2025 in Review....

 I'm heading off for a few days up north - and will have limited access to my computer... so today I'm sharing my 12 favourite cards I've made - one from each month.  

January

Using an Altenew stencil and die Hill Blossom Floral.  

February 

A cute little box card using some cute stamps that my daughter and grandson gave me.

March

Playing with some Journalsay PET tape and a Gina K sentiment

April

A Gina K stamp set - Music to the Soul.  Coloured with Tri-blends and cut with my Scan'n'Cut.

May

Fun card using a Mangocraft stamp and die set. 

June 

Altenew's Mini Delight set - Butterfly Dreams stamp and die set

July

Tried a new technique with glue and foil.   Flower from Hero Arts 

August 

A touch of mixed media - Printed some patterned paper from PNGwing. and die cut Altenew's Petite Mountain Aven 

September 

Using a new to me die with some flowers from Birch Press Star Flowers 

October

Another mixed media - inspired by Erin Reed's tutorial at the Stress Free Cardmaking Summit. 

November 

More mixed media - stencils, stamps, texture paste and die cut flowers - Altenew Petite Mountain Aven. 

December 

Using some gorgeous patterned paper or this Christmas card.  Using gold to cut my large sentiment. 

Thanks for staying all the way to here.... I had such fun looking through the multitude of cards I've made this year.   Been trying out lots of different techniques and loving my exploration into mixed media cards. 

Wishing all my followers a Happy and Crafty New Year.  

Poinsettia Frame Christmas cards

 Merry Christmas to all.   Christmas Eve today, and I'm sharing my card for the Die Cut Divas. My usual day is the 25th, but I've decided to post a day early.

Our lovely sponsor is Waffle Flower 

Today I have two cards to share.... both using the Poinsettia Frame die and stencil set... in two different colours schemes. 

First one is a dark pink poinsettia

I die cut the frame twice and used the matching stencil to add colour.  This first one used Simon Hurley's Prom Queen ink for the flowers and two Distress Ink green inks for the leaves.  I die cut the sentiment from Altenew's Citrine glitter and added some splatter with Distress Spritz - Fossilised Amber.   

And I made a second one... using some pale green to colour the poinsettia 

Changed up the sentiment as well and added some glitter dots and spritzed with some dark green ink

Wishing everyone a good day tomorrow.  

Last minute Christmas cards

 Hi there.   Just popping in with a few last minute Christmas cards made over the last few days

This first one is some watercolour bubbles on black mixed media card.   Boy was it hard to get a great photo of the shiny watercolours I used with the bubbles.  In real life, it looks amazing.  I used the top of a Cuttlebug die to make the toppers for the baubles.   Added lots of gold watercolour splatters on the background panel and added gold metallic thread for the strings.  The sentiment is from an older Hero Arts stamp set. 

This one was a quick card - as I had the white embossed panel done from a few weeks ago.   I just took it and used some leftover ink on my blending brushes to colour the poinsettia and leaves.  Added a few red glittery dots.  Added some gold Posca pen for the centres.   Added a silver embossed on black sentiment.  It's one of a LDSR Christmas sentiments stamp and die set.   

Split Colour Technique.

 My local swap group for December had a fun challenge set by my friend, Suna.  It was a split colour technique - she gave us a variety of ideas via youtube videos.   I chose to use one from Jennifer McGuire - from 8 years ago.

This technique ends up with two cards - from two lots of stamping and colouring. 

This is the one I sent off to Suze.  The stamp is a Gina K one called Happy Bouquet.  Stamped once of white card and in the same spot on some Scrapbook.com watercoloured patterned paper. The white card was stamped with black ink and clear embossed and the PP was stamped with Versamark and clear embossed.  I coloured the white card stamping with some alcohol markers and then trimmed the same amount off the end of each panel and mixed and matched.   I added some ribbon across the join and topped with a stamped and die cut sentiment from Couture Creations.  

And here is the second card. 

Added a softer purple ribbon across the join and a different sentiment from the same set of Couture Creations stamp and die set.  

Had a lovely weekend - my niece, her husband and their 15 year old daughter stayed with us.  They are from Townsville in North Queensland, Australia and are doing a 3 week trip to NZ.  Vicky was born in NZ in the South Island and had never been to Auckland and her hubby as never been to NZ.  Poor Chelsea though, her suitcase didn't make it with her!  Three days later and it still is in Australia!  Anyhoo,,, they had a great time with us.  Yesterday they did the bungy jump of the Skytower and a walk up One Tree Hill for an awesome view of the city.   All that after Peter had taken them on an hour long walk around our area.   

Christmas Postage Collage from Waffle Flower

 Hi there.   Today I'm sharing my design team card for this month's Die Cut Divas challenge... Our challenge is Winter/Christmas  and our wonderful sponsor is 

My card today uses the Waffle Flower Postage Collage Die and paired it with some 49th and Market Christmas rub-ons.   

I started by making my background.  I used a smooshing tool to add some Shabby Shutters Distress ink and some Lindy's Stamp Gang - Sea Grass Green spray.  Add the rub-ons from 4th and Market  Mistletoe and Memories.  Die cut with the Waffle Flower Postage Collage die and added it to an Evergreen card base.   Added a sentiment from Waffle Flower Star Snowflake Sentiment.  I die cut some dots from the Evergreen card and added together with some little red dots for the berries.

Do come and join us at Die Cut Divas - just remember to use your die cut machine.  

Adding to the Christmas Kickstart Challenge -  If it's Christmasy, Link it Up!

Quick and pretty Christmas cards.

 I need to make a few quick Christmas cards last week and saw a fabulous tutorial from Brandy's Cards - found the tutorial from BrandysCard.com.  It's a great sketch design.  I've made 2 cards - both using the same paper and design - just different die cut sentiments 

Such an elegant design and really easy to make.   The patterned paper piece was a 12" x 3" left over stripe from a Rosie's Studio scrapbook paper. So easy to cut to the 4" x3" needed for each central panel.  Used a Couture Creations embossing folder, some white and grey green card to make the matting layers.  The die cut sentiments were gut from gold card and matted with some dark green.   Added some gold dots. 

Loved the ease of this design.  

I'm adding this to the If It's Christmassy, Link It Up!  at Christmas Kickstart Challenge 

Not a lot of crafting done over this last week or weekend.  We went away weekend with our son, daughter in law and the girls.  They put the tent up at on our friend's backyard to see how the girls coped with sleeping in the tent.   Luckily we had amazing weather and other than the girls getting a bit cold overnight, they loved it!   We've given them three nights at a beach side camping ground after Christmas.  And it's awesome to see the next generation going camping in. 

Roll on Christmas and the Summer Holidays

Crafting with Suna...

 I had a "play date" with my friend Suna on Friday afternoon... I had made a start to my crafting in the morning and then we had a fabulous time crafting and talking.   I got so busy crafting I forgot to take any pics of us playing.  

Earlier in the week, my order from Scrapbook.com had arrived.   Part of it was Pinkfresh Studio - Peony Glow stamp, die and washi tape.   I forgot the matching stencil ( but it is now on it's way!)  The washi is soooo beautiful and there is so much washi on the roll.   I added the washi to white card and vellum and cut them for Suna to take home. 

I made two cards on Friday using the washi on white card. 

This lot of die cut washi isn't even all of one panel!   For this one I made a background using an Altenew Cover Plate - Dotted Sunburst Debossing - for some lovely texture.   I then created the frame using a Gina L Master Layout 18 die.  Then I went to town adding the florals die cuts.   Had fun  putting it together.   Added a sentiment from the matching stamp set and it's shadow die layered 4 times for a really sturdy sentiment.   Finished with rose gold dots.  

My second card - used more of the panel of die cut washi

Again, I used the Altenew Starburst Debossing Cover plate for the background panel.   On top I layered a frame made with 2 of the Hero Arts Infinity Arches Dies.  I had embossed it with a wood grain folder.  I used the same card stock to cut and emboss the Altenew Pitcher Vases folder and die.   Added some brown ink from Altenew over the embossing.  Cut some Scrapbook.com watercolour patterned paper for the inside of frame.   I used a stipe of 3D tape down the middle to give it some dimension and shape.   Added the floral cluster from the first panel of washi die cuts.  Again, used a sentiment from the Pinkfresh Studio stamp set.  Finished with some more of the rose gold dots. 

And one more card I made in the afternoon... this one using a free digital image from Sande Woodson.  It was free on her Facebook page and is blue Christmas images 

I used the Hero Arts Infinity dies again to make a gold frame.  I cut a white panel to fit into the centre of the arch.   I used a Holly 3D embossing folder to add texture.  The sentiment is from Rosies Studio - Hearth and Home stamp set and fitted perfectly in the top corner.  I had printed the sheet of blue Christmas images and used my Scan'N'Cut to cut them out.   I loved this little girl with her book.   Went perfectly with the rest of the card.  Finished with some dots cut from the same gold card. 

Thanks for taking the time to view my cards today.   I had so much fun playing with Suna.  It's great to spend crafting time with a friend.   Just loving have Friday's off now so I can do this sort of thing.  

I actually made a total of 7 cards on the day. So a very successful day.

Lawn Fawn Critters

 Wow where has November gone!!!!  Less than 4 weeks till Christmas.     Today I'm sharing my DT card for Die Cut Divas.   

Our November challenge is CRITTERS

Our sponsor this month is Lawn Fawn. They will be giving our winner a $25 gift card to their online store. Thank you to Lawn Fawn for their generous support.

Today I have a birthday card - for a friend's upcoming birthday. 

Aren't these little Parrots so cute!  And that sentiment!!!! The stamp and die set is called Year Twelve.  My Background was stamped in a mid grey ink from Altenew and used a woodblock stamp Happy Birthday background from a now defunct NZ company called Rubbadubdado .  I die cut it with a Gina K Master Layout and added a wider border.  Found some fun striped paper and cut it to a panel to add to the background.   Stamped the stentiment and die cut with a banner die (did a little die surgery as the original die was a bit short.   Stamped and clear embossed the parrots and used my Zig Markers to add colour before die cutting them.  Added the black dots to finish it off.   

And I decorated inside 

This set is so sweet.    

We'd love to see your CRITTER creations in our gallery this month - you have till 9.00pm USA Pacific time to enter.  . Click here to add your card to our gallery.  Just remember to use at least one die cut or embossing folder must be used.