Hello 2026 with Altenew Challenge Live.

Yesterday was a really warm one... and in the morning I hid in my craft room to keep cool.. I was watching Jen from Altenew on her live challenge on Facebook.   She does a weekly challenge live and usually I have to watch on replay but as I'm still on my summer holidays, I got to watch live and I crafted while watching.   The challenge was to use "Hello" on your project. 

I immediately remembered a Circle Greetings - Hello die and pulled it out together with a stencil and a sentiment stamp set. 

I made a 4.25" square card. Cut a panel at 4 x 4 and die cut the circle greetings die from the middle.  I decided to use the Altenew Sweet Spring stencil and used only two tones of green - Volcano Lake and Emerald Crisp Dry inks. Added some bronze-gold watercolour splatter.  I die cut the "hello" part twice more, once in white and once in textured gold card.  The white one when underneath and the gold on top.  Added some extra card strips on the back to give some height.  Gold embossed the sentiment from Sentiment Strips 2.  Finished with some matching gold dots. 

I didn't quite get it finished during the live - mainly because I changed my mind about the stenciling behind.  First panel didn't float my boat so started again.  

Did end up down at the beach later in the day - lay under the shade of a Pohutakawa tree and enjoyed the warmth of the day.  

Woodblock Wednesday - June 2025

 It's been a wet winter's day today, so after doing the housework I spent some time in my craft room... doing some DT work, and do my July swap card for my NZ swap group.  Carol published the challenge early so we could get spend some time this cold weekend doing crafting... 

I also decided to play along at Woodblock Wednesday challenge.

I used 4 woodblock stamps to make this project.   A Hampton Arts Stamp (dated 2001) called Large Negative Plate - stamped with Catherine Pooler It's a Girl ink,  Hero Arts Old French Writing (dated 2002) randomly stamped in Altenew Gray Denim ink, Penny Black Blush (dated 2006) inked in Onyx Black Versafine ink as was the Stampin' Up sentiment from Ward Wood (dated 2006)  I spritzed and splattered some Distress Spritz in Fossilised Amber and Picked Raspberry.  Die cut the panel and the backing pink panel from Altenew's Mix and Match Frames.  

Art Deco Thanks

 I've been so busy making Christmas cards as part of the Card Makers Success Summit... I decided to may a Thank You card for a bit of a change.   

This card came about as I had been playing with my new Distress Spritz -  Used the Fossilized Amber spritzed onto some grey card.  It looks like gold.  I also had my new Altenew die out - Streamlined Sprig.  It looks very Art Deco to me.  

Loved the glittery background.  I used some Rose Gold metallic card to cut the outline die and some blue and teal green card for the centre bits.  Paired it with a Spellbinders Fancy Framed Tag die.  The sentiment is from Altenew Sweetest Peas stamp set.  Again it had that Art Deco look to the sentiment.  Used the Rose Gold to back the panel and added to the same grey card base. 

I finished this a few days ago, but have been a bit tired lately so had some early nights.  Today I woke with a scratchy throat and massive headache so spend the morning resting and snoozing in bed before getting up.   Finally got some time this afternoon to photography this and make three more cards inspired by the CMSS presentations. 

Altenew's 31 days of crafting - Day 8

 Well life has gotten in the way of crafting so haven't managed many of the 31 day prompts.  Was very lucky though to have my Day 1 card get chosen for week 1 winner.  

So, I decided to try Day 8's prompt - 

I have one of the earlier Simple Layering stencils - Flower Bunch 

It's a bit harder to try and line up as there are no numbers on the stencils - difficult to decide what way up the stencils goes... but I managed on my second go to get it matched... only to mess up the flower centre in the lower flower...

I used Altenew Fresh Dye inks  - Aqualisious. Teal Cave, Galactic Stream, Jade, Eucalyptus, Forest Fern, Mauve and Berrylicious to do my ink blending.  This stencil has a matching die thank goodness... I was inspired by Therese Calvird, who showed how to stencil another flower - and in my case, die cut it out!  I popped it up with some 3D tape.  I added some black Spectrum Noir sparkle pen on the centre of the flowers.  I used the larger of the Altenew Mix and Match Frames to cut out a panel which I backed  with some navy card and added to a white base.   I used the Galactic Stream ink to stamp the sentiment 

from Altenew's Classic Greetings. 

Butterflies - two different watercolour looks

 Hi there.  Yesterday morning I was not feeling well so decided that a day of rest was required.   I spent the morning dozing in bed and by lunch time was feeling a little better.   I got up when hubby arrived home at 12.30, finished work for the day.  He pottered around outside as it was a nice day and I watched some You Tube videos, sitting on the sofa in the dinning room, with the sun streaming in the kitchen door.   One of the videos I watched was from Katie Partiet (here) using water colour crayons to "paint/stamp" a sweet butterfly.  I have some water colour crayons that I bought man, many years ago - and haven't used them for years!  So thought I'd try the technique -

For my butterfly I used one of the Altenew Dovetail Butterflies.  I used my Gallery by Mungka crayons to "paint" onto the base layer of the stamp. I got a splash of the blue paint onto my base, so ran with it by adding more blue splats and some gold watercolour paint splats as well.  I used black ink to add the outline layer of the butterfly.  I stamped the Gina K -It's all about You" sentiment in the lower corner, then liberally spritzed the whole card with Shimmer Spray - Sparkle.  In real life you can see all the shimmer and shine.  I added a black layer and added to a white card base.   

I then decided to try the same technique but to use metallic watercolour paints.   Quite a different look. 

This time I used the Brights Jasart metallic watercolours and over stamped the line image with Teal Cave Fresh Dye Ink from Altenew.  This time I used the matching dies to cut the butterfly.  I used some gold metallic paint to paint a scrap of card and die cut the Altenew Linear Crossroads die and the sentiment from Altenew's Versatile Sentiments. I stamped the sub-sentiment from Altenew's Sweetest Peas stamp set on the same gold painted scrap.    I used the same gold paint to add splatter to a black panel and then mounted the dies and sentiments together.  Another really shimmery card in real life.

Enjoyed trying out both the crayons and the metallic paints.   Did get to spend a bit of time in the craft room this afternoon, doing a card for Craft Roulette and had a lovely visit from Florence and her Daddy, when he came to borrow his Dad's edge trimmer!  She is growing so quickly, almost 10 months now! 

Success from a failure.

On Saturday, I watched a great session from the Card Makers Success Summit by Tiffany Solorio -  Tiffany uses Distress Sprays in all sorts colourful sprays and layers.  I only have two Distress Sprays in Brushed Pewter and Tarnished Brass.  I tried my Lindy's Gang Mica sprays but they are all very muted colours.  I added a splotch of Adirondack Color Wash in Purple Twilight.  But my panel of mixed media paper was very pale and blah looking with a few blob of purple.  So what to do?

Die cut with Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms!

Here's the card I made with all the bits I die cut and glued together

I used some of the dark purple blobs to cut the bigger flowers and the other more softer colours for the leaves and buds. I used some pinky lilac card from Scrapbook.com  Purple card pack for my background panel.  I die cut it with one of the Altenew Mix and Match Frames and embossed it with a Cuttlebug folder.  I slightly sanded it for an even more textured look.  I then added my bouquet down one side, and added a circle die and layer die cut from Gina K Master Layout #3 and used a Gina K sentiment.   So a success from a failure!

Hello - have a great day

 I have a card today inspired by two amazing crafters  - Ardyth Percy-Robb and Jennifer McGuire 

My background was one I made following Ardyth's presentation at the Stress Free Cardmaking Summit and I paired it with a partial die cutting technique I watch on Jennifer's blog.   I die cut the hello from the corner of the background panel where I knew the white panel would cover it.   I used the shadow die to do the partial die cutting technique.  Added a stamped sub sentiment and added some matching gems.  

Weekend crafting.

 I had a busy weekend with babysitting Princess Grace but got a couple of hours to craft while she went to visit and meet her new sister... I managed a few cards....

First up a quick card made with some Pinkfresh Studio's washi.   I have the Artistic Dahila washi and had die cut them and had them in a baggie on my desk.   A quickly threw together this card. 

I used the slimline Master Layout from Gina K for my layers.  They look a bit wonky in my photo but the are not in real lift.   I die cut the centre panel from some pretty patterned paper and layered the die cut washi on it.  I add a die cut sentiment made from the co-ordinating stamp and die set. 

My second card used some new stamps and dies - some that arrived a couple of weeks ago. 

One of the dies and stencils I bought from Altenew was the co-ordinating items to the Monstera Quotes stamp set.  I had got the stamp set ages ago but not used it... so was happy to use a gift card I had won on a Altenew FB live video and get the die and stencil.  I used the Altenew Boho Vases to die cut a piece of patterned paper to make the vase to hold the Monstera Leaves.   I backed it with some kraft card.  I stamped all the leaves a number of times and used the matching stencils to add colour.  I used a variety of green inks from Altenew.  I used the dies to cut them out.  For the background I added a little green blended inks and added some fine dots with a fine liner pen.  I used a sentiment from the stamp set.   It is full of marvelous quotes and sayings.  Added the vase and built up the leaves.   Added it all to a kraft top-folding card base.   As it was the first outing for the stamps, stencils and dies I am adding this to Darnell's NBUS challenge. 

I did another card too.... it's for my local technique swap group - it headed off to it's recipient - here's a little sneak peek.

I also spend some time in crafting with Grace.   We made cat faces and she did some inking with a brayer and just had fun playing with my stuff. 

My crafting room is like a magical cave to Grace.  

Card Chain Challenge - May reveal.

 It's time to share the card I made for the May Card Chain Challenge

My card went to Patricia in Texas

The options for this month 

Theme options: Hats/Flowers/Friendship

Technique options: Embossing Powder/torn edges.

I chose to use the sketch, Flowers and Friendship

My background was made with white card and Altenew Hot Foil plate - Exquisite Marble and WRMK Rose Gold Foil.  I also used Altenew Charming Foliage Die Set  - cut from Paint chips. And used some of the Altenew Branches and Berries set.  The sentiment was made up of Altenew Sentiment Strips 3 and a Winnie & Walter Hello die.   To ground the flowers I used a dotted vellum cut with a Spellbinders Oval die. 

And I received this beautiful summer scene from my blog mate Arlene.  ( and some die cuts too)

Always delightful to get a card from a friend! 

Got some time this afternoon to play with Grace in the craft room.  She is spending the night here while Mummy and Daddy go out to celebrate their 2nd wedding anniversary.  The new baby arrives sometime in the next couple of weeks, so last time in a while that they will have time to go out together. 

Thanks for popping in.  

Boho Vases

When I got home from work this afternoon, I took some time to play with some of my new stuff... a die set from Altenew and a sentiment stamp and die set by Couture Creations.  I had been wanting the Boho Vases for some time, but they have been out of stock at Altenew for a while so when I saw it at Scrapbook.com I had to get it. 

For it's first outing I die cut all three vases from kraft cart and used some Altenew Almond Butter ink to add a bit of colour around the edges and over the embossed bits.  I added some glitter card in silver, bronze and gold behind the vases.  Really pleased how that turned out.   The leaves were cut from some paint chips.  I masked off the bottom of the card panel and using some green ink left on my blending brush (Hunter Green ink) and a Stampmatt stencil added the green.  I softly inked the background as well.  Two of the vases were glued directly to the panel and the middle one and leaves was added with dimensional tape.  I stamped the sentiment in Versafine black ink and clear embossed it.  This cute set has matching dies, but I decided to stamp directly onto the card.

I'm adding this to the NBUS challenge as both the dies and the stamp were used for the first time.  Thanks Darnell for this fabulous challenge.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Stenciled Flowers

 Hi there.  Today I'm sharing a card made last weekend.   I was playing with an Altenew stencil set, it's matching die  and Altenew inks.  

The stencil and die set is called Flower Bunch.  I started by die cutting and then used the stencil to add the inks.   The flowers were done in Pastel Sunrise, Canyon Clay and Burnt Red with Moon Rock and Lava Rock for the centre.  The buds were done with Fresh Lemon and Honey Drizzle.  For the leaves I used Silver Sage, Jade and Eucalyptus.  Before adding the die cut to my panel, I used a stencil from Faith Pocock Designs with some orange ink on my blending brush.   I mostly did the stenciling in the bottom left and top right.   A simple sentiment finsihed the card. 

As I'm writing up this post, I am watching the King of England's coronation.  So much pomp and ceremony.   And what a piece of history in the making.    Currently the coach procession on the way to Westminster Abbey is under way.  It's fabulous seeing places I have visited in the past.  

Hope you are having a great weekend and get some crafting done. 

Playing with Altenew.

 Over the weekend I had some time to play with some stamps and dies from Altenew.   

This was inspired by a card design I saw on Pinterest.   And the colours were inspired by a couple of the samples on the stamp set insert.  Just changed them up a bit. 

I started by making my background panel.  I used Altenew's Leafy Border die and used some grey card to back it.  Next up were the Altenew Build A Flower Coneflower.  I die cut two flowers and then used the negative cut  as a template to stamp the outline and the layers.   The red one used Pink pearl, Coral Bliss and Velvet and the orange one used Orange Cream and Autumn Blaze.   The leaves were stamped with Marshland and Mangrove Root.  Love the greens - so rich looking.  And with the fancy die cut and the two flowers I decided that simple sentiment was called for.  Altenew's Birthday Builder stamp set has a lot of lovely different fonts and sizes so chose this sweet simple font.  A few black gems finished it.   It was such fun just playing for fun.   

One embossing folder, a stamping foam circle and two cards!

 Over the weekend I was watching some You Tube videos and watched Simon Hurley's video showing what he had demonstrated at Creativation 2023.   I was watching him use the circle stamping foam and remembered that I had bought this one ... after a bit of a hunt in my room I found the pack - still unopened.   I decided to try a technique using an embossing folder with the foam... I chose Altenew's Silk Art kit embossing folder.   I decided that I would experiment by using both sides of the folder.  Both cards used inks from Altenew's Martian Terrain Ink set. 

Once I had pressed the foam into the folder, I did an ombre look using all 4 of the inks.   I used Altenew Mix and Match Frames to cut it out and back it with some red card.   The Hugs die (Versatile Greetings) was cut from white and I used one of the inks directly to the card to make the shadow.  Added some little clear gems. 

Using the other side of the folder to press into the foam.  This time I used three inks and working from the lightest in the middle working out to the darkest.   The sentiment again was die cut from Versatile Greetings - this time coloured die cut and white shadow.  And the embellishments are red gems.

It's was so cool to see the two different looks achieved depending on what side of the folder you used.  I'm entering the first one in to Darrnell's NBUS (Never been used before schtuff) as it was the first time using the circular foam. 

I got to have a few hours playing over the weekend.  Doing some DT work and some time just playing.  

And on the laundry front... by Wednesday I had the washing machine installed and the tub sorted so two loads done that afternoon!  So quiet and quick too.  Plus the spin cycle is fast so the clothes are much drier coming out.  

Dies and or punches... New challenge at Sweet Stampin'

Hi there.  New challenge day at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.  Our theme is "Dies /Punches"  and of course some stampin'!  

I love my dies (and have hundreds!) so a perfect challenge for me. 

Lots of dies here!  This one is made with bits in my "to use" pile.   The background pink panel was one I had made ages ago - not sure what inks or how I did it.  Die cut with a die from Gina K's Master Layouts.  And then splatter with watered down Luna Paste in Slippery When Wet.  The blues for the Altenew Craft a Flower - Rose was some practice pieces with my Gel Plate and Distress Oxides and Catherine Pooler inks.  I had three pieces of various shades of the blues so picked out  where to do the die cuts so I got some variation of light to dark.   I used shades of greens and teals for the leaves.  And of course, some stamping with the Altenew Best Sentiments mini set.  

So come and join us with your projects using dies/punches or both!

Last minute gifts

 This week at Splitcoaststampers the main tutorial was a delightful Easel Note Holder.  I decided to make some last minute gifts.

I had four Post-It note pads at home and used some purple and white card to make the bases.  I had a couple of different patterned paper packs sitting on the floor next to my desk (just waiting to be put away!) so grabbed some papers to make my easel portion.   Die cut some sentiments for three and used pre-stamped and die cut bits from the Magic pile to add to the other one.  Now to make one for myself!

My bags are packed - just a couple of last minute items to go in.   We head off at around 8.00am in the morning as it will take about an hour to get to the airport and get the car parked.  Our flight is at 11.50am but the expected number of people through the airport tomorrow is around 50,000 so there will be long queues.    Everyone is super excited - on both sides of the "ditch"  - the Aussie's are over their bout of COVID (thank goodness) and we've been taking care to stay away from crowds.  

This will be my last post before Christmas - so I'm wishing all my friends and followers - a Very Merry Christmas.   Enjoy spending time with friends and family.   See you in the New Year 💖💖

Watercolouring with Nuvo Shimmer Powders

  Hello... Dawn here to share a card with some watercolouring for Die Cut Divas 

Altenew is our sponsor this month, and the challenge prize is Altenew Artists' Watercolor 24 Pan Set ($49.99 value).   Altenew will issue a 100% discount code to the winner.

This month's challenge: Watercolouring

If you have been following me for some time, you will know I LOVE Altenew products so excited to be able to highlight them.   

I used Altenew Craft Your Life Project Kit - Hello Beautiful in this card.   I started by using Altenew silver embossing powder to emboss the largest flower from the stamp set in the kit onto some mixed media paper.   For my watercolouring I took some Nuvo shimmer powders and tapped a small amount into the wells in a painting palette and added some water. I used a blue, pinky red, yellow and green powders.   This makes the most amazing shimmery paint.  I added the paint to the image using two colours on each flower and leaf.   Once it had dried I used the matching dies to cut it out.    Next step was to die cut a panel using Altenew's Mix and Match frame dies and add some splatters with the paints and some with black paint as well.   I layered this panel over some light green card so you can see it through the holes.   The sentiment is from Altenew's Sentiment Strips #3.  It's layered onto some silver card.  The photo of the card doesn't do the gorgeous shimmer justice. 

Hope this inspires you to join us with your watercolour projects ( don't forget to use your die cut machine as well)

Peace Love and Joy

 Today was a work from home day - so I managed a card during my tea breaks and lunch break.. I saw this great sketch from Freshly Made Sketches on my bloggy friend Karren's blog 

This week brought another package from Krafter's Cart and some lovely goodies from my friend, Arlene... I had purchased an Altenew stamp and die set from last year - a Christmas one - Holiday Flower Stamp.  So it got a try out today.

I found this gorgeous Christmas paper in my LARGE stash of patterned paper.  I trimmed it down to fit the sketch - made a red layer and added to a green 5" square card base.   I stamped the flower with some Versafine Onyx Black and clear embossed it, onto some Fabriano Bristol paper. Ager die cutting it out,  I did some watercolouring with Altenew's Woodless Watercolour pencils.  They move so beautifully on this paper.  The sentiment is from the stamp set and is silver embossed onto black card and die cut with some Altenew Featured Sentiment dies.

As the stamps and die are having their first outing, I'm entering this into Darnell's NBUS challenge.

I'm hoping to get some more play time this weekend... so much new stuff to play with.

Watercoloured Dies.

 Recently I watched a Gina K Facebook Live (here) where Gina made watercolour backgrounds with her Zig Markers and then die cut them to use on cards.   Over the weekend, I tried it out.  My Zigs are getting a bit dry so didn't get the same bright colour ways.   I still managed to get some fun backgrounds that I used for a couple of cards.  I recently bought some Mixed Media paper - and it's perfect for watercolouring on.  

First up - using some of the pink and orange watercolour papers.    I was inspired by the cards Gina made but using Altenew Itty Bitty Branches die cuts.  

I used Gina K Master Layouts #2 to cut my centre panel.  I cut a circle die and stamped my sentiment and then added the die cuts.   I had an issue with my glue going everywhere.  I still like how it turned out - not as noticeable in real life.  

My next card I die cut some more of the pinky watercolour and some of the green one I did,

 For this card I cut the layers of the Wild Rose 3D die  and added extra ink blending over the other layers.  I made my background panel with some Marble patterned paper.  The sentiment is from a Pinkfresh studios hotfoil and die set.   You get a lot of sentiments at once... 

I'm going to make a few more backgrounds to have on hand.  

Tomorrow is my birthday - officially an Old Aged Pensioner.... 65 years old.  NZ'ers get the pension at 65 so my holiday fund will get an extra boost every two weeks!   

Celebrating with you today.

Today I'm sharing another card made with Pinkfresh Studio Just a Hello Floral stamp, stencil and die set.  When I was making the card for my Dad (here) I stamped the Floral stamp twice and used different inks when stenciling.    This card will be heading to a friend whose birthday is a bit later this month.  

This time around I used yellow/orange and purples to colour the stamp.  I recently got the Altenew Mix and Match Frame Dies and just love the deckle one in the set.   I decided to go with a soft purple card to die cut it.  I then had this beautiful blue base.  I have a pocket full with sentiments - these two are from an LDRS set.  A few gold gems finished the card.  I'm looking forward to trying out different colour schemes with this stamp set. 

I had some fun time in the craft room this afternoon... made a few cards and now just have to edit the photos.   Hubby has plans to help our son tomorrow - so some more craft time for me!  Hope you get time to play over the weekend 

Watercoloured Blossoms with Altenew

 Hi - It's the final day of our challenge at Die Cut Divas  

 

Our theme for the month of August is "watercolor real or faux".

The Prize will be a $20 gift certificate to Altenew.

Today I have another floral card.  Altenew make the most amazing variety of Floral stamps as well as some amazing sentiments. 

A while back I had made some watercoloured backgrounds in a variety of pinks and greens using Altenew's 36 pan watercolour paints.  For today's card I took these panels.  From the pink one, I stamped and die cut two of the flowers from Altenew's Nature Blossoms set using inks from the Tea Party ink set.  I missed stamping the base layer to allow the painted background to show through.  I did the same with the leaves from the set using inks from the Tropical Forest set.  With the rest of the green watercolour paper I die cut some branches from the Branches and Berries die set.   To my background, cut with a Gina K Master Layout 2, I added some leaves from the Foliage Stencil in Parrot ink. I added some splatter with the Moss ink.   I stuck the ligher flower with tape to the card, and added the brighter one on foan tape. Added all the leaves and branches.  Stamped the sentiment from Fresh Freesia stamp set to finish off my card. 

I have enjoyed this month's challenge as Altenew is my favourite stamp company.  And I've been enjoying all types of watercolouring.  Our challenge finishes today so come and join us.