A little Blue Bird.

 Well I couldn't not make another card using the Memory Box Backyard Wren die today.  It has been a bit of a dismal day... woke to no power, so read for a bit, before heading to two suburbs north to have breakfast before doing our grocery shopping.  By the time we got home it was raining but the power was back on!  It kept raining on and off so headed to the craft room for the afternoon. 

And yeah, this time I made a blue bird.   My card was inspired by this beautiful card from Lin  

I loved the design Lin used, so I cased it.  I die cut an arch (Hero Arts Infinity Arches die) and used Gina K Tapestry embossing folder.   I still had my Distress Oxides out... The background panel was made with Speckled Egg spritzed with some Shimmer Spary - Frost.  In real life it is so shimmery. I stamped the Couture Creations sentiment directly to the panel. I die cut the bird and used Evergreen Bough, Salty Ocean to colour up the bird.  The beak and eye were done with Altenew Charcoal Suit grey ink.  I die cut Pinkfresh Studio Curvy leaves and blended Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide.  I used only part of the biggest die.  I used some Scrapbook.com 3D adhesive strips to add dimension to the frame and used some 3D dimensionals to pop up the bird.  Some little blue gems from my stash finished the card. 

I'm entering this into the Time Out Challenge and Just Us Girls collaboration challenge - Birds of a Feather.   

Hope there is some crafting in your weekend.   

 

Bird on a Branch

 It's been a busy week... haven't had much time to craft... but finished work early.  During the week I saw that Scrapbook Central was having a class by Chick Mitchell.  As this is in Wellington (8 hours south of me) I can't go... but Chick has designed some cards with a bird and some beautiful backgrounds.  I contacted her and found the bird was from Memory Box.  Of course I had to get it!  And it arrived yesterday late afternoon.  So after signing off my computer (working from home day!) and before doing the housework, I popped into the craft room and had a play. 

 

I started by putting the little birdie together.  I die cut with some 160gm Fabriano paper.  It's a light cream colour (although the packaging says white)  It cuts like butter.  I used inks from Altenew's Tea Party ink set to add colour to the layers with a touch of some brown to darken parts.  The branches, flowers and leaves are from Spellbinders - Layered Cherry Blossom die set.  I added a touch of the lightest red inks to the creamy dies.  Used some rose gold metallic card for the centres.   My background was a variation on a technique that Chick taught at SENZ craft fair last July.  Used a chipboard panel of leaves.  I inked them with some Distress Oxide in Speckled Egg and spritzed and laid it onto my panel.  I then blended some of the same ink through the panel like a stencil and finally just added some of the ink onto the panel.  Just love the look I achieved.   Die cut a scalloped panel from Gina K Master Layouts 4 and trimmed the panel to fit inside.  Added the branches, flowers and leaves and the little birdie.  Finished with a pre-printed sentiment from Creative Expressions Woodies.

I can't wait to try different colour combos for this little bird.   I scoped out Pinterest and have got a few samples on my board.

Entering into Darnell's NBUS challenge - as it is the first outing for the die

and Just Us Girls - in Collaboration with Time Out Challenges - Birds of a Feather

Double Embossed with Winter Illusion Powder

I'm back with another Double Embossed card.  I've used the same folder that I used the other day but for this one I've used some powder I bought a very long time ago when I first started card making.  It's called Winter Illusion.  It works best on dark card and changes colour depending on the light.    For this one I used some very dark blue card 

This is the view of where it looks teal, so I used a teal layer and then used the Honey Bee stamp and die cuts for the sentiment.    

And here's a view where it looks quite different - a pinky purpley colour. 

Here it looks pinky-purple.  This powder is amazing and I had completely forgotten about having it.  I found it when I was looking for something totally different.  

I'm entering this into the following challenges.

Let's Squash It - Double Embossing 

Just Us Girls - Heat Embossed Embossing Folder.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

 

Double Embossing....

 I was excited to see over at Just Us Girls the latest challenge was Heat Embossed Embossing Folder and the link to Jennifer McGuire's video  and also the Let's Squash It challenge...with it's Double Embossing Challenge.   Gail had given us a wee sneak peek of what was upcoming.  

So on Sunday I pulled out some Embossing folders, my Versamark and some different embossing powders.  Four background peices done... two awesome, one ok and one a bit of a failure... wrong colour card and wrong powder.  So far I have finished one card which I will share now.

For this one I used Altenew's Decorative Florals 3D folder and used versamark to ink up the folder.  I then used Altenew's silver powder to emboss the background.  I was over the moon how well it turned out.  I trimmed the panel down and added a white layer before adding to a top folding A2 black card base.  I used a die cut an hello sentiment from silver card and did the shadow in black.  These are from Honey Bee as is the little sentiment.  The little flag die si from a Gina K Master Layout set. 

Entering this one into both challenges. 

Here's a wee sneak peek of the other awesome panel 

I used a powder called Winter Illusion that I have had since I started stamped around 13 years ago.  Was suprised it still worked.  It changes colour with however you tilt the card.  Here you can see the two colours... teal and pinky purple.  Still have to make it into a card yet.  

Still in Lockdown here... another week at Level 3.1 - we did manage to catch up with our son on Friday evening... sitting on the deck socially distancing.   But not able to see Grace yet... she doesn't understand that she can't go inside to play with her toys or give Nanny and Pop a cuddle.  So it's a waiting game till we can moved levels.  Cases are going up and down all over the place here in Auckland.  So it's back to the dining table for the next little while.  

Black Background

I saw that the challenge theme over at Just Us Girls is "Black Background"

I was part way through making a card with a black background when I saw the challenge, so once I finished, I'm adding it.

I had  been playing last weekend with my Scan'n'Cut and the WRMK Foil quill pens together with a USB from WRMK's.  It's a Kelly Creates one and has this lovely double line sentiments.  I used some silver foil on the black card.  So today I finished off the card.  I added three flowers from an Altenew freebie from a year or so ago.  I used some white card and stamped with Catherine Pooler Rockin' Red and Grass Skirt inks.  I added some darker ink to the centres.  Two of the flowers are glued directly to the card base and one is on some dimensional tape.   

It was a lovely weekend for me as I got to spend some time with my son and grand-daughter.  Kieran was on Daddy duty while Mummy was away for the day and night at a Hen's party.  Grace had her 10 month photo done first thing Saturday morning.  She was a little champ as we had to wake her up.  She had fallen asleep in the car on the way to the hall where the photos are taken.  Still managed a smile!  Then we went up to the local Mall and had a bit of early lunch... sushi for little Miss and avocado on toast for Nanny and Daddy

She is growing so quickly now.  Got her first tooth on her 10 month anniversary... and is now an independent stander.... so won't be long till she works out that she can walk.

I am feeling a bit sad, though as it seems my daughter, son in law and grandson won't be able to come at Easter as NZ has put in place a 14 day self isolating for all people coming into NZ from midnight Sunday.  It's initially for 16 days but will see what happens after that.  At this stage, it's a bit of wait and see if they will make it or whether they will postpone till later in the year.  I know Archie will be very disappointed as he is already talking about coming to see me.  

Well that's it for today.  Hope your weekend is going well.  

Crafting Sunday

I got to spend some time in the craft room this afternoon.  I wanted to join a few challenges so got out some stamps and went to it...

First off, I saw the challenge at Just Us Girls - Word of the week "Houses"

I chose a bird house that as a freebie back in 2015.  It is a Crafter's Companion set that was in collaboration with Quick Cards.

I stamped the image onto some super smooth cream cardstock and used Zig Real Brush markers and some water to colour the image.  The sentiment was in the same set.  I matted it onto some darker cream card then onto a base.

My next two cards are both going into the Delectable Die-cuts challenge at Christmas Kickstart Challenge. 

First up is this CAS card.  I started by embossing the background with a holly folder.  The die cut is a two part one that came with a magazine, that my newsagent was selling for $4.  It was the embossing folder and the die plus another twig die.  I used some vellum to cut the layering part and the maroon card for the inner part.  Added some Nuvo drops to finish.

Next one used a sleigh die, again a set that came with a magazine.  It had a little embossing folder, a die and the stamp set.

I started by using some Altenew Sea Glass ink to sponge on the top part of the card before embossing the little strip at the top.  I left the bottom part of the card plain to be the snow.  I cut the sleigh die twice, once in a rose gold foil card and once in red.  I trimmed the red piece and layered it on top of the gold part.  I added the sentiment in black ink and the reindeer in Altenew Espresso ink  I stamped and coloured Santa and his bag of presents and fussy cut them.  Added some Stickles for snow.  Mounted onto some red card and then a white base.

You can see my background for my photos...it's a new backdrop I made today... I made two day

I got some book covering vinyl and two 12 x 12 cake boards that were about 1/8".  I added the vinyl to both sides of the boards... one colour on each side so I could get both the bottom and back.

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