Herd it's your birthday...

 It's a Critter Challenge at Die Cut Divas this month and we want to see your critters,..real or imaginary ones - so fun!

Our sponsor is Sunny Studio and for my card today, I've used Miss Moo mini stamp and matching die. 

I used a free clipart barn and printed onto some white card and then used a mini slimline die to cut it out.  I masked it off and added some Altenew ink blending for the background.  I stamped and die cut two cows and used some Spectrum Noir Aqua pens to add colour.  I stamped, coloured and die cut the little flowers too.  Just love the sentiment from this little set.   It's the cutest mini stamp and die set, so a super good price point. 

Do come and join us with your Critters... just remember to use your die cut machine for something on your card.  

Back with a card - White on white with a pop of colour...

Well the new carpet is in and looking stunning... but the craft room is still mostly in boxes in the garage.... doing it a few boxes of an evening after work!

But I do have a very CAS card I did for my NZ swap group.   It was my turn to choose a challenge - and white on white with an optional pop of colour was it.  

 I was able to find some white card within easy reach and in packing up I found some Penny Black Stickaroo stickers I've had for at least 10 years or more!   As my stamps were mostly all unreachable, I made use of the sticker.  I used my scor-pal and added some embossed lines.  Added the sticker in corner and stamped a little Hero Arts sentiment in some grey Altenew ink. 

I'm adding this to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge -  Anything goes ... Optional "On the Farm"  My little Hedgie is in the farm garden watering can!

Hoping to get some more stuff in the crafty room soon so I can get back to crafting more regularly.  I've been doing some knitting - making some Izzy Dolls 

These are just under 5.5" tall.  Teddy went to Florence and the Mermaid was Grace's request.   I'm doing some Easter Bunnies now.   

Craft Roulette #256

Well I didn't think I'd be able to enter the Craft Roulette this week, as all my craft stuff is in boxes in my garage at the moment due to getting new carpet next week,

But my Altenew order arrived -I had won a gift voucher.   I purchased the Summer Wishes bundle - stamps, dies and stencils.  

This is a BIG card -A7 (5" x 7") a bit daunting.  So I made my centre panel 4"x6" - I started by printing the Goovy sentiment in the Hippie colours and then did some ink blending in blue and sand.  I added some painted blue ink for the sea. This is my Tropical Island with my wooden chair sitting on the beach.  I stamped the chair and umbrella and die cut it out.  Used Alcohol markers to colour. Added a sentiment from the stamp set.  Backed onto some lime green card and added to the panel.  

I'm also entering this into Crafting the Seasons challenge at Altenew  as I used Altenew inks for my blending. Celebrating Summer

I can't wait for the craft room to be back in action, so that I can get back into doing some serious crafting.

Shaker Butterfly card with Die Cut Divas

Hi all, 

It's the last day of the month, so time for my card for Die Cut Divas.   Our lovely sponsor is Hero Arts 

And our challenge is to make a Shaker card. 

 I have used an older die and a new die for this one.   The new die is the Infinity Arch die for cutting my aperture.  And the older one is the Hero Arts Butterfly Die (circa 2015)  I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder for some texture.   I added some mixed sequins in gold, blue and pink and added the Butterfly die to the front.  And finished with a sentiment from a Wordies set. 

Do come and join us at Die Cut Divas. 

Pop up Elephant Box

 I can now share the Pop up box I made for my local swap group.   Our challenge was to make an interactive card.  I chose the pop up box. 

I had seen a Lawn Fawn die that made a long box - so decided to make a similar one by cutting my own template.  Took a few goes but finally got it to work with the scalloped edging the right way around!

I used a Lawn Fawn edge die to cut the scallops.  My little Elephants came from a stamp set I got from my daughter and grandsons.  They are super cute.  I stamped and fussy cut the Elephants and the puddles.  I used some lovely oriental style patterned paper with umbrellas.    This went to Suze - and she told me she didn't know how to make it work!  

Here's it folded up

Happy with how it turned out.   

Shaker fun at Die Cut Divas

 This month our lovely sponsor at Die Cut Diva is none other than the amazing Hero Arts team.  

When I first started stamping most of my purchases were from Hero Arts.  I have A LOT of their older stamps and dies.  And today is highlighting one I got a year or so ago. Floral Poppy and it's coordinating die

I stamped and embossed the poppy stamp and used some watercolour paint pens to add the colours.  I die cut it with the matching die.  I chose some pretty patterned paper for the background and used a couple of dies from a Cottage Cutz oval die set to cut the aperture and the matching gold frame.  I used some 3D tape and added the panel over some pink sequins.  I stamped a very old Hero Arts sentiment from All Occasions stamp set before adding the poppy.

I'm not a great fan of shaker cards so don't make them that often.  But quite happy with the results of this one. 

Do come and join us for this month's challenge at Die Cut Divas.... just remember to use your die cutting machine to die cut/emboss something on your project. 

It's been awhile!

 Well it seems like forever since I last posted.   Life has taken over.... Work has been busy, and I've been decluttering and packing up my craft room - We are getting the whole house re-carpeted. It won't be for a few more weeks till it happens but as I need take everything out of the room, I decided to purge my stash as well.   It's been slow going!   Lots of boxes of stuff in the garage.   I have been a bit crafty - made an explosion box card for my friend, Pearl, for her Mum's 90th 

And a couple of cards for upcoming posts for Die Cut Divas -  

And the last two Sunday's Grace and Florence have stayed while Mum and Dad went to Puppy Training with Coco.   Both days Grace and I crafted.   She has taken a liking to try to replicate cards I've made and in particular loving to stamp and stencil cards.  I forgot to take a pic of last weeks, but today I remembered.   This week she wanted to use Altenew Ambridge Rose stamp and stencils.  

She picked out her own colours - first one used pinks and purples inks from Altenew and Neon Hero Arts inks for the second one.   The backgrounds were made using a "smooshing tool" )see this video from Natalie Bowers on how to make the tool!)  It's a great way to smoosh without too much mess.  Grace had such fun making the backgrounds. 

A fun afternoon had by one happy 5 year old.  The other little one has a cool time playing with Pop - and eating lots of watermelon!  

Your friendship is Perfect

I've been having a bit of a spend-up since Christmas and one of my buys was Altenew's Perfect Gift set of stamps, dies/stencils/embossing folder combo.  It's a fabulous combo and I used all of it for my card. 

 I started by embossing the folder onto a square card base.  I used a gold pen to colour the frame.  Unfortunately my pen packed a sad... so it's a bit splotchy. Stamped the sentiment in Onyx Black ink.   Part of the embossing folder is the floral swag - however I chose to stamp and stencil it and then die cut it.  I trimmed my panel down and matted it with a thin black layer and onto a wider dark pink layer before adding to a 5 7/8" card base.  Added the swag with some 3D tape.  Added some gold gems to finish.  

As this is the first time using this combo set, I'm adding to Darnell's NBUS challenge.