Thankful for all you do

 It's the last day of the month so I'm here to share a card sample for Die Cut Divas. 

Our wonderful sponsor this month is Frantic Stamper with friendly one-on-one service since 1996!! The prize is their Fall Harvest Die worth over $25 US, which will go to a random winner (USA residents only due to shipping costs)!!

My card uses some Altenew and Catherine Pooler products.   The background almost made it to the trash can.  I was trying to use the Altenew 3D embossing folder with some ink but it didn't turn out how I wanted it to, so I tossed it to one side.   In the end, I thought it made an interesting texture for a background.   I die cut a Catherine Pooler Thankful die and added a sentiment from another CP Design stamp set.   I white embossed it on black card and trimmed around it.    

Do come and join us - you have till 9.00pm Pacific Time to add your project.  

'Twas The Night Before Christmas.

 Over at Christmas Kickstart Challenge the theme is "The Night Before Christmas" 

A couple of years ago, I got a stamp set with a magazine the was called "Christmas Memories" and it had the words from the story "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" on it - so here is my card

The little mouse is part of the stamp set as well.  He's coloured up with Copic markers.  I used Gina K Master Layouts 2 to cut the centre panel and Master Layouts 1 for the mat.   

I managed to sell a good number of Christmas cards this week, so am working hard on building up my stock so I can send them off to friends and family.  

  

Our weekend starting with a visit from Grace.  Her and her Dada arrived at 8.15am on Saturday... to find Nanny and Pop still in bed!  We had been enjoying a cuppa tea in bed for arising for the day.  So happy though to see our little Princess. 

The little bike she is riding belonged to her Aunty Emma - who got it for her 1st birthday (so it's 33 years old) It's been well ridden over the years.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you are all well. 

WWC 299 - Heidi's Challenge: All About Occasions

 Hi there.  It's time for a Watercooler Wednesday challenge and Heidi is our hostess with an All About Occasions challenge. 

Last month, I was lucky enough to be able to go to a craft fair.  I did get a few bits and pieces, including a couple of different Gnomes stamps from a New Zealand company - Montarga.   Today I am sharing one of the cards I have made with the trio of Gnomes. 

I CASE'd a card on Montarga's website.  I used some dark Green and and softer green card for my base and panels.  I stamped the Trio of Gnomes and coloured with Copics and Altenew Markers.  The sentiment is from a Catherine Pooler stamp set.   A couple of black gems to finish off. 

Come and join in the fun at  Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and check out the project from the other designers.  Then take our challenge and link up your project to the challenge post.    We'd love to have you join us.  You have until Monday at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 11.00 am NZ time ) to link up your project.

Thanks - you are the sweetest

 Back to day to share my sample for Die Cut Divas.... our November's challenge theme is Thanks or Thanksgiving. Our wonderful sponsor this month is Frantic Stamper with friendly one-on-one service since 1996!! The prize is their Fall Harvest Die worth over $25 US, which will go to a random winner (USA residents only due to shipping costs)!!

I don't have any Frantic Stamper dies so used my Altenew dies to make my card. 

I cut the Altenew Leafy die from white card and then took some patterened paper I have in a roll.  I trimmed a little piece off and added under the die cut and the rest was put behind.  I used the same paper to die cut the Thanks and layered onto a white shadow die cut.  The little sentiment is from an Altenew set as well.  The black panel is die cut with Gina K Master Layout 1

Do come and join us with your Thanks/Thanksgiving project. 

Variation on a theme.- Inked Embossing folder

 The other day I made an inked embossed background for a Christmas card - in green ink.  You can see it here.   

So I decided to try out some other ink colours....

For this first one I used Catherine Pooler's Peppermint Spa ink with my embossing folder.  I used some pearlescent paints to colour up my Poinsettia stamp.  I added it to a kraft base.  

My next one uses Catherine Pooler's Royal Treatment ink

For my Poinsettia, I used some creamy gold pearlescent paint.  A few gems finished it off. 

I did another inked embossed background with some pink ink, but it didn't turned out so good as I added too much water to my card base and the ink spread too far.  I will probably use it to do some die cutting.   Waste not, want not! 

Today I had to have an x-ray and ultrascan on my left shoulder as I am having pain in it. I've been having physio but it hasn't been getting any better.   Hopefully I'll get a diagnosis from the tests.   Luckily it's not affecting my ability to craft!!!  Just hurts to reach behind to do up my bra.    

thanks for stopping by today.  I appreciate all your visits.  

Happy Birthday Sweet Stampin' Challenge.

 Hi there.  It's time for a new challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge this week.  It's our 11th birthday so it's a Birthday Theme for our challenge. 

I have a couple of friends with birthdays in December, so this was a great opportunity to get ahead of my cards.   I decided to use some paint chips to make this Altenew flower.   I used Fantasy Floral 3D die for the rose and the leaves are from Craft a Flower - Rose Layering die.   I used some patterned paper on my kraft base.  I stamped my sentiment from Altenew Birthday Bash with some pink ink and used one of the dies from Apothecary nesting dies go cut it out.

Do come and join us at Sweet Stampin' challenge blog this week with our birthday challenge. 

Let's Squash It - challenge 2 - take 2

 I'm back today to share a fun card I made for the Let's Squash it Challenge.  The challenge is: Use a Christmas embossing folder and a stamp on your card.    

I haven't had a great deal of success trying the technique of inking up an embossing folder but this afternoon I tried it with a piece of watercolour paper and some Eucalypts ink by Catherine Pooler,  I used my brayer to add the ink to the folder and then gave my card a spritz of water before running it through my Cuttlebug.   Best success so far!  I trimmed the panel and added to some pearlised cream card.  I used some more of the watercolour paper to stamped and gold emboss a Pointsetta stamp from a Penny Black set.  I used Catherine Pooler Rockin' Red and Peppermint Scrub inks to do an artsy watercolour.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you come back shortly, you'll see my Sweet Stampin' Challenge post.

  

Edited:  Thanks Jo for reminding me that I can enter this into the challenge at Christmas Kickstart too... same  challenge theme!

WWC 298 - Kath's Challenge: Anything Goes With a Masculine Twist

 Here I am again with another challenge at Watercooler Wednesday.  Today Kath's is our hostess with an Anything Goes With a Masculine Twist. 

My card today was a commission I was asked to do for a 10 year old boy.

I took a hexagon cover plate die and embossed it once, then die cut it from black and white card and pieced it together in a soccer ball design.  I stamped the sentiment from a Gina K Designs stamp set and added the 10th from a Rosie's Studio stamp set to finish it off.  

Come and join in the fun at  Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and check out the project from the other designers.  Then take our challenge and link up your project to the challenge post.    We'd love to have you join us.  You have until Monday at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 11.00 am NZ time ) to link up your project.

Let's Squash It - #2 challenge - Christmas folder and a stamp

 The second challenge at Let's Squash It is underway and the challenge is to use a Christmas Embossing Folder and a stamp. 

My card using a Snowflake embossing folder to make my background.

My stamping is a cute little gnome.  He's one of three that are all together on one stamp by Montarga Stamps.  I used my Scan'n'Cut to cut each one out separately.  I cut my card to an American sized card so I could use my Gina K master layout dies for my layers.   This one uses a mixture of dies from Layout 1 & 2.  I am in love with my little gnomes so have been making a few cards to build up my supplies to sell at work. 

Thanks Jo and Gail for this cool challenge.  

And over at Christmas Kickstart challenge - it's the same theme.  So I am entering my card into that challenge too

WWC 297- Helen's Challenge: All About Occasions

 Hi there, it's time for another challenge at Watercooler Wednesday this week.  Helen is our hostess with an All About Occasions challenge.  

I've made a series of Christmas cards using an Altenew "Merry Reindeer" stamp set and the matching die.

This first one used some Kraft card for the base, and then using patterned papers die cut with Gina K's Master Layouts 2 set  I used both Copic markers and Prismscolor pencils to colour in my little Reindeer. I have a LOT of patterned paper packs so decided to use up some them. The greeting panel was was stamped onto some cream card and fussy cut before adding to the die cut.  I did this on all three cards. 

Number 2 - 

I used two patterned papers and added the die cut Reindeer. The sentiment is from a Freebie set from a couple of years ago.

and for Number 3-

For this one I embossed my white panel, matted with some gold paper.  My centre panel was also matted with the gold paper.   I am loving the Gina K Master Layouts.... so much so I have just ordered Layouts 1 & 3.

Come and join in the fun at  Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and check out the project from the other designers.  Then take our challenge and link up your project to the challenge post.    We'd love to have you join us.  You have until Monday at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 11.00 am NZ time ) to link up your project.

Kraft and Yellow

 I have been seeing some lovely cards around blogland... using Kraft and yellow.  These are for a reasonably new challenge - Color Hues.  Challenge #5 is Kraft and Yellow.   I recently got some new Altenew products from my local supplier (Krafters Cart) and one was the Craft a Flower Rose.  

 I took some watercolour card and using Altenew's 36 pan watercolours made an ombre panel.  I also added lots of Wink of Stella on top.  In real life it is really sparkly.  I die cut all the pieces and layered together.  I used a Gina K die to emboss a frame on the card.  I masked around it, and then using some light brown inks, used some leaves from a Gina K stamped directly onto base.  The sentiment is from a Christmas set from Altenew -Merry Reindeer.  A few gold gems and it was done.

I also entered this into The Flower Challenge -Use a sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Red for Remembrance at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.

 It's time for another challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.  This week our theme is "Red for Remembrance" - create a project with Red. 

I decided to make a red floral card. 

I did some doodling on my card panel.  Added lines to make a frame.  I then stamped an Altenew Camellia Japonica with Altenew inks - Blush, Rouge, Crimson and Velvet.   The leaves are stamped in Green Grass, Shadow Creek and Mountain Pine inks.  I added the flower to corner and trimmed off the overhang.  I finished with some gold gems. 

Do come and join us at Sweet Stampin' Challenge and shows us your projects with some RED. 

WWC 296 Michelle's Challenge: Anything Goes with a Feminine Twist.

 Hi there.  Another week and another challenge at Watercooler Wednesday.  Michelle is our hostess with an Anything Goes challenge with a Feminine Twist. 

My card today is a pretty little floral card.  I made this one while Grace was asleep when I was babysitting her the other week.  

I had stamped a Gina K Designs floral stamp onto white card.  I had grabbed what I thought were my  Inktense watercolour pencils but in fact they were my Watercolour Crayons.  I used them with a touch of water to colour the image.  I die cut the panel and matted it onto black card then onto a white base.  The sentiment is also from the same Gina K stamp set.   A few sequins was all it needed to finish the card off. 

Come and join in the fun at  Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and check out the project from the other designers.  Then take our challenge and link up your project to the challenge post.    We'd love to have you join us.  You have until Monday at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 11.00 am NZ time ) to link up your project.

Gnomes, Gnomes and Gnomes....

 Hi there.... I just had to play today with some of my new goodies from my trip to the FYI Craft show yesterday.    Two of my purchases were Gnome stamps made by Montarga Stamps - a New Zealand company   They are just adorable.  Gnomes are so trendy again this Christmas so was really pleased to pick these two up. 

I have already made 4 cards.  Two are for upcoming samples - the sneak peeks from yesterday's post.  So here are the two I made today

For this one, I used a pre-scored card by Rosie's Studio.  I used the Gina K layouts 2 for the die cut stitched panel.  I added a 1/8" matting with dark green card and used the little flag tag from Layouts 2 and stamped and embossed a silver sentiment.  I had stamped a few of this gnome and used my Scan'n'cut to cut them out.  For this one, I coloured him in red and green and then added dimensional tape to pop him up.  

For this second card, I chose some turquoise colours to colour him up, with pink for my accent colour.  I used some patterned papers to make my layers and some pale blue for the mats.  I added the panel to a dark blue base.  I used a Hero Arts sentiment and the dots are from a Catherine Pooler set. 

I am having so much fun with this stamp.  There will be more of them in the future I am sure.