DT card

Hello Beautiful….

Well hello there. A new challenge has started at Cardz 4 Galz and this time we want to see your girlie slimline creations – or DL card if you live here in the UK. Here is my card:

This card has no stamping on it at all – just die cuts – and it took quite a while to figure out what I was doing here, let me tell you…..

I first die-cut the foliage frame in white card, then coloured it with a couple of green Copics. I added it to a white slimline card base using 3D foam to raise it a little, and create dimension and some shadow.

The flowers were die cut from Altenew card stock, as were the two words., with some extra foliage added.

It seems quite simple now I’ve written this post – but it did take me a while…..

I hope you can come and join us – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

The Paper Players – springtime flowers

Crafters Cafe Challenge – anything goes

Colour Hues Challenge – pink and green

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – Layer It

‘H’ for Houses/Homes, and/or ‘I’ for Icicles

Hello once again. It is my turn to host the challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge. We have reached the letters ‘H’ and ‘I’, and we want to see your Christmas and festive creations with the themes of Houses/homes and/or Icicles. Here is my card:

I’m trying to use my patterned papers – I have loads, and sometimes struggle knowing what to do with them. This background paper came as part of a Simon Says Stamp card kit, and is from Whimsy Stamps – I had no problem with using this and the rest of the papers won’t last long, especially when creating festive, winter or Christmas creations.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/Festive makes following one or both of our two themes. The Design Team has created some fabulous inspiration – and very different makes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

My Time To Craft Christmas – Christmas and make a scene

Just Us Girls – stripes

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – anything goes with patterned paper

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HLS CAS – Flames or Fire

Hello. I am continuing to be a guest designer for Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge – and this time the theme is ‘Flames or fire’. Here is my card:

This card took a lot of thinking about – a lot. I was going to go down the fireplace route, then I was going with camp fire, then birthday candles – so much choice actually – but I decided to go with some candles – as you see here.

This is a Stampin Up set – the outline, then a couple of stamps for the filling patterns of the candles, then a stamp for the flames. I ke0pt the colour scheme quite muted, the same on each candle, so the flames seem to stand out more. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

Instead of stamping directly onto a card base, I decided to stamp and die cut the image with a stitched square – just one layer, still CAS, but some added interest.

I hope you can come and join us in our challenge – there are also some other challenges going live each month – a water-colour challenge, a die-cutting challenge, a Christmas Challenge, and even a stencil challenge.

I hope you can come and join us in at least one of our challenges – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Here Is A Place To Start – pick a shape (rectangle candles and square die cut)

Fab’N’Funky Challenge – Christmas

Addicted To Stamps – Christmas

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

SPREAD THE MERRY LITTLE LOVE AND GRAB A BADGE!

Happy Christmas Deer

Hello. A new challenge has started at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. As always, the theme is anything goes Christmas/Festive. Here is my card:

I started with ink blending the background using Distress Inks Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers. Just the two colours – and where they met, a light coverage, as I knew I wanted to stamp the hillside there.

Once the panel was dry, and the hillside stamped, I die-cut the rectangle with a stitched die to add some interest, then stamped the sentiment.

The three deer were stamped in Gina K amalgam ink, then coloured with Copics, adding some blush to their cheeks, and some white gel pen for highlights.

I thought the two prancing deer were looking down at a very drunken deer – but maybe that’s the way my mind is working currently……..

I hope you can come and join us and add some festive creations to your stash – I look forward to seeing what you create. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasion

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Watercooler Challenge – Occasions

Aud Sentiments Challenge – animals and a sentiment

Z is for Zoology

Hello. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the end of the alphabet, and for the letter ‘Z’, Caz has chosen ‘Zoology‘ (Study of Animals). Here is my card:

I actually struggled with this theme. I have lots of animal stamps and dies, but I didn’t know which direction to go in. In the end I went with a rainbow selection of animal from Clearly Besotted. A simple layout and design, with simple colouring.

I toyed with adding die-cut letters, but when I was sorting the layout, it didn’t look right – sometimes you got to go with your gut!

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘Zoology’ inspired creations. The design Team has some amazing creations – we all seemed to go a different way……. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

Shopping Our Stash – rainbow or rainbow colours

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring – week 11

Tea and/or Coffee at Cardz 4 Galz

Hello there. I am the host for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz , and I have chosen the theme of ‘Tea and/or coffee’. Here is my card:

As of next week in the UK, we can start to meet with people in our gardens – these current restrictions are easing slowly, but hopefully the weather will improve so we can as least sit and have a coffeee/tea and a natter…….

I decided to play with a Clearly Besotted stamp set – and my scan-n-cut before my blade became too blunt – and used a bunch of animals meeting up for coffee…………..coffee for me, anyway.

One coloured and die cut, I used a Mama Elephant slimline die for the light grey frame, and the fence, and stuck each animal down as you see.

The owl is holding two drinks as he is waiting for me, holding my drink, as I am taking the photo……in my world – anything is possible!

I hope you can come and join us with your girlie cards following our theme the design team have some amazing inspiration – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Animals Challenge – anything goes with an animal

2 Sisters On The Blog – coffee

Die Cut Divas – slimline card

Addicted To Stamps – Make Your Mark

Paper Minutes Challenge – food and drink

Scruffy Cat Christmas

Hello there. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge for the next couple of weeks. The theme is always anything goes Christmas/festive. Here is my card:

I bought this digital image from Whimsy Stamps quite a while ago, but as with most of the digital images I buy – I forget I have them. I was sorting out my files and folders – cos what else am I going to do to keep busy at the moment – and ‘found’ lots of images I had completely forgotten about…….there will be more of these in the future, I’m afraid. :)

Once printed , and coloured with Copics, I die-cut with MFT wonky rectangles for a little more interest, and then used some patterned card-stock – I forget where from, and found a sentiment stamp from a previous Simon Says Stamp card kit which matched perfectly the colours and the gingham effect.

So this Christmas Scruffy cat turned out to be quite dramatic in the end.

I hope you can come and join us and increase your Christmas stash – I look forward to seeing what you create. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Cup Cake Inspirations – Cats

Colour Crazy Challenge – atg colouring

Bee Happy…..

Hello once again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge, and having reached the letter ‘Y’ – Dawn has chosen ‘Yellow’ as the theme for the card. Here is my creation:

I really enjoyed creating this card. I recently attended a Jenn Shurkus online class about Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. During that class, we made lots and lots of different background ink smooshing, blending, water-colouring with both, and also used Distress water-color card stock, and also Distress heavystock – which I have never used before. I learnt to dry between each layer, to not think too much about what goes where – and just to play….

That class reminded me how brilliant the Distress products are – and how much fun it was to create a background – and to have an inky mess. Now I just can’t stop myself – any excuse to get inky and messy – loving it!

This yellow layer is using two Distress Inks – and layering at least 5 times…….just two colours of yellow. I was also ‘Jennabled’ to purchase the Ranger Heat Tool – so much better than trying to use my embossing tool – much gentler, less warping.

The honeycomb die was cut from white card stock, and those greeny/browny pieces? Well that was another messy ink layered background also die-cut with the same die, and just adding some of the pieces. The white was too stark on it’s own.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations featuring yellow – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps – Die cuts or stencils or both – die cuts for me

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

We Love 2 Create – atg mixed media – (lots of ink smooshing, splattering, watering – inky messing!)

Mix It Up Challenge – atg mixed media with option inlaid die cut – option not taken

Crafty Creations Challenge – anything goes

Spring Rain at Cardz 4 Galz

Hello. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge, and this time Misti has chosen the theme of ‘Spring Rain‘. So – we want to see your girlie cards with umbrellas, rain boots etc. Here is my card:

I used a digital image from Jan’s Digi Stamps, ‘April Showers’, printed then coloured with Copics. As the rain drops on the umbrellas got lost whilst I was colouring – I really did try to go round them but they were too small – I went back in with a white gel pen to make them stand out more.

I also played a little with the size and placement, also adding the sentiment which comes with the same digital set. That’s something I really love about these digital sets – as well as the images, you get a range of matching/suitable sentiments to use too. Jan also supplies some great video teaching on how to layer, and re-size etc – which I find I have to watch every time…………I just can’t remember from one time to the other.

I decided on a dark blue, then googled which colours work best – saw orange was a good suggestion – so here we are. A blue and orange card. The outer layer is white card-stock coloured with a blue Copic to match the image – something I am finding works really well when layering digital images like this. Both the image and blue layer die cut with a stitched rectangle.

I look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Pink Gem Challenge – anything goes

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

Cards Galore Challenge – anything goes

Jan’s Digi Stamps Challenge – anything goes

Christmas Dragon Cuddles

Hello yet again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge for the next two weeks has started. The theme is always anything goes Christmas or festive. Here is my card:

The image is a digital stamp from Lee Holland – I’m afraid I bought quite a few of these dragons – Christmas and otherwise. I have yet to colour any of them apart from this cute couple. What a lovely image, isn’t it?

I printed it onto some Copic friendly card then coloured with a range of Copics. For the penguin body I did take inspiration from the image being coloured by someone else – I think on Facebook – trying to achieve a fluffy/furry kinda look, and I’m quite pleased how it turned out.

I didn’t find a sentiment which seemed to fit, so I left it without, but I’ll definitely add one to the inside.

I also couldn’t find matching card-stock in my huge collection for the layers underneath the image, so I just coloured each of the green and pink borders with one of the Copics I had used – that way it’s sure to match and co-ordinate.

I hop you can come and join us with your Christmas creations – there’s some amazing inspiration from the rest of the Design Team – I hope have time to check them out. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

Crafters Cafe – anything goes

Colour Crazy Challenge – week 9 – anything goes colouring

Crafty Animals Challenge – anything goes with an animal

Love To Craft Challenge – anything goes