Choose a Country at Sweet Stampin' Challenge

We have a great challenge at Sweet Stampin' Challenge -  Choose a Country - (be inspired by the colours of the flag, the culture, the food.... the world is literally your oyster!)

I chose Japan for my country and was inspired by Cherry Blossom and Geishas

    

My Cherry Blossoms are Spellbinders Layered Cherry Blossom dies cut from some off-white card and using some Altenew inks (Dried Petals Fresh Dye ink set) to do a little ink blending in the centres.  I used some kraft card for the branches.  I used the same off white card to cut a panel and used Spellbinders Hemstitch Rectangles.  My little Geisha is an ancient (circa 2009) Hero Arts stamps - Four Dolls.  I used some of the Altenew pink inks to paint her and her matching fan, which I had fussy cut. The little sentiment is from a Catherine Pooler set - Birds of a Feather.  

Do come and join us at Sweet Stampin' Challenge.

Altenew 31 Days of Crafting... Day 2

 

After yesterday's disasters at die cutting technique, this afternoon/evening I try out some partial die cutting. 

I took a white card base and stamped one of the floral images from Craft Your Life - Hello Beautiful on to the front.   I then used the matching stencil set with Altenew's Fresh Die Inks - Mauve and Berrylicious and Crisp Die Inks - Misty Moon, Marshland, Buttercream and Warm Sunshine.  Stamped two of the sentiments from the set and finished with some gold paint splatters.  I then used the matching die to do a partial die cut.  I added some green striped paper from my stash to the inside panel.  

Not sure I'll manage every day's prompts but will do the one's that take my fancy. 

Altenew 31 Days of Crafting... Day 1

 I'm a bit late to the party, but today got some time to craft.   Every day there is a prompt to create a project. 

I remember I had some music stamps as part of Altenew's Happy Birthday to You set.   I stamped it with some Silver Lake ink onto a square panel.   The sentiment is stamped with Charcoal Suit ink - inside I'll add an appropriate sentiment when it's time to use this card.   The floral image is from the Dreamy Daylilies set.  I die cut with some white card, embossed it and then added ink blending with the matching stencil set.  The centre panel is 5" square and the final card 5.5" square - so I could make the most of the beautiful floral die. 

I did try out some ideas for Day 2 prompt but nothing worked out as I wanted, so back to the drawing board.  

The weekend weather has been lovely and we had two days of being able to lunch outside on the deck - including a Roast Lamb meal today 

Lamb Cuddles at Die Cut Divas.

 It's the last day of the month so time for my final card for the month at Die Cut Divas.

Our April Challenge - Make a Spring Card! We have RAM Stamps as our fabulous sponsor this month; Rachelle Anne Miller designs such adorable images & the Diva team has enjoyed working with them!!

 

RAM Stamps is offering a prize of a $10 gift certificate for our random winner drawn from eligible April entries.

I actually have two cards to share today.   First up is a cute little card using RAM Stamps - Lamb Cuddles

 Lambs always remind me of springtime.  I printed the image onto some white card, added the sentiment in a Word document,  and die cut with a Gina K master layouts die. I dry embossed a background panel.  The image was coloured with Triblends and Copic markers and I ink blended some blue and soft green inks, I used some white Nuvo Drops to add the lambs wool texture. 

and my bonus card uses RAM Stamps - For You

I printed the image and then using a Penny Black masking stencil to add some soft ink blending around the image.  I used Copics and Tri-blends to add colour. Added a hot foiled and die cut sentiment from Simon Hurley/Spellbinders set -  Must Have Sentiments.   A few white Nuvo drops for the embellishment.   Added the panel to a blue card base.  

Craft Roulette # 212.

 Managed to watch most of this week's live Craft Roulette episode. Interesting parameters 

This was my 12th submission.  Mary's guest this week was Nina from Waffle Flower so I used the same Postage Collage Die Nina used,.. just a little bit differently 

Parameters 

Project - For a Co-worker.  This is for a co-worker's upcoming birthday

Colour- Kites in the sky.  Red kites

Element - April, Poppies for ANZAC Day 25th April - It commemorates the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli, Turkey, during World War I. On this day, people wear poppies as a symbol of respect and remembrance for the fallen soldiers.

Random - Sparkles.  Glitter on my ephemera and foiled sentiments

Yesterday I popped out to Spotlight as my heat tool was shorting so needed replacing.  So a new tool, a lovely paper pack and some wooden embellishments found their way into my basket.  And then a quick call into Crackerjack (an all sorts of things shop) to pick up a Little Birdie paper pack and ephemera pack - Poppies and Roses.  

This is actually the second card I made, but I didn't like the first one.  I took a sheet of the poppies paper and die cut with the Waffle Flower die.  I added the ephemera poppies (already glittered) and added some glitter to the wings of the butterfly.   This week I had received my Krafter's card order - which included the latest Waffle Flower Postage Collage stencil - Wild Flowers and Spellbinder's Curved Everday Sentiments hot foil and die set.  I used some silver foil.  It's a great set with a lot of sentiments together so a few in my stash for whenever I need one. 

As it was the first time I used the Spellbinder foil and die set, I'm adding this to Darnell's NBUS challenge 

Here's the one that didn't make the grade

It will go in my box of cards.... might get used sometime!  

Butterflies - two different watercolour looks

 Hi there.  Yesterday morning I was not feeling well so decided that a day of rest was required.   I spent the morning dozing in bed and by lunch time was feeling a little better.   I got up when hubby arrived home at 12.30, finished work for the day.  He pottered around outside as it was a nice day and I watched some You Tube videos, sitting on the sofa in the dinning room, with the sun streaming in the kitchen door.   One of the videos I watched was from Katie Partiet (here) using water colour crayons to "paint/stamp" a sweet butterfly.  I have some water colour crayons that I bought man, many years ago - and haven't used them for years!  So thought I'd try the technique -

For my butterfly I used one of the Altenew Dovetail Butterflies.  I used my Gallery by Mungka crayons to "paint" onto the base layer of the stamp. I got a splash of the blue paint onto my base, so ran with it by adding more blue splats and some gold watercolour paint splats as well.  I used black ink to add the outline layer of the butterfly.  I stamped the Gina K -It's all about You" sentiment in the lower corner, then liberally spritzed the whole card with Shimmer Spray - Sparkle.  In real life you can see all the shimmer and shine.  I added a black layer and added to a white card base.   

I then decided to try the same technique but to use metallic watercolour paints.   Quite a different look. 

This time I used the Brights Jasart metallic watercolours and over stamped the line image with Teal Cave Fresh Dye Ink from Altenew.  This time I used the matching dies to cut the butterfly.  I used some gold metallic paint to paint a scrap of card and die cut the Altenew Linear Crossroads die and the sentiment from Altenew's Versatile Sentiments. I stamped the sub-sentiment from Altenew's Sweetest Peas stamp set on the same gold painted scrap.    I used the same gold paint to add splatter to a black panel and then mounted the dies and sentiments together.  Another really shimmery card in real life.

Enjoyed trying out both the crayons and the metallic paints.   Did get to spend a bit of time in the craft room this afternoon, doing a card for Craft Roulette and had a lovely visit from Florence and her Daddy, when he came to borrow his Dad's edge trimmer!  She is growing so quickly, almost 10 months now! 

It's Spring Time at Die Cut Divas

See my earlier post HERE

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Hi there.  It's my turn to share a card for Die Cut Divas... this month our sponsor is RAM Stamps

RAM Stamps is offering a prize of a $10 gift certificate, so please don't be shy and join our challenge for this month.

The Challenge is to "Make A Spring Card".  If we can't tell it's a Spring card, please write something telling us why you consider your entry a Spring Card.

I have bought several digital images from RAM stamps so I chose to use one of them for today's inspiration.  

This one is Little Fairy.  It is really cute and definitely spring-like.   I printed it and used some Prismacolor pencils to colour.  The layers were cut with Gina K Master Layout dies and I added some bright spring flowers from Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms  

Do come and join us at the  April gallery with your Spring creation! Just remember to include a die cut or use an embossing folder in your design &, if it's not obvious, share why your project evokes Spring.

Thanks for stopping by!

Woodblock Wednesday - April 2024

 Amy's April edition of Woodblock Wednesday has started.    Once a month, she has a challenge to use Woodblock Stamps.  I try and play along each month - to give my Woodblock stamps some love. 

Earlier today I watched Jennifer McGuire and Aaron Leventhal from Hero Arts doing a live FB about the history of stamping - and it inspired me to get out some of my Hero Arts stamps.  I must say the majority of my Woodblock stamps are from Hero Arts.  

The focal image for this one was inspired by Shari Carroll.  I remembered seeing her fussy cut the floral image I used so decided I liked the idea. 

The card started with the background stamping of Hero Arts Designer Woodgrain stamp.  I used Altenew Silver Sage Fresh Dye ink.  I then stamped one of the stamps from the Peeking Posies set with Versafine Onyx Black ink and used Zig Markers to colour it.  I then did the fussy cutting using both my craft knife and tiny scissors.  I cut the dark grey piece and scored it every 1/4" for some texture.  Not the best pic, but my usual editing tool is not working today. 

 

Today is ANZAC Day here in NZ.  It's a public holiday when we take time to think about all those service men and women who fought in wars.  It's a bit of a cooler day, as Autumn is truly here now, so a good day to spend some time in the craft room.   Got this one done, plus a birthday card for Finn (it's not till June 23rd but I wanted to get ahead!)