February Card Chain Challenge Reveal

This is the second month in a row that the first Sunday of the month has coincided with the 2nd day of the month, which means this is my second post today. Scroll down for my we love stamping post.

Today is 2nd of the month so time for the Card Chain Challenge big reveal. This month 25 card makers took part and I sent my card to Marianne in Greece. Sadly, it is still on it's way. I hope it will look better in real life when it finally reaches Marianne.

From all the options this month I have used the colours, hearts and flowers, friendship and die cutting.

I used a press plate by Pinkfresh Studio called always smiling (I bought it recently along with the matching dies with a Christmas voucher), but I foiled it instead of pressing it. It was foiled onto a piece of Tim Holtz alcohol ink card, which I find brilliant for foiling. I didn't get the matching stencils, but coloured it with alcohol markers following the picture on the packaging. Using the alcohol markers on the glossy cardstock helped the ink blend - you have to be careful not to smudge it before it is dry though.

The little hearts cover plate die is by Sunny Studios and I coloured a panel underneath with the red marker used on the flower centres. The sentiment, from the same set, was also foiled in gold. Both the flowers and sentiment were stacked 3 times to add dimension, but not too much that it would cost more to post.

I was very lucky to receive this gorgeous card from Pia in Norway

I love the silver, black and white with the stamped background. Those colours would work well for the March challenge too.

If you would like to take part in the next card chain challenge, you have until 6th to sign up here

I am sharing this at:

NBUS#72 - the flower spray and matching die are NBUS

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

We love Stamping March Chalenge

Today is the first Sunday of the month so time for a new challenge over at We Love Stamping. Where we love to see you showcase your stamping. I am so pleased that we have had a bit more sun recently and the daffs are starting to cheer me up. Spring is coming - hooray.

Lynn has chosen our theme this month:

**Welcome Spring**

OR

**Anything Goes**

I can't tell you how happy I am to see the first signs of spring coming. I just love the way everything springs into life and the colours are really vibrant. I wanted to try and create that feeling with my card this month, and decided to use this Uniko stamp called spring botanicals to help me. This tulip stamp is quite large so I decided to make a 7x5 card so that I wouldn't have to crop it at all.

I started by stamping and heat embossing the tulip. I then masked it with drawing gum, (I really like how this works and it is much quicker than making masks) used some post it tape to mask the edges and blended Catherine Pooler ink (either fiesta blue or cummerbund, or even a bit of both. Funny how you can't remember even after a few days!) until I was happy. I wanted it to feel like a bright clear blue sky. Something I have missed so much this winter.

After rubbing off the drawing gum, I painted the tulips with my zig clean colour real brush pens. The sentiment (from the same stamp set) is stamped on vellum and heat embossed. I fussy cut the bottom edge and rounded the corners on the top edge and added the glue behind the lettering. The panel was mounted onto some blue card and a white base and a few little silvery gems were added to finish it off.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month there are two Spring themed Penny Black stamp sets from Buddly Crafts. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose a top three for special mention.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is ensure stamping (including digi) is seen somewhere on your card front, it no longer needs to be the main focus. Please also mention the products used. It would be great if you could join in with our theme, but anythings goes is always an option if you are out of ideas. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 2nd April.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

I am also sharing this at:

The four seasons challenge March '25 - Spring

Inkspirational #336 - CAS

Allsorts week 818 - CAS

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Playing with Embossing Folders and Ink

Today I have some embossed cards to share. I always love the techniques that are showcased on the group of seven cardmakers blog, but I rarely get round to trying them. Not so this month, I didn't just make one card either. I made 5!

Card 1

I embossed my card insert and envelope flap on all my cards shown today, but only include a photo of this one.

7x5inch card using Honey Bee Sandie's Garden embossing folder. Panel inked with distress oxides before embossing, then swiped with delicata golden glitz pigment ink. Happy birthday die by The Greetery. The card for the butterfly was inked with DIs covered in clear packing tape and die cut with a die from The Works (sorry you can't see the shine. Finished with a few gold gems.

Sharing at:

Group of Seven Cardmakers - embossed highlights over ink blending.

Inspiration Station #70 - photo

Card 2

A6 (metric) card panel inked and embossed with Sizzix 3d textured impressions winter foliage embossing folder. Swiped with brilliance starlight silver pigment ink. Dies by Crafters Companion and Pinkfresh Studio. 3 gems to finish.

 Sharing this at:

Try it on Tuesday - Boss it

A cut above February Cahllenge - Anything Goes

Card 3

7x5inch card, this time it is a coloured panel embossed with the same folder as card 1 and swiped with the same delicata gold pigment ink. The sentiment is a foilplate by Spellbinders. Finished with many clear and tiny gold gems.

Sharing this at:

Cardz4galz #244 - Embellishments. I don't think I have ever used so many gems on one card before.

Card 4

7x5 inch card inked with distress oxides and embossed with Spellbinders flower frenzy 3d embossing folder. Swiped with Catherine Pooler flame ink and then again with Brilliance rocket red gold pigment ink. This ink has a love shine to it (just visible on the photo). The vellum is cut with Spellbinder hemstitch circle die and the tulip die by DecoTime was a gift (thanks Gundi).

Sharing at:

Addicted to Stamps #486 - Make your mark

Card 5

7x5 inch card base, the panel was inked with distress oxides and embossed with Spellbinders 3d embossing folder called mandala blooms. White pigment ink used to swipe over the design. The star dies are by Heffy Doodle. Not sure of the makes of the other dies. This card is for a gentleman that I see on my morning walks. He will be 90 in March. He can't walk far so he sits on a bench by the river and talks to anyone passing.

Sharing at:

Can you handle the pressure - masculine

The neglected stuff kick-off challenge - This ef hasn't been used in a long long time

I did enjoy making these. I hope you have enjoyed looking at them. I really like the larger embossing folders that Spellbinders do and am quite surprised that I liked making 7x5 cards, which is quite big for me. I am not a great fan of square embossing folders as square cards are not my go to, although I am trying to use up my stash of square card blanks.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

We Love Stamping February Reminder

Today is the 18th so time for a reminder for the current challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where we love to see you using your stamps. Te weather here seems to be improving at last and I hope to get some time in the garden this week. Hope I am not speaking too soon!

Faith has chosen our theme this month:

**CAS**

OR

**Anything Goes**

As this months theme is CAS, I decided that there should be absolutely no doubt about this cards CAS credentials. I started by die cutting a white panel with a stitched rectangle die and then I embossed the panel with a stitched scalloped die from the Heffy doodle metric storyboard die set. I was very pleased that my panel wasn't damaged by all the marks on my cutting plate (a new piece of acetate did the trick). The little daisy by Clarity Crafts was stamped onto a square diecut that fitted inside the embossed area. It was stamped in Catherine Pooler, something borrowed ink and clear heat embossed. The just for you sentiment was stamped and heat embossed directly onto the panel. The shine from the embossing gives it extra interest. You can see the full size of the stamp on the insert and envelope. The colour looks slightly different because I didn't heat emboss them. I think it is such a lovely rich blue.

I haven't made such a simple and truly CAS card in a long time and I am quite please with this. I hope you like it too.

You will definitely want to enter this month as there are prizes of stamps and stencil from Lavinia. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose a top three for special mention.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is ensure stamping (including digi) is seen somewhere on your card front, it no longer needs to be the main focus. Please also mention the products used. It would be great if you could join in with our theme, but anything goes is always an option if you are out of ideas. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 26th February.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

I am also sharing this at:

Allsorts Challenge 817 - shades of blue

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Feature The Colour Pink

It seems a while since I have shared something that wasn't for a DT or for card chain challenge, so when I saw the reminder for The Flower Challenge #99 and realised I had a card ready, I decided to just post it.

The challenge asks for cards to feature pink, so here is my card:

The flowers are foiled and the images coloured with my polychromos pencils. I mounted the panel on a coloured cardbase and added a few gems to finish.

You can see the shine from the foil a bit better on this picture.

I am also adding this to NBUS #71 as the peonies are NBUS

Supplies:

cardstock: Cardbase - Hunkydory adorable scorable mattastic

Press plates: Spellbinders Peony Perfection, and a little message sentiments,

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it.