Hello, Thanks so much

More time in the craft room recently :) yay!!

 

Another selection of cards for my swap group. 

 

For May, we swap 2 cards of our own choice ......   easy right?   I was happy to make a start on the cards early in the month, but things got in the way and the cards were delayed in getting to their partner.

 

Anyway, here are my cards.

 

Card#1 

This is an Altenew stamp & die set - Wild Flora (2020) - flowers were stamped with Versafine Onyx Black and heat embossed with Zing Clear embossing powder.  I hand painted the flower & leaves using Altenew Inks.

 

I made the background using a stencil with a blending brush and lightly blended using Altenew Ink in the centre.  When mounting the background onto the matt, I thought it got a little lost, so I ink blended the edges as well, and added a few splatters.  I then die cut the sentiment twice from black and layered onto the background.  

 

The background was cut using Waffle Flower A6 layer dies and layered onto an A6 300 gsm White Cardbase.  

 

The flowers and leaves were then positioned on the front in a pleasing manner with foam tabs to add dimension.

 

 

Linking this card with a few challenges

Retro Rubber Challenge #257 - Stamp set from 2020 - using right column Stencil, coloring, die cut

Triple B Challenge: June 2025 - use Blooms

 

 

 

 

Card#2

 

I came across some elements set aside from a previous crafting session and thought it was perfect for the swap.  Flowers were stamped with White ink, and heat embossed with White embossing powder, then the flower & leaves were ink blended using brushes.

 

The flower element was mounted onto a gorgeous die-cut that I received in a Swap many years ago, then that was mounted onto the purple handmade paper, which in turn, has been mounted onto the white A6 300gsm white cardbase.

 

Sentiments 'thanks' (from Honey Bee Stamps Bitty Buzzwords) was die cut from black & white, layered & mounted with 3d foam dots to background.  'so much' (from Honey Bee Stamps Miss You Big time) was stamped in StazOn black onto white cardstock scrap pieces, then mounted onto front of 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.

Cheers - celebrate the New Year

With the Cricket on the TV, I get to spend some time in the craft room ...........
Mr Fixit is happy, I'm happy!

Using my own handmade stencil cut with Spellbinders circle dies, I made my own background by ink blending some random 'bubbles' on 210gsm cardstock, highlighted with white gel pen for the background, which was then trimmed with Waffle Flower A6 layer dies, and added to Green 300gsm cardbase.

 

SugarPea 'Cheers to You' Champagne bottle and glasses stamped in black and clear heat embossed, hand coloured with Copics, then die cut with matching dies, placed strategically on the cardfront with foam squares.  

 

Sentiment 'Cheers' stamped directly onto background in black and clear heat embossed with a final touch of Kindy Glitz added to bubbles for sparkle.

 

Linking with the following Challenges:

Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog - Something New (celebrate the New Year)

Just Us Girls Challenge #756 - Die Week

My Time To Craft #550 - Something New (celebrate the New Year)

Time Out Challenges #279 - New Beginnings (New 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.

Happy New Year

Time for another crafting session!  The Cricket is on the TV, air-con on, nibbles and wine is flowing ... what more could a girl want!

 

I am very late with my December swap cards for CraftMad Swappers :)

Card#1 - Merry Christmas

 

Using a Kraft cardbase, ribbon was added across the middle with glue, Scrap Boys 'Christmas Day' DP was die-cut using WaffleFlower A6 Layer dies and added to cardbase.  KaiserCraft Christmas Tree was stamped on green cardstock, heat embossed with VersaMark & clear embossing powder, then die-cut with a slightly smaller Waffle Flower A6 Layer die.

A final touch of bling added at bottom of card.   I couldn't find the right sentiment stamp, so I used my new T-square ruler and wrote it by hand.

 

This card was inspired by a 2016 Sketch from my CraftMad swap group.

 

Card#2 - Happy New Year

 

Using my own handmade stencil cut with Spellbinders circle dies, I ink blended some random 'bubbles', highlighted with white gel pen for the background, which was then trimmed with Waffle Flower A6 layer dies, and added to Navy cardbase.

SugarPea 'Cheers to You' Champagne bottle and glasses stamped in black and clear heat embossed, hand coloured with Copics, then die cut with matching dies, placed strategically on cardfront with foam tabs.  Gold PeelOff stickers '2025' added, and a final touch of Kindy Glitz added for sparkle.

This Card was inspired by the CraftMad Swappers December TicTacToe - Diagonal Down L-R - Numbers, Gold, Sparkle

Linking Card#2 with the following challenges:

My Time To Craft Christmas #102 - Sweet Treats 

Inkspirational Challenge #331 - use stencils

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 Boys

We have a regular family gathering for all the August-September-October birthdays, usually some time in October, and this year was no different.

I made a two cards for the Great-nephews, Lucas (10) and Archie (8) - the boys are growing up so fast!

Card #1

Card #2

  

Both backgrounds were handmade by ink-blending a rainbow of colours, then put through the Cuttlebug with a different embossing folder for each card.  After embossing, I smudged some inks over the raised bits to make them stand out.

 

I then stamped and heat embossed the sentiment, then cut it out using the matching dies.  Sentiments were cut out multiple times, so that the sentiment could be layered together for added dimension.

 

The balloons & tags (Spellbinders)  were die cut using my stash of 'snippets/offcuts' and I used some very old 'letter stickers' to add the names and the numbers.

Two cards came together fairly quickly and easily :) 

 

Items Used:

Spellbinders Dies, Ranger Distress Inks & Altenew Inks

Cuttlebug machine, Provo Craft embossing folders (Number Collage & Happy Birthday)

 

Linking with the following challenges:

Card #1

 Allsorts Challenge #804 - Anything goes 

 Snippets Playground - #492

Card #2

Die Cut Divas - use a die cutting/embossing machine

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.

Card Swap June

2 new cards from me today, this time swap cards for CraftMad Swappers

 

I was extremely late with my cards for June .......

 

 

At first, I struggled with deciding which 2022 card to case, as they were all so good!  but in the end, I couldn't go past this one by fellow swapper, Tracey.

 

 

Card #1

 

I set about making my own background with sponging varying shades of purple/pink inks, then I randomly stamped my Kaisercraft butterflies and heat embossed in gold.  I also heat embossed the edges of the cardfront with gold, then attached to cardbase with double-sided tape.

 

I die cut sentiment out of white cardstock, mounted onto a black shadow then attached to the cardfront with foam squares to add dimension.

 

Card finished off with some randomly placed bling!

 

 

Card #2

This card followed the sketch, and I took the opportunity to have a play with my Penny Black Stamps - Party Time set.

Images were stamped with black Versafine ink, then clear heat embossed.  I coloured them in with Altenew Crisp Dye Ink (Dusk) using a watercolour brush, and then inked the edges of the boxes.  Waffle Flower A6 layers dies were used to cut the different sized boxes :)  

 

 

The most perfect background Scrapbook DP came from my stash ..... I don't know how long I have had it LOL.  The text 'happy' was diecut twice from white cardstock and coloured with same ink used to colour my images, then mounted with foam squares.  

 

 

The boxes were placed according to sketch and layered with foam squares to add dimension.

 

I also made a 'thank you for being my swap partner' card :)

 

 

When you open it up, the image of the die cutting machine stays on the inside :)

 

I just 'love' the die cut of the paper trimmer!!

 

'Thank You' card was made entirely with offcuts/snippets of white & silver cardstock and some leftover scrapbook DP

 

Linking 'Thank You' card with the following Challenges

Snippets Playground Challenge #485

 

Linking Card#2 with the following Challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - July - Anything Goes/Food 

Cardz 4 Galz #229 - Shades of Blue  (oops!! Too late!)

TicTacToeCallenge-#252 (Middle Column - DieCut(s), Free, Any Sentiment) 

tttc#252

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

On a roll with these coneflowers!!!  This is the last one (for a little while LOL)

 

As per my previous cards, I die cut the flowers from some small left-over scraps of white cardstock (snippets), then ink-blended using Altenew Inks.  These flowers were added to cardfront using foam tabs for added dimension.

 

I found the most perfect background in my 'handmade' stash which was made by 'smooshing' various Inks, then inking around the outer edges with the darker colour from the flowers for definition and mounted onto a 300 gsm cardbase.

 

 

 

The Happy Birthday Sentiment is from a set of stickers I have had for I don't know how long ... the gorgeous gold on the white background was layered onto a circle of vellum cut with Spellbinders Circles Dies, then attached to cardfront using foam tabs to add dimension.

 

Items Used

Inks – Altenew Inks, Distress Inks
Dies – Amazon coneflower, Spellbinders Circle Die
Cardstock - 200 gsm white (cardfront), 300 gsm white (cardbase)
Tools - Cuttlebug, Blending Brush
Extras - Glue, double sided tape, foam tabs, peel-off stickers
Papers - Vellum

 

Linking with the following Challenges:

Seize the Birthday #284 – Anything Goes/Use Metallics

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.

Just for You

More time playing with the coneflower dies.  I am loving the different effect you get by changing the intensity of the ink blending over the different layers.

 

Once again, the Mood Board for Beautiful Blossoms has inspired my colour choices for the flower!

 

This card started with an ink-blended background that was masked off to create a frame within a frame.  Two different yellows were used, water splotches added, then set aside to dry.

 

 

 

The coneflower petals were cut from offcuts/snippetts, ink-blended using oranges & yellows then arranged/layered accordingly using liquid glue.

 

The leaves were die cut and a stem was cut manually, then ink-blended with two different greens and placed on the cardfront. 

I really like the way the petals fall over the edge of the yellow frame.

'just for you' sentiment was cut from some left over gold reflective cardstock (more snippets) and placed on cardfront which was then added to the front of the white 300 gsm cardbase.

 

I am loving this die set .......

 

Items Used

Dies - Amazon Coneflower Dies, Crafters' Companion Just for You
Inks - Ranger Distress Inks
Cardstock - 200 gsm white (cardfront), 300gsm white (cardbase)
Tools - Cuttlebug, Blending Brush
Extras - Glue, double sided tape, masking tape

Linking with the following Challenges:

Snippets Playground #481

Beautiful Blossoms #17 – Mood Board

Cut it Up #305 – Anything Goes

Shopping Our Stash #522  how does your garden grow

Inkspirational #317 - Frame

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.