Your friendship is Perfect

I've been having a bit of a spend-up since Christmas and one of my buys was Altenew's Perfect Gift set of stamps, dies/stencils/embossing folder combo.  It's a fabulous combo and I used all of it for my card. 

 I started by embossing the folder onto a square card base.  I used a gold pen to colour the frame.  Unfortunately my pen packed a sad... so it's a bit splotchy. Stamped the sentiment in Onyx Black ink.   Part of the embossing folder is the floral swag - however I chose to stamp and stencil it and then die cut it.  I trimmed my panel down and matted it with a thin black layer and onto a wider dark pink layer before adding to a 5 7/8" card base.  Added the swag with some 3D tape.  Added some gold gems to finish.  

As this is the first time using this combo set, I'm adding to Darnell's NBUS challenge.  

Woodblock Wednesday- January 2025

 It's time for Amy's Woodblock Wednesday challenge... Use you woodblock stamps. 

It was a super warm day today... too hot this afternoon for sitting outside so went into the craft room, turned on my little fan, and had fun.  

I got a couple of Hero Art Woodblock stamps and one of their clear stamp and cut sets to make this one. 

I used the Big Postcard stamp and the little Teddy - Bouquet Bear.   I stamped the postcard and added the sweet bear onto it.  I used my Altenew Woodless Watercolour pencils to colour my bear.   Stamp the first part of the sentiment from Hero Arts Hello stamp and cut set.   The hello was cut from some Scrapbook.com holographic card.  It's silver with tiny stars on it.   I fussy cut out the tag and punched out the tag centre and added some black string.  Added it at an angle, to the card base, which had a panel of embossed card (using a Sizzix folder) 

I also finished off a card I started on Thursday - that's another day's post

Thanks for stopping by... just trying to find a cool spot in the house.  It's almost 8.00pm and it's still in the mid 20C with an expected overnight low of 20C.    Summer has certainly finally come to Auckland.                                                                                                                                                

Love is in the air... at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.

 I completely forgot that I was due to post my card for Sweet Stampin' Challenge.    So I had to run into the craft room about an hour or so ago.  I already had an idea in my mind, thinking it was next Saturday that I needed my card for.   I was child minding again yesterday - spending time crafting again!!  Stenciling was the order of the day.  Grace really loved doing this.  And made a beautiful card - which I forgot to take a photo of - she has a great eye for colours. 

Anyhoo.... here is the card I made.

I had been to Kmart this afternoon and picked up a pack of red and pink card bases.   I trimmed the front of a red one and used a Couture Creations embossing folder - Peacock Fans,   I die cut lots of hearts from a Lawn Fawn set called Candy Hearts.  I made a little envelope using my WRMK envelope board.  I added the hearts coming out of it.  Added a die cut bow and a little sentiment from a Gina K stamp and die set - Blooming Butterfly.   

Do come and join us at Sweet Stampin' Challenge 

Dancing Ballerina

 It's the last day of the month and I'm sharing my card for Die Cut Divas.   We have no sponsor this month, but Whimsy Stamps are giving us a $15 voucher for our winner. 

The challenge this month is to use something NEW!  

I only have a few Whimsy stamps... so when I found they have digital stamps I just had to buy some. 

Here's the card I made using Ballerina image. 

It's such a lovely image.  I printed it and used Alcohol markers to colour her in before fussy cutting her.  I have been following Penny Black's New Year Sketches and used this day 2 sketch - using a large frame I cut from two dies from a Spellbinders set.  I ink blended the background in a couple of Altenew purple inks and added some paint pen dots to the top half of the panel.  I then took a Kaisercraft sentiment - stamped the first two lines on the front and the rest on the inside...  I added my ballerina with some dimensional tape in the middle and glued to the edges.  

Our monthly challenge ends at 9.00pm US Pacific Time 

Just A Note - Take 2

 It's been a long weekend here in Auckland - celebrating Anniversary Day... and with having Friday off too, it's been a 4 day weekend for me!   It's been all over the show weather wise - rain, wind and this afternoon nice and sunny if a bit breezy.   Over the weekend I've got lots of crafting done... as well as heading out to lunch today - crusin' in the convertible! 

Anyhoo - sharing one card I did over the weekend - came about from sopping up some left over inks and watercolour powders... which was then turned into a focal floral image. 

The pinks for the flower were from Grace's "crafting" on Friday.   I spritzed the left over ink from blending and watercolour powders and sopped them up with some paper.  I then used the Altenew Dahlia April Heather dies to cut one flower for my floral focal point. I curled each of the flowers and the leaves (cut from the dark green paper I used to make my matting layers)  This really gives great dimension to the flower.  I have been watching the Stash Summit and used what I had on hand... a paper pack from Francheville - Red Plums - and a sketch from the Gina K Master Layout 1 packaging.   I cut some white card using the smaller of the larger rectangles and used the reverse side of one of the paper - dark green- to mat with the larger rectangle.  It looked a little plain so ran both layers with the Dotty Circles 3D folder.  Much better!  I used the smaller rectangles to cut some patterned paper from the pack and added the mat layer.   I used the dark green to cut the sentiment from Altenew Scripty Sentiments die and added Spectrum Noir glitter pen.  Used two of the shadow die cut behind it.  Made some little flat sequins by adding packing tape to a scrap of the green and used a hole punch. 

Today we headed out for a spin in the MG - out through some country roads to a little village called Riverhead, where we stopped for lunch.  

Now into the craft room as I still have new stuff to play with... 

Something New at Die Cut Divas

It's time for my share at Die Cut Divas - The challenge this month is to use something NEW!  

We have no sponsor this month, but Whimsy Stamps is giving away a $15 Gift Voucher to the winner.

Today I am sharing a card I made using a new die set I got just after Christmas (present to myself that didn't arrive in time to go under the tree!!!)

The leave die is from a set by Pinkfresh Studio called Frame Builder - Botanical Circle.  There are two dies in the set, the leaves and one with a flower.  I cut the leaves twice - one in light green and one in dark green and did some inlay - Added some daisies cut from Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms.   The sentiment is from my "magic mug" - from a Pinkfresh Studio Foil Plate- foiled in black on white card.   My panel and base are an off-white Fabriano 24ogms drawing paper.  

Do come and join us for this month's NEW challenge 

Just a Note Floral layering dies.

I've been using some of my new stash over the last little while...I got this card finished yesterday but didn't get to photograph it till late this afternoon.   My day was full on crafting with Grace as it was my day to look after her during the school holidays.   Her wish for the day..... to spend it "doing arty crafty" with Nanny.  More on that later...

Here's a card I made using Altenew's Craft A Flower - Dahlia April Heather Layering die. 

I googled this flower and got some ideas of colours - luckily Altenew had some suggested colours on the packaging, so used Buttercream, Magenta and Snapdragon inks together with Lagoon and Emerald for the leaves.  I cut the dies from an off white 240gms Fabriano card and used the inks to blend. The flower layering is nice and easy with Altenew's Keyhole layering.   For my background, I spritzed the ink left on my sticky mat after inking the leaves and smooshed it onto some card. I added black splatter with some Indian Ink mixed with water.   At the same time as getting the flower dies, I also got Altenew Scripty Sentiments dies.  I added some clear packing tape over some black card and die cut the sentiment.  Arranged my floral dies and the added splatters of Fossilised Amber Distress Spritz. 

As both my flower dies and the sentiment die are new, I'm adding to Darnell's NBUS challenge. 

And here are a couple of pics of our day today 

We tried so many different techniques...  dry and wet embossing, learning about using watercolour pencils, painting with watercolour paints, using "magic powders" and much more.

Happy Anniversary to us

 Today is our 47th wedding anniversary.   Hard to believe all those years have passed!

I made hubby this card.

I started by white heat embossing an older Hero Arts stamp- Tiny Star Background (circa 2013) The ink blending was done with Altenew's Burnt Red ink, heavier at the top and lighter at the bottom.  I used Pinkfresh Studio - Frame Builder- Botanical Circles to cut two white dies to make the circle on the card.   The sentiment is from Rubber Stamps by Montarga - and inside I stamped a sentiment from Altenew Carved Rose set - YOU WILL ALWAYS BE - my love.

We usually don't exchange presents... so it was a delightful surprise when he gave me a beautiful necklace.  It's gorgeous. 

Thanks for stopping by.