Lots of Dies

Recently I have been adding to my stock of dies, but I am pleased that I sat down and made a card with each of my new dies, so I have written this post to share them with you.

I do really love dies and none of these cards have any stamping on them at all, that's not counting the insert and envelopes, which I tried to find coordinating stamps for.

Card 1.

These dies are part of a set called Happy Days by Tonic Studios. I simply cut them from white cardstock and glued to a background I made with Distress Oxides on glossy paper. Nothing else added.

Card 2.

These lovely daisy type flowers dies are by Spellbinders and they were cut from some patterned paper that has a sparkle to it (a gift from the wonderful Gundi). The happy days die was cut from the same paper as the middle flower and backed with plain card using the shadow die. The background is again Distress Oxide on glossy paper, but this time I added some stencilling using the maidenhead fern stencil (a gift from the wonderful Loll). I added some tiny flower gems to the flower centres as a little finishing touch.

Card 3.

I couldn't resist this heart cover plate by Sunny Studios, isn't it cute? The daisy die is by memory box, which I stacked twice, coloured the centres yellow and filled them with glossy accents.   It is mounted on another piece of glossy paper blended with Distress Oxides and I finished it with a few shiny black gems. The sentiment is a die by Crafts too.

Card 4.

This is another die by Memory Box called cherry blossom frame. The background is the same as the previous cards and the sentiment is a die by Creative Expressions. Those little flower gems made an appearance again too.

I really enjoyed making these cards and the bonus is that they were all very quick and easy to do or QACAS as Darnell would say.

I am sharing:

Card 1 at Die Cut Divas May challenge anything goes

Card 2 at Addicted to stamps and more die cuts or stencils

Card 3 at Happy Little Stampers May challenge anything goes with dies

All 4 at NBUS challenge 38

I will finish with a very serious note to myself - you do not need any more dies.

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

A Cheery Little CAS Card

Today I am sharing what I think is a cheery little CAS card. I hope you like it.

I made my background panel by painting watercolour and a few splatters onto a piece of mixed media paper. I then spread Nuvo embellishment paste through a stencil, I haven't used this paste before and it has a wonderful silvery sheen to it that catches the light beautifully. My flower was stamped and cut using the matching die and simply coloured with my Zig pens. The sentiment by Uniko is heat embossed in white.

I am sharing it at:

Addicted to CAS #220 - code word Flower

Casology week 403 - Botanical

NBUS #38 - The flower stamp is NBUS

After mentioning my succulents the other day I had requests for pictures so I thought today I would share a picture of one of my cacti which flowers beautifully every year and this year is no exception. These pictures where taken a few days ago.

Aren't those flowers amazing?

Supplies:

cardstock: Mixed media paper; white stamping card; Hunky Dory adorable scorable coated card

Ink: Zig clean colour real brush pens; Versafine onyx black; Versamark

Stamps: Altenew wonder flower and matching die; Uniko simply said

Stencil by Funky Fossil

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

We Love Stamping May Reminder

Today is the 18th so time for a reminder about the current challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where you can showcase your stamps and your skill at using them.

This month our theme is:

** For a Lady or Girl**

As many of you know, I love to grow succulents and they are keeping me very busy at the moment as the season changes and they come to life. I am busy moving them out of my conservatory, which gets too hot and into the garden, which is still very exposed and can be cold. I do fret about them! Anyway as they are filling so much of my time I thought I would use this wonderful succulent stamp for my reminder card. I stamped and heat embossed it in white before using a blending brush to add colour, finishing off with coloured pencils to give a bit more definition.

I have used pastel colours to keep it feminine and finished the card off with a few tiny gems.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month the prize is a Field of Dreams paper pad and stamps from Craft Stash.  Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is follow the prompt and ensure stamping is the main focus on your card. The challenge will close at noon on Wednesday the 1st June.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

I am also sharing this at:

The Four Seasons Challenge - Anything goes Spring

Stamping Sensations May challenge - Anything goes with the option of flora and fauna

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card and coloured card from my stash

Ink: Catherine Pooler

Stamps: Brutus Monroe succulent border

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

Guest Designer Allsorts

Today I am honoured to be a guest designer on the wonderful Allsorts challenge blog where the theme for this week is add some sparkle.

One of my favourite techniques is die cut inlay and I love cover plate dies so I combined those 2 loves with this card.

I cut the cover plate 3 times using yellow card stock, red glitter card and green glitter card and proceeded to inlay the pieces. Once that was done I cut the happy birthday sentiment from white card stock and staked it a couple of times.

I hope you can see the sparkle on the close up.

One of the fabulous things about this technique is you can make 2 for the price of one, so here is my second. Isn't it fabulous how different they can look by switching round the colours?

This time I stacked the sentiment with some black card stock to help it pop on the white background.

These cards do sparkle beautifully. I finished by using the die to make a stencil and decorated the insert and the envelope.

I am also sharing the second card at:

Supplies:

Cardstock: No shed glitter card; white and yellow stamping card

Dies: Creative Expressions background collection, layered leaves; Thank you also by Creative Expressions; Happy Birthday by The Greetery

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

Card Chain Challenge April Reveal

Today is 2nd of the month so time for the Card Chain Challenge big reveal. This month 34 card makers took part and I sent my card to Greta in Oregon. I was getting close to the deadline when I visited the challenge blog to sign up, so I signed up behind Greta without realising that it is only a couple of months since I last sent Greta a card. I don't mind at all how often I send a card to the lovely Greta, but I do try and send to someone different each month. It often doesn't work for me though. As anyone who takes part regularly knows, it is all about the timing. In the end it doesn't really matter as it is so lovely to exchange cards every month.

I have been really struggling with inspiration for my cards recently and haven't been posting much as a consequence so to keep my options open, I went for the themes of spring and friendship from the options list. I often try to do the colours and sketch too, but not this month.

I was lucky enough to win one of Uniko's 10th birthday prizes and so put in an order to build up my stock of amazing Uniko products. This stencil/mask was one of my acquisitions, I think it is fantastic. I started by inking through the stencil element with a blending brush, then I added the mask and added the orange and green. In order to give more definition I outlined the image with a fine liner green pen. After that I thought my background was very stark so I took a couple of stencils by AALL & Create and replaced the stencil using the orange ink to add interest onto the flowers. I then removed the stencil and added the mask and used the second AALL & Create stencil around the outside of the flowers. I finished by general blending some of the blue/grey ink around the flowers.

The sentiment was white heat embossed on the same card as the base and I finished off with a few teeny tiny gems. One of them was a tiny heart. Very sweet I thought.

I was very lucky to receive this gorgeous card from Julia  in MA:

I just love those tiny little die cut bees.

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

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bristol Board; pink card from my stash

Ink: Catherine Pooler Lemongrass, orange peel, hot tub and sage

Stamps: Sentiment: Concord & 9th

Dies: Lisa Horton lazy daisy panel

Stencils: Uniko fun flowers; AALL & Create #39 and #113

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

We Love Stamping May Challenge

Today is the first Sunday of the month, so time for a new challenge over at We Love Stamping where you get the opportunity to show off your love of stamping.  This month the theme is:

**   For a Lady   **

I have been finding it hard to come up with ideas recently and was in danger of falling behind with my DT duties, so in order to come up with this card I sat down and went through all my stamps and settled on this pretty wreath, which came free with a magazine. I think it was one of the first I ever bought.

I stamped and heat embossed the wreath and made a rough mask for it from copy paper before stamping the background lattice pattern. I used a small blending brush to add colour and added detail with colored pencils.

The sentiment was done on the computer and the little gold dots made with a gold gel pen. I also added a few tiny gems to finish it off.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month the prize is a Field of Dreams paper pad and stamps from Craft Stash.  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 one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is follow the prompt and ensure stamping is the main focus on your card. The challenge will close at noon on Wednesday the 1st June.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

I am also sharing this at:

Alphabet Challenge - B is for blooms

Supplies:

Cardstock: White stamping card; gold coated card; Hunky Dory Adorable Scorable coated card

Ink: Catherine Pooler shea foam, rose petals, shea butter, stone blue

Stamps: Wreath free with magazine; Chocolate Baroque studded lattice

Dies: rounded corner die by Nellie Snellen; stitched rectangle by Create a Smile

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