Altenew Love

 #AltenewLove  - I came back from my break away last Sunday and in my mail was the gorgeous Blooming Thanks mini stamp set - a free set from Altenew.   So excited to get this free set.

So yesterday (another HOT day) I headed into the craft room for bit of cool.  And to make a card using the stamp set.   I started by stamping the floral image a number of times and used my Scan'n'Cut to cut them out. 

I used similar colours to yesterday's card but with a much lighter hand.   I got a new Gelli Art stencil called Dot and used the Sea Shore inks from Altenew to make the background panel that was cut with Gina K Master Layout 4.  I made myself a little stencil for the flowers by stamping one and cutting out the flowers.  Used some Buttercream and Warm Sunshine with some Paper Bay ink for the centres.  I used some micro blending brushes to add some of the Volcano Lakes and Lagoon inks for the leaves.   Added a touch of a teal Jasart pencil for the leaves as well.   I cut some teal textured card with Gina L Master Layout 1 and some darker teal for the layering layer.  Added the flowers around the oval and stamped the sentiment from the Blooming Thanks stamp set in Grey Denim ink.  The card base was just under A2 size at 5.25" x 4.25"  Finished with some gold sparkle pen on the flower centres and some silver dots. 

As both the stencil and the stamp set are having their first outings... I'm entering this into the NBUS challenge.  

Today was another scorcher - so after doing the housework in the morning, hubby and I went on a lunch date - to the Bay's Club in Browns Bay for a lovely lunch - Gold Card special $20 per meal.  Your get your Gold Card when you turn 65.  The meals were lovely - Lambs Fry and Bacon for him, Creamy Mushrooms on ciabatta bread for me.   Luckily the breeze picked up a bit in the afternoon and there was a bit of relief.                                              

Hello 2026 with Altenew Challenge Live.

Yesterday was a really warm one... and in the morning I hid in my craft room to keep cool.. I was watching Jen from Altenew on her live challenge on Facebook.   She does a weekly challenge live and usually I have to watch on replay but as I'm still on my summer holidays, I got to watch live and I crafted while watching.   The challenge was to use "Hello" on your project. 

I immediately remembered a Circle Greetings - Hello die and pulled it out together with a stencil and a sentiment stamp set. 

I made a 4.25" square card. Cut a panel at 4 x 4 and die cut the circle greetings die from the middle.  I decided to use the Altenew Sweet Spring stencil and used only two tones of green - Volcano Lake and Emerald Crisp Dry inks. Added some bronze-gold watercolour splatter.  I die cut the "hello" part twice more, once in white and once in textured gold card.  The white one when underneath and the gold on top.  Added some extra card strips on the back to give some height.  Gold embossed the sentiment from Sentiment Strips 2.  Finished with some matching gold dots. 

I didn't quite get it finished during the live - mainly because I changed my mind about the stenciling behind.  First panel didn't float my boat so started again.  

Did end up down at the beach later in the day - lay under the shade of a Pohutakawa tree and enjoyed the warmth of the day.  

Happy New Year 2026

 Happy New Year to you all.

I made this card for our friends who we spend New Years Eve with. 

Although this card looks midnight blue, it is fact a black mixed media card- 400gsm so very heavy.  I embossed it with a folder - Persuasion Flowers.  I added some gold ink and gold watercolour to the flowers and added splatters of gold and white metallic watercolours.  Added a Wordies sentiment matted with gold and die cut 2026 from a Mama Elephant alpha set.  

A last Christmas card

 Hi there.   31st December - Christmas is done and dusted for another year but today I'm sharing a card I made just in time for Christmas!   It's my share at Die Cut Divas.    

Our lovely sponsor for December is Waffle Flower 

I used the Waffle Flower Postage Collage die again... a big favourite and the Postage Collage Block die - paired with the Postage Collage Poinsettia stencil set.

I die cut the block dies and before taking it out of the die, pressed it onto my sticky mat.  Then used the Poinsettia stencil set and a variety of Altenew inks to add the colours.   Die cut the Postage Collage die from red and added the blocks in the appropriate spaces.   Had a panel of embossed white card on my desk.  Thought it would give just a little bit of texture around the edge.  Added a little stripe sentiment from my stash - a LDSR stamp and die set of Christmas sentiments.  White embossed on black.  

There are a few hours still to enter our challenge  - it closes at 9.00pm US Pacific time. 

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.