I’m Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

Hello everyone, yes I’m back again with yet more Christmas cards … I’m trying to really ramp up over the next 2 weeks to get myself sorted! Hopefully if I have a full year of crafting in 2022 I won't be so behind ... though that never made any difference in the past!!  😀

Today I would like to share 2 more cards made with my new Lavinia stamps … just how many different ways can I use them before my next order arrives (hopefully tomorrow)?

Both of these cards are very similar, featuring ink blending using a circle mask, trees and a pine cone partial wreath. I have refined my sparkly decorating technique a little, now dotting the trees and hills with my sparkle pen rather than drawing lines which definitely looks better. As always the card looks much more sparkly in real life than the camera shows.

My main challenge for both of these was finding a sentiment to fit … I have quite a few Christmas sentiments but no really small ones .. so may need to adjust the size of my circle next time!

Stamps: Lavinia “Fir Tree 1”, “Small Fairy Fir Tree 2”, “Fir Cone Branch”, “Stars 1 Mini”; sentiment - Wild Rose Studio (card 1), Me To You (card 2);

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks - Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo, Black Soot; Versafine - Onyx Black and Imperial Purple; Sakura Gelly roll pen - Stardust.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Ally’s Angels #52 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Classic Design Challenge (November) - Anything Goes (9th entry)

Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge #569 - Anything Christmas Goes with option of glitter  (2nd entry)

Happy Little Stampers (Christmas): November - Anything Christmas Goes with option Make a Scene

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2147 - Anything Goes

Pearly Sparkles #68 - Merry Christmas (2nd entry)

SheepSki Designs #56 - ‘Tis the Season (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Make Your Own Background (4th entry)

Stamping Sensations (November) - Christmas (3rd entry)

We Love Stamping (November) - Christmas (3rd entry)

I have actually made a  couple more cards than I am showing here but the rest are near duplicates of earlier cards … and I’ll be carrying on the rest of this week with more of the same!! 

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #651

Good morning … It’s Saturday so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge - hope you can find time to join us. This week Brenda has chosen the theme and it is

One for the Girls

We have 2 fab prizes on offer- they are:

A gorgeous Tattered Lace die

... and a Woodware stamp set.

Here's my card for this week.

This card is again something of a showcase for my recent winnings .. I won the beautiful digi image and also the gorgeous Uniko sentiment set in recent blog challenges. 

I made a simple background by randomly sponging two colours of distress oxide ink through a stencil and then spattering with silver acrylic paint. I printed off my digi image, coloured with Promarkers and then fussy cut and adhered to the background, I then stamped and heat embossed my sentiment, and attached die cut and punched butterflies and gems before matting the whole panel onto co-ordinating glitter card and attaching to my card base.

Stamps: Rachel Vass Designs “Awesome Anemone” (digi); Uniko “Birthday Sentiments”;

Media: flower - Promarkers; background - Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks (Kitsch Flamingo, Cracked Pistachio);silver acrylic paint;

Tools: stencil - Craft Sensations at The Range; Joy! Crafts butterfly die; small butterfly craft punch (unknown);

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #418 - Birthdays

As You Like It - Favourite: Dies or Stencils, and why

(This is almost impossible to answer: I have dozens (hundreds?) of dies collected over 15 years and used to use them all the time, but since coming back to crafting this summer I have started using stencils for the first time and they are my new obsession. So it is finely balanced, but at the end of the day I love the intricacy of dies so I think they will always be my favourite).

Classic Design Challenge (November) - Anything Goes (7th entry)

Colour Crazy #46 - Anything Goes with Colouring

Crafter’s Castle #47 - Anything Goes

Creations In Pink #39 - Anything Goes In Mainly Pink

Creative Craft Cottage #146 - Add Some Sparkle

I ♥ Promarkers #448 - Anything Goes with option of No Patterned Paper

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2146 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Make Your Own Background (2nd 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. 

Have a great weekend, take care and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #648

Hi everyone,

It's Saturday so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. This week Lorraine has chosen the theme and it is

Add A Sentiment

So this gives you a lovely wide scope to play with. 

This week we are offering two gorgeous prizes:

Tattered Lace “Pretty as a Princess” die

and

Tonic Studios “Season’s Greetings” die

Here's my card.

I decided to go with making my sentiment quite prominent, which gave me opportunity to use the fab Uniko sentiment set I won recently.  In fact this card is something of a showcase for my recent winnings, as the image is a brilliant Polkadoodles digi that I also won in the past couple of weeks.  

I printed my image and coloured with my Promarkers and Flexmarkers, inked and embossed my sentiment, then added “bubbles” using a stencil and Versamark, embossed with “enchanted gold” embossing powder. I matted the panel onto matching pink card and added a scattering of gems, and I was done.  I don't often make CAS cards but am really pleased with how this turned out.

The stencilled "bubbles" are actually very sparkly but that isn't easy to see in the main pic ... here is a photo at a different angle to try to capture the sparkle!

Stamps: Polkadoodles “Cherry Cocktails” (digi); Uniko “Birthday Sentiments”;

Media: Promarkers and Flexnarkers, Heat It Up “Enchanted Gold”/embossing powder;

Tools: Stencil - Craft Sensations at The Range.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Creations in Pink #38 - Anything Goes with mainly pink

Creative Moments #225 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Dragonfly Dreams (October) - In The Pink

I ♥ Promarkers #446 - Anything Goes

NBUS #31 - Use Never Before Used Schtuff

Pammie’s Inky Pinkies #2143 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

(I used a new digi image and new stencil)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Hope you can join us this week. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. Have a great weekend, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Allsorts Challenge #647

Hi everyone,

It's Saturday so it's time for another weekly Allsorts Challenge. This week Mervi has chosen the theme and it is

Anything Goes with option - Vintage

This week we again have 2 fab prizes for you:

Firstly 

Indigo Blu - Rose Blush stamp

Secondly 

Ruth Hamilton Design - 3 images of winner's choice.

Here's my card for this week.

The starting point was this large vintage style clear stamp I unearthed in my stamp box … I have had it for years and never inked it before.  In fact the stamp is so big it wasn’t appropriate for my usual 6 inch square card, so unusually for me I cut a 7” * 5” card base. I created  a smooshed background on watercolour paper with a mix of distress inks and distress oxides, then stamped my image with Vintage Photo DI and embossed with clear powder. I coloured the flower and leaves with distress oxide ink pads, mixing colours on my craft mat to produce shades that would work with my background and also with my DP; then I added a little background stencilling. I distressed the edges of the finished image panel with my distressing tool and a bit more sponged DI, and mounted on papers that had had the edges deckle cut and had some frantage shabby embossing enamel applied here and there and heat set. I used the most vintage looking ribbon I could find in my stash .. a beautiful velvet ribbon edged with lace, and added a few pearls and a sentiment which seemed to be a very similar font to the background text on my stamp.

Stamps: LotV Set 53 - Vintage backgrounds; Woodware Tiny Sentiments;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Distress Oxide inks; Stampendous Frantage Shabby White embossing enamel;

Tools: Darkroom Door stencil - “Diamonds”;

Papers, pearls and velvet ribbon/lace from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Colour Crazy Challenge #41 - Anything Goes with Colouring

Crafter’s Cafe #276 - Use A Stencil - TOP 3

Happy Little Stampers (September): Watercolour - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy - Kindness/fondness and/or Add Lace

MAWTT #135 - Bingo Board  (3rd entry)

(Ribbon, patterned paper, lace)

Penny’s Challenge #507 - Anything Goes with Paper

Pixie’s Snippets Playground #414 - Use Snippets

(My pink paper is a snippet)

Seize the Birthday #225 - Use A Stencil

Sisterhood of Crafters - Happy Birthday (2nd entry) - TOP 3

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

I look forward to seeing your entries for this week. Don't forget to visit the challenge blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Dream, Love, Live

Today I have something a bit different to share with you. I have been wanting to experiment some more with my new Distress Oxides and also have a few new stamps, one of which is a background set which includes a complete alphabet; so I decided to make a bookmark. Bizarrely I haven’t ever made one before as far as I can remember.

I created a “smoosh” background on watercolour paper using 4 colours of DO ink, then stamped my focal flowers using Versafine Onyx and embossed with clear powder. I stamped the alphabet and grungy text using dark grey ink and embossed, and then stencilled one corner with Versamark and embossed with white detail powder. Finally I stamped, embossed and affixed my sentiments, affixed the panel to black card, then punched a hole which I strengthened with a die cut and tied with ribbon.

The main challenge with this was that I don’t have a normal size single hole punch, but I do have a long reach punch which makes a small hole … so I punched a cluster of holes which I then covered with the hole protector die cut 😀

Stamps: Stampendous “Agapanthus Cluster”; alphabet and grungy text - Woodware “Additions”; sentiments - unknown;

Media: Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks;

Tools: Darkroom Door stencil - “Diamonds”; Magnolia Doohickey Vintage Tilda tag (tag hole protector).

Challenges I would like to enter:

Addicted to Stamps and More #416 - Make Your Mark

As You Like It - Favourite Non-card Project and why

(I have made a book mark which is my only non-card project for years, and it was my favourite choice as it enables me to practice my inky backgrounds, and I can easily gift bookmarks as stocking fillers at Christmas)

Crafter’s Cafe #276 - Use a Stencil

Creatalicious #221 - Anything Goes with option of black and purple

( I have used black and a little bit of lilac)

Creative Moments #224 - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Love to Scrap #150 - Anything But A Card

NBUS #31 - Use Never Before Used Schtuff

(Mine is my Tumbled Glass DO,  stencil and alphabet stamp)

Retro Rubber #169 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

(My Agapanthus cluster stamp is older than I care to remember .. at least 10 years)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Not A Card

I actually made this yesterday ... but the weather is so awful today i think I may well stay in and have another craft session this afternoon! Thanks very much for visiting today.

Hugs,

Time to Celebrate

Hi everyone,

Today's card was inspired by feeling celebrational, for a few reasons. Firstly, I was inspired to make a CAS celebrational card for the fab 200th challenge at AAA CAS Challenges. Secondly, I was lucky enough to win a stamp set from  Uniko last week, and wanted to showcase the gorgeous sentiment set that I chose, which is perfect for this theme. Last but not least I took delivery a couple of days ago of a few new gorgeous Woodware stamps, so I wanted to have a play with them.

This is what I made.

The floral stamp is really big and I would have found it difficult to stamp in the past, but my Press to Impress made it much easier not only to stamp, but to position off the page and even mask and add some extra swirly leaves in one direction.  I also love these big sentiment words, which is something I have been looking for as I think they work really well stamped direct onto either CAS backgrounds or distressed panels. I heat embossed all my inking so I could paint the flowers.

This card was also an experiment in painting with my rediscovered Cosmic Shimmer and Luminarte iridescent watercolour paints ... the idea was to create a stylized shimmery look so there is no shading (also I'm no watercolourist!). The flowers and leaves are actually very shimmery ... I took a picture  in sunlight to show this a bit better.

The card was actually going to be a bit more CAS than it turned out .. I accidentally got a bit of a mark on the white space but that gorgeous dragonfly die cut hopefully hides a multitude of sins!

Stamps: Woodware "Petal Trio"; Uniko "Birthday Sentiments";

Media: Cosmic Shimmer and Luminarte iridescent watercolour paints;

Tools: Tattered Lace Cute Critters Dragonfly die.

Challenges I would like to enter:

AAA CAS Challenges #200 - Celebrate (2nd entry)

Classic Design (October) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes (3rd entry)

Creative Knockouts #423 - Embossing Delight

Creative Moments #224 - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Dies R Us #179 - Anything Goes with a die brand sold by DRU

(I have used Tattered Lace dragonfly die)

Sisterhood of Crafters - Happy Birthday

That's all from me for today ... I'll be back tomorrow bright and early with a new Allsorts Challenge .

Take care, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Exciting news - new DT member for Allsorts Challenge #644

Good morning everyone - I have some really exciting news which I have been bursting to share, and today's the day! I have been asked by the lovely Brenda to join the Design Team for the Allsorts Challenge - woo hoo!!  Having just got back into cardmaking over the summer I am absolutely thrilled to have this new focus to keep me motivated to carry on crafting and try new techniaues, and I'm excited to be working with and getting to know the other talented ladies on the DT.

Allsorts is one of my favourite challenges and is clearly doing something right as it continues to thrive after over 12 years of weekly challenges ... it provides fab inspiration and also offers fantastic prizes from a variety of crafty providers! Sadly the one down side of being on the DT is that I won't be able to enter in hope of winning them any more! ☺️

Anyhoo to business ... Lynn has chosen this week's theme for Week #644 and it is

I love ....

.. so this could be anything you love - eg. favourite stamp, colour, style of crafting .. the choice is endless😀

This week we are offering 2 prizes:

 Helping Hands Craft is kindly offering a £15 store voucher 

Also we are offering a Tim Holtz on The Edge Pennant die

Obviously the main thing I'm loving right now is getting involved in the Allsorts DT, so it seemed only right that for my first DT card I should use a stamp that I won in the recent "Challenge for Kath" that Allsorts held in memory of their dear fellow DT member who recently passed away - and I really do love this stamp! I also love flowers, and the colour combo of pink and green so that ticks a few boxes!

I coloured my stamp with Promarkers and Flexmarkers using a "dotty" technique that was inspired by an image I found on Pinterest (see below) whilst googling to find the exact name of this stamp. The image is from the gallery of Julia Watts Crafts blog for a Hochanda Woodware stamps show broadcast in June 2017.  I just love this colouring technique and will surely use it again in future with bold floral stamps.

As the stamp and DP are so bold I kept the layout of my card simple, and just did a bit of freehand faux stitching with my piercing tool, ruler and fine liner.

Stamps: Image - Woodware Bold Blooms - Erica; Sentiment - Penny Black "Flourish Birthday" (4071F);

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Paper and gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #20 - Anything Goes (2nd entry) - WINNER

Colour Crazy Challenge #39 - Anything Goes with Colouring

Crafter’s Cafe #275 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #220 - Anything Goes with the option of Favourite Colour Combo -TOP 3

(mine is pink & green)

Creations in Pink #37 - Anything Goes in Mainly Pink

Creative Moments #223 -Anything Goes

I ♥ Promarkers #444 - Anything Goes with option Make it Square - TOP 3

NBUS #31 - Use Never Before Used Schtuff

(mine is the flower stamp)

Passion for Markers #611 - In the Pink - TOP 5

Penny’s Challenge #506 - Anything Goes with Paper

Simon Says … - Happy World Cardmaking Day

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

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

Have a good weekend, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Fanfare

I'm feeling really excited right now, as having got back into crafting over the summer I have now decided to get some new playthings to take my crafting in new directions, and have ordered some TH Distress Oxide inks, stencils and masking sheets.  My first order of distress oxides arrived yesterday,  so I just had to have a play with them!  

I have been watching numerous online tutorials recently about blending techniques etc. including one on Craft World which involved layering stamped distressed card on top of a non-coloured image as per the following photograph.

 that is what broadly inspired today's card. 

This was a really simple card - I stamped my main image directly onto my base card, then cut a panel of smooth Neenah cardstock which I distressed with my 3 inks and splattered with water to get some resist effect. I then stamped my image again onto the distressed panel, and sliced it to create the effect where the image beneath can be seen peeking through.  Finished off with a few scattered gems and a simple sentiment - voila! 

I have to say at first sight I am really blown away by distress oxides and will definitely be using them a lot more in future ... I can see why they have taken the craft world by storm over the past 3-4 years when I was pretty much out of the crafting loop.

My main image is an old Penny Black wood-mounted stamp; but I also used my brand new stamp positioning tool to place my sentiment directly onto the base card. On Monday I took delivery of a Press To Impress tool  and it's absolutely fab - don't know how i managed without it! In fact I'm now wondering about converting my old woodblock stamps to unmounted for future use!

Stamps: Penny Black "Fanfare" (3946K); sentiment - unknown;

Media: TH Distress Oxide inks - Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo, Salvaged Patina;

Gems from my stash.

Challenges I would like to enter:

Time Out #197 - Inspiration Quote

(I have been inspired by the ideas of flowers and friends)

A Bit More Time To Craft #145 - Anything Goes

A Gem of a Challenge #20 - Anything Goes

Crafter's Castle #45 - Anything Goes

Creatalicious #219 - Anything Goes with option of Friends

Cute Card Thursday #692 - Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers (Watercolour): September - Anything Goes

NBUS #30 - Use Never Before Used Schtuff (2nd entry)

(mine is my Distress Oxide inks and stamp positioning tool) 

Penny Black Saturday Challenge (September) - Anything Goes (2nd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Anything Goes

Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

That's all for today, but I will be back soon with more inky experiments. My question for the rest of this afternoon is ... should I play some more with my distress oxides or tackle my large basket of ironing??  Hmmm ....

'Til next time - thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Magic and Sparkle!

Today is one of my good friend's  birthday, so here is the card I made for her using the second adorable dragon digi image that I recently won as a challenge prize from Lee Holland Art.  

I have to say that I am totally in love with this range of images, to the extent that I have now followed Lee's site and thus got a free dragon Christmas image to play with - whoop whoop!! .. so you'll have to watch this space for that one which I''m sure will be coming soon!

I have also recently signed up for my first colouring class with the lovely Kit & Clowder, as I was lucky enough to receive a voucher for my birthday. I selected a detailed techniques class (colouring skin and hair) and I'm still at very early days with that, but I have already popped a couple of extra classes into my online basket including one to colour a Lee Holland dragon painting a rainbow!  I think that will be an autumn project for me, but it will be interesting to see how my colouring of dragons  changes as I get that class done.

This card involves a lot of sparkle on both the glitter card borders and the flower; and as it was a sunny day yesterday I was for once able to capture it pretty well in my photos. 

Stamps: Lee Holland "dragon with birthday cake" (digi); sentiment - unknown;

Media: Promarkers and Flexmarkers;

Papers: LotV Nitwits Collection - "Perfect Pair";

Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities  - Fleur de Lis Squares; Marianne Design Creatables - LR0110 (flower and swirls)

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #17 - Anything Goes (2nd entry). - TOP 5

Allsorts #637/638 - Add Some Sparkle (2nd entry)

Crafter's Cafe #272 - Fantasy

Crafty Animals #53 - Anything Goes With an Animal - TOP PICK

Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes

Creative Knockouts #415 - Birthday Wishes

Cute Card Thursday #691 - Anything Goes (4th entry)

Penny's Challenge #503 - Anything Goes With Paper (3rd entry)

Simon Says (Wednesday) - Add A Sentiment

We Love Chocolate Baroque (August) - Favourite Stamps 

(at the moment I am just in love with these dragons!)

That's all from me for today. Hope you're having a nice evening, and thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Summer tea party!

Hi everyone,

Here is a summery birthday card I made during the period when I wasn't blogging. Having got so out of practice with colouring I have had a phase of making cards with die cuts rather than stamped images, and this is one of them.  The combo of the teapot, bunting die and and summery colours really puts me in mind of a summer tea party in the garden!

This was another die set I bought when I unexpectedly came upon a Crafters' Companion shop whilst out shopping  ... I am absolutely blown away by the intricacy of this die. Sadly as previously mentioned, I no longer have the packaging for any of my dies since I mounted them all into a bespoke case ... very convenient for storage but not so good for describing what I have used!!

Stamp: free with Simply Cards & Papercraft magazine;

Papers: LotV Nitwits Collection - "Perfect Pair";

Tools: Die-Sire Create a Card Easel die (name unknown); La La Lands "Heart Banner" die.

Challenges I would like to enter:

A Gem of a Challenge #14 - Anything Goes

Corrosive Challenge #7 2021 - Anything Goes

Crafters' Cafe #269 - Anything Goes

Creative Knockouts #409 - Something To Say

Cute Card Thursday #690 - Anything Goes with optional summer theme

Fab 'n' Funky #531 - Anything Goes

My Time To Craft #461 - Ribbons and Bows

Penny's Challenge #500 - Anything Goes with paper

That's all for today - thanks for visiting.

Hugs,