Christmas card and tag.

 For my NZ swap group this month, my friend, Suna, set us a challenge - make an unusual card and add a tag!

My unusual element on this is using some fabric - some calico, that I had used some 49th and Market rub-ons to decorate.  I embossed a panel with snow flakes and added to my white card.   

And here it is with the tag I made

I made this tag with an Altenew stamp and die set.  Too cute!

I have been ultra busy with the family here.   Chaotic at times... but loving the hugs from my two little grandsons and also my two granddaughters who have been around lots as well!  Managed to find a little time tonight to share this. 

Here are the four of them.... keeping me on my toes for sure!

Postage Collage - Four card mix and match set

I finally got some crafting time Thursday and Friday evenings,,  and pulled out my Waffle Flower Postage Collage dies ... the original one and my new block die.... Another of the purchases from the Craft Fair last month...   It's great... it cuts out a slightly larger frame that the original and cuts out the panels.   

I used five sheets of patterned paper from Rosie's Studio pack called Twinkle All The Way and cut the Blocks Die from each.  Then I cut the original die from some light olive card and mixed up the patterns.  I ended up with four cards - messed up a couple of the panel pieces so still have a few pieces over to use on another card.  Some of the cards, I used the frame from the panels behind the original and some I didn't. 

Added a sentiment from Gina K - Holiday Tapestry cut with circle dies from Gina K Master Layout #3

This one used a sentiment panel cut from another patterned paper pack - 

And used the Gina K sentiment for this one too.   I had to use two of one of the pattern on this one, due to messing up some of the other panels. 

For this one I used a circle sentiment from The Stamp Village - the Concord & 9th one.  Cut with a circle die.  All used the Postage Collage stamp set for the added stamping.

And yesterday my package from Krafter's Cart arrived with two more of the Postage Collage stencils to use.  One summer and one the Poinsettia Christmas.  Now to find time to do some stenciling!  

Woodblock Wednesday - Oct 2024

 I did this card for Woodblock Wednesday on Thursday this week, but have been soooo busy that I didn't get time to share it till now!  

I love this challenge from Amy - a good reminder to use those woodblock stamps I have.   At the moment I seem to be on a Christmas blitz... so here's another one!

I used a Hero Arts Poinsettia stamp and the sentiment is from a company called Paper Inspirations.  It's a really old stamp as I can't find if this company still exists.    I started by stamping the Poinsettia all around the edges of the panel - using Altenew Heartbeat red ink.   I stamped the sentiment with some Festive Berries Distress ink.  Added a little blending around the edges.  Added some Nuvo drops in a red and cream and some gold Kindyglitz to the centre of the poinsettias.  

Really happy with this monochromatic card.  

Craft Roulette #238

 I watched the replay of the latest Craft Roulette and was really finding it daunting.   Overnight an idea came to me.... Santa in a pair of shorts....   yeap had my big girl pants on to stretch that parameter!

Here is my 25th submission:

This one is a slightly bigger card - 1.5" x 6.5"  Not sure I totally nailed the Project parameter.   It's a bit more mixed media than collage - but there is torn paper, paper piecing, stamp, rub ons, stenciling.  

Smooshed some Festive Berries Distress ink on the a white card base, blended some DO in Vintage Photo around the edge.   Added the stripe of torn paper and then went to town with rub ons. stamping, and made the diagonal lines with the stencil and Slippy When Wet Lunar paste. My splatters were added with a stamp - much more precise placement!   Stamped Simon Says Stamp Santa and coloured him with red and white (to mimic the checked tablecloths in an Italian restaurant)  Used my big girl pants to stretch the Element parameter here! He is also wearing a quintessential NZ black tee shirt!   I paper pieced the cabbage tree (A NZ native tree) and added with Santa to my panel. 

Had great fun with this one.  Nice messy fingers! 

After I had submitted this one to the challenge... I remembered I had some 49th and Market Postage Stamp Washi stickers and thought they would make a great collage... so here's my bonus card. 

 So project - Collage ✔  Colour- Italian Restuarant - reds and greens ✔ Element - Short.  One stamp was the short version of Christmas -Xmas ✔ and Random - diagonal lines - blue and red airmail stripes around the edge. ✔

Wish I thought of this first!

Die Cut Divas - World Cardmaking Day - all month!

It's my time to share some inspiration for Die Cut Divas for our October Diva Challenge. We're celebrating World Card Making Day all month long!! You just need to make a card including die cuts &/or use an embossing folder and enter it into the gallery by 9pm Pacific Time on October 31st.

I've been doing a few Christmas cards during this month so I'm keeping with that theme for my today's card.    I don't have a lot of My Favorite Things products - mostly older stuff from when I first started card making.  So today my Christmas card uses an older (discontinued) die called Hexagons.  

The die set has two dies - one that cuts a border and then separate hexagons.   The separate hexagons are two sizes... one the exact size of the border and one slightly smaller.    I chose to make the border in black and then used a variety of Christmas papers for the separate ones and layered together.  I've pair this border with an embossed panel from We Are Memory Keepers (Gemstones)  and a die cut sentiment from WPlus 9 (Seasonal Sentiments) Cut with some Altenew Sterling Glitter card and some stamped sub-sentiments from a Hero Arts Stamp and Cut set (Peace).

Thanks for stopping by. 

More new stuff fun....

 Over the weekend, I've managed to get a couple more cards made with my new stuff from last weekend.  

First this card using one of the panel's I made last Sunday.  

This used the Waffle Flower Duo Layering Poinsettia stencil.  Using some Berrylicous ink from Altenew together with some Lunar Paste - Silver Lining.   I cut the panel into two pieces and stamped the sentiment from Darkroom Door - stitched Christmas.  I added the panels with some 3D foam.  I wanted to add some Poinsettia and went through my stamps and decided on this bouquet on Altenew Holiday Flower.  I used the Berrylicous ink to blend on some card and stamped the flower.  I fussy cut the red flowers.  I used some of the Lunar Paste blended onto a scrap of card and once it dried, fussy cut the whole bouquet and layered the red flowers on top.  Added a dote of gold Kindyglitz for the flower centres.   Really happy how the card turned out.  

Card two is also a Christmas one - this time using a Woodware stamp. 

The stamp set is called Printable Bauble Circles - designed by Jane Gill.  It has the circles, toppers and snowflakes.   I started by making my panel background.  I spritzed a little Distress Spritz in Peacock Feathers and Fossilised Amber.  Blended some Peacock Feathers DI around the edge.  I stamped the snowflakes in Distress Ink Chipped Sapphire.  The three baubles were made by spritzing Peacock Feather Spritz for the big blue one. Stamped the big circle and added the sentiment from Gina K's Holiday Tapestry set.  Splattered with some gold Lunar paste watered down.  The medium one used some Distress ink - Peeled Paint and spritzed with Sparkle spray and stamped the snowflakes in the Peeled Paint.  And the little on was Forest Moss Distress Ink with the sparkle spray and added the snowflakes in the DI.    Added a little Peacock Feathers ink around each of the baubles and added splatters on them all. The biggest bauble was added with some 3D tape and the other two were glued directly on the panel.  Added the topper and ruled a line for the string.  There is heaps of sparkle in real life.  

Adding this to the challenge at Darnell's NBUS 

I still a couple of more stamps, dies and embossing folders to use. Next weekend is a long weekend for us so an extra days crafting! 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Transport

 It's time to share my sample card for the latest challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge... Transport. 

I decided to upcycle a Christmas card I received a few years ago and had kept... I used a Gina K Master Layouts mini slimline die.  Summer holiday in a V-Dub van. The sentiment is a Craft Creations one- Merry Christmas in Māori.  Perfect as we recently had  Te Wiki o te Reo Māori - Māori Language Week.    

Embossed Christmas for Christmas Kickstart.

 I saw the reminder post from Christmas Kickstart challenge - this month's challenge is Embossing Folder Fun. 

I have a design I've made a few cards with and thought it would good to use for a card for the challenge. 

I die cut the arch out of the middle of some white card and then put both pieces in the embossing folder.  I then used some Delicata Golden Glitz ink and rubbed it over the arched panel.  I then used the die I used and one a little smaller to cut the arched frame, which I layered over the panel.  Love how it really lets the inked portion shine.  I die cut a little dove from white card - adding green marker to the branch before adding it to the frame.    Another Christmas card done and dusted. 

Christmas Poinsettia with Burlap and Lace

 I've had a couple of stamped and embossed Poinsettia images on my desk for a while.  I was gifted them - just for the life of me, can't remember who it was and which company made them....  I had watercoloured one of the images with red paint and fussy cut it, So over the weekend, I took a second image and used some green paint to watercolour it and fussy cut it too. I then liberally spritzed with some Shimmer Spritz Frost.   Layered them together to make a fuller Poinsettia. 

A while back I picked up a roll of burlap that had a centre row of lace already sewn on it.   I thought it would look lovely with the poinsettia - and it did.   I had some pre-printed digital sentiments and used an Altenew die to cut one out.   So a very quick card was done with the addition of a green gem in the centre of the flower.  

Christmas Kickstart - Embossing Folder Fun

 

Time for the September challenge at Die Cut Divas.  And it's a favourite for me as I had A LOT of embossing folders... and to make it even easier for me, I had a piece of coloured and die cut card that was already embossed on my desk. 

I had made my panel as couple of weeks ago when Grace and I were playing with Colour Burst powders.   I used mostly greens and blues for mine.  First cut with Pinkfresh Studio's Mini Slimline dies and then embossed with Altenew Classic Pines 3D folder.  I then took Altenew Enchanted Gold ink and swiped it over the folder.  I used a die set that came from a freebie from a magazine (dated 2021) I cut the lower layer in a very dark green card and the NOEL from a creamy-white card, I cut the little embellishments dies in the creamy-white and used a variety of Copic markers to add colour.  I added some yellow and red Liquid Drops 3D Pearls to the little flowers and the berries.  

My Christmas stash is growing with all the cards I've been doing lately. 

Woodblock Wednesday - August 24

 Just sneaking last minute for Amy's Woodblock Wednesday Challenge at her blog 

I was away in the weekend so just before bed last night I got this CAS card done - Inspired by Justine Hovey. 

I masked off a strip in my card panel and then used some Distress Oxides in Mowed Lawn, Cracked Pistachio and Evergreen Bough.   I then used the Hero Arts Woodblock stamp- Big Pine Bough stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink.  The sentiment is from Crafter's Choice.  A few Altenew green enamel dots and it's done!

A simple but pretty card.  Justine's YouTube video had lots of tips and tricks for stamping and making quick cards.  

Animal Antics at Christmas Kickstart Challenge.

This month at Christmas Kickstart, the challenge is "Animal Antics"  - they want to see animals playing in the snow. 

Hubby tidied up the storage space under the stairs that is accessed through my craft room and made the access to the set of storage drawers that are in there, much easier.  Lots of old stamps are in there including lots of freebie sets from magazines.   So I had a look and found a freebie set that had some penguins and a seal as well as a polar bear.   I used the two penguins and the seal to make my card.

I stamped the little critters and then masked them while I used a hill mask I made, and blended some blue ink to make my snowbanks. I removed the masks and used some alcohol markers to colour them in.  I added some Nuvo Crystal drops in Simply White along the edges.  The little snowflakes are from another magazine freebie - stamped in a soft blue ink.  The sentiment is from the same freebie set as the critters.

Another Christmas card added to the stash.   Time to do some card making other than Christmas cards!

 

Three Vintage Christmas cards - CMSS inspired.

 NB - lots of photos 

Over the last few days, I've been working on some more Christmas cards inspired by the Card Makers Sucess Summit.    Today's cards were inspired by Sande Woodson and Erin Reed.  Sande's presentation was about making an e-card or you could print it.   She provided a lovely freebie with some awesome Vintage Christmas images, which inspired me to make some hybrid Christmas cards using the digital images. 

First up -

Started by choosing my image and importing it into Word on my computer - at A2(US) size. Sande used CANVA but I find I can work adequately in Word.  Once I had printed the image, I used a Gina K Master Layout to trim it.  I added some Vintage Photo Distress Oxide all around the edges of my card base and lightly blended around the focal panel.   I created a sentiment sheet using the Merry Christmas using EFCO Brookshire font.  I used a die cut banner to cut it out and added ink blending around it. 

First time I printed it, the panel went skewwhiff so I couldn't use it... but waste not, want not - I die cut out a circle and that became the focal point on my second card

I used the circle from Gina K Master Layout #12 to cut it and then took some navy card and cut out the frame.  Used the circle that it cut out to add a bit of dimension behind the circle panel.  Found a lovely background paper in my stash and added it to the base.  Used another of the printed sentiments matted with some of the navy card to finish this one. 

My third card also used one of Sande's free images, but the card design is inspired by Erin Reed.  Her presentation was a fun fold - which I believe is called Flying Seagull fold.  I did mess up the measurements, but you can't really tell too much!

Card standing open showing the "wings"

Card lying flat for posting.

I printed the image and then die cut with a square die from a Gina K Master Layouts set.  I decorated it with a Spellbinders Poinsettia die which I spritzed with water and scrunched up.  Once they layers had dried, I carefully unfurled them and added gold Glitter Glue to them before layering them up.  Found some pearl swirls and added them to the card with the poinsettia.   Added the same sentiment again.  It's the perfect font for vintage cards. 

Thank you if you made it this far... I appreciate it.  

CMSS - Inspired by Juliana Michaels... not one but three cards!

 Yeap, I loved the presentation by Juliana Michaels and made not one card, but three!   Her technique was using stamping foam and an embossing folder.   This is a favourite technique, but one I don't use all that much.  

As I am doing mostly Christmas Holdiay cards this summit - I chose an Altenew folder.  Classic Pinecones Slim 3D folder.  I heated my foam and pressed it into the folder.   Chose the "sticky up" side (although hard to determine with a 3D folder)  

First card I inked the foam with some Vintage Photo Oxide ink.   I used some 240gms Fabriano Start Mixed Media paper.  It says it is white... but it is really an off white colour.  It's A4 size so my card bases become 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" - just a smidgeon less than a US A2 size card.  

Love the colour I got with the Vintage Photo ink.  I trimmed the stamped panel leaving a tiny white border.  Matted the panel with some brown card - the same colour as my pinecones.   I used an Elizabeth Craft Designs die set - Christmas Accents.  It's an older die set, with two sizes of pinecones and two sizes of the poinsettia flowers and leaves.   I used two tones of brown for the cones, and some red paper.  I made my own green paper by using Distress ink in Pinecone direct to the paper.  A little fellow centre finished my poinsettias.   I made these cards yesterday and fortuitously my order from Krafters Cart arrived - with the Concord & 9th - Big on Christmas stamps and die set.  I stamped the big FA LA LA and used the die to cut it... and added the sub-sentiment directly on the card. 

Card two- I used Weathered Wood Distress Oxide to stamp the foam, trimmed and added to a dark green mat.  

This time I chose an older stamp and die set from Hero Arts- Holly Jolly.  We have been tidying up the storage space under the stairs - where I store some of my stamps... ones I haven't used in forever!  Saw this set and thought it would be perfect against the background.  I used more of my own green paper to stamp on and die cut the holly leave.  Added some Altenew enamel dots for the berries.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set.  

For my third card, I reheated the foam and used the other side of the folder.  Used the Weathered Wood Distress Oxide ink and definitely got a totally different look. 

I trimmed a larger border around the panel and used a Gold Sharpie to add a faux mat.  I stamped another of the stamps from Concord & 9th set - gold embossed directly onto the panel.  Added some die cut stars (from the same die set) with a little gold gem in the centre. 

The stash of Christmas cards is growing quickly with the inspiration from the Card Makers Success Summit.. and I still have nearly 40 more presentations to watch.  

More cards from the CMSS- August 2024

 I managed a few more presentation watched and two cads inspired by Jess Crafts and one by Desiree Kuemmerle. 

First up are the two cards I made following Jess Craft's template and cutting guide - using 6"x6" papers. Her templates use double sided papers, which make it a no scraps cut...but some of my papers are only one sided.   The templates show how to get two cards from one sheet.  I made one where I used the double sided paper to act as the matting layer which means I need two sheets.  And the other used one sided paper and some of the double sided left over pieces. 

First up the double sided paper card. 

I cut the papers following the template and added some Christmas ephemera.   A few red gems finished off this one.

And the second one.

For this one, I changed the orientation to portrait.  I love the grey stripes with the navy blue and then the pop of colour from the ephemera.  Added tiny red gems to the flower centres.   The sentiment was a freebie from a previous class I attended. 

And my card inspired by Desiree.... Her presentation was "Use any image Holiday ready"  - how to change any image to make it a Holdiay card. 

I took a Pinkfresh Studio stencil and die set to make this Christmas card.  It's called Daisy Wreath.   The way to make any image into a holiday card is all about choosing appropriate colours.   So for me it was about using reds and darker greens to add the colour to the image.   I used Altenew inks - Burnt Red and Mahogany Bark with a touch of Grey Denim inks for the flowers and Eucalyptus and Forest Fern inks for the leaves.   After die cutting I added the wreath to a grey panel and added a red and white foiled sentiment - from Yana's Christmas sentiments by Spellbinders.   Added some Pinkfresh clear gems in Scarlet. 

My Christmas stash is growing and there are so many more presentations to watch so I'll be sure to have enough cards to send in November!  

Christmas cards at Card Makers Success Summit - Aug 2024

 There is an upcoming Card Makers Success Summit starting 8 August - 11 August.   It's free - but each presentation is only available for 24 hours... however you can purchase a life time VIP pass that allows early access to the presentations.  Great for me as I work full time and the presentation times are usually the middle of my night.   And it's a perfect theme - Christmas/Holiday cards.   Just the thing to spark some Christmas card making.  

So I've been watching a few of the videos and made a couple of cards.   I was inspired by the presentation by Ardyth Percy-Robb (Mod Merry Christmas Cards with Minimal Supplies) where she used her own homemade stencils amongst other ideas.   Ardyth took some post-it's and cut some pointy ovals to make some ornaments.   Well, I will tell you - mine turned out terrible - so I adapted the idea a bit... I took a sweet little ornament die and made myself a stencil with some masking paper.  

The die I used was from a Catherine Pooler stamp and die set- Wonderful time of the Year.  I used the dies to make the stencils and then used  Altenew's Coral Berry, Ultramarine and whatever the green ink was on my blending brush on a 4"x 4" panel.   I used the little ornament topper from the set - stamped in Charcoal Suit grey ink and also the little star on the ornament. I added some little metallic pearls as embellishments. Stamped the sentiment from Waffle Flower Star Snowflake set in the grey ink as well.   I used a grey alcohol marker to add dots around the edge and layered the panel onto some grey card.  Added to a 5.5" square card base.   

And my second card was inspired by Therese Calvird (Unlock Basic Shapes to make FUN & EASY Holiday Cards) where she used basic circles, rectangles etc to make some cards.  Both her cards used circles to make a Snowman.  One was a big snowman and the other a smaller one inside a snow globe.

I remembered I had a polaroid stamp in a Lawn Fawn Set so the idea came to put the snow man in the frame.   I stamped the image from Say Cheese set (currently sold out).  I don't have the die so fussy cut the frame and cut out the centre.  Went around all the edges with a black marker.  I cut some circles from a Spellbinders Nestibilities dies in white to make the body, used a long thin rectangle die from MFT for his hat and two circle dies cut together to make the scarf from some card I had coloured with a Copic marker.  Two tiny triangles made the ends,  A snippet of orange coloured card made his nose and some green shapes cut for leaves.  A bit of white pen to add veins and they became my holly. Added red gems for the berries, black gems for his eyes and some dark grey enamel dots for the buttons on this body. His mouth was a few black dots with a Sharpie marker.  Made a blue blended piece with some white spray and some dots of the white pen for snow.   Layered my snowman behind the opening and added the blue panel behind.   Used another sentiment from the Waffle Flower Star Snowflake set added on the frame.   Found some pretty glittery snowflake patterned paper to add to my card base and then added the polaroid frame on a jaunty angle.

I can see myself making a few more of that sweet snowman and the ornament card.  

I've watched a few more presentations and got two more cards made - still to take photos.   Can't wait to watch some more presentations and get some more ideas.  

Christmas Box Card for Die Cut Divas

 I'm back today to share my final card for this month's challenge at Die Cut Divas.... Our lovely sponsor is Scrappy Tails 

I was lucky that Arlene send me a pile of Scrappy Tails stamped and die cut pieces and included in it was a box card die cuts.  

I used the box card die cuts to make this little scene.  I used the German Winter Village Pop up box with some Christmas papers from my stash.   I coloured all the images with Alcohol markers and added some glue and Diamond Dust Glitter to my house and Church and some Gold and Blue glitter glue.  Added some red Nuvo drops to the tree.

Do come and join us on the last day of our "add some glitter " challenge. 

Christmas Lilies.

One of the items I got at the Craft Show last week was an embossing folder from Altenew - Starry Patterns.   I did a bit of playing around with it - inking up the folder and getting different backgrounds.

For this one I inked up my folder with some Catherine Pooler It's a Boy ink.  I decided that I would make a frame with the panel - so cut with some square dies from Gina K Master Layouts #3.  I embossed a panel to layer behind with the folder.  I added the panel to a dark navy background and then onto a " square card.  I wanted to add a Christmas flower - so decided red lilies would look like a Christmas Lily.  This is an Altenew mini set called Calla Lily.  I stamped and cut with the matching die.  I used some red ink and green Alcohol pens. The sentiment is a pre-printed one - I'm not sure where it came from.  I trimmed and layered it onto some dark navy card.

As I used the folder to make a frame I'm adding this to the challenge at Christmas Kickstart - where the challenge is Festive Frames

And as this was the first outing for the embossing folder I'm adding it to Darnell's NBUS 

We had a lovely weekend, hubby and I headed up to our friends place in Mangawhai.  We haven't been up for awhile.  And our friends are travelling around England, Scotland and Europe.   We upgraded our car on Thursday - a 2013 Toyota Auris, so took it on a road trip.  The car drove beautifully and the weather over the weekend was very spring like.. I had a lovely afternoon sitting outside on the deck doing some colouring in a Zen Mindless colouring book.  

Used mostly greens and blues Prismacolor pencils to do this one.  I couldn't believe how relaxing it was... 3 hours just disappeared.    

Thanks for stopping by.   

Craft Roulette #223

 I watched the latest Craft Roulette on replay over the weekend.  For the last few days I've been contemplating what to do to meet the parameters.   This afternoon after work I finally decided what to do.   This one is my 17th submission.  

Project - Smaller/Larger - Two sized of my gnomes.

Colours - Planets - Red for Mars, Blue and Green for Earth, Brown for Pluto and Yellow for the Sun. 

Element - House(s) - Gnomes live in a Mushroom House. 

Random - White Border - border around the main panel - highlighted by the wonky frame. 

The gnomes are from a NZ company called Montarga.  The little one is from a stamp with three gnomes and the bigger one is a single stamp.   The house is from a Freebie set from 2017. 

Festive Frames at Christmas Kickstart Challenge.

 

Another wintery day here in Auckland, NZ so a bit more time in the craft room today.  While tidying yesterday I found a set of peg stamps by Rubber Stamp Tapestry.  I see my local stamp store has a number of these type of stamps.  The set I have is called Holiday Garden set.    

Here's how I used the peg stamps to add a festive frame around my sentiment. 

I lightly drew around a circle die and then used 4 colours of CP stamps - Rockin' Red, Peppermint Scrub, Eucalyptus and Green Tea to stamp the 4 different pegs.  Added a lot of little dots of the Rockin' Red and Eucalyptus inks and a few gems for the centre of some of the flowers.  The sentiment is from a NZ company called Montarga.  And to finish this CAS card, I used the Rockin' Red and Eucalyptus inks direct to paper to die cut 2 of the smallest die from Spellbinders Poinsettia dies, in the red, and the next size up in the green.  Added some yellow gems for the centre.