Season’s Greetings

Hello once again. I have had a little play with some new layering stencils from The Greetery:

This was actually quite fiddly to do as I wanted different colours on the same stencil layer. It did take me quite a while for each layer, and the very small blending brushes did come in handy for all those smaller places. I used some low tack tape to mask areas off which were near to each other, but generally had fun with the colours.

I used Pinkfresh Studio inks, as they come in four shades of each colour-way – which also made things a little easier.

The sentiment is from Concord & 9th. It is a sentiment which is joined together, and instead of cutting the stamp apart, I used tape to mask off each of the words at a time, to stamp in the spaces. I really had to concentrate to remove the tape before stamping – a mistake I have made on previous cards – and one you don’t really forget!

I then cut the panel down slightly, matted it with a red card stock, then added to a white card base.

No additional elements, no bling, no gems – I think this looks good just as it is.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

12 Months Of Christmasanything goes Christmas, option to use chevrons not taken

Peace On EarthChristmas anything goes

Inkspirationalseasonal

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friendsanything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge stencil it

Crafty Catz anything goes – option to use dies/punches not taken

Ally’s Angelsanything goes

Poinsettia and Pinecones

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

I chose to use a 5×7 inch card base as the die cuts are quite large. The pinecones are from The Greetery – die cut from a lighter brown card stock, then each of the little details ink blended at the base the create even more dimension.

The bell was die cut from some brushed gold cardstock using a Honey Bee Stamps die set, then layered with glue.

The foliage and poinsettia were from Spellbinders, die cut with two shades of red for the flower, some different green cardstock and brushed gold for the foliage.

I used an embossing folder for a panel on the card base, then played with the placement of all the die cut elements, adding with a mixture of glue and 3D foam.

The sentiment is a foiled strip, and I also added a faceted gem for the centre of the poinsettia.

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

Delivering Warm Hugs

Hello everyone. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge. The them is always ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

The main image is another layering washi tape from AALL and Create. A couple of foxes on top of a whole mound of presents.

Once the washi was layered onto some white card stock, I cut it into a square.

The background paper was added to a square card base, then I used a piece of previously created paper from a gel plate play session to die cut a scalloped square frame. Before die cutting the square I added the paper onto some white card for stability, then die cut the frame.

I went with the vintage feel to this card.

The sentiment is a foiled strip and added as you see.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Jingle Belle’sChristmas and vintage

Allsortsdelightful animals – or anything goes

Creative Inspiration Challenge anything goes

Double Duse shapes – squares, rectangles, circles, ovals – I used square shapes

Creative Fingersanything goes

Ally’s Angelsanything goes

Merry and Bright

Hello all. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

The image is from Spellbinders, and was hot foiled onto a piece of white card stock. Once foiled, I then coloured parts of the image with Copics, then cut the centre out with the matching die.

This panel was then layered onto a shimmery red card stock base – glued flat – and the foiled sentiment inserted into the middle space.

I then added some gems, and some white gel pen detail to some of the berries.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Gals Corner anything goes, option of Christmas taken

Krafty ChicksChristmas

Merry Little Christmas Challengeanything goes Christmas

Love To Craft anything goes

Addicted to Stamps and Moreany occasion

A Perfect Time To Craft anything goes

Snowflake Kisses

Hello once again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has finished their summer break and we start another challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

The blue star background was created using a new product from Uniko. An ink and flip stencil. I did have to watch YouTube videos made by the owner – Bev – to get my head around it.

I used one shade of blue Distress Oxide, and by flipping the stencil and ink blending again, you get the different tones, and the snowflake shape. I still have no idea how it works – but it does. There are a few of the ink and flip stencils on the web site, and I did buy a couple of them, so I’ll be playing with them at some point.

Once the background snowflake was done, I decided to heat emboss some snowflakes on top. I did make sure the inked panel was completely dry before doing this, of course.

I randomly stamped the snowflakes in the background – no rhyme or reason – and used a silver embossing powder.

The snowflake panel was cut with Gina K Master Layouts, a black layer added, and then adhered to the card base.

The foiled sentiment was also layered with black, and adhered flat to the panel.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Peace On Earthanything goes Christmas

Daring CardmakersChristmas in July

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friendsanything goes

Creative Fingers anything goes

Ally’s Angelsanything goes

Crafty Gals Corneranything goes – option of Christmas taken

Merry Little Christmas Challenge anything goes Christmas

Christmas (or not) Bingothe column – free/rectangle/stenciling

ABC ‘N’ and ‘O’

Hello everyone. The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘N’ and ‘O’, Fabiola is the host this time round and the Christmas themes are:

‘N’ for No Stamping and ‘O’ for Off The Edge’

I went with the no stamping option. Here is my card:

I am sure you all know by now that I am a Spellbinders fanatic, and this card was created using one of their die sets and one of their embossing folders.

The background was embossed and then a darker blue ink blended around the outside edges to create a halo effect.

The baubles were all die cut, and all those little pieces of white and blue were die cut and inlaid back into their little places – a fiddly job, but I treated as a therapeutic endeavour.

I also used some white glitter card stock for some portions of the die cuts.

The sentiment is from a previous hot foiling session.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

AAA Colourful Challengemainly blue colour board

A Perfect Time To Craftanything goes

Sparkles Forum Christmashandmade ornament or ornament card

Christmas Crafts All Year Roundanything goes Christmas

Merry Little Christmas Challengeanything goes Christmas

Christmas (or not) Bingo column ‘I’ – free, embossing (wet or dry), glitter (glitter card)

Christmas Lantern

Hello once again everyone. ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘L’ and ‘M’. The themes this time round are:

L is for Lanterns

and

M is for Music

Here is my card for the Lantern theme:

This card was made from the products received as part of the Pinkfresh Studio ‘Create and Connect’ February 2024 virtual event.

The background panel was created using a stitched panel, and glued down to the card base.

I then die cut the frame out of gold glitter card stock, adding it with 3D foam so I could tuck some elements beneath it.

The lantern and foliage were stamped and gold heat embossed, and then ink blended using the matching layering stencils.

A gold foiled sentiment then added to complete the card.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challengeanything goes Christmas

Love To Craft anything goes

Mix It Up anything goes – option of inlaid die cut not taken

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friendsanything goes

Craft Rocketno designer paper

Sparkles Forum Christmas Christmas and use dies

MAWTTearly Christmas

Stencil Funuse stencils – option of birthday not taken


Stencilled Poinsettias

Hello there. I have had a little time from crafting as it was difficult to sit for long periods, but I had planed ahead for my DT cards. This card is for the new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge‘:

The card was created using a Simon Says Stamp layering stencil set. I added some shading with a slightly heavier hand to the middle of the flowers, and along the edges of the leaves. I also used gold paste through the layer for the middle of the flowers.

The panel was then cut down, matted with a thin black layer, and a gold foiled sentiment on black card stock added.

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘anything goes Christmas’ creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Creative Fingers anything goes

Peace On earth Christmas Challengeanything goes Christmas

Allsorts Challenge – flowers galore or anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge anything goes Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friendsanything goes

MAWTT early Christmas

Stencil Funuse a stencil – option of birthday not taken

Floral Christmas Tree

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started their next challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

I began by die cutting all the elements needed from the Spellbinders die set in a selection of card stock from Spellbinders and Concord & 9th.

I die cut the base green leafy layer a couple of times more and layered them together for stability. As you can see, I didn’t use the base rim for the tree, as I wanted the florals and leaves to stand out, and have the background panel show through the gaps in the arrangement.

I also decided to use a dark grey background panel, embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder, to create the dramatic look.

I added the small red atg, backed with gold, to the top right of the card base – not intruding on the tree itself.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Peace On earth Christmas Challenge anything goes Christmas

Halloween and other Occasions Crafts occasions

MAWTTflowers

Aud Sentiments foiling and/or flowers and a sentiment

Jingle Belles RockChristmas and tic tac toe – middle column – red or green/embossing/die cuts

Merry Little Christmas Challenge anything goes Christmas

Christmas (or not) Bingocolumn ‘I’ – free – die cutting – tag

Christmas Four Ways

Hello once again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new ‘anything goes Christmas’ challenge. Here is my card – and the additional makes:

This is only one of four cards created using an idea from a recent online event. The idea is that you stamp half of an A4 piece of card – then cut it up to create four cards.

I decided to try this with a range of snowflake stamps from Gina K Designs, a few different blue inks.

I also added some silver dots as added extras then followed the cutting guide from that class. Here are the other three cards:

I added some extra detail into the white part of the card base, by adding an embossed panel, and on one card I added dies cuts – like the main picture.

Some strips of navy card stock the complete the card base.

The sentiment was die cut from a Time 4 Tea Designs die and adhered in strategic places on the four cards.

I hope you can come and join us in our challenge – and maybe have a go at the half-sheet stamping then cutting technique. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty ChicksChristmas

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge anything goes – option of cute critter not taken

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge make your own background

A Perfect Time To Craft anything goes