Swap Cards - With Sympathy & Handmade Hug

It was time again for some more swap cards.

 

Card # 1 - Easel Card

 

I struggled to come up with an idea - but landed on a 'crafty' feel.  I actually started following the sketch before I came up with a suitable 'easel' idea.

 

I stamped, hand coloured and die cut several elements from the Stampin Up Crafting With You.

 

The various elements were added to the front of the cardbase using foam tabs to provide added dimension.

I forgot to take a photo of the easel bit ..... but the front of the card folds up, to reveal another raised element of the designer paper.

 

Card #2 - Sketch 

 

Once again, I followed the sketch, with the basic elements being added to the front of the card with foam tabs.  Spellbinders 'Little Blooms' were diecut, then ink blended with Distress Inks, leaves trimmed & glued together to form a 'bunch', then added to the square panel cut with Spellbinder Square die.

 

The background paper came from the paper pad I got from Secret Santa - it's funny, because I am not normally a fan of green, but I do like this particular shade of green.

 

The 'With Sympathy' element was printed and foiled, then die cut with Spellbinders Circle die.  Both the square and the circle were added to the cardfront with foam tabs to add dimension.

 

 Linking Card #2 with the following challenges:

Pick 3 challenge #2 - I chose Embellishments, Flower, Circle

 

Allsorts Challenge #844 - Anything Goes

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 Sharon

It's the Sister-in-Law's birthday, hence another birthday card - they seem to come by so very quickly of late!

 

I have been making an effort to utilise some of the thousands of images I have purchased over the years and came across some wine & cheese images that are just perfect for Sharon.

 

As with my previous cards using digital images, I utilised Photoshop to put the image & text on different layers so that they could be printed by two different printers.  The text being printed by a Laser printer so that it can be foiled, then the image printed by the ink jet.

 

I foiled the text in Red, after letting the print thoroughly dry.  Sadly, on this one, I can see a very faint line where the edge of the foil was.  I will have to investigate a better way to do this type of cardfront. 

 

As with one of the previous cards, the cardfront was mounted to some 300gsm red leathergrain cardbase.

 

As I mentioned previously, I have been making a concerted effort to use some of the many digital images purchased in the past - this lot have been sitting on my computer for about a year and have not been used before.

 

I also love the versatility of using digital images where you can resize to suit your purposes, and ofcourse the choices of so many fonts are available now!

 

AND I love the ability to print in separate layers, so that I can foil the text with my Mini Minc - win win! 

 

Linking with:

NBUS Challenge #83 

 

 

 

 

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.

Swap Cards - Hello & Thank You

Some more swap cards for my CraftMad Swap group.

 

We had to swap two cards.

 

Card #1 - using a defined colour palette 

 

I started with an embossed card front and selected some inks that were sort of close to the defined colours and went about 'colouring in' using my ink blending brushes to create a feathery soft layered effect.

 

I Trimmed the cardfront down using Waffle Flower Rectangles and inked the edges to give definition to the border.  The cardfront was mounted with foam to a 300gsm cardbase.

 

I then diecut the 'hello' out of black cardstock and placed onto the front of the card.

 

I finished off with some gems that were received as part of my Secret Santa gift.

 

Linking Card #1 with:

Allsorts Challenge #843 - embossing

Beautiful Blossoms - Anything floral goes 

 

Card #2 - using items from Secret Santa gift.

 

The following card was made with several items received in my Secret Santa gift.

 

Secret Santa Gift 2025

I used a sheet from the paper pad and several elements of ephemera layered with foam tabs. 
 

 

The background paper was inked around the edges to define the border.  The gold 'thank you' sticker is from a sheet that has been in my stash for years!

 

I am quite pleased with how the cards turned out, even though they took a while to come together.

 

PS:  I ate the choccie santas, they didn't last long!  Thank you Secret Santa! 

 

Linking Card #2 with:

Beautiful Blossoms Challenge - Anything floral goes 

 

 

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 Anniversary

It's was our 44th Wedding Anniversary on 13th February.

 

There have been a few challenges this year, but I am happy to say we survived  LOL

 

So here is a card I made for our Anniversary.

 

I recently purchased some wonderfully fun images from ETSY.  

 

There was a wonderful selection of images - the hardest part was deciding which one to use, but when I saw these three images, and I knew that they would be perfect for our Wedding Anniversary card! 

 

I used Photoshop to place the 3 images on 3 different layers;  playing with different layouts and sizes  LOL  you have no idea on how long that took and the many minute changes I made to and fro  LOL

 

The Anniversary sentiment went on a different layer.

 

The cardfront was printed on 'glossy photo paper'.  I printed the sentiment layer separately with the Laser printer first, so that it could be foiled using my Mini Minc.  Then the images were printed using my Epson Ink Jet printer.  

 

After leaving the image to make sure it was completely dry, I trimmed the cardfront to size using Waffle Flower Nesting Rectangles and mounted to 300gsm red leathergrain cardbase.  No Kindy Glitz/Stickles on this card, as it for Mr Fixit!

 

If you've read this far, I shall explain the significance of the images.  

• We first met when I was a frequent roller skater at St Clair Roller Skating, Woodville and our first 'sort of' date, was roller skating. 
• He was in a 'band' and played guitar, and very often played for me.
• Now, it is me doing most of the driving when we go out.

And now the card I made for Valentines Day - this card is so very us lately LOL

The is essentially very simple - just the sentiment doing the talking, but what was challenging was finding a way to make only certain lines of text foiled in a different colour.  I solved my problem by placing a sheet over the area not being foiled, then cutting out 'slots' to expose only the words to be foiled.

It's a little bit smudged in some parts, as I fed it through the Minc twice, but I'm happy with how it turned out - after all, it's the thought that counts.

So another year done and dusted - next year the big 45...... which means Sapphire!  Woo Hoo!

 

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 Bestie!

It was my BFF's birthday recently.   Here is the card I made for her.

 

I recently purchased some wonderfully fun images from ETSY and I knew exactly who I was going to make a card for!

 

There was a wonderful selection of images - the hardest part was deciding which one to use.

 

Once I decided which image to use, I placed the image on one layer in Photoshop, then created another layer for the birthday sentiment.  

 

The cardfront was printed on 'glossy photo paper' using an Epson ink jet printer.  

 

After leaving the image to make sure it was completely dry, I trimmed the cardfront to size using Waffle Flower Nesting Rectangles and mounted to 300gsm cardbase.  I then highlighted a few select parts of the cat with Kindy Glitz/Stickles and the outer edge of cardfront.

 

We eventually caught up with each other and went out for a meal with our respective partners.  Food was good and as always, the company was great!

 

 

EDITED TO ADD:

CAS Winner!  Woo Hoo

Linking with the following challenges:

CAS on Sunday #327 - Anything Goes

All Sorts Challenge #843 - Anything Goes 

Critter Crazy Challenge #107 - Anything Goes 

 

 

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.