Momigami Card

 I can now share the card I made using some of the Momigami papers I made a week or so ago.   Momigami is a technique of Japanese kneaded paper.  My local swap group had this as our theme for February.   Here are the papers I made  - you can check out some of the tutorials on YouTube. 

I used hand lotion to make these papers.  Three thinner papers and one thicker double sided scrapbook paper.  I used bits of all of these to make the card that was sent to Carol.

The background piece was the thicker paper.  I kept all the scrunched up areas and ran a teal green Distress Oxide over the paper.  I used two of the thinner papers to make the flowers (Altenew's Petite Mountain Aven Layering Dies) and the flower centres were cut from the third paper.  I die cut a gold frame from Gina K Master Layouts 12 and added the flowers.  Finished with a foiled sentiment and  some glitter dots.   The papers feel so soft and fabric like.  And I was delighted on how the card turned out. 

First week back at work has been hard!  Getting up 2 hours earlier than the past few week has taken a toll.... I'm shattered.   Luckily tomorrow is a non work day and I'll be able to sleep a bit later.  

I'm sitting typing this while thunder is rumbling all around - have had some heavy rain too... but very warm and humid.   

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.