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U is for Underwater

Hello again. It is time for the next challenge at The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘U’ and Deborah has chosen the theme of:

U is for Underwater

Here is my card:

I used some die sets from Spellbinders to create this card. The ‘underwater tunnel’ dies were used, and card stock from my stash, including from Concord & 9th and Spellbinders, as well as some from Creative Expressions if I remember correctly.

Once I had decided which card stock, and where the apertures were to go, I then die cut the turtle, coral and anchor, layering as I went along.

The layers for the tunnel were glued onto an A2 card base, but the top lighter layer I added a very thin 3D foam for a little more dimension, and so I could slot the other die cuts in where I wanted.

The final touch were the clear gems, to represent some bubbles.

I hope you can come and join us with your underwater themed creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

2 Crafty Critters Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Crafty Calendar – add a die cut

Allsorts – close to nature

Give A Crafter A Cookie – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

Cardz 4 Galz – anything but square

Hello once again. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge. Helen is hosting this time, and she has chosen the theme of:

‘anything but square’

Here is my card:

I decided to go with an oval card suing nesting oval dies from Spellbinders. Using a basic A2 card base, I die cut a large oval – keeping the fold – for the actual card base.

I then used the large oval to create the brushed gold layer, then another for the white piece on top. This white piece I used an embossing folder on to create some added interest.

using even more of the nesting ovals I created a brushed gold oval frame, placed that on top of the white piece, and used that as a base shape to place all the images.

The blue roses are from Pinkfresh, one of their washi tape suites, die cut a couple of times to enable me to have plenty of flowers to play around with.

Once all the elements were attached – a mixture of glue and 3D foam pads – I added the gold sentiment and some gold gems dotted around and about.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations following our theme – anything but square. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Crafty Calendar – add a die cut

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Creative Inspiration – anything goes

Give A Crafter A Cookie – anything goes

Beautiful Blossoms – florals

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of monochrome

Season’s Greetings

Hello everyone. The Holly and Ivy Challenge is back with their first challenge of the year. There was quite a lot of blogger issues with our leader at the end of last year, and a few of us weren’t able to comment or even find where to add things. We apologise if your entry over the past couple of months wasn’t commented on – it was a nightmare for us all.

Here is my card for the first challenge of the year, with the theme being ‘anything goes Christmas‘:

I decided to try a different colour scheme, using more purple tones, with a little bit of pink.

The background is hot foiled using a Lawn Fawn plate – silver onto a dark blue panel, and adhered flat to the card base.

The ice skates are from Spellbinders, and die cut using different tones of purple, with matt silver for the blades, and black for the sole of the shoes.

The flowers and foliage were die cut and assembled, then all arranged onto the card base. Some silver sequins added for a little more shine – to the centre of the flower and some around the background.

I hope you can come and join us and start building your stash.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Dragonfly Dreams – use pinks and purples

Crafty Calendar – add a die cut

12 Months Of Christmas Link Up – anything goes Christmas – option polar bears not taken

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Roses Thank You

Hello once again everyone. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. Billie A is hosting, and she has chosen the theme of:

T is for Thank You

Here is my card:

The background roses are from a Waffle Flower Crafts stencil. A layering stencil. I used the stencil three times on an A2 card panel to create the three roses, just by rotating the stencil each time, and masking off the leaves where necessary.

I then used the stencil to add a few leaves, and found a little stamp with dots on to add more details in the open spaces.

I used my gold shimmery acrylic paint to add splatters. Once dry, I used a foil plate from Crafty Meraki which had a lot of hearts, and dry embossed using the silicone mat and my die cutting machine. You can see the subtle background hearts:

This panel was cut down and added to a dark green A2 panel leaving a small border around the edge, then the stamped and die cut sentiment was added.

I may have to use these background foil plates more often for an embossed look – if I can remember what sandwiches to use each time…

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge. I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

MAWTT – Thank You

2 Sisters on the Blog – anything goes

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Give A Crafter A Cookie – anything goes

Stencil Fun – stencils – option of hello/winter not taken

Using Stencils

Hello again. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge. I am hosting this time round, and have chosen the theme of:

Use Stencils

Here is my card:

I chose to keep this a fairly simple design, but I did do quite a bit of masking and changing colours on the same stencil layer.

There are three layers to this stencil set, and I wanted each of the flowers to be different colours.

Once the flowers were complete, I then used a small blending brush and some light brown ink and went round the edges of each of the compartments, hoping to create a muted and vintage look to each of the small backgrounds. I then used the same light brown ink to splatter, and also to stamp some of the Royal Mail detail. I think it is great that Waffle Flower Crafts recognises us over here – love that idea.

Once dry, this was then die cut using the postage collage die.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations using stencils. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers/florals

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option of hello/winter not taken

ABC Christmas Challenge

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you had a fabulous past few weeks. We are back at ABC Christmas Challenge at the beginning of the alphabet. We are having a little change in the amount of entries you can make to our challenge – it is now 5 entries maximum to make it fairer for the random prize winner.

Helen is hosting and we have the Christmas themes of:

A is for Anything Goes

B is for Buildings

Here are my cards:

My first card was created using some layering stencils from Spellbinders with Pinkfresh Studio Inks. This involved quite a bit of masking so I could add different colours to the same stencil layer, but I must have been in a fiddly and faffy mood because I enjoyed the process.

Once the image was ink blended, I then used the matching die to cut it out.

The background was created using white embossing paste from Altenew with a stencil from Brutus Monroe to create the white on white background. Once dry, the ink blended image was adhered with 3D foam.

I then used some gold shimmery acrylic paint to splatter across the whole card, and added some gems. The sentiment is also from Spellbinders and using their gold card stock.

For the second card with the houses, I went slimline. I die cut the house strip using glittery silver card stock and Time 4 Tea Designs slimline die. Some of the same glittery card stock was adhered to the card base, the blue layer added after die cutting with a Elizabeth Craft Designs ‘Dotted Background‘ slimline die so the glittery card stock would show through.

The blue card stock from my stash must be years old, and has some very. very fine texture of lines to it.

I hope you can come and join us and start your stash of cards ready for the end of the year.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Girls Creative Christmas – anything goes Christmas

Jingle Belle’s Rock – Christmas with something old and something new – old card stock and dies, new glittery card stock and Spellbinders stencils

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Merry Christmas – GDT 52CCT

Hello everyone. One of my previous creations was chosen as the winner for the November theme at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, and as such was invited to be a Guest design team Member for an upcoming challenge. The challenge starts today, and the theme is to create using a previous colour theme from 2024. All the previous themes are listed on the top of their blog page.

I chose to use the colours from June 2024:

Here is my card:

The background panel is a cover plate from Pinkfresh Studio called ‘Festive Grid’. I used a white A2 panel for this. The stars fall out of the cover plate, so behind them I used Pinkfresh Studio gold glitter card stock, then a thin 3D foam to adhere to a card base.

I then die cut the tree and stars. The tree is a freebie from ordering at The Greetery, and die cut using some Heffy Doodle card stock. As the little diamonds also fell out of the tree, I die cut it again using the gold glitter card stock and inlaid each of the little diamonds into the green tree. The star is also die cut form the same gold glitter card stock and adhered as you see.

The final touch was to add a gold foiled sentiment.

I hope you can come and join the team choosing a previous colour theme – there are certainly lots to choose from. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Mix It Up – anything goes with option of paper piecing

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

A Cut Above – anything goes with die cuts

12 Months Of Christmas Link Up – anything goes Christmas

Silent Night, Holy Night

Hello again everyone. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the final challenge of the year. We have reached the letter ‘S‘, and Melissa has chosen the theme of:

‘Silent Night’

Here is my card:

These houses were ink blended using a Simon Says Stamp stencil set called ‘Snowy Village’. There are 5 little stencils to create this scene, and I used all of them.

Pinkfresh inks were used for the houses and trees, gold paste for the windows, and Tim Holtz glitter paste for the snowy background. I obviously had to wait to allow the pastes to dry between those last two layers – patience is not one of my virtues when it comes to card making – but I managed…..

I stamped the sentiment – from an MFT stamp set – then layered that with a black panel.

The little village was die cut using a stitched rectangle die and again layered with black, and the next layer down was cut then dry embossed using one of my favourite embossing folders from Stampin’ Up.

I hope you can come and join us – I am looking forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Everybody Art Challenge – house/home

Tic Tac Toe – top right to bottom left diagonal – metallic – embossing (wet or dry) – die cuts

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Pinspirational – anything goes

12 Months Of Christmas Link-Up – anything goes Christmas

Here Is A Place To Start – anything goes with option Happy Holidays

Stencil Fun – stencil – option Winter/Christmas

Be Merry

The last challenge for the year has started at Cardz 4 Galz. The challenge finishes on 22nd December, and we will be having a break until the new challenge on 9th January.

Billie A is hosting this time round, and she has chosen the theme of ‘Christmas‘. Here is my card:

I cut a square of the Pinkfresh Studio gold glitter card stock the same size as the square card base. Before adhering, I die cut the square scalloped frame using a Pinkfresh Studio die set out of the centre – it would be hidden behind the white panel.

The white square was cut, then dry embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder. This white was layered onto the gold, then the gold frame adhered on top.

The baubles and foliage are washi tape from Pinkfresh Studio and arranged as you see, then the gold foiled sentiment from Lawn Fawn added.

I hope you can come and join us with your projects following our theme. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Double D – Christmas Ornaments

A perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Dragonfly Dreams – Christmas

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes with option of any winter holiday

Pinspirational – anything goes

Christmas Crafts All Year Round – bows, gifts, decorations

12 Months Of Christmas Link Up – anything goes Christmas

Season’s Greetings

Hello once again. ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the end of the alphabet for this year, and Marie is hosting. We have two themes for you to create your Christmas/festive creations with:

Y is for Your favourite colours

and

Z is for Zoo Animals

Here is my card:

Obviously, I chose to go with my favourite colours. I love the traditional red and green for Christmas, and having this purple back panel really made them pop.

This die set is from Concord & 9th, and it has been a really popular set – I can see why. I was lucky enough to get it the first time round, but it didn’t take me long to play with it.

I die cut the base layer from the dark purple card stock. On that layer are the dotted outline for suggestions of where to place your other elements – I kinda went a little rogue, as you can see, but the dotted areas you can see on the base add something I think.

This purple layer was added to a white card base, one I die cut with that base die to create the shaped card.

All the floral elements and the foliage were die cut, many more times than was actually needed, and I went to town with the placements. I only used the poinsettias and not the other flower that came with the set, and added them first – two larger flowers and two smaller flowers.

The foliage and leaves were die cut using several tones of green, and the mistletoe berries I kept white.

A little gold die cut for the centres of the poinsettias, and of course I added gold gems here and there: