Mistletoe Christmas

Hello – it’s time for The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge to start a new challenge. The theme is – as always – anything goes Christmas. Here is my card:


I used the layers of the Taylored Expressions stencil and Distress inks, trying a different colour combination. For the holly berries, I didn’t use the stencil, but some glittery drops where the stencil would have put them.

The tag is die cut using a Simon Says Stamp gift tag die and then stamped a mistletoe outline stamp to cover the tag. I added the sentiment then placed it all together as you see – and even managed to place the hole in the tag over a red berry – bonus!

I hope you can come and join us and make a start on your Christmas stash. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Catz Weekly Challengeanything goes – option not a square

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge anything goes Christmas

Watercooler Challenge occasions

Addicted To Stamps Christmas

Creative Fingers Challenge – anything goes

Crafty Catz Challenge Blog Badge
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Butterfly Thanks

Hello, I have a card to share which turned out looking quite simple – but took lots of die-cutting, snipping, and many a change of mind.

I want to make more ‘thank you’ cards for my friends who have been there for me over the past couple of weeks after my mum passed away – and if I can continue to craft to help get through this and create my own little way of saying how much I appreciate them – then all the better.

I used the colours from the Color Throwdown challenge to create this, and I knew I wanted to use this die from Memory Box – the problem was – which colour for which layer…….?

I actually die cut out of all four colours for the challenge – pink, red, cranberry, Kraft – and finally – yes finally – decided on the way you see here.

On a white card base I adhered the Kraft piece, onto which I adhered the die cut using Concord & 9th ‘Ballet Slippers’ for the pink.

The inset ‘cranberry’ butterflies were die cut out of a dark red glitter card from Crafters Companion and paper-pieced into place – to leave the pink outline round them.

The red ‘Poppy’ card stock butterflies were snipped off from the whole piece I had die cut and stuck down onto their respective position, which was on top of the pink card stock already there.

The sentiment is from Time For Tea Designs – the bold ‘thanks’ word stamped with ‘Poppy’ and ‘Cranberry‘ Concord & 9th inks to match the card stock – creating an ombre effect on the word, with the smaller words stamped in black. This sentiment stamp set comes with matching dies – always a bonus.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, pink, Kraft, cranberry

Creative Knockouts lots of layers

The Card Concept photo inspiration

TTCRD anything goes

As You Like It Challengetrue love or fabulous friendship

Just Us GirlsFriends

Creative Knockouts
GRAB OUR BADGE

Have a Beary Good Day…..

Hello once again. Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge has started their challenge for February. The theme this month is ‘inky’ – in a CAS style. Here is my card:

I knew I wanted to create an ink smooshed background – but how to keep it CAS? I decided to use two colours of Distress Inks, and smooshed them onto my craft met. I took a piece of water-colour card, added some water to one corner of it, and dropped in the two colours – drying between each colour. One of the layers must have been slightly wet still, so it created an almost orange or peach colour where they blended – which I quite like.

I then splattered those same two colours onto the piece of card.

Whilst that was drying, I stamped the images from the Time For Tea Designs stamp set, and coloured them with Copics, trying to find colours which were very similar – and throwing in a green one there for a different pop of colour.

After stamping the sentiment, I die cut them with the matching dies, and then decided which part of the inky background I wanted to use, and where, to keep things CAS.

I used a Catherine Pooler die set which I’ve had for ages, and cut the panel quite a bit smaller, then added the bear – some of him off the panel using foam pads, and some directly onto the panel with glue – the same with the sentiment.

The last thing to do was add some white gel pen for detail – which I tend to go over-board with but I believe I restrained myself here. I hope you can come and join us with your CAS ‘Inky’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Colour Crazy Challenge – week 4 – anything goes with colouring

Cutie Pie Challenge CAS and a cute image

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge
The Cutie Pie Challenge Blog

Happy Everything…..

Hello – some fabulous crafty time this past couple of days. I have created a card for a few challenges:

I’ve been playing with some layering stencils recently, and this stencil from Pinkfresh Studio caught my eye as I loved the tumbling leaves, and that the flowers you create are all cut individually using the matching die, so you can out them wherever you want to.

The stencil is slimline size – as is the die and stamp set. Once I had stamped the outline, I used the colours from the current challenge at Color Throwdown to create some pink tumbling leaves at the top, but used green for the leaves around each of the flowers. The Altenew ink sets are perfect for layering colours.

Once I had die cut them, I just played around with placement, making sure I left space at the bottom for the sentiment.

The background stencil piece is from my stash – a previous crafty playtime using an Altenew stencil and a gold shimmer paste. I still have a few pieces left from creating that day so you will be seeing that in the future.

The sentiment is from Time For Tea Designs, which comes with matching dies. The word ‘Happy’ was stamped using a pink and purple Distress Oxide, and multiple stamping to create a two-tone word.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

QKR Stampede anything goes

Color Throwdown Challengepink, purple, green

Addicted To Stamps Make Your Mark

Crafty Catz anything goes – option flowers

Time Out Challenge inspired by the quote –

Mix It Up Challenge – anything goes – option foiling (option not taken)

QKR
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V is for Vehicle

Hello there. I have a card to share for the new challenge which has begun as The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘V’ and Deborah has chosen the theme of ‘Vehicle’.

This whole card is completely outside of my comfort zone and involved a lot of die cutting and gluing – some very fiddly parts to this die set – and yet I quite enjoyed it.

I wanted to use the die set from Elizabeth Craft Designs, but I didn’t want to create a Christmas themed card, so you can see I changed it a little…….well, quite a lot actually.

I wanted the train to be shiny, so I used some ‘new to me’ mirror card from The Paper Boutique. This was shown is a Facebook live by Sir Stampalot here in the UK – and I immediately went and ordered it.

There are a lot of little pieces to put together, and I didn’t know which colour I wanted to go where on the train, so I die cut everything out of the two colours of card stock – so technically I have enough to make another train.

I added some stickles to the holes on the engine, and some vellum behind the window on the cab. Using tweezers was certainly very, very helpful – and glue which dries clear…..

I used a blue slimline card base, ink blended some clouds on the background – very subtle – then added some grass and rolling hills.

The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn.

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘vehicle’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenge – occasions

Aud Sentiments Challengeanything goes with a sentiment

Lil Patch of Crafty Friendsanything goes

Corrosive Challengeanything goes

Challenge Badge
The Corrosive Challenge Blog!!

Cardz 4 Galz – Make It Sparkle

Hello once again. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge, and Dawn has chosen the theme of ‘Make It Sparkle’. Here is my glittery card:

I used a few sparkly glittery papers to create this card. The background leaves has glitter on it, and so does the main flower image – probably best seen in my second photo.

The sentiment is a die from Simon Says Stamp, and die cut several time, including the top layer out of a matching paper, and stacked and glued as you see.

The whole card has quite a lot of glitter on the images – so very sparkly.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge anything goes with patterned paper

Creatalicious Challenge – anything goes (option winter not taken)

Aud Sentiments Challenge anything goes with a sentiment

Creative Fingers Challengeanything goes

A new challenge every Saturday

Santa Merry Christmas

Hello. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas‘. Here is my card:

On a white card base I added some patterned paper – still going to try and use more patterned paper in my makes – and then topped that with a white piece which had been embossed with a Simon Says Stamp 3D embossing folder.

I looked at my Christmas ephemera – another stash of craft items I want to use more of – and found this cute and layered Santa, which I added as you see.

The sentiment is also a layered ephemera piece, but it had been layered wonky – so I removed that piece of foam and glued the layers directly together, and added to the bottom of the card.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge anything goes Christmas

Crafting Happiness challenge anything goes

Watercooler Challengeoccasions

My Time To Craft Christmas – Christmas and something beginning with ‘S’

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My Time To Craft Christmas!

Simple Heat Embossed Vase

Hello. A very quick and ‘escapism’ playtime yesterday created this card:

I tried to capture the thickness of the embossing here – heat embossing with a Wow! powder which has a lot of depth to it – sometimes you just need something more……

Using a couple of images from the Altenew stamp set, then heat embossing, then die cutting, created the two main elements – the vase and the flower/leaf stem.

The background is a cream card stock – textured on the actual card base, then smooth side for the added layer, die cut with a stitched rectangle.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, and stamped using a red Distress Oxide.

I’m going to be needing some ‘thank you’ cards soon and thought I’d get to creating when I can…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdownred, cream, gold

Cut It Up Challengeanything goes with a die cut

Perfectly Clean and Simple flowers, using one third or less

Grab My Button

Buttercup Thank You

Hello. I’ve been getting messy in the craft room and creating some inky backgrounds. I do like to spend a few hours creating them and I always use them, whether for die cutting, or just for the background itself.

Here is my card:

The blue background is using a stencil with Altenew embossing paste coloured with blue – this piece was in my stash from a previous play time.

On several pieces of Distress Heavy White card stock, I played with a yellow Distress Mica Spray, ink smooshing with yellow Distress Inks, and also green Distress inks – I may have used some Distress Oxides too – especially with the green.

Once these were dry – and I tend to wait until the following day – I used the Altenew Buttercup layering die set and die cut lots of layers for the flowers and die cut many leaves.

I put all the flower layers together, with a grey layer as the bottom layer, then arranged them with the leaves as you see.

The sentiment is from the same die set, the words die cut three times, stacked together, and added to the white outline layer.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenge feminine

Color Throwdown blue, grey, yellow, green

The Sisterhood of Crafters use blue (heart background)

We Love To Create anything goes mixed media (sprays, smooshing, embossing paste, die cutting, stencilling)

Die Cut Divas dies cuts and flowers

We Love to Create mixed media Challenge Blog...sponsored by Polkadoodles
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‘U’ for Unequal – small and big

Hello once again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. Having reached the letter ‘U’, Billie has chosen the theme of ‘Unequal’. Think big and small – animals, flowers, buildings etc. Here is my card:

I used some Lawn Fawn patterned paper, and an Altenew debossing cover plater behind a Hero Arts infinity frame. The stamped images from MFT stamps were coloured with Copics, then die cut with their matching dies.

I placed them in the frame, but tried to make it look like they were almost sitting on the base of the frame.

The sentiment was chosen to express my thanks to a very dear friend……

I hope you can come and join us in our theme this time round – I look forward to seeing your creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Passion for Markers – markers and dots

Colour Crazy Challenge – week 1 – anything goes colouring

2 Crafty Critter Crazies anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals Challenge anything goes with an animal

Cards Galore Encore – anything goes