Hello Friend – Mushrooms

Hi once again. I have used this sentiment quite a lot in the past few weeks. I obviously like it, but I can’t keep having the blog post with the same title, so I just added the theme. Here is the card I created:

I have had this stencil and die set from Pinkfresh Studio since attending one of their virtual crafting events. I haven’t completed that class yet, but I wanted to use the set when I saw the colours for the current Color Throwdown challenge.

I stencilled the mushrooms in red and blue inks from Pinkfresh Studio, then stencilled the leafy sprigs in a brown from Altenew. A little grey for the ground/sand stuff at the bottom.

I then used the matching die and played around – for quite a while – with the layout and design.

The final card has a light brown dry embossed background, using a Spellbinders embossing folder. I then die cut the glass dome from some vellum, played around a little more, and decided the brown leafy sprigs were best going behind the vellum. In that way, they aren’t disturbing my trio of mushrooms, and yet still create some background interest.

The sentiment strip was added to the vellum, and behind the solid elements of the mushrooms and sentiment I added glue to adhere the vellum to the light brown embossed panel.

The mushrooms needed something more, so I added some gold shiny dots:

And juts a little more bling with some blue sequins.

This card looks deceptively simple – and yet it took me while to get the ink blending, the layering, and the final composition to where I was happy.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, blue, brown, white

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Stencil Fun – stencils – option layering stencils taken

Inkspirational – emboss your background

A Rose Note

Hello once again. I’m dropping in with a card created for a couple of challenges:

My favourite flower is the rose – all colours. I have a couple of rose bushes in my garden which we transplanted last year, and they are just getting back into the swing of things.

One of them was bought for our silver wedding anniversary (quite a few years ago) and is already flowering well. The other was already in the garden when we came to live here. It’s taking it’s time adjusting to it’s new place in the garden, but it is just starting to bud. The roses usually come later in the summer, and have the most gorgeous scent…..I can hardly wait to smell them again.

This multi layered rose die is from Honey Bee Stamps. There are seven – yes seven – layers to the rose itself, and I also added some very small foam squares between a couple of the layers for even more dimension. I used a selection of concord & 9th card stock to get maybe 4 different tones of purple – it could be five – but I lost count.

For the Tic Tac Toe Challenge I went with the bottom row, so I made a black card base, and used a Pinkfresh Studio die to create the white panel, cutting the three inlaid pieces so allow some of the black base to show through.

I was going to adhere the rose directly onto the black card base, which is why you can see a slightly off-set white layer behind the rose, but I didn’t like that stark appearance so I added the die cut white panel.

The sentiment is white heat embossed and die cut with a matching die, and I added some shimmery purple enamel gems here and there around the rose.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – lots of layers

Tic Tac Toe Challenge – tic tac toe – bottom row – black card base, white heat embossing, roses

The Flower Challenge – your favourite flower – the rose

Friendly Hibiscus

Hello once again. I have been playing with a new die set from The Greetery:

The ‘Botanicuts Hibiscus’ is a layering die set, with three flowers, a bud, and some leaves. I die cut the layers with Concord & 9th card stock, to create this central design.

I added a previously foiled back panel, created using a Spellbinders foil plate, and added a foiled sentiment – a black strip so it would stand out.

I feel it’s quite a simple card, with many layering elements. I gave the flower petals some dimension by curling them slightly.

I also toyed with the idea of adding some shading to each of the flower petals and leaves with Copic markers, but decided to keep the colour of the card stock as it was for a cleaner finish.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – aqua, red, yellow

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – lots of layers

Allsorts – anything goes option birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

Sparkles Forum – no stamping

A Butterfly Paper Hug

A new challenge has started at The Alphabet Challenge. Having reached the letter ‘F’, Deborah has chosen the theme of ‘Flying – anything that flies’. Here is my card:

I chose a stamp, die, and stencil set from Concord & 9th to create this card. The background is stenciled in muted tones of some Altenew brown inks/grey inks to provide some interest without taking away from the main butterfly image.

The butterfly was die cut and assembled, and added with 3D foam, and some gold gems added to the wings in strategic places.

The sentiment id also from that same stamp/die/stencil combo, the banner layered with some gold. I had to do some partial die cutting to make the gold match the curve of the banner – I don’t like fussy cutting so I’d rather work out the partial die cutting. Some small gold gems added to this banner also.

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘anything that flies’ creations – so many options to choose from. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ellibelle’s Corner – something with wings

2 Craft Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Paper Dragonfly Creative – anything goes or summer creatures

Die Cutting Divas – die cuts and critters

Triple B – birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Happy Blooming Birthday

Hello there. I am the host for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz. I chose the theme of ‘use die cuts and/or punches‘. Here is my card:

And so continues my fascination with die cutting and layering – all that fiddlyness – I think I made a new word!

These tile dies are from Spellbinders, and I die cut a whole bunch of each – the diamond background, the floral elements, the gold stars – and assembled them before I even thought about how I was going to put them on a card base.

I decided to go a heart shape as I could use a lot of the tiles – even though you can see I had some left over.

The background is a dry embossed panel – using the deboss side – and matted onto a black rectangle to make it pop a little more.

The sentiment is a debossing sentiment, which I quite like the look of, especially in gold.

There was enough going on with this card so I didn’t even think about adding extra gems or enamel dots.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations following our theme – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Allsorts – anything goes option birthday

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Seize The Birthday – anything goes birthday

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of weddings not taken

Craft Rocket – use dies

Christmas Fireplace

A new challenge has started at ABC Christmas Challenge. Having reached the letters ‘L’ and ‘M’, we want to see your Christmas/Festive makes with ‘L for lots of layers‘ or ‘M for Mice’. Here is my card:

It is very obvious I went with the ‘lots of layers’ theme to create this card.

The background panel is dry embossed using a Simon Says Stamp embossing folder.

The main image and additions are all from Spellbinders. This is another card where I had to watch a YouTube video to see how everything came together, and from that video made the decisions for each colour.

I wanted the stockings hanging on the mantle to be a pop of colour, and added them with gold string through their loops, but didn’t glue them down, so they move around when the card is picked up.

The die cutting, layering and fiddly assembly mood seems to be staying with me……

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/festive creations following our two themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – Christmas anything goes

Inkspirational – seasonal

Peace On Earth – Christmas anything goes

Craft Rocket – use dies

12 Months Of Christmas – Christmas – option not taken

Merry and Bright Lantern

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started their next challenge. Our theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas/festive’. Here is my card:

The background panel is dry embossed using a very old We R Memory Keepers embossing folder, I then layered that with a gold panel – gutting the centre by die cutting the gold label die, to which I also added a white dry embossed layer.

The images and florals are all from Spellbinders, another mega die-cutting session, then layered together. I first adhered the lantern, then played with placement of all the images until I was happy, and adhered them with a mixture of 3d Foam and wet glue.

I then added some gold gems to the centre of the poinsettias, and a foiled sentiment.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/festive creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Inkspirational – seasonal

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Creative Inspiration – anything goes

Most Magical Time Of The Year – anything goes Christmas or Halloween

12 Months of Christmas – Christmas – option inspired by Christmas song not taken

Triple B – birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Hello Friend Tag

Hello. A slightly different direction from my usual makes. This time I have turned my hand to a tag……

I used the products from the most recent ‘Let’s Stamp Together’ from Scrapbook and Cards Today. This time round it was Spellbinders. Even though I haven’t done the actual class yet, I have been playing with the products.

The tag was created from a stencil and glitter paste onto some light green card stock, then die cut using an MFT tag die. After running it through the die cutting machine, the glitter paste was more debossed than embossed, which I thought was a different look.

The flower stem was die cut from a light brown card stock, the flowers were die cut, then stitched. Before I adhered the flowers, I die cut some leaves which came with the set and stitched them, but they didn’t match the leaves on the stem, so I die cut the stem again, and just snipped the leaves off to add to the brown branch.

I then added the flowers, some faceted gold gems for the centre of the flowers, then added this to the tag.

Some green sequins for even more interest and dimension, and a previously foiled sentiment.

The ribbon was added after punching and adding the eyelet. I don’t have pink or light green ribbon, so I used this dark green ribbon. I have a stash of this ‘wrinkled’ ribbon, I forget where from now, and think that the tattered edges and wrinkles make for an interesting addition.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cut It Up – die cuts and make a tag

Mix It Up – anything goes option embossing

The Crafty Addicts – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Hello Friend

A change in craftiness with this card – I wanted some messy crafting:

I started by creating the background panel. This is a Spellbinders stencil from a recent class, and I masked off the centre oval shape, then ink blended the two Distress Inks that you see. I added some brown around the edges for some darker contrast.

I then ink smooshed a couple of card panel – Distress Mixed Media Heavystock – with darker browns on one panel, and lighter browns on another. Once they were dry I used the Tim Holtz ‘Merry Moose‘ die, as I haven’t used him for quite a while. I wanted to enter a challenge where the theme was ‘deer’ – and then had to Google if a moose was a deer or something quite different – thankfully, a moose is part of the deer family – phew!

A simple white foiled sentiment to complete the card.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

FarmQuest – deer

Just Us Girls – hello

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Here Is A Place To Start – anything goes

Color Throwdown Pink, Mint, Grey

Hello there. I was lucky enough to be the winner for a recent challenge at The Color Throwdown, and as such invited to be a guest for an upcoming challenge.

As you can see, the colours this time round are Pink, Mint, and Grey. Here is my card:

The flowers and foliage were created using a couple of die sets from Concord & 9th, along with some of their card stock, and some card stock from Heffy Doodle.

A light grey for the branched of the main spray, with a slightly darker grey for the smaller sprigs.

I stuck the layers together on the main spray, then popped in some other florals here and there.

I added some gems to the centre of the flowers.

When I came to adhere to the card base – I couldn’t make it work. The arrangement seemed lost against the white, despite trying a couple of embossing folders. I was going to ink smoosh onto a background panel, but tried this dark grey card stock from Lawn Fawn – and this worked much better.

I dry embossed that dark grey panel with a Spellbinders embossing folder, adhered the floral spray with 3D foam – some very, very tiny bits in parts – and added some sequins. I’m not quite sure what colour the sequins are, but they do give off the pink and grey vibe……

As for the sentiment – it’s a recently foiled strip created when taking part in the Spellbinders Glimmer class a few weeks ago – and on grey card too…..

What a great colour combination for this week – I hope I get you see you in their gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Allsorts – use dies

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Craft Rocket – use dies

Daisy Chain – no designer paper

Crafting Happiness – anything goes