Card Swap - April

The theme for my CraftMad card swap for the month of April was

Black & White + Sketch

we were to make two cards, one following the theme and one following both the theme and the sketch.

So here are my cards - which I was late in making and late in sending:

Card #1 - Following Theme

I have been playing with a new die set I got from Amazon ..... a coneflower (built with several layers)  It's a cheapie version of Honey Bee Stamps, Lovely Layers Coneflower.   I would have loved to be able to buy the original brand version, but here in Australia with our lousy exchange rate at the moment, the conversion from USDollars is just too much.  So for now, I go with the Amazon copies.

 

Onto how I made the card ....... I die cut all the layers of the coneflower out and used a blending brush to colour in with black ink.  As I knew I was going to ink blend all the layers, they were cut out from the various off-cuts of white cardstock I have lying around.  Layers were coloured with slightly different intensities of black, then layered together with glue.  Leaves were ink blended and positioned accordingly.  White background layer was run through Cuttlebug using Provo Craft 'Swiss Dots' embossing folder  (this was one of my very first embossing folders ever bought back in 2008, and is often a 'go to' background) . Sentiment 'hello' was die cut several times from black and layered to provide dimension.

 

 

The embossed background was added to a black cardbase, then the flower and sentiment were positioned accordingly. 

 

Linking with the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS - #258 - Flower

Cut It Up Challenge #303 - Add a sentiment

Snippets Playground Challenge #480

Card #2 - Following Theme + Sketch

I played with some cardstock/papers from my stash for this one!  The black & white papers I have had 'forever' along with the black & white mulberry paper flowers.

 

I stamped & die cute the sentiment 'thank you' using black ink and added another layer to add dimension.

The card was laid our following the sketch - the black diagonal border being added with foam dots to add interest.  A final touch of bling with a gem in the centre of the flower. 

 

I have finally put my cards in the mail - they sat completed for quite some time before I got out to the Post Box - my bad!

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.

Floral cards

I have been playing with some more floral stamps from #Altenew. Here are some using the Build-a-flower Coneflower & Anemone Coronaria sets.

 

My February card swap for the CraftMad group had the theme of florals + sketch - we swap two cards, one card following a theme and one card using the theme + sketch.

 

 

Card 1 - Floral card

This card was in my stash of cards made last year - you can read how it was made HERE 

I think it was perfect for my first swap card. 

 

 

Card 2 - Floral + Sketch

The next card came together fairly quickly :)  I had some flowers left over from a previous stamping session, so it was just a matter of playing around to find a pleasing layout.

 

The background ribbons were cut from offcuts/snippets of cardstock.  The gold has a lovely sheen that doesn't quite show up well in the photo.  Ribbons were layered using 3d foam tabs, then the flowers were added to cardfront 3d foam tabs for more dimension.  Sadly, the sheen on the gold ribbon does not show up well in the photo ..... it looks lovely in real life!

 

Stay tuned for my next post for the March swap ...... coming soon!

 

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.

Merry & Bright

I took part in a Card Swap for my CraftMad friends :)  Now that my card has been received, I can share photos.

The theme for the month was Merry & Bright (1 card with baubles)

I stamped several Christmas Trees with a selection of rainbow colours, then stamped 'Merry Christmas' sentiment in black ink.

I then trimmed and layered cardfront onto Dark Green cardbase, and finished with kindy glitz.

For Card 2, I stamped some baubles and watercoloured with ink, then added kindy glitz.

I die cut 'merry' out 4 times and layered them together onto cardfront.  Stamped '& Bright' with black ink, then layered cardfront onto red cardbase, and finished with kindy glitz.

 

 

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.

Enjoy .....

Your retirement!

 

 

 

My friend Mandy & her husband have decided to retire and I thought the occasion worthy of a card!  They ran Blue Edge Crafts for 23 years and I have been a customer for at least 20+ years.  We became friends over that time.  Apart from our love of papercrafts, we also shared an interest in quilting although, I confess, I haven't touched my sewing machine of late.  

 

I am a member of a Facebook Group, World of Creative Crafty Challenges and this month, I was asked to be a Guest Designer by Kerry, who is also a friend I made through Blue Edge Crafts :)  Knowing I wanted a retirement card, an idea was brewing ....... I knew I wanted something fun and light hearted.

 

Some NBUS .....I have had the Car & Road (unbranded) dies for quite a while now - I got them for some children's cards but never got around to using them.  The same with the stamp set 'Islandia' from Creative PL - I have had it for so long, I can't remember where I or when I got it.  The packaging says it was made for Aldi Stores, so that makes me think I got it on one of my trips to an Op Shop, as I haven't ever been to an Aldi Store.

 

The background sky was blended using Distress Inks in 2 different blues, the sun & palm trees were stamped directly onto cardbase.  Inspiration Station Challenge inspired me to use Orange for the sun.  The Road was cut twice out of grey, then the green layer was cut and strategically placed.  

 

All of the small die cut items were cut from left-over scraps (SNIPPETS) which shows that it is good to never throw away your off-cuts!

Sentiment 'enjoy' from Honey Bee 'Bitty Buzz Words' die cut & layered, then placed on front of card with foam dots.

The car was cut out of Blue cardstock 3 times and layered together.  Blue is Mandy's favourite colour!  Wheels were cut from Black 3 times & layered together, with a gel pen detail in silver for hub caps.  

I love this little car...  My first car was a 1960 VW Beetle 💗 and I love the way this card turned out!

 

Linking With the following challenges: 

 

Time Out #241
Cut it Up Challenge #281
Shopping Our Stash SOS499
Inspiration Station #50
NBUS #51
Snippets Playground #457
 

ITEMS USED

Stamps/Dies:  Creative PL 'Islandia', Honey Bee Bitty Buzzwords, Car & Road Border Dies (Unbranded)

Inks: Distress Inks, Memento Tuxedo Black

Tools:  Cuttlebug, Blending Brushes

And one more photo to finish off :)

Here we are in 2014 at our QLD Craft Mad retreat
Front Row:  Mandy, Jan, Kerry
Back Row:  Me, Therese, Ruth, Kaye, Tracey

Our Craft Mad retreat in QLD was the highlight of my year
and I loved every minute of it!

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.

A happy occasion .....

My friend Joy needed a wedding card for her partner's niece, and she asked me if I could make one for her.






We also had a belated family birthday catch-up for Mr Fixit's birthday, my birthday, niece Lauren's birthday, Lucas' & Archie's birthday - a lot of chocolate, cake & champagne for that one :)

 

here is the card I made for Mr Fixit's birthday - a new stamp (for me) from Kaszazz with the obligatory kindy glitz!

I already posted Archie's birthday card earlier, but here it is now to refresh your memory


Here is the card I gave to Lauren

This card was a CraftMad swap card - it was in my box of goodies, just waiting for the perfect person to give it to :)

and here is the card I made for Lucas



This is a 3-D card made of multiple layers - graphics are by Janet Briggs from Crafts-U-Print.

Well, that's it from me for a little while :)

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.

Feeling Blue .... A Sympathy Card

Sadly, I was in need of yet another sympathy card.

My regular readers may remember my CraftMad friends and the retreat I went to in Queensland in 2014, well ..... our wonderful Hostess with the Mostess has lost her husband, Ron.

Ron was a wonderful man; he put up with all of us women nattering & crafting away :)  I am so glad I had the pleasure of meeting him!   RIP Ron, no longer in pain.

Ofcourse, I had to make a card, and strangely enough, this card came together quickly and was almost an enjoyable process - I found myself smiling at the memories I have of him - such a strange feeling!  I think it was because I was making it for someone who I knew that would really appreciate and treasure a handmade card :)

Front

Details

mixing stamps

My heart goes out to Kaye and her family.


Items Used:
Stamps:  Stampin' Up Heartfelt Thanks, PaperCraft clear cling stamp 'sympathy'
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Bordering Blue, Night of Navy: white cardstock from Blue Edge Crafts
Inks:  StazOn Black Ink, Little Inker Dark Blue  and VersaMark Baby Blue
Embellishments:  Kindy Glitz, Black & White Ribbon



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.

Where has the time gone?

My last post was in April!

I haven't done much cardmaking in that time - just a few for swaps and close friends.

I did a card swap in May for my CraftMad friends - the theme was polka dots :)






The above camera card was made using a digital file from CraftsUPrint

Sadly, I was in need of a Sympathy card for a friend



I used the emboss resist method, using white embossing powder and added colour using watercolour pencils and inks in places.



I think I like the effect and look forward to working on this method a bit more :)

Linking this card with:
As You Like It Challenge - Favourite Die
My favourite dies are my Deckle Edge collection - it adds just that nice bit of interest to a square/rectangle shape :)
The ABC Challenge - just as you like it
Anything goes - which is perfect inspiration to try something new!

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.

Using up stash and trash

The February card swap for CraftMad was to use up your stash/trash to make a card - I did a bit of both :)

With the above card, I used the paper flowers from my stash - I think these flowers have been made up ready to go for about 3-4 years, and the white strip embossed with hearts is actually the white strip of cardboard from the Lipton Tea Bag box.

For the above card, I used up the card topper that I cut out from a GSD file using the CraftROBO and has been sitting in my stash for years - just waiting for a special occasion to use it!


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.

CraftMad card swap

I promised myself I would make more cards this year :)

So I have started of with a few swap cards - with my CraftMad group.

January swap was to use a Tic-Tac-Toe grid

Here are the cards I made for Merry, my partner.

Middle Row: Embossing/Gems/Ribbon

Linking this card with the following challenges:

Less is More - Week 261 - Lucky Dip (Australian connection - Summer flowers, and my CraftMad group is in Australia :) )

First Column:  Stitching/Embossing/Buttons

A bit of a special mix with this one :)  Stitching is the theme of the card, with both types of embossing - heat & pressure and cute little buttons on the side of the 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.