Embossed Elegance: A Card Inspired by Jo Simons

Over the weekend, I watched a YouTube video by Jo Simons that used a technique I had not done in quite some time—using dies to emboss a card. It immediately inspired me to pull out my supplies and give it another try.

For this card, I used the Spellbinders 5 x 7 Elegant Labels 4 die and ran it through to create an embossed frame. Before removing the label die, I did some ink blending with a soft blue ink, both inside and outside the shape to add extra depth and softness. For the sentiment, I chose one from the Peony Glow stamp set by Pinkfresh Studio. I also used the coordinating washi tape and matching dies from the same collection to cut the floral elements. To finish the design, I arranged two of the floral die cuts around the embossed frame and added a few black dots to tie in with the stamped sentiment.

It was so enjoyable to revisit these older techniques.  

Celebrating With Poppy Stamps: My May Challenge Card

 I’m back with another inspiration piece for this month’s challenge over at Die Cut Divas. Our May sponsor is Poppy Stamps, and the theme is Celebrate—a wonderfully open prompt with so many directions to explore. Birthdays, weddings, milestones, holidays… you name it.

For my project today, I decided to lean into a warm, seasonal vibe and create a Thanksgiving card.

I pulled out a few of my older Poppy Stamps dies—always fun to revisit—and paired them with a leftover piece from a recent gesso resist panel I created (you can see that project in my earlier post). That little scrap was just waiting to become something, so I used it with the Orchard Leaves die to cut a handful of textured leaves. I also cut additional leaves from a rich mahogany patterned paper to bring in more depth and contrast.

For the background, I spritzed a panel with Distress Spray Stains and Distress Oxide Spray in Tarnished Brass and Picked Raspberry. Once it dried, I trimmed it down to fit one an “Ardyth-style” 4.25" square card base.

To build the focal point, I die cut an orange ribbon and bow using the Poppy Stamps Grosgrain Ribbon and Grosgrain Bow dies. I adhered the ribbon across the background panel, then tucked the leaves on either side to create a full, autumnal cluster.

A Spellbinders hot-foiled sentiment, die cut and added over the ribbon, finished the card beautifully.

Another celebration card complete—and a lovely way to use up those special little scraps we all hang onto.

Come and join us at Die Cut Divas with you Celebration card - just remember to use your die cut machine

Catching up!

I’ve still been finding time to craft, but blogging has definitely taken a back seat lately. Today, though, on my non-work day, I finally found some time after lunch to head into the craft room, get creative, and catch up on sharing what I’ve been making. I have three cards to show you today, each with its own little story.

The first card is what I’d call a “Mesk” card — made from the bits and pieces that were sitting on my messy desk waiting to be turned into something useful.

I had a 3.75-inch strip of 12x12 patterned paper left over from making an envelope, so I trimmed it down to fit a white panel and rounded one side for a softer look. I added another scrap of patterned paper along the side, then went digging through my container of saved bits and found a sentiment I’d pre-cut awhile ago. A scrap of vellum became the circle tag, and I finished everything off with a few little gold hearts from my die-cut embellishments. This one actually came together earlier in the week, and I love how it made good use of leftovers.

The next card is a Christmas card, also made earlier this week. Back in March, I picked up some non-branded Christmas dies from my local stationery store, and they turned out to be such a great buy.

For this card, I die cut the pieces from green and red cardstock, then used scraps of gold and dark brown for the star and trunk. After that, it was simply a matter of piecing everything together to create the tree. To give the design a focal area, I used an old embossing folder to create a border around the panel and softly ink blended around the edges. A few gold dots on and around the tree finished it off nicely.

And finally, today’s make — another Christmas card.

This one came about while I was putting some of my stash back where it belonged. As I tidied up my Tim Holtz Bigz dies, I came across the Christmas Cardinal die and knew it would be perfect for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge — Season’s Tweetings.

I die cut the design — it’s an all-in-one die — and then used Tri-Blends alcohol markers to colour each section. For a snowy touch, I added White Nuvo Crystal Drops to the branch. To really let the die-cut image shine, I mounted it on a 5-inch square panel embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. The sentiment is from an LDRS Creative stamp set and was die cut with the coordinating Sentiment Stack II die.

And card #2 is being entered into Darnell's NBUS May Challenge 

Thank you so much for sticking with me to the end. I really do appreciate every one of my readers and commenters.

Happy crafting!

Things with Wings: A Shimmery Dragonfly Card for the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge

It’s time for the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge again, and this fortnight’s theme is Things with Wings—so I couldn’t resist pulling out a dragonfly and building my card around it.

I actually had this dragonfly sitting on my desk from a crafty session a while back—Grace and I made it during the school holidays, and we coloured it with Nuvo Shimmer Powders for that gorgeous sparkle. 

I started by blending a soft blue circle using a Penny Black stencil and a few pale blue inks from Altenew. Once the background was in place, I die cut a mix of leaves from a Sizzix set in green and gold cardstock, then cut a few coneflowers from yellow card and added a touch of gold pen to the centres.

From there it was all about arranging- I popped the dragonfly into the spotlight and built up the florals and foliage around the edge of the circle to frame it nicely. To finish, I stamped a sentiment from an Andy Skinner set directly onto the card, before matting in some soft blue. 

If you’re playing along with the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge, I’d love to see what you create for Things with Wings—butterflies, birds, bees, dragonflies… anything goes!

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.

Textured Florals with Altenew’s African Daisy Embossing Folder and Die

 It’s the last day of April, which means it’s also the final day of this month’s challenge over at Die Cut Divas! Our challenge this month is Birthdays/Anniversaries.. We have a wonderful sponsor - Altenew, and for my final bit of inspiration I’m sharing a card I made with the newest addition to my craft room- African Daisy Embossing Folder and coordinating Die set from Altenew’s April release. I was thrilled to get my hands on it (it’s already sold out in the Altenew store!)—and it arrived just in time yesterday, so I got straight to work.

Before I started, I did a quick search for African daisies—and wow, they come in a huge range of colours. I found a photo that immediately caught my eye and used it as the colour inspiration for this card.

To create the flowers, I die cut all the pieces three times from white cardstock. Then I added colour by blending Altenew Hydrangea and Andromeda Crisp Dye Inks onto the petal tips and around the centres. For the flower middles, I used Altenew Espresso ink, then finished them off with a little yellow sparkle pen for a subtle pop of shine. Once everything was coloured, I embossed the pieces for dimension and glued the layers together.

For the background, I embossed a white panel using the Altenew 3D Daisies embossing folder to add lots of lovely texture. I softly inked around the edges with Hydrangea ink, then matted the panel onto purple cardstock to help those tones really stand out. To finish, I added a sentiment from Altenew Sentiment Strips 3, inked in Andromeda to tie everything together.

You have till 9.00pm US Pacific Time to join us in our Birthday/Anniversary challenge.  

Baby wipe ink-lift technique (with a stencil)

I can finally share the card I made for my NZ swap group—Suna’s card arrived on Saturday, 10 days after posting (and it only had about 25 km to travel up the road!). This project is also where my recent “baby wipe” inspiration came from, because our challenge technique for the month was to use a baby wipe in some way.

Here it is!

For the background, I blended Distress Oxide in Mowed Lawn as my base colour, then layered on a Gelli Art Leaves stencil. Next came the fun part: I placed a (slightly damp) baby wipe over the stencil, added a piece of scrap paper on top to absorb any extra moisture, and ran the whole sandwich through my Sizzix Platinum 6 with the rubber mat underneath.

Because Distress Oxides react so well with moisture, the baby wipe lifts the ink through the stencil and creates a soft, textured pattern.

I cut the dragonfly, grid and sentiment from black cardstock. To add colour to the dragonfly, I rubbed on metallic wax in gold and blue, with a touch of silver on the body. For extra sparkle, I finished with a light spritz of Frost Shimmer Spray and a few black shiny dots.

I'm entering this into the Stencil Challenge at Just Us Girls...

It’s been a long weekend here in NZ for ANZAC Day—our time of remembrance for those who served (and continue to serve). Even longer for me, since I don’t work Fridays! I’ve been busy crafting and spending time with family, and it’s been just what I needed.

Celebrating Altenew’s 12th Anniversary with Die Cut Divas

 It’s time to celebrate with Altenew over at Die Cut Divas! Altenew is our wonderful sponsor this month, and they’re also marking a big milestone—their 12^th anniversary. To join the festivities, our challenge theme is simple: make an anniversary or birthday card.

I’ve been a fan of Altenew for a long time—since around 2015 at least. Their floral stamps are some of my all-time favourites, and it’s been fun to see their range grow over the years into stencils, dies, embossing folders, and more. I’ll just say… I own a lot of Altenew goodies!

For today’s card I reached for an older favourite: the Fabulous Florets layering stamps and coordinating dies.

To start, I stamped the smaller of the two flowers onto my card panel using Altenew yellow and orange inks. Next, I stamped the larger flower, die cut it, and layered it on for extra dimension. For the greeting, I used a sentiment from Altenew Sentiment Strips 2 and white heat-embossed it onto a black strip. I trimmed the panel with Gina K Master Layouts 2, then matted everything onto black cardstock. To finish, I added a few gold glitter dots for a little sparkle.

I hope you’ll join our challenge! Just be sure to include die-cuts and/or a dry-embossed item in your submission.

A Creative Day with Grace

 As the school holidays draw to a close, I had the pleasure of spending a full day with Grace—my turn to look after her and make some memories. Earlier in the week, she enjoyed a day with Pop, who took her swimming. 

Yesterday started in the craft room, where inspiration struck thanks to a new dragonfly die. We cut dragonflies from rice paper, each taking three to decorate with different mediums. I experimented with Nuvo Shimmer powders in blue and green for one, used mop-up paint for another, and finished the third with Temu Glitter pens—this last one sparkled beautifully and became the centerpiece for today’s card. 

Grace made some rainbow backgrounds and added her dragonflies (but I didn't get any photos of her two cards)

For the card, I chose ombre patterned paper in blues, die-cut a  panels using Gina L Master Layouts 2, and layered onto a larger sized panel for extra depth. The dragonfly die came with a grid die, which I cut from silver holographic card—perfect for a shimmering background. A stamped sentiment from Altenew Sentiment Stripes completed the look with some holographic dots for extra shimmer. 

Our afternoon adventure took us to Gloputt, an in-the-dark mini golf course. We laughed our way through the glowing obstacles and capped off the day with several rounds of Air Hockey. I was soundly beaten by a nearly seven-year-old, but the fun and laughter made it a perfect ending.

Spring Butterfly

It’s the end of March (where has the year gone), and here in New Zealand Autumn is starting to make itself know.  But it’s time to wrap up the Die Cut Divas March Challenge (Spring is Coming),so I’m sharing my final card for the month. We’re lucky to have Gina K Designs as our sponsor, so I pulled out one of my most-loved staples: the Gina K Master Layout dies.

I reach for the Gina K Master Layouts all the time—they make putting a card together feel simple For this one I’m featuring Master Layout 18, including that beautiful black frame that pulls everything together and gives the design a clean, finished look.

I started by cutting a rectangle panel with one of the dies from Master Layout 18, then ran it through the Tapestry embossing folder for that pretty texture in the background. Next, I stamped the butterfly and flowers from Blooming Butterfly, die cut them, and added soft colour with watercolour brush markers from K-Mart.

To pull everything together, I layered on that black frame from Master Layout 18 (it instantly makes the design feel crisp), and I even tucked the leftover centre piece behind the butterfly to give it a little spot to “land.” A white heat-embossed Woodware sentiment on black card was the final touch—simple, clean, and it balances the frame nicely.

If you’d like to join in, there’s still time to enter the Die Cut Divas MarchChallenge. You have until 9:00pm Pacific Time today, and we’d absolutely love to see what you create— remember to use your die cut machine to emboss or die cut!

Dawn and the Divas

Interactive birthday card with pop up surprise

 Last Friday was my son-in-law’s 40^th birthday, so I made him an interactive card inspired by a class from Therese Calvid at the Card Maker Success Summit. Therese used a Spellbinders car, but I used what I had: a Couture Creations Holden Commodore Ute.

I die-cut and assembled the car, then ink-blended a sunny background using a circle mask (and the negative mask for the glow), finishing with a few clouds and birds. The fun part is the folding mechanism—when the card slides out of the envelope, the car pops up from the base.

It arrived right on his birthday (thanks, NZ and Aussie Post!), and my daughter said Andrew was delighted—especially that I’d actually written a message inside. It’s a running family joke after the year I sent him a completely blank card.

Thanks for stopping by.  

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.

Embrace the simple joys of Nature

 Well… it’s Friday again! It feels like one of those weeks where I’ve been busy creating, but nothing has quite been ready to share publicly—until now.

My latest card for my local swap group has safely arrived with Maxine, so I can finally show it to you all. This month’s challenge was set by Carol, with the theme “Animals Framed.”

I chose to work with some sweet little birdies—because birds definitely count as animals in my book! For the framed element, I used my Tim Holtz diffuser with a Swiss Dot embossing folder to create a soft oval window. I really love how this technique adds interest while still keeping the focus on the centre of the card.

The birds were stamped using a Mangocraft set, then die‑cut and coloured with Prismacolor pencils. A sentiment from another Mangocraft stamp set tied everything together, and I added a touch of soft ink blending around the centre to give the design a little extra depth.

To finish, I popped the die‑cut birds up on 3D tape for some subtle dimension—simple, but effective.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope your creative week has treated you kindly. 

Cosmos Thanks

The day after returning from our short break, I received a package of cardmaking supplies from Scrapbook.com, including the Altenew Dreaming Cosmos embossing folder and coordinating stencil. I used them to create a thank-you card for our tour guides, Chris and Nicola.

Inspired by the stencil packaging, I embossed white card, added ink blending through the stencil, and finished with subtle blue and green background blending using leftover ink. The panel was matted onto dark pink card, with a simple sentiment from the Altenew Versatile Greetings die set cut in the same colour. I kept the design clean with no embellishments.

I dropped the card off at the travel agency on Friday, and they really appreciated it.

Die Cut Divas - Hello Friend

Can you believe it's the last day of February.   Where has the month gone?   It's time to share my sample for Die Cut Divas. We have Pink and Red Challenge this month - asking for predominant colors of red &/or pink (neutrals & a bit of a non-neutral are ok). 

Remember to use a die cut &/or embossing folder in your red/pink creation.

 Hero Arts as our sponsor this month! 

Hero Arts has generously donated a $25 gift card for our 

February random winner - thanks Hero Arts!!

I started this card with a gorgeous pack of two-sided patterned paper from the Scrapbook.com Watercoloured Collection. One side features a soft, pale pink, while the reverse is a deeper rosy shade. I trimmed the lighter side to create the main panel, then stamped florals from the Hero Arts Delicate Blossoms stamp set (now retired) onto both patterns.

To add a little extra depth, I shaded the images with a red marker before fussy cutting the darker blooms and paper piecing them into place. Added a dark pink mat.  For the sentiment, I die cut a silver “hello” using the Altenew All About You dies and paired it with a stamped “friend” from the Hero Arts Hello There set. A scattering of silver die-cut dots finished the card for a touch of shine.

Do come and join us.  You have till 9.00pm US Pacific Time to get your card into our gallery for a chance to win the gift voucher. 

Time Out challenge #306- Sparkle, Red, Heart and Twine.

 Today I was scrolling through my blog feed and saw the Time Out Challenge.   I entered recently and was super excited to see my card (here) had won challenge #305.   And checked out challenge #360.  It was perfect for what was sitting on my desk.  I had been working on my DT card for Die Cut Divas where out challenge is Red/Pink.   

Lots of choices for this one....  I chose Red, Sparkle, Heart and Twine!  I had a Hero Arts Background Cling sitting on my desk and some WOW Clear Sparkle Embossing powder.  Red card was close at hand...

The Hero Arts Leafy Vines (2012 - retired) looks amazing in real life - the embossing powder sparkles and shines in a variety of colours as you tilt the card.   So hard to photograph!  I got out an older Spellbinders die set - Lace Hearts.  Included in the set is the gorgeous key.  Cut it from some textured rose gold card and tie a twine bow.  Created the sentiment on my computer and printed it then die cut with Altenew Featured Sentiments dies.  Added sparkle crystal gems.  

You make life beautiful -

 Took advantage of my non-working day yesterday to have a play.   I had done the housework first thing, and then travelled about 20 minutes to got to the Outlet Sports Shoe shops to get some new walking shoes and then had time in the craft room. 

Grace had been playing with some watercolour powders when Pop was looking after her on Thursday (the long summer school holidays here in NZ) and she made several sheets of mixed colours.  One of which was a vibrant mixture of purples, blues and greens.  Very rich looking and they inspired this card

.

Isn't it a stunning colour.  I used Altenew Pitcher Vases die and embossing folder set to cut out the pitcher.  In real life, the shimmer is incredible.  I chose to have just a single flower - Altenew Petite Mountain Aven die.   I cut it from some Lawn Fawn Pearlescent cardstock. I added some colour with alcohol markers for the centre.  Cut the leaves with some dark green card and added a couple of die cut twigs from Altenew - Charming Foliage - that did get a bit of pruning first.  I decided to keep the background simple and did a little partial embossing with Altenew's Dotty Circles 3D folder and added a thin strip of gold across the edge.  Trimmed a 1/4 inch off one side and added to my card with a strip of the some card I used for the pitcher.  And die cut some dots to add as embellishment.  The sentiment was one I had in my stash from Pinkfresh - Peony Glow stamp and die set.

I am entering this into the Time Out challenge - A favourite card making technique   in my case - two favourites - 3D embossing and die cutting and a bonus - using homemade dots for embellishments 

Summer has forgotten us here in NZ... The whole country has had some horrendous stormy, wet weather - lots of floods and slips - an unfortunately lose of life.  Two people died when a slip ploughed through their home and in a beach town a few hours south of here, 6 people have been caught in a large slip which came down on a camping ground, demolishing an ablutions block, tents, caravans.   This was on Friday and it is now a "recovery" operation.   Very very sad times.  

  

Altenew Live Challenge - Ombre

 I watched Jen's Live Challenge on replay over the weekend and had some fun making an ombre background and some ombre florals.

I started by ink blending the four colours from Lapis Lazuli Crisp Dye inks.  I took a Tim Holtz stencil - Doily and then used the darkest of the colours to add the stenciling.   I trimmed the panel and matted with a die cut from Gina K Master Layout 2.  Love how this leaves a good sized border on the card base.  To make my flowers I used Altenew Zero-Waste 3D Floral cover plate and die cut from white card.  Used the Lapis Lazuli inks and Deep Blue Seas inks to add the blues - in a gradient way.  Also used some greens for the leaves in a gradient as well.    Added a sentiment with the Scripty Sentiment die.  I had some pearlescent Charcoal acrylic ink on a scrap from some over paint on my gelli plate and once it dry was a lovely shimmery colour and was perfect for this sentiment.  Used white for the shadow layer.   This one has lots of dimension so will need to make a box envelope for it. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope your weekend has been as crafty as mine.  

Momigami Card

 I can now share the card I made using some of the Momigami papers I made a week or so ago.   Momigami is a technique of Japanese kneaded paper.  My local swap group had this as our theme for February.   Here are the papers I made  - you can check out some of the tutorials on YouTube. 

I used hand lotion to make these papers.  Three thinner papers and one thicker double sided scrapbook paper.  I used bits of all of these to make the card that was sent to Carol.

The background piece was the thicker paper.  I kept all the scrunched up areas and ran a teal green Distress Oxide over the paper.  I used two of the thinner papers to make the flowers (Altenew's Petite Mountain Aven Layering Dies) and the flower centres were cut from the third paper.  I die cut a gold frame from Gina K Master Layouts 12 and added the flowers.  Finished with a foiled sentiment and  some glitter dots.   The papers feel so soft and fabric like.  And I was delighted on how the card turned out. 

First week back at work has been hard!  Getting up 2 hours earlier than the past few week has taken a toll.... I'm shattered.   Luckily tomorrow is a non work day and I'll be able to sleep a bit later.  

I'm sitting typing this while thunder is rumbling all around - have had some heavy rain too... but very warm and humid.   

A last Christmas card

 Hi there.   31st December - Christmas is done and dusted for another year but today I'm sharing a card I made just in time for Christmas!   It's my share at Die Cut Divas.    

Our lovely sponsor for December is Waffle Flower 

I used the Waffle Flower Postage Collage die again... a big favourite and the Postage Collage Block die - paired with the Postage Collage Poinsettia stencil set.

I die cut the block dies and before taking it out of the die, pressed it onto my sticky mat.  Then used the Poinsettia stencil set and a variety of Altenew inks to add the colours.   Die cut the Postage Collage die from red and added the blocks in the appropriate spaces.   Had a panel of embossed white card on my desk.  Thought it would give just a little bit of texture around the edge.  Added a little stripe sentiment from my stash - a LDSR stamp and die set of Christmas sentiments.  White embossed on black.  

There are a few hours still to enter our challenge  - it closes at 9.00pm US Pacific time.