‘H’ for Hungry

Hi there. A new challenge is beginning at The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘H‘ – and we want to see Hungry – feature your favourite food. It doesn’t have to be the healthy option either – a good thing as my card features anything but healthy food:

This is a Clearly Besotted I ‘found’ again when adding stash to the Color My Life app. I am more of a savoury than a sweet kinda gal, and I couldn’t decide which is my favourite – so I used them all – virtually!

I used some Kraft card-stock, and just stamped away to create my own background of savoury deliciousness……there are burgers, fries – chips to the UK people – chicken, pizza – all sorts of goodies here in this Clearly Besotted stamp set.

For the gaps I used a combination of stamps from several stamp sets – the hearts, the ‘XO’ – trying to be careful not to stamp ‘OX’ very often! :)

There are three little lines which are actually the radiating lines from a lighthouse stamp set – just to cover the gaps.

I did toy with the idea of colouring the images – but as you can see I left them as they are – and I think more effective because of that.

The sentiment is from the same Clearly Besotted stamp set.

I hope you can come and join us – I’d love to see what you are ‘Hungry’ for and what your favourite food is – or a collection of your favourite foods. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments – anything goes

Arty Divas – atg – option Christmas (not taken)

A Bit More Time To Craft – atg

Seas The Day

Hello there. A new challenge is beginning at Cardz 4 Galz, and this time the theme is ‘Sea Shells’. I decided to go down the digital image route as I don’t have sea shell stamps, and here is my card:

I used a digital image from Power Poppy called ‘Gifts From The Sea‘, printed onto Make It Colour Blending Card, and coloured with Copics.

As you can see, I went quite neutral with the colouring, and used a combination of colours I have used in previous Kit and Clowder colouring classes – and also some techniques I learnt from those classes along the way.

For this image, there was also an option for ‘no line’ printing – but I do like black lines around my objects – and it’s a little more forgiving with my colouring skills, too!

I hope you can come and join us, I’d love to see your interpretation of our ‘Sea Shell’ theme. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Hand Stamped Sentiments – Inspiration Board

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

Digi Choosday – anything goes

Inkspirational Challenge – painting or colouring

White on White Christmas Foliage

Hi there, After a few days making cards for my DT posts for the next few weeks, I decided to make a card to enter some challenges. A few caught my eye. Here is my card:

I really am a fan or white on white cards, especially for Christmas. For this card, I hunted out a lot of my oldie but goodie Sue Wilson dies – some dating back to 2014 – I am never, ever getting rid of these dies – my ‘go-to’ when it comes to die cutting and Christmas in particular.

I have found with white on white cards, that leaving some of the elements to – well – hang around creates some shadow and dimension. For instance – I don’t glue every single branch and leaf down – I just glue the stem, or a leaf or two, and let the rest wriggle around there. This creates movement when the card is handled by the recipient, too.

The Gemini Junior went through a work-out for this card – all that die cutting! I have also bought some new plates so it cuts better – not warped currently – and I have even followed Jennifer McGuire when she taped some of the plates together to try and prevent warping……you can check the video out HERE.

Now, she does state several times that she is defying the rules – but hey – anything which gives me a chance of reducing the warping on my plates – then I’ll try it.

You can see each element I have die cut and how they are arranged, adding a little pearl to the middle of the poinsettia – even the pearl is a white one!

All this die-cutting takes me back to when I first started crafting – rather card making. Lots of die-cutting, very little stamping…..purely because I couldn’t stamp correctly, the images where never clear and solid.

We all know the arrival of the Misti stamping tool was revolutionary – it was for me anyway. From there onwards my whole way of crafting changed – I even took to trying some colouring…….!

So – this card brought back happy memories of years gone by, and made me realise how my card making has changed – I feel I am so much more versatile now – I will try a lot more techniques – some you win, some you lose – but hey – as long as we are having fun, right?

Anyhoo, I digress – I seem to be in a chatty mood – somebody better warn my hubby……………….. :)

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Christmas 24 Challenge – Christmas Foliage

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics – anything goes festive

52CCT – Christmas and all white (you can have black for the sentiment)

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas – option to use red (not taken)

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Die Cut Divas – Christmas and die cuts

Hugs and Just Breathe

Hi there. I’ve got a little behind in a few challenges I wanted to enter, so this time I’m posting two cards.

The first card is after playing with some alcohol inks – after watching Tim Holtz Facebook live sessions – he inspired me to just have a go:

I played very simply with the alcohol inks, as I knew I wanted to create a green and a purple piece of Yupo to die cut these images. Once die cut and arranged as you see, I stamped the Clearly Besotted sentiment.

Very simple I think – but I love these colours together. One thing I did notice – even with my Gemini Junior and a couple of passes – I still needed to cut those leaves a little with some scissors……….

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

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – anything goes with option ‘time to relax’

CAS Colours and Sketches – gorgeous grape, granny apple green, pacific point (alcohol inks sorta similar)

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

This second card took me a little longer:

You may be asking yourself why this card too longer – because of that blinking strip! I used Neat and Tangled Quilted Backdrop stamp onto the base card, after first masking off most of the card – this was stamped directly onto the card base – hence the masking.

I had to draw some extra lines in at the top and bottom, and then I coloured with Copics – trying to match the colours for the Color Throwdown Challenge.

It looked to bare when I had coloured, so I then added a couple of black card strips to ‘frame’ the coloured strip.

The sentiment if from Time For Tea Designs.

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

CAS(E) This Sketch – sketch

Color Throwdown – orange, burgundy, green, pink

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

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Big Gnome Hugs

Hello there. I have a card to share with colouring, and die-cutting – and even stamping:

I used two gnomes from Simon Says Stamp ‘Spring Gnomes‘, stamped in Gina K amalgam ink, coloured with Copics, then used the matching die set to cut them out. White gel pen dots were added for extra interest.

As one of the gnomes is holding a bird, I then stamped two little birds from Altenew ‘Under The Cherry Blossom‘ stamp set in green, adding some shading with a green Copic.

The white cover panel is from Catherine Pooler – three layers of white, then black on top for extra dimension.

All items placed as you see, with the extra little green birds dotted around.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, green, black, white

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – bright and cheerful

Colour Crazy Challenge – week 25 – anything goes with some colouring

Country View Challenges – do what makes you happy – card making, entering challenges

Colour Crazy Craft Challenge
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Glitter and Gems

Hi everyone. A new challenge has begun at The Alphabet Challenge. We have reached the letter ‘G’ – and we want to see your glitter and gems.

I think I have just a little bit of both here:

And when I said ‘just a little bit’ of both……..

I think I covered the brief!

This is completely out of my comfort zone – but I like to be challenged! I first decided to use this glitter panel which came from goodness knows where, and backed the heart cut-out with some matt gold card.

Into this heart I placed some Wow! jewels, then filled in the spaces with some pearls of varying sizes.

Mats and layers as you see, and the ‘shine’ sentiment is actually a die from Stampin Up which says ‘sunshine’ – but I cut the ‘sun’ part of it off……

So – do you think there’s enough glitter and gems here for you? :)

I hope you can come and join us for this theme – it promises to be an amazing site to see all that shine and glitter etc in our gallery – I hope to see you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafters Cafe Challenge – anything goes

Crafty Creations Challenge – anything goes

Cardz 4 Galz – Wedding

Hello once again. There is a new challenge starting at Cardz 4 Galz and it is a special one for me for two reasons.

The first is that I am hosting and have chosen the theme of ‘Wedding’, and the second reason is that it is my 32nd Wedding Anniversary today – just as the challenge begins. The 2nd of July 1988 is – if you do the maths – when hubby and I got married.

We met in 1982 when I was still at school, I started my nurse training in 1983, but we still stayed together even though I was staying away from home – only 30 mins or so though! Gosh – we have been together for a total of 38 years! 38 years! Wow! Doesn’t time fly?

So – when Caz gave me this date – I didn’t have to think for very long for a theme.

Here is my wedding themed card:

I used Crafters Companion silver glitter card to create the background, the leaves, and the sentiment.

The rectangles were die cut using a Chritina Griffiths die set – even the scalloped layer towards the inner part of the frame.

The frame is raised – I like to create some added shadows and dimension.

The floral white layer is die cut from an older Stampin Up die set – again ‘found’ whilst putting my Stampin Up stuff into the Color My Life app….

I hope you can come and join us for the ‘Wedding’ challenge – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A Bit More Time To Craft – atg

Sparkles Forum Challenge – wedding

Creatalicious Challenge – atg – option to add texture

Arty Divas – atg

Gnome For The Holidays

Hello. There is a new challenge beginning at ABC Christmas Challenge. We have reached the letters ‘N’ and ‘O‘. We want to see your Christmas creations with ‘No Fuss‘ and/or ‘Over The Top‘. I chose the ‘No Fuss’ theme. here is my card:

I first stamped the images from Simon SDays Stamp ;Gnome For the Holidays’ in Gin K amalgam ink, then coloured with Copics.

Once cut out with the matching die set, I arranged them as you see – though I did play around with the layout quite a bit. I’ve said before how I find arranging CAS layouts quite challenging.

We have some great makes from the Design Team, and I do hope you can come and join us for this challenge. I ‘d love to see you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasions

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option snowflakes (not taken)

Colour Crazy Challenge week 24 – atg colouring

Crafty Sentiments Challenge – atg

Winter Bouquets

Hello there. A new challenge has begun at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is ‘anything goes’ as long as it is Christmas. Here is my card:

I used the Honey Bee Stamps ‘Winter Bouquet‘ Honey Cuts and took lots of inspiration from watching YouTube and Nicole Spohr when she was making cards with this set.

The main thing for me was to use Copics on the die-cut elements to create some dimension – a game changer for me. I never thought of doing that to die cuts when using a coloured card.

I die cut the elements out of coloured card, used some matching Copics, then assembled as you see. The centre of the poinsettias are actually a very bright yellow glitter card – no idea where it came from – and then I just used a brown Copic to tone it down.

The sentiment is white heat embossed, and is from a Stampin Up set and white heat embossed onto a die cut panel.

I stuck most of the element down with 3D glue gel, only the tiny sprigs where stuck with glue.

The background is a piece of water-colour card and spritzed with Lumi spray – I wanted a bright shimmer to the background. then came the Nuvo drops – I’ve not used them for a few weeks so here we go – making up for the loss!

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:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasions

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option snowflake (not taken)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

Crafting Happiness Challenge – atg

More Mod Birds

Hi there. A short little post to share a card using an older stamp set from MFT:

I stamped the outline of the birds from MFT ‘Mod Birds‘ then used Catherine Pooler inks for the colours. I also used some leaves and flowers from the same stamp set, as I knew I wanted to use this cover panel from Mama Elephant, and wanted to use the leaves and flowers to occupy some of the circles.

Once all die cut, I then played with placement of each element until I was happy, then used a combination of foam pads and wet glue to stick them down.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – pink, blue, green, yellow,

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

The House That Stamps Built – anything goes