Thinking of You | Hello Sunshine | Best Wishes

I can't believe just how fast the year is going ..... here we are in April already!

It's Autumn here in Australia and I think this is my favourite time of the year.  Nice sunny days, blue skies, cool nights - perfect!

 

I have some more cards to share, as part of my CraftMad Swap group.

 

We had to make 2 cards - Card #1 a 'silhouette' card, and Card #2 a fun fold concertina card.

 

Card #1a - Thinking of You

I started by making my own stencil/mask using one of my Spellbinders Oval dies and ink blending a rainbow of colours in a diagonal pattern directly onto the cardbase.  I splashed some water onto the rainbow area, to add some interest, and then dried off with my heat gun.  A selection of silhouette stamps (from Amazon) were stamped in Versafine Onyx pigment ink directly to the cardfront.  I ummd & ahhhd over whether or not to stamp the sentiment and add it as another layer, but decided against it and ended up stamping the sentiment directly to the cardfront as well.

 

A final little touch of bling completed the card.

 

I actually enjoyed how this card came together, I made another one!  I believe it is called a 'two-fer'

 

Card #1b

I followed the same process as the previous card, but this time made my own stencil/mask using one of my Spellbinders Circle dies and ink blending a rainbow of colours from the centre outwards directly onto the cardbase.  I love the way it looks like the glowing sun.  I splashed some water onto the rainbow area, to add some interest, and then dried off with my heat gun.  A selection of silhouette stamps (Creative Place - Islandia) were stamped in Versafine Onyx pigment ink directly to the cardfront.  Sentiment was stamped directly onto the cardfront as well.

 

A final little touch of bling completed the card.

 

I was very pleased with how both of these cards turned out.

 

  

Linking Card #1a with the following challenges:

AAA Cards #287 - Silhouette +1  #1a = Geometric Shapes,  #1b = Landscape

Just us Girls #768 - anything goes Stencil week

 

 

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Now onto Card #2 - a fun fold 'concertina' card

 

Well, I think you can guess what I'm going to say next right?   NOT a fun fold at all! 

It took me a while to decide on which 'concertina' card I was going to make, but I settled on one that had quite a few videos on YouTube and several different bloggers seemed to have a lot of fun making it. 

 

Even though I watched several tutorials, who made it look so very easy, I struggled - both with the construction and the end design of the card.

 

I took notes on the various measurements and started to cut - I settled on some double sided DSP that has been in my stash for a while - I think it is Kaszazz - and some co-ordinating 12x12 cardstock.

 

A rectangle using the other side of the DSP was added to a black matt and added to the cardfront.  The large sentiment was stamped and layered twice to add dimension, then added to a square green DSP front panel matted with black.   MFT Adorable Elephants Butterfly and heart stamped and a touch of bling completes the front.

 

Now despite my very careful cutting and layout plan, I still managed to muck it up!  I had intended for the the 'green gingham' to be the inside of the card and the smaller section to use the lighter paper .... oops!

 

Anyway ..... once I had got my valley folds & mountain folds sorted, I struggled to decide what to do with the inside.  I was going to leave an inside panel blank to write a greeting, but there wasn't really enough room to do that, I ended up stamping the inside panels with the cute little hearts and dotted 'flight path' over some cute little daisies.  In the end, I added a white panel on the back of the card for a personal note.

 

Here is a top view of the concertina card.
 

I really struggled with this one ..... an awful lot of wrangling, for not a lot of reward LOL

 

Anyway, I hope my swap partner likes the cards I have made - I will be sitting out the swap for April - I have had my fill of the 'fun fold' cards ................. they are NOT FUN!

 

 

 

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.

Hello there

Time for another swap card - my October swap - which was late ..... again :(

1 card using stamps

1 card using the TicTacToe

Card #1 was made using a combination of stamps and patterned paper.  I have been going through my stash in an endeavor to use up what I have.

I had made several 'card topper' elements a while back using some stamps and designer papers, so I decided to utilise these elements.

The 'dancing lady' was stamped onto DP and 'paper pieced' onto square card topper, bordered by Green Pearl cardstock, all cut with Spellbinders Square dies - I love the fact they fit together so nicely.  The left panel was made by layering DP onto pearl cardstock, then attached to the front of the card with double sided tape.

 

Sentiment was stamped then cut out with Spellbinders Ovals, layered onto green pearl cardstock oval - added to front of card with 3D foam dots.

 

The square topper was added to front of card with 3D foam dots and a final touch of 'kindy glitz' added to image, and 3 gems added to bottom.

 

A very simple card which came together fairly quickly..... once I had gathered all the elements.  The colour scheme was influenced by the TicTacToe card.

 

 

Card #2

Using TicTacToe - bottom row across - Yellow/Birds/Embossed Panel

In my stash I found an embossed panel - I do believe it was from a swap I did many years ago where we sent and received a selection of embossed card fronts.

I lightly swiped yellow ink across the raised bits.  I was going to add the embossed panel directly to the front of the cardbase, but it didn't look right.  I then thought about adding it to a yellow layer .... yes!   

So I trimmed the panel slightly smaller, then because of an oopsie where I forgot to put the lid back onto my black ink ........ I had to rescue it by swiping black ink around all of the edges .... 

 

The bird image was a freebie stamp included in an Ultimate Crafts Magazine.  It was stamped in black, heat embossed and then coloured in using Copics. 

 

It is certainly not quite what I had in mind when I started, but it is a finished card and has been now received by my swap partner.

 

Linking Card #2 with:

Inkspirational Challenge #328 - Layer 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.

Birthday Cheers!

Greetings All!  I hope you have had a great Easter!

We had a very quiet one:  We had a friend visit for a few hours & a coffee on Saturday, and on Monday, we went to Brother-in-Laws' for Nibbles & Coffee & Hot Cross Buns.

It was a nice day weather wise, in fact the whole weekend was lovely - a bit hotter than previous years, but that was OK by us!

I made a belated birthday card for Brother-in-Law using some 'new' stamps :)

I used my Couture Creations 'stamp platform' to line up the glasses and the 'cheers' sentiment, then inked them up using Paint Box rainbow ink pads.  I coloured the drinks with watercolour pencils, then added some 'clear embossing' and to finish off, added just a touch of bling!  

A simple, restrained card for me - not too much froo froo ;)

Linking with the following challenge:

NBUS #25 - Never before used schtuff

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.