Congratulations It’s a Boy

Afternoon all

I’ve been very lucky this week and managed to sneak off to the craft room again for an afternoon. I enjoyed stencilling the other day so I’ve grabbed my Uniko Giraffe background stencil and created this cute baby boy card. 

I used lawn fawn inks ‘butter’ and ‘walnut’ to create my background. I searched through the stash and found this very cute balloon giraffe stamp in the Clearly Besotted Best Balloons set. I then hunted through and found more balloons in the CB All In Onesie set. I coloured them up with alcohol markers, fussy cut and adhered with foam pads. The ‘Congratulations’ sentiment is from Concord and 9th set Layers of Love and ‘it’s a boy’ from another CB set called Little Onesie II. I then mounted to whole thing onto an A6 Kraft card blank. 

My original design was especially for The Male Room challenge who are looking for Animals in their current challenge.

I will also be entering the Happy Little Stampers new stencil challenge as this month Anything Goes. 

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Steph x

First card of 2021!

Good evening all

Happy New Year! And welcome to Lockdown 3.0 in the UK. This has made very little difference in this household as we didn’t send the children back to school and have been homeschooling since October half term...pass me the gin/wine/anything alcoholic to get me through!! 

I left Daddy in charge of the schoolwork this afternoon and I snook off to the craft room to make this card.

I was inspired by the sketch over at CAS(E) this Sketch and I’m also entering it into AAA Birthday challenge #21 as their requirement is a stencil background. 

There was lots of masking going on with the background in order to achieve the diagonals. I used the Cloudy Days stencil from Clearly Besotted for the background and Distress Oxides in Blueprint Sketch, Broken China and Peacock Feathers. The umbrellas are also from CB stamp set April Showers and I added the two larger ones with foam pads. Sticking with CB for the sentiment I used the Full of Sentiment set and cut out using Stampin Up! Classic Label punch. 

I’m also messing around with new background styles for my photos so you might see a few different things popping up as I try and settle on one I’m happy with. This is pretty much an annual itch I get and change the style each January! 

Thanks for visiting today,

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #423

Morning all

Don’t be confused by the challenge number!! Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #423 is showcasing after challenge #424 for my half of the design team! 

This week we are looking for traditional Christmas colours, but not necessarily a Christmas card. 

I decided to make a Christmas card because I think they might be my favourite type to make but also because it helps me get ahead for next year (this year’s cards having already been written and sent). 

 

For my card I chose to use a couple of dies to create a gold starry background and white border. I then stamped and heat embossed some lovely stain glass effect stamps I have recently received from a magazine subscription here in the UK. I used my alcohol markers to colour and layered up with foam pads.

Hopefully you are inspired to add you own beautiful papercraft, remember it doesn’t need to be a card. Head over to the Color My Heart Color Dare blog to check out the rest of the design teams fantastic creations.

I hope you have a fabulous Christmas despite the pandemic restrictions in place wherever you are. ❤️

Merry Christmas!

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #424

Morning everyone!

Today we are going with non traditional Christmas colours at Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #424. You don’t need to complete a Christmas card so this is a great challenge to get involved with.

I did make a Christmas card and I took my inspiration from the photo. I inked up an Altenew layered bauble stamp and made a bauble wreath, very similar to one currently residing on my gate!!

I have used one of my favourite Christmas sentiment stamps from Uniko. Sadly it’s no longer available but I do love the font style.  

Thanks so much for visiting today. I hope you are inspired to join the challenge and go take a look at the rest of the design teams creations over on the Color My Heart Color Dare blog.

Merry Christmas!!

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #422

Hi all

Hope you are still well and looking forward to the countdown to Christmas, whatever that may look like to you this year.

Today’s Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #422 uses a tic tac toe board so follow a line of colour horizontally, diagonally or vertically and see what loveliness you can make. Black, white, neutrals, gold and silver are all free but remember not to use anything not on the board otherwise your entry won’t count. We use Color My Heart colour names but a best match is great too.

I’ve been seeing lots of really great gnome images lately so I treated myself to the Marianne Design Tomte Gnome dies and made some delightful gift tags.

Each tag uses a different line of colour on the board. The first tag uses Blue Belle, Sage and Sangria with the second tag using Wisteria, Carolina and Sangria. 

Firstly I cut the tag shape and added a border using a silver marker. Inside of the border I added a wavy die cut of white card to represent a snowdrift. I cut and assembled my gnomes and attached before using a white gel pen to add snowflakes to the background. Finally I added a silver ribbon to tie to a present and a silver ribbon bow. 

Now hop on over to the challenge to see the rest of the design teams fantastic makes and to join in!

See you again very soon!

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare #420

Morning all

I hope everyone is well and doing ok during Lockdown 2.0 (UK). Remember that crafting can be very therapeutic so do what you can to get through this second phase of lockdown. Unfortunately my crafting has taken a backseat as we decided not to send the children back to school after half term. My days are full of teaching phonics, math and history! 

But on to today...

We are back again with a new Color My Heart Color Dare and this week it is shades of ... orange!

I’m not going to lie, this wasn’t the easiest colour challenge for me! Orange doesn’t feature much in my cards. I don’t have anything against the colour orange, I just don’t seem to reach for it too often!

So I dug out the orange card and got die cutting and layering up. I gave it a background of grey as it needed grounding by a darker neutral colour!

The sentiment is stacked up to stand out better but the rest of the layering is flat. Unusually for me there is no stamping involved but I find myself going through these phases where I focus on one card making method more than another for a while.

So do please check out the rest of the design teams amazing makes and join us with the (tricky for me!) orange challenge #420. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. 

Edit: My CMHCD team mate Suzanne has convinced me to enter her wonderfully unique Double Trouble Challenge #70 which requests a stitched element such as my circles. ☺️

Much love

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare #418

Good morning all!

I’m here today with another challenge from Color My Heart Color Dare and I loved making this card!

Here is the colour prompt for Challenge #418:

We reference Close To My Heart colours but you can use any brand as long as you make a very close match. Remember not to use any other colours except those listed! 

I have been wanting to try my hand at a floating frame for a while so I took the opportunity to use the colour prompt to make a floral frame.

I have used Raspberry, Flamingo, Lagoon and Peacock colours to layer up my Altenew Dahlia Blossoms stamps. 

Firstly I stamped my sentiment directly onto the card front. I then stamped the flowers and leaves after which I fussy cut them. Using a temporary glue, I arranged them onto a rectangle of acetate. I ran this through my die cutting machine to cut a smaller rectangle from the centre and create a frame. I then (lovingly!) peeled them off the acetate and stuck them to my card front using foam pads. Really I should have stopped here but I wanted to add back the off cuts to further frame the sentiment so I stuck these directly to the card front, i.e. they sit lower than the frame. 

This was quite a lengthy process but I enjoyed it and I will try this type of card again. 

Hopefully you are inspired by the colour prompt or by my card to come join us at Color My Heart Color Dare but if not, then please pop over to the blog to see the other team members brilliant projects. 

Thanks for visiting!

Steph

Color My Heart Color Dare #416 version 2!

Evening all

I’ve decided to share another couple of  cards I made with the Color My Heart Color Dare #416 tic tac toe board. 

This is the same design as my last card but just a different colour set (Avocado, Scarlet and Gold). So it’s easy to duplicate this card and add a different look just by using different colours!

This card uses a different stamp set but it is still by Clearly Besotted (UK brand) and it is called Be Merry. This card uses the right hand column (Candy Apple, New England Ivy and Gold) as well as the bottom row (Avocado, Scarlet and Gold).

Which one do you like best?

Thanks for visiting,

Steph x

 

Color My Heart Color Dare #416

 Morning all

I’m well and truly in the Christmas spirit! I’m cracking on with Christmas card making and shopping...but I tend to ‘peak’ before the big day and ruin it for myself! 

I also detest writing the cards so I think I’m putting it off by pretending I need to make more!! I’m seriously considering getting a stamp with all our names on and stamping the insides of the cards too.

With me being in such a festive mood, the tic tac toe board for this weeks Color My Heart Color Dare challenge #416 shouted Christmas card at me!

I chose to use the right hand column of Candy Apple, New England Ivy and Gold and kept my card clean and simple (CAS).

I used a lovely stamp set from Clearly Besotted (UK) and heat embossed the wreath and sentiment in gold. I then added some white pearls to some of the wreath circles and coloured the rest in red and green with my Tonic Nuvo alcohol markers. I have cut the stamped card slightly smaller than the card front and adhered it with foam tape to give it some depth. This is an easily repeatable card which is what I like when it comes to Christmas cards!

Hope you liked my design today and will go check out all the other lovely makes by the design team and hopefully we can inspire you to join in!

Thanks for stopping by,

Steph x

Up Cycled Christmas Cards...again!

Morning all

Yes I’m at it again, some more up cycled Christmas cards. I think I’m about done now though as I don’t have many more old Christmas cards to use!

So here’s a few of the cards I have made. If you have any questions relating to any of them please leave a comment. But really these are quite basic to make and the glitter card just gives them a lift to something a bit more bling!

I think my favourite is the first picture with the stockings. I tried to mimic a candy cane with the background by laying thin strips of coloured card.

I will be entering this into Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge #511 and The Holly and the Ivy Christmas Challenge #81.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Steph x

All is quiet, all is calm.

Morning All

It’s very quiet here this morning...so far! As we are nearing the end of the first half term the girls have been getting noticeably more tired so I’ll leave them to sleep as long as they need.

For now I have more up cycled Christmas cards to share. I’ve done so many of these now and they are so quick to knock up and boost the card stash ready for writing. 

These cards are simply created from existing trees from the front of old Christmas cards layered onto patterned paper and card.

I’m entering them into Christmas challenges:

The Holly and the Ivy Christmas Challenge #80

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge #511

Thanks for stopping by,

Steph x

I’m still here!

Evening all and apologies for the lack of posts over the recent  weeks. I am still crafting but as soon as I collect the children from school my afternoon is taken up with reading and homework and the evening disappears without a trace!

Over the last few days I have been digging through the Christmas craft items (yes there is so much of it they have their own dedicated box, stamp folder and die folder!!) and I have finally started to recycle old Christmas cards I have saved from previous years.

Here I have recycled the Santa topper and the bauble topper and layered them onto holly patterned paper and matching green card. I added ribbon bows to jazz them up a bit. 

I will be entering them into he following challenges as they are very helpfully ‘anything goes as long as it’s Christmas’.

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge #510

The Holly and the Ivy Christmas Challenge #80

Thanks for visiting and having patience with me!

Steph x

Color My Heart Color Dare #414

Good Morning Everyone

Up on the blog today is challenge #414 for Color My Heart Color Dare. For this challenge the prompt is a selection of photos with an autumnal feel. 

Please note that the DT have decided to open the range of free use colours to include all metallics, not just gold and silver. A lovely copper would work well with this fortnights challenge. 😊

For my card I took inspiration from the leaves and scarf to the right hand side of the photo.

To recreate the tartan scarf I used two of the stamp strips from the Uniko Background Builders: Christmas 2018 set to build up my background. I tried to match the inks to the picture as closely as possible and chose to use Memento Teal Zeal and Rose Bud along with Lawn Fawn's Carrot and Merman. 

Seeking out matching card, I die cut the leaves with a leaf dies that came with Papercraft Essentials Issue 177. This is a UK magazine which is a really good read and the craft items that come with it are great, like the leaf die!

I cut the leaves twice, once with the detailed vein die added and once without. The detailed vein die cut was layered onto the outline die cut except for the blue leaf. With the blue leaf I heat embossed the Clearly Besotted statement from the Say What? set using Wow! Bright White powder onto the outline only die cut. I snipped the inner leaf veins from the detailed die cut and layered just the outer edge on top so as not to obscure the sentiment.

Drop me a comment below to let me know what you think and we would love to see you pop over and join in the challenge! #414 for Color My Heart Color Dare

Much love

Steph x