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 

Artistic Dahlia - Two different ways to make a card.

 One of my recent purchases was the Pinkfresh Studio's Artistic Dahlia washi tape and coordinating dies.  Once I purchased them, I decided I need the stamps and matching stencil as well... so a quick order to my local online store (Krafters Cart) and they arrived in a couple of days!  So now I have lots of choices on using these all together.  

So for my first card I've used the Washi tape and die to cut some stunning florals.

I stuck the washi to some white card and used the matching die to cut it out.   It is a very clever idea- each of the florals are separate and it's one linked die that cuts them out. Luckily my old 12inch Cuttlebug plates fit my new Spellbinders Platinum 6 machine.  I made the frame with a Spellbinders die set (Hemstitched Rectangles) cut from some maroon coloured card.   I layered some of the florals around the frame and pop a part one into the corner.   A Couture Creations stamp and die set had jumped into my Krafters Cart order - so stamped the and die cut it.  And my Altenew Enamel Dots were the perfect finishing colour. 

I'm adding this to Darnell's NBUS challenge - as the Washi  and dies are new. 

For my second card I had The Flower Challenge #80 Pretty Pastels in mind and used the stamp and stencil combo.

The stamp is HUGE!  - I had to put it diagonally across my original MISTI and trim a panel of card to fit.  Once stamped, I used a variety of inks to colour it in.   I has watched Jennifer McGuire's Video on  Stepping up or mixing your inks.  I used a number of colours together on some of the layers of the stencil to give more dimension.  Again, when I had finished, I used the die set to cut all the florals out.   I have heaps of both the washi and stenciled florals to use on other cards.   The sentiment is from the same stamp set (there are 4, 3 of which have matching dies!)  I layered a couple of the matching die cuts to give added stability to sentiment.   Again, the Altenew Enamel Dots had the perfect colour for my embellishments.   For some texture, I die cut the Pinkfresh Studio's Floral and Diamonds Tile Coverplate and stuck it to my base.  I blended some soft blue around the middle to add my floral centrepiece over.   I got this one finished just a little while ago - it's a cooler, windy and wet Autumn day here - nice to be in the craft room!  

Hubby is watching some rugby so I'm off to do more crafting.   

Little sneakers card.

 Recently I did an order with Altenew and got a little free stamp ( I ordered the matching die as well)  The little stamp set was a pair of sneaker.  They are super cute.

So yesterday I got a bit of time to play and this is what I came up with 

I stamped the sneakers and die cut them out.  I used Altenew Woodless Watercolour pencils to add the colour.  I used Gina K Master Layouts 2 to cut a the two panels and layers.  For the centre panel I added some washi tape - one of grass and a sliver of gold tape and the little sentiment from the set.  Added the sneakers with some dimensionals. To add some texture I used an embossing folder on the second panel.  

I also got to get my NZ swap card done.  It's a Book binding card and will be on it's way to Maxine tomorrow.... once she's got it, I'll share it. 

And today I got a few more cards done.  I'll share in the next few days.  

Card Chain Challenge - December Reveal

 I took part in the December Card Chain Challenge and got to send a card to my dear friend, Arlene, in California.  

As well as the usual themes we also had a Tic Tac Toe board to use

I chose the right hand side - washi tape, blue and emboss it. 

My washi was some pretty Poinsettia tape, my blue was both the shimmery card stock and the colouring on my Gnome and Emboss it was the folder I used to emboss the blue card.   And I got my Christmas card for Arlene done at the same time.   Saved me postage for sure.    Added bonus, that Arlene loved it!  She had made a number of Gnome cards for her family so this one suited well. 

It's such fun taking part in the Card Chain Challenge... always a bonus to get card from anywhere in the world.   Still time to join the January sign up  (here)

WWC 262 - Marsha's Challenge: All About Ocassions

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

 My card today is uses some Altenew Washi tape.  I fussy cut around some of the flowers and added to a card that I had added a Go Press and Foil sentiment on and some green and gold splatter.   The little tag is some ephemera I had in my stash.

Come and join the fun.  Check out the projects that the other artists at Watercooler Wednesday

Challenge have created.  Then take our challenge and link your creation 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.

Make a Wish..

I got lots of new goodies over the weekend so just had to try out my new Altenew Mid Century frame die.

I used some silver mirror card to die cut the frame.  I added it to my light grey card. I used some   silver embossing powder to add the sentiment.   I added some of the wide washi (Monochrome) to white card and fussy cut some of the flowers.   I also die cut some leaves from the washi.  Once I was happy with the layout I added to the card.  Some is stuck directly onto the base and some with 3D tape.  I finished with some silver sticker dots.   

I can't wait to get more cards done with the stash I got.  Working full time is getting in the way of my crafting!!!!! 

Thanks for stopping by.

With Deepest Sympathy

I managed to get a few moments in my craft room on Saturday while my daughter, son in law and Grandson were having a nap after their long trip from Perth.    I like to have a sympathy card or two on hand just in case.   I was sorting some stamps and other stuff on my desk and found my roll of Altenew washi "Monochrome Washi"  I was inspired to use it like I've seen one of the newer washi tapes being used... added to white card and then fussy cut, although the newer washi can be die cut with a matching die.  

I added the washi to white card and then did my fussy cutting 

I prepped my panel by using my score pal to make score marks around the card.  I stamped the sentiment from the "Fresh Freesia' set from Altenew then added the cut out floral tape.  I finished with some Ice Cube jewels from Lucy's Little Things.  I'm loving these lovelies.

It's really was a quick, CAS card.  

I'm adding this to the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes.  
WordArt Wednesday - Anything Goes

And I'm finishing with a sweet photo of my two grandies

Archie and Grace.

WWC#222 Helen's "All About Occasions" challenge

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

I'm building up my Birthday card stash so here's another one.  I has reviewed one of my Altenew Academy class... All About Layering 3 and day 1 used Altenew Sweet Rose Bouquet.  

I stamped the layered rose set onto some white card using Altenew Enchanted Garden mini cubes (Wisteria, Hydrangea, Ultraviolet and Andromeda) for the roses and Green Valley set (Firefly, Green Field and Shadow Creek) for the leaves. I fussy cut the rose bouquet with scissors and a craft knife.  I wanted some soft brown stripes and wasn't able to find any in my huge hoard of Patterned papers, so just took a sheet and turned it over and took the Altenew Classy Stripes stencils, my blending brush and Vanilla Cream ink and made my own.  I added a lovely lacy washi tape along the bottom.  I chose to use a sentiment from a Clearly Besotted set A few purple sequins and it was done.

Come join in the fun.  Check out the projects that the artists at Watercooler Wednesday Challenge have created then take the challenge and link your creation to the challenge post. We’d love to have you join us.  You have until Mondays at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (Tuesdays at midday NZ time) to link up your project

WWC#217 Michelle's Masculine "Anything Goes" challenge

Hello there, it’s time for another Watercooler Wednesday Challenge. Michelle  is our hostess this week with an "anything goes" masculine challenge

My card today is for a young man's 21st birthday.

I decided that a bit of a grungy card would suit.  So I hunted out some very old Hero Arts stamps called Brush Strokes and a Just Your Next Stamp  stamp - Large Splatter.  I added some washi and stamped the splatter stamp with Versafine Onyx Black and clear embossed.  I then stamped the Brush stokes stamps in some Altenew Silver Stone ink.  I matted this onto dark blue card and then onto a olive green card base.  I die cut the numbers out of the green and blue card and offset layered.  I decided a needed a little sentiment so used the one from Altenew Sohcahtoa set.

Come join in the fun and make a masculine card.  Check out the projects that the artists at Watercooler Wednesday Challenges have created then take the challenge and link your creation to the challenge post. We’d love to have you join us.  You have until Mondays at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (Tuesdays at 1pm NZ time) to link up your project.

Happy Easter to you all...

Happy Anniversary

Last Saturday was our 39th wedding anniversary... my doesn't time fly!  I got Pinterest inspired to make Hubby his card

I added some washi tapes to a card stock and die cut both from that piece and the card front so I could inlay the heart.  I was really pleased I got to use the LOVE tape.  I had picked it up at Ikea for a $1.00 last year.  I used a free die cut filigree bow and a strip of black card to look like ribbon.   The sentiment is one from an older Hero Arts set. 

Short and sweet today as I should be doing the packing for our long weekend away.  We are going to our friend's place at Managwahi, taking our son and his partner with us.  Should be a fun weekend.  I'm going to spend some time getting to know my new iPhone 7  (shouted myself the latest model for a change!) 

Have a great weekend one and all, and thanks for visiting.

Scramble and splatters....

It's been a busy week for me.  Starting with a cough and sore rib over the weekend that led to a visit to the doctor on Monday, a chest xray and blood test ending with a visit to the North Shore Hospital on Monday night with IV antibiotics for Pneumonia.  Overnight stay led to a wait the next day for a CT scan to check for clots (I've had a pulmonary embolism in the past) and finally at 6pm Tuesday the all clear and got to go home.

We had overseas visitors arrive later that night.   It was my daughter's in-laws.  A lovely couple who stayed with us till Saturday afternoon.  Very early Saturday morning we picked up our daughter, her hubby and baby Archer for a 5 day visit.   So you can see it's been full on.

This morning, baby was sleeping,Mummy and Daddy having a sleep in and hubby out for a walk, so snuck into craft room to join in Kim's Scramble over on the HA Flickr group.  She set a real challenge - a card with matching tag and decorated envelope.  All in 90 mins.

I had DC182 sitting on my desk and a bright blue card base.  I took some Bristol paper and stamped the butterflies.  I used Zig Markers in bright blue and green to colour the butterflies.  I used the matching die to cut three of the butterflies.  The die doesn't cut all the way through, so you can lift the wings.  Added a sentiment from the set as well.   The tag was cut from some Bristol with a CAS-ual Friday die.  I used the smaller of the two butterflies and did a similar design, which I replicated on the blue envelope.  Entering this into the All Kinds of Everything at Moving With the Times Challenge

And here is my little man who came to see me just as I was finishing..

And yes at 10.30am Nana is still in her PJ's!  We'd had a nice sleep in and breakfast and I hadn't got dressed before scrambling!

We had a lovely lunch with our son coming over with some of his friends to meet the little dude. The weather held off  and we got to eat outside.  Hubby barbecued sausages and chicken wings.

Later this afternoon, I was catching up on some blogs and I saw that Virginia's new challenge was underway over on Virginia's View.  It's "Spray, Mist and Splatter". I was very inspired by Virginia's samples... so CASE'd it.

 

I started by using some Lindy's Gang Spray in Green and pink onto some creamy card before stamping the flower from Altenew Beautiful Day and the leaves from the set.  I used some purple and green inks to stamp.  I like the design Virginia used so did something similar with some washi tape.  The background has drops of the pink spray and mist of white Decor spray(which is very  and splatters made with watered down Hickory Smoke distress ink.  The sentiment is from the Beautiful day set as well. 

And here's another pic of Archer

Full of smiles this morning.  He has a second tooth cutting through but you wouldn't know it.  He is such a good boy

Looking forward to another day off with them tomorrow then back to work for a couple of days and then spending Thursday with them before they fly out to LA on Thursday night for their holiday. 

thanks for stopping by today.

Stamping with MISTI and Altenew flowers....

Saturday I got to spend time crafting with my group of friends.  We haven't meet for quite some time... life  has been busy for all of us.  We had an awesome day catching up with what's been happening with us all, sharing stamps and ideas and of course, a fabulous lunch.  There were 5 of us  this time... a nice number.  I took along a few of newer stamps and the others stamped off a few to make up later. I got onto starting the cards for my commission.. got a production line under way and got 5 done.   Then it was play time.   I showing my friends my MISTI and how you can use it to do stamp layering.

Still practice needed... but getting there.  I used Altenew Inks to do my layering.   I used the "You" set from SOA to stamp the sentiment.  Thanks to Helen who had a perfect piece of purple card to make the mat.

And I did some CASEing.  My friend Suna had given me a beautiful card as part of our NZ technique swap.    Here it is

And she made the envelope as well....  I asked if I could CASE it as I loved the design.

Here is my card

I used the same design, similar washi tapes and I used purple leaves.  I changed up the flower, using one from Altenew Peony Scrolls together with the leaves from the set.  I added a sentiment from Hero Arts. This is heading off overseas to my June CCC partner.

Hope you had a great weekend.  I'm hanging in there to get the latest SOA kit that I won.  I've had notification that it has been posted :-)

Hero Arts Hello with Orchids

"Hello".... a great sentiment.   You can add lots of other sentiments with it.  Just like I did here for my sample at a2z scrapbooking today

I used two beautiful sets from Hero Arts....

The orchid stamp set (CL942) has a matching die set as well (DI177) but I don't have it.   I added a die cut Hello from CL151 with the sentiment from the set.    Using a MISTI tool really makes the layering stamps easy to do.

Remember if you are in need of any items from the a2z Scrapbooking store  you can use code Dawn15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. (before tax and shipping)  And don’t forget that we are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  Follow us on these different social media outlets so you won’t miss out on any fun promotions!

Supplies
Hero Arts Color Layering Orchid in a Pot CL946
Hero Arts Hello Stamp Cut DC151

Sending You Warm Thoughts

Hi there crafters. I'm filling in for Char,( who is struggling with computer issues) over at A2Z Scrapbooking.

Our challenge this month is CAS (Clean and Simple).  Here's my card to inspire you to join us.



I have used couple of older Hero Arts sets for this card.  The open flower from Night And Day Flowers was stamped and clear embossed before being coloured with Zig Clean Colour Real Brush pens and an aqua brush. (Note:  This popular Stamp set is currently Out of Stock at a2z Scrapbooking, however you can CUSTOM Order it in the Store. Just click on the REQUEST CUSTOM ORDER form on the store HOME Page! This goes for pretty much ANY Hero Arts products that is still available.  If you can’t find it in the store, please feel free to ask! )  The sentiment is from Find Joy CL497 (discontinued) was gold embossed.

Remember if you are in need of any items from the a2z Scrapbooking store  you can use code Dawn15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more. (before tax and shipping)  And don’t forget that we are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.  Follow us on these different social media outlets so you won’t miss out on any fun promotions!

Do come and join us with your CAS projects.  We really love having you play along with us.

Inspired by Virginia.

Getting back from holiday I struggled for a day or two to get back into stamping and creating, despite new stamps sitting on my desk.  So off to the internet to see what my friends are up to.  Virginia has been really busy with one botanical collage stamp from Penny Black and it really got me inspired.  One of my new stamps is a set from Stamp-It, an Australian company, and is a collage set.

I did two cards using the stamps in the set.

 

This first one is the bigger of the two stamps.  I coloured with Copics and then masked them and used my air spritzing tool and a Copic and a Tombow marker to colour the background.  Sentiment is from Close to My Heart.  I added some Wink of Stella.  It splattered when I shook it and I ended up with splatters, so added some more all over the card. 

 

My second card used two of the other collages.  I used a Poppy Stamps die to cut the 3x4 journal card and stamped the image.  I used some Inktense pencils and a Tombow colourless blender to colour.  The sentiment is also a Stamp-It stamp.  For the background I used the smaller collage with some sepia Archival ink and added some distress around the edge.  I layered a couple of washi tapes across.  To finish I added black pearls. 

This was just the kick start I needed.  So much so that I managed two cards today for my July posts on Die Cut Divas.  Getting myself a little ahead.  And I even went out to look at some storage ideas for the craft room.  Got some ideas for tidying up one corner with some cube storage.  Just got to wait till some repairs on the corner of the floor are done.  A while back our water cylinder leaked and the floor under it and into the corner of my room has gone soft.   The repairer is coming in this week and I've moved out some of my supplies to give them room to fix the floor.  Once it's all back I'll get the new storage in place. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

April challenge over at Die Cut Divas.

Paula has set an awesome challenge over at Die Cut Divas this month. A Washi Birthday challenge.   And the sponsor this month is my local stamp shop~ Scottie Crafts.   Thank you Adrienne and Wendy for providing a wonderful prize.

So, I have some washi but am never too sure how to use it on my cards.  It tends to get used to hold my dies when they go through the Cuttlebug!   Paula's challenge made me think outside the square with my washi.

I laid strips of the washi onto card and stamped my PB glamorous girl onto it... well actually I stamped the image onto a shadow stamp then onto the back to the washi covered piece.  First try I had trouble seeing the image on all that black... The reverse image stamping worked a charm!  I then coloured her and fussy cut.  The green panel was cut with a Simon Says die.  I added Washi down the sides and then cut a Simon Says banner and used the PB sentiment.  I then pop dotted the girl before adding the green stickles and some black Enamel Accents to her handbag and the shoes.  

So would love to have you join us this month over at the DCD blog.