Two floral cards

 I had won a gift voucher from Altenew for one of my recent cards so was pleased that my parcel arrived Friday afternoon... 

Just a few items this time... saving my pennies to go to a craft fair coming up on Friday.  

Yesterday I got a bit of time to play with the Rose Bud dies and stencils. 

I decided to go for some darker colours.  I used the four inks from the Woodland Escape Fresh Dye inks... Pink Sand, Dusty Rose, Toasted Mauve and Redwood.  And used Marshlands and Sea Forest for the stems and leaves.  I then spritzed with some Frost Shimmer Spray.  It looks amazing in real life, but didn't photograph well.   I embossed a white panel with the Dotted Circles 3D folder.  Added the flowers with a bit of 3D tape behind the buds and glued the stems to the panel.   A few enamel dots for embellishment.  The sentiment is some glitter card, die cut from Versatile Greetings.

As this is the first time I've used the dies and stencil set, I'm entering into Darnell's -NBUS challenge 

My next card is made with the Colouring card that came with my purchases.  

I used Altenew Alcohol markers and Copic Markers with a touch of pencils to colour the card.  I trimmed and added some glitter card behind it.  Added a sentiment from the Elegant Sayings stamp set.  

Again used some Altenew Enamel dots for embellishment.  

Tomorrow I'm on Nanny duty for the day.  It's school holidays here.  Pop did Friday.  Had a lovely day with Grace, building a little veggie garden.   I'm taking her swimming and then we'll hit the craft room - her favourite place when she comes to our place.

Fractured card technique - Hello sweet friend

 Well the best laid plans of mice and men!..  My yesterday did not go as I planned... happily though!

I did watch a couple of the sessions from Card Makers Success Summit.... one in particular from Tiffany Solorio using Distress Sprays.   I only have two distress sprays - brushed pewter and tarnished brass .  Tiffany used all sorts of pretty colours and did heaps of layers.  I pull out my Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays - but they are all very muted colours - added a splotch of an Adirondack Color Wash in Purple Twilight - but my panel of mixed media paper was very pale and blah looking.   Watch out for another post with what I did with it!     Any who I had great plans to try out some more cards from some of the sessions..... 

But... my son texted to say he and the girls were on their way over to visit.... so my Saturday afternoon was spend playing in the craft room with Grace and on the floor with Florence...

I did get a message from Suna - to whom I sent a card in my NZ swap group.   It was my turn to chose a challenge - and Fractured Cards was what I chose.   Here is the card I made and sent to her.  

I started with some papers from DCWV= Ba;; & Bloom paper.  I picked it up recently on sale.  Just love the touches of foil on it.   I used some white card for my centre square.  I then used cream card and gold peelcraft lines for the fracture lines.   I used some of the flowers from Spellbinders Geo Floral Frame die set - cut with some pink card from Scrapbook.com Sprinkles paper pack,   I die cut the leaves from some 160gm Fabricano paper and used a varied of Altenew green inks to blend over them. Fussy cut the butterfly from some of the same paper pack.  The sentiment is from Altenew Engraved Flowers stamp set.  And a few metallic gems finished the card.   Suna has let me know she got it and loved it.  

And here's why not much got done yesterday 

Grace - playing with some Hero Arts Rub-ons

Florence exploring Nanny and Pop's house.

Happy Birthday to our Princess Grace.

 Today our little Princess Grace is 4.  Where has that time gone!  

Here is the card I made for her

I've had this Penny Black cling stamp called Giggles, for a long time and think I've used it only a couple of times.  I stamped it and then use my Spectrum Noir Tri-blends to colour it.   Really happy with my colouring on this one.  The sentiment is a hot foiled stamp and die. 

Here is a pic of Grace on the day she was born

and here she was this morning with her new umbrella

We spent the day with her on Sunday.  We took her to her friend's birthday party - 3 hours of fun and play with her friends at Wonderland playland.  Plus a bit of time crafting together. 

Party time is Saturday afternoon.  We've got her an art easel with chalkboard on one side and white board on the other side.  Plus a roll of paper so she can draw on.  I'm sure she will enjoy it.   

Make your own background.

 I recently send in a submission for Creative Scrapbooking Magazine - which unfortunely didn't make it through, so I can share it now....

It was to stamp your own background... 

I used a cream card base and panel for the main part.  I used Altenew Engraved Flowers to stamp the flowers and leaves all over the panel.  I used  Prismacolor pencil in 10% Warm Grey to add some colour to the flowers and leaves.  I trimmed the panel with a Gina K Master Layouts 2 die and backed it onto some pink card.   I took a some white card and stamped one of the flowers and leaves.  I used my Scan'N'Cut to cut it out and then used some Altenew 36pan watercolour paints.  I added this with some Stampin' Up Dimensionals.    My sentiment was white embossed on black and added with some black dimensional stripes.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy to report I got to spend a couple of hours at the playground with Grace on Sunday.   3 months since I saw her last... she has grown so much and is so chatty.   

It was awesome to be able to be with her.  She rushed straight over to me and gave me a big hug.  I had missed that so much.   And from Wednesday, restrictions will be lifted a little.  Retail stores will be open and you can meet in groups of 25 outside - not inside yet... so no cinema's or gym.  Swimming pools will be open with limited numbers and the zoo too.  Still working from home but used to that now.

Use your scrappy strips or is that strippy scraps?

 Hi there.  My friend Suna chose the challenge at our local swap group.  And what a fun one.  Use up some of those scrappy bits we all seem to hoard.

I have a couple of baggies full of scraps and a couple of little containers with stamped and die cut bits and bobs.   I grabbed a real variety of scraps.  Some Christmas papers, some with foil, a strip of gold card -   quite an eclectic mix.  To make it a bit  cohesive I die cut the panel and ran it through my Cuttlebug with a swirl embossing folder.    My flower and leaves were in my container of pre-stamped and cut images as was my little hello die.  All I needed was to white emboss the sentiment onto a little scrap of black card.  Carol let me know it had arrived today and it was so lovely and bright on such a dull dreary day.   Glad it brightened her day. 

Auckland is into week 5 of our Lockdown level 4.  Hopefully we will have a lowering of the levels next week - not that Level 3 will be much of a change.  I will still have to work from home and shops can't open - cafes and restuarants are click and collect only - any sort of contactless sales.  I missing hugs from my little grandie.... we have been video calling her every few days.  The other day she read us her favourite story with help from her Daddy... not bad for just over 2 1/4.   

Isn't she so cute   

A Green Christmas and a Rainbow card

 Over the weekend, I managed to get a few cards done.  My NZ swap group this month is Rainbow  -  I've been in a bit of a slump lately... so did a bit of Pinterest viewing to get some ideas.   I ended up making two cards.... here's the one that didn't get sent to Carol -

I used a rainbow of stripes to make the background behind the die cut from Altenew.  I die cut the Hello circle from white card and then run it through an embossing folder.  Added the small sentiment from an Altenew set.   I'll share the card I did send once it's been received 

My next two cards are for the Christmas Kickstart challenge. 

I used an embossing folder and some ink to make two similar cards.

I took Catherine Pooler's Grass Skirt ink and using a brayer added it the embossing folder.  This came out fabulously.  I had cut out the square from Gina K Master Layouts 3 prior to the embossing.  I added the Christmas Bells - left over from Christmas last year.... I had cut a number of these.  I used Copic markers to colour up the bell. 

My other card used Altenew's Green Feilds ink.  I didn't get such a good embossing from it but still liked the results. 

To this one I added a little gnome - also from a few I had pre-stamped and cut out.   A few more cards for my Christmas stash. 

I had a lovely visit from Grace yesterday....

She is growing so quickly.   She'll be two in around 2 months time.  I really don't know where the time has gone.  

Hope you all have a great weekend. 

Last minute Christmas Cards

 Hi there.... I have got a few overseas Christmas cards sent off this year.  Postage went up this year, so I had to cut back a little bit.   However I had good sales at work and need a few extra cards to send to my NZ family and friends.   So over the weekend I made a few multiples

Over the years I've collected a lot of Christmas paper packs so together with my new Gina K Master Layouts I've manage to make a few cards quickly. Also used an embossing folder for one of the backgrounds.  My stamps are from two different freebie sets from last year.  I used some Altenew gold ink and stamped it a few times in the MISTI to get a good coverage.  

I also used the embossing folder background to make another Gnome card 

Another CAS card. 

I have had my Dad and his partner stay for a few days.  They drove up from Lower Hutt - did it in one and a half days.  Not too bad for an 83 year old.  But I think from now on, they may just fly up to see us.   I'm sharing a beautiful photo of Dad and his great-grand daughter. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  Hope your Christmas crafting is going well 

'Twas The Night Before Christmas.

 Over at Christmas Kickstart Challenge the theme is "The Night Before Christmas" 

A couple of years ago, I got a stamp set with a magazine the was called "Christmas Memories" and it had the words from the story "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" on it - so here is my card

The little mouse is part of the stamp set as well.  He's coloured up with Copic markers.  I used Gina K Master Layouts 2 to cut the centre panel and Master Layouts 1 for the mat.   

I managed to sell a good number of Christmas cards this week, so am working hard on building up my stock so I can send them off to friends and family.  

  

Our weekend starting with a visit from Grace.  Her and her Dada arrived at 8.15am on Saturday... to find Nanny and Pop still in bed!  We had been enjoying a cuppa tea in bed for arising for the day.  So happy though to see our little Princess. 

The little bike she is riding belonged to her Aunty Emma - who got it for her 1st birthday (so it's 33 years old) It's been well ridden over the years.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you are all well.