Friday, August 7, 2026

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:

 
 

 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



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.


Thursday, August 6, 2026

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.