foiling

Slimline Christmas

Hello there. I am a Guest Designer for the new challenge at Most Magical Time of The Year with this card, having been one of the top picks in a previous challenge:

I decided to go slimline with this, as I wanted to use two of the berry branch sprigs.

The sprigs are from Pinkfresh Studio, stamped and gold heat embossed, coloured with the matching stencils, then die cut.

The outer frame is from Time 4 Tea Designs, and the inner portion was dry embossed with an old Sue Wilson embossing folder.

I struggled a little with the sentiment. If I used a gold sentiment, it got lost, if I used a coloured sentiment, it stood out too much – so I decided to go with a silver sentiment, and added some silver sequins to tie it in to the card.

The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas or Halloween‘, and I hope you can come and join us. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Inkspirational – Christmas in July

Craft Rocket – Christmas in July

12 Months of Christmas – anything goes Christmas

Sparkles Forum Christmas – Christmas and include gold

Get Creative – Christmas in July

There once was a cat and a ladder….

Hello. This sounds like the start to a limerick or other funny story, doesn’t it? I just couldn’t think what to call the post so I just wrote what I saw…..

The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge. We have reached the letter ‘G’, and Debbie has chosen the theme of ‘G is for Green as the dominant colour’. Here is my card:

I used a previously created green ink smooshed [iece of card, and added an alcohol ink banner at the top. Some different shades of green, with a little gold on the alcohol ink portion.

The cat, ladder, and the leafy sprigs are from Charlie and Paulchen, a German company I have ordered from a couple of times. They have some amazing die sets – very small but perfectly formed – as they say…..

The cat and sprigs were die cut out of white so they stood out from the green background, and the ladder die cut from some brown card, layered a couple of times for dimension.

I added a previously foiled sentiment at the top as it seemed to fit better that way.

Although there are a few layers, I still feel this is quite CAS – compared to recent cards anyway.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations which feature green predominantly. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes – option summertime

Die Cut Divas – die cuts and critters

The Crafty Addicts – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Flowery Birthday Truck

I was inspired by a few challenges to create the following card:

One of the challenges I am entering was to create a birthday card with a car or a truck. I knew I had one or two somewhere, so I searched the Color My Life app and found this truck which came with last year’s Spellbinders Advent Calendar.

I die cut the truck with Concord & 9th card stock, then added the black and gold wheels. I added some light blue card stock to the windows.

The background was created using a piece of Spellbinders patterned paper which has some gold embossed detail to it, and a dry embossed strip – another Advent Calendar item – placed at the bottom to ground the truck.

The flowers are also from the Advent Calendar – die cut and assembled as you see – and added to the card so it would seem they are bursting from the back of the truck.

I added a foiled sentiment strip to the embossed area, and a couple of sequins, also adding some faceted gems to the centre of the flowers.

Another quite fiddly creation – but again – very satisfying.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps and More – birthday

Krafty Chicks – occasions

Crafty Catz – anything goes – option of for a baby not taken

Pinspirational – birthday with a car or a truck

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of butterflies not taken

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

Hello Friend – Mushrooms

Hi once again. I have used this sentiment quite a lot in the past few weeks. I obviously like it, but I can’t keep having the blog post with the same title, so I just added the theme. Here is the card I created:

I have had this stencil and die set from Pinkfresh Studio since attending one of their virtual crafting events. I haven’t completed that class yet, but I wanted to use the set when I saw the colours for the current Color Throwdown challenge.

I stencilled the mushrooms in red and blue inks from Pinkfresh Studio, then stencilled the leafy sprigs in a brown from Altenew. A little grey for the ground/sand stuff at the bottom.

I then used the matching die and played around – for quite a while – with the layout and design.

The final card has a light brown dry embossed background, using a Spellbinders embossing folder. I then die cut the glass dome from some vellum, played around a little more, and decided the brown leafy sprigs were best going behind the vellum. In that way, they aren’t disturbing my trio of mushrooms, and yet still create some background interest.

The sentiment strip was added to the vellum, and behind the solid elements of the mushrooms and sentiment I added glue to adhere the vellum to the light brown embossed panel.

The mushrooms needed something more, so I added some gold shiny dots:

And juts a little more bling with some blue sequins.

This card looks deceptively simple – and yet it took me while to get the ink blending, the layering, and the final composition to where I was happy.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – red, blue, brown, white

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Stencil Fun – stencils – option layering stencils taken

Inkspirational – emboss your background

Friendly Hibiscus

Hello once again. I have been playing with a new die set from The Greetery:

The ‘Botanicuts Hibiscus’ is a layering die set, with three flowers, a bud, and some leaves. I die cut the layers with Concord & 9th card stock, to create this central design.

I added a previously foiled back panel, created using a Spellbinders foil plate, and added a foiled sentiment – a black strip so it would stand out.

I feel it’s quite a simple card, with many layering elements. I gave the flower petals some dimension by curling them slightly.

I also toyed with the idea of adding some shading to each of the flower petals and leaves with Copic markers, but decided to keep the colour of the card stock as it was for a cleaner finish.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – aqua, red, yellow

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – lots of layers

Allsorts – anything goes option birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Beautiful Blossoms – flowers

Sparkles Forum – no stamping

Merry and Bright Lantern

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

The background panel is dry embossed using a very old We R Memory Keepers embossing folder, I then layered that with a gold panel – gutting the centre by die cutting the gold label die, to which I also added a white dry embossed layer.

The images and florals are all from Spellbinders, another mega die-cutting session, then layered together. I first adhered the lantern, then played with placement of all the images until I was happy, and adhered them with a mixture of 3d Foam and wet glue.

I then added some gold gems to the centre of the poinsettias, and a foiled sentiment.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Inkspirational – seasonal

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Creative Inspiration – anything goes

Most Magical Time Of The Year – anything goes Christmas or Halloween

12 Months of Christmas – Christmas – option inspired by Christmas song not taken

Triple B – birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Hello Friend Tag

Hello. A slightly different direction from my usual makes. This time I have turned my hand to a tag……

I used the products from the most recent ‘Let’s Stamp Together’ from Scrapbook and Cards Today. This time round it was Spellbinders. Even though I haven’t done the actual class yet, I have been playing with the products.

The tag was created from a stencil and glitter paste onto some light green card stock, then die cut using an MFT tag die. After running it through the die cutting machine, the glitter paste was more debossed than embossed, which I thought was a different look.

The flower stem was die cut from a light brown card stock, the flowers were die cut, then stitched. Before I adhered the flowers, I die cut some leaves which came with the set and stitched them, but they didn’t match the leaves on the stem, so I die cut the stem again, and just snipped the leaves off to add to the brown branch.

I then added the flowers, some faceted gold gems for the centre of the flowers, then added this to the tag.

Some green sequins for even more interest and dimension, and a previously foiled sentiment.

The ribbon was added after punching and adding the eyelet. I don’t have pink or light green ribbon, so I used this dark green ribbon. I have a stash of this ‘wrinkled’ ribbon, I forget where from now, and think that the tattered edges and wrinkles make for an interesting addition.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Cut It Up – die cuts and make a tag

Mix It Up – anything goes option embossing

The Crafty Addicts – anything goes

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Thanks Very Much

Hello. I was in a fiddly mood for crafting today, so decided to use lots of little layering die cuts from Spellbinders:

This tree die with the flowers and leaves, are from one set. I die cut the tree from a light brown card stock, then die cut the leaves and flowers from Concord & 9th card stock in three shades of pink, and two shades of green.

I did have to go onto YouTube for the placement of the flowers and leaves, but it came together quite quickly.

I added some white enamel dots to the centre of some of the flowers and added lots of little itty bitty pieces of 3D foam to parts of the tree for some dimension.

I felt something else was needed on the background, so I dry embossed an Altenew stencil which was still out on my craft table from a previous card, which I thought added extra interest to the background without taking away from the main image.

The sentiment is a previously foiled strip, and I decided to use gold foiling on a grey strip – black would be too harsh, and I thought a white strip would get lost……

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Tic Tac Toe challenge – middle row – pink, die cut, stencil

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Crafts Galore – anything goes

Triple B challenge – birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Birthday Banners

Hello and welcome. My second post of the day as the June Happy Little Stampers ‘anything goes birthday‘ has started.

Here is my card:

I dry embossed a light blue panel and cut it down slightly to create the border from the card base.

The banner was die cut with blue card, and the triangle from the Spellbinders silver glitter foam – this is o very easy to die cut.

Once I decided on where I wanted each string and each triangle, I glued them down – and I even measured between each little triangle to make them even – did someone say OCD…….?

The sentiment was attached with 3D foam.

I hope you can come and join us with your birthday makes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

CYHTP – embossing folder – option bird/bird houses not taken

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Cupcake Inspirations – anything goes

Joyeux Noel

Hello once again. The new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started. Kate has taken over the helm for this challenge. Here is my card:

The background was created by die cutting a Pinkfresh Studio cover plate and adhering that to a brushed gold panel.

Now onto the main image – lots and lots of die cutting, piecing those itty bitty pieces together – and watching YouTube to figure out how to make her dance: