Things with Wings: A Shimmery Dragonfly Card for the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge

It’s time for the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge again, and this fortnight’s theme is Things with Wings—so I couldn’t resist pulling out a dragonfly and building my card around it.

I actually had this dragonfly sitting on my desk from a crafty session a while back—Grace and I made it during the school holidays, and we coloured it with Nuvo Shimmer Powders for that gorgeous sparkle. 

I started by blending a soft blue circle using a Penny Black stencil and a few pale blue inks from Altenew. Once the background was in place, I die cut a mix of leaves from a Sizzix set in green and gold cardstock, then cut a few coneflowers from yellow card and added a touch of gold pen to the centres.

From there it was all about arranging- I popped the dragonfly into the spotlight and built up the florals and foliage around the edge of the circle to frame it nicely. To finish, I stamped a sentiment from an Andy Skinner set directly onto the card, before matting in some soft blue. 

If you’re playing along with the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge, I’d love to see what you create for Things with Wings—butterflies, birds, bees, dragonflies… anything goes!

A Creative Day with Grace

 As the school holidays draw to a close, I had the pleasure of spending a full day with Grace—my turn to look after her and make some memories. Earlier in the week, she enjoyed a day with Pop, who took her swimming. 

Yesterday started in the craft room, where inspiration struck thanks to a new dragonfly die. We cut dragonflies from rice paper, each taking three to decorate with different mediums. I experimented with Nuvo Shimmer powders in blue and green for one, used mop-up paint for another, and finished the third with Temu Glitter pens—this last one sparkled beautifully and became the centerpiece for today’s card. 

Grace made some rainbow backgrounds and added her dragonflies (but I didn't get any photos of her two cards)

For the card, I chose ombre patterned paper in blues, die-cut a  panels using Gina L Master Layouts 2, and layered onto a larger sized panel for extra depth. The dragonfly die came with a grid die, which I cut from silver holographic card—perfect for a shimmering background. A stamped sentiment from Altenew Sentiment Stripes completed the look with some holographic dots for extra shimmer. 

Our afternoon adventure took us to Gloputt, an in-the-dark mini golf course. We laughed our way through the glowing obstacles and capped off the day with several rounds of Air Hockey. I was soundly beaten by a nearly seven-year-old, but the fun and laughter made it a perfect ending.

Happy Birthday darling.....

Today is my daughter's 24th birthday.. I'm sitting here wondering where all the years have gone!!!!  It only seems like yesterday that my darling Emma Jayne was born.... ( That means I'm getting older too!!!!)

Last week she saw one of my monochromatic butterfly cards are mentioned she would like a Flutterby on her card!!!!  So I came up with this

it caused me no end of trouble..... First version - the mask moved and my sponging went wonky... next one got it right but then ended up with inky marks over it... 3rd time perfect.... except it was upside down on the card!!!!  At least I was able to selvage that one - cut it down and put it on the olive card base.... finally got it how I envisioned it in the first place.... I used Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters distress ink on a very light cream card.  The background was a HA Cling stamp - Antique Background - and the butterfly was stamped from the same stamp... I made the mask by cutting the oval out with the nestie and using the negative like a stencil.  Really pleased with the result.

My son (Kieran) also got me to make a card for Emma as well.... I chose her favourite colour - Purple- to make a monochromatic card as well.... based on the easel card I made in the weekend at Stamp Camp.

I used HA Silhouette Grass with Dusty Concord distress ink to make the background.  I used an Kaisercraft stamp of a dragonfly and stamped it twice on acetate.  One layer I coloured with a Copic and the other layer I smeared Kindyglitz over.  Cut out and layered together.   As Kieran has not yet given her this... I have told her she is not allowed to read this post, till she gets it!!!!! So it will be a surprize...  We are all going out as a family for dinner on Sunday to celebrate her birthday and Mother's Day...

So to my darling daughter... Happy Birthday!!!

Thank goodness it's Friday...

It's been one of those weeks... having Monday off should have made for a nice quiet week, but work has been full on.... I work for the tax department and 7 April is a big payment date for New Zealand business taxpayers.... so our phones were sooooo busy with people wanting to make instalments to pay... I spend the day trying to ensure that my little area had sufficient staff rostered on to answer the phones....  Consequently I was quite tired by the end of each day... added to that we stopped Daylight savings on Saturday night..... so I am waking early in the morning and finding it harder to stay up till my usual bed time.... not much crafting done this week.

I did manage however to get some cards made for Deborah's April CCC... I chose a mixture of the Asian and Friendship themes.... I made a few cards so I had a bit of a choice.

This card didn't end up being sent to Arlene who is my partner this month.... ( once she gets the card I did sent I'll post about it)  -but I did like what I did...

For this one I made my own two sided paper by printing on both sides of some 140gm lightweight card.  The designs were on a freebie CD from Papercraft Essentials magazine and I just copy them onto the A4 sheet and cut to size.  The dragonfly is from a set by Inkadinkadoo and the sentiment from Hero Arts.  The lovely pink card stock is some Bazzil Bling... It is such lovely card.  The pale cream card is from a pad of cardstock I found in a discount store for $2.50.  Each pad has about 50 sheets of A5 card in them... I've been stocking up on them as I see the good quality pads.... some times the card quality isn't so good - but other times it is perfect.  I even picked up an A4 pad that was glossy on one side.... for $5.00.  A great bargain.

Tomorrow is Stamp club at Stamp'n'create... so am totally looking forward to a day of stamping... I got new stamps today.... the Dogwood stamp from Hero Arts and a neat set from Fiskars called "Petals from Scratch"  It has some lovely flower heads and a variety of stems...so you can mix and match.   Can't wait to play with them tomorrow... have to pack the bag tonight!!!!

Have a great weekend all..... thanks for stopping by.