Z fold floral

 Time to share the Z fold card I've made as my DT sample for Die Cut Divas - our challenge this month is to make a Z fold card..   

Our sponsor this month, is Altenew who very generously will be giving our August winner a $20 gift card. Thank you to Altenew for their generosity.

There are lots of different types of Z fold cards - I've gone with a Z fold Flip card. 

I used a Sizzix Framelits Flit-It die to cut my base.  I found an old DCWV Matstack called The Chateau Lavender.   It has gorgeous card with glitter.   It's simply gorgeous.  The die set has the dies to cut the panels so all in all, very easy to make.  I chose a little Altenew stamp and die set - Mini Delight Adore You Add on.   I stamped and used the Woodless Watercolor pencils from Altenew to add colour.  I then sprayed them with some Shimmer Spray in Frost.   The sentiment is from the same stamp set. 

This is what the inside looks like.    It was fun to pull this die set out and make this card... It's been a while since I last used it.   

So came and join us with you Z-fold card.  

Two more Christmas cards

I've got a couple of Christmas cards to share.   Didn't get a lot done over the weekend as we took a trip to visit hubby's sister in Tauranga.   A 3 and bit hours south of us.   Took her and her hubby out for lunch.   She has done her first round of chemo and other than losing her beautiful flowing locks... she said she is feeling good.  She starts round number 2 this coming Thursday.    Then it was back home.   A pretty full on day.  Sunday was spend doing ironing, shopping and finally a bit of crafting time. 

My first card used a negative scrap - when I die cut some white JOY sentiment for dimension for another card, I made sure they were all cut one below the other with the thought of using the negative space - and it turned out perfect. 

This is a 4.25" x 6.25" card.  I took a poinsettia patterned paper 6" square and put it behind the negative space and added the centre of the O back in place.  I used my computer to generate the sub-sentiment and used an Altenew die to cut it out. 

And my second card is for the Christmas Kickstart challenge - theme this month "Let's Wreath it Up"

I printed some tartan paper from a PNGwing image and trimmed it to a square.  Matted it onto some white card with some gold pen added around the edge.   Used a holly berry die to cut three times from dark green card and made the wreath.  I used a dotty die to cut a pile of red dots to add for the berries.  The sentiment banner is an old unnamed woodblock stamp.  I had purchased it about 8 years ago from a reject shop in Australia for just a few dollars.  I stamped and clear embossed it before fussy cutting it.   Added some 3D tape in the middle and glued the edges directly to the card.   

Slowly building up the Christmas cards.  

Animals at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.

 It's time to share my card for Sweet Stampin' Challenge.  Our challenge this fortnight is "Animals"

Took me a while to choose what Animal I wanted to use.   Went through my stamp sets and came across a couple of Crafter's Companion sets - and chose to use Simply Wild About You.  

Went with a very simple card...  die cut a Gina K Master Layouts 2 stitched rectangle and stamped the zebra  and sentiment.   Added some green and blue ink blending and then used a Tim Holtz spritzer tool (see below) - and some green watercolour markers to make some grass. 

Finished with some black dots. 

Do come and join us at Sweet Stampin' Challenge 

National Lighthouse Day - 7th August.

 Today I'm sharing a card I send to my friend, Carol, as part of our little monthly swap group.   Carol set our challenge... All things August!   Part of my freebies from the Card Maker Success Summit... list of 365 Reasons to Make a Card.... so checked out August and 7th was National Lighthouse Day!   I recently got a new stamp and die set that had a lighthouse so decided that I would make an encouragment card. 

I started by die cutting a panel and added some ink blending  using a stencil from Altenew.  Stamped and coloured the lighthouse before die cutting it.  Added the sentiment directly to the panel and some birds (from an Altenew set) and then added the lighthouse with some 3D tape.  Added some pale blue striped paper as a mat and then onto a white card base. 

It's my turn to set the challenge for next month, so got my thinking hat on!  

Easy Embossing technique - Step up your embossing!

 I've seen this technique all over the internet... but I recently saw it done by Jo Simons (see her video Here) - this technique is all about enhancing your 3D embossing with white ink!

 

Jo used patterned paper to do her embossing on and then used white pigment ink pounced onto the raised areas.   I found I had a pack of Anko Marble paper (from KMart) I first did a grey and white piece, but there wasn't enough contrast, so tried this pink/blue/purple piece.   I used Altenew 3D Decorative Floral folder and then used HA Unicorn White ink.  (Need to get a refill for my Altenew Cloud White ink)  Added a white embossed on black sentiment from a LDRS Anytime Stack and the co-ordinating Flag Tail die.  Just trimmed the flag ends off. Added some silver dots to finish.  

With Sympathy

 Last weekend my team lead at work, lost her Mum.   She had been ill for a while but it is still sad when your Mum passes.   The team wanted a card for all of our team and the other team (both teams work together) to all sign.  

I decided I needed to make a slightly bigger card - 5.5" x 8" card so there was space for all the expressions of sympathy and condolences.

I made the card very CAS - using Altenew Fairy Tale Floras which I stamped and black embossed.  I used the matching simple colouring stencils with some pink and green inks.   The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set which is my favourite to use for sympathy cards.   Ran a gold paint pen around the edge of the panel.   

Always sad to have to make this sort of card. 

Clean and Simple Birthday card.

 It's one of my colleagues birthday today so I made a card for her.  Inspired by a video I watched by Christine Stokes on YouTube (you can watch it here)   I loved the idea she used to make her butterfly from printed paper using a background from PNGwing.   I have a few backgrounds in my saved files... so printed off one of them onto some off white cardstock and away I went....

Christine often makes square cards, so that's what I did today.   I cut my card base at 5" square, next layer was 4.5" and the main panel 4" - I used a Kaisercraft stamp - Botanical to partially stamp on the background.  I used Altenew's Petite Mountain Aven die to cut the paper I printed.  Love how all the different colours look on the flower and leaves.  Add the sentiment from Altenew Label Love set.  Added some little pinky handmade enamel dots and some glossy accents on the flower centre.  

Flash Back - an old technique with Colour Bursts

 In my Facebook memories this week - a card I made 9 years ago!

It used a technique that used layered stamps and Colour Bursts and it was from a You Tube by Maureen Wong (see it here)    I decided that it was time I gave it another try!

I chose to use a butterfly stamp this time around, 

I used Altenew Dovetail Butterflies.  I add Nuvo Shimmer powders onto the base layer of the stamp and lightly spritzed with water before stamping onto my card.   Dried with my heat tool before stamping the top layer in Altenew Cloudy Night ink before die cutting the butterfly.   Used Altenew Starburst Debossing Cover Die for the background panel.  Added a stamped sentiment (in the Cloudy Night ink) from the Classic Greetings stamp set.   Matted onto some purple card before adding to my white base.