A Crafty Play Date

Yesterday I had the loveliest crafty play date with my talented friend Suna, who drove about 20 minutes to spend the day creating with me. We had around four and a half hours together, complete with homemade soup for lunch and plenty of crafty chatter. Suna spent her time ink blending, assembling Simon Says Stamp roses, and colouring a Gina K image with her Polychromos pencils—something she does beautifully. While she worked on her projects, I managed to make two and a half cards during our time together and finished the last one after she left.

Here’s a look at the three cards I created during our crafty afternoon.

For my first card, I pulled out a tulip die set I bought a while ago and followed the assembly method demonstrated by Christine Stokes on her YouTube channel here. Although the tulips are designed as a single layer, Christine cleverly cuts them twice and trims them to create a dimensional two-layer effect. I ink blended purples for the tulip petals and fresh greens for the stems and leaves, then added texture by spritzing everything with water droplets. To build the background, I die cut a panel using Gina K Master Layouts 2 and added patterned paper cut with the same die for a coordinated grounding layer. I finished it with an Altenew pitcher die cut and embossed from brown textured card and a foiled Spellbinders sentiment from my stash.

My second card was inspired by a video from Natasha Foote, where she used the Altenew Dancing Cosmos stencil on its own. The stencil coordinates with an embossing folder, and I’ve previously used it to colour the embossed design, so I enjoyed trying a different approach this time. After a slightly rocky start, I finally got the stenciling just right, and I was really happy with how it turned out. I trimmed the finished panel with a die, matted it with dark pink cardstock, and then created a decorative frame by fussy cutting the centre from a Kaisercraft scalloped rectangle. The final touch was a stamped and die cut sentiment from the Pinkfresh Studio Artistic Dahlia set.

My third card was inspired by a video from Natalie Bowers, where she used an embossing folder to “stamp” onto cardstock. I inked up the Couture Creations “Jane” embossing folder with Distress Oxide in Picked Raspberry, added touches of Wilted Violet here and there, spritzed it with water, and then pressed it onto cardstock. While the panel was still damp, I sprinkled on tiny bits of gold embossing powder and heat set them for a little extra sparkle. Natalie cut her panel into smaller pieces to make several cards, but I loved my background too much to chop it up, so I kept it whole. I trimmed and matted it with gold cardstock, then added a flower from the older Simon Says Stamp Fresh Daisies die with a vellum layer behind it. The sentiment came from a Spellbinders set that was included with a magazine a few years ago.

It was such a fun and refreshing day of crafting, conversation, and inspiration. With a long weekend here in New Zealand for King Charles’ Birthday, it feels even more special to have four days off work—and I couldn’t think of a better way to start it than with a crafty catch-up and three new cards to show for it.

A Creative Friday inspired by Christine S

 Fridays are my non-working day and as is becoming my norm,  I spent a relaxed afternoon in my craft room catching up on YouTube. A video by Christine Stokes inspired me to try a gesso resist technique with Distress inks.

I adapted the idea using what I had—clear gesso instead of white. I dabbed it onto watercolour paper, let it dry, then added Distress inks (Scattered Straw, Antique Linen, Rusty Hinge, and a touch of Aged Mahogany) by smooshing on my glass mat with a spritz of water and a foam blender to add to the panel. The texture turned out beautifully.

Using a very old Tim Holtz Bigz Tattered Leaves die, I cut two leaves and added detail with a splatter stamp in Altenew Toasted Mauve, clear embossed. For the background, I used a corner aperture die with orange patterned paper behind it and added more stamping in Pink Sand ink.

I finished the card with a dark brown mat, an embossed sentiment (Altenew Sentiment Strips 3), and a few simple embellishments made from packing tape and cardstock.

A satisfying session—and a lovely reminder that adapting ideas with what you have can lead to great results.

Sending Love and Hugs

Hi there!

Last week I was inspired by two talented card makers, Natasha Foote and Christine Stokes. Natasha recently shared a slatted aperture technique using a die and cardstock strips, while Christine demonstrated a beautiful textured background using scrunched tissue paper. I couldn’t resist combining the two ideas into one card.

I created the aperture using a rectangle die from Gina K Designs and added 1/8” cardstock strips behind it for that slatted look. For the background, I scrunched pink tissue paper onto white cardstock and added Lindy’s Magical Powders with water to create soft, flowing colour. Once dry, I highlighted the texture with Slippery When Wet Lunar Paste.

From this panel, I die-cut tiny butterflies for added movement. The floral focal point was made using the Simon Says Stamp Fresh Daisies die, cut from patterned paper and layered for dimension. I finished the card with a simple sentiment from the Altenew Mini Stamp Set – Best Sentiments.

I loved mixing these techniques from different card makers in my projects.

Clean and Simple Birthday card.

 It's one of my colleagues birthday today so I made a card for her.  Inspired by a video I watched by Christine Stokes on YouTube (you can watch it here)   I loved the idea she used to make her butterfly from printed paper using a background from PNGwing.   I have a few backgrounds in my saved files... so printed off one of them onto some off white cardstock and away I went....

Christine often makes square cards, so that's what I did today.   I cut my card base at 5" square, next layer was 4.5" and the main panel 4" - I used a Kaisercraft stamp - Botanical to partially stamp on the background.  I used Altenew's Petite Mountain Aven die to cut the paper I printed.  Love how all the different colours look on the flower and leaves.  Add the sentiment from Altenew Label Love set.  Added some little pinky handmade enamel dots and some glossy accents on the flower centre.