Beat the Christmas Rush - August 2019

These cards have taken a while to come to fruition ..... I actually started them in January, by making the double gate-fold card blanks and adding the paper panels using old freebie magazine papers.  And there I was stuck!
I bought the sentiment stamp from Inkylicious a while later and realised it was perfectly sized for the inner panel.  So I stamped / heat embossed five images in colours to match the papers, then die-cut using a stitched square.  It turned out that the red didn't match one of the papers as well as I had thought it would, so that square was put aside.  When I went back to it, I used gold instead, but couldn't be bothered to dig out the die again, so used a circle punch.
There seemed to be something missing, the cards needed some detail on the front panels, so I put them aside (again!) waiting for inspiration.  Eventually I decided on some SU snowflake stamps, stamped /heat embossed those and used their matching punches to cut out.  It's a little difficult to see in the photo, but the snowflakes run under the image on the inside panel, as well as on the front.

They have turned out rather well (eventually!) and I actually prefer the circle inside the card to the squares, so that's something to remember for next time!

Beat the Christmas Rush July 2019

I made eight of these, but could really only fit five into the photo!  The stamp is from Inkylicious, stamped and heat embossed onto some pearlescent card, then punched into a circle and popped onto a die card mat in the same card (die from Tonic).  I then made a card blank from the same card, with two rounded corners.  They were initially assembled as side fold cards with the rounded corners at the open side, but halfway through I decided that maybe they would look better as tent folds with the corners at the base, and I do now prefer them that way.

The gold is done on pearlescent ivory and the others on white.

Beat the Christmas Rush - March

UK Scrappers is running the Beat the Christmas Rush again this year here.  The cards below are white heat embossed on kraft, matted onto an embossed kraft background with a very thin gold mat.

The snowflake and sentiment are from an SU set released a couple of years ago.

Lovely as a Tree Christmas cards

Lovely as a Tree is one of my favourite SU stamp sets.  Although when it came out, I did read it at first glance as "lonely" as a tree ..... :-)  Though not a specifically seasonal stamp, it does lend itself very well to Christmas cards.

A nice simple card, embossed in silver and gold, on aqua and red mats respectively.  I assembled four each of these at the retreat, but ran out of plain white card blanks and had to use deckled edge ones for the aqua/silver cards.  I think I like them better..... LOL.

Distress Oxides over white embossing

My PC hasn't flaked out for a while now ..... fingers crossed!
The weekend before last, I went to the ATDML retreat, had a fab time as always and got a reasonable amount done.
I made these cards:

The image is a Woodware stamp, heat embossed in white and Distress Oxides shmooshed over the top.  They look very delicate :-)

New baby cards

Cast your minds back.... early last year I had to make a last minute engagement card at the request of DH.  The last minute wedding card request followed some time later.  And now ...... tah-dah! ...... the new baby card!  I was prepared for this one and made some variations on pink and blue, at the last-but-one crop :-)  Today we heard that a baby boy has arrived, so congrats to the proud new parents and DH is tasked with writing - and posting! - a blue one.

I made four of each, mixing and matching two embossed backgrounds and two sentiment stamps.  Stamps are from Woodware and SU, the die is from Tonic.
So I am well prepared for any more new arrivals :-)

Heart balloons birthday card

This is a rescued card .... I had embossed and distress-inked the background, die-cut a butterfly design and assembled with a peel-off sentiment.  But the more I looked at it, the less I liked the look of the butterflies against the inking.  It sat around the craft room for a while, as I tried to think how to fix it.  Then this unbranded heart balloons die dropped through the letter box....

I use repo Herma, so was able to pull off the butterfly die cut.  But I couldn't remove the sentiment without damaging the background, so I decided to cut the balloons in gold mirri to match it.  The bow to finish off the end of the balloon strings is a Sue Wilson die, quite fiddly to make up but it looks lovely :-)
I like it much better now :-)

Another Sea Breeze birthday card

Although made at the same time, this didn't fit the challenge of the last post, so I thought I would blog separately :-)

I covered the card blank with the wood grain paper in the Kaisercraft 6.5" Sea breeze collection pad, then made triple panels from the tiny flower paper.  The die is unbranded and I cut it twice to get a second butterfly, which is attached leaving the wings free.  Then it was matted onto a plain stitched circle in white and the sentiment was stamped/embossed and die-cut out.

2018 card challenge - January

Kool Kitty Nat is running a card challenge this year, with a monthly theme and a goal to use old and new stash.  Which goes very well with my own Buy it - Try it and Out of the Drawer :-)  January is 'Fancy Words', where the sentiment or other text is the focus.

I used a 6.5 paper pad from Kaisercraft, Sea Breeze I think, as the 'old' element and the large HB die from SU is the 'new'.  The other sentiments are also SU and are stamped/embossed in metallic Teal from American Crafts.

The last cards of the year

Having managed to get everything posted to everyone by the skin of my teeth, I thought I would share the last couple of card batches I made.
I have been playing with a new set of hexagon dies:

The dies are from Sizzix (bought in the sale!) and I cut the blanks from an existing square blank, then cut a mat out of Crafters Companion patterned cardstock.  The snowflake image is by Sue Wilson and I stamped/embossed in silver.  The sentiment is so old I am not sure where it is from, this was also stamped/embossed but this time in lilac.  I am definitely going to make some more of these hexagon cards, they are great fun :-)

These vintage cards were actually done at the October ATDML retreat but I never got around to blogging them:

I made shmooshy distress ink backgrounds, then over-stamped with images from Stampin Up - frame, carollers and Father Christmas - and an old one from Creative Expressions.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and  Happy New Year :-)

50th birthday card

I made this for a work colleague, we presented it yesterday so now I can share :-)

The blank card was cut on the Silhouette, I used this file from Craftsuprint.  It has the card base, a mat and the numbers, all can be cut from a sheet of A4 - I cut the base twice in purple and the mat and numbers in white.
I cut one base in half and embossed it with a folder - I could have just embossed half the main base, but a lot of people had to sign the inside, which would have been difficult on a debossed surface!  Then the embossed half-base was attached to the main one.
The numbers were also embossed and then inked with distress inks in purple, teal and pink.  I attached them to the white mat and then the whole topper to the card.
Then I was a bit stuck - part of the brief was butterflies, but I couldn't find a butterfly die which looked right, perched on the 50.  But whilst looking through the box, I came across the champagne glass and pearly trail, which were perfect.  They were die cut in Bazzill Diamond Bling and the small butterflies were punched to match.  A few pearls and it was done.
I am very pleased with this - she couldn't open all her cards at the party so I hope she is pleased too .... I'll find out tomorrow :-)

Out of the Drawer - embossed pink birthday card

I have an large number of embossing folders - time to do something with them!
I made a lot of different embossed backgrounds and inked them up with various distress inks.  They were cut to fit, adhered to the card blank .... but then what?  I do always have trouble covering up backgrounds LOL.

So this is what I came up with.
I stamped the flower (SU) three times, coloured and punched out.  Then they were layered onto the card, the first flat to the background, the second with 1 mm foam tape and the third on 2 mm tape.  I die-cut the banner and stamped the sentiment onto it.  The original embossing folder was (I think) from Taylored Expressions.
It is a bit pink for me ..... but a perfect addition to The Box :-)

Out of the Drawer: Snowflake Christmas cards

This Stampendous stamp set and matching dies came out a couple of years ago, I saw it and thought well that's OK, but I won't bother with it.  Fast forward a few months and I see a card on Pinterest and decide that actually I would rather like the sets after all!  But you know how fast everything is released and then disappears nowadays...... I couldn't find it anywhere.  In the end I got the stamps from a UK company and the dies from the US, via Amazon.
So what happened next ....?  Yes you guessed it, they went into the drawer and have never been christened, even though I went to such lengths to get them!!
Tine to put that right:-)

There are two small and one large snowflakes in the set and I used the smaller ones, in two colourways.  However I found that one of them was more difficult to die-cut as the die obscured most of the stamping and it was very difficult to position accurately.  The gold snowflake on the right was my third attempt, I then switched to the other one which is much easier to cut!
For the blue cards, I stamped/embossed the snowflakes in silver and blue, plus a sentiment (Stampin' Up).  The paper is from Craft Creations, matted onto silver mirri.
The gold snowflakes and sentiment are also heat embossed and the paper is from Teresa Collins, matted onto a nice dull gold.
I made five gold and six blue - it would have been six gold but I messed up the stamping of the sixth snowflake and I was a bit fed up with them all by that point LOL.  I also discovered that my 4" card blanks were actually not square, so I had to trim all my carefully cut mats to fit!  I have since cut down the entire pack so that they are all square, otherwise I can't use any square dies without them looking wrong! Thank you, Card Crafts UK ......
I ma very pleased with how they have turned out, that's eleven more for the box :-)

Out of the Drawer: Double gatefold birthday card

I forgot I hadn't blogged this, it's Sy's birthday card!

I made a double gatefold card blank and used papers from a 6" pad to make the panels.  The medallions are made with an SU set, Daydream Medallions, heat embossed in purple and teal, then die-cut with a pierced circle.  The sentiment banner is also a pierced die, SU sentiment heat embossed again with the purple.
The paper, stamps and the embossing powders are all OotD items - I really must use my embossing powders more often, I have so many (whisper it, around 90......) and I do like the effect.  I think that because I do most of my crafting at crops or retreats, I don't tend to take a heat gun etc with me, so that's probably why they have fallen by the wayside.  Must do better!!

March yellow challenge

Over at Kool Kitty, the 2017 Pantone colour challenge for this month is yellow.  Not really one of my go-to colours, but I got onto a bit of a roll and have made four!  Well, I wasn't happy with the first one, so I did a second one which gave me the idea for the third, which led to a fourth using the leftover bit ...... you know how it goes :-)

Memory Box Butterflies, Tattered Lace flourish and SU sentiment.  The background paper is from Craft Creations, the butterfly bases are a bronze pearlescent cardstock, doesn't show well in the photo :-)

More MB butterflies .... I had this white die-cut leftover from the pink inlaid card I did the other day, so just popped it over the same yellow paper matted onto matching Bazzill.

Then it occurred to me that I could do another inlaid card over the yellow paper, so that was the third one.  But then I had another white die-cut leftover ...... so .....

I had this background already embossed and smooshed over with Distress ink, it does have yellow in the mix ....

That's four cards from a colour I don't really use very much.  Not bad :-)

Buy it - Try it: Steampunk birthday card

I bought two Sheena Douglas dies earlier in the month and thought the clock would be perfect for a crafty friend's birthday card.  Yes it's the same card, photos taken in two different lights!!

The background is embossed in a swirly folder, then coloured with Distress stains (another BiTi) in black, pewter and bronze.
I attached the die-cut, but it needed something more  ....... the die hadn't quite cleanly cut in one place and I decided to put a butterfly over it - in fact this card was going to be called Butterfly at 7 o'clock LOL.  But it looked a bit lonely, so I added two more!!  The die set is from Memory Box.
Originally I had planned to put a sentiment banner under the clock, but I had also tried out the SD balloon die when cutting the clock and I though the 'undercarriage' part would go very well under the clock! 
So this one evolved a bit in the making, but I am very pleased with it :-)

Wedding Anniversary card

Our 32nd wedding anniversary was last Thursday.  We went off to Oxford for a couple of days to celebrate, had a nice time wandering around Blenheim Palace and its gardens.  We had meant to visit a couple of museums on the following day, but I had wrecked my feet going round the gardens, so we'll have to leave that for another time.  The hotel was nice, but the room didn't have glasses in, just those plastic tumblers which would tip over if you poured something from a bottle into them... so we drank our Prosecco by the mug instead!!  And very nice it was too :-)
This is the anniversary card I made for DH.

As usual, mirri and photography are not the best of friends.... It is very shiny in real life!!  I embossed some Bazzill Diamond Bling cardstock for the background and matted it onto silver mirri.  Then I die-cut the heart (Robert Addams) and sentiment (Tonic) from the same mirri.
Simple but effective, as they say :-)

Colour Challenge 2017

Flame is the challenge colour this month over at Mystik Nat.  It's orange veering a little towards red, not normally a natural choice for me, but I did enjoy doing these.

It's the same Chocolate Baroque stamp as I used for the Valentine card, but in two different shades of orange.  The first one is stamped and matted onto a light brown cardstock and the second onto cream, both mats were embossed with a swiss dot folder.  The sentiment is done with a SU stamp and punch.

Engagement card ... no pressure...

Last week, DH and I were exchanging emails at work and he said how much he liked the Valentine card I made him.  So, talking of cards, he said, K has got engaged, do we have an engagement card in the box???
Well.  Of all the cards there are in the box, what is the one thing I do not have..... :-)
I now have several such cards Pinned!  But in the end, the idea came to me at work the following day, so I had to do a quick sketch in my planner to make sure I didn't forget it before getting home LOL.  Never have I clock-watched so assiduously and I was out of the door like a rocket!!  When DH got home and saw me working, he knew he was doing dinner ..... :-)

Photographing mirri is always a nightmare, in the end I had to lie the card flat which has foreshortened the view a little, but every other way I tried was just a mess of reflections!
Another outing for the Tonic Celtic layering die set using mirri, white and a lilac Swiss Dot cardstock.  The sentiment is from SU and is stamped/embossed in silver, then die-cut with a pierced banner die.  The hearts are the same die, from Robert Addams, one cut with the mesh inner piece and one without.
I am very pleased with this one, once I had the idea, it came together very quickly.  I would like to know if these shaped card blanks are available anywhere now though - I can't remember how long ago I bought them, or even what brand they are, but they are perfect for big circular designs like this.  I probably ought to experiment with some dies to see if I can get a similar effect myself, any suggestions welcome :-)

Valentine Card

This is the card I made for DH :-)

The stamp is from Chocolate Baroque, after colouring I die-cut the image with Nesties labels 36.  I had coloured a few images and had experimented with three different dies, this one fits the best :-)  I embossed some cardstock in Sandstone from Craft Creations and adhered to a card blank in the same colour, for a nice tone-on-tone effect.  The image is also stamped on the same cardstock.  The sentiment tag is a SU punch and the sentiment is also SU.