Gift card - Die Cut Divas challenge

 Hi there.   - Last day of the month so I'm here to share my card for the Die Cut Divas Challenge. 

A big thanks to our lovely sponsor - Sunny Studios

I have a little gift card to share today.  Very CAS 

I used some Spellbinder's dies to cut out some squares of patterned paper.  I used the bow from Sunny Studios Holiday Style set.  I don't have the matching dies so I had to fussy cut.  I used an edger embossing folder to ground my presents.   I used the Happy Birthday from the Floating By set.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Christmas in July.

 It's winter here in New Zealand and today which started nice and then turned to rain, so I managed to get a few hours in my craft room.  I saw a fabulous tutorial on Facebook - one the Simply, Sweet Poppy Stencils page.  It was done by Susan Bradney using Sweet Poppy's Christmas Bauble stencil.  I recently got the Bauble stencil and decided I would try it out following the tutorial.  I CASE'd the card Susan made. 

Making this card involved making a mask, stencilling in a pale ink, using the mask and doing some ink blending.  I used some stamps from my stash (freebies from magazines)  One of my purchases on Friday was a white Posca fineliner pen.  Used it to make my snow flakes and add some to my snow banks. To add colour to the stencilling, I used Prismacolor pencils. I matted the panel onto some gold mirror card and then onto a Pearlised card base.  It's a lovely bit card 6" square.

After spending most of the afternoon making this first card my second one for the day was much quicker.   I bought Gina K's Holiday Tapestry  stamp set a while back and only opened it today.  

This one started with some patterned paper from a Uniti pack.  I die cut it with a Sunny Studio's slimline Scalloped Frame die and then embossed the big floral image at each end of the panel in silver embossing powder.  I then stamped and embossed the sentiment in gold powder.  Add some Pink Fresh gold and silver metallic pearls.  Slowly building up my Christmas card stash.  I'm entering this one into Darnell's NBUS (Never Before Uses Schtuff) as it's the first time inking up this one. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Floral Frenzy at Altenew Fan Group.

 Hi there.  Today is my last day of sick leave and I have been doing some more crafting.  Over at the Altenew Fan Group on Facebook, there is a new challenge taking place.  Each month there will be a two week challenge.   The first one is this month and it's "Floral Frenzy"  I made a couple of cards today...

First up -

For this one I used Altenew's "Natures Blossoms" set as my main flower.   I used Martian Terrain inks - Pastel Sunrise, Sunrise Burst, Red Canyon Clay and Mahogany Bark and Nature's Wonders - Misty Moon, Marshland, Sea Forest.  I also added some Almond Butter, Milk Chocolate and Expresso inks for the centre.  I used the simple colouring stencil to add the Pastel Sunrise as a base layer.   I decided I want a frame so I cut a simple frame with some layering rectangle dies.  I trimmed the bits where the frame would have covered the flower.  I added a sentiment from "Our Friendship Blooms" and added some black gems.  I layered the panel onto a black layer and onto a leather textured base. 

I'm adding this to The Flower Challenge - CAS

and my second card is a slimline one

 My main floral is from "Our Friendship Blooms" and I used a total of 12 different inks  from Altenew to stamp my layers. I used the co-ordindating die to cut out the floral.  When I added the Coral Berry to the lily, I forgot to condition the stamp and I ended with a little spot that didn't get coloured, so I fixed it by adding some white gel pen dots and was really pleased with the outcome.  I die cut a panel from white card with a Sunny Studio die and used a Tim Holtz Burlap with some Hazelnut ink.  I then lightly blended Vanilla Cream over the whole panel before adding a black layer behind it. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.  To make my vase I took the tall vase from "Mod Vases" and stamped in onto the back of some patterned paper and fussy cut it out.  I added some white gel pen around the edge.  I stuck this to the base card and then after trimming off the stems, added dimensional tape to the back of the floral.  I added 4 layers of card behind the panel to give it some extra dimension onto a white base. 

I really enjoy playing with my Altenew florals....and loved today's cards.   I'm much better today, but still not 100%, however it's off to work again tomorrow.  With annual leave and sick leave I have been off for 2 1/2 weeks.  It's going to be a long day! 

Slimline cards at Die Cut Divas

 Hi there.  It's the 1st of the month so it's a new challenge at Die Cut Divas.  This month our sponsor is Sunny Studio

    

And our theme is "Slimline Cards"   Our sponsor has a number of Slimline dies and I managed to get my hands on the Slimline Scalloped Frame .  

I paired the die cuts with an Altenew Spider Mum..  I did some masking to make the flowers fit my card.  I used Altenew's Woodless watercolour pencils to colour my flowers.  The sentiment is from Altenew Sentiment Stripes.  

Come and join us at Die Cut Divas this month and try your hand at the latest trend - slimline cards.

Christmas Pinecones... Slimline card

There's a new challenge at Christmas Kickstart and my friend Arlene is the "Elf" helping Jo and Gail.  The theme this time is Slimline cards  

Slimline cards are all the rage at the moment, and I've jumped on the bandwagon by purchasing a couple of slimline die sets.   

I used the smaller die from a Sunny Studio set (Slimline Scalloped Frame) to cut my inner panel and then matted it onto some red card.  I have the Mini Perfect Layers and used the 1/16" to trim the mat. I took the pine branches from Sunny Studio's Holiday Style set and stamped in Mountain Pine Altenew ink. The sentiment is from the Sunny Studio set as well.   I then stamped the pinecones from Rosie's Studio Natures Noel with Altenew Mocha ink on a scrap piece of card.  I used Pencils to colour up the cones before fussy cutting them.  One is place straight onto the card base and the other popped up with 3D tape.  I then used some Kindyglitz glitter glue to add some shimmer and shine to the branches and the cones.  (Hard to see in the photo but looks awesome in real life)  I finished with some red gems.  

It's the second long weekend in a row for us, so another day off tomorrow.  Nothing major planned - hope to get some crafting time in, but with the nice summer weather, the beach calls most afternoons in the weekends.   And this week I have a cortisone injection in my left shoulder to look forward to.   I have a small tear in my rota-cuff which I hope the injection will ease the pain that it is causing and allow me to build up the strength in the shoulder again.   Shouldn't stop me crafting though!

Take care out there one and all.