Monday, June 30, 2025

Hello Friend, Happy Birthday

I have another new card today.   This one is Card #2 of my CraftMad card swap.
 
Card #2 is an embossed card with layers.
 
It took a little while to settle on a design, but once inspiration hit, the card came together fairly quickly.
 
I rumaged through my Snippets container, and made a selection of rainbow colour strips of cardstock.  I ran them through the Cuttlebug using the 'hello' embossing folder.
  
The strips were then placed in rainbow order, trimmed to suit the placement of the sentiment and then mounted to cardfront with foam tape.
 
Honey Bee 'Bitty Buzzwords' stamps & dies were used.  
 
 
I diecut 'hello' & 'friend' in alternating black & white cardstock (black for the shadow, white for the text). 
Sentiment was also mounted with foam tape, and placed at the bottom of the cardfront.

  
'Happy Birthday' was stamped on the inside with Versafine Claire Onyx black.
 
 
Quite a fun cheerful card.
 
Linking with following Challenges:
 
 
 
Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)
Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.


Sunday, June 29, 2025

Have a Bloomin Good Day

A slightly different card from me today.  
 
You may recall I have been participating in a swap group, regularly swapping cards with a 'fun fold' technique ..... most of which have not been 'fun' for me!
 
Well, I persevered and I finally made a card I am happy with and had fun making (even after a few false starts with the cutting and measuring 😆).
 
So here is one of my cards for the card swap - a Double Z fun fold.
 

I started with a 300gsm speckled cardbase I have had since I first started crafting way back in the 90's - I came across the last few pieces when I did a recent sort out!
 
I then selected some DP from a new 'Craft Smart textured paper stack' I purchased recently.
 
The chosen stamp set was 'build-a-bouquet' from Australian Simply Cards Magazine Issue 113 (I think)
 
After planning layout and cutting, I stamped the various sentiments in Versafine Claire Black Onyx directly onto the DP, then attached them to their respective positions using double sided tape.
 
I then stamped the vase on vellum, in Versafine Claire Black Onyx, heat embossed with clear, then die cut the vase.  The bunch of flowers & single flower were stamped in Versafine Claire Black Onyx on 210gsm white cardstock, and hand coloured with Copics.  The bunch of flowers was cut out by hand and the single flower was die cut.   The stems were stamped directly onto card front, the vellum vase placed over the stems with double sided tape, then the flowers were added to the front with foam tabs to add dimension.  Flowers were highlighted with FolkArt Papier Finish in Antique.  A final touch of bling with a spray of brown pearls added above the sentiment.
 

I am really quite pleased with how this card has turned out ...... so much so that I didn't want to send it to my swap partner LOL  I think I can see a few more Double Z Fold Fun cards in my future!
 
 
 

Participating in the following challenges:

 
Die Cut Divas - June Challenge - The tonings of the card were inspired by the current challenge for Die Cut Divas - I love the browns/pinks.
 
 
 
 Addicted to Stamps & More #495 - Die cuts &/or Stencils
 
 
 
 
Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)
Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.


Saturday, June 21, 2025

Hello, Thanks so much

More time in the craft room recently :) yay!!
 
Another selection of cards for my swap group. 
 
For May, we swap 2 cards of our own choice ......   easy right?   I was happy to make a start on the cards early in the month, but things got in the way and the cards were delayed in getting to their partner.
 
Anyway, here are my cards.
 
Card#1 

This is an Altenew stamp & die set - Wild Flora (2020) - flowers were stamped with Versafine Onyx Black and heat embossed with Zing Clear embossing powder.  I hand painted the flower & leaves using Altenew Inks.
 
I made the background using a stencil with a blending brush and lightly blended using Altenew Ink in the centre.  When mounting the background onto the matt, I thought it got a little lost, so I ink blended the edges as well, and added a few splatters.  I then die cut the sentiment twice from black and layered onto the background.  
 
The background was cut using Waffle Flower A6 layer dies and layered onto an A6 300 gsm White Cardbase.  
 
The flowers and leaves were then positioned on the front in a pleasing manner with foam tabs to add dimension.
 
 
Linking this card with a few challenges
Retro Rubber Challenge #257 - Stamp set from 2020 - using right column Stencil, coloring, die cut
 
 
 
 
Card#2
 

I came across some elements set aside from a previous crafting session and thought it was perfect for the swap.  Flowers were stamped with White ink, and heat embossed with White embossing powder, then the flower & leaves were ink blended using brushes.
 
The flower element was mounted onto a gorgeous die-cut that I received in a Swap many years ago, then that was mounted onto the purple handmade paper, which in turn, has been mounted onto the white A6 300gsm white cardbase.
 
Sentiments 'thanks' (from Honey Bee Stamps Bitty Buzzwords) was die cut from black & white, layered & mounted with 3d foam dots to background.  'so much' (from Honey Bee Stamps Miss You Big time) was stamped in StazOn black onto white cardstock scrap pieces, then mounted onto front of card. 
 


Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)
Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.


Friday, June 6, 2025

Thinking of you today and every day

I have been a bit sidetracked in the craft room of late, but sadly, I was in need of a sympathy card to give to my sister.  Her mother-in-law, who turned 90 in February this year, passed away on Saturday night.
 

 
This is an Altenew stamp & die set - Wild Flora - flowers were stamped with Versafine Onyx Black and heat embossed with Zing Clear embossing powder.  I hand painted the flower & leaves using Altenew Inks.
 
I recently purchased some stencils and blending brushes from Amazon and was keen to have a bit of a play.
 
I made the background using one of the stencils with a blending brush and lightly blended using Altenew Ink in the centre.  When mounting the background onto the matt, I thought it got a little lost, so I ink blended the edges as well, and added a few splatters.  I then stamped the sentiment directly onto the background.  
 
The background & matting were cut using Waffle Flower A6 layer dies and layered onto an A6 300 gsm White Cardbase.  
 
I layered the background onto the purple matting, then layered the purple matting onto the white cardbase.  The flowers were then positioned on the front in a pleasing manner with foam tabs to add dimension.
 
Linking this card with a few challenges
 
TicTacToe #272 (centre column - layers /Free/ Floral/foliage
 

Just Add Ink #754 - Choose Two - DieCut-Flower-Ribbon - I chose DieCut/Flower
 
Just Us Girls #778 - Die Week - Layers - I used several dies to make up multiple layers

 
 
Cut it Up #331 - anything goes (with a die)
 
 
Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)
Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.


Sunday, April 20, 2025

A New Home

Some friends are moving into a new home, so I just had to make a card!
 
David is a friend I met through my camera club way back in 2011 and his wife Carol is a quilter!
 
Suffice to say, I knew what type of card I was going to make.
 
 
I found a great tutorial online to follow, and the card came together very quickly.
 
The longest and hardest part was choosing the DSP - which was from my stash of 6" DSP I have had for quite some time.
 
I made the cardfront using 210 gsm, and cut up several strips of DSP, and following the tutorial, placed the strips accordingly.
 
Picking which embossing folder to use for the 'quilt block' was fairly easy, the one I chose has some 'double wedding ring quilt' inspiration ...
 

I ink blended the edges of the cardfront to add further dimension & interest, then added a strip of DSP.  The 'quilt block' was added to cardfront with foam tape.
 
The sentiment was printed on computer, and foiled with my Mini Minc in gold foil, then mounted to the front of the card using foam tape.
 
To finish, the cardfront was added to a 300gsm A6 cardbase.  

Linking with the following Challenges
TicTacToe #268 - middle row - Any colour/Free/Embossing
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)
Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.