Starry twofer - part one

Hello crafty friends. This Christmas card took a while to create, but I got there in the end. I had intended to create this card for the February Twofer challenge, but did not manage to finish it in time. I'm hoping I can finish and share the second part of my twofer soon.

I started by die cutting my new A6 coverplate die by Pretty Quick Designs. My old Cuttlebug had problems cutting out some parts in the middle, so I left some of the stars in and blended distress oxide inks (blues + cracked pistachio) onto my panel, that I had put over a panel of Neenah desert storm cardstock (for the second part of my twofer). I added some water splatters and dabbed with paper towel. After this, I did manage to pry out a few more stars but I decided I liked the look with a few stars still in and decided to leave the remaining stars in.

I adhered my panel to my A6 Centura pearl card base and foam mounted my glittery bird (Bird shapes, Essentials by Ellen) and sentiment strip.

I'm playing at:

February Rudolph Days - Anything Christmas goes

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas goes

CHNC - #426 Anything Christmas goes

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

If all else fails ...

... Make Art!

This card started as an experiment. I wanted to see if I could create a layered look using brushos through 2 layering stencils (Altenew Dahlia) that I had not used as yet. It did not come out the way I had hoped. I think I might have had a better chance of success if I had stuck to one colour, which I did not. Anyway, I did not want to let my panel go to waste, so I decided to do some distress ink blending over my brusho panel using the 2 stencils again. I die cut a panel from my large piece, but have not turned it into a card yet. Instead, I used the strip that was left to create this super CAS card. All I did was heat emboss a sentiment (by Wendi Vecchi, from a Ranger bumper pack that came with a  crafting magazine from the UK earlier this month) using gold embossing powder and adhere it to my card base using liquid glue.

I'm playing at:

CAS Stencil - Powdered inks

The Flower Challenge - #29 Use your latest stamps or dies

Watercoloured poppies

Hello crafty friends! I'm popping in with a quick post to share these watercoloured poppies.

When I first got this stamp (Stitched poppies, Woodware) back in November, I coloured it in using Copics (see this post), but I wanted to try my hand at some watercolouring as well.
For a soft look, I stamped the image in Antique linen DOI onto a panel of TH watercolour card and heat embossed it using clear embossing powder. I used Catherine Pooler inks (Carnivale collection + Rockin' red) and a water brush to do my colouring. I also added some fine splatters. I used a PB die to die cut my panel as well as a frame from hammered cardstock and adhered these to my white card base. My sentiment was die cut using an older MFT die and heat embossed using my new Antique gold embossing powder (SSS).

I'm playing at:

CAS Watercolour - Red & pink

The Flower Challenge - #29 Use your latest stamps or dies

Allsorts - #508 Spring flowers

Power Poppy - Creative Confetti - Colour it up

Fluttering by

I've been creating a few more cards using the sketches from the birthday celebrations at StampNation.

I started by stamping the sentiment from an older stamp set by Clearly Besotted (I think it came as a free gift with a UK magazine back in 2013) in black Archival ink and then used CP inks to add my butterflies. I cut out my panel used a stitched rectangle die (SSS) before matting it onto a snippet of cardstock and onto my card base. To finish off, I adhered a few gold sequins.

I'm linking up my card at:

Stamping Sensations - Alle things bright and beautiful

Penny Black and more - Anything goes (optional: tags)

Seize the Birthday - #159 Anything birthday goes

HLS CAS - Friends

Happy Valentine's Day, crafty friends! 

I have never made any Valentine's Day cards, because Valentine's Day was not something we celebrated when I grew up in the Netherlands. But this year, I decided to make 'a few' cards for some of the lovely ladies who are working at the clinic where my husband was operated back in December (and several times before). When DH knew he would be picking up the results from the most recent CT scan (which came out clean!) on the 14th, he promised the head nurse of the surgery department that he would bring her flowers or a card. And then I thought there were a few others who deserved a card as well, so I might just as well make a bunch. DH left home with 15 cards (14 as it's the 14th, plus 1 spare). When he came home again, he had 1 card left. He also brought me a chocolate bar, which the head of the reception desk crew had rushed out to buy in the cafeteria. On it, she wrote: WE LOVE U! These cards were definitely a big hit! 😄

I used a mix of products and techniques to create my cards, using a brand new stencil (by Christina Griffith) on some of the cards and old embossing folders and stamp sets on others, along with several heart dies.

For the head nurse, I added flowers and green leaves (Winnie and Walter), but I stuck to hearts for all the other cards. And a little shimmer from my SN sparkle pen of course.

After I had cut my pink panels from some A5 cardstock that has been in my stash like forever to fit onto my folded white A5 cardstock (equally old, since this is fairly thin compared to the Neenah cardstock I use nowadays), I used the off-cuts to stamp the XOXO sentiment (from Big Holiday Wishes by Simon Says Stamp) and added these strips to several of my cards. A great way to use up those snippets right away!

These cards also offered a perfect opportunity to create a card for Cards in Envy, using the very first sketch they offered for inspiration 6 years ago. I'm linking up my card at the top of my post at CIE's final farewell challenge as a way to say thank you to Sandy and her team for all those years of inspiration. Below is the sketch I used:

I'm also linking up my card at:

Aud Sentiments - #220 Love or Valentine sentiment

If you give a crafter a cookie... - #110 Photo inspiration

Tuesday Throwdown - #425 Falling hearts

Interactive reveal wheel card

I spent a few gift vouchers on new Lawn Fawn goodies. I just had to have the reveal wheel dies plus some fun add-ons, thinking they would make fabulous and easy interactive cards for birthdays and Christmas. And the sweet Unicorn set that came as a free gift (A little sparkle) was just perfect to create a birthday card for our granddaughter's birthday.

I love how you can turn the wheel to reveal more sentiments. So fun!

I created my panel and coloured card base by blending several distress inks and added some water droplets. I coloured the sweet unicorn image using Prismacolors, fussy cut it and popped it up with some foam tape. Since both unicorns and birthdays are not complete without a little sparkle, I added some to the unicorn using a SN sparkle pen and sprinkled some gold start confetti over my card panel (using multi matte medium).

I'm playing at:

SSS Wednesday - Interactive card (optional: Lawn Fawn)

Cute Card Thursday - #568 Anything goes

Kleuren met potloden - Verjaardag/Birthday

Sparkles Forum - #112 New Year, new stash

Mint and gold

Hello crafty friends! I'm popping in to share a card that I created today.
It's been a while since I have played in the challenges over at Winnie & Walter, so when I realized that the January colour combo challenge was almost closing, I grabbed a few of my W&W supplies to create this sweet birthday card (pun intended lol).

I started by stamping the Mini Scenery Marbleize stamp onto a panel of watercolour cardstock using Distress Oxide ink in Cracked Pistachio. I then sprayed my panel with water to make the colour wick out, making sure to blot up any ink that was travelling outside the frame. I stamped the cake stand (Sugar Rush, W&W) using CP ink in Black Jack, and heat embossed the sentiment using gold embossing powder (Papermania). I stamped and heat embossed the cake and flowers onto a panel that I had created earlier this week using my new CP inks from the Carnivale collection. I fussy cut the image and then added a little colouring onto the cake decorations using Tombow markers.

I adhered my panel to my card base using strong double-sided tape before foam-mounting my cake, and finished off with a sprinkle of silver sequins (Darice) and some shimmer on the cake stand (SN shimmer pen).

Here's a peek at the inspiration moodboard from the W&W blog. 

Don't you love the look of that luscious cake?

I'm also playing at:

Uniko - #51 Anything goes