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.

Birthday Candles

Time for another card swap - CM May swap cards – Candles & Sketch (I was extremely late in making and sending these cards)

Card #1 – Candles

I knew what I wanted to do for this theme :)  

I printed some candle digital images from LOTV and foiled them on gloss card, and cut the cardfront with some A6 dies.  I then coloured the candles using Copics.  I mounted the cardfront onto some coloured cardstock, then mounted the cardfront onto a 300 gsm base.

The gold foiling worked beautifully and I was very happy on how it turned out.

 

Linking Card #1 with the following challenges:

AAA Colourful: #29  (all the blues/pinks/greens)

 

 

Card #2 – Sketch

We had a sketch provided – although I did not stick to it precisely …

I used some Kaisercraft designer paper & stamps.  I was going to stamp the cupcake, but decided to fussy cut it from the DP, then mounted to front with 3D foam.

I used the other side of the DP for the background panel and stamped 'birthday wishes' onto coloured cardstock.  

I finished the card with my usual bling!

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.

Swap Cards - April - Fun Fold & Sketch

Time for another card swap - CM April swap cards – Fun Fold & Sketch

Card #1 – Fun Fold

I struggled to decide on which ‘fun fold’ I was going to use, but then settled on a ‘Z-fold’.

I utilised some more the DP & embellishments received in my Secret Santa swap.

I used black cardstock for the base, and white cardstock for features.  I die-cut ‘hello’ from Honey Bee Bitty Buzzwords in white (x2) and black for the shadow.

The sentiment and butterfly were mounted to the front with 3d foam tape and a final touch of bling added.

I think this card is ‘CAS’ …. Well it is for me!  LOL

I kept the two inside panels blank for writing a personal message.

Items Used:

Stamps &/or Dies:  Honey Bee Stamps Bitty Buzzwords

Adhesives/Tapes:  Double sided tape, Gina K Connect Glue, 3D foam

Card stock:  Blue Edge Crafts 300 gsm cardbase, Blue Edge Crafts 210 gsm background and die cuts

DP:  American Crafts – Vick Boutin ‘Bold & Bright’

Tools:  Cuttlebug, Couture Creations Mini Guillotine Trimmer

Embellishments:  American Crafts – Vick Boutin ‘Bold & Bright’

 Linking Card #1 with the following challenges:

Triple B: April Challenge - Butterflies 

 

Card #2 – Sketch

We had a sketch provided – although I did not stick to it precisely …

I used a die set I have had for quite some time now, but don’t seem to reach for it very often.  I thought it might work for this sketch.

I cut up some DP to suit the background (once again using my Secret Santa present) and die-cut the BBQ & sentiment from coloured cardstock, the food & flames from white cardstock and the tools & wheel from silver mirror cardstock.  I then coloured the flames & food items with Copics, finishing with Kindy Glitz on the flames.

I die-cut several different sizes of circles from vellum/parchment paper and placed according to sketch layout.  I then attached the BBQ elements to front of card using Gina K Connect Glue.

I am quite pleased with how this card turned out.

Items Used:

Stamps &/or dies:  Creative Expressions – King of the Grill, Spellbinders Circles

Ink:  Copics, Kindy Glitz

Adhesives/Tapes:  Double sided tape, Gina K Connect Glue, 3D foam

Card stock:  Blue Edge Crafts - 300 gsm cardbase, white 210 gsm cardstock, mirror cardstock, vellum

DP:  American Crafts – Vick Boutin ‘Bold & Bright’

Tools:  Cuttlebug,  Couture Creations Mini Guillotine Trimmer

Linking Card #2 with the following challenges:

Crafty Calendar Challenge April - Dies/Punches 

Neglected Stuff Challenge April  

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.