Celebrating With Poppy Stamps: My May Challenge Card

 I’m back with another inspiration piece for this month’s challenge over at Die Cut Divas. Our May sponsor is Poppy Stamps, and the theme is Celebrate—a wonderfully open prompt with so many directions to explore. Birthdays, weddings, milestones, holidays… you name it.

For my project today, I decided to lean into a warm, seasonal vibe and create a Thanksgiving card.

I pulled out a few of my older Poppy Stamps dies—always fun to revisit—and paired them with a leftover piece from a recent gesso resist panel I created (you can see that project in my earlier post). That little scrap was just waiting to become something, so I used it with the Orchard Leaves die to cut a handful of textured leaves. I also cut additional leaves from a rich mahogany patterned paper to bring in more depth and contrast.

For the background, I spritzed a panel with Distress Spray Stains and Distress Oxide Spray in Tarnished Brass and Picked Raspberry. Once it dried, I trimmed it down to fit one an “Ardyth-style” 4.25" square card base.

To build the focal point, I die cut an orange ribbon and bow using the Poppy Stamps Grosgrain Ribbon and Grosgrain Bow dies. I adhered the ribbon across the background panel, then tucked the leaves on either side to create a full, autumnal cluster.

A Spellbinders hot-foiled sentiment, die cut and added over the ribbon, finished the card beautifully.

Another celebration card complete—and a lovely way to use up those special little scraps we all hang onto.

Come and join us at Die Cut Divas with you Celebration card - just remember to use your die cut machine

Catching up!

I’ve still been finding time to craft, but blogging has definitely taken a back seat lately. Today, though, on my non-work day, I finally found some time after lunch to head into the craft room, get creative, and catch up on sharing what I’ve been making. I have three cards to show you today, each with its own little story.

The first card is what I’d call a “Mesk” card — made from the bits and pieces that were sitting on my messy desk waiting to be turned into something useful.

I had a 3.75-inch strip of 12x12 patterned paper left over from making an envelope, so I trimmed it down to fit a white panel and rounded one side for a softer look. I added another scrap of patterned paper along the side, then went digging through my container of saved bits and found a sentiment I’d pre-cut awhile ago. A scrap of vellum became the circle tag, and I finished everything off with a few little gold hearts from my die-cut embellishments. This one actually came together earlier in the week, and I love how it made good use of leftovers.

The next card is a Christmas card, also made earlier this week. Back in March, I picked up some non-branded Christmas dies from my local stationery store, and they turned out to be such a great buy.

For this card, I die cut the pieces from green and red cardstock, then used scraps of gold and dark brown for the star and trunk. After that, it was simply a matter of piecing everything together to create the tree. To give the design a focal area, I used an old embossing folder to create a border around the panel and softly ink blended around the edges. A few gold dots on and around the tree finished it off nicely.

And finally, today’s make — another Christmas card.

This one came about while I was putting some of my stash back where it belonged. As I tidied up my Tim Holtz Bigz dies, I came across the Christmas Cardinal die and knew it would be perfect for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge — Season’s Tweetings.

I die cut the design — it’s an all-in-one die — and then used Tri-Blends alcohol markers to colour each section. For a snowy touch, I added White Nuvo Crystal Drops to the branch. To really let the die-cut image shine, I mounted it on a 5-inch square panel embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment is from an LDRS Creative stamp set and was die cut with the coordinating Sentiment Stack II die.

And card #2 is being entered into Darnell's NBUS May Challenge 

Thank you so much for sticking with me to the end. I really do appreciate every one of my readers and commenters.

Happy crafting!

Season's Tweetings at Christmas Kickstart Challenge

 It’s been a busy week, so I really enjoyed having a little creative “play time” this afternoon while my hubby was out. I decided it was the perfect chance to make a couple of cards for the May Christmas Kickstart Challenge, Season’s Tweetings. After pulling out a few bird-themed stamps and images, I managed to put together two cards in no time.

The first card features the fun Funny Birds set from Mangocraft. I stamped the quartet of birds in black ink and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder for a crisp finish. I also added both the large and small sentiments from the Concord &9th Big On Christmas stamp set, again using clear embossing. To bring the birds to life, I used my Jasart Brights Metallic watercolour paints, which gave them a lovely bright shimmer. I softly blended pale blue ink around the images and added a little extra blue metallic splatter for detail. The finished panel was then matted onto soft red patterned paper and attached to a white card base.

My second card was a much quicker make. I used one of my Penny Black Masterpiece pre-printed panels and cut out the cardinal with a small square die. After matting it with dark brown card, I layered it onto a red square and mounted it on an "Ardyth" Square Card base measuring 4.25 inches. A sentiment strip from my stash was the perfect finishing touch. It came together so easily and makes for a simple but striking card.

It's been great to get a few more Christmas cards done. 

Things with Wings: A Shimmery Dragonfly Card for the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge

It’s time for the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge again, and this fortnight’s theme is Things with Wings—so I couldn’t resist pulling out a dragonfly and building my card around it.

I actually had this dragonfly sitting on my desk from a crafty session a while back—Grace and I made it during the school holidays, and we coloured it with Nuvo Shimmer Powders for that gorgeous sparkle. 

I started by blending a soft blue circle using a Penny Black stencil and a few pale blue inks from Altenew. Once the background was in place, I die cut a mix of leaves from a Sizzix set in green and gold cardstock, then cut a few coneflowers from yellow card and added a touch of gold pen to the centres.

From there it was all about arranging- I popped the dragonfly into the spotlight and built up the florals and foliage around the edge of the circle to frame it nicely. To finish, I stamped a sentiment from an Andy Skinner set directly onto the card, before matting in some soft blue. 

If you’re playing along with the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge, I’d love to see what you create for Things with Wings—butterflies, birds, bees, dragonflies… anything goes!

A Creative Friday inspired by Christine S

 Fridays are my non-working day and as is becoming my norm,  I spent a relaxed afternoon in my craft room catching up on YouTube. A video by Christine Stokes inspired me to try a gesso resist technique with Distress inks.

I adapted the idea using what I had—clear gesso instead of white. I dabbed it onto watercolour paper, let it dry, then added Distress inks (Scattered Straw, Antique Linen, Rusty Hinge, and a touch of Aged Mahogany) by smooshing on my glass mat with a spritz of water and a foam blender to add to the panel. The texture turned out beautifully.

Using a very old Tim Holtz Bigz Tattered Leaves die, I cut two leaves and added detail with a splatter stamp in Altenew Toasted Mauve, clear embossed. For the background, I used a corner aperture die with orange patterned paper behind it and added more stamping in Pink Sand ink.

I finished the card with a dark brown mat, an embossed sentiment (Altenew Sentiment Strips 3), and a few simple embellishments made from packing tape and cardstock.

A satisfying session—and a lovely reminder that adapting ideas with what you have can lead to great results.

CAS birthday with new supplies.

 Today didn’t start off quite as planned. I woke up with a bad headache and spent the morning resting, unsure whether I’d feel up to doing very much at all. Thankfully, after taking it easy, I started to feel much better—and that gave me the perfect excuse to spend some quiet time crafting,

A package of new crafting supplies had arrived, so couldn’t resist pulling out a few bits to play with. I decided to create a clean and simple (CAS) card.

I began by die‑cutting squares and a circle from white cardstock, then cut floral shapes from green and purple scraps of patterned paper. For a little extra detail, I added subtle texture by embossing  lines across the middle of the card using my scoreboard. Once that was done, I glued the circle into the centre and balanced the design by placing the squares in opposite corners.

The sentiment was silver embossed and is from a magazine freebie that’s been in my stash for at least 12 years! It had never been opened or used before. To finish off the card, I layered the leaves and flowers over the centre circle, bringing the whole design together perfectly.

All in all, it turned into a calming and creative way to end the day—proof that even a slow start can lead to something lovely.

I'm entering this into Darnell's NBUS challenge as this is the first time using all the elements. 

A Cut Above - Anything Goes using a die cut.

AAA Birthday - Anything Goes.

One Stamp, Three Projects: Altenew Evergreen Beauty

 A week or so ago I was lucky enough to receive a gorgeous stamp set from Altenew: Evergreen Beauty. It’s a beautiful floral image with a few lovely sentiments—and the sweetest bonus for me was a little “created by” stamp with my name on it.

Around the same time, over in the Altenew Fan Group on Facebook, Nicki Baxley was running a “One Stamp, Three Cards” challenge. I didn’t quite get all three projects finished in time—but I did make two cards and a tag.

 I stamped the main floral image three times—once on white cardstock (then cut it with my ScanNCut), once on patterned paper (also cut with the ScanNCut), and then directly onto a white panel (stamping it a couple of times to build the arrangement).

Project 1: The Tag

For the tag, I used the floral image stamped onto patterned paper and coloured it with sparkle pens. When I cut it, I didn’t include a white border—and the ScanNCut couldn’t quite handle the finest leaf details, so I trimmed those bits away by hand.

I made the base tag with a Hero Arts Infinity Arch die, then stamped the floral image again onto the tag. Next came the fun part: paper piecing the sparkly patterned-paper flowers over the top. To finish, I added a little green sparkle around the image, a light watercolour wash over the tag, and a sentiment from Altenew’s Leaf Canopy.

Project 2: Card One

For my first card, I used the die-cut floral image stamped on white cardstock and painted it with Altenew Woodless Watercolor Pencils. To give the design a “grounding” element, I inked up the Altenew Simple Frame 3D embossing folder with Tattered Rose Distress Oxide ink and ran it through my die-cutting machine. I added extra blending with a foam domed blender and rubbed a little metallic wax over the raised frame for subtle shine.

I popped the floral piece into the corner with dimensional tape and finished it off with a sentiment from Altenew’s Classic Greetings stamp and die set.

Project 3: Card Two 

For the second card, I stamped the images directly onto the card panel. I coloured the florals with Altenew Bamboo and Dusty Rose inks using mini and micro blending tools. Then I added splatter with Distress Oxide Spritz in Fossilized Amber, followed by a spritz of sparkle spray over the whole panel for extra shimmer. The sentiment is a die cut from Altenew’s Scripty Sentiment dies.

Three quite different projects, all from one stamp set—paper piecing, watercolour pencils, and ink blending. If you’re ever stuck for ideas, try limiting yourself to one main image and see how many different looks you can get from it!

Fairy Tale Florals + Fussy Cutting - a fun afternoon's crafting

 This afternoon, after a quick tidy up of my desk, I carved out a little “play time” in the craft room—and I knew straight away I wanted to use the colours from Altenew’s latest Inspiration Challenge. I also decided to pair it with Jen’s Live Challenge for this week: “Fussy” (use something you’ve fussy cut on your project).

I was inspired by Natasha Foote’s YouTube video from April 21st, where she stamped a large image onto a card front and then fussy cut around the outside edge. Perfect timing, because I’d just treated myself to a new pair of Tim Holtz fussy-cutting scissors this week—and I was very keen to give them a go.

I went shopping in my Altenew stash and pulled out Fairy Tale Florals. There’s a gorgeous large image in that set, and it was exactly what I needed for this design.

I stamped the floral image directly onto my card base and coloured it with the matching simple colouring stencil. For the flowers, I blended Rubellite and Razzleberry Crisp Dye Inks; for the leaves, I used Frayed Leaf and Forest Glades Crisp Dye Inks.  I used a Gold Posca pen to add gold on the stamen and flower centre. 

Next, I drew a pencil line about 1 inch in from the edge (top to bottom) and then fussy cut around the flowers so the design “breaks” the edge of the card front.  Boy, the new scissors awesome!

To add more detail, I masked off just over 1 inch on the inside of the card and blended Rubellite ink through Altenew’s Deco Leaves stencil. I used whatever ink was left on the blending brush to softly tint the stenciled area, keeping it light and airy.

To finish it off, I added a very narrow strip of gold cardstock along the inside edge of the stenciling, then stamped a small black sentiment from Altenew’s Best Sentiments mini stamp set.

Hope you are able to get some crafting time over the weekend too.