Altenew inks

Angelique Happy Day

Hi everyone. I have a card to share which looks simple, but took me quite a while to decide on my design:

I combined a couple of challenges for inspiration. The colour scheme is from the current challenge at Less Is More, to use navy and yellow, and the also the current Flower Challenge, to use my latest stamps and dies.

I bought this Altenew Angelique Motifs stamp and die set from Seven Hills Crafts, and stamped all the images, which included the flowers, stems, and separate leaves. I was going to use the most gorgeous stems for this card, but went with the flower itself, and added some of the individual leaves as you see here.

The yellow stripes are a cut down piece of card using Concord and 9th Sketched Stripes Background stamp, and Catherine Pooler Limoncello ink. I am sure I will be using this stamp set again in the near future, and like how the blues came out with this flower.

The sentiment is from a Uniko stamp set, and I like how this sentiment can be used for many different occasions, especially when you need a card for no special reason in particular – a just because card.

I was looking through my Uniko stash, as Bev has some fabulous sentiments and stamp sets, and currently has a brand new release going on for the company’s 7th birthday.

And – yes – I bought it all! Couldn’t resist! Her design team really have come up with some brilliant cards………..

Now, I know this is an early posting, and not a scheduled posting either – just up early, getting ready for work, and decided to put this together now instead of later today.

Isn’t crafting fabulous that way? Any time, any place, anywhere……!!

:) :)

Love and Best Wishes

Hello again. It seems crafting is a good distraction for me today, and I have been able to create a couple of cards. My puddy tat is still doing alright, and in fact seems a little better with moving around as he is on an anti-inflammatory…….he even jumped onto my craft desk this afternoon. He’s not been up there for weeks!

Here is the card he interrupted, so it took me much of the afternoon:

The scribble is a Tim Holtz die and the tags are from MFT. The card stock is Stampin Up. The little stamps are from Uniko, a set I have had for a while, and like to use when I am trying to fill some space, and there are lots of little stamps in these sets.

The layout AND the colours are the double trouble (!!) challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches this week. I shall also be entering this into the current challenge at Crafty Gals Corner, asking for a CAS card, and Just Us Girls – asking for a card with the word prompt being ‘Love’.

This second card:

is based on the colours from Color Throwdown, to use Aqua, saffron, brown, and yellow; the layout sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches.

The stamp set is a new one from Altenew – courtesy of Seven Hills Crafts (again!!). I buy most of my American stamp and dies sets from there, as the price is always good, and the delivery is 99% within a 48 hours time frame. (I think I need to take shares in that company………..!!)

Anyhoo – I used the set of brown Altenew inks for the Primrose – why?, I hear you ask – well, because I could, and because I like brown flowers…..I was in a floral mood today, but not a bright flowery colourful floral mood, but I am definitely going more vibrant with these flowers in the very, very near future – the detail is a good as one has come to expect from Altenew, and I can’t wait to see these flowers in the purples and the reds and the pinks and the yellows and the……well, you get my drift.

The first layer of the leaves was stamped in yellow, the second layer in Saffron, and the third layer in one of the browns – who knew that would work as good as this for leaves?

The aqua you can see, is Aquatini from Catherine Pooler, blended onto the base rectangle, and the sentiment strips are from a Sue Wilson die set and stuck down after putting them through my Xyron.

I hope you are getting some crafting done yourself – have a good one, and I’ll catch you again real soon. :)

Bronze Thanks

Hi there. I have a CAS card to share with you today:

I took refuge in my craft room, as I may have to put one of my puddy tats to sleep this next week, and sought some challenges I could mix together. I have just received my Concord and 9th Turnabout Toolkit too, so I thought I would combine all things, play around a little and see what came up.

I used two green inks and two brown inks for the turnabout stamp – masking off the top and bottom – keeping the card quite neutral.

The sentiment is stacked four times with white card stock, with the uppermost letters being embossed with a bronze embossing powder to create some dimension and shine, which I think shows better in the first picture.

I do have to get my head around a couple of other things – I continue to be on the Design Team for ABC Christmas Challenge, and the new challenge starts next week, and I am also the Guest designer for CASology this coming week. What a roller-coaster I am having at the moment!

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

AAA Cards – use up to one third, optional masking

Watercooler challenges – anything goes

Addicted to stamps – anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Beautiful inside and out…

I have a card to share I started yesterday, but struggled with a sentiment. I finished it after work today, and am quite pleased how it turned out:

I stamped the Altenew ‘Extra Special‘ sprig and used Altenew inks for the layers, going with the darker reds, then die cut them with the matching dies.

The two background rectangles are – again – Reverse Confetti ‘Diagonal Stitches cover panel‘. I had some red card in my stash which matched the reds I had used, and used as you see.

The sentiment took hunting through my stash and finding the Ultimate Crafts ‘You are beautiful inside‘ stamp set, stamped in one of the reds, and stuck down onto the framelits dies from Stampin Up.

The two sprigs were positioned like this as I wanted some of the red at the top right edge to break the whiteness up there.

I shall be entering this into the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch

Rainbow Card Challenge – monochrome red romance

You have a beautiful heart

I’ve been on a roll today, probably as I won’t be able to post so much next weekend as I have previous things arranged. This time a quick post for the card using the colours from Color Throwdown – black, brown, white – and the theme from Time Out challenges – Loving -:

This flower is one of the freebies when I attended the Altenew day in Daventry last year. It is a three step layer flower and leaves set, but I decided to colour with my Copics because – well – I could!

The outline of the flower was stamped in Gina K amalgam ink, then coloured with four – yes four – brown colours. I’m getting very daring with the Copics, aren’t I?

The leaves were stamped in Versafine black onyx, and the two layers stamped with the Altenew grey inks – the grey is my ‘added’ neutral.

The background is a purchase from Seven Hills Crafts with a couple of gift tokens from my family for Christmas. How lucky am I?

I hope you have a good week, and I’ll catch you all soon. :)

Colour Layering Trimmings

Hello everyone. I am pleased and excited to announce that here is the first post as fully-fledged Design team member at ABC Christmas Challenge.

The current challenge is the start of the New Year, and the start of the alphabet. Goodness – there are some amazing themes coming up – I hope you can play along. I have discovered an amazing and friendly team, I have learnt how to use blogger – a little, anyway – and I’ve discovered that I’m going to be making Christmas cards all year long. All. Year. Long.

All those will be posted here, and will all be posted on Instagram. Please say hello when you see our cards.

The first challenge is ‘A’ and ‘B’, of course. The theme being anything goes, and/or berries. Now, I hunted everywhere for berry stamps or dies, and couldn’t find anything with berries that I really wanted to use. What I did find, was this unused, yet been with me for ages, Hero Arts Colour Layering Trimmings stamp and dies.

Here is the card – anything goes (Christmas):

I stamped the layers of the leaves on a white piece of card, then added to a green and white card base – then stamped some more, die cut them, and added to the edge for dimension.

I wanted to give the impression of a Christmas Tree hanging over the edge of the card.

I hope you are able to come and join the fun, and I look forward to seeing your makes – and I even get to comment officially now – yay!

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

AAA cards – three of something – (three added branches)

Clean and Simple on Friday – CAS Christmas card

The Alphabet Challenge blog – ‘T’ for Trees

Snowflakes 2 ways

Hello again. I am off to a Crafters Companion weekend tomorrow, and away until Tuesday evening. Can you imagine? 3 full days of crafting? Now worries about work, no cleaning, no cooking……..Oh yes!

So before I go, I wanted to post a couple of cards I made with a snow flake theme – but different styles and different colours. The first card is for the current challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and Color Throwdown following the sketch and the colours:

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The white die-cut is from Christina Griffiths, raised on foam pads to give that added dimension behind it. The blue strip I added to the back of this so it highlighted some of the detail in the die.

The candles are from Altenew, as were the inks used for the layering. The hardest part of the layering was the blinking flames……….as they were a lighter colour, it was very difficult to line them up – but I managed!

This second card is for the current challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches and The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge:

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As you can see – I went big and bold with these colours! The die-cut snowflakes are from Uniko. I first ink blended water-colour card with ‘Broken China‘ Distress Oxide then stamped and heat embossed some snowflakes in Wow! embossing powder, then die cut the snowflakes.

The panel is Altenew ‘Layered Plaid‘ cover plate die, using only one of the two layers and embossing into the card instead of die cutting.

I am so looking forward to meeting the Crafters Companion team in the ‘Craftaganza’, even though my bestie has had to pull out at the last minute.

Are any of you going?

:) :)

Wreath and bells

Hello everyone. I have spent some time crafting this weekend and making some Christmas cards ready for charity. Also – of course – having some fun…..

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This card was inspired by the current challenge at Color Throwdown – to use Green, Kraft, and white.

It turned out to be a completely Altenew card – except for the sentiment – using an older stamp and die set, and a couple of new ones.

I used Altenew inks, and changed the greens a little for the second card. I didn’t add all the detail to the bells, quite liking the simplicity of them as they are. I was toying with letting the bells dangle on some string or such like, but added them as you see instead.

The sentiment is from a new stamp set I have yet to play with from Clearly Besotted ‘Hang Around‘ and has baubles and bows. I thought the French sentiment suited the card for some reason – so I went with it.

I have decided that I will be making several of each Christmas card ready for the charity event, I’m probably going to stick with the more clean and simple card. I say that a lot – then go and make things a little more complicated.

Anyway – it’s all about enjoying yourself, isn’t it?

Have a great day – catch you later. :)

Magnolia Thanks

Hello everyone. It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted. I have spent a week on holiday in Turkey – gorgeous resort and fabulous company. Hubby and I went with another couple – the men going golfing every day – EVERY day – and us two women chillin’, and sunnin’, and drinkin’ and…..well, you get the idea.

On our return, I have been full-on with work and family matters, so today has been the first time I have been able to sit and do a little crafting. As it’s been so long, I did find it a little daunting, and looked to several challenge blogs for inspiration……I took a couple of photos where the sun highlighted the embossing detail:

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I made a couple of cards whilst I was there, as I am trying to build a little more stock for a charity sale…………hopefully I can get a good collection together.

I used the Altenew ‘Build a Flower Magnolia‘ and stamped the layers in Altenew pinks and purples. The green and brown are also from Altenew. The sentiment is from the ‘Triple Step Thank you‘ from Concord and 9th, and the background embossing folder is from Sue Wilson/Creative Expressions.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Altenew September challenge – photo inspiration

Addicted to Stamps – anything goes

Simon says Stamp Wednesday challenge – anything goes

I am sure I will be crafting more over the weekend – I have a wedding card to put together for next week……………………. :)

Get Well Soon

Hello everyone. I have been crafting some cards as an escape from doing my mum’s Ebay stuff.

I was inspired by the current challenge at Twofer Card Challenge, and also using the sketch from Crazy 4 Challenges for one of the cards:

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The ‘feel better soon’ card is another one layer card, with no smudges again – maybe I’m getting the hang of it? We shall see………

I took the Altenew ‘Get Well Soon’ stamp set and stamped the main image onto a card base. I then stamped again onto a post-it note and masked it off, stamping the honeycomb images over and around it, lining up the hexagons as it was several different hexagon shaped stamps I used.

The main image I coloured with Altenew Artist Markers.:

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I have no idea what is supposed to be in the bottle behind the mug and honey, but I just coloured it a matching colour…..maybe maple syrup…..who knows!

The second floral card is using the same honeycomb stamp, but this time I stamped and heat embossed it in a random pattern, and used my Distress Oxides over the top for an emboss-resist. It’s quite dull here in the UK at the moment, but the honeycomb is white and shiny:

I used Altenew inks to stamp the main flower and the leaves, but coloured the two little sprigs of flowers with the Altenew Artist Markers, then using the matching dies to cut them all out.

The die cut frame is from Sue Wilson – Noble dies – for the main background, die-cutting the middle and inserting the ink-resist panel into it. I knew the flowers and leaves would adding dimension, so I stuck this flat to the base card.

I arranged as you see for another vibrant card – but a totally different feel.

The sentiment is a cobbling together of three stamps from Concord and 9th ‘Wonderful Floral‘ stamp set – lined up using my Misti corner set…………..invaluable when there are different stamps you want lined up to ink and stamp together.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Twofer Card Challenge – geometric (honeycomb stamps)

Crazy 4 Challenges – sketch

QKR Stampede – anything goes

Aud Sentiments Challenge – anything goes with a sentiment

Have a good day, and I’ll hopefully see you next time. :)

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