Autumn sparkle

When I was creating this card earlier this month, I also stamped the flowers in a slightly different colour combo and finally managed to turn it into a card today.

I intended to adhere my panel into a different angle, but it did not look well balanced, so I moved on to plan B.

I heat embossed a sentiment from a different set by Concord &9th in rose gold embossing powder (SSS) and added some festive sparkle by touching the stamped black dots with a Zig two-way glue pen and adding foil once the glue had dried but was still tacky. Here's a close-up that shows the foiling a little better.

To finish off, I added a few gems from my stash.

I'm playing at:

The Flower Challenge - #10 Add sparkle

Stamping Sensations - Shades of autumn

Penny Black and More - Autumn splendour

Seize the Birthday - Foliage

It's time for a new and fun challenge at Seize the Birthday, where I am making another appearance as the Surprise Party Guest.

This fortnight, we are inviting you to create a birthday themed card featuring Foliage.

As always, the Toppings are optional, so feel free to link up any birthday themed card.

I used a new to me background stamp (Leaf Prints, Creative Stamps) that I placed in my MISTI and inked up with Versamark. After stamping, I sprinkled rose gold embossing powder (SSS) in various spots, tapped off the excess and then sprinkled gold embossing powder (Papermania) all over my panel to cover the remainder of the stamped image. After heat embossing my leaves, I trimmed off the white strips on either side of my panel (the stamp is intended for an A6 card size, which is the standard card size outside of the US). I used a scrap of cardstock to die cut my sentiment (Little B) and heat embossed it in rose gold ep. To make the letters stand out more, I adhered the die cut sentiment to a strip of vellum that I wrapped around the sides of my panel before foam mounting my panel to my green card base. I used a few gold sequins to add even more sparkle and shine to my card.

Don't forget to pop over the the Seize the Birthday blog to see what the talented ladies of the Design Team have created.

I'm also linking up my card at:

Stamping Sensations - Shades of autumn

Penny Black and More - Autumn splendour

Snowman blueprint

Who said a snowman could not be pink?! LOL
I love that this card is so very different from the vintage card I created over a year ago using this same stamp.

I stamped the snowman in Worn lipstick DOI onto a panel of hammered cardstock. Because the ink appeared very wet on this cardstock, I was afraid it might not dry properly, so I added clear embossing powder and heat embossed it. Love the sheen this gives. I rounded the corners of my white panel using a 1/4" corner chomper and foam-mounted it to my cardbase to which I had adhered some patterned paper. BTW, I did die cut the center out of my PP panel, hoping to create yet another pink Christmas card before today (Wednesday) 6pm EDT. I added a bit of blue to the scarf and holly on the snowmans hat to bring in the colour from the blue berries of my patterned paper. Wish all my cards were this quick to make...

By now, you will probably have gathered that this is yet another card for the Jingle Belles challenge. If not, please do check out my previous posts. This is pink card number 12, which means I have matched the number of pink Christmas cards that I linked up last year. I'm hoping I can finish at least one more, since I intended to top last year's score.

I'm also linking up my card at:

Creations in Pink - #3 Anything goes with mainly pink

Cards in Envy - Favourite holiday

CHNC - #407 Anything Christmas goes

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas goes

Allsorts - #489 Christmas

Warm mittens

I found another fun patterned paper in my stash that was just perfect for the PINK challenge that is still going on at Jingle Belles. Please see any of my previous posts for more info.

As soon as I found this pretty paper in my stash, I knew I wanted to pair it with the mittens die by Marianne Design that my sister gave me on one of her visits. After die cutting and embossing the mittens, I blended a little pink ink on the raised parts while I still had the die in place. The sentiment is from an Hunkydory kit and was white heat embossed (SSS) onto vellum (Bazzill). My background panels were die cut using a stitched rectangle die (SSS). To finish off, I applied white enamel accents to the white dots on the patterned paper.

I'm linking up my cards at:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas ... for the Cure

If you've played along with us in other years, you may already know that at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we always devote the first theme of each October to making pink holiday cards as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that for each card that gets linked up, we (Stephanie and Lauren) each donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 

HLS Anything goes with dies

HLS Chrismas - Anything goes

Sparkles Forum Chrismas - #93 Christmas is for Kids

Pink snowflakes

Hello! I'm back with a few more Christmas cards featuring PINK. For these cards, I decided to let the patterned papers do most of the work for me.

For my snowflake cards, I trimmed a panel of BasicGrey paper down to cover two A2 (US size) card fronts. For my landscape oriented card, I used a die from Studio Calico and stamps by Winnie and Walter (The big, the bold and the merry) to create my sentiment. The die was cut from a new paper paper with subtle shimmer paper. I finished off my card with a few sequins from my stash that have a lovely gold sheen to them that works really well with the soft colours.

For my portrait oriented card, I heat embossed this beautiful and bold sentiment by Penny Black in rose gold embossing powder (SSS) and finished off again with a few sequins.

I'm linking up both cards at:

Jingle Belles - PINK Christmas ... for the Cure

From the Jingle Belles blog:

If you've played along with us in other years, you may already know that at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we always devote the first theme of each October to making pink holiday cards as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and that for each card that gets linked up, we (Stephanie and Lauren) each donate two dollars to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 

I'm also linking up my landscape card at:

HLS Anything goes with dies

Creations in Pink - #3 Anything goes in mainly pink

Digi Chooseday -  Wk 42  Anything goes

Cards in Envy - Favourite holiday (Chrismas)

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I'm also linking up my portrait card at:

HLS Christmas - Anything goes

MLCCB - #3 Anything Christmas goes

Snippets Christmas trees

I wanted to create some cards using snippets for Pixie's Snippets Playground, so I digged up my plastic boxes with strips and small panels of left-over papers from many years ago and cut up some of the strips in to even smaller strips to create these fun and quirky Christmas trees.

One of the snippets had some glitter stripes, which prompted me to heat emboss my sentiments in rose gold embossing powder. For my stars, I heat embossed a snippet of white cardstock in rose gold and then die cut the stars, that I popped up with some foam tape. 

I'm linking up my cards at:

Pixie's Snippets Playground #337

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas ... for the cure

(For each pink Christmas card that is linked up 

this fortnight – until 6pm EDT on Wednesday – 

Stephanie and Lauren will be donating 2 dollars 

each to the US Breast Cancer Research Foundation)

Merry Little Christmas (MLCCB) - #3 Anything Christmas goes

CHNC - #407 Anything Christmas goes

Watercooler Wednesday - WWC191 All about occasions

HI in black and white

Here's my last card for this year's WCMD challenges at Winnie & Walter.

I stamped the Miniscnery: Round and Round (Winnie and Walter) repeatedly onto the front of my card using a large grid block and Black Jack ink (CP Designs), which is a softer black. I thought it would make the black sentiment strip stand out more, and it did. For my sentiment, I die cut the Hi (In a word: Hi cutaway, W&W) from white-dotted vellum (PTI) and white heat embossed the words from Young at Heart (CAS-ual Fridays, Stamp of Approval, CP Designs) onto black cs and cut it into a strip. The foam tape for my sentiment strips was perfect to adhere the vellum sentiment to my card base as well.

I'm linking up my card at:

W&W WCMD - Black and white background with Crystal

W&W WCMD - Lucky 7 limit with Shay

(3 layers, 2 stamp sets, 1 die, vellum)

Mix it up (MIUCB) - #18 Anything goes (optional: monochrome)

Watercooler Wednesday - WWC191 All about occasions

Magical Pink Christmas

The idea for my background came from one of the WCMD moodboard challenges at StampNation. The arches of the Hungary moodboard reminded me of my NBUS stencil by Neat & Tangled. I paired it with this cute little bird from Winnie & Walter (Sweet Holiday with Evelin T Designs).

I used CP inks to do my ink blending through the N&T stencil (Scalloped). I stamped the image and sentiment (Sweet Holiday with Evelin T Designs, W&W) in Black Jack ink (CP Designs). After colouring in my image using Copics, I fussy cut the image and popped it up onto my panel using thin foam tape. My stamped and inked panel was adhered flat to my card base using.

I'm linking up my card at:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas ... for the Cure

(Stephanie and Lauren will each donate 2 dollars to the 

US Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each 

pink Christmas card that is being linked up this fortnight)

W&W WCMD - Ink blending with Lea

W&W WCMD - CAS with Heather

ATSM - #313 Holiday

HLS Christmas - Anything goes

CAS Christmas - Birds

Pink Noel x3

I have had a very productive time in my craftroom this weekend. Yay! Here is the first batch of three cards that I made. I'm working on my pink Christmas cards for the Jingle Belles challenge. The lovely Lauren and Stephanie will be donating 2 dollars each to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in the US for each pink Christmas card that is being linked up this fortnight. You have until 6pm EDT on Wednesday,  October 17th, to link up. It looks as if I am going to manage to break my record of 12 pink cards from last year, so expect to see a few more pink Christmas creations for the next couple of day. 

Above is the first card that I created (last weekend) for the WCMD challenges at the Winnie and Walter blog, where Gayatri was challenging us to dress up our die cuts. For this one, I stamped both the background greenery (Merry & Bright with Evelin T Designs, W&W) and my die cut (In a word: Noel cutaway, W&W) in black ink. After blending pink ink (It's a girl, CP Designs) onto my die cut, I coloured in the leaves and berries using Copics. After stacking my die cut with another die cut and adhering it to my card base, I decided to also add a little softer colouring to the background.

After I saw Heather's CAS challenge I wanted to redo my card, this time colouring in only the die cut while using only the outline for the background. For my background stamping, I used Seafoam ink (CP Designs).

For my third version, I moved the focal point to the top and used a different colour of green ink (Green tea, CP Designs) that more closely matched the green from my Copic-coloured leaves.

Do you have a favourite, and if so, which one?

I'm linking up my cards at:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas ... for the Cure

W&W WCMD - Dress up your die cuts with Gayatri

W&W WCMD - CAS with Heather

W&W WCMD - Ink blending with Lea

W&W WCMD - Lucky 7 limit with Shay

(2 layers, 1 die, 1 stamp set, 2 colours, markers)

ATSM - #313 Holiday

HLS Dies- Anything goes

Seize the Birthday - Autumn bouquet

Hello and welcome! This is my third installment as a Surprise Party Guest at Seize the Birthday. This fortnight, we have a very easy challenge for you all, since there are no optional toppings, so it's anything birthday goes.

I had fun inking up this beautiful floral image by Concord & 9th again, including all of the half-tone images to add colour to the flowers and leaves. I was a bit hesitant at first, but these stamps have been especially designed to not give a perfectly layered image, which turned out to be rather liberating once I got started. I'm not really a fan of autumn, but there are several challenges out in blogland asking for autumnal creations, so I went for autumn colours. The floral theme and colour palette were also inspired by the World Cardmaking Day event at StampNation, and I really love how this turned out.

I used CP inks from the Spa collection to do my stamping. For the leaves, I used second-generation stamping to get an even softer look. The Happy die is by Neat & Tangled (Happy Holidays) and was heat embossed in gold ep (WOW!). The Birthday sentiment is from the Simply the Best set (CP Designs).

Do pop over to the Seize the Birthday blog to check out the wonderful inspiration by the talented DT and then go and create a birthday themed card and link it up. We look forward to seeing your cards in the gallery.

I'm also linking up my card at:

Stamping Sensations - Shades of autumn

Penny Black and More - Autumn splendour

Addicted to Stamps - #167 Autumn colours

Crazy for CAS - #10 Fall in love

Impression of an English cottage garden

When I was making this rose card for an England-inspired challenge at StampNation, I started to think about how much I love English cottage gardens. I tried to start my own once, but we moved before I had a chance to make it work. This time, I created a loose impression of an English garden on my card.

I created my smooshed background using Catherine Pooler inks from the Party Spring Fling collection and then used the backside of some stamps from the Medallion Mix-up set (CP Designs) to stamp with water, creating wonderful halos, since CP inks react with water. Next, I stamped the butterflies and wild flowers from the Wild Garden set (CP Designs) and finished with a sentiment from the Birds of a Feather set (CP Designs). I die cut the panel using a stitched rectangle die (SSS) and adhered my panel to a black card base.

I'm linking up my card at:

SSS - WCMD

HLS Watercolour - Anything goes (optional: gold)

WCMD - Bitty butterflies

I love creating quick cards using left-over bits and bobs from earlier cardmaking sessions. On my previous card, I used a previously die cut rose, while on this one I used a blended (distress oxide) and die cut (Bitty Butterflies, PTI) background that I had used to create this butterfly card over a year ago.

I heat embossed one of the sentiments from the Geometric Greenery stamp set (MFT) in white (SSS). I wanted to adhere my panel to a cream card base but didn't want to leave it bare, so I stamped several images from the coordinating stamp set through the apertures using second-generation stamping with Shea Butter ink (Catherine Pooler).

I'm linking up my card at:

MFT WCMD - ROYGBIV (rainbow colours)

W&W WCMD - Ink blending with Lea

SSS - WCMD

Crafty Animals - #19 Anything goes with animals

Altenew English rose

This card was inspired by one of the WCMD challenges at StampNation, with a moodboard containg photos of England.

The pelargoniums in one of the photographs reminded me of the rose and leaves that I had already coloured and die cut using Altenew alcohol markers and the free dies that came with a UK magazine earlier this year. To mimick the structure of the facade in one of the pictures (of Buckingham Palace), I added score lines to the bottom part. I opted for a light grey panel instead of cream (to mimick the colour of the stone facade), because it gave a softer look with my rose.

I'm linking up my card at:

W&W WCMD - CAS with Heather

W&W WCMD - Number Cruncher with Keren

(1 2-word sentiment, 1 3-layer rose, 2 2-layer leaves, 3 sequins, 4 score lines)

MFT WCMD - Flower Power

SSS - WCMD