Sunbird Spark - two different cards

 Hi - last day of the month, so time to share my projects for Die Cut Divas.... Two quite different cards using products from Sunbird Spark - our sponsor this month 

Sunbird Spark is a Vancouver (Canada) based paper craft supply company and the creator of the patented Stencils 360°™ stenciling tool. Formerly known as Penguin Palace, the brand is known for its innovative tools, high-quality photopolymer stamps, and its specially curated ink collection inspired by color psychology. Sunbird Spark is dedicated to inspiring creativity through bold color, versatile designs, and a passion for exceptional customer care, helping makers of all levels craft with confidence and joy.

First card using the Frame die called Bellezza Frame from Sunbird Spark and paired it with Sizzix Layered Summer Florals.  

I took the base layer of the Bellezza Frame and used a floral embossing folder for a bit of texture and then layered the outer frame on top.  I die cut the Sizzix  floral layers from a variety of coloured cards and layered together and added to the frame.   The sentiment is from Sunbird Spark Magnolia Beauty stamp and die set.   A big thanks to my teamie, Cindy, who sent me the stamped and die cut images, sentiments and die cut frames.  

Sunbird Spark also has a few digital stamps   So I purchased a cute little images to make a card for my grandson's birthday later this year. 

I printed the crane onto some card after adding this name and the number 3 to the image.  It's his 3rd birthday in June this year.   I used my Scan'n'Cut to cut it out and then used alcohol markers to colour it.   It used AI to find the background construction scene. I printed it and die cut with a Gina K die.  

Espressly for You...

 I was asked to make a card for some colleagues, whose team leader has moved to a new position.  They told me that he loves his coffee... so I made a 5 x 7 card so the team can sign it.

I trimmed some kraft paper and stamped it with Catherine Pooler Icing on the Cake ink with an Altenew Coffee Ring stamp.  The little bean and the two coffee sentiments are from a 2011  Hero Arts Sparkle Clear Coffee stamp set.  It's a mini 2 x 4 stamp set. The coffee cup is a digital one I got in 2022 from My Scrap Chick.  Not sure if it still available.   Being digital it was easy to size up to suit a larger card.  I used some alcohol markers to added the colour to the cup.   The sentiment is from another Hero Arts mini set - Mini Messages (2008) 

And added upside of making this card, when I was searching for the older Hero Arts stamps, I found 2 Studio G stamp sets that I haven't even opened, and a few sets I'd forgotten about that I pulled out and put close to my desk to remember to use soon.  

TIC TAC TOE at Die Cut Divas

 Hi there - it's time to me to share my card for our challenge at Die Cut Divas.   Our sponsor this month is Joy Clair Designs

and we have a Tic Tac Toe challenge

I chose to use the right hand side - at least 2 layers, colour yellow. flowers

I have 3 layers (not including the base) - my first layer is the yellow matting...on top of this is  a white embossed layer.  I printed the Joy Clair image and used a used a Spellbinder die to cut it out.  For my colour yellow - my little bird and the flower - was the one the bird's mouth.  The heartfelt sentiment is also from the Joy Clair set which is "Refresh the Soul"  I printed it before doing the embossing. 

As you read this, I will have arrived home from my two weeks away in Perth Australia.  I left on the 10th and arrived back very early this morning.  It's ANZAC day here in New Zealand and Austraila, celebrating and remembering those who have fought in World Wars and other arenas where our miltary have served.  

A card for Ukraine.

I have been feeling stunned and sad by what is happening in the Ukraine.   I've been seeing lots of blue and yellow cards, sunflower cards etc all over social media.  And lots of crafting companies and people have been giving away lovely digital designs or selling them to provide funds to assist the people of Ukraine.  I saw a beautiful design that Marcella Hawley from Power Poppy was giving away.  It is just gorgeous so I got it to make a card to show my support.  Marcella has 4 free designs to chose from. 

One of the things I like about digital images is that you can change the size, orientation or just use parts of the image, which is what I did here.   I printed the image with only part of the image and then used a technique I saw Yana Smakula did on one of her Yippee for Yana posts,  Yana lives in the Ukraine and designs for Simon Says Stamp.  Her technique for colouring is so nice and easy and it really looks amazing. I used a variety of alcohol markers to colour the flowers and vase.  I wasn't sure for a while what sentiment to add.  Then I remembered an older Hero Arts stamp and die set - Peace.  I die cut the Peace from grey card and white card to layer up together.  Stamped  the little sub-sentiment above the die cut.  

I haven't used my Alcohol markers for a while so was pleased with my results.   I continue to pray for the Ukrainian people. 

"We Three Kings of Orient Are..."

 Hi there.  It's my day to share at Die Cut Divas.  We have an Anything Goes Challenge this month with a amazing new sponsor - Scrapflower Estudio

This small, woman owned, business is known for a wide variety of multicultural, and gnome-loving, digital images. Her adorable images are designed for colorists of all kinds. The owner, Patricia, began her entry into the digital stamps world via her love for coloring. Her illustrations are drawn for worldwide, beginner to expert colorists, and everything in between.

The team have the priviledge of working with some of the beautiful images from Scrapflower Estudio.  I chose to use Three Wise Men digital image.

I decided a mini slimline would be a great way to show them off.  I sized them quite small along my card and then used some Altenew Woodless Watercolour pencils to colour the Wise Men.  I added some sparkle pen and glossy accents to their crowns.   I used a sentiment from a Hero Arts set  together with one from a freebie set.  I used two dies from Gina K's Master Layouts 7.  I'm loving this little 3.25" x 6.25" card size.  

Do come and join us with your projects.  

WWC 282 - Fifth week Anything Goes.

Hi there.  New challenge at Watercooler Wednesday.  And it's the 5th Wednesday in July, it's an Anything Goes challenge.

Today I have a sweet little card to share.  I got a commission to make a card for a little girl turning one.

For this card I used a sweet little digital image from Rachelle Ann Miller Creative Studio.  It was a freebie for a while at Kit and Clowder but is now available from Rachelle's site 

I used some Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol to blend the pencils.  I used a little sentiment from NZ company Hastings Rubber Stamps.  I used a Nellie's die to cut out my focal panel and added it with some fun foam to a card that I had covered with some Patterned Paper.  

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.

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Clean and Simple.

Hi there people.  Welcome to my post for the latest Sweet Stampin' Challenge.   Our theme this week is CAS (Clean and Simple)

My card is a Christmas one

This is  digital image from Whimsy Stamps called Penguin Elf  I stamped it onto some white card and coloured with Copics and Prismacolour pencils.    I added a sentiment that I have in my stash (not sure who it is made by) I added some embossed edging to add texture. 

I am entering this into the Christmas Kickstart challenge - theme: "Hatty Christmas" 

Do come and join us at Sweet Stampin' Challenge with your CAS project. 

Sunflowers for Summer

It's a busy Thursday.... 3 posts today so please check below for my other cards
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Hi, I here today to share my card for the monthly challenge at Die Cut Divas.  Our theme this month is Summer Fun. 

One of the fun things we did for summer as a child, was to grow sunflowers.

I used this lovely flower from Bugaboo as it reminded me of sunflowers.  The best thing about digital stamps is you can resize and crop to make the image what you want. Here is the original image

I cropped the image and then die cut it with a stitched circle die.  I used some green patterned paper to cut a frame for the focal image.  I cut a white panel and embossed it before matting with the green paper.  I finished with a white embossed sentiment from Altenew

Do come and join us here  for this month's challenge. 

Birthday Boys at Sweet Stampin' challenge

Hi there.  It's time for another challenge at Sweet Stampin' challenge blog and our theme this week is Birthday Boys.

My little grandson turns four this year... April 20th in fact, but I've made his card already!  I bought a Whimsy Stamps digital stamp in January and knew I wanted to make Archie's card straight away!

Isn't this just a cutest little surfer Dude.... the stamp is called "Dude"  I have used Prismacolor pencils and some Copics to colour him up.  His shorts are to symbolise  the surfer club that my daughter and son-in-law belong to.  Their colours are yellow tops and red shorts.  I used my scan'n'cut to cut him out.  The background is some Patterned paper is from a pack by Uniti.  The sentiment is an old one from Penny Black and the #4 is die cut with a Mama Elephant die set.

Do come and share your Birthday Boy cards.

Puppy Christmas - Dachshund through the snow!

My blog friend Jo's Christmas Kickstart this fortnight has the theme.... Dachshund Through the Snow... a play on words - so she and Elfen helper Cat want to see canines on the cards.

I knew what digi stamp I was going to use straight away, but didn't get time to create till this colder Saturday afternoon.

I started by making my own background using the Newton's Nook two part stencil.  I used some cream cardstock and used Altenew Enchanted Gold pigment ink and then added the red dashes with Catherine Poolr Design Rockin' Red ink.   I printed the Bugaboo image - Puppy - enough Reindeer and used Alcohol markers to colour it in. Plus a little gold gel pen for the bells.   I used some rectangle dies to cut it out and then used the same size die and one two bigger to die cut the frame.    A bit of Kindyglitz for the snow and the fluffy hat.

And another lovely surprise to see I made the Top Picks for my tree cards in the last challenge

 Thanks Jo and Darnell for picking me.

I got a few other cards done today(getting ahead with some design team work) as it was a bit wintery and staying in my craft room was a great way to spend the time.

Got a message from my son to say they are home from Hawaii and that little Grace was a great traveler.  Slept  90% of the flight over and coming home today didn't cry at all.  Getting a seasoned traveler.  They had a great time there... including my son proposing - so came back an engaged couple.

Christmas Hot Chocolate

Jo's Christmas Kickstart challenge has a fun theme this time around.... Your Favourite Hot Beverage.  I don't drink coffee so my hot beverage is Hot Chocolate

 

For my main image I have printed out an image from Graciellie Designs called "Christmas Cheer" onto some watercolour paper.    I used some Altenew Watercolour pan paints to colour the image.  The sentiment is from the same digital set,.  I added some red splatters, and some gold Nuvo drips. 

I enjoyed making this card.  

Thanks for stopping by today... 

WWC228 Marsha's Feminine "Anything Goes" challenge

Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Marsha is our hostess this week with a Feminine "Anything Goes" challenge

 

I've made a fun girly card today with a sweet little mermaid.

This card came about as I was practising some stencil techniques.  I had used a Simon Says Stamp Wave stencil and some blending brushes and Altenew Turquoise ink.  I blended the ink, then moved the stencil a little and blended again.  I then spritzed the stencil with water and "stamped" it on the blended piece.  This gave a nice bit of texture.    The panel sat for a while as I really didn't know what to do with it.  Then I saw this cute little mermaid at Whimsy Stamps.  It's a digital stamp do I printed it onto some white card and then used a variety of Alcohol markers to colour it.  I fussy cut it and added to the stenciled background.  The sentiment is from Lovely Flowers by Catherine Pooler Designs.  I added it to the blue card base and added some white Nuvo Drops. 

Come join in the fun.  Check out the projects that the artists at Watercooler Wednesday Challenges have created then take the challenge and link your creation to the challenge post. We’d love to have you join us.  You have until Mondays at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (Tuesdays at 11.00am NZ time) to link up your project

Angel Love

It's the final day of the month so last day of the monthly challenge at Die Cut Divas.... our theme is something new

I've used a new Bugaboo image called Love Angel for my card today.

I used a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die for the corner die cut and added the pink over a maroon card base. The image was printed and framed in Word and trimmed out.  I used some new Altenew Marker to colour my Angel.  I added a little sentiment into the corner.

Thanks for joining me today.  If you haven't already seen my Watercooler Wednesday Challenge post... see it HERE.

A big thanks to our lovely sponsor this month as well. 

Floral birthday watercolouring

My dear friend Yvonne celebrated her birthday yesterday.  I had a call from her hubby on Wed asking me if I would take her out for a drink to celebrate after work so he could cook a nice meal for her - without her trying to help out... so I did.  I picked her and one of her work friend's as well and we headed off to try out a local Wine Bar.  Very nice... especially as we got there with 5 mins to spare for the happy hour!   So once I dropped her friend home, we headed to her place and had a lovely meal with her daughter and grandchildren, her son and his fiance and her brother -in-law and his son and us...My hubby assisted hers in cooking a lovely three course meal.

I had made her this gorgeous (if I say so myself) watercolour floral card.

The image is a digi stamp from Make it Crafty.  I printed it onto some watercolour paper and used my Altenew watercolour paints and some paints from Koh-I-Noor.  Once I finished, the printed lines were a bit dull looking so I took a fine tip marker to draw around the edges.  This really made the image pop.  I added some gold Wink of Stella to colour the Hello and added the little white embossed sentiment from an Altenew set. 

Today was a beautiful sunny spring day and I was outside for quite a bit of the day.  Our swan plant is full of Monarch Butterfly caterpillars and I managed to get a photo of one of them beginning it's transformation

I will have to keep an eye on it to see if I can get a photo of the butterfly as it emerges.

Hope you all have a great weekend... Daylight Saving starts tomorrow... so one hour less sleep for me tonight, but that means Summer is on it's way!

Har Repotter Graduation card

One of my work colleagues wanted a Harry Potter grad card for her daughter whose graduation was last week.... so thanks to the Har Repotter images from Bugaboo.... I made her a box card.

I had fun making this and she told me today her daughter loved it. 

Hope you all had a great weekend... I got LOTS of colouring done for my Kit and Clowder classes.  We took Friday off and headed up to Mangawhai.  Had a really relaxing weekend, which did included a trip to the Markets, a winery visit (tasting and buying a nice bottle of Sauvigion Blanc) and a trip to the Waipu Museum.  I always enjoy visiting this museum as it tells the story of the Scottish settlers who came to Waipu via Nova Scotia. 

thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate all your visits.  Please feel free to leave me a message.

Bunnies for Easter

Easter is coming up quickly and I needed to get my Easter card for Archie into the post ASAP. 

I chose to use a digi stamp from Di's Digis.  It is adorable...

I used my Prismacolor pencils to colour the image and cut it out with my ScanNCut.  I made the fur on the bunny using the technique I learnt at Kit and Clowder.  

My second bunny card uses a digi stamp by From my Heart ( I can no longer find this company on the internet).  I picked up this digi about 2 years ago.  

  I printed the image out onto some cartridge paper and used my pencils to colour.

I am entering this into the challenge at Creative With Stamps.  I've already entered the first one there. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate your visits.

B is for Beach ... plus some splatter cards...

My blogger friend Jo is one of the  Designers over at The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.... and when I saw her card for this week's challenge (B for Beach)it took my fancy as I knew I had to perfect digi stamp to use.

My digi image and it's corresponding sentiment are from Bugaboo.  I combined the two onto one panel.  I coloured using Copic markers - so very basic colouring.  I made the PP that I used for my base layer.  I saw a technique over at Splitcoaststampers - to used waterbase inks - Altenew Warm Sunshine, Paper Bag and Distress ink  Fossilised Amber- spritz of water and a credit card!  I think that it makes a beautiful sandy looking background.   I added three drops of gold liquid pearls to finish off. 

Plus I have two cards I made on Sunday for the Hero Arts Flickr Group challenge.  My friend Kim in Western Australia, challenged us to use splatters on our projects.  I did two sessions... each about 50-55 mins

My first card used Hero Arts Brush Stroke  stamp set which has a few splatter stamps.  I used Neon inks.  The sentiment is the die from the Hello Stamp and die set with a sentiment from the set. 

And my second card is more elegant...

I stamped the Antique Rose stamp onto some watercolour paper and used some Derwent Inktense pencils to colour.  I then used some gold ink, green and red inks to splatter drops over my card.  I then used a big sentiment stamp to finish off.

Thanks for stopping by

Dino Girl...

This month's challenge theme at Die Cut Divas is Sentiment Free, and our sponsor is Sasayaki Glitter Digital Stamps.

I'm here to share my card with you today.

I have used  Dino Girl for my card.  As I am in love with my Prisma pencils I have once again used them

I used Spellbinders Rectangle dies - plain and scalloped for the image.  Added some PP and a mat and then added to my card base.  Such a fun image.

Summer is slow to come to us this year... none of the usual hot sunny summery days... lots of wind and even a bit of rain.   Hoping that it will warm up soon.

Thanks for stopping by.  I really appreciate all your visits

Hubby's away...so I'm playing!

My hubby had to head over to Sydney yesterday for a training session... started yesterday and continued today.  He's coming back late Sunday evening... so it's ME time!!!!  I get to watch what I want on TV and with having to craft on the dinning table due to my room being out of commission.. I don't have to pack up till late tomorrow.  So once the chores were done today - grocery shopping, washing, dusting and vacuuming.... I got to play again.  So since last night a total of 6 cards done.  Some I can't share yet but I did make some cards for hubby's 60th (next Sunday)

I started with this one last night....

I finally broke out the Crazy Cat stamps and Dies.  I started by stamping the Geometric stamps (from a Grace Taylor set I picked up for .47cents.  Score!) I used 3 colours from two Altenew ink cubes...the warm greys and purples.   I stamped and coloured the cat with my new Touchnew Markers.  The matching die cuts very close to the stamping.  Looks awesome.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  

This was to be the card I gave him till I saw an awesome card on FB by Emma from Emmascraftycards and I just had to CASE it!

The image is a digital stamp from Little Miss Muppet Stamps and is called Mustache Too.  It's totally awesome as you add the mustache and cap or not as you want,    I used the computer to add the sentiment.  Finished with a few red stars.  Although my hubby doesn't have a mustache and looks more like 45 than turning 60 I think he'll appreciate this one... and the first one will go into my stash of cards.

I got some DT cards done and a couple of swap cards - one for my NZ technique swap group and my CCC card for October that is heading off to Spain.  Once they are received I'll be able to share.  Tomorrow more Christmas cards plus a lady from work wants a card the same as one I did a while back. 

Nearly bed time now, so I'll stop, have a hot drink and take myself off to bed with my Kindle for awhile. 

Hope you all are having as much fun creating as I am this weekend. 

It's the First - so two new challenges.

First up is Die Cut Divas - a new challenge and a new sponsor.... Kaisercraft!  Yes we have managed to secure them and what a prize package it is too...

 

 

The design team were luck enough to be provided with some of the June release to work with... Some fabulous patterned paper, a die and stamp set and an embossing folder.

My card for today used some of the PP from the Boho Dreams  pack (Bohemian) and the Die and Stamp set called Smile

I used a WRMK embossing folder with the PP and the stamp and die.  The PP panel was die cut with a Lil'Inkers die.  

My second challenge is Chalk'n'Stock - 

I used a Bugaboo image and coloured with Copic markers.  I used chalk to colour the background.  My dies and sentiment are both from the latest StampNation SOA collection.  

So be sure to visit both blogs and would love to see your projects