Thinking of You, Happy Birthday

I got some time in the Craft Room, yay!

Card #1 

I used my ProvoCraft Happy Birthday embossing folder - one of the very first embossing folders I bought back in the 90's - to make the background, inked the edges and then attached to the front of 300 gsm card base with 3d foam tape. 

Die Cut some balloons out of snippets of DSP in my stash and added to the cardfront with foam tape.  I then hand drew the streamers.

 

Linking with  

Snippets Playground #540 

 

AAA Birthday   Use patterned paper

 

Card #2

For my next card, I used a handmade stencil with circles cut out and ink blended some circles, and stamped some Kaisercraft Butterflies in black ink.  

The cardfront was attached to a cardbase that was inked around the edges.

A final addition of black gems for a touch of bling!

Allsorts challenge - All Creatures Great & Small

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.

You're never more than a thought away

I had the opportunity to try a new technique - well new to me - floating strips.

 

I came across a few lovely examples around the blogs and then set about making a card.

 

 

I cut up some strips from a handmade background that I wasn't particularly happy with that has been in my stash for a while.  I traced one of my circle dies on a piece of paper, placed a piece of acetate on top, then positioned the strips over the circle using Connect Glue.  I then cut out a large circle from the acetate using Spellbinder nested circles dies.

I placed foam tape behind the strips and positioned the circle towards the top of the cardfront.

 

I positioned a die cut of a water windmill received in a CraftMad swap many years ago, and has been sitting in my stash waiting for the perfect opportunity, on top of the circle.  I then stamped the sentiment from Stampin Up Whimsical Words. 

 

A final scatter of bling to finish off! 

 

Linking the above card with the following challenges: 

 

The neglected stuff challenge

 

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.

Best Wishes, To My Friend

Time for another card swap - CM June swap cards – Christmas & Sketch (once again, I was extremely late in making and sending these cards)

Card #1 – Black & White + 1 colour

I knew which direction I was going to go with this one - black & white + Gold

 

Thanks to my swap partner for taking the photo :)

 

I die cut a selection of flowers, leaves and stems from the Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms die set using my Cuttlebug.

 

I die cut a black cardfront using my Waffle Flower A6 Nesting Rectangles.

 

I played with the layout of flowers for a while until I was happy, then proceeded to attach flowers using a combination of glue and foam squares.

 

I attached the black cardfront to the white cardbase, then finished with gold sticker 'best wishes' sentiment.

 

No added bling for this card.

 

Linking Card #1 with the following challenges:

 

AAA birthday #88 - flowers 

 

 Just Us Girls #835 - Die Week

 

 

Card #2 – Tic Tac Toe

I went with the middle column - Bright Colours, Friend, Gems

 

 

I settled on the 'bright colours' option and knew I wanted to utilise a rainbow and as I was browsing through my stamps, I came across my Altenew Mini Delight Mini Paintbox .... perfect!  I have had this stamp in my stash for a little while, and I don't think I have used it yet!

I positioned the paintbox and sentiments then stamped using the Couture Creations stamp positioner so that I could stamp twice and get a good impression.

 

I coloured in the 'paint pots' using Altenew Inks and then stencilled the background using the same Altenew Ink colours, then added Crystal Accents to the paint pots.   I then trimmed and attached the cardfront to the cardbase.

 

I added gems with glue, the final element in the Tic Tac Toe.

 

This card came together quite quickly, and I am very happy with the way it turned out.

 

Linking Card #2 with the following challenges:

NBUS Challenge #89  - 'stencils'  I have had a huge pile of stencils in my stash for quite some time now and have only used 2 or 3.  I am aiming to use each stencil, at least once before Christmas!  LOL

Neglected Stuff Challenge - August 2026 

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.

Happy Birthday, Liam

The nephew celebrated his 24th Birthday on the weekend.

 

I know I say it every year, but ....... where does the time go?  It is going by so fast!

 

Anyway......  onto the card I made for him.

 

I have been fine-tuning my foiling process and think I have got the perfect combination of settings, paper and sandwiches.

 

I designed the card in Photoshop, so that I could select which layers to print using the Laser printer (for the sentiment) and the ink jet printer (for the colour).

 

The balloons were printed first on Epson glossy photo paper, then I waited a little while to make sure the ink was completely dry.

 

The sentiment was printed using the Brother Mono Laser printer, then I ran it through the Mini Minc.

 

 

The sandwich I have got the most success with is:  the photo paper with the gold foil on top, then a layer of Reflex copy paper, all placed in a Minc carrier sheet.  Heat setting on the Minc was '3' and turned on ate least 10 minutes before it was needed.  I made sure the card was completely cool before peeling off the foil ..... hey presto... perfect foil!

 

I also foiled the inside sentiment for something different this year. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Naughty or Nice?

Time for another card swap - CM June swap cards – Christmas & Sketch (once again, I was extremely late in making and sending these cards)

Card #1 – Christmas

I struggled a little bit for this one ...... not quite in the Christmas spirit just yet LOL

 

But I went through my Christmas Stamps/Dies & papers and very slowly a plan came together.

 

I stamped up some images got from Facebook Marketplace (I think) and hand coloured with a soft watercolour using my inks, then added a touch of Kindy Glitz/Stickles.

 

The centre panel was trimmed, then affixed to some Christmas DP using double-sided tape, which was then attached for the 300gsm cardbase, again using DS tape.

I quite like the 'rustic' fun feel to this one.

 

Linking Card #1 with the following challenges:

Christmas Crafts All Year Round - July Challenge 'M, N, O'  - I chose 'N' Naughty or NiceCritter Crazy Challenge Blog #112  - cute reindeer & snowman critters

 

 

Card #2 – Sketch + Christmas

 

This card came together quite quickly, once I was in the Christmas mood :)

 

I have used some DP that came with my 2025 Secret Santa present - it has been such a great paper pad to have on hand.

 

I stamped up the Santa and sentiment from the MFT Jingle All the Way set and hand cut the Santa out.  I was going to just place the Santa on a diecut circle to fit with the sketch, but I remembered I had some 'wobbles' somewhere in my stash ....... 30 minutes later, I finally found them after putting them away somewhere safe  LOL

 

None of the usual bling for this card ...... but I am quite pleased with how this card turned out.

 

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.