Make your own background.

 I got to choose the challenge for February for my local swap group... and went for an easy one... Make Your Own Background.   We got some great backgrounds.

My card panel combines ink smooshing with elegant gold foiling. I began by smooshing the Warm Lipstick and Wilted Violet Distress Oxide inks, then spritzed the panel with Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide Spritz for added interest. Once everything was completely dry, I added gold foil using the Altenew Exquisite Marble foil plate, which gave the background a beautiful, deluxe finish.

The panel was die cut with a Gina K Master Layout die and matted with textured gold cardstock to enhance the shine. For the focal point, I used a floral image from the Altenew Build‑A‑Garden: Morning Asters stamp set. It was gold heat‑embossed, coloured with the coordinating stencils, and die cut before being added to the card. Finished with a Spellbinders foiled sentiment. The combination of foiling, soft colour, and gold accents makes this design feel both elegant and fresh. 

I can finally share as my recipient had been away and only recently got to see the card.   

Altenew's 31 Days of Crafting - Days 20, 23 & 26

 I've finally photographic the card I made for Day 20 - Color Run Red. I did this one on Monday afternoon but just didn't have the energy to set up my Shotbox to take a photo.  I finally got around to do so on Saturday. 

For this one I used Build a Garden-Morning Asters stamped in Cloudy Night ink and then used the Dried Petals Fresh Dye inks with the matching stencil.  For a bit of texture, I took white card and embossed it with Hello Beautiful 3D embossing folder.   I used a sentiment from the Elegant Sayings stamp and die set.  

Yesterday afternoon, I was also able to do a card for today's theme.

I die cut the layers from the Craft A Flower - Rose and ink blended each layer with Altenew inks - Soft Lilac, Lavender Fields, Deep Iris and Midnight Violet.   I used some PP from Anko Marble pack to make the panel and to cut the leaves for my rose.   The sentiment is from Sending Hugs mini set - stamped with Andromeda ink and finished with some purple pearls.  

This afternoon was feeling much better and as I had an idea I wanted to try for Day 23 - Color Run Green.

   

I used Monsteras & Quotes stamp, stencil and dies.  I stamped the three leaves, three times and then used three sets of green inks - Green Fields, Green Valley and Tropical Forest.  I mixed and matched all the light and dark inks.   I then die cut all the leaves.  The background was stamped with a Gina K Gauze stamp and added some green ink in the corners and some splatters of Charcoal Suit ink. 

I have had fun trying out all the different prompts..   A few more days to go.  

It's back to work for me tomorrow.  Not sure how I'll cope as I've been off for just over a week and still coughing and a bit sniffly.   I've find I'm still getting tired if I try and do too much.    

Thanks for visiting today.  I appreciate all my visitors. 

Holiday Crafting

Finally I am sharing the two cards I made while we were away on our holiday break.  Since coming back I've been exhausted after my day at work... and then the weekend was full on with little time for crafting and blogging!  Did manage a couple of cards - one for a swap and one for an upcoming design challenge post.... more later...

So here are the two card I made between Christmas and New Year

 I got this new background die recently.  And I die cut it from some black card and layered on to the white base.  I used Altenew's Bitterroot Flower stencil and die for my focal floral image.  Sentiment is from Spellbinder's Popular Sentiment dies.   A few purple gems finished the card. 

Entering this into the TIME OUT challenge... New.  Two of my bloggy friends - Helen and Greta have joined the team.

Card two 

The flower is Altenew's Ambridge Rose painted with Altenew watercolour and splattered with Gold paint (Jasart ombre metallic paints)  I decided to fussy cut the flower.  I used some Mixed Media paper.  The background was made with the watercolour paints and salt to give some texture.  I cut it with Gina K Master Layouts 2 and die cut the frame from Gina K Master Layout 12.  Added a little bow from twine.    Sentiment is from Altenew Sentiment Strips 2.

Not too bad for only have minimal supplies.   Some watercolour paper, some watercolour paints, a few stamp sets and matching stencils and dies... a couple of ML's and some coloured card.   Got my fix - a couple of hours on a couple of days.. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope the New Years is starting well for you.

Craft Roulette # 194

 It's been a very busy week... at work I've been doing some training that is really intense and tiring.  So after work it cooking dinner and that's about all I've had the energy for.   Just 4 more days of work then 12 days off.  Yesterday was a full on day and I didn't even get to watch the Craft Roulette till at least 8 hours after it had aired.   However, my washing was done and dried, the Ham was glazed and in the fridge, Chocolates filled with a nut made and Licorice Allsorts Slice in the fridge!  I was totally pooped! 

So woke about 2.30pm and got thinking how to use the parameters in the episode... back to sleep and then this morning I made my card. 

So my card base is a 5.5" square and the colour is Pearl - for birds eggs... plus blue flowers for blue eggs, the straw colour of the trellis is the nest.  The trellis is the ladder element - my flowers are climbing up the trellis (ladder)  as did my kitty.  His colour is inspired by the blackbird in the nest! So all elements are there.  The flowers are from Altenew's Build a Garden Morning Aster  - stamp, stencil and die set, and the sentiment from Altenew's Ambridge Rose stamp.   I used Distress Oxide inks in Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio and Mowed Lawn to stencil the colours onto the flower.   The sentiment was stamped in black and clear embossed.   Added some 49th and Market rub-on transfers around the top edges.  My little kitty is a Poppy Stamps die - Cozy Kitties - cut with some black card. 

Roll on Christmas... I'm looking forward to the break.    

Trellis cards...

 I made a trellis card for Maxine in my local swap group but it never turned up!  So I remade the card using the same Altenew stamp (BAG Morning Asters) but using different colours for the flowers and a different type of leaf.  

Here is version 1

and version 2

Love them both.  Version 2 arrived safely on Friday but still no sign of version 1.  

I also have invested in a We Are Memory Keepers Shotbox.  Picked it half price with a voucher at my local Spotlight Store.  I used it to take the 2nd photo.   It was well worth the $70 I spent.  

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.  

Two cards, two challenges.

 I managed some time in the craft room last evening.... not much on the tele...and hubby had rugby on... 

I was wanting to do a card for both Christmas Kickstart and The Flower Challenge -

First up was the card for The Flower Challenge - Die Cuts or Stencils.   I decided to do both!

I started by using a Tim Holtz corner die to cut the right hand side of a card panel.  Next I stamped the Altenew Cherry Blossom Bunch in a light brown ink,  and used the coordinating colouring stencils and some Altenew purple and green inks to colour it up.    I then die cut it with the coordinating die.   I blended the two purple inks onto a scrap to add behind the die cut corner.  

And here's my card for the Christmas Kickstart challenge - Wrapped up for Christmas  (use a scarf or Scarves on your card) 

I love my Gina K penguins - there are a few of them in the one stamp set - my favourite are these two.   I stamped and clear embossed them onto some Bristol card and used some distress inks to watercolour them before die cutting them.  I next made my background - using a Montarga snowflake stencil (They are a NZ company) I used what blue ink was on my blending brush then used some Nuvo glimmer paste to give some sparkle.   My sentiment is from a mini set by Kaisercraft, die cut with an Altenew sentiment die set.  I used a Gina K Master Layout die to cut out the scalloped rectangle and added to the red base.   

Today, I did a couple more cards - a pair of Easter cards for my grandies... Just need to finish them off tomorrow.  

Cherry Blossoms Bunch - two ways

My last order arrived - including Altenew Cherry Blossoms Bunch - stamps, stencils and die.    I made two cards this weekend using it. 

First up - used the stencil to colour it. 

I used Altenew Frosty Pink and Coral Berry for the flowers and Green Fields for the leaves. I added Honey Drizzle for the stamens. For the gold stripe I used Altenew Buffalo Plaid stencil - masking off so just one stripe used.  I also got some Simon Hurley Lunar Paste Slippery When Wet in the order, so that was what I used through the stencil.  The sentiment is from Altenew Birthday Builder set.   Added some Pinkfresh metallic gold pearls to the centres and around the flowers.   

This one is being entered into Darnell's NBUS challenge for February. 

Edited:  Thanks to Maxine - I'm adding this to the February Challenge at We Love Stamping  - stamping with optional stenciling.

For my second card I tried something different - Shimmer powders. 

 For this one I stamped the flowers and then I did some watercolouring by wetting the image and dusting with Nuvo Shimmer powders and Pixie Powders to add some colours.  I thought they woud look amazing against the black background.   I had used some watered down Lunar Paste - Slippery when Wet to splatter and smoothed some over some white card to cut the sentiment.   I layered onto some white die cuts slightly offset. 

I'm adding this one to the Altenew Inspiration challenge for February 

I'm enjoyed trying out different ways to colour this stamp set.