Christmas Kickstart - Snow Days

Over the weekend, I managed to sneak a few happy hours in my craft room and create a card for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge theme, Snow Days. I started with one card, but once it was finished, it felt more wintry than Christmassy. So, using the same snowflake embossing folder, I had another go and came up with this festive version.

For the Christmas card, I started with a square panel and ran it through with an old freebie snowflake embossing folder. It may be from years ago, but it still creates such lovely, deep impressions and makes a beautiful snowy background.

Penny Black’s Snowy stamp and die felt like the perfect focal point. I stamped and die cut the image, coloured it, and then added Kindyglitz glitter glue to the pompom and hat for a little festive sparkle. To finish, I added a small red die-cut sentiment from a Sizzix die set.

This the first card I made using the same embossing folder, along with the stamp that originally came with it. I stamped the image first in blue ink, clear embossed it, and then added the embossed snowflake background.

To bring in some extra shimmer, I added sparkle pen details and white Nuvo Drops, then finished the design with a blue snowflake die from Scrapbook.com coloured with sparkle pen. I really liked how this one turned out, even if it felt more like a winter card than a Christmas one.

Monet Colours and a Craft Roulette Surprise

Friday, Suna and I were chatting about the Craft Roulette show, and it reminded me just how much I enjoy playing along. I haven’t joined in for quite a while, mostly because of the timing—the live show airs on a Saturday morning, which usually clashes with my grocery run. This weekend, though, I managed to catch the replay on Saturday afternoon, and as soon as I saw the four parameters, I was inspired to create.

The prompt for Monet colours instantly took me back to our visit to Claude Monet’s cottage in Giverny many years ago. The lily pond there is absolutely stunning, and his Water Lilies paintings really inspired me. Those soft blues, greens, yellows, and touches of pink felt like the perfect palette to bring that memory into this project.

My card began as an A2 design, but after making my Crinkle Inkle background with a smooshing tool, I realised I had trimmed the panels to 4.25 inches long instead of 5.5 inches. Rather than starting over, I switched gears and turned it into a 4.25-inch square gatefold card—an “Ardyth” square size, which felt especially fitting since Ardyth was the guest designer on Craft Roulette this week. At first, my natural element was going to be a daisy, but then I saw that Ardyth had used one too, so I changed direction again and chose a butterfly instead. As luck would have it, a new butterfly die had arrived that very morning, so it all came together perfectly. In the end, this card involved a couple of happy surprises and last-minute changes, which made it even more fun to create.

Entering this into Darnell's NBUS challenge as this was my first time using the butterfly die. 

Just for You: A Blue-Themed Farewell Card

 

Last week, one of the ladies at my hubby’s workplace was heading off to a new job, and I was asked to create a handmade card for her send‑off. I wanted something thoughtful and elegant, so I settled on a simple but heartfelt theme: Just a note… to say you will be missed.

I chose a blue colour palette for this card. To start, I used some beautiful watercolour‑style patterned paper from Scrapbook.com. I die‑cut an arch from the paper and created a coordinating frame, then embossed it with a woodgrain folder to add subtle texture and interest. This was mounted onto a crisp white card base, letting the blue tones really shine.

For the focal point, I chose the Altenew Petite Mountain Aven dies. I cut three sets of the florals and blended Persian Blue ink over them to build depth and variation in the colour. A small touch of yellow in the centres brought the flowers to life and added just the right amount of contrast.

I added delicate gold leaves cut from the Sizzix Geo Floral Frame die set. The metallic accents worked beautifully with the blue palette and added a hint of elegance without overwhelming the card.

The sentiment was created using the Altenew Scripty Sentiments die, cut from a dark blue cardstock to tie everything together. To finish, I scattered a few small gold dots around the design for a subtle sparkle.

This card was fun to make and a lovely way to say goodbye while wishing someone well on their next adventure.

 

Craft Roulette #211

I've missed a few weeks entering into the Craft Roulette.  Sunday,  I watched the replay of Episode 211.  An interesting set of parameters -

 

I went CAS with this card.  The greeting is Good Tidings for the recipient - summery sunshine, blue skies and green grass colours, the bike is mechanical and the little bow ties the bouquet of summer flowers together.   The bike is a Kaisercraft stamp and die set called Smile.  I found the little flowers in my stash - think they are from a Spellbinders set.  The sentiment is a Wordie pre printed sentiment. 

The bike stamp and die is being used for the first time, so I'm entering my card into Darnell's NBUS challenge. 

Craft Roulette #192

 Over the weekend I managed to get a card done for this week's Craft Roulette.  Interesting parmaters:

PROJECT - Thank you card

COLOUR - Roadside Market

ELEMENT:  Yard(s)

RANDOM: Confetti 

This one took me a while  to do... So chose Christmas colours - a Christmas Roadside Market.   For the yard - I used twine - 3 feet worth (or so it seemed) and the leafy ribbon as well.  For confetti - the gems on my wreath look like confetti.  And of course - it's a thank you card.  It took time to die cut the wreath and wrap the twine around it.  The twine and leaves were originally together but it simply wouldn't wind around the frame.  I ended up untwisting them and then winding each separately round.  I glued the gems on and then used my hot glue gun to stick the wreath to the background.   The banner is from an older Simon Says Stamp stamp and die set. 

All in all, I was happy how I interpreted the parameters.    

Tic-tac-toe at Die Cut Divas.... flowers, Love and patterned paper.

 It's the 31st so time for the final inspiration for this month at  Die Cut Divas.  Our sponsor this month is Frantic Stamper 

 

Our challenge this week:

I chose the diagonal - Flowers, The word Love, Patterned paper.  I used Pinkfresh Studio washi and the matching die.  I used Artistic Dahlia products.  Both are available at Frantic Stamper Inc. 

I stuck the washi onto some white card.  The die cuts out lots of the images all at once.  I used 300gsm paper... but next time I'll use a lighter weight.   I used a Gina K Master Layout die to cut the dotted patterned paper.  I used an Altenew stamp for the sentiment.  

Our challenge is open till 9.00pm Pacific time.  

Supplies:

Pinkfresh Studio - Artistic Dahlia Washi 

Pinkfresh Studio - Artistic Dahlia Die 

Gina K Master Layouts

Altenew - Best Sentiments 

Playing with Altenew.

 Over the weekend I had some time to play with some stamps and dies from Altenew.   

This was inspired by a card design I saw on Pinterest.   And the colours were inspired by a couple of the samples on the stamp set insert.  Just changed them up a bit. 

I started by making my background panel.  I used Altenew's Leafy Border die and used some grey card to back it.  Next up were the Altenew Build A Flower Coneflower.  I die cut two flowers and then used the negative cut  as a template to stamp the outline and the layers.   The red one used Pink pearl, Coral Bliss and Velvet and the orange one used Orange Cream and Autumn Blaze.   The leaves were stamped with Marshland and Mangrove Root.  Love the greens - so rich looking.  And with the fancy die cut and the two flowers I decided that simple sentiment was called for.  Altenew's Birthday Builder stamp set has a lot of lovely different fonts and sizes so chose this sweet simple font.  A few black gems finished it.   It was such fun just playing for fun.   

End of the month with Hero Arts and Die Cut Divas.

 It's the last day of February - where has the time gone!  Anyhoo - last day of the month is my turn to share at Die Cut Divas.   Our sponsor this month is the amazing Hero Arts.

An our Theme: Add some gold - heat embossing, foiling, gold pen, gold thread, gold gems/sequins/enamel dots... something GOLD.

I have a lot of older Hero Arts stamps and dies so decided it was time to invest in some new products.   I picked up the Succulent Bouquet Combo (stamp and die set) and paired it with an older cling stamp - Stripe Pattern (retired) 

I stamped the Succulent Bouquet and used some Altenew watercolors to colour it up.  I then die cut it out.  For my background, I masked off an area on a card panel, and used the Striped stamp to stamp and emboss in gold.  I also stamped and embossed the Hello sentiment in the gold.  I used Gina K Master Layouts 1 to cut the panel and it's layer then added the die cut. 

You have till 9pm Pacific Time to join us at Die Cut Divas with your projects incorporating some GOLD.

Colourful background.

 Hi, today I'm  here to share my Golden card for Die Cut Divas.     Our lovely sponsor this month is no other than Hero Arts.

We are grateful to them for giving our winner a $50 gift card! So generous. Thank you, Hero Arts.

Our challenge this month is GOLD

My card today is using some older Hero Arts products.  Way back when I first started stamping, some of my first stamps were Hero Arts - first wood stamps, then cling stamps and onto clear stamps.  My wood stamps are getting a bit of workout when my granddaughter comes to play... she handles them better than clear ones.    Anyway today's card uses an older Cling stamp - Flower Medley (discontinued) and Hello There Stamp and Cut set.  see it HERE 

I took a panel of black cardstock and using a Gold Embossing powder, I embossed the background stamp.  I then took my very ancient set of Twinkling H2O's..  These are very sparkly, highly pigmented watercolours.   I painted the background with these amazing watercolours.  They look stunning on the black card.  I used my Gina K Master Layouts to cut the panels.   I decided that the purple was a good foil against all that colour.  As the background was so busy, I chose to used a very simply bold die cut sentiment.   I used the Hello Stamp and Die set, cut from black and gold card.  I layer the black slightly offset behind the gold.

Do come and join us with this month's challenge.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Getting into the Christmas spirit...

 I've scheduled this post for when I'm away.  I did two Christmas cards over Friday and Saturday - a bit of a kickstart for my Christmas stash....

And the first one is for Christmas Kickstart Challenge.   Jo and Gail set us a theme of "From My Gnome to Yours"  

I had these three gnomes stamped and cut out with my Scan'n'Cut sitting in my UFO (Un-finished objects) container.  So grabbed them and some Copic markers and this CAS card came together so quickly.  I found the dotted paper and added to the middle of the 4.25" square card.  The sentiment is from a Kaisercraft set. A bit of Kindyglitz added some sparkle.  And some dash lines and it was done.  

And my second one came about due to my buying a craft magazine.   It was from Oct 2021 - taking this long to get into the stores here. It's Simply Cards and Papercraft #222 and has a lovely die set as it's freebie.  I CASE'd one of the cards on the packaging of the die

I die cut the outline in Teal and again in white and then die cut the little other branches, leaves and stars in the magenta, green and white.  The letters were cut with the magenta card.  I layered everything together onto a panel cut with Pink Fresh Essential mini slimline die and added to a 3.25" x 6.25" card base.  I added some red gems and some Autumn Red Nuvo Drops around the card.    There were lots of great ideas in the magazine so I'm sure I'll be doing some more cards with this set. 

Thanks for stopping by.... I'll be settling into to spending time with Archie for the next couple of weeks, so I won't be posting much ... maybe the odd photo of our adventures.  

Floral Heart - using stencils and dies.

Second post today  - to see my designer card for Sweet Stampin' Challenge - go HERE.

 Hi there.  I'm here to share my entry for the latest challenge at The Flower Challenge. - Add a Heart

My card was inspired by two artist - Gina K and Natasha Foote.   Gina made a card using a heart made with scraps - I was inspired by her design and Natasha's inspiration was to use die cuts to add to a shape. Natasha's was  more of a floating die cuts - but I used a white card to add my die cuts to. 

I used three flowers I made using Altenew's Bitterroot flower stencil and die set.   It is a toughy to do, but once I got the idea of what parts of the stencil worked together, I used different combinations of the pink Altenew inks,  I drew around the heart die and worked out where to put the flowers and the leaves and glued them down.  I then ran the piece through my new Spellbinders Platinum 6 with the die.  It is from Gina K Master Layout 4.  Layered it onto the black heart.   The background was inspired from Gina's card.  I used my Scor-Pal to add the lines and then a grey Altenew ink to blend over.   I used a Honey Bee die cut sentiment.  To make it shiny I added some clear packing tape to black card and then cut the die.  Used white for the shadow layer.  The little sub-sentiment from the same Honey Bee set and was cut with Altenew's Featured Sentiments die set.   Love the little rounded corners.  

Had my Rapid Antigen Test this afternoon - Negative - so all good to go tomorrow afternoon.   I made a couple more cards yesterday and today which I've scheduled for Monday - so do come back for a look.

Take care.... see you all in two weeks!

Coneflower Christmas

 Hi there... I've still been playing with Altenew's Build A Flower Coneflower... Today I've made a Christmas card with the flowers. 

I used a variety of pink and red inks for my two flowers.  I did some ink blending around the edge of the panel and adding some splatters.  I stamped the sentiment from Lyrical Script (no longer available)  Great to use non Christmas stamps to make a Christmas card.  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Add a button at Sweet Stampin' Challenge..

 Hello there.  Today it's time to share for the latest challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.  It's Susan's teams time to share for our Add a Button challenge.  

I made a sweet little card using some punches and dies plus some buttons I made a long time ago with a mold and some resin. 

I used some kraft paper to emboss with Altenew's Organic Linen 3D folder.  I used a older punch to cut some white card for my daisies.  I took some of the buttons I had made which were sitting in a jar just waiting for the right project!  Been there about 6 years! and finally the right project!  I used a Sizzix die to cut the leaves from some pretty green paper.  I finished by stamping the sentiment from Honey Bee's Bitty Buzzword stamp set, cut with a flag banner from a Gina K Master layouts.  

Do come and join us - make a project and add a button.  

Thank You

 Hi there.  I'm sharing a card I made to say thank you to Karren.   Recently she did a little giveaway and I was lucky to be one of her winner.  Karren lives in New Zealand so once Christchurch (where she lives) came out of Level 4 lockdown she posted off my prize.  It spend a little bit of time stuck in the depot here in Auckland - finally getting delivered on Sunday morning.  

Here's what Karren send me

So I decided to use some of the goodies to make her a Thank You card.  

I used the My Favourite Things Radiating Halftone Background and some Altenew Enchanted Gold pigment ink.  I used a Lil'Inkers die to add the stitching lines around the panel and inked up the edges with the gold ink. I then used the Simply Thanks die to cut the gold card.  The little so much is from a Honey Bee set.  I added a few gold baubles.  A simple but elegant card to say thanks to Karren.  

Today is the end of the 6th week of being at home and at least another week working from the dining room table.  We find out next Monday if we moved to Level 2 which means I can go back into the office.  Not sure if they will let me wear my slippers in the office!  

Thanks for stopping by.  

Gnome is were the heart is....

 I've been seeing a few gnome cards around blogland and remembered that I had purchased some Whimsy Stamps digi stamps with gnomes.... in particular this one - Gnome Sweet Gnome.

So a card came to mind.  Now I have to say... this one caused me some issues.... First I decided to make it a mini slimline and only had a long die I wanted to use... of course I didn't take into account that it was a double layer die....

I had to do a bit of die surgery and gluing back together on the right hand end.  Doesn't look too pretty...but it's done.   I had printed out the image and the sentiment before die cutting and used some washi to hold the die and when I took it off it of it tore the card 😟  I decided then to add the stencilling so printed the gnomes seperately and then used the computer to make the sentiment black with white letters.  I trimmed it out and layered it over the messed up bit.  I coloured up my gnomes... I had melded them together to be holding hands.  I fussy cut them to add to the card.  Next I decided to add some little die cut flowers and leaves to the wall.  I made the little bee and then lost it!  Several hours later after making another one.. I found it stuck to the top of my slipper.... so I added it for dimension over the other one.... The middle panel has some dimension added behind.  So after a bit of a mission... it was done.  

Did some babysitting last night... I went to over to Grace's house as she has been sick this week.  Hubby came over with some tea and a play.

He went back home around 9.15 and I stayed till her Mum and Dad came back at 10.45.  Such a poppet, went off to bed like a little gem... although I didn't manage to get her to eat much supper.  

WWC 318 - Kath's Challenge: All About Occasions

 Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Kath is our hostess this week with an All About Occasions challenge. 

Today I have a little birthday card to share with you.  This cutie was the one that made it's way to Australia for my Grandson Archie's birthday back at the end of April.

Although I did not know it, one of Archie's birthday cake was themed... Train your Dragon.  So he was over the moon to get a card from his Nanny that had a dragon on it.  I stamped this sweet dragon from My Favourite Things onto some textured dark kraft card and used metallic paints to colour it.  I used a Penny Black speech bubble die to add his age.  The sentiment is from a Tim Holtz set. 

Come and join in the fun at  Watercooler Wednesday Challenge and check out the project from the other designers.  Then take our challenge and link up your project to the challenge post.    We'd love to have you join us.  You have until Monday 28th at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 12.00 noon NZ time ) to link up your project.

Trying to find the missing Mojo!

 Hi there.... well after a week away and a busy week back at work.... the old Mojo has been missing.  So I decided to just play around today.  I pulled out some of my pre-made backgrounds and found one I liked. To be honest, I not sure how I did it, but know it was a stencilled one. 

I think it's a type of Joseph's Coat technique using a stencil.  I die cut it and added a white border and then added to a black base.  I used a Gina K flag die with a bit of extending done.  The sentiment is also from Gina K.  Love the sentiments in the Wreath Builder set.  Added the little flourish from the set as well. 

Next up I thought I'd make a card for the Christmas Kickstart Challenge...

I had some Christmas images stamped and die cut in my stash - so again pulled them out and did some colouring.

This is a mini slimline.  I used an embossing folder to add the holly and berries to a red panel that I layered onto a gold panel.  The middle sentiment circle was popped up.  I added some glossy accents to the reindeer's nose. 

We had a lovely week away and enjoyed great weather - apart from one afternoon.  It was cold and raining the afternoon we got to Gisborne.   And now only three and a half weeks till the wedding and another week off to spend time with the family. 

Shades of Purple.

 

This challenge is just me!  Purple is my favourite colour.    Lately I've been struggling with my crafting... ideas galore, but just wanting to get started has been hard.  About a week ago I took some of my purple scraps and an Altenew flower die cut and made a couple of flowers.   They sat there as I really didn't know what I wanted to do to showcase them.  Last evening, I was rummaging around in my WIP pile and found a background I had done some foiling on.  

My foiled panel is an Altenew stamp that I had stamped, then photocopied with a laser printer so that I could foil it with some silver foil.    As you can see I had covered my flowers with Wink of Stella.  The sentiment is from another Altenew set.  I seem to be using my Gina K Master Layouts on just about every card I do... they make it so easy to layer panels.  

And talking about Gina K... do you watch her live Facebook/You Tube posts?  She has some fun techniques and ideas.  This week's earlier live used a technique called Black Magic.  Basically using white pigment ink to stamp on black card and then once it dried, used pencils to colour in the image.    Today I was feeling unwell in the morning so spent time in bed resting.  I got up at lunch time and decided I felt a bit better and wanted to try out the technique. 

I used the same stamp set that Gina used.. one of my few Gina K stamps.  My white pigment ink is very old so had to use my MISTI and stamped each image twice to get a semi-reasonable amount of ink down.  Once it dried, I used Prismacolor pencils and one Jasart pencil to colour the image in.  Added some white gel pen dots on the centre of the flowers.  I used the same purple card as my layer, to die cut the Hero Arts sentiment - 3 times to add dimension.  So pleased with the results.  

I'm entering both of these in the flower challenge.  

Thanks for stopping by... I've been watching the New Zealand sailors racing here in Auckland and today they won the 7th race to win the 36th America's Cup challenge.... a very exciting few days with racing against Luna Rosa Prada Perelli.   We were defending the cup so exciting to keep it here in NZ for the next few years. 

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. 

Merry Christmas Day

 Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas Day.  Here in NZ it's almost the end of the day when you get to read this... It's my day to share a card for Die Cut Divas.  

My team mate Arlene sent me some Kat Scrappiness slim line dies and I used one to make this Christmas card for you all.  

I added some washi tape to the die cut piece and added to my white card base.  I added a Christmas die cut (Paper Roses) and a sub sentiment from a Mama Elephant set that my friend, Dierdre from Ireland, sent to me.  I added a Penny Black Poinsettia stamped and embossed in gold onto red card and fussy cut.  

Entering this into the If it's  Christmassy - Link it Challenge at Christmas Kickstart 

Hope you all have a great Christmas Day. 

Here is a quick montage of my day