embossing folder

For Someone Special

Hello everyone. I am pleased to have been asked to be a special Party Guest for the new challenge at Ellibelle’s Corner Garden Party, after being selected in the Top 3 for one of her challenges with this card here.

The theme for the new challenge is – anything in or from the garden. Here is my card:

I must have been in a really fiddly and faffy mood to create this, as the butterfly – from A Pocket Full Of Happiness – takes a lot of die cutting in different colours, and then inlaying each itty bitty piece…….

I started by cutting the base outline, then the butterfly out of white card stock a couple of times, and glued it together.

The next steps was to gather colourful pieces of card for each flower, and the wings of the butterfly and set-to die cutting. Each colour was inlaid back into the butterfly, and then glossy accents applied to create a stained glass effect.

When that was dry, I added a top layer of the die cut butterfly, this time cut out of a blush card stock and laid that on top. This also covered any of the over-flowing glossy accents.

I wasn’t happy with those tiny areas on the edge of the butterfly wing, so I added small pink gems to each and every one of them – I told you I must have been in a fiddly and faffy mood.

I wanted a bold background for the butterfly, so used some Concord & 9th card stock, trimmed it a little smaller than the card base, and used a Spellbinders embossing folder.

The butterfly was glued down, and then the foiled sentiment added.

I hope you can come and join us at Ellibelle’s Corner for her Garden Party. I hope to see you in the gallery. xx

White Flowers

I was working on this card yesterday, and managed to finish it today, following the inspiration photo at Beautiful Blossoms:

Here is the inspiration photo I worked with:

The first thing I did was to search my CML app for flowers/florals. As you can imagine, literally hundreds came up. I narrowed the search to dies only, and as I knew that The Greetery had quite a few, I narrowed the search for that manufacturer only.

Taking several die sets, I used water-colour card and die cut the stems and then the flowers. The stems I coloured in my Zigs – quite roughly – then added some very light grey to the centre of each flower.

There were some wooden looking stems, so I used a dark brown for those.

Once I had a collection of coloured and layered elements, I used some other dies from The Greetery – the capsule series – to create the scalloped blue layer to bring in the blue of the vase in the inspiration photo, then added a frame which I also embossed using one of their embossing folder.

This frame was attached with thin strips of 3D foam, more towards the outside of the frame, as I knew I wanted to tuck some of the elements behind and under it.

The elements were arranged and attached with a mixture of 3D foam pieces – some very tiny – and other parts with glue.

I was thinking of adding a sentiment, but decided against it – I will put something together for the inside instead.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes with flowers – inspiration photo

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Give A Crafter A Cookie – in the garden

Die Cut Divas – dies cuts and/or dry embossing – both were added

Floral Birthday

Hello there. I have a card to share inspired by the current challenge at Festive Friday:

This floral strip is an off-cut from a previous card I ink blended, using a Kristina Werner layering stencil set (Aubrey Blooms). I thought these florals looked too good to be thrown away, so came up with this layout.

I took a white panel and ran it through my machine with a Spellbinders embossing folder. I then aligned the floral strip with that panel, and ran that through too.

I then took a sentiment die from a Simon Hurley/Spellbinders set. Usually the letters would fall out – but they stayed in – so I stuck them in more securely at the back with sticky tape, then added another sentiment banner die.

This was then adhered to the card, and three green gems from Concord & 9th added to complete the requirements of the challenge.

Festive Friday – 3 items from list – ink blending + epoxy embellishment + birthday sentiment

Speedy Tulips

Hi there. I decided to have a go at the current challenge at As You See It. This time, it is a speed challenge – make a card within 10 minutes, and the theme is ‘tulips, or other spring bulbs‘.

This is the second attempt at this challenge, as my first attempt – I dropped a die into my machine, my glue was blocked – and I hadn’t figures out where each die cut piece went – so the time went over, hence the second attempt:

I used an older Sizzix die set, then all the Concord & 9th card stock I wanted to use for the flower and the leaves, got out my Spellbinders embossing folder and a white panel, my card base, and the sentiment die from Time 4 Tea Designs.

Off we go. The panel was embossed first and taped to the card base.

The layers for the flowers and leaves were die cut – several pieces through at once – then the sentiment with it’s shadow. That took over 6 minutes…..

I then assembled all the layers with glue, stuck them down onto the panel, added the sentiment – done – phew!

Only just though – it was tight:

A couple of errors found whilst speedily gluing – the left hand leaf has the lighter green attached to the back……and I missed off one of the mid pink layers on the tulip – so added it anyway on top……but it still looks pretty, I think.

On a previous speed challenge I did stamping and (bad) colouring, which is why I thought die cutting would be a better way to go……..perhaps not such an intricate one – not realising until I did the first card how many little pieces there were – but I was going to get it done, no matter how many times I had to try…

I shall be entering the following challenges:

As You See It – speed challenge and tulips or other bulb flowers

Make My Monday – say it with flowers

Hang In There – You Can Do It

Hello once again. I am here with a card for the new challenge starting at Cardz 4 Galz. Billie A is hosting, and she has chosen the theme of:

Brown & Green, with twine/ribbon

Here is my card:

I started with die cutting all the layers of the cat (Spellbinders/Bibi Cameron) in Kraft and white – some pink for the ears and tongue, as well as green for the eyes.

Before layering together, I thought about how I could ‘hang’ the cat, so I knew where to place his paws, and found some twine I had in the drawer in my kitchen (who doesn’t?) and grabbed a piece.

Starting with the green background panel, and a Spellbinders embossing folder, I attached the twine to the back, then glued to the card base.

The cat was assembled, then attached with 3D foam, making sure it was over the twine where needed, and where it looked right.

The sentiments were stamped and then die cut to create the banners you see, and attached with 3D foam.

I hope you can come and join us following the theme set by Billie A – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Allsorts – anything goes

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of embellishments not taken

Love To Craft – anything goes

You Are Amazing

Hello everyone. I’ve had a little break – a few nights in Tenerife with hubby – and then after we returned home, we had to say goodbye to another of our cats, which would be the second in 5 weeks. Needless to say – we are heartbroken and been trying to come to terms with the double loss, so close together. We do still have 2 other cats – one is 10 years of age, the other is 19 years of age – both getting extra cuddles – when they allow it….

I have been crafting but not really had my head right to be able to post anything, but hopefully I can continue.

I start with a card inspired by the current colours at Color Hues:

The colours they provide this time are lime green and violet. I wanted those two colours to stand out, so kept this quite simple – for me, anyway.

I first die cut the flowers from Concord & 9th ‘Handpicked’ die set, just using the smaller florals in this large die set, and lime green card from my stash, and the ‘Grape Soda’ card from Concord & 9th. The flowers were assembled, and set to one side.

The background panel was embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder, and glued to the card base.

The oval frame was created by die cutting a Pinkfresh Studio die set, which was then applied to the embossed panel with thin 3D foam strips.

The flowers were arranged and each of the flowers has a little piece of 3D foam, with glue on the base of the stems.

The sentiment is from Pinkfresh Studio, stamped, then die cut with the matching die, and also layered with 2 more die cuts. To attach this, I had to cut some teeny tiny 3D foam pieces for the part inside the oval, then glue where it was on the oval.

The final touch was to add some Spellbinders gems to the centre of the flowers.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Hues – lime green and violet

Aud Sentiments – embossing wet or dry and/or flowers, and a sentiment

CYHTP – embossing folder, option of embellishments taken

Paper Circles

Hello again. It is time for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz, and Johanna has chosen the theme of:

A circle, or anything with circles

Here is my card:

fir this card, I wanted to use some of my patterned paper pieces, and also decided to go with a slimline card base.

I first die cut several circles out of different papers, different sizes, using Hero Arts nesting circle dies. I wasn’t sure which I wanted to sue, so cut quite a few.

I used a cream piece of card for the background, and used a Spellbinders embossing folder, arranging the circles to suit my eye, which did involve a lot of moving around…

The white circle was cut using a Gina K Designs circle tag, and stamped with a heart and small piece of foliage – I can’t remember which stamp set and which company now.

All the circles were die cut again with white card to make them a little thicker, then attached to the card base with 3D foam, strategically placed so I could overlap them.

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

Take Time For Yourself

Hello everyone. I have a card to share after some crafty playtime yesterday, and utilising some of the colours which sang to me in the current challenge at AAA Colourful:

The colours I chose are green and blue, with a hint of light pink/coral.

The first step was to stamp the floral images from Pinkfresh Studio ‘Beautiful Day‘. I stamped first in a light brown ink, used the matching layering stencils to colour it in – adding extra shading at the base of the florals, and some of the leaves – re-stamped in black (having left the stamp in the original place in my Misti) then used the matching die set to cut them out.

I find it I stamp in a lighter shade, then re-stamp in the bolder or black ink after ink blending, there is a more bold outline – and no chance of smudging the black ink if used before ink blending. A tip from Pinkfresh Studio virtual classes which works for me.

The next step was to plan my background layers.

The background panel was dry embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder – choosing something with detail – nit too much – but which wouldn’t detract from the florals.

I also wanted a background frame, so I used Pinkfresh Studio ‘Nested Hexagons: double stitched‘ applied thin 3D foam to back of the frame – inserting the middle cut-out piece – then placing the frame on top. This was placed higher on the embossed panel, to make room for a sentiment below.

Next step was to arrange the florals. I did do some trimming of the images so I could have more flexibility with placing them, then attached with a mixture of 3D foam and glue.

The pre-packaged sentiment was attached, then some Pinkfresh Studio blue gems added.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CYHTP – embossing folder with option of flowers taken

Ellibelle’s Corner Garden Party – anything in or from the garden

Addicted To Stamps & More – make your mark

AAA Colourful – colour inspiration

Love To Craft – anything goes

You Are Plane Awesome

Hello once again. The Alphabet Challenge has started another round of the Alphabet. Billie A has chosen the theme:

A is for in the Air

Here is my card:

I made this card as our God Son has been accepted into the WWE world in the USA, and is going to their training camp in Florida. What an achievement for him. We wish him all the best in the world.

I started by creating the plane from a Spellbinders die set – Fly Away – then hunted for a flowing banner, which I found in a Heffy Doodle set ‘Flying High‘. The sentiment was stamped then die cut with the banner die.

I wanted lots of details and some dimension for the scene, so I also used the Spellbinders die set called ‘Tunnel Clouds‘, and three different shades of blue card stock, playing with the placement and ararngement a little to create a large enough area for the plane and banner to sit in.

When I first put the layers together, they looked a little ‘plane’ (forgive my pun……) so I then a Spellbinders embossing folder on all three layers called ‘Cloud Nine‘, lining up each of the three layers so the pattern ran across seamlessly, then took my white pigment ink pad and gently ran it across the top to highlight the raised areas.

The final step was to add some sequins, because I saw no reason not to really…….added bling for an up-and-coming international wrestler……!

I hope you can come and join us with your creations following our theme. There are lots of options to be able to create, as you can see from the DT inspiration. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Tic Tac Toe – middle column – die cuts/emboss/layers

Cut It Up – die cuts and something with wings

Cocoa Kisses

I created a card inspired by the challenge at 52 CCT, where the current theme is Christmas and Mug:

I started by die cutting and assembling the Spellbinders Santa mug from the die set called ‘Cocoa Greetings’. You do have the option of creating a penguin and deer also – but I was feeling that Santa vibe.

Once assembled, I took a piece of a light teal blue card stock and used a Spellbinders embossing folder to create a snowflake background, stamped the sentiment – also from Spellbinders, and die cut that with it’s matching die.

I added some small black gems for the buttons on his tunic.

A fairly straight-forward card which came together quite quickly, once I had decided on the colours.

I shall be entering into the following challenges:

52 CCT – Christmas and Mug

Peace On Earth – Christmas with optional mood board