Blue birthday

I decided that I needed to see a non-Christmas card, and I also needed to see some blue and green in my Instagram feed!

I used a background stamp from Simon Says Stamp, white embossed onto watercolour cardstock, coloured with Zig markers and water, then added a white embossed sentiment from Clearly Besotted.

 Thanks for visiting :)

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Karren Johnson

Welcome to "Challenge me a Christmas Card" for 2018!

My guest today is Karren Johnson, and she has challenged me to make a card using stencils. You can check out her take on this challenge HERE.

Here's what I came up with:

I used a stencil from Gina K designs, coloured with Distress Inks. and a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for visiting :)

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Kelly Szafron

Welcome to "Challenge me a Christmas Card" for 2018!

My guest today is Kelly Szafron, and she has challenged me to make a card with sparkle.  You can check out her take on this challenge HERE.

Here's what I came up with:

 I used the Birch Press "Radiant Ornament" dies (A, B and C) with American Crafts glitter cardstock on the top layer, with a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's "Tiny Words Christmas".  I used the C die layer twice - once on the dark red (Cherry Cobbler from Stampin' Up), and once to emboss the gold mirror cardstock from DCWV, so the little bits of gold that peek through from behind are not flat, but a bit curved from the embossing.

 I couldn't stop at just one!!

 This one has a sentiment from Birch Press "Joy and Peace".

Thanks for visiting :)

Happy birthday, Jacqui

It is my sister Jacqui's birthday today - I made this card for her last week:

I used the beautiful flowers stamp set from Simon Says Stamp, coloured with a mix of Copic markers and Derwent pencils. The sentiment is from Hero Arts.

 Thanks for visiting :)

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Jenny Dix

Welcome to "Challenge me a Christmas Card" for 2018!

My guest today is Jenny Dix, and she has challenged me to make a card using texture paste. You can check out her take on this challenge HERE.

Here's what I came up with:

I used the Ornate Floral Stencil from Hero Arts, with Wendy Vecchi texture paste that I coloured with a few drops of red alcohol ink (I'd not tried that before - when I've wanted to colour texture paste, I've used Distress Inks or Gelatos, but I wanted something a bit darker, and the alcohol ink worked really well!) I added a sentiment from Birch Press Design.

 Thanks for visiting :)

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Gayatri Murali

Welcome to "Challenge me a Christmas Card" for 2018!

My guest today is Gayatri Murali,and our challenge is to make a card using Faber Castell Gelatos. You can check out her take on this challenge HERE.

Here's what I came up with:

I used the Christmas Rose Bouquet from Wplus9, watercoloured with Gelatos, along with a white embossed sentiment on vellum from Simon Says Stamp. And, btw, I totally CASEd a card by Kelly Latevola for this card - you can see her card HERE.

Thanks for visiting :)

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC213

Welcome to a new challenge at CAS-ual Fridays!

 I used "Bring on the snowflakes" , gold embossed onto shiny gold cardstock from my stash, along with a sentiment from "Snowy Sayings".

Make sure you check out the CAS-ual Fridays challenge blog for more inspiration from the Girl Fridays, and join in on our challenge!

Thanks for visiting :)

Fusion: Christmas Chair

Welcome to a new challenge at Fusion!

Make sure you check out all the rest of the inspiration at the Fusion challenge blog, and play along with your own creation!

Thanks for visiting :)

Challenge me a Christmas Card

Welcome to "Challenge me a Christmas Card" for 2018!

 I had a friend of mine (not a crafty friend) challenge me to use some of my stash of patterned paper - seeing as I had already been challenged to use patterned paper, she challenged me to use only one piece of patterned paper. This is what I came up with:

 The patterned paper is a very old piece from Cosmo Cricket. I teamed it up with white pieces die-cut using a border die from Hero Arts, and a die-cut "Joy" from Stampin' Up cut from gold foil cardstock, and a stamped and white-embossed "to the world" from Birch Press.

Thanks for visiting :)

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Donna Mikasa

Welcome to "Challenge me a Christmas Card" for 2018!

My guest today is Donna Mikasa, and she has challenged me to make a floral card. You can check out her take on this challenge HERE.

Here's what I came up with:

 I used the Christmas Rose Bouquet from Wplus9, watercoloured with Zig markers. The sentiment is from Big Scripty Greetings Holiday from Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for visiting :)

Challenge me a Christmas Card with Barb Ghig

Welcome to "Challenge me a Christmas Card" for 2018!

My guest today is Barbara Ghigliotti, and she has challenged me to make a card using alcohol lift ink. You can check out her take on this challenge HERE.

Here's what I came up with:

 I used the Christmas Rose Bouquet stamp from Wplus9 and Alcohol Lift Ink to remove alcohol ink from a panel of Yupo (to see how this technique is done, check out Jennifer McGuire's awesome post HERE). I fussy cut around the image, before adhering it to a white card base, and added a Birch Press sentiment die cut from gold foil cardstock and stamped and white embossed onto black. I finished with some crystals from Studio Katia.

 And then I had the negative space of the Yupo piece as well as the ink removed from the yupo, so I made another card!

 This one also has a sentiment from Birch Press, and some sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. 

Thanks for visiting :)

Thanks for A Blog Named Hero

The new challenge at A Blog Named Hero is Grateful - I am always making thank you cards, as I use them quite a lot.

I used the Patterned Lanterns bold prints stamp, white embossed onto watercolour paper, then coloured with Zig markers, water and Perfect Pearls. I went with a colour scheme I don't usually use, just because. The sentiment is the Thanks Stamp and Die set.

 Thanks for visiting :)

Online Card Class day 5

Another card for the Online Card Class - this time, following a tutorial by Kristina Werner.

I used the Partridge in a Pear Tree stamp from CAS-ual Fridays - I was planning on adding a sentiment, but I decided that the stamp speaks for itself. I gold embossed it onto green cardstock, then blended blue and black Distress Oxide around the edges. I added some detail with a Versamarker and a Wink of Stella brush, and some gold faux stitching around the edge.

Thanks for visiting :)

Online Card Class day 4 part 2

In yesterday's Online Card Class, Dawn Woleslagle used a die as a mask to create a cloud of embossing glitter around it. I decided to use the negative space on the card, rather than use it as a mask.

The glitter embossing powder I used, from Wow, matches this notecard from Hero Arts very well. THe large die I used is an older one from Hero Arts, and the smaller one (embossed with clear glitter embossing powder) is from Simon Says Stamp. The sentiment is also from Simon Says Stamp, stamped in Antigua ink from Hero Arts.

I then had a snowflake die cut, so I decided to use it right away. The background stamp is from Hero Arts, and the sentiment is from Birch Press.

 Thanks for visiting :)

Online card class day 4

I made a few Christmas tags yesterday, and I liked them so much I decided to make a card version as well. But then I saw Jess Frost Ballas' video in today's Online Card Class, and decided to add some glitter and glitz to my snowflakes.

I used Distress Oxide Inks in Salty Ocean and Chipped Sapphire to create the background (on the tags,, I then sprayed with Perfect Pearls, but I skipped that step on the card, because I was going to make the snowflakes super glittery). The snowflakes are dies from Simon Says Stamp, which I embossed with Wow clear sparkle embossing glitter, and then added some chunky glitter from Stampin' Up.  The sentiment is from Birch Press, white embossed onto a black strip, and added some extra shine with sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

 Here's a pic of the tags I made yesterday - no glitter, but Perfect Pearls on the background:

Thanks for visiting :)