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Watercolour Poinsettia

Hello once again. I have a card to share for the new challenge beginning at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is anything goes as long as it’s Christmas related.

Here is my card:

I began by stamping and heat embossing in white the Thirsty Brush and Co ‘Sparkle to my world’ stamp set onto Arteza water-colour card. I used the rough side of the card as I like the look that gives with watercolour. I then used the Arteza Real Brush pens and a combination of several reds for the poinsettia itself, and several greens for the leaves.

I just played with the colours and the shading – not particularly taking any notice of light source – just playing and colouring, adding water, then taking some away – I do tend to add too much water sometimes – until I was happy with the result.

I did colour some of the stamped berries, but I didn’t like how they turned out, so I went into my Tonic Nuvo drop stash – I seem to have a lot of these drops – and found a colour that matched. I also found a lovely green – so I added that too.

For some reason, I just can’t stop adding these drops once I start:

I layered some red and green card and as I wanted to stamp the sentiment in black to make an impact, I used a black card base.

I hope you can come and join us, as I’d love to see what Christmas creations you can add to our gallery. The Design Team has some fabulous and varied inspiration for you xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – atg with option wet or dry embossing

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas with option of cute

Joy Of sets Tic Tac Toe – watercolour/embossing/floral

Happy Little Stampers watercolour challenge – watercolour with option of bling

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Rainbow Plushies

Hi there. I wasn’t going to post today, but I have been playing in my craft room – well, I went to tidy it up and found myself playing – and made this card for the current Facebook Challenge at CAS Facebook Lottery.

I haven’t entered this before, but the aim is to make a CAS card, with a theme set by the previous winner, who then chooses the winner of this challenge. The winner sends their card to the host and everyone else sends their card to the winner…………how fabulous is that?

The theme chosen this time is cats and/or dogs – more than one. I used the ‘Piled Up Plushies‘ from Clearly Besotted:

I seem to be in a Copic Rainbow Limbo…………..

The stamp set includes both cats and dogs, so I played with colours and blending, no plan to it, just went with it. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

So there we are, a last minute and unprepared creation – sometimes they are the most enjoyable, aren’t they? Especially when they turn out OK….

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday – atg cute

AAA Cards – CAS one third or less, option of hearts (not taken option)

Use Your Stuff – critters

Colour Crazy Challenge – atg colouring

Double Trouble Challenge – critters and again and again

Caroling Cats

Hello there. I have been having fun with my Copics the past few days, and have created a card for the new challenge which has just begun at ABC Christmas Challenge.

The letters this time are ‘C’ and ‘D’, and Wilma is hosting and chose the theme Cats and/or Dogs. Here is my card:

I began by using the Clearly Besotted ‘Sing It’s Christmas’ stamp set and stamping onto a piece of card. I then stamped the image again onto some masking paper and cut that out with scissors – no matching dies with this set – aren’t I brave?

Once I had masked the image of the cats and lamp-post, I created a circle mask, and used three blue toned Distress Oxides to blend a background.

I let that dry for a couple of hours, then coloured my images with Copics, and stamped the musical notes.

I realised that the Distress Oxides blurred the images a little at the end – probably I didn’t mask good enough – so I went in with a black artliner and expanded the lines a little, and made some of the others a little darker…now I look at it, you can;t really tell I did that – should I have kept that to myself? :)

I then decided to do some white gouache splattering……..uh huh…..at this stage I hear you ask…..

I masked the coloured images again, then splattered – and almost went too far with the larger drops, so I stopped, and took a white gel pen and added smaller ‘snow’ flecks instead. I was too nervous to continue with the larger splattering after all the colouring I had done…..

You can see the larger splatters, and then the smaller gel pen spots I added. I even went over the cats themselves to pretend they were in a blizzard – yet still singing……..

I’m really pleased how this turned out – no smudging on the white card – and I even found a piece of blue card as a base which matched pretty well.

I hope you can come and join us – I am soooo looking forward to seeing your Christmas creations which include cats and/or dogs. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Christmas Blog Challenge – Christmas and Little Friends

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option quick and easy

Catch The Bug – anything goes

Pink Gem Challenge – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

CAS one layer cards

Hello there. I have spent some time in my craft room today, getting to grips with my Copics again, and generally just playing around.

I struggle with CAS cards, and definitely struggle with one layer cards – but today I made two cards.

Both cards are made using Simon Says Stamp ‘Gnome For The Holidays’, using different images, yet the same sentiment.

I shall be entering the first card into the following challenges:

Water Cooler Challenge – occasions

Addicted to Stamps Challenge – CAS

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

Krafty Chicks Challenge – anything goes

I shall be entering the second card into the following challenges:

Perfectly CAS – CAS one layer card

Jingle Belles – Christmas and three of something (three berries)

Simply Less Is More – tiny and few

Stitched Blooms

Hello once again. I have been making a card today, to enter a few challenges – I love how challenges give me inspiration, and an actual reason to make cards. I like to have a plan – either the colours, or the layout, or the theme.

Here is my card:

I used the colours from the current Color Throwdown Challenge and die cut several flowers, leaves, and foliage from the MFT ‘Stitched Blooms’ die set, using Simon Says Stamp card stock received in a recent kit, and layering the flowers as you see.

The background is an Altenew stencil – really trying to use stencils more – called ‘Sunburst’, and I used a light grey – Pumice Stone – Distress Oxide to blend through onto the background piece of card.

I then took the flowers and layered them onto the card, placed the leaves and foliage as you see and added a grey and red strip to the far edge of the card.

I then turned to the extra circles which had been die-cut – the little circles which are meant to be the centre of the flowers – well I just used them as accents and placed them haphazardly around the flowers.

Oh – and then I took a Tonic Nuvo crystal drops in ‘Liquid Mercury‘ and added some of them too. The thing about these drops – I just can’t stop putting them on the card once I start…………!

I added them to the flower centres, to the extra circles, to the card itself. I had to restrain myself from adding even more…….

Now – I didn’t use a sentiment. Not yet anyway…. I sometimes leave cards without a sentiment, so I can add one at a later date. Occasionally I like to make cards just for the sake of it, after being inspired by challenges, and therefore I don’t always have a person or occasion in mind.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, dark grey, light grey, white

Tuesday Throwdown – layered die cuts

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Daring Cardmakers – layer it up

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Daring Cardmakers

Alphabet Challenge – Vegetables

Hello there. I am pleased to be hosting the new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge – and I chose the theme of ‘Vegetables’. I know, I know – quirky huh?

The Design Team has come up with some amazing inspiration – I do hope you can come and join us – I’d love to see your take on this theme.

Here is my card:

I used a stamp set from Heffy Doodle, stamped with Gina K amalgam ink, and coloured with Copics – which I haven’t done for a while.

Then I turned to the layout, and utilised a sketch challenge. To adhere to the sketch, I decided to use the ‘Welcome Wreath’ from W Plus 9 to create the six circles. First layer with a dark green ink, then thought the wreath needed more, so added a browny ink layer, and finally a lighter green layer.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, and I copic coloured the orange strips underneath the white strip, just to make it stand out more, and cut it to a jaunty angle – just like the carrots..

I hope you pop along to see what the Design Team have created – there are lovely inspiration cards over there – some quirky, some funny, and some just plain sweet. Here’s hoping to see your creations in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – all loved up

The Paper Players – sketch

Watercooler Challenges – occasions (Valentine)

Time Out Challenges – affectionate

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Using Kraft Card

Hi there. A new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz, and the theme this time is ‘use Kraft paper/card‘. Here is my card:

I used a newly purchased stencil from Funky Fossil called Leafy Tree, so I juts had to use some green Tonic Glacier Paste to showcase this delightful design.

It was stenciled straight onto the Kraft card – no warping – and left to dry overnight.

The sentiment is from Altenew, and also using one of their alphabet stamps for the ‘You‘ as I wanted this a little bigger. Embossed outline in white, then using the fill-in stamps in the alphabet set with a white ink pad.

I simple design, but it took a little planning with the paste, and leaving it to dry overnight, and that tree is quite large – the card base is 5 x 7 inches….

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More – CAS

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

The Sisterhood of Crafters – newly acquired stash (stencil)

Lemon Shortbread – atg

Shiny Red Christmas

Hi there. There is another challenge starting at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is – as always – anything goes Christmas. Here is my card:

A few more photos from different angles:

I enjoyed re-visiting my past style of cards with the Wonderfully White card last week, I decided to do another die-cut card for this challenge.

The base layers are from a new purchase for me from Card Making Magic – ‘A5 Ornate Rectangles’ die set, using quite a few of the the larger layers in white and a shiny red card.

The sentiment is from Time For Tea Designs, and the poinsettia and leaves are from Sue Wilson.

The smallest rectangle is embossed using a We R Memory Keepers Next Level embossing folder, for some added interest.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasions

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

Crafty Friends Challenge – anything goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas with option no sentiment

Heart Caught in Crystal

Hello once again. I have a card to share utilising a technique I haven;t tried for ages – years in fact. It is the ‘caught in crystal’ technique I first saw from Sue Wilson.

The current challenge at CASology made me think of that technique again – so I went hunting through my stash for products I could use. Here is one of the results:

I started with a piece of acetate and added some glue, smoothed it out a little, then added alcohol inks, mica powders, ink sprays – well, I added a whole load of stuff to the background, but tried to keep it a deep red/purple look, as I knew I wanted to use this Simon Says Stamp ‘Streaming heart’ die – a recent purchase.

I then added some pink tissue paper – I didn’t have any white, so used the pink. Once dry it looked like this on the tissue paper side:

And on the shiny acetate side it looked like this:

It’s very difficult to picture the shine and metallic look to this – but I promise there is some in there somewhere………..I chose which area of the acetate piece I wanted showing through the die-cut heart, cut out a square piece, and glued it down beneath the white heart piece.

The sentiment is from an Altenew set called ‘Wishing You’ – I wanted a short but sweet sentiment.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CASology – Crystal

As You Like It Challenge – anything goes

Mowing Along With The Times – all things new (heart die)

Crafters Cafe Blog Challenge – CAS

Stamplorations CAS January Challenge – CAS option metallic

Aud Sentiments – anything goes with a sentiment

The Crafter's Cafe Challenge Blog

Fusion Regal Beauty

Hello once again. I have a card to share today which I made over the weekend – a craftathon weekend for me:

The colours and layout are based on the current challenge at the Fusion Card Challenge:

The colours in the photo were greys and a touch of brown, so I used those colours to stamp the flowers from Altenew ‘Regal Beauty‘ and a combination of their grey and browns inks.

I used the sketch layout to arrange the flower and leaves to mimic the semi-circle, using a lot of the leaves and only one flower, once I had cut them out using the matching die set.

The sentiment is from Thirsty Brush and Co, heat embossed on white onto a grey piece of card, and the ends of the sentiment piece cut using the Heffy Doodle ‘More Strips of Ease‘ die set to create the banner look. I always seem to go wonky when I cut those banners free-hand, so this die set and those small triangles are just great for this.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Fusion Card Challenge – sketch and photo

Trimmies Craft Challenge – atg

Arty Divas Challenge – atg

A Perfect Time To Craft – atg

Dies R Us Challenge – birthday including dies