Baby Wipes: A Fun Creative Experiment

This month’s challenge in my local swap group was set by my friend Suna, and it was a fun one: “Use a Baby Wipe.” She even shared a few YouTube videos to get our creative juices flowing, which really helped spark some ideas.

On Wednesday afternoon, Grace and I experimented with a few different techniques. The idea we loved most involved ink blending onto cardstock, layering a stencil over the top, then adding several layers of baby wipes before running the whole stack through my Spellbinders Platinum 6. The result was such a surprise! The baby wipes absorbed the colour in the most interesting way. Because I used Distress Oxides for the ink blending, the finished panels have a soft, almost velvety look and feel. Grace made several panels during our session, and they all turned out beautifully.

On Saturday, I couldn’t resist making a few more panels of my own—two in green and one in a vibrant orange. One of the green panels has already been turned into a card, but since it hasn’t reached its recipient yet, I’ll save that for another post. Today’s focus is the card I created using the orange panel.

For this piece, I used a Gelli Art Circles stencil over Ripe Persimmon Distress Oxide ink, which added lovely texture and interest to the background. To ground the floral focal point, I die cut a vellum rectangle and layered it over the panel. The flower dies are from an unnamed brand and, I’ll admit, they gave me a bit of trouble—no instructions always makes assembly an adventure! In the end, I decided to keep things monochromatic, die cutting all the pieces from white cardstock and softly blending colour onto them using some Altenew Warm and Cozy inks.

The leaves were cut from orange pattern paper from Scrapbook.com, which tied everything together nicely. I trimmed the panel, matted it with white cardstock, and added a touch of sparkle to the flower centres using Gold Wink of Stella. To finish the card, I added a gold foiled sentiment from a Spellbinders set.

This challenge was such a fun way to try something I haven't done in a while, and I love how the baby wipes created such a unique texture. 

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.

New dies in the house

 Hi there!  Can you believe it's the last day of January!   So that's time for me to share my card at Die Cut Divas for the last day of January.

We do not have a sponsor this month, but wonderful Whimsy Stamps has donated a $15 gift voucher and we want you to enjoy using it.

Our challenge this month is to use "NEW" or NBUS (Never before used stuff) - a new parcel arrived just yesterday from Scrapbook.com and one of my items was Altenew's Craft-a-flower Calla Lily layering die and some Hero Arts Antique Ivory card stock.  So was up late last night making my card for today and then this afternoon I took the photo.   It's a stinking hot day and a tad warm in my craft room!

Isn't this just a gorgeous layering die.  And quite easy to put together using Altenew's keyhole system.   I cut all the flower parts from the Ivory card and then used Altenew Pocketful of Sunshine mini set of inks to add colour.  The leaves and stems were cut from paint chips.  I decided on a mini slimline card so used Pinkfresh Studio Essential mini slimline dies to cut my panel.  Add a touch of the yellow ink around the edge.  And part of a sentiment from Altenew's Sentiment Strip 3 white embossed on black card and cut with Altenew Featured sentiment dies.  Love the rounded corners.  

So a big thanks to Whimsy for donating a prize for us this month.  You have till 9.00pm Pacific time to join us  Here

And as this is the first time using the die set, I'm entering Darnell's

thanks for stopping by today 

Merry Christmas to All

 Merry Christmas to All my Family and Friends.

Today I have pre-schedule this post.  As read this Christmas Day will be almost over for me. Our day will have started with breakfast with our son and daughter-in-law and the two granddaughters.  After they leave we will have headed north to have lunch with our friends in Mangawhai - going to be 19 of us for lunch!

Today is my day to share at Die Cut Divas 

Our sponsor this month is Altenew. They generously will be giving our winner a $50 gift certificate to their online store. 

Today I am sharing a Birthday card.   I have a friend who's birthday was only a few days ago.   Altenew kindly provided the team members with a Build A Garden set - and I chose Morning Asters.   I got it a few months back and have already used it a number of times.  It's a stunning set to use. 

I started by using some Altenew dark grey ink to stamp the bigger of the florals in the set.  I then used the matching stencils set to add the ink - Altenew's Burnt Red and Mahogany inks for the flowers and Eucalyptus and Forest Fern for the leaves.   The embossed background is Altenew Dotty Circle 3D folder inked with the ink left on my blender brush.  In my "magic mug" I have a few of the flag dies cut from an LDRS sentiment stack die and I took one and stamped the sentiment from Altenew's Sentiment Strips 2. 

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas 

Addicated to CAS - Geometric

 I saw the challenge at Addicated to CAS -Geometric and I thought of one of my new die sets I got last week.    

Once the card was done, I'm not sure if it's CAS enough - but I'll enter it and see!

My die set is from Sizzix called "Geo Floral Frames"  I die cut the geometric frames from gold card. I added them to the card on a bit of an angle.  I then die cut the flowers in dark and light blue card and a little bit of yellow for the card centres. I layered the flowers and add a little black gem in each centre.   I then die cut the leaves from different greens.  I added a sentiment from Altenew's Birthday Builder set and some of my new gold bauble gems from Pink Fresh. 

I am also adding to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Out with the Old and In with the New.... My die cuts are new and the sentiment is from a set I've had for some time. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Twofer cards - Inspired by Jennifer McGuire.

 I am a great fan of all things Jennifer McGuire and love watching her videos.  Recently she did one where she mangaed to get two card from one blending, stamping and embossing - so after a few false starts - such as my clear embossing powder being contaminated with white powder and one card getting stuck together - I ended up with one set of two cards.  I was inspired by my blog friend Sally with her choice of background stamp - a Hero Arts background stamp called Leaf and Floral background. 

I chose some Distress Oxides in Broken China, Weathered Wood and Cracked Pistashio to blend as my background.  Then I clear embossed the Leaf and Floral background.  I liberally spritzed the panel, added another on top and ran through my Cuttlebug.  

Here are my two cards

This is the first pane..  You can still see the beautiful glossy background.  I took a Gina K oval and scalloped oval to make the focal point.  I added a sentiment from a Gina K sentiment.  I stamped a flower from Altenew Line Art stamps using the same colours in Distress inks.  I die cut it and a couple of other layers to make the flower stand up a bit better.  Added a few clear gems. 

And here is the second panel I got.

This panel is a much softer looking.  I stamped the flowers and used Distress inks in the blues and greens to watercolour them before fussy cutting them.  The little Thanks is from the same stamp set.  I die cut it with the matching die and stamped the sub-sentiment straight onto the card base. 

I was pleased with the results of these two. 

Make your own background

It was my turned to chose our technique challenge at my NZ swap group.   I has seen a video at Splitcoaststampers - about making your own mixed media/collage backgrounds so that's what I chose for us to challenge ourselves to do. 

Mine wasn't quite the same as the video, but I started with a panel I had made using the Gelli plate.  I had been inspired by the amazing Jennifer McGuire to use die cuts when making my prints (see her video HERE) and had used some green oxide inks and some butterfly die cuts. 

Over top of the two green inks I added another layer of green blended through a Paper Roses Studio Spring Floral stencil.  Next came some selected stamping with an edging stamp in some grey ink.  I stamped the Altenew sentiment (from Spider Mum set) and then added the fussy cut flower.  It is an unbranded stamp that I stamped onto some Bristol paper and used Zig Markers to colour.  

I had fun making my own background paper and was really happy with my outcome.  

My first week of work has finished... it felt very long and tiring.  It's been quite warm here this past week so too hot to go our walking after work so feeling a bit out of sorts not doing much exercise.  Planning a good long walk tomorrow morning. 

Take care everyone.  Keep safe. 

Something new at Sweet Stampin' challenge.

 Hi there... welcome back to Sweet Stampin' Challenge - the first for 2021.  

Our theme for this challenge is "NEW"  and from now on, our challenges will be fortnightly.

So I bought myself some goodies as an early Christmas present and included were a couple of Altenew stamps - Spider Mum flowers and Striped Circle Stamp set.    Here is my card using these goodies.

I stamped the Striped Circle stamp in Vineyard Berry red ink from Altenew on my background panel.  I then used Altenew Rose Gold embossing powder to stamp and emboss the Spider Mum stamp.  I used Heart beat and Vineyard Berry inks to watercolour the flowers.  I used a few different green inks for the leaves. I added the sentiment from Striped Circle stamp set in Obsidian black ink and then the fussy cut flower.  A few gold gems finished my card.  

Do come and join our challenge with your "NEW" projects. 

Let's Squash It... use Embossing folder and dies

 

Last year I bought a Sizzix emboss and cut set( See it here)  and I haven't used.  So challenge 3 at Let's Squash It got me thinking it was time to break it out.  

I was inspired by the picture on the packaging

I used some grey Altenew ink to add ink to the folder before running it through my Cuttlebug.  I then inked up the window opening.  I then die cut all the little flowers and leaves from white card and used blending brushes and variety of Altenew inks to colour them up.  Added a little Happy Birthday sentiment from a Whimsy stamp set sitting on my desk.  Perfect size!

I am entering this into the latest challenge at The Flower Challenge... use embellishments - I have added little silver gems to the flower centres.

Thanks to my blog friend Linda. I am adding this to Darnell's NBUS Challenge seeing as how this is the first time using this emboss and cut folder.   

Christmas is nearly here so it was fun to make a non-Christmas card. 

Take care out there people!

Red for Remembrance at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.

 It's time for another challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.  This week our theme is "Red for Remembrance" - create a project with Red. 

I decided to make a red floral card. 

I did some doodling on my card panel.  Added lines to make a frame.  I then stamped an Altenew Camellia Japonica with Altenew inks - Blush, Rouge, Crimson and Velvet.   The leaves are stamped in Green Grass, Shadow Creek and Mountain Pine inks.  I added the flower to corner and trimmed off the overhang.  I finished with some gold gems. 

Do come and join us at Sweet Stampin' Challenge and shows us your projects with some RED. 

WWC 290 Michelle's Challenge: All About Occasions

Welcome to another challenge at Watercooler Wednesday.  Michelle is our hostess with an All About Occasions challenge.

I have a great technique card to share today.  I recently took part in an Altenew class called Stunningly Styled Stencils.

One of the techniques we learnt was to take the ink blended stencil. spritz with water and "print" it onto card. I used an Altenew stencil - Feathered Leaves. My original background was on my Father's day card -here.  Makes a dreamy looking background.  The card was quick to pull together - I pulled out two already watercoloured flowers and a sentiment that was already stamped and in my "magic cup".  I just had to white emboss some leaves from Altenew's Natures Blossom set and watercolour them.  Love how all come together.

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 at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 11.00 am NZ time ) to link up your project.

More Sunshine Daises

Hi there.  It's the last day of the month for our challenge at Die Cut Divas.  This month we have the wonder Rachel Vass Designs as our sponsor and our theme is Flowers.   Rachel Vass Designs specialized in beautiful floral hand drawn digital stamps.

I used her  Sunshine Daisies  - this is the same image I used HERE.... but check out the difference.

I printed out the image larger this time around and used a Spellbinders die to cut it out.    I used some Zig Markers to colour it up.  There are two sentiments with the Daises digital download so this time I used the simpler one.   Being able to change up the sizes really makes using Digi stamps so much fun to use.   I added a a few clear gems to finish. 

Come and join us at Die Cut Divas and show us your Flower projects.

WWC 284 - Dawn's Challenge - All About Occasions

Hi there.  Challenge time at Watercooler Wednesday again... And today I am the hostess with an All About Occasions challenge. 

I have made a Friendship card for today. 

Last month I picked up Simply Cards and Papercrafts magazine - Vol 203.  It had this beautiful layered Peony stamp and die set.  I CASE'd a card from the magazine.  I stamped the flowers in Altenew inks from the Rose Petal set and used the matching die to cut them out.  I trimmed some white card to 13cm x 13cm and using some acetate to make a circle mask/stencil.  I used the lightest ink in the set (Rose Quartz) to blend on the base.  I took some Grey Denim Altenew ink and stamped the leaves around where I added the flowers with dimentional tape. I stamped the sentiment onto some white card and cut it with my trimer and scissors to make a flag end.  I used a sponge dauber to ink around the edge of the sentiment and the panel.  I cut a card base 14cm x 14cm and added my panel. 

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 at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 11.00 am NZ time ) to link up your project.

Stippled Flowers

Yesterday I managed to catch Jen Rzasa's Facebook Live and was so inspired by her cards I had to CASE one of them.  Jen used Peaceful Reverie and made 4 cards using the same design and colours.  I have had this stamp set for some time but struggled with ideas so was super stocked to watch and be inspired.

My card uses Jen's first idea of just using the stippling layer of the stamp set.

Jen used the matching masks but as I don't have them, I used some Simon Says Stamp masking paper to make my own.  I used Coral Bliss and Hydrangea inks to stamp my flowers and bamboo to stamp my leaves.   I used some Alcohol markers to colour the stamen and used some black gems for the centres.  I used a sentiment from the Sincere Sentiment set.  I used the masks over the flowers and splattered some black watercolour paint.  I matted my panel onto some dark pink card and then onto my white card base.

I really was glad I was able to watch the FB live and was inspired to use this set.  I can see myself using different colour combinations with just this soft stippling layer. 

WWC 273 Marsha's Challenge: All About Occasions

Hi there - time for another challenge at Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Marsha is our hostess with an All About Occasions.

 

Today I am sharing a Birthday card with you.

I have used an large Altenew stamp called Happy Bloom which I stamped onto some Bristol smooth card.  I then used some Zig Real Clean brushes to add the colour.  I did some very pale blue around the flowers and leaves.   Added some clear faceted gem to finish.

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 at 5 pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 12.00 noon NZ time ) to link up your project.

WWC 270 - Tristan's Challenge: Anything Goes with a Feminine Twist

Hi there - time for another challenge at Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  Tristan is our hostess with an Anything Goes with a Feminine Twist.

My card today is a tall card - 18cm tall by 10cm across.

Flowers are always perfect for a feminine card and I love the simplicity of this Altenew Hyacinth stamp.  Plus the sentiment is so awesome.  I use three purple inks (Altenew Lavender Fields, Deep  Iris and Midnight Violet) and two greens (Altenew Bamboo and Parrot)  I added some Heart Beat ink for the flower centres and finished with some Morning Dew Crystal Nuvo Drops on the centres.   I used a Spellbinders long rectangle die before matting with some dark purple card and popping on the white base.

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 at 5pm Mountain Standard Time (Tuesday at 12.00 NZ time) to link up your project.

Fabulous Florets

I had done an order with Krafters Cart at the beginning of April which finally got delivered on Thursday now that New Zealand is at Level 3 and it had Altenew's Fabulous Florets with it's matching die, some Altenew patterned paper, some Heartfelt Creations stamps and dies and a matching mold.   Friday afternoon I opened up the Fabulous Florets.  I love that Altenew has a load of inspiration on their stamp set backing sheets.   I was inspired by one of the design there. 

I used Pinkalicous and Rubalite inks to stamps some of the flowers along the bottom of  my card.  I added some dark green splatters.  I then stamped one flower on a scrap of white card together with some leaves using Forest Glades and Evergreen inks.  I die cut the single flowers and the leaves.  I added the sentiment to some black card with white embossing powder.  I matted the panel with dark pink card before adding to my white base, 

Flowers two ways

I haven't been doing much crafting this week.  Working full time from home and exercising every day - time seems to have gotten away with me.  But I did get two cards made.  Two quite different floral cards.

My first card

A little out of my comfort zone but I'm getting interested in making my own flowers.  I have a few dies that make flowers and over the years I've made a few.  Recently I've been following Heartfelt Creations and once lockdown is over, should get the stamps and dies of theirs that I've ordered.  Meanwhile, I made these Dogwood flowers using a Sizzix die and used the Heartfelt Creations 3D flower mold to give them some dimension.  I used a Tim Holtz die to cut a branch.  My white background is embossed with a Spellbinders die cut on top. 

Card two

This card uses stamps to make my flowers.  I downloaded the sentiment from Catherine Pooler Designs and printed it at 75% - I trimmed the sentiment and temporarily adhered it to the card base.  Then I took lots of the flowers from Catherine Pooler's Tilly's Garden stamps and using both Altenew and Catherine Pooler inks, stamped my flower layers.  Of course I had to use my favourite colour, Purple.  Once I had stamped all the flowers and leaves, I took the panel and added the layer before putting it back onto the base.    A few clear faceted gems to finish ( and covering a few boo boos)

NZ is on the last legs of a 4 1/2 week lock-down - down to Level 3 which is still basically a lock-down with a little bit more freedom.  Shops and mall still closed, cafes can do takeaway with no contact, fast food also click and collect.   Weddings and Funerals - up to 10 people but with social distancing... not receptions or wakes.  Stay in your bubble and stay home is still the the norm.   Seems like I'll be working from home for quite awhile longer.  My bubble of one has grown as my husband and I have reconciled and are going to give our marriage another go.  Faults on both parts so we are working to spend more time doing things together.  Hence less time working on my own in my craft room. 

Blessings

Happy Easter to you all..

I'm looking forward to to having a quiet Easter.  We are half way through our four week lock-down here in NZ - it seems to be working as yesterday we had the least number of new cases.  The number has been going down over the past days.   Being home alone might not be easy, but it does save lives.

Over the past couple of evenings  I have been working on a card.  It's another one the I did following a tutorial by Paula from Craftables.   As I've said before, Paula's cards are shabby chic.  I really wanted to try out some different techniques so challenged myself to make this one.

I found some grey wood like paper to make my background.  For the brown woodgrain paper I took some kraft card and ran Vintage Photo distress ink down it.  Really happy how it turned out.  For my flowers I used two pink and and three purple flowers that I had made using Foamarin.   I die cut some green card with a Spellbinders rose leave die and sprayed them with water and scrunched them.  Once they dried, I unfolded them to add to my arrangement.  I had added muslin and thread directly to the brown card layers and then the flowers and leaves.  I stamped the sentiment from an old Stamp It! set onto some white card and trimmed it before mounting to black card.

This is my Easter card to you all..

March CCC reveal

Hi there.  I'm here today to share the card I made as part of the March CCC.  I send a card off to Jo in England.

The themes in March's challenge were:



                               

or use the theme options: Things with Wings/Flowers or Friendship  - Products/Technique -  Embossing/Design Paper.

I chose to use the colour scheme, embossing, design paper and flowers.

I used the recessed panel card technique I learnt last month.   I did some embossing on the white panel, used some blue design patterned paper and made some flowers with a Stampin' Up punch.   The sentiment is an Altenew one which I silver embossed on black card.

10 days of lockdown done and dusted.... Work has been really busy with lots of  online contact from people to be answered.   Today my gardener (the ex) came around and mowed my lawns and did the gardens.  We have been having an Indian summer, with lots of sunshine and no rain for some time.   Have to say it's been hard working and not spending time in the craft room or outside sitting on the deck.   Looking forward to spending Easter relaxing. reading and crafting.  I don't start back till Thursday 16th - so nice to not have to sit and look at a small screen all day.