Emboss It! … at Sparkles Monthly Challenge

Over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, we are launching a new challenge today which is Emboss It!

I’m pleased to be hosting this month and I hope you like the theme that I chose; we would like you to include an embossing folder or embossing powder/enamel as part of your papercraft designs. For my card, I used an Arched embossing folder by Tim Holtz (smile!).

I started by cutting a piece of Kraft cardstock 6x4inches to fit my blank card and then I embossed it with an arch design using an Arched Embossing Folder by Tim Holtz. I highlighted the 3-D embossed design by running a Moonlight White Brilliance Ink Pad over the top. Next I die cut an oval from the embossed cardstock and also from a piece of white card using a Shapes Die Set by Marianne Designs. I layered them all together with a striped design paper for the background and also a pretty pink flower. The flower was created using a Flower Garden stamp by Tim Holtz, which I stamped onto mixed media paper using black Archival Ink, coloured using Kuretake watercolour paints and fussy cut out. The Kuretake paint colours I used were Rose Madder, Dark Rose Madder and White for the flower petals and Sap Green and Dark Sap Green for the foliage. To finish, I added a piece of lace and the “Happy Birthday” wording, which I stamped onto a piece of white card.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing papercraft projects from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us. Please be sure to check out the rules here.

With the arches on this card, we are going back to a part of Venice where arches abound, Piazza San Marco also known as St. Marks Square. This Square contains some of the most famous buildings in Venice, here is St. Marks Clocktower. It was constructed above a high archway that leads back to the Rialto (where we visited on my last post) and was completed in 1849.

The beautiful Basilica dominates the Square.

It is so intricately detailed, with its great arches and marble, and the gold and fresco decorations are breathtaking.

St. Mark’s Campanile is a free standing tower in the Piazza, that was rebuilt in 1912, as the former Campanile collapsed in 1902.

This is a view of the Piazzetta (little Piazza/Square), which is an extension of the St. Mark’s Square looking towards San Marco basin (an area of the Venetian Lagoon). The Doge’s Palace is on the left and the library is on the right, and there are two columns at the end, one topped with the “Lion of Venice” and the other with a statue of “St. Theodore”.

I hope that you are enjoying visiting Venice with me (smile!).

Stay safe and well!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

As well as Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels Challenge Blog and their Challenge #69 – Anything Goes with my birthday card.

Can You Handle The Pressure Challenge Blog and their Anything Goes with a twist of Clouds challenge with the embossing folder that I used to create this card.

Triple B Challenge where everything is about Birds, Blooms and Butterflies with the pretty pink flower on my card.

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Cosmos Birthday Cards

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing more birthday cards for this month’s Birthday Card for a Man challenge; this time I created them using some beautiful Cosmos papers by Stamperia.

These cards were very simple to make, I cut out the picture panels of the wolf, deer and frog from a piece of 12×12 Cosmos design paper from a Stamperia paper pad. Then I mounted them onto some 6×6″ blank cards, which I had covered in a complimentary backing paper. To finish, I added some toppers which had happy birthday sentiments on them.

I hope you are inspired to join our challenge over at Country View Challenges too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts.

These Stamperia papers are so beautiful, here are the individual cards …

This howling wolf is my hubby’s favourite.

Then we have the elegant deer.

Finally the fun frog, but don’t tell Chris from Pearshapedcrafting about this one as I seem to remember she doesn’t like frogs that much (smile!).

Stay safe and well!

Thanks so much for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

The Four Seasons Challenge and their Spring Season March 2023 Challenge with my frog card as their is a cute frog on their spring photo inspiration this month.

Birthstone Challenges and their BSC #2 Anything Goes with Aquamarine & Diamond Colors as my card colour palette matches these birthstone aquamarine and diamond colours. Please be sure to check out this challenge blog as it’s new (smile!).

Happy Mother’s Day Card

Over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, we are launching a new challenge today which is Clean And Simple.

As it’s Mother’s Day here in the UK this coming weekend, I thought my new Thinlits sets by Olivia Rose would be perfect to keep these Mother’s Day card designs clean and simple (smile!).

Using a Romantic Layers Sizzix Thinlits die set by Olivia Rose, I cut three circular designs from some linen textured and turquoise blue design papers. Then I layered them all together using some glue tape from Crafters Companion and to finish, I added the wording which was die cut using an All Occasions Sizzix Thinlits set by Olivia Rose.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing papercraft projects from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us. Please be sure to check out the rules here.

I followed the same method to create a second Mother’s Day Card; this time in a purple colour palette (smile!).

I hope that you are staying safe and well!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

As well as Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Birthstone Challenges and their BSC #2 Anything Goes with Aquamarine & Diamond Colors as my aquamarine birthstone Mother’s Day card. Please be sure to check out this challenge blog as it’s new (smile!).

LTSCB #160 Anything Goes over at Love to Craft Challenge Blog with my Mother’s Day card.

Birthday Boy

It’s the first of the month so it’s time for a new challenge at Country View Challenges which is Birthday Card for a Man.

The lovely Corrie is hosting and as it’s her birthday month chose this challenge – Happy Birthday Corrie!

For my card, I covered the background using a Wordies Sentiments Sheet – Birthdays by Creative Expressions, cutting a piece of the sheet to fit the card. Next I embellished the card and also covered any female sentiments with some plaid Christmas Fabric Tape by Tim Holtz. I finished by adding the fun walrus, which was created using an Under The Sea #2 Sizzix Thinlits set and Kraft Cardstock – Classic, both by Tim Holtz.

For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges.

We are looking forward to seeing your makes and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the shop, Country View Crafts! Before you enter your project though, please read the rules!

I love the fun walrus on his card! If you didn’t know, walruses are rare here in the UK, there have been somewhere around 27 sightings in the last 130 years. However we’ve had sightings of walrus on our UK shores in 2021, 2022 and also recently in 2023; a walrus was seen and photographed earlier this week in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland.

Stay safe and well! x

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Challenge #67 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels Challenge Blog with my birthday card.

Happy Halloween Owl Card

Over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, we are launching a new challenge today which is Owls.

I loved creating this fun Halloween owl card (smile!).

The owl was die cut using an Arthur Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from coloured papers and cardstock; this included two purples for his face, bib, feet and tail, a pretty patterned paper for his body, some white paper that I covered in blue glitter, as well as blue, yellow, orange, black and white for his facial features. I edged some of the die cut pieces using Black Soot Distress Ink before sticking everything together using Liquitex matte gel medium.

The branch, leaves and ivy were die cut using the same Arthur Thinlits set and also a Garden Greens Sizzix Thinlits set by Tim Holtz from black, orange and brown coloured paper. Some of them were edged using Ground Espresso Distress Ink before sticking them onto a 6×4″ white greetings card using Liquitex matte gel medium. To finish, I added the “Happy Halloween” wording which was a piece of washi tape that I mounted onto some card before sticking it in place.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing projects from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.

I love owls and have some cute ones on my autumnal window display; they usually stay on the branches over winter too until spring arrives (smile!).

I hope that you are staying safe and well!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

As well as Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

OCTOBER – Anything Halloween challenge over at Two Old Bats Halloween Challenge with my Happy Halloween Owl card.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #178 – Anything Goes challenge with my Halloween Owl card.

Challenge #63 – Anything Goes over at Ally’s Angels with my Happy Halloween card.

LTCCB#69 – Anything Goes over at Love To Craft Challenge Blog with my card.

Make A Wish – Birthday Card

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges with another birthday card for this month’s Happy Birthday Challenge.

My feminine design was inspired by some pretty Sleeping Beauty Stamperia papers which I used to create this card.

I started by cutting a page of the Sleeping Beauty paper pad for a 6×6” blank card and stuck it in place using some double-sided tape. From the same paper pad, I cut the “Make a wish” birthday cake panel, edged it with a Cold Grey Faber-Castell marker and stuck it in place using double-sided foam tape. The “Happy Birthday” was die cut using a Female Occaions Sizzix Thinlits set from a couple of contrasting papers and I pieced them together onto the card using some double-sided tape. I coloured the “Happy Birthday” lettering using some Tarnished Brass Distress Paint and then I added some Ranger Glossy Accents over the top.

To finish, I added some drops of Glossy Accents onto the card and left it to dry to form clear 3-dimensional beads.

I hope you are inspired to join our Happy Birthday challenge over at Country View Challenges too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts.

If you’re interested, here are the other products that I used to create this page.

I hope that you’re staying safe and well!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #174 – Anything Goes challenge with my birthday card.

Ally’s Angels and their Challenge #61- Anything Goes with my pretty paper inspired card.

Eat Cake

It’s a new month so it’s time to launch a new challenge over at Country View Challenges which is Happy Birthday; the lovely Monika is hosting and asks that “you join this challenge with a birthday card and/or a gift”.

So for this challenge, I’m sharing this fun birthday card which I created using a Sizzix Celebration Cake Mini Thinlits Die.

I started by die cutting the cake using the Sizzix Thinlits die from some leftover soft pink cardstock, some recycled grey paper and some bright pink design paper. I also used the same bright pink paper to create the background and frame the cake by die cutting a circle from the paper. Then I layered everything together onto a 3×3” white card and I embellished the cake with a thin strip of the background paper and a pretty flower sticker. To finish, I added the “Eat Cake” wording which was a Sentiments Label Sticker from Tim Holtz.

As this card design was simple to make, I made a few of them to send to family and friends.

For more inspiration please see the amazing creations from my fellow Design Team members over at Country View Challenges. I hope you’ll join us, it would be lovely to see you there and you never know, you might even win a £20 voucher for the Country View Crafts shop! Before you enter, please read the rules!

As I’m also joining T Stands for Tuesday today, I’m continuing the birthday theme by sharing my cuppa with a piece of one of my homemade birthday cakes (smile!) – Happy T Day everyone!

Wishing you a Happy August and I hope that you’re staying safe and well! x

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #173 – Anything Goes challenge with my birthday cards.

LTSCB#156 – Anything Goes over at Love To Scrap Challenge Blog with the leftover and recycled papers that I used on my cards.

Things with Wings

Over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, we are launching a new challenge today which is Things with Wings.

So today I’m sharing the birthday card, that I made for my mum this year, featuring a huge Thinlits butterfly from Tim Holtz (smile!).

I started by creating a masterboard from watercolour paper smooshing it using Salty Ocean and Peacock Feather Distress Inks. When dry, I cut a panel from the masterboard and stuck it onto a 6×6” card using double-sided tape. Next I added some white rub-on transfers from a Remnant Rubs set by Tim Holtz and used some outline stickers to add some silver dots and a silver border around the panel. The large butterfly was die cut from white cardstock using a Perspective Butterfly Thinlits set by Tim Holtz and to finish, I added the “On Your Birthday” wording which was from a topper set.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing Things with Wings designs from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team too; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.

This is the gate that greets you at my mum’s house and as you can see it features many “things with wings” (smile!).

I hope that you’re staying safe and well!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

As well as Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

MIUCB #59 Anything Goes + Optional 3-D over at Mix It Up Challenge Blog with all the different techniques that I used to create my 3-D butterfly card.

Paperbabe Stamps and their #169 – Anything Goes challenge with my butterfly card.

Special Christmas Delivery

Today I’m over at Country View Challenges sharing a card as inspiration for this month’s Cats and/or Dogs challenge. As I featured cats on my first project, my design this time includes this cute dog who already seems to be in the Christmas spirit (smile!).

This was a simple card design; for the background I started ripped a panel of design paper and I applied some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the torn edges before sticking it onto a blank white 6×4” card using a glue stick. The Special Delivery wording and the cute dog, sending Merry Christmas wishes, was from a Tim Holtz Christmas Snippets Ephemera set and the rest of the sentiments were from a Christmas Sticker Book also by Tim Holtz; they were all edged with the Vintage Photo Distress Ink before sticking them in place.

I hope you are inspired to join our Cats and/or Dogs challenge over at Country View Challenges too, if you do, you’ll have a chance to win a £20 voucher to use on the Country View Crafts.

I made quite a few Christmas cards for family and friends using this technique; here are some of my favourites (smile!).

I hope that you are staying safe and well!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

As well as Country View Challenges, I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #168 – Anything Goes challenge with my Christmas card.

Sparkles Christmas Challenge and their #136 – Christmas Sentiments challenge with the Tim Holtz Christmas sentiments that I added to my card.

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and their Anything Christmas Goes challenge with my cute dog Christmas card.

MLCCB #44 Anything Christmas Goes over at Merry Little Christmas Challenge Blog with my Christmas card.

Layer It Up challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with my layered papercraft card.

50 & Fabulous Birthday Card

Today we are launching a new challenge over at Sparkles Monthly Challenge, which is Use Animal Print.

I created this card for a dear friend of mine who is definitely 50 & Fabulous (smile!).

I started by creating a panel from some recycled wrapping paper which had a pink leopard skin design. Then I stuck it to a card, that I made from a piece of A4 white card stock, and framed it using some sparkly silver zebra striped washi tape and black Glitterations border stickers.

Next I die cut the different paper elements from either black cardstock, the pink wrapping paper or some cardstock that I had covered in the silver sparkly washi tape; I used an X-Cut Folk Alphabet set for the numbers and letters, a stitched circle die for the circles and a tropical flower and foliage die set for the flower and leaves. I embellished the circles with a circular silver outline sticker and the leaves with some of the black Glitterations border stickers before layering all the die cut pieces together using Liquitex matte gel medium.

I hope you’ll join us at Sparkles Monthly Challenge too, for more inspiration please check out the amazing Animal Print designs from my Sparkles Buddies in the Design Team; we would love for you to join us so please be sure to check out the rules here.

With animal print in mind, I thought I’d also share these pretty Snake Head Fritillary flowers pictured here in my garden; their Latin name is Fritillaria meleagris and meleagris means “spotted like a guineafowl“, the name “snake’s head” may refer to snakelike appearance of the nodding flower heads when in bud. We planted them in our garden border last year after rescuing them from the poorly plant section of a garden centre, and with this being their first year flowering we were delighted to see so many flowers (grin!).

I hope that you are staying safe and well!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Challenges

As well as Sparkles Monthly Challenge , I’m pleased to be joining the following challenges:

Paperbabe Stamps and their #165 – Anything Goes challenge with my sparkly animal print card.