January Card Chain Challenge Reveal

This my second post today. It is surprising how often the 2nd of the month falls on the first Sunday of the month, which is when we start a new challenge over at We Love Stamping.  Anyway, it is time for the big reveal of the January Card Chain Challenge. This month 32 card makers took part and I sent my card to Julia in MA USA.

 I used the colours, the theme of friendship and the product of scraps. Unfortunately my jade was a bit too blue, but never mind, it is too late now. The lavender is from some coloured cardstock and the walnut is on the coloured cardbase and from the CP icing on the cake ink, which I used to stamp and colour the flower. I used CP aquatini ink to colour the matt and the flower. The scraps are the arched die cut pieces that were left over from a cover plate by Crafters Companion that I used on another card. I had intended to just stick the gold pieces onto a jade background and cut the die from white card to use as a template to get the pieces in the right position. Unfortunately, when I came to remove the white template, it was stuck fast. The gold pieces were so small that the glue leached out and stuck the white down too. At this point I realised that the technique wouldn't work with this die. I have used it successfully for other cards though. I was inspired by this card by Ashwini. Don't you just love the black and gold?

I didn't want to cover up too much of the gold so I found this flower stamp and matching die by MFT called sending a smile. I wasn't very happy with this when it was done, but Julia told me I was being stupid, and now looking at it again as I write this, I am changing my mind. I used a gel plate to stamp a reverse image of the flower onto the insert. Unfortunately I neglected to clean the plate after my practice and I got a shadow. That's another lesson learnt. Always clean the plate between stamping even if it looks clean.

Here are three cards made using the technique showcased by Ashwini. I have used 2 different cover plate dies. The first on uses the pieces from the Geo Tiles die by Pinkfresh.

I seem to be into using gold card these days both shiny and mat

This is such a great way to use those little die cut pieces. The pieces on the second 2 cards come from the same cover plate. Diagonal Chevron Shapabilities die by Spellbinders (I think it is very old).

Back to the card chain challenge, I was very lucky to receive this gorgeous card from Michaela in Austria. Thanks too for the enclosed doilies.

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

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

We Love Stamping February Challenge

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. This is the first of two posts today as it is the card chain challenge reveal today too.

Faith has chosen our theme this month:

**CAS**

OR

**Anything Goes**

I do love CAS cards, but I don't feel as though I have been making many these days, so I did enjoy making this one. I have always liked the look of a blended panel with simple stamping over it, so I decided it was high time for me to give the technique another go.

I chose a smooth white card to blend my Catherine Pooler inks onto. I used 'orange peel' and 'apricot' to get the ombre look. I stamped the flower stem in CP midnight black ink (Altenew wildflower garden) and stamped the flowers in CP flame. I decided to add interest by die cutting the edge (Heffy Doodle edge dies) and then mounted the panel onto a coloured card base (Hunkydory adorable scorable mattastic). The sentiment is from Alex Syberia expressing gratitude stamp set. I stamped the same flower on the insert and envelope for a coordiated look. I do love it when everything matches.

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.

Of course I didn't just make one. Here is the second card I made using this technique. I don't think it worked quite as well as the first one and it was more complicated because I had to mask the flower. I have used CP inks 'with an olive' and 'lemongrass' and the flower is from Altenew's pen sketched flowers stamp set.

I used drawing gum to mask the flower, simply because I saw it on my shelf and thought it would be quicker than fussy cutting a mask. It worked pretty well, but there was a tiny bit of ink on one of the flowers so I decided to get a yellow zig watercolour pen and add a little here and there on the flowers - it kind of worked. This time I mounted the panel on a yellow coated card base. I did use a few tiny gems on both cards.

What do you think? I would love to know which you prefer.

I am also sharing the first card at:

CAS on Friday - #301 Flowers

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

We Love Stamping January Reminder

Today is the 18th so time for a reminder for our January challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where we love to see you using your stamps. I still can't get used to the fact that we are now in 2025.

Our theme this month is:

**Anything But Square**

OR

**Anything Goes**

My card this month was inspired by this one made by Liz. I actually made it a while ago for my grandson's last birthday, but haven't shared it yet. I do have a lot of cards that I haven't shared. Felix is football mad and his local team is Spurs, which is easy because their kit is black and white.

I went searching for a suitable digital image and found this one by Mary Ellen. Her digital stamps are delightful and even though she isn't drawing any new ones her collection is still available and free. How generous is that? They are called Dearie Dolls.

I decided that I would use my Spellbinders hemstitch circle die for the round stand up element, so I sized the stamp appropriately and then cut it out and coloured it with alcohol markers.

The base edges were covered with bits of embossed patterned paper by deco time (these were a gift). I don't often use patterned paper so I was pleased with myself for using it here. The embossing gives it a lovely shine, which you can't see on the photos.

I then decorated the base with die cuts. In the end this was easy to make and quite effective I think. It went down well with my grandson anyway.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month there are 3 prizes of stamp sets from ALL & CREATE. 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 29th January.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

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

We Love Stamping January Challenge

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.

Our theme this month is:

**Anything but Square**

OR

**Anything Goes**

I would like to welcome our guest designer Chris. I hope you get a chance to visit her.

I rarely make square cards, but I decided to depart from my normal rectangle A6 card and make a round one, as I have recently purchased this round frame die from Clarity. I also have the square one and the oval one. The die is one piece but it cuts 10 frames. I do love the effect as a background, but you have to ensure you are in the right chilled out frame of mind before using them because they are quite challenging to cut, and then there are all the tiny pieces to clean out - it takes a while! I cut it from mat gold Dailer Rowney 300gsm card. 

I have a pack of large 8x8 square cream card blanks so I decided to cut one into a 6 inch circle using my scan n cut. After figuring out how to fit the open card onto my mat for cutting, I was pleased when it worked. The frames were individually glued onto the cream circular base. you can see at the top of the card that there are some hearts without a cream background, this is where the fold is for the card base.

The stamp set is by Pinkfresh Studio and is called Thankful for Friends. I stamped the flower and gold heat embossed it before cutting it with the matching die. I have the matching stencils and hotfoil plate from this set too, but decided to just colour it with alcohol markers.

The sentiment is from the same set and was also gold heat embossed. I think this one will be for my younger daughters 44th birthday later this month.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month there are 3 prizes of stamp sets from ALL & CREATE. 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 29th January.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Before I go I will just share another card I made with the oval frames and the hotfoil plate from the same Pinkfresh set:

The flower was foiled with a light green foil, but it looks gold in places because of the light. It has been so dark here that I have had to resort to taking my photos under my daylight lamp. This is for someone special who is turning 90 next week. It has taken me ages to make. If you look at the insert, you can see that I have used matching dies that cut out the frame shape. I love that, so I bought the matching dies for each frame set. The insert is pearlescent paper and I have backed it with pink

I am sharing this at:

Double D Challenge - 9th Birthday. Happy birthday and congrats on 9 years. I hope my 90th birthday card is special enough to join you this month.

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

December Card Chain Challenge Reveal

Wishing you a very Happy New Year.

Today is 2nd of the month so time for the Card Chain Challenge big reveal. This month 19 card makers took part and I sent my card to Gail in Norway.

The December challenge is always a fiendish tic tac toe:

I find these quite hard so after much deliberation I eventually chose the bottom horizontal row: sage, stitch, silhouette, shrubbery, silver.

I have used various shades of green, but the ink is Catherine Pooler sage. I stitched onto a silver die cut after using a Spellbinders stitching die. The silhouette is the bird stamp by Clarity Stamp. The set contains 20 4cm square stamps. I bought it on the spur of the moment in their half price sale and I am very glad I did because I have used it several times already, and I love the images. The shrubbery is on the stamp (I am counting the branch the birds are sitting on as shrubbery) and the silver is the silver metallic card and silver foiling on the sentiment. I have to say I was quite pleased when the idea finally came, but the card did take a while to put together and the decision about the sentiment was tortuous, but I got there in the end. Apologies for the poor photos.

I was very lucky to receive this gorgeous card from Brenda in UK. You can't see in the picture but the snow edges have a wonderful sparkle to them.

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

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