Altenew inks

2 CAS cards

Hello. I have two cards to share today – both CAS – in appearance if not in making:

The first card is using the gorgeous Altenew ‘Bountiful Branch’ layering stamp set – thank goodness for my Misti! This is an old but loved stamp set, I have used a couple of times before – but maybe not this year, actually – I’ll have to have a look back…….

I was inspired to make a one layer card, stamping the branch slightly off the edge, and making the sentiment up from several in the Altenew ‘Peaceful Wreath’ stamp set.

The second card was a little more of a challenge – I tend to smudge cards when I try and do some ink vlending on them – but this worked quite well.

I took the card base, masked off most of it to leave the top part out and ready to ink blend using my Distress Ink ‘Speckled Egg’ – I chose this colour for a cool bluey kinda greeny background behind my glittery snowflake die cuts.

These snowflakes are from Uniko – maybe a couple of years old – and die cut out of some low shed glitter card stock. I decided the leave in the middle star, and arranged them as you see.

I did toy with different shaped and sized snowflakes, but in the end went with the same – and don’t the perfectly fit the edge of the card? Who knows – maybe Bev from Uniko planned it that way – I wouldn’t be surprised……

The sentiment is stamped in Distress Oxide ‘Speckled Egg‘ – the Distress ink was a little too ‘distressed’ looking for me. Yes – I bought the whole release of that colour – full set syndrome……

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Bountiful Branch card:

Simply Less Is More – one layer card – festive – CAS

TTCRD – anything goes

Snowflake card:

AAA Cards – CAS – along the edge – option snowflakes

Unicorn Challenge – anything goes

Cardz 4 Galz – Silver and/or Gold

Hello. A new challenge is starting at Cardz 4 Galz, and this time we want to see your girlie makes using silver and/or gold. Here is my card:

I knew I wanted to use both gold and silver and was trying to decide how to do that. Until I did, I stamped and die-cut the roses and leaves from Altenew ‘Antique Roses‘. The roses using four blue layers, but for the leaves, I stamped the base layer in a brown, then I heat embossed the second layer using gold embossing powder. I didn’t do the third layer on the leaves.

I went hunting for some different leaves, and used some from Altenew ‘Budding Thanks‘ – again using a brown base layer and heat embossing the second layer.

I still didn’t know how I was going to incorporate silver – until me eyes fell into my ‘newbi’ basket, (bought not used or catalogued yet) and I saw the Pink Fresh Studio ‘Slim Diagonal Stripes die’. Although it is sized for the slimline card – I cut it down to create the middle section you see here – and used a matt silver instead of a shiny silver card stock.

I went searching though my Color My Life app for the word ‘gorgeous’ as I wanted a striking sentiment to match the quite dramatic card, and decided to use this sentiment from Catherine Pooler – in my stash – and thankfully catalogued into the app – so heat embossed in the same gold as the leaves.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge – I foresee a lot of shiny Christmas cards in the making – I hope to see you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments Challenge – anything goes

Crafters Café – anything goes

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Watercooler Challenge – feminine

Sapphire Dahlia

Hello once again. I hope you are all well.

I have a monochrome one layer card to share today:

The current challenge at CASology is ‘September’. So – having a September birthday, and being a Virgo – I was wondering what to make for this challenge.

I knew the birth stone was a sapphire, I Googled the flower – an Aster or a Dahlia – so I searched the Color My Life app – and hey presto – this Concord & 9th stamp and die set appeared.

This is a turnabout stamp set – and the die is actually a turnabout die too – but when I tried the die out – I failed. Not once, not twice – but three times. So – rethink………..

I usually don’t have any luck with turnabout stamp sets either – despite using the ‘jig’ – but recently one card went well – so I braced myself and tried again…and I like the result.

The colours used are based on the darkest blue being ‘Sapphire‘ from Altenew ‘Glacier Caves‘ ink cube set – so I used all four of those blue colours for the turnabout.

The sentiment is also from that same stamp set, and as I could fit it onto the card – I went with the sapphire blue again.

So – Dahlia and Sapphire are both homage to the cue ‘September’…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CASology – September

Krafty Chicks – stamp act

Butterfly Congratulations

Hello once again. I have a card to share today I made for a particular person. It is for a man – but who says a man can’t like a CAS butterfly?

One of our dear registrars has just successfully obtained a consultant post – he is going to be a Consultant Neurosurgeon with us – after years of specialist training. We are all so pleased for him, and particularly pleased he is staying with us in Sheffield……………..it also means his girlie can stay with us too! A win-win situation!

The card is one layer, the leaves and butterfly stamped as you see, and the sentiment added from an Altenew stamp set.

CAS – I’m trying hard to conquer this type of card-making – sometimes I win, sometimes I lose – but I keep trying! And – enjoying the process. I do have to restrain myself sometimes – but I like how this turned out.

It did take me a while to figure out where I was going to stamp which element – and there’s only four of them for goodness sake – the actual stamping went quickly though……is that the way with CAS? Is that also the way with one layer cards?

Anyhoo, I shall be entering the following challenges:

AAA Cards – one layer card with twist of using the graphic

Aud Sentiments – anything goes with a sentiment

Moving Along With The Times – things with wings

Stamplorations CAS Challenge – Anything goes CAS with option to use purple (option not taken)

Beautiful Heart Birthday

Hello. I have a card to share inspired by several challenges.

I used Altenew ‘Beautiful Heart‘ stamp and matching die set. I stamped the outline in a grey ink, and both layers of the flower, but only the outline and detail layer of the leaves – not the main base layer. I wanted there to be quite a bit of white on this card, to ensure the colours stood out.

The sentiment is also from Altenew and stamped directly onto the base card.

I ‘found’ this stamp set again whilst putting my stash into Color My Life organisation app – I am ‘finding’ quite a bit of stuff to use again. Not necessarily that I had forgotten they were there – but seeing them again and going through them again makes me use my older stash – not a bad thing. But – it doesn’t mean I don’t buy new stuff………………..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenge – Occasions

Freshly Made Sketches – sketch

Seize The Birthday – anything goes birthday (option summer not taken)

Color Throwdown – blue, purple, light blue, green

Roses everywhere….

Hi once again. I have a couple of cards to share today using the same stamp set – but different layouts. The reason I made two cards is because I absolutely loved these roses once I started stamping them, and I used a variation of the template technique that I saw Jennifer McGuire do a few years ago.

I first used the roses die cuts to cut into a piece of white card, then die cut loads of the rose shapes. I then placed the template in my Misti, and stamped the base layer of colour onto every rose die cut, then swapped to the second layer, and stamped them all again – and so on. I did the same with all the leaves.

I made lots of roses – but used them all on my two cards. The first card is using the colours from the current challenge at Color Throwdown:

And this second card using the left-over red roses for another look, and another sentiment:

I didn’t realise how many rose stamp sets I owned – until I was putting everything into the Color My Life app – I have quite a few! My favourites are the layering stamps from Altenew, as they give such a realistic and vibrant look – and using these colours really made the detail stand out, I think so anyway.

One of the bonuses of creating two cards into one session, is that I can enter different challenges for each of the cards. I seem to be on a crafting weekend marathon – and putting my stash into this cataloging app has reminded me what I have, what I haven’t actually used yet (!!!) – and what I probably won’t ever use. I feel some de-stash selling coming on……

The first card will be entered into the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, orange, green

Hand Stamped Sentiments – photo inspiration (red and orange flowers)

Krafty Chicks Challenge – use a stamp

Time Out Challenges – inspiration words

The second card will be entered into the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments Challenge – flowers and a sentiment

Watercooler Challenges – feminine

ElliBelle’s Crafty Wednesday Challenge – In the summer garden

CCEE Stampers – roses

Just Add Ink – add an ‘F’ (flowers)

Elephant Birthday

Hi there. There is anew challenge beginning at The Alphabet Challenge. This time I am the host and have chosen the theme for the letter ‘E’ as being ‘Earthbound Animals’. Here is my card:

I use the ‘Color Layering Elephant’ stamp set from Hero Arts to produce this quite CAS card – the splash of rainbow colour as a layer making it quite playful I think.

The sentiments are both from the same stamp set, and I like the scripty look to these.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge – there is some fabulous inspiration makes from the Design Team and you have until the 18th June to share your creations.

I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS – CAS rainbow

AAA Cards – CAS Birthday

CAS on Sunday – CAS animals

Color Throwdown Featured Stamper

Hello once again everyone. I am extremely pleased to announce I am the featured Stamper for the new challenge beginning at Color Throwdown, after winning the challenge with this card HERE.

This week, the swatch is:

And here is my card:

I was drawn towards a Christmas themed card and decided to use my Simon Says Stamp Card Kit of the month from January 2020. I remember the colours in that kit, and the range of layering snowflakes.

I began by stamping the snowflake background in a light grey ink (neutral fee colour) using most of the layering snowflakes in the stamp set. I then used a couple of rectangles from a stitched die set – but putting the central piece back in.

The turquoise shiny card stock was embossed using a dotty embossing folder – I think it looks like little drops of snow in the background – and placed so it peeked through.

The same turquoise card stock was used to die cut the three snowflakes, adding some double sided tape on the back in case I wanted to glue the down completely – but I only stuck the centres down, leaving the rest kinda just hanging there – more dimension.

The sentiment and the banner outline heat embossed in Wow! embossing powder white detail, and then I actually fussy-cut the banner out. Yep – another but of fussy-cutting….wonders will never cease!

So there we are – I hope you can join this challenge. These colours are amazing, and leave a lot of scope for different themes – I look forward to having you join us this week. xx

I shall also be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option to use silver

52 card Christmas Challenge – Christmas and Embossing (wet and dry embossing)

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Cardz 4 Galz – CASE your wardrobe

A new challenge is starting at Cardz 4 Galz – and from the title you may get our topic this time – CASE an item or your wardrobe. Use an item of your clothing and use it as your inspiration.

Here is my card:

Here is my item of clothing:

Yes – I used polka dots………….

I began by stamping the flowers and stems from Altenew ‘Angelique Motifs’ – mixing the colours a round a little – I do like to use colours not ordinarily seen with particular flowers!

I then used the Avery Elle ‘Polka Dot Plate’ die and some dark blue shiny card stock.

The sentiment is also from Altenew, from the ‘Wild Flora’ stamp set.

I hope you can come along and join us. I’d love to see your creations in our gallery, and to see what item of your wardrobe you took inspiration from.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers dies challenge – anything goes with dies

Simply Create Too – use flowers

Creatalicious Challenge – atg – option pink and purple (not taken)

Crafters Cafe – Feminine

Purple and Grey Daffodils

Hi there. I have a couple of cards to share today – both made with the same stamp set – yet completely different looks:

I used the Altenew ‘Build-a-flower Daffodils‘ stamp set, but this time went for purple daffodils. I know – artistic licence anyone?

For the first purple card, I stamped the outline, then the darker two layers in purple – I didn’t stamp the base colour layer. The leaves are from another Altnew stamp set – I wanted two layer leaves, and not daffodil stems, as I knew I wanted to create a whole bunch of flowers bunched together.

Once stamped and die cut with the matching dies, I arranged as you see.

The second card is where I stamped the outline of the daffodils, and one of the detail layers to create a background, with a couple of the little daffodil centres stamped to fill any gaps – all in shades of grey. The sentiment is also from Altenew – white heat embossed on a black strip.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Twofer Card Challenge – flowers

Trimmies Craft Challenge – birthday

Unicorn Challenge – use dies

here Is A Place to Start – create your own background

Happy Little Stampers atg with dies Challenge – use dies

Rainbow Card Challenge – Vivaciously Violet