'Tis the Season....

 Last day of November - where has the time gone.  It's time to share a card for this month's Die Cut Diva's challenge.   Our sponsor this month is Kat Scrappiness

 

and our theme is this month is  "Anything to do with Holidays (Any Holidays)-" 

Of course I have chosen the Christmas Holidays for my card.   

A CAS card this time, using another of the cute gnome's from the Christmas Gnome stamp set.  I coloured with him alcohol markers.  I added a bit of green ink blending on the centre of my Quilted Backdrop panel.   (Big thanks to my team mate Arlene for sending me the gnome and die cut background.)  The sentiment is from a Crafter's Choice stamp set stamped in red ink and clear embossed.  I die cut it with a Spellbinders die.

Our challenge finishes at 9.00pm Pacific Time - so come and join us at Die Cut Divas 

Craft Roulette #191

 Managed a card this afternoon/evening  after getting back from up north and visiting our little princesses. 

Parameters were a bit challenging this week. 

Project: Drop down

Colours: Supper Table

Element: Season

Random: Shiny

I made an Easel card for my Drop Down element - it drops down to post. My colours were inspired by a placemat I used at my table. Season is Summer - with my summer succulents. And my shiny element - silver mirror card leaves, silver embossing on the succulents and silver gems.

I used some Anko patterned paper (from KMart). I stamped the Hero Arts Succulent Bouquet with Versamark and embossed with silver powder from Ranger. I used some teals and greens from Altenew's 36 pan watercolour to add my colours. Once it was die cut, I added it with some 3D tape and some silver die cut leaves from Pinkfresh Studio. Finished with some silver gems.

We had a great time up north, very relaxing for me and hubby did lots of chain sawing and cutting up some dead trees. And got to stop in and see our little girls. Grace was full of life after waking from a nap... not a usual thing for her now at 4 1/2 but had been extra busy helping her Dad around the house and garden. Florence was full of similes and as wiggly as a worm - trying move around and clamber up us while we were holding her. She is nearly 5 months now and growing so quickly.

Hope you all are having a great weekend and get to do something you love. 

Christmas Gnome

 Hi there.  It's time for my card for this month's challenge at Die Cut Divas.   Our sponsor is Kat Scrappiness 

Our theme is  "Anything to do with Holidays (Any Holidays)-"  I've chosen to make a Christmas card. 

 I don't have any Kat Scrappiness stamps or dies so Arlene sent me some stamped and die cut.  This little gnome is from Christmas Gnome stamp set.  I coloured with him alcohol markers.  I used Gina K Master Layout dies to cut my red panel.  My pink arched die is from Hero Arts. My sentiment is from a Waffle Flower set.  A few die cut stars finished my card.  

Do come and join our challenge (here)

Black, White & Yellow at The Flower Challenge.

 I decided that I need to entry in The Flower Challenge as I haven't done so for a while.   Nice to make a non-Christmas card.   

The challenge at The Flower Challenge this month is Black, White and Yellow.   Yesterday I was reading my Splitcoastampers newsletter and saw the Technique Monday challenge -Colour block 5 minute card.  The technique is to use your mini ink pads to add colour to your background and then add a black inked image.   So I did this 5 minute card.... took more time to chose the stamp to use!

My background was made using Altenew yellow ink pads from A Pocketful of Sunshine set.  I only used the first three colours and randomly stamped the pads directly to the card.  I used a Gina K Master Layout die to cut out the panel before stamping the Altenew floral from Build a Garden: Morning Aster stamp set.  I stamped the sentiments from the Altenew Elegant Sayings set.  I added some black pen to fill in the flower centres and layered the panel onto some black card before adding to the white card front.    Finished with some black gems.  

We made good time on our trip north - just over 1hr 15 mins.   I have to say I slept most of the way!  I don't travel well - get a bit queasy on some of the windy roads and going to sleep helps.

Five more Christmas cards...

 Over the past few days I've made some more Christmas cards using ephemera and patterned papers.  I got the bulk of my overseas Christmas cards sent off this week... wanted to make sure they arrived in time.  

So here are the five cards... using some sketch design from Jess Crafts for some and a design from Natasha Foote. 

I still have heaps of the ephemera from the kit I bought.   I really love how quick and easy these are to make. 

We are heading away for the weekend to our friends at Mangawhai.  Been awhile so looking forward to a quiet weekend.  I'll be catching up on some you tube videos. 

Craft Roulette #190

I got a bit more organised today and was able to watch the start of today's episode of the Craft Roulette challenge and as it was a rainy afternoon, I got to go into the craft room and played along. 

The wheel spin revealed the following parameters

Project: Fancy Fold

Colours: Aquarium

Element: November

Randon:   3-item cluster. 

I decided to try a Pop up Front Step Panel Card.... sounds complicated but it really isn't too hard.   I found a tutorial on Pinterest.  (Here) 

So that was my fancy fold and all the pretty blue patterned papers were my colour - obviously lots of water in an aquarium.  My November element - 13th November was World Kindness Day so found the lovely Kindness quote on the internet and after changing the colours to blue in Word, printed it out. And for the 3-items cluster - three flowers, three leaves and 3 little die cut hearts.   I was pleased with the results and happy to get it submitted in time.   

Craft Roulette #189

Recently my friend Suna started following Craft Roulette and I've seen my friend Arlene entering... so over the weekend I watched Episode #189 and today I made a quick card.   I am too late to submit it to the challenge, but still sharing it as I really loved what I made. 

Cathy Zeilske was the guest and it was her card that inspired me.  The wheel spun the following 

Project - Guest's choice - Cathy chose A2 for the base

Colour - Forest colours

Element - starting with "H" 

Random - Postage stamp or mark.

Here's what I came up with, inspired by Cathy's use of the Waffle Flower's Postage Collage Die

 I have used an A2 card base -top folding, the colours of my 49th & Market rub-ons are greens and browns of the forest, the little hearts and the hugs postmark and used the Postage Collage die and the postmarks are the random element.   

I added the rub-on first to white card and the die cut it.   Love this arty rub-ons.  I stamped the sending hugs, postal lines and the little hearts from the Waffle Flower Postage Collage stamp set.   I added the die cut panel with dimensional tape. Love the look of white on white. 

Entering this into the Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Die cuts challenge

Steampunk Woman

 Our NZ swap group challenge this month was set by Maxine...Steampunk.  Way outside my comfort zone but did some Pinterest searching, found some Steampunk images - from Dreamy Paper Art on Etsy.  And did a bit of searching around my stash and found a metal clock face and some cogs. 

They images I purchased were in colour so I used Word on my computer to change the colour to Sepia.   I trimmed it onto some lightweight off white card and trimmed it.  Add Walnut stain ink around the edges.  The background is a 3 D embossing folder from Spellbinders called Creative Cogs.  Lots of Walnut Stain ink and gold ink. Found a metal clock face and some cogs in my stash.  Had them gifted to me about 10 years ago - glad to finally found a use for them.  Used Walnut Stain ink of some of the cogs and gold ink for some.  I found the sentiment on the internet and printed it on my computer.  Added the ink across it.   Used a little grey Prismacolor pencil for added details on the focal image.   Was really pleased with the results.  In fact I didn't want to sent it to my swap partner as I would have like to have kept it for display at home.   Might try more of this look in the future. 

Had a great Saturday with my Big Princess... lots of crafting and walked down to the beach where she spend time splashing in the shallows with her Poppa.   Boy was I tired by the end of the day!