Altenew Obsidian Pigment ink

Elves, For Tree and Garland

A new challenge has started at ABC Christmas Challenge. We have reached the letters E, F and G – and we want to see your Christmas creations with the following themes:

E for Elves, F for Fir Tree, and G for Garland.

Here are my makes:

E for Elves
F for Fir Tree
G for Garland

The MFT ‘Christmas sElfies’ was stamped, coloured with Copics, and the square die-cut with a stitched square from Sue Wilson. Patterned paper adhered to a card base, and the sentiment strip raised with 3D foam – trying to keep the squares and lines etc in alignment – I think I did a pretty good job at that.

The second card using the Hero Arts stamp – an old one I don’t think I’ve actually used yet – stamped using Altenew Obsidian black ink direct onto the card base. I did use my Misti, and it took about three stampings to get a solid image. I liked the effect so much I stamped it again using a couple of Concord & 9th inks too. The sentiment is from my stash – no idea where it came from – and I even added a plain white Tim Holtz deer – just because I could, really…….

The third card is using a stamp and die set from Uniko. The leaves of the garland are stamped directly onto the card base, with the holly leaves, pine cones, and berries also glued down. Not too much dimension. I struggled with an appropriate sentiment on this card, and in the end left it without one – I’ll probably stamp one inside when the time comes.

It appears these three Christmas themes inspired me to create for all three letters – I must have had a mojo lightning strike that day!

I hope you can come and join us – please remember the letters have themes that we have chosen, and we would appreciate your Christmas creations adhering to those themes. I hope to see you in the gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Elf card:

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring

Christmas with the Cuties – Cute Christmas option elves/gnomes/fairies

Christmas Cards All Year Round – Christmas and something beginning with E or F (elves)

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper – anything goes with patterned paper

Fir Tree and Deer card:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasions

Sweet Stampers Challenge – CAS

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge – CAS Christmas

Garland card:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas


Life Can Be Tough – But So Can You………

Hi there. I have made a card today just for the fun of it. I took inspiration from several challenges – but I wanted to create a fun and colourful card, with some inspiring words. Inspiring for me – and for everyone else.

I wanted to play around with colour, I wanted to play with some water-colouring, I wanted to just play. I didn’t want to particularly think about what I was creating. I knew I wanted to use this stamp set from Hero Arts, and I knew what sketch and colours I wanted to use – so I began.

I played, I water-coloured, I used colour, I used dies. No shading, no thinking about which way the light was coming from – just played………..and in the end I am pleased with what I created!

I stamped the turtle onto Arteza water-colour card in Altenew Obsidian ink, let it dry a little, then collected the four colours together I was using from the current challenge at Color Throwdown.

I did colour a turtle in pink – but didn’t like that, so here is what I did the second time around. I used a little water with each colour, to spread things around a little, and I’d forgotten how pigmented these zigs are……..

The stitched waves were pieces of card coloured again with zigs and die cut using a Lawn Fawn ‘stitched wavy borders’ die, and they remind me of some sea-weed drifting in the motion of the sea.

I have just receievd some Tracy Hey Designs stamp sets – and this sentiment was just sat there looking at me………………it’s almost as though I am saying this to myself – and saying this to others. I may have to use this sentiment again…….

So – a fairly basic yet colourful card, I enjoyed the process, and I’m already planning what to make tomorrow…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – orange, pink, yellow, green

CAS(E) This Sketch – sketch

Hero Arts Challenge – self care

Addicted to CAS – CAS Animal

Happy Little Stampers watercolour challenge – water-colour atg with option of stars

Bright Red Poinsettia

Hi there. I hope you are doing well. I have managed to craft some more and created a CAS simple card for some challenges.

I used the Uniko ‘Season of Beauty’ poinsettia stamp, only using some of the layers. I fuirst stamped the flower itself in Rockin’ Red by catherine Pooler – realising after the first stamp I needed ti re-ink the pad. So this is actaully the second stamping…….

I then took the outline layer and one of the inner layers and heat embossed in gold. I used a green for the little dots in the centre of the flower, and stamped a sentiment from the same stamp set in Altenew Obsidian ink.

I took a little while to decide on the base card, and my eye turned to black, to tie-in the sentiment. My thoughts then turned to a strip of gold card, but I knew that Bev from Uniko designed a lot of the strip stamps to build backgrounds – of which I have a few 🙂 – and found this stripy strip stamp so I heat embossed that in gold along the bottom – then went for the top too.

I’m trying to get my head around indoor photographs with my cards – lighting, angle etc. I may even try some kind of decoration around the cards at some point – only time will tell!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches – cherry cobbler, metallic gold, shaded spruce

Daring Cardmakers – 3 elements from photo inspiration – stripes, red, joy

Time Out Challenges – merry and cheerful

Uniko December Challenge – Christmas with option of trees

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas with option of candy cane

Christmas Corners

Hello again – some more time in my craft room this morning, I decided I wanted to colour some images, so broke out my new Clearly Besotted stamp set ‘Christmas Corners‘ and set to it.

Here is my creation:

I stamped the images in Gina K amalgam ink, chose some colours:

and once coloured cut out using my Scan’n’cut – always a little nervous doing this as still getting to grips with that machine, and always wonder if it’s going to miss an outline or something – in this case it was perfect.

I stamped the sentiment on the card base, then adhered my mouse and baubles images, and attached to a 7×5 inch card base – my go-to size of card.

I also added some Ranger ‘Glossy Accents‘ to the lights, and some white gel pen for highlights, then let it dry before I stood it up to take a photo.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Clean and Simple on Sunday – CAS big sentiment or word

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas with option making own background (option not taken)

Crimbo Crackers Challenge – anything Christmas or Festive

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything colouring

The Sisterhood of Crafters – CAS

What’s up chicken butt?

Hi there. I have a clean and simple card to share today – though it did take me a little while to colour – trying to use what I learnt on my Copic class the other week – but not over-thinking.

I actually bought this stamp at the pop-up shop during the break in colouring, and have been waiting for an opportunity to ‘crack it open‘ – as they say……….and then the CASology challenge came up with the code word of ‘feather’ ………

After stamping in Gina K amalgam ink, I coloured with Copics. I actually used some of the colour ideas given for the Copic class. I even ‘grounded’ my image – can you see? That is something I hadn’t done before the class…………..maybe the grey is too light – I’ll keep trying……

Challenges I shall be entering:

CASology – feather

QKR Stampede – anything goes

Pink Gem Challenge – Anything goes

Stamplorations CAS Challenge – atg CAS with option of orange

A Butterfly and a Tulip…

Hello everyone. Did you imagine I was going to tell a joke about a butterfly and a tulip, walking into a bar……. 🙂 🙂 hmmm – I might have to think of a joke about that.

It’s my turn to host at Cardz4Galz and I chose the theme of ‘Wings’……….I thought that would create a lot of varied creations and I hope you can come and join us this time.

By wings, we mean exactly that – birds, butterflies, dragonflies, fairies, dragons……such a wide interpretation, I can’t wait to see what you create. The Design Team has some interesting and varied inspiration, so I hope you have a look and see how they have each created their projects.

I decided to go CAS – very clean, very simple – well, once I had decided where I was going with this………. 🙂

I used the Simon Says Stamp ‘Sweet Tulip‘ wafer die, and cut it out four times from card with double-sided sticky adhesive, so I could stack them all together for dimension.

The butterfly die is from Spellbinders – very old, very much used by my mum in the past.

I used some Distress Oxide in Carved Pumpkin and Barn Door on a piece of card stock, blended, then cut out the back of the butterfly. The inner butterfly cut from black card-stock to create some drama.

The sentiment is from a stamp set from Crafters Companion, and stamped in Altenew Obsidian pigment ink for the crisp letters.

I look forward to seeing you in our gallery……….. 🙂 🙂

I shall also be entering this into the following challenges:

AAA Cards – CAS and made in minutes with option of summer

Uniko challenge – flowers

Addicted to Stamps – CAS

Grey Antique Roses

Hello everyone. More time to craft today, so I have created a card using my new Altenew ‘Antique Roses’ stamp set:

I began by stamping the flowers using Altenew ‘Gentleman’s Gray‘ oval inks, using all four colours for the flowers themselves, then using the black ink for the centre detail. I did the same with the leaf clusters, but these are only three layers, so I used only the lighter three inks.

The background grid is from Waffle Flower, a die I have had for a while, but never used, and cut out of a grey card stock.

The sentiment is from MFT – a very well loved and used stamp set…….

Here is a photo where my actual rose bush is casting a shadow on the card – quite fitting, I think:

The only part of my garden I have anything to do with, and don’t let the gardener anywhere near, is my rose bush and little miniature rose garden. (I let him do all the heavy garden work – but my roses are sacrosanct) These roses smell absolutely gorgeous, especially in direct sunlight where you can catch the aroma just by walking past.

I shall be entering the following challenges:
Fusion card challenge – photo colours as inspiration

Seize The Birthday – birthday with the option of flowers

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – add a die cut

Daring Cardmakers – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – (one background die cut, 2 word sentiment, three roses, 4 leaf clusters, 5 colours – 4 greys and a black)

The Flower Challenge – favourite flower (roses)