Be My Valentine ❤️❤️

Hi everyone, I have to admit I’ve not had much of either time or inclination for card making over the past couple of weeks, but of course I couldn’t possibly let Valentine’s Day pass by without making a card for my dear husband. I must also confess that I find cards for him the most difficult, primarily because I only have a limited variety of supplies for romantic occasions and I don’t want him to see the same thing over and over! 

I decided this year to go with a fairly clean design, utlilising some Craft Addictions UK slatted hearts dies I bought before Christmas and hadn’t yet used.

I die cut a large stitched square of white card and set aside. I then die cut a slatted heart from my very last snippet of red glitter card, drew round the die and cut out a solid heart shape in gold glitter card, and attached it to the back. I positioned the die cut heart on my die cut square at an angle, then positioned the inner of the slatted heart onto the card and used it to cut into the card. I then drew round the heart die again on my red glitter card snippet, and attached it behind the in-cut slatted heart. I stamped various romantic postmarks and words in the corners and did a little colouring with Zig pens, then stamped the main ‘Be Mine’ sentiment onto separate card and fussy cut out. I attached the red slatted heart and main sentiment using foam squares to add dimension, then matted the stitched square onto black and gold borders and a 7” card blank.

I also decorated the envelope to coordinate.

Stamps: Free with craft magazine;

Media: Versafine Clair (Nocturne); Kuretake Zig Clean Color watercolour pens;

Tools: Craft Addictions UK Slatted Heart dies; Hunkydory Moonstone Duo-Stitched Square die.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More! #510 - Diecuts and/or Stencils

Aud Sentiments #334 - Dies and/or Love plus a Sentiment - TOP 5

Cardz 4 Galz #269 - Hugs and Kisses

C.R.A.F.T. #773 - Love

Crafty Calendar (February) - Love Is In the Air

Crafty Gals Corner #274 - Anything Goes with option Heart

Daisy Chain #104 - Something New

Dream Factory #146 - Love Actually (2nd entry)

Everybody Art #593 - Have a Heart

Fab ‘n’ Funky #630 - Love Is All Around

Heart’s Quest Challenge #82 - Anything With a Heart Goes with option Red or Gold heart (2nd entry)

Heart’s Quest Celebrations of Love #2 2026 - Valentines

Inkspirational #361 - Visual Prompt - February Collage

Just Us Girls #810 - Valentine

Let’s Craft and Create #228 - Anything Goes with option From the Heart

Little Red Wagon #845 - I’m Seeing Red

Love to Craft #90 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Love to Scrap #177 - Anything Goes - TOP PICK

Make My Monday #271 - Use 2 Dies

Pearly Sparkles #116 - Hearts (2nd entry)

Sweet Stampin’ - No Designer Paper

Tic Tac Toe #286 - Tic Tac Toe

(I used Hearts / Die-cutting / Red ir Pink)

Try It On Tuesday - All Loved Up

Word Art Wednesday #738/739 - Anything Goes

That’s all for today. Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Sending Positive Thoughts

Hi everyone, I don’t make many cards where the primary focus is die cuts, but I made an exception for this one as it is the first outing for my new Craft Addiction slatted dies. I have been admiring them on various blogs over the summer and stalking the Craft Addictions website to try to get my quivering paws on them but they had all been out of stock … until now! I finally managed to get my hands on a couple of sets last week but things have been hectic here since then, so here’s the result of my first play with them.

I die cut a stitched square of white stamping card and embossed with a floral embossing folder. I die cut a large slatted square, then cut a fractionally smaller square of ombré glitter card to stick behind it. I die cut two flowers from pink glitter card then attached the slatted square and flowers to the embossed panel. I stamped, cut out and attached the sentiment, and added a silver die cut mirror card butterfly which I found already cut in my cupboard. I added some pink Distress Oxide round the edges of the embossed panel, then attached to a 6” square card blank.

Stamps: Crafter’s Companion Sending Positivity;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide ink (Spun Sugar); Versafine Clair (Mornings Mist);

Papers: Crafter’s Companion ombré glitter card;

Tools: Hunky Dory Moonstone Duo-Stitched Square die; Craft Addictions Slatted Square dies; unbranded flower die from Amazon; Die-Sire Butterfly Easel die; Embossalicious floral embossing folder.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps & More #500 - Die Cuts and/or Stencils

Beautiful Blossoms #32 - Anything Floral Goes

Can You Handle the Pressure?  - Anything Goes with Embossing

Cardz 4 Galz #258 - Stitching Real or Faux

Crafty Calendar (September) - Lots of Layers

Creations In Pink #84 - Anything Goes In Mainly Pink

Die Cut Divas (September) - Anything Goes with a Die Cut

Double Trouble #199 - 3-2-1 Recipe

Just Us Girls #791 - Die Week

Let’s Craft and Create #223 - Anything Goes + Lots of Layers

NBUS #78 - Use Your Never-Before-Used Schtuff

(Slatted Square dies)

Path of Positivity #133 - Anything Goes Positive

Pearly Sparkles #111 - Traci’s Recipe: Pink, Pearls and/or Sparkle

Simon Says (Monday) - Stamp It in STAMPtember (3rd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Stamp It (2nd entry)

Sisterhood of Crafters - Card of Encouragement (3rd entry)

Triple B (September) - Birds, Blooms and/or Butterflies

Word Art Wednesday #714/715 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

That’s all for today. Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Starter For Ten

Hi everyone, today I’d like to share a simple card using some new supplies I got with the latest Indigo Blu Mixed Media kit crafting magazine - I don’t normally buy craft magazines but I just fancied this one for a change. I also made this card relatively simple as I had the idea of entering it into a “speed” challenge - to make a card (excluding time to plan and gather supplies to hand) in 10 minutes or less … sadly that didn’t quite work out as not only could I not manage to complete it in less than 10 minutes despite forensic planning and gathering of supplies beforehand, but also I discovered the said challenge does not allow entry with many other challenges - never mind! Here’s the result anyway.

I die cut a stitched square of white card, a silver mirror card test tube outline, pink glitter card flowers, green glitter card leaf spray and a shadow sentiment - all from a variety of snippets. I blended  Charted Mariner and Kitsch Flamingo distress Oxides through the Indigo Blu stencil on the left hand side of the stitched square, then stuck down my test tube die cut. I coloured inside the die cut with blue Wink of Stella and clear Spectrum Noir sparkle pens, then trimmed and stuck down my die cut flowers and leaves. I glued together my shadow sentiment die cuts and attached, blended more pink DOX round the edges, then attached to a card blank.

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxides inks (Charted Mariner, Kitsch Flamingo); Wink of Stella (blue); Spectrum noir sparkle pen (pink);

Tools: Hunky Dory Moonstone Duo- Stitched Squares die; Indigo Blu test tube and flower dies (part of magazine kit); Indigo Blu script stencil (same kit); Simon Says Stamp - Script Thanks die.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #494 - Any Occasion

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils Are Our Game (June) - Use a Stencil

A Cut Above (June) - Anything Goes with a Die Cut

Fab ‘n’ Funky #618 - Use Your Die Cuts

Just Us Girls #778 - Die Week

Love to Craft #86 - Anything Goes

Love to Scrap #175 - Anything Goes

NBUS #75 - Use Your Never-Before-Used Schtuff

(Test tube and floral dies, script stencil)

Snippets Playground #507 - Use Snippets

(Everything apart from the card blank is a snippet)

Word Art Wednesday #702/703 - Anything Goes

That’s all from me for today. Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #711

Good morning everyone, it’s Saturday again so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. This week Lorraine has chosen the theme and it is

*** Anything Goes with option Winter Blues ***

As mentioned last week, from now on we will still be publishing weekly challenges with prizes for each challenge, and a Top 5 will be announced every Friday at 6pm. However the prize winners will all be announced monthly starting on Friday 27 January.

This month’s prizes come from Oakwood Direct, Stamp Addicts, Sizzix and AALL and Create. Please click on the links to visit their individual websites, and you can read more about them on our Patrons’ page.

Here's my card for this week.

This theme immediately made me think of Christmas, so I took the opportunity to make my first Christmas card of 2023. This also enabled me to have my first play with a gorgeous intricate die set I bought in December at the Crafter’s Companion shop, and, more importantly, my main Christmas present from my darling husband ❤️

Woo hoo!!! 😍 Mind you,  I hear you ask … what took me so long to get round to using it??? Well .. we were away over Christmas and New Year, so the wrapped box wasn’t taken with us as it is pretty heavy .. and when I got back I was very busy for a few days catching up with myself. I decided to wait til I had got time to look at everything properly, and this is the first result 😀. Early days yet but so far I’m very pleased … it certainly requires a lot less brute strength and elbow grease than my trusty old Cuttlebug …particularly for intricate dies.

I die cut my snowflake frame from pearlescent white card and a matching square of white stamping card. I then created a sponged Distress Oxide background with 3 colours of blue, and stamped a little forest of trees using various Lavinia stamps, different shades of Versafine Clair and 1st/2nd generation stamping, which I highlighted with Sakura Stardust pen. I stamped a Penny Black Christmas sentiment with Versamark and heat embossed with silver embossing powder, and added some white Posca pen spatter to represent falling snow. When the panel was dry I attached the snowflake frame, and then matted it onto a die cut stitched square cut from blue linen card stock. Finally I matted everything onto a card blank and added some silver sparkly gems to accent the snowflakes.

Here is an angled picture to capture the shiny silver of the sentiment + the sparkle.

Stamps: Lavinia Fairy Fir Tree (Small), Fairy Fir Tree 2 (Small), Fairy Fir Tree 2, Fir Tree 1, Christmas Tree Group, Red Pine (Small); sentiment - Penny Black "a wish..." (3502F);

Media: Distress Oxide inks (Stormy Sky, Blueprint Sketch, Chipped Sapphire); Versafine Clair  (Twilight, Medieval Blue, Morning Mist, Nocturne); Versamark; detail silver embossing powder; Sakura Stardust pen (clear); Posca pen (white);

Tools: Crafter’s Companion die set - Falling Snow; Hunkydory Moonstone die - Duo-Stitched Squares;

Other: sparkly gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

ABC Christmas Challenge - A is for Anything Christmas

Little Red Wagon #687 - Baby It's Cold Outside! - FEATURED 

Make My Monday #191 - Something New (3rd entry)

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2301 - Anything Goes

Path of Positivity #108 - Anything Positive Goes with option Inspired By a Word Collage - TOP PICK and VOTER’S CHOICE

(I was inspired by the words in the example word collage …particularly “snowfall” and “sparkle”

Sparkles Christmas Challenge #144 - Sparkle and Glitter Accents - TOP 3

Stamping Sensations (January) - Add Some Sparkle (2nd entry)

Sweet Stampin’ - New

Try It On Tuesday - In With the New - END OF YEAR SPOTLIGHT 2023

Word Art Wednesday #577/578 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Hope you can join us this week, and I look forward to seeing your entries. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more fab inspiration from the rest of the team. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Snippets Galore!!

Hi everyone, hope you have all had a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas and New Year, and that you're raring to go with a whole new year of crafting for 2023!

I was away for 12 days over the festive period and busy doing some Christmas prep in the few days before that, so today is the first day for 2 1/2 weeks I have had opportunity to sit down and craft.  I didn't need to do any, but I spotted over Christmas there is THE most amazing challenge going on over at the Snippets Playground, where the lovely Di and Sarn are teasing our creativity with the most incredible and generous prize imaginable! I always try to enter the Snippets challenge if I can, so no way was I going to miss participating in this one ... I'm just glad I've managed to find a crafty window just in time, so I can hand in my (last minute) homework, avoiding the excuse that it was eaten by the dog (naughty Dudley!) and thus narrowly escaping detention!! So to business ...

I tasked myself for this special Snippets Playground challenge to make a card ENTIRELY from snippets which is a bit unusual for me!! As I racked my brain for inspiration I hit upon the idea of making a card using die cut flowers and foliage, as that would give me the opportunity to use up quite a few small white card snippets. It also falls in quite neatly with the fact that a good friend is having quite a bit of dental work over the next few weeks, so I could make a card that will hopefully cheer her up.

I die cut my flowers and foliage from various snippets of white stamping card, then coloured them by painting with watered down Distress Oxide inks. I cut a larger snippet to 14cm square, blended Distress Oxides to give the impression of a hazy meadow and sky, then spattered with water to give a slightly mottled effect. I attached my flowers and foliage die cuts to the inked panel, and stamped my sentiment with Versafine Clair. I then cut out and attached a stitched frame using my new Hunkdory stitched square dies, from a large snippet of green linen cardstock that was left over from a 12" square sheet. Finally I matted the framed panel onto my card blank, added some gold Posca pen "spatter", and finished off with a die cut and a couple of punched butterflies .. again using a snippet of matt gold metallic card. I'm very pleased with the bright and cheerful way this card turned out ... here is an angled pic to show the shiny butterflies.

Stamps: Crafters Companion Sending Positivity (sentiment);

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron, Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn, Rustic Wilderness, Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon, Kitsch Flamingo, Shaded Lilac, Frayed Burlap); Versafine Clair (Medieval Blue); Posca pen (metallic gold);

Tools: Floral dies - Amazon; Magnolia Doohickeys - Butterfly Dreams; Hunkdory Moonstone dies - Duo-Stitched Squares; X-Cut small butterfly punch.

Challenges I would like to enter:

C.R.A.F.T. #663 - New

(stitched frame dies + the largest yellow flower, pink flower and brightest green foliage dies)

Creatalicious #250 - Anything Goes with option Something New

Creative Inspirations (January) - Something Old, Something New

(something old = butterfly die and punches, something new as above)

Creative Knockouts #485 - Anything Goes

Make My Monday #191 - Something New

Simon Says (Monday) - Light Up the New Year

(I am hoping to light up my friend's cheerfulness by sending positive thoughts)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Something New

Snippets Playground #444 - Anything But Christmas

Use your Stuff #474 - Stitching, Faux or Real

Word Art Wednesday #577/578 - Anything Goes

That's all from me for today ... I'll be back tomorrow with my DT card for the first Allsorts Challenge of 2023. Take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #705

Good morning everyone, it's Saturday so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. This week Lynn has chosen the theme and it is

*** It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas ***

So if you haven't finished your Christmas cards yet (has anyone??), now's the time to push on with them and enter for a chance to win one of this week's 2 great prizes - 2 sets of Card-io stamps.

  

Here's what I made this week.

I am currently going through a phase of either trying new techniques or revisiting old ones and some rarely (or in some cases never) used stash. I really like White On White (WoW) cards but haven't made one for a long time; however I have seen a few recently and that inspired me to have a root in my stash to see what I could find in the way of suitable dies and embossing folders.

My start point was a 6" square panel embossed with a Crafter's Companion frame embossing folder - I've had this for years and am ashamed to say I don't think I've ever used it before! I then built up a little scene with die cut trees, cute reindeer (another one that has been hiding in my box since the day he was bought!!) and snowflakes plus a large "statement" greeting, all cut from a mixture of white pearlescent card and glitter card. I also embossed my pearlescent white tree to make it look as if snow was falling on it. When the scene was assembled I dotted around some white Posca pen "snowflakes", and edged the panel with silver Posca pen before matting directly onto my card blank.

I do find WoW cards very difficult to photograph - in real life this one is bright white and very sparkly!! Here is an angled pic ...

Stamps: None

Media: None

Papers: Crafter's Companion Centura Pearl card - Snow White with a hint of silver; white glitter card;

Tools: Dies - Tattered Lace "Cute Reindeer", Marianne Design "Christmas Fir Tree", Joy! Crafts "Winter Wishes" (small snowflakes), Tattered Lace "Merry Christmas"; Embossing folders - Crafter's Companion "Festive Frame"; Cuttlebug "Snowflakes".

Challenges I would like to enter:

Colourful Options (December) - Winter White

Country View Challenges (December) - Christmas

Creative Knockouts #481 - Winter Wonderland

Double Trouble #127 - Kaleidoscope of Colour

(I have also used the Twisted Sister option - predominantly white)

Fab ‘n’ Funky #562 - Die Cuts  and Embossing Only (No Stamped Image) - TOP 3

Little Red Wagon #682 - Glitz, Glitter, Gleam, Glow!

Simon Says (Monday) - Freezing Cold Moodboard

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Try It On Tuesday - Winter Wonderland

Word Art Wednesday #571/572 - Anything Goes (5th entry)

Hope you can join us this week, and I look forward to seeing your entries. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more fab inspiration from the rest of the team. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Distress Birthday Tag

Hi there, today I would like to show you something a bit different for me … a birthday tag.  I never make tags normally, but I was inspired to make one when I saw it is this month’s theme at Country View Challenges. Once I started to look around I spotted a couple of other tag and non-card challenges, so it just had to be done!  It also gave me the opportunity to play some more with my new wildflower dies, so basically it was a win-win situation.  So here is what I believe is my first ever “distress” tag.

I cut a rectangle of kraft card 13cm x 6.5cm, and trimmed the corners to make a tag shape. I then cut a slightly smaller rectangle of white card, created a “smoosh” background with three colours of Distress Oxide, and background stamped my script using Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I distressed the edges of the coloured panel with my distressing tool, and sponged with more Vintage Photo DI to give an aged look. I then die cut my wildflowers and foliage from white card, and coloured them by painting with various Distress Oxides before attaching to the coloured panel. I wrapped some jute twine around the flowers and attached a stamped mini greeting tag. Finally I punched a hole in the base kraft tag, stamped some swirls, die cut and attached a reinforcement ring round the hole, then attached the flower panel and finished off with a jute twine tie.

Here's a closeup.

Stamps: Crafty Individuals CI-085 (script) and CI-182 (swirl); LotV Mini tags;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Salvaged Patina, Twisted Citron, Speckled Egg, Mowed Lawn, Rustic Wilderness, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Frayed Burlap, Kitsch Flamingo, Picked Raspberry); Distress Ink (Vintage Photo);

Tools: Wildflower dies - unbranded (from Amazon); Magnolia Doohickeys Tilda Vcintage Tag (hole reinforcement); Tim Holtz distressing tool.

Challenges I would like to enter: 

Colour Crazy #47 - Anything Goes With Colouring

Country View Challenges (November) - Tags - WINNER

Crafter’s Cafe #291 - Use Dies and/or Punches (3rd entry)

DL.Art (November) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Dream Valley #283 - Lots of Layers

Hero Arts (November) - The Great Outdoors (3rd entry)

Lost Coast Portal to Creativity #156 - Tag You’re It!

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2248 - Anything Goes

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Not a Card (3rd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #571572 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

I’m really in love with my new flower dies, and am really thrilled with how this tag turned out. To be honest though I can't see me becoming a regular tag maker … if I want to go small I tend to turn to my ATC’s 😀

Thanks very much for taking the time to visit my blog .. take care.

Hugs,

Divine Sparkle & Shine

Hi everyone. A few days ago I took delivery of a couple of beautiful sets of flower & foliage dies; and although I'm sure they will come in very useful for making cards, I really wanted them primarily to decorate ATC's. I've hardly made any ATC's for about a month what with the usual Christmas card rush, so I couldn't wait to have a play! I also decided to try out a new (to me) technique I have seen on various videos of applying Brushos through a stencil - and I have to say I'm very pleased with my first attempt! I have called this series “Divine Sparkle & Shine”.

I took a large snippet of white card and spritzed with water, then placed a large Lavinia stencil on top and tapped on Brushos in three colours before spritzing again. I dabbed off the excess liquid with paper towel and then carefully removed the stencil, to find I had a fab grungy background that was ideal for my ATC's! This really was so much fun I could easily become addicted! I also made a home made Mica mist with my gold Perfect Pearls and water in a miniature spray bottle, which I sprayed onto the stencilled panel to give it more of a sheen. I cut the panel into three pieces each 3.25 x 2.25" and topped each one with a die cut flower of gold glitter card. I attached 2 co-ordinating sparkly brads and a sticker sentiment to each card, then edged each one in black and attached to standard ATC size gold glitter card cut from another large snippet (I was quite thrilled to find this snippet in my box, as i didn't think I had amy more gold glitter card to matt the ATC's onto!). 

Here are closeups of each individual ATC.

ATC1

ATC2  

ATC3  

Stamps: None;

Media: Brushos (Leaf Green, Prussian  Blue, Light Brown); Perfect Pearls (gold);

Tools: Lavinia stencil - Divine; flower dies - unbranded (from Amazon);

Other: Tim Holtz Idea-ology "Small Talk" stickers.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Cards 4 Galz #186 - Use a Stencil

Crafter’s Cafe #291 - Use Dies and/or Punches (2nd entry)

Crazy Is Our Fame, Stencils Are Our Game (November) - Anything Goes With Stencils (3rd entry)

Moving Along With the Times #148 - Bright on Dark

Path of Positivity #106 - Anything Positive Goes (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Not a Card (2nd entry)

Snippets Playground #442 - Anything Goes With Snippets

Sparkles #158 - Dies and/or Punches (2nd entry)

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Word Art Wednesday #571/572 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

it was brilliant to have this interlude from Christmas card making ... but I guess it is nose back to the Christmas grindstone now! Thanks so much for taking time to visit today and take care.

Hugs,