloured layer into the rose.

The background is the Altenew ‘Leaf Frame Cover Die‘ and cut out of a pink and a lavender card. I used the fall-outs of the pink, and jig-sawed into the lavender. I didn’t want too much dimension on the background, as the flowers and leaves were enough.

Another variation using the opposite ‘jig-saw’ pieces:

The colours to be used were pink, aqua, lavender, and mint……….which I thought looked quite muted and gentle, which is why I did the white flower and leaves.

I hope you’re having a good day, and I’ll see you again soon. :)

Rose Flurries Monochrome

Hello again. I am still creating as part of the Altenew 3D Floral Focus course, and this card is for Day 2 of that course:

Day 2 is about monochrome, and I feel even though the background die is quite complicated, the card itself has a clean and simple feel about it.

I first die-cut all the images from the Altenew 3D Rose Flurries out of white, then decided to cut a few more layers out of the light brown/kraft card and played around with the layers until I was happy. I did originally plan for three flowers, but I am pleased how this turned out with one flower.

I’ll just have to make another card – or two – with the remaining flowers!

I’ve also been trying Day three – using in-lay on the dies – but am really, really, struggling to get that right – I’ll keep at it – you may get to see an end result – but you may not!!!!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Daisy Chain Challenge – Monochrome

Peony Dream multi-colours

Hello there. My weekend didn’t go according to plan, so I have been at home – therefore time to craft. I am taking the Altenew 3D Floral Focus course, and have already created cards for the first couple of days. I am sharing a couple of cards I made based on the first day:

a different angle for each:

I used a Catherine Pooler stencil and some Cosmic Shimmer paste – one in a pearl white, and the other in gold for the background. I have had these pastes for absolutely years – and they still looked brand new and juicy in the pots.

The flowers are die cut using the Altenew 3D Peony Dream die-set, in a variety of different colours. I played around with the images and layers until I was happy with the colour combination, added some of the leaves from the same set, and even added some Tim Holtz leaf die-cuts too.

I must say – I would never have put these colours together – not in a month of Sunday crafting days (!!) – but I think they work.

Thank you so much to Altenew and Therese Calvird for the inspiration – and it’s Day One!!!!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Creations Challenge – anything goes

Aud Sentiments Challenge – anything goes with a sentiment

A Perfect Time To Craft = anything goes

Altenew June Challenge – photo inspiration

Simply Create too – anything goes with option lots of flowers