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. 

Craftlandia Challenge 21

It is the 22nd December so time for another challenge over at Craftlandia on Mia's blog Craftartista.

The theme for Craftlandia 21 is

 cold or anything goes

These cards started with a piece of yupo paper that I covered with alcohol ink and a little bit of silver foil. I think it worked really well as a sky backdrop for my wintry scene. The die is called cottage snow globe scene by Creative Expressions, the sentiment stamp and the insert stamp are by Uniko.

As you can see, I made two.

My second wintry card is made with a Hero Arts letterpress and foil plate called snowy night. I do love the effect of this one. I have used Momento London fog dye ink. It has such a dramatic look and feels really wintry. The sentiment is a Spellbinders press plate that I have foiled.

I hope you like my wintry cards and get a chance to join us at Craftlandia 21 over on Mia's blog. Don't forget that there are prizes to be won, so make you you check it out.

I don't suppose I shall be posting again before Christmas so I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you so much for all your support and inspiration over the last 12 months.

I shall definitely be back on 2nd Jan for the December card chain challenge reveal, but I may pop in before that, you never know.

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