Butterflies and blooms

Hooray, I've made a summery card. 
I've seen a few cards made with layered die cuts so here is my take on that. I like the effect of the layers so I hope I'll remember to have another go. 

I die cut all the layers with nesting dies (from China) then stamped with my go-to butterfly stamp (which I don't know the brand of) on the top layer. I lightly inked around the edges but only on this top layer. 
The flower is cut from a snippet with a coloured candi circle in the middle.
Simple and quick. 
I've used:
Leane creatief flower die. 
Hobbey art sentiment
Memento - Grape Jelly

I'd like to enter this into Mrs A's butterfly challenge where the current challenge is :
#79 Butterflies +L is for Layers and/or the colour Cream. I thought the card was cream but not it looks more ivory. It's not white! I've used layers but didn't use foam pads so it's still flat for posting. 

I'm also skipping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground as I've used some snippets. 

I'm just throwing this card in for good measure. I started it about 6 weeks ago but could never get it finished to my satisfaction. Even now Mr C said  he's not quite sure what it's trying to be. 

Well, in case you're wondering, it's trying to be a card. 

I hope you recognise the stamps Mrs A. 

I stamped in Versamark and embossed in white then painted in with Brushos. It was supposed to have a butterfly on it but never looked right. 

I've used:

Joanna Sheen  Beautiful Blooms

Tattered Lace edge die and JustRite small dies. 

Hobby Art sentiment stamp

Paper MME

It's already winging it's way to someone so I'm sure she will  appreciate it!

Thanks for visiting. Enjoy the Day.

x

CCT May Colour Challenge - Yellow, gold and Kraft

I'd really like to have time to make a summery card but here I am with another Christmas Card. 

I liked the gold embossed on kraft that I used last week on my card so I wanted to make another one. This time I used a wreath stamp which came with Creative Stamping #35 magazine. 

It's quite detailed and could be coloured in all sorts of ways. 
My plan was to colour a tiny bit yellow, then I did another bit and another bit - you know how it goes. 
I used some gold washi tape for the frame. 

Unfortunately the card won't lie flat so I might have to cut the front off and remount it. 
It was really hard to photograph and looked different in every picture but I hope you get the idea. 

Our current challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown runs for one  more week so you have time to use these lovely colours.

Thanks for visiting, enjoy the day. x

Oops I forgot to link to May Rudolf Days challenge. Link up a Christmas card between the 25th and the end of each month to celebrate Rudolf days and get your Christmas card stash growing.  

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Guest designer

I'm excited to be the guest designer at Pixie's Snippets Playground. It's an honour in such a talented bunch. 
Since playing along in the Playground, I've got into the habit of reaching for snippets before cutting into a new sheet. In fact I don't really like starting a new one!
Having said that, I still have a mountain of snippets. Mine are mostly white so that's what I wanted to use here. Apart from the base card, all the rest is snippets. 

I like pretty papers but I like to make my own too. I love to stamp and I like to feel I've created something lovely. 
I punched the squares then used lots of different stamps to create the patterns on the squares but the same two ink pads.
One good thing is if you don't like one, you've only spoilt one square, in fact only one side of one square! 
Then I used a darker pink and painted the accent flower so it would stand out more. 
The ric rac braid is also a stamped. Inky Doodles, of course. I tried not to add a ribbon but it just need a little something.
I mounted it all on an green inked snippet. I think it would have been a bit too pink otherwise, I hope I got away with it. 
Several years ago I bought a punch which punches 1½" squares as I'd admired cards made using this style. I've hardly used it since so, yeay, I'm using my stash too!

Thanks so much to Di for hosting the playground and keeping it all going. It's so inspiring to see the many and varied cards which people are clever enough to make. You'd think we'd run out of ideas but we never do!

I've used:
Stamps - Inky Doodles, Card-io, Little Claire, Personal Impressions, Hobby Art
Inks - Adirondak - Meadow, Memento - Angel Pink, Distress Ink - Picked Raspberry. 

If you need more details of the stamps, see me after skool. 

Thanks for visiting and I hope you are inspired to  use up some snippets. 
x

Christmas Card Throwdown - May colours

Whoosh, that was another week flying by and it's time for a new challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown.

This time it's a colour challenge and yummy colours they are too. I'm sure they will inspire you to get creative.

I chose these house stamps from Polka Doodles then I embossed in gold on kraft card. They have lots of detail on them. Then I coloured the windows with yellow pencil crayon.

You'd never know that this gold ribbon says Marks and Spencer on the back! I can't throw anything like that away. I managed to tie the knot and keep the words hidden.

Finally I added a few stars in the sky which gives a little sparkle.

We hope you enjoy our latest challenge and feel inspired to join in. 
Thanks for visting and I hope you have time to get crafty this week. 
x

I've used:
Polka Doodles - Be neighbourly
Gold embossing powder
Versamark embossing pad
Gold stars

CCT - May sketch

Hands up whose cards always go exactly to plan? That's not what happened here.
Our current challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown is layers.

I had an idea to do layers of die cut stars but to inlay them so the card is still flat.
The first plan was to cut a star in a round card but that didn't quite work and I hadn't thought it through properly, no change there then.
The more ideas I had the more stars and circles collected in piles around me until I finally manged to make a card.

Then I wanted to use up all the bits and pieces so in the end I made four. That brings my quota for the year up a bit. I chose the smallest sentiment stamps I could find, from a Penny Black set.

Not having planned this very well, I found that I wanted a bit of a frame around the outside so I embossed in silver after I'd made the card. Don't do that after you've added silver thread - it melts!
I moved around all the bits and pieces, added few sequins and some silver thread and it only took a few days...

Two things about this last one. Firstly I was getting blase and when I cut the base card I forgot to have the die over the edge so I ended up with two circles instead of a hinged card. Grrr. Instead of added them to my pile of 'bits I'll use one day', I made a hinge and stuck them together. With a snippet of course!
Then I didn't think the words stood out much so I cut them again in dark green and offset them. I've never done that before but it's quite effective. I've seen it on many other peoples cards.

Top Tip*  - Cut a tiny sliver off the bottom at the back and your round card will stand up without rolling away.

So I'm popping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground with these. I've used lots of snippets, made some more and used them too! I think I can just sneak in before the gates clang shut for the week.

Anyone who reads my gardening blog will know we now have some hens. They don't take much looking after but I keep finding myself out there talking to them and just watching their antics.
Here is Dora (the Explorer) who just hopped into my wheelbarrow.

* I don't pretend to be able to teach any seasoned stamper anything and if you are new to stamping all I would say is - Get out now while you still can!

Christmas Card Throwdown - May sketch

At Christmas Card Throwdown we have a sketch challenge for the next fortnight. It's open to all sorts of interpretation. Visit the post here to see the inspiring cards from the rest of the DT.

I must admit to finding it difficult to get in to the swing of Christmas cards now that we are in the full throes of Spring. The weather has been fabulous and, though I haven't made many cards, my garden looks great!

This is the sketch so I had to put my thinking cap on and get busy.

I usually make square cards so for a change here is a swing card. Happily I'd kept the template from the last one I made so that prevented me diving in and cutting and scoring in all the wrong places!

Once the template is cut it's just a case of decorating. I've used Docrafts paper and a Leane Creatif leaf die the layer up the wreath. The paper is peachy pink, I'm not sure if you're getting that here. The sentiment stamps are all from Creative Stamping magazine last year. I'll look out the numbers.

The good thing about these is that when folded they make a square card which fits in a normal envelope. 

Here is the inside. I've used the same fir branch die and gold thread to make a simple wreath.

I'd forgotten how hard they are to photograph, they always look squint.
I hope you'll feel inspired to join in. 

Thank you for visiting. Enjoy your crafty time. 
x