die cutting

Cardz 4 Galz – Fun Fold

Hello everyone. I have had a short break with hubby – travelling around Italy with a short stop in Switzerland. Hubby drove and we covered 1000kms in four days, through several mountain passes and lots and lots of hair-pin bends – they look like amazing zig-zags on the maps we followed.

Now back and hopefully crafting more, though I must my mojo seems to be having a longer break than me.

Here is the card I made for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz. Sue J is hosting, and she has chosen the theme of ‘Fun Fold’.

The design team has been a little more adventurous with their fun folds than me, but I actually enjoyed the process of creating this card.

I chose the gatefold layout, using patterned paper with a woodgrain effect as a backdrop to the vibrant flowers I was going to add.

The middle panel was another piece of paper from the same collection, the bamboo trellis is from Spellbinders, which I cut and assembled twice so I could make it a little longer.

The flowers and leaves are also from Spellbinders, using a few of their floral sets, assembling and arranging to cover the join in the trellis, and just generally whatever suited my eye.

The panel was then attached to the left side of the gate-fold card, and the foiled sentiment added – a bold black strip with gold foiling to make it stand out. Gems were added to the centre of the flowers – and a few around and about.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations featuring fun folds – I look forward to seeing which folds you use. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Die Cut Divas – die cuts – birthday

A Cut Above – anything goes with die cuts

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Love Those Pretty Papers – anything goes with patterned paper

Inkspirational – word prompt – birthday

G is for Girlfriend

We have started a new challenge at The Alphabet Challenge. Having reached the letter ‘G’, Billie A has chosen the theme of:

G is for Girlfriend

Here is my card:

For this card, I chose to use the Concord & 9th layering stencils for the background, and ink blended using Pinkfresh Studio inks. I then cut this down slightly, added a black layer, then attached to a white card base.

The ‘hey’ part of the sentiment is from Time 4 Tea Designs,. and the ‘girlfriend’ part if from Spellbinders. Both sentiment were layered a couple of times for extra dimension.

I hope you can come and join us following our theme.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Addicted To Stamps & More – make your mark

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Stencil Fun – stencils – option of use own flags colours not taken

Mouse Wedding

Hello once again. We have anew challenge starting at Cardz 4 Galz, Caz is hosting, and has chosen the theme of:

Wedding or Wedding Anniversary

Here is my card:

I took the opportunity to use some Elizabeth Craft Designs die sets to create this fun card. I actually gave this to someone this past weekend for their wedding.

I started by die cutting the mouse heads in a brown card stock. Once die cut, I did a little ink blending around the edges to create some dimension, and assembled all the pieces. The eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hat and floral head band were also die cut and added, with a little ink blending to the ears.

These mice actually come with their bodies too – but I just used the heads for a cute and whimsical look.

The background panel was embossed using a Spellbinders embossing – all the hearts adding to the wedding vibe. The frame was die cut using a Pinkfresh Studio die set.

Hubby and I had our 37th wedding anniversary last week – 37 years! Wow! Obviously, I was married extremely young…..

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – emboss it

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

A Cut Above – anything goes with die cuts

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Happy Birthday to a True Classic

Hello everyone. I have a card today to share as Guest Design Team member for the new challenge at Christmas (or not) Bingo.

This is the board for you to choose a column, and use at least three items from that column. I chose column I – masculine – free – stenciling:

The products I used for this card are from a recent online event by Pinkfresh Studio. I generally attend their virtual events, but wasn’t sure about this one. It was called ‘Cards For Him’ and as I rarely make masculine cards I wasn’t sure – until I saw the sneak-peeks and the range of products for the event.

I used the ‘dotted nested deckled rectangle‘ dies to create the grey frame – layered a couple of time for dimension. I took a white piece and die cut again, and this time I stencilled some light blue clouds onto it to create a background for my little scene. I then stamped the sentiment.

The car was stamped and ink blended using the matching layering stencils, then die cut. This stamp set is called ‘True Classic‘.

The houses behind were ink blended with their matching stencils, then die cut. I didn’t stamp them first as I wanted less defined outlines for those. It did make the layering of the stencils more of a challenge, but thankfully as they were all straight lines it wasn’t a major issue.

The frame was attached to the card base, the inner cloud area inserted, the car added, then the houses tucked in behind.

Hubby and I have had quite a few sports cars in our time, never a blue one though, but when you are grunting every time you try to get out of them low slung things – knees, back, hips – we decided it was time to move to cars which were higher. We have some fabulous memories though.

I hope you can come and join the team and I with your creations following one of the columns. xx

Let’s Crab Lunch Sometime

Hello. I have in my craft room again, taking advantage of the air con in there to cool down a little. I was inspired by a few challenges to create a summer/beach themed card and took the opportunity to use some new products.

The scene die cuts are from Waffle Flower, and the waves themselves also have stencils which you can use to colour them. Once the waves were cut and coloured, I used the additional die which creates the same shape as the wave die at the bottom in a light brown card for the sand. I also used the top of the wave die to create a light blue sky, so they would inlay and slot in together when backed by a piece of white card.

The dark blue frame was die cut from a Pinkfresh Studio die set and glued around the scene. I did cut the scene down around the edges to keep it within the square.

I die cut the crabs from two slightly different orange card from Spellbinders, then layered them together. Die cutting dark grey for the eyes, onto which I highlighted with white gel pen.

When placed onto a white card base, I felt it needed something extra, a little more detail on the plain white, so I also used the Waffle Flower ‘Seashell texture’ plate – no blending, leaving it white.

The framed scene was added, then the two sentiments were stamped using a Heffy Doodle set, then cut using a couple of strip dies, adhered with 3D foam.

I then added the two crabs with 3D foam.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Double D Challenge – beach

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – vacation

Aud Sentiments – fun fold and/or summer and a sentiment

Addicted To Stamps & More – die cuts and/or stencils

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

The Sisterhood Of Crafters – fun in the sun

Feathered Birthday

Hello again. I have a card to share for the new challenge which has just started at The Alphabet Challenge. Vicki is hosting, and having reached the letter ‘F‘, she has chosen the theme of ‘feathers‘. Here is my card:

This card turned out to be very technique based. I didn’t plan it that way, it is just the way things happened – and I quite enjoyed the process.

I started by creating the ink well, a layering stamp from The Greetery. This was die cut, and the label for the ink well stamped then die cut, layered on top of the ink bottle.

The feather is a die cut from Waffle Flower, then ink blended the layers to create the mottled effect on the feathers – then going over very lightly to take some of the whiteness off. The nib as die cut and glued down.

The wax seal is from Spellbinders, using their wax, then the flowers and sentiment on the seal was coloured with gold using a gold paint pen from Crafters Companion.

Then I turned to creating the background panel. I thought a postage die would fit in with the quill and pen, so I used an old Catherine Pooler die for that panel, die cut out of a light grey card stock. I added another layer of light grey card stock on top which had been die cut with a stitched detail around the edge.

The written details were added using a slightly darker grey ink and a Spellbinders press plate. I cannot remember how I did the darker grey rim around the edge of this panel………

All layers were added to the white card base using either glue or 3D foam when I was happy with the layout.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps & More – die cuts and/or stencils

Inkspirational – use stencils – option of geometric not taken

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

Have A Cool Summer

Hello everyone. Cardz 4 Galz is starting a new challenge. Pamela is hosting and has chosen the theme of:

‘Welcome to summer – anything summer related’

Here is my card:

To create this card, I used some die sets from Spellbinders, and an embossing folder -also from Spellbinders.

The background panel is a piece of light blue card stock for the sky, with a darker blue card for the sea, which I used the embossing folder for – looking like waves.

The hippo and the beach scene were all die cut and attached together, and I added some patterned paper for the ring and umbrella to add some pops of colour.

The clouds are die cut from white card stock, and the sentiment was attached as the final addition.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations related to summer. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Crafts Galore – anything goes

A Cut Above – anything goes with die cuts

Aud Sentiments – fun fold and/or summer and a sentiment

Hello Friend

Hello everyone. I have been a little remiss in posting, but I have been creating behind the scenes. I have been enjoying playing with products from some virtual events this past few months, and I have a card to share using products from the recent Simon Says Stamp and Gina K designs collaboration:

I used the colours from the current Color Throwdown challenge to create this card.

The images of the flowers and leaves were stamped, then coloured those using Pinkfresh Studio inks and the matching stencils. I used a heavier hand towards the centre of the flowers and the bottom of the leaves for a little more interest.

The sentiment was stamped in black, then all the images and the sentiment were die cut with the matching dies. The sentiment I layered three times for more dimension.

I took a smaller white panel and used a Pinkfresh Studio Letterpress plate to create the subtle detail in that small white panel, layered that with a black panel, then adhered to the card base.

I then arranged the flowers and leaves, attached the flowers with 3D foam, and the leaves with glue, before adding some enamel dots. The turquoise and yellow dots attached the the centre of the flowers were from Time 4 Tea Designs, and the three small green dots are from Concord & 9th.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – yellow, green, turquoise

Stencil Fun – stencils – option of summer fun

Craft Rocket – no designer paper

Addicted To Stamps & More – dies cuts and/or stencils

Inkspirational – using stencils – option of geometric

Jolly Holiday Branch

It’s time the new challenge at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

I first started by stamping and heat embossing the Pinkfresh Studio berry branch images in gold. I then used the layering stencils to colour them in, then die cut with the matching dies.

Whilst I was heat embossing, I also did the sentiment.

The background was created by using a Spellbinders embossing folder, then attaching a gold glitter frame from some Pinkfresh Studio dies, with some 3D foam.

The images were arranged to my liking around the sentiment, and added with a mixture of glue and 3D foam pieces. For some reason, I had some gold glitter leaves laying around on my desk – so I added them in certain places for added interest.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Crafts Galore – anything goes

A Cut Above – anything goes with die cuts

12 Months Of Christmas Link-up – anything goes Christmas – option of one or two layers not taken

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

A Butterfly Note

Hello. More time in my craft room today to create this card. My goodness – this was a labour of love. It seemed to take forever, and quite a few variations and tried at it……..

To create this card, I used some Waffle Flower products and Pinkfresh Studio inks. I started by cutting the ‘Butterfly Blossom‘ texture die out of white card stock. I then used the layering stencils to colour them all in. There are 5 layering stencils, two for the flowers, and two for the butterflies – the background and then the details on the wings. I didn’t use the fifth stencil – butterfly bodies and flower centres – as I die cut them out of Spellbinders brushed gold card stock.

I also blended a little darker shade for the flower centres, before adding the brushed gold on top to give a little added detail.

Once blended, I die cut the base layer once more and glued it behind to give a little more dimension and stability, then glued down to a card base.

The sentiment is also from Waffle Flower – white shadow layer and brushed gold for the sentiment – two more layers of white behind the words.

The most time I took was choosing which colours – I played with several other combinations until I decided on these colours – but I will play more with this set now I kinda know what is going on…..!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option of summer fun

Craft Rocket – no designer paper

Make My Monday – one or more butterflies