Cosmos Thanks

The day after returning from our short break, I received a package of cardmaking supplies from Scrapbook.com, including the Altenew Dreaming Cosmos embossing folder and coordinating stencil. I used them to create a thank-you card for our tour guides, Chris and Nicola.

Inspired by the stencil packaging, I embossed white card, added ink blending through the stencil, and finished with subtle blue and green background blending using leftover ink. The panel was matted onto dark pink card, with a simple sentiment from the Altenew Versatile Greetings die set cut in the same colour. I kept the design clean with no embellishments.

I dropped the card off at the travel agency on Friday, and they really appreciated it.

Sending Hugs embossed background

 Well, my mojo has been on a hiatus.  I haven't crafted for over a week or more!  Work has been really busy and then we went away for a long weekend.   Took the little red car so not a lot of space in the boot for more than our bags and some food.  I did take a mini colouring-in book and did some watercolouring of one of the pages

Today I'm sharing a card I made early January and haven't posted as yet. 

I was trying out embossing on a non-white background.  This  panel is a grey watercolour looking patterned paper from Scrapbook.com and I embossed it with Altenew Whimsy Motif 3D folder.  Used the matching colouring stencil in a variety of Altenew inks.  I added some black pen dots around the embossed image.  Finished with a white embossed sentiment from Altenew.  

Hopefully I will get some time this week to craft - maybe Friday afternoon as I have two appointments early morning and lunch time.   And then Sunday morning (early) we head off for a 4 day guided tour around the west side of the lower North Island.   We are flying to New Plymouth, there for a day and then doing a two day rail cart adventure through what is called The Forgotten World.  And then on the final day - bus and then train trip back to Auckland.   There are about 16 people on the tour, all around our age, and two couples who live reasonably close to us.  Should be a fun few days and give us a taste of going on a guided tour.  

Altenew weekly challenge - "Acute card"

 Jen Rzasa hosts a weekly Live challenge on the Altenew YouTube channel.  This week's challenge is "Acute" - use triangle/s on your projects.  It can be triangle cut card, triangular stamps, visual triangles of embellishments and so on....  

I made two cards for the challenge. First one was using a focal stamped image using the gorgeous gift stamp that Altenew sent me... and an embossing folder...

The Mod Square embossing looks like triangles with the 3D layers.  (Hope it is acceptable for the challenge!)  I stamped the Charming Bouquet and used my Scan'n'Cut to cut it.  I used Altenew Alcohol Markers from the Pocketful of Sunshine and Green Fields set to colour.  The sentiment is from Altenew Classic Greeting. 

My second card was totally inspired by Jen's video where she did some stenciling to make a background and then trimmed it to add to a card with some embossed triangular shaped embossing.  I actually made 7 panels... Two using Rose Bouquet Stencil... because I messed up part of the first panel and two made by the use of the Floral Garden Stencil - which covers a 4 1/4" x 11" panel and it got cut into the two panel.  This is an older Altenew stencil which you do the first time and then rotate it 180 degrees and ink again.   I didn't use them today so have two lovely panels for future use. 

I inked up the Rose Bouquet stencil - the pink was ink on my blending brush, so not sure of the actual colour.  Used Bamboo and Olive for the leaves.  First go I didn't mask so ended up with some green in the pink and it looked terrible.  I managed salvage some of it... so this second version I did mask off the eaves while doing the flowers and the flowers when doing the leaves.   I then cut the panel down to a 3 1/2 inch square and then trimmed it in half to make my two triangles.   I added them to a 4 1/4 white panel which gave me the space in the middle.  I added a strip of gold card down the long side of each triangle and added a sentiment from Altenew Sentiment Strips 3.  Added my homemade shiny dots in a visual triangle of 3 on each triangle.   Really happy how it ended up.   Doing a square card made it easier. 

I've had a really productive weekend with lots of fun playing with my supplies.  

Happy Birthday to my boy!

 Today my baby boy is 36!  Where the heck has the time flown.   I can not believe I have a 36yr old - who is the father of two delightful little girls!

He is also a connoisseur of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey - and that gave me my idea for his card.   

I search the internet for some images of Jack Daniels and printed this one out.  I due cut with a Spellbinders circle die and cut a scallop circle.   I took some light grey card and used Altenew 3D Masonry folder to add texture.  I search the dafont site and found one called "Bourbon Whiskey"  - it's a free font, so downloaded and typed the sentiments and die cut with Altenew dies.   He loved the card.  

Took some of my Christmas cards to work today and managed to sell around 17 of them.   I had gone overboard this year due to taking a few Christmas card classes online.   So now, just to start addressing the one's left and get ready to post in the next few weeks.