Two cards, two inspirations...

I have two cards to share today: one I made on Friday for a retirement party we attended, and another I created on Saturday for Amy’s Woodblock Wednesday Challenge.

First up is the retirement card. It was made for a woman who had worked with my husband for nearly 30 years. She is heading to Vietnam for a holiday, with a friend,  in a few weeks, so that became the inspiration for the design.

I used Pingwing to find a beach scene, printed it onto an A2 card, and then trimmed it down with a Gina K Master Layout die. I had recently purchased a jandals die, which was perfect for the theme, so I cut the jandals from gold glitter card from Altenew and some black card. To finish, I created the sentiment on my laptop using Word.

My next card came about on Saturday while I was doing a bit of tidying up. As I sorted through some of my woodblock stamps, I realised I was still in time to join Amy’s Woodblock Wednesday Challenge.

For this card, I used a Penny Black stamp called Gossamer. It is such a pretty image, and I came up with the idea to ink blend around the flower, then paint the flower in a lighter tone of the same colour.

I stamped the image and die cut it with a Pinkfresh Studio Folk Edge die. After masking the flower, I added Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass and Broken China, blending the colour all around the image. I then used a light wash of Tumbled Glass as paint, with a little Mowed Lawn for the leaves and flower centres.

The sentiment is from a Penny Black photopolymer set, Je T’aime Paris, and I finished the card with a little die cut butterfly from Monte’s Craft Supplies Layered Butterflies die. 

I'm entering this into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Anything Goes - optional Things with Wings. 

I was really pleased with how this one came together — it turned out just as I had imagined. Thanks so much for stopping by to see today’s cards.

Woodblock Wednesday November 2024.

 Time to pull out those woodblock stamps and play along with Amy Tsuruta with her Woodblock Wednesday challenge.  

I chose to use a Penny Black stamp - Brush Rose.  I used Zig Markers to colour the stamp and spritzed with water and stamped.   I used the scripty stamp with some gray ink to randomly add stamping.  Added some gold splatters and some gems.   I die cut a red sentiment (a Paper Rose Happy Birthday Chunky die) backed with some vellum.  

Had a lot of fun making this one.   Got a busy weekend ahead... babysitting on Saturday morning, doing some Christmas shopping in the afternoon, getting the house tidied for my family who arrive next weekend.  Presents to wrap, ironing to be done, names to stitch onto stockings.... never ending!

                  

Woodblock Wednesday.

 Time for Amy's monthly challenge - Woodblock Wednesday.

I had got a few stamps out that needed some love - a few Christmas ones and a couple of others.

I used a scripty stamp from a New Zealand based company - Rubadubadoo and a flower stamp from Penny Black.  I stamped the scripty stamp with Memento Toffee Crunch and did 1st and 2nd generation stamping with the flower.   I cut it with a Gina K Master Layout die and used the Toffee Crunch ink to blend around the edges before stamping the little sentiment from a House Mouse set.  I matted the panel onto a mustard coloured layer before adding to a square base.  

Now to make some more cards using those woodblock stamps I got out.

Woodblock Wednesday - February 2024

 Hi.  Time to pull out my woodblock stamps for Amy's Woodblock Wednesday challenge for February.  

My card uses a Penny Black stamp - called day-dreams (circa 2009)  and I've paired it with a little sentiment stamp from a NZ company called Montarga. 

This is a combination of new and old products.   Last week I got an order from Scrapbook.com.  It included Penny Black Background Basics Stencils and an Altenew ink set... Sea Shore so I taped my stencil onto some watercolour card and then ink blended the Dew Drops, Aqualicious, Teal Cave and Galactic Stream inks.  Splashed with some water and once it was dried, stamped the Penny Black stamp and the Montarga stamp in Altenew Obsidian ink.  I used some Prismacolor Pencils to add the colours to the PB stamp.  A few iridescent confetti from Nuvo Drops finished the card.  I just realised I used the same stamp last month!   Totally forgot that!  

Entering this one into the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Anything Goes.  

Amy's Woodblock Wednesday

 It's time for Amy's Woodblock Wednesday Challenge   I love getting out my old woodblock stamps - and yes today's are OLD....

I found a very ancient Stampin' Up set called Fifth Avenue Florals for my sentiment and a 2009 Penny Black stamp called Day Dreams.

I used a Waffle Flower Deckle die to cut out a stencil.  I then taped it to some Hero Arts Vintage Ivory card and used my blender brushes which had Altenew inks on them.   Just used the inks that were left on them to make the soft pastel background.  I stamped the Penny Black stamp over to the left of the card.  I used my Zig Clean Color Brush markers to add a touch of colour.  Stamped the sentiment in the lower riight hand side of the card.  Some little silver gems finished it off.  I matted onto some purple card and added to a white base.

Really pleased with the results.... and believe it or not... this was the first time I've used the sentiment from the Stampin' Up set!  

Playing along at Woodblock Wednesday challenge.

 Once a month over on Amy Tsurata's blog (Tsurata Designs) Amy runs a challenge - Using Woodblock stamps.    Very timely for me as yesterday my latest purchase - Penny Black's woodblock stamp - Snowy- arrived.   This stamp was originally designed and produced in 2008 and is still available.   After many years of wanting this one... I finally went and bought it!  

So today was a working from home day and I used my breaks to start this card and then after I did my required hours, I finished it off.

I started by adding the sentiment on my card.   It's from the Penny Black stick and shine series.  I added the stick and shine and then used silver foil.  Hard to photograph.  It looks black here.  I then used Broken China Distress Oxide to blend on the background.   I took a Montaga snowflake stencil and added random snowflakes with Nuvo Glimmer Paste.  I used a Lawn Fawn curved die to cut some snow banks.  I stamped snowy and using the stamp as a guide, used some smooshed Distress inks to paint him.  I used Candied Apple for his hat and scarf and Wilted Violet for the white shadows.  

As this was Snowy's first outing as well as using the Stick and Shine sheets... I'm entering this into Darnell's NBUS challenge

I am happy that I bit the bullet and finally got this stamp (and all the other goodies I got when I was ordering it!)   Well worth the 21 day wait for it to make it's way here.

Hope you get to do some weekend crafting.  

Woodblock Wednesday - Dogwood Hello

 I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted.... I have been busy this last couple of weeks.  I have been crafting... but it's been stuff I can't share yet.  And I've been doing some knitting for the upcoming little ones.  Plus some last minute babysitting.   And then this week - went out to dinner with our friends on Tuesday for an early birthday celebration, Birthday on Wednesday and then last night went to the theatre with some of my work friends.  We went to the musical - Kinky Boots.   LOVED it... it was an incredible experience.  Such awesome music and dancing and superb costuming.  I went straight from work into the city and we all meet up for dinner first.  I had driven my car to the bus hub near home and caught the bus into town.  Saved having to pay for parking in the city as it's free to park at the hub and the bus is free for me as a pensioner!   

Today was a work at home day thank goodness.  Meant I didn't have to get up quite so early.  And my Altenew goodies finally arrived.  It's been a COLD WET day, so nice to be cozy at home.   After finishing my work for the day and doing some housework, I headed into the craft room.  Was going to work on a card I'm making for a swap... but while putting some stuff away, I saw a Hero Arts Dogwood stamp (wood block stamp) and remembered that Amy Tsuruta's Woodblock Wednesday challenge was still on.  So quick change of plans and here's what happened.

 

I stamped the Dogwood in Altenew Permanent Black ink as I was using Spectrum Noir Tri-blends to added colour.   The flowers are in various shades of blue and the leaves have some green (hard to see here, but it is there!)  I used a sentiment from Hero Arts Color Layering A Happy Day Flowers and added some Hero Arts Hues gems.  I had used Gina K Master Layouts 3 to cut out the panel and the blue layer.   In my Altenew order was the Dotty Circles 3D embossing folder so gave it a spin on the 5 1/4" base.  

I'm also entering into Darnell's NBUS challenge - first time using the embossing folder. 

Just waiting for the birth's over the next couple of weeks....one should be sometime next week and the other one, the following week.

Thanks for visiting 

Purple Poinsettia - a non traditional Christmas card.

 This month's challenge at Christmas Kickstart is all about a colour palette.

 Of course this palette is right up my alley as I LOVE the colours of Purple.  I was inspired by my bloggy friend - Linda with her gorgeous entry using a poinsettia.  

I used a Hero Art Woodblock stamp - Antique Poinsettia.   I too two sheets of PP from an Anko pack called Marble.  I stamped first onto a grey marble paper and fussy cut it out.  Added some pale purple marker to the leaf portion.  Next stamped was twice onto the purple marble paper.  Each time in the different shades of purple.  I then fussy cut the two layers.  The second layer had dimensional dots between it and the base, and the top layer was added directly to the second. Three little purple gems finished the centre.  I found the soft purple background in a Recollections pack called Northern Lights.  I decided I needed a little something more, so used a Kaisercraft Rectangle Fancy Frames die to cut a frame.  The sentiment is a Scrapbook.com die that was a gift when buying some stuff from them.  Cut it from purple but it didn't look right - so cut from white and layered the two together. 

And because I used a woodblock stamp, this one is going into Amy's Woodblock Wednesday challenge -Here is the stamp with the card, 

Today was a work from home day so once I finished for the day I quickly did the housework and then off to the craft room for the next couple of hours.  A productive afternoon making this one.  

Woodblock Wednesday.

 I saw about a new challenge - Amy Tsuruta called Woodblock Wednesday   The first challenge has now closed, but the next one starts May.  I managed to get a card done and got it upload via my Flickr page on the last day.  

I had this set on my desk as when Grace and were playing on Sunday, I let her use this one.   She seems to stamp better using woodblock stamps.  I stamped and coloured these at the same time as Grace was stamping and colouring.  I fussy cut my ones out and added them to a white panel .  They are Hero Arts stamps (dated 2007) The sentiment is from another Hero Arts set - a clear stamp set.  The finished it with a doodle frame.