Snow & Wreath

Hello everyone. I have a card to share that I have been procrastinating over for the past few days. I finally managed to decide on how I wanted the wreath to look:

The starting point for my card was the top row of the current challenge at Tic Tac Toe – wreath – foliage/leaves – stencil.

The background is using a Simon Hurley stencil received from a recent virtual event, and also using his Unicorn Horn Lunar Paste. Whilst this panel was drying, I searched through the CML app for foliage, branches, leaves, poinsettia and holly, and picked out three or four of the Spellbinders die sets I have.

I used a few shades of green for the foliage, a brown for the branch dies, red for the poinsettia layers, and I used silver glitter card for the holly leaves. Once all die cut, and the back panel was dry, I created a circle frame using some nesting circle dies and stuck that down, so I had something to follow when arranging all the elemnts.

The branches and leaves were glued down – just the tips so there was movement and dimension, then the poinsettias attached with a little circle of 3D foam, the holly leaves added lastly.

Silver gems were glued to the centre of the flowers, then the silver foiled sentiment from Lawn Fawn – stacked a couple of times – was glued down to the bottom of the card.

Lots of glitter and shine on this card, and I’m so pleased I actually managed to finish it…

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Tic Tac Toe – top row – wreath – foliage/leaves – stencil

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts

A Cut Above – anything goes with die cuts

12 Months of Christmas Link-up – anything goes Christmas – option of snowfall taken

Crafters Café – anything goes – option of Christmas taken

Making Spirits Bright

Hello everyone. The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge – anything goes Christmas. Here is my card:

There’s a lot of glitter and shine with this card, and I’ll try and show you on the following pictures.

To begin, I started with the Pinkfresh Studio ‘Whispers of Poinsettia’ die and stencil set. I started by using the stencil and ink blended all the layers with different coloured inks, then used the matching die to cut it out.

To add more drama, I used a black panel and cut to an A2 card base size, then used another Pinkfresh die set to cut the frame out of black, and used an embossing folder for the cut out portion of the frame. The poinsettia panel was also die cut with the larger of the frame dies, placed behind the frame, the black embossed panel added behind, and then I added some splatters that with some gold shimmery acrylic paint from Liquitex.

When I say ‘some’ splatters – I kinda went to town with it….

A gold glitter card stock panel was cut, and all the layers added with wet glue.

I added a foiled sentiment and them some ombre glitter gems for the centre of the flowers.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Inkspirational – seasonal

A Cut Above – anything goes with a die cut

We Love 2 Create – anything goes mixed media

12 Months of Christmas Link-up – anything goes Christmas, option of snowfall not taken

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

Creative Artiste Mixed Media – anything goes mixed media

Crafters Café – anything goes – option of Christmas taken

N is for Night

Hello everyone. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. We have reached the letter ‘N’, and Pamela has chosen the theme of:

‘N is for Night‘ with some ideas such as clouds, moon, sleeping image, stars etc

Here is my card:

I decided to break out my Copics to colours this scene – I’ve not used them in a while.

The images is from Clearly Besotted, stamped with alcohol friendly black ink. I use Gina K Designs Amalgam for this.

I then used a range of tones for the colouring of the image, before stamping again and fussy-cutting around the sky line – yes – me – fussy-cutting!! – to create a mask. This mask was placed over the image and another small circle of the masking paper created for the moon.

I used some Distress Oxides and ink blended the sky, darker at the top edge. The moon mask moved during one of my swiping of the blending brushes, and some of the ink got into the moon area – but that was certainly a happy accident as it made the moon look more realistic….

Once ink blended and the masks removed, I used a heat tool to dry completely ( so I thought) and used the star detail stamp and used a white sparkle embossing powder……another happy accident was that I hadn’t actually full dried the moon area, so some sparkle landed on there – again, I liked the look of that so left it as it was.

I created a rectangle frame using a couple of dies, one with a stitching detail, then glued the coloured image and the frame to a white crad base.

The sentiment was stamped as you see.

So – a card with a couple of minor hiccups – but all came out good in the end….

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Crafters Café – anything goes – option of Christmas not taken

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

ABC Christmas Challenge – Uncluttered and/or Vertical

Hello once again. ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘U’ and ‘V’. We have the Christmas themes of:

‘U is for Uncluttered’ & ‘V is for Vertical’

Here are my cards

For the first card, I used the ‘Sketched Poinsettia‘ from The Greetery again, and gold heat embossed the image onto some Kraft card stock, using just the one layer of the layering stencils to colour it in. I wanted a softer overall feel to this card. The panel was cut slightly smaller than A2 and attached to a white card base, with the foiled sentiment attached as you see.

The second card took a little more time and planning.

To cover the vertical aspect of the challenge, I used a slimline card base. Onto that I used a Heffy Doodle slimline die set to create the blue layer, then the white layer with three windows. Each of the windows cut out a scalloped square and all three of those squares I ran through an embossing folder to create some detail, making sure the pattern was square for each of them.

The layers were attached to the card base, the squares inserted, then I used a die set from The Greetery for the stockings, and a die set from Scrapbook & Cards Today – received as part of a recent virtual event – to create the tree and candles for the bottom two windows.

The greenery was also part of the die set, arranged as you see, and the foiled sentiment was added.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas creations following one or both of our themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of trees/leaves not taken

Cut It Up – use more than one die

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of fancy folds not taken

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts

12 Months Of Christmas Link-Up – anything goes Christmas – option of snowfall not taken

Greetings from Santa

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

This card was a trial to see how it would look, and it turned out so much better than I had hoped.

The background panel is using a lot – I mean a lot – of the stickers from a Tim Holtz idea-ology sticker pad. I just took them out of the book haphazardly and stuck them down to the panel. I didn’t think too much about it to begin with, and then thought a little more when the panel was getting full – just so I could fill in the gaps.

The panel with the stickers was cut down a little, then attached to a white card base.

The main Santa sticker was adhered to a vellum panel die cut with Pinkfresh Studio ‘Double Stitched Fancy Frames‘, then adhered to the sticker panel.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations and get your stash ready for Christmas.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

12 Months of Christmas Link-up – anything goes Christmas – option of snowfall not taken

Believe In Yourself

Hello again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. We have reached the letter ‘M’, and Tee has chosen the theme of :

‘Mythical Creatures‘

Here is my card:

For this card I used products from Waffle Flower Crafts, utilising some die sets, and layering stencil sets for the open book and dragon and castle images. The book was die cut first, then the layering stencils used with Pinkfresh Studio inks to create the scene.

The background panel was also using a Waffle Flower Crafts older die set, the Cloudscape Panel Die.

The cloudscape was die cut, then each of the cloud layers were ink blended individually, the brown lower piece also ink blended. This frame was glued to a card base, then each of the cloud layers were inlaid back into their respective places, the brown layer glued in, then the book attached.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted.

I also added some opal glitter drops for extra interest.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of fancy folds not taken

Love To Craft – anything goes

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Purple & Green Hugs

Hello there. A new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz, Helen has chosen the theme of:

‘Purple & Green’

Here is my card:

For this card, I chose to go with products from Concord & 9th, and The Greetery.

The first thing I did was to use the ‘Bitty Botanicals‘ stamp set for the green foliage, then added the various tones of purple for the flowers using the matching stencils.

I then added the ‘Diamond Ribbons‘ stencil and die set combo to create the trellis and attached that with glue so each diamond framed each of the floral images.

Onto that, I added a word die from Concords & 9th, with the shadow layer being from vellum.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations following our theme of purple and green. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ellibelle’s Corner Garden Party – anything in of from the garden

Crafters Café – flowers

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of fancy folds not taken

Love To Craft – anything goes

Red Poinsettia

Hello everyone. I have a card to share for the new challenge at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge.

I again used the ‘Sketched Poinsettia’ from Waffle Flowers Crafts, but this time I used more traditional bold colours.

I first stamped then gold heat embossed the image, then used the layering stencils to colour it in. This was then die cut with the matching die, and put to one side whilst I thought about the background.

The striped red paper was cut to the size of an A2 card, and I then used some letter press plates from Pinkfresh Studio to hot foil the frame and the inner rectangular piece, cutting them out with the matching dies. This gave some subtle gold highlights to certain places of the die cuts.

The poinsettia was added, and then a hot foiled sentiment on the top. The final touch were some gold gems.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Colourful Options – any colour, any theme, any combination

Crafts Galore – anything goes

12 Months Of Christmas Link-up – anything goes Christmas – option of circles & squares not taken

Crafters Café – flowers

Beautiful Blossoms – anything florals

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Love Letters & Hearts

Hello again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. Veronika is the host, and as we have reached the letter ‘L’, she has chosen the theme of:

Love Letters and Hearts

Here is my card:

I chose to use a Spellbinders die set for this card and wanted vibrant colours.

The dies set for the main heart and the flowers is called ‘Blooming Heart‘. I used a combination of Spellbinders card stock and Concord & 9th card stock to create the vibrant glowers and leaves, and added them to the dark blue background heart.

For the letters or handwriting part of it, I used a Spellbinders Letterpress plate twice – just moving it along to create the indents in the mustard coloured card stock behind the heart.

The sentiment was created using matt gold card stock, and of course, there had to be some addition of gems.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafters Café – flowers

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Colourful Options – any colour, any combination, any theme

Crafts Galore – anything goes

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

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of fancy fold not taken

Hello Friend

Hello everyone. I have just had a week in very warm Tenerife and now I’m, I can get to crafting and posting. The new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz has started. I am hosting this time round, and have chosen the theme of:

‘dies and/or punches’

Here is my card:

I chose to use some dies purchased from Simon Says Stamp, along with some dies from Pinkfresh Studio.

I first created the flowers by die cutting all the elements from the ‘Exotic Blooms’ die set from coloured card, then added some ink blending to the base of each of the floral layers, and then each of the leaf layers. The centre stamens were cut from gold card stock.

The florals were created, then I used the Pinkfresh Studio ‘Notched Corner Frame‘ dies. I first created the frame using a grey card stock, then I used the other layers of the frame to create the notches within the white card panel behind the florals to add a little interest to the background.