MFT stitched wonky squares

ABC Christmas H and I

Hello. It is time for a new challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge – and it’s my turn to host.

The theme letters this time are ‘H’ for Hand Drawn, and ‘I’ for Inside. I have put a couple of prizes up for this challenge.

The first prize is for my Top Pick and is Concord and 9th ‘Christmas Florals’ stamp set:

And the second prize will be awarded randomly – I shall use a random number generator – so everyone is in with a chance of winning the following stamp and matching die set from Thirsty Brush and Co, ‘Under The Mistletoe’:

I made a card for each letter – well – I made two cards for the first – ‘H’ for hand drawn, as I liked drawing these little baubles on a string so much. White gel pen to colour them:

The first sentiment is from Altenew, and the second sentiment if from a freebie stamp set – my handwriting just won’t cut it! Trust me – I tried – and had to bin a card or two.

My card for ‘I’ for Inside (a frame)is:

I was going to create something special on the inside of a card – but I ‘found‘ this MFT stamp set and decided to put my bear ‘inside’ a frame……..the bear and the colouring were the easy part – it was sorting out the frame and the layers and the position on the card……phew! It took some thinking about, believe it or not.

Anyhoo – I hope you can come and join us in this challenge – and be in with a chance of winning one of the two prizes – and badges for your blog, or course.

There is some fabulous inspiration from our Design Team – I look forward to seeing what you create – and good luck for the prize winning! xx

I shall be entering the following challenges for the Kraft card:

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – anything goes – option to use Kraft

Creative Fingers Challenge – anything goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

I shall be entering the ‘Bearing Gifts’ card into the following challenges:

Crimbo Crackers Challenge – Christmas and Animals

Pink Gem Challenge – anything goes colouring

Time Out Challenge – purple – a lot or a little

Penguins, Quarters, reindeer

Hello there everyone. There is another challenge starting at ABC Christmas Challenge, and this time the letters are ‘P’ for Penguins, ‘Q’ for quarters, and ‘R’ for Reindeer.

Here are my cards for this challenge:

I was so inspired by this challenge, that I did cards which covered all three letters. I hunted through my MFT stash to come up with the images, and I even enjoyed colouring them! I know – I don’t usually…..

For the first card I used some Distress Oxides and ink blended a background, cutting out four squares as a backdrop for the penguins. The embossing folder is from Sue Wilson. The die-cut sentiment is from Altenew, and stacked with three layers for dimension to match the height of the squares.

For the second card I used the same embossing folder, ink blended – just a little – some of the blue Distress Oxides, but used the de-bossed side, instead of the embossed side.

I hope you can come along and join us this time, I am sure you have something suitable in your stash for at least one of the letters – if not all of them. I look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery. 🙂

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – Christmas with the option of reindeer

Dis Digi designs – things with wings or a tail

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

My Time To Craft – Christmas in July

Otters and Christmas and Colours

Hello there. I am afraid I have been crafting…..and have produced several cards for several different challenges. There is a lot of inspiration out there at the moment, and whilst I have time to craft, I am enjoying using the themes and colours for these challenges.

The first card is using the MFT ‘Otterly Love You‘ set – again – as it was still out on my desk, and I thought I would get inky and messy, water-colouring and distressing.

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The layout is taken from the current MFT Sketch Challenge, and other than the Distress Oxides and the Zigs – a completely MFT card. I always want to do scenes but struggle with the organisation of the products, so a sketch like this is ideal – I can do little mini-scenes in each square.

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As you see, completely different to the card from yesterday, as I water-coloured the otters in several brown colours, then went back in with a clean water brush to remove part of the colour in the centre of each otter. The rocks and fish also come with that stamp and die set.

This card will also be entered into the current challenge at Moving Along With The Times, with the theme of wild animals.

This second card is completely different:

A simple card – sorry it’s black and gold again (last one, I promise) – and using the Altenew ‘Poinsettia and Pine‘ stamp and die set. The poinsettia stamped and heat embossed in gold, some gold embossing powder added to the gold layer below it to make it match, and the die cuts used were from Catherine Pooler.

This card will be entered into the current challenge at CAS Christmas Card Challenge – poinsettia as a theme – and the current challenge at CAS on Sunday – CAS Christmas in July.

My third and final card is an homage to Bev at Uniko. She has lost a fur baby recently, so it can’t be an easy time for her and her family, so a little support is appreciated, I’m sure.

Today she is hosting her third stamping retreat – a very busy lady! I have been to the previous two retreats and not able to make this one, but as I am using the colours from CAS Colours and Sketches – Bev and Uniko came straight to mind…….

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I use the challenge colours of Powder Pink for the Concord and 9th Sketched Stripes Background, the Lemon Lime Twist for the little leafy stamps you see, and as I don’t have Coastal Cabana, I used the Catherine Pooler Aquatini instead.

This is another kind of card I struggle with – one layer card. Why did I test myself again? The current challenge at Less Is More is for a one layer card and using stripes……they don’t make it easy, do they? 🙂

I hope you all have a great weekend……….I feel some more crafting coming on…..I hope hubby doesn’t want any tea today………

Majestic Blooms and a Bear

Hello again. I have found time to craft again. Once I start, I seem to keep going – and going – and going!

The first card is inspired by the current challenge at CASology and AAA cards:

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I used the MFT Safari Party, and coloured the bear using my zigs. I framed him in the MFT stitched wonky squares – cutting two squares closely together for the frame – and raised everything with foam pads.

The second card is completely different:

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I wanted this card to be quite large, as the Majestic Bloom flowers are large, and I wanted to put three of them on. To save a little on the white space, I used the not yet released Needlework Motif stamp (yes – freebie from the Altenew Daventry crafting day) and heat embossed in clear on the white card.

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I then took the cover plate die – yet another freebie on the day – cut it out in white card and used that almost like a trellis to put my flowers onto.

After stamping the flowers using the colours from the current challenge at Color Throwdown, I arranged them as you see.

This card will also be entered into the Moving Along With the Times challenge – flowers as main focus – and June Inspiration at Altenew.

A Tweet Hello

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Hello everyone. I have in my craft room again, and this is third attempt at making a card. I have been trying some water-colouring for another challenge, and some die-cutting and stamping for yet another challenge – but my results were definitely less than ideal. In fact – I binned them! I was so frustrated!

I took some time out with my puddy tats, and then went back to other ideas completely – and this card just came together! Isn’t it strange how that happens?

I used my new collection of Tim Holtz Distress Oxides – fabulous deal they were – and blended on some card, then added some water droplets. The little birdies – aren’t they cute? – are from MFT ‘My Tweet Hello‘, which I stamped then coloured with my Zigs. I just coloured en bloc, no shading, as I wanted some vibrant colours so they would stand out from the little squares I put them on.

The wonky squares are from MFT, and were just the right size to add the little birdies to. I purposefully moved the squares around so they didn’t all have the pink and blue on the same side, just for that little added variety.

I may venture into my craft room again, but I’ll to gird my loins…..it may help if I clear away everything from my desk, and then start anew…….that’s a thought! I’ll let you know how I get on….

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch

Addicted to Stamps and More – anything goes

Clean and Simple on Sunday – CAS cute

Aud Sentiments challenge – cute and sentiment

Vase of pink flowers

Hello again. Here is a card inspired by the current challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More and Sweet Stampin’:

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a close up of the sentiment:

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I took the inspiration photo fairly literally and stamped a lot of the flowers from Altenew ‘Strength Blooms‘. After using the matching die cuts, a played with the layout a little. As the inspiration photo had some picture frames in the background, I took my MFT ‘Horizontal Collage Cover-Up‘ and just embossed it into the card base in the top right corner – I think you can just make it out. The frames on the photo are also off-set, not central, which is why I did this with the cover-up die.

I then took an MFT ‘wonky stitched square‘ die and cut what I used for the planter. The leaves aren’t actually the leaves that go with this stamp set, and are from the Altenew ‘Ornamental Flower‘ stamp set – so I didn’t use the flowers again – but I did use the leaves!

The sentiment just sang to me, and fit perfectly along the edge of the card. even though the card may look slightly off-set, the sentiment brings it together – do you think so?

I shall be entering the following challenges:
Addicted to Stamps and More – photo inspiration

Sweet Stampin’ – flowers

Springtime Azalea

Hello everyone. I have trying out a technique inspired from Jennifer McGuire today. She recently posted a video outlining a layering stamping technique using a template. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa0eeT3vXac&t=1232s

Here is my template:

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I tried it out on this stamp set, even though the set itself is quite easy to layer up anyway, but I found it very easy once you had got your head around it. This really is a great way to make lots of flowers at the same time – which is one of the reasons I put so many on these cards!

The flowers were made using the ‘Jennifer McGuire’ technique, using a range of Altenew inks, and then I set to organising them on my card base.

The layout is from the current CAS Colours and Sketches challenge, and organised to match the current Just Us Girls challenge, which is a photograph of lots of little flowers. I shall also be entering the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. Even though ‘The Beast From The East’ and ‘Storm Emma’ are both bombarding the UK, there were lots of little spring flowers trying to pop their little heads up – before the snow!

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