Making Spirits Bright

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

There’s a lot of glitter and shine with this card, and I’ll try and show you on the following pictures.

To begin, I started with the Pinkfresh Studio ‘Whispers of Poinsettia’ die and stencil set. I started by using the stencil and ink blended all the layers with different coloured inks, then used the matching die to cut it out.

To add more drama, I used a black panel and cut to an A2 card base size, then used another Pinkfresh die set to cut the frame out of black, and used an embossing folder for the cut out portion of the frame. The poinsettia panel was also die cut with the larger of the frame dies, placed behind the frame, the black embossed panel added behind, and then I added some splatters that with some gold shimmery acrylic paint from Liquitex.

When I say ‘some’ splatters – I kinda went to town with it….

A gold glitter card stock panel was cut, and all the layers added with wet glue.

I added a foiled sentiment and them some ombre glitter gems for the centre of the flowers.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Inkspirational seasonal

A Cut Aboveanything goes with a die cut

We Love 2 Createanything goes mixed media

12 Months of Christmas Link-up anything goes Christmas, option of snowfall not taken

Triple Bbirds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Creative Artiste Mixed Media anything goes mixed media

Crafters Café anything goes – option of Christmas taken

ABC Christmas Challenge – Uncluttered and/or Vertical

Hello once again. ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘U’ and ‘V’. We have the Christmas themes of:

‘U is for Uncluttered’ & ‘V is for Vertical’

Here are my cards

U is for Uncluttered
V is for Vertical

For the first card, I used the ‘Sketched Poinsettia‘ from The Greetery again, and gold heat embossed the image onto some Kraft card stock, using just the one layer of the layering stencils to colour it in. I wanted a softer overall feel to this card. The panel was cut slightly smaller than A2 and attached to a white card base, with the foiled sentiment attached as you see.

The second card took a little more time and planning.

To cover the vertical aspect of the challenge, I used a slimline card base. Onto that I used a Heffy Doodle slimline die set to create the blue layer, then the white layer with three windows. Each of the windows cut out a scalloped square and all three of those squares I ran through an embossing folder to create some detail, making sure the pattern was square for each of them.

The layers were attached to the card base, the squares inserted, then I used a die set from The Greetery for the stockings, and a die set from Scrapbook & Cards Today – received as part of a recent virtual event – to create the tree and candles for the bottom two windows.

The greenery was also part of the die set, arranged as you see, and the foiled sentiment was added.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CYHTP embossing folder – option of trees/leaves not taken

Cut It Upuse more than one die

Mix It Upanything goes – option of fancy folds not taken

Merry Little Christmas Challenge anything goes Christmas

Die Cut Divas anything goes with die cuts

12 Months Of Christmas Link-Upanything goes Christmas – option of snowfall not taken

Red Poinsettia

Hello everyone. I have a card to share for the new challenge at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge.

I again used the ‘Sketched Poinsettia’ from Waffle Flowers Crafts, but this time I used more traditional bold colours.

I first stamped then gold heat embossed the image, then used the layering stencils to colour it in. This was then die cut with the matching die, and put to one side whilst I thought about the background.

The striped red paper was cut to the size of an A2 card, and I then used some letter press plates from Pinkfresh Studio to hot foil the frame and the inner rectangular piece, cutting them out with the matching dies. This gave some subtle gold highlights to certain places of the die cuts.

The poinsettia was added, and then a hot foiled sentiment on the top. The final touch were some gold gems.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Colourful Options any colour, any theme, any combination

Crafts Galoreanything goes

12 Months Of Christmas Link-up anything goes Christmas – option of circles & squares not taken

Crafters Caféflowers

Beautiful Blossoms anything florals

Merry Little Christmas Challenge anything goes Christmas

Teal Poinsettia

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

To create this card, I used the Waffle Flower Crafts ‘Sketched Poinsettia‘ stamp, die and stencil set. I first gold heat embossed the image with Altenew gold embossing powder, used the matching stencils to ink blend and colour the image in, then used the matching die to cut it out.

I used Pinkfresh Studio inks for the main floarl element.

For the background, I wanted a bold back-drop to the flower, so I used a dark blue card stock, and a Spellbinders embossing folder. This panel was cut slightly down to create a white edge.

The Spellbinders sentiment is gold foiled and die cut.

the elements were added as you see, and some dew drops added around and about.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Die Cut Divasanything goes with die cuts

A Cut Aboveanything goes with die cuts

Stencil Funuse stencils – option of nature taken

Merry Little Christmas Challenge anything goes Christmas

Sending Snowflake Kisses

Hello once again. The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge is starting a new challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

I started by die cutting the snowflake panel with white card stock using a Pinkfresh Studio and layering some silver glitter card stock behind to shine through the openings. This was added to the card base, then I set to ink blending the Waffle Flower ‘Postage Collage Snowman’ layering stencils.

I ink blended the images, then created a slightly darker halo effect around each image to highlight them a little more.

This was then die cut using the Postage Collage die, then each image cut apart to create individual pieces, and arranged on the snowflake background.

The sentiment is silver foiled.

For once, no additional embellishments as I thought the glitter card and the foiling were enough. I hope you can come and join us. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Peace On Earth anything goes Christmas

Merry Little Christmas Challengeanything goes Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friendsanything goes

12 Months of Christmas Link-Upanything goes Christmas

Stencil Fun stencils – option of trees and/or leaves not taken

Never Stop reaching For The Stars

Hello everyone. Cardz 4 Galz has started a new challenge. Dawn is hosting this time round, and has chosen the theme of:

Scenic – create a scene or use a scenic topper or paper

Here is my card:

I started by creating the background panel. For this I used water-colour card stock, and sprayed some Hero Arts shimmer spray – quite liberally – to create a vivid and shimmery background.

Whilst this was drying, I created the mountain scene using stencils from Pinkfresh Studio and the recent ‘cards for him‘ event. I wanted purple mountains against the blue background, so used a selection of Pinkfresh Studio inks for the ink blending on the layering stencils. then used the matching dies to cut them out.

before adhering the blue panel to a card base, I took some stamps from the same event and heat embossed the shooting star in a silver glitter embossing powder – a subtle effect but there none-the-less.

The panel was then glued down to the card base. the mountains glued flat also, the the sentiment stamped and die cut with the matching dies, also adhered flat.

The final addition was some facetted gems.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angelsanything goes

Tic Tac Toemiddle row – any colour – free – sentiment

Mix It Upanything goes – option of mixed media taken (shimmer spray, ink, embossing powder)

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 Angelsanything goes

Addicted To Stamps & Moremake your mark

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friendsanything goes

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

Joy Of The Season

Hello everyone. ABC Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge. We have reached the letters ‘N‘ and ‘O‘, and the Christmas themes this time are:

N is for Non-Christmas Stash

&/or

O is for One Layer Cards

Here is my card for the ‘O is for One Layer Card’:

I started by gold heat embossing the Pinkfresh Studio ‘Berry Branch’ stamp set onto a white card base, then used the matching layering stencils to colour the image.

The sentiment was also gold heat embossed.

So – truly a one layer card. No added bling (very unlike me!), and looking very clean and simple. The Design team has some fabulous inspiration for both of the themes for this month, and I hope you are able to join us with your Christmas creations following one or both of our themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps & Moremake your mark

Everybody Art Christmas

Daisy ChainChristmas in July

Craft RocketChristmas in July

Merry Little Christmas Challenge anything goes Christmas

12 Months of Christmas Link-Upanything goes Christmas

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 Friendsanything goes

Ally’s Angels anything goes

Ellibelle’s Corneranything goes

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 Rocketno designer paper

Addicted To Stamps & Moredies cuts and/or stencils

Inkspirationalusing stencils – option of geometric