Thursday 31 December 2020

Sparkle and shine Christmas card

Hello and welcome to the blog. I hope you all had lovely holidays despite any restrictions in your area. Our Christmas was nice and quiet with plenty of sunshine. 

Although I still need to share several cards that I created for the current year, this hasn't stopped me for starting on next year's batch.


This card came together quickly, because I used a snippet from a panel I had created over a year ago for a different card, using a Uniko stencil (In the forest) and glitter paste in gold and green. I used glitter tape in copper and gold to set off my panel and heat embossed a sentiment from an retired Uniko set (Label Love: Christmas) in gold ep. The layout was inspired by the current sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch.

I'm playing at:

CAS(E) this Sketch #402


Uniko Christmas Party - AG Christmas with a Uniko product



Uniko challenge - #62 'Tis the season 
(optional: Sparkle & Shine)


SSS Wednesday - Sparkle and shine


Allsorts - #603/4 Sparkle and shine

AAA Cards - #180 Made in minutes 
(optional: Christmas)


Wednesday 2 December 2020

CCC Reveal November

Hello crafty friends! It's time for the monthly reveal of the international Card Chain Challenge, where you link up to send a card to someone and then receive a card from the next person in the list. 

My card went to Hilary in the UK
I know she has not received it yet, so I hope I'm not ruining the surprise here.


I combined the card sketch with the optional aperture, glitter and friendship themes to create a shaker card. I stamped my background using my NBUS Studio Katia stamp that I snagged during the STAMPtember at Simon Says Stamp. The SSS ink-blended butterfly die cut was in my UFO box.

I'm also linking up my card at:

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes


Monday 30 November 2020

Evergreens for Christmas

Hello everyone. I have another Christmas card to share. This one was inspired by some of the cards that were created with the new Catherine Pooler release. I decided to create something similar using the supplies I already own.


I'm linking up at:


SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

CHNC - #518 Anything Christmas goes

Quick Christmas cards with inked embossing folder

Hello crafty friends. I'm finally popping in to shared these cards that I created over a week ago.

I inked up a NBUS embossing folder with Distress Oxide inks, spritzed lightly with water and then ran it through my die cutting machine with a panel of watercolour card (Crafter's Companion). I find that watercolour card embosses beautiful without creases and with a very smooth end result. To finish off, I adhered the trimmed panels to my card bases and added two small, previously stamped and die cut sentiments (SSS) using liquid glue. 

I love how these turned out and am looking forward to create a few more with different colour combos and/or different NBUS embossing folders. It's a good thing these are quick to make, since I still have quite a few Christmas cards to make.

Beccy's Month of Holiday Cards - D for dry embossing and distress oxides

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

NBUS #20 - Anything goes with NBUS

Let's Squash it #2 - Christmas EF + stamps
I hope my cards qualify even though
I have only used one small stamp on each



Wednesday 11 November 2020

Skating penguin

Hi everyone. I'm popping in with another Christmas card. My card was inspired by several projects that were created for the recent Nordic Wood release by Catherine Pooler Designs.

I blended CP inks onto a panel of Tombow Bristol cardstock and then used the MFT Snowfall die and a SSS stitched rectangle die to die cut my panel. The image and sentiment are from 2 different Winnie & Walter sets, designed by Evelin T Designs. I used the same CP inks (It's a boy and Royal Treatment) and a Zig blender brush to colour in my image. For the penguin's body, I used a grey ColourTint pencil with the blender brush. To finish off, I added 2 snowflakes that I had die cut from some NBUS silver foiled vellum (top left in the picture) by Crafter's Companion using my SSS dies.

I'm playing at:

Beccy's Month of Holiday Cards - B for Bird, Blue, (Ink) Blending

Jingle Belles - It came about a midnight clear
(use at least one see-through element)

Winter Wonderland - Festive things with wings

Watercooler Wednesday - WWC297 Helen's All about occasions

ABC Christmas - W for Winter wonderland

NBUS #20 Anything goes with NBUS


Tuesday 10 November 2020

Coffee anyone?

Hello fellow crafters! I have a card to share for the 2020 Fall/WinterCoffee Lovers blog hop that is happening this week.

I stamped the image (Neat & Tangled) onto an ink-smooshed panel from my UFO box using my new CP ink and Versafine black ink. I die cut it into a circle using a nested circle die (Lifestyle Crafts) and popped it up on a panel of pre-embossed cardstock (Crafter's Companion) that I sanded very lightly. To finish off, I added a few Studio Katia sequins.

I'm playing at:

2020 Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Blog Hop


Beccy's Month of Holiday Cards - C for cup, coffee

12 Months of Christmas - #71 Anything goes (optional: for the boys)

Merry Little Christmas - #28 Anything Christmas goes


Wednesday 4 November 2020

Thriftiness...

Hello everyone. Hope you are all staying safe and well!

For this card, I finally used a rectangle snippet of patterned paper that I saved when making this card last year.

I'm so glad I did LOL, since it was the perfect accompaniment for my background. I embossed a panel of watercolour card using my NBUS 3D Cable Knit embossing folder (Gemini), then did some ink blending. I did not like the beige/brown colour that I had originally selected so I decided to add some Hero Arts ink in Wet cement on top. I think that this created the effect of a well loved woolen sweater. I die cut my panel using a wonky stitching rectangle die by CUTplorations and then adhered my PP panel on top, after backing it with 2 additional layers of kraft cardstock.

I'm playing at:

Beccy's Month of Holiday Cards 
that Beccy is hosting for the 8th time this year.
For my first card, I went with A for Antlers

NBUS #20 - Anything goes with NBUS

Jingle Belles - Holiday creature feature

CHNC - #514 Anything Christmas goes

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

STAMPlorations - Never-ending AG with STAMPlorations




Monday 2 November 2020

CCC Reveal October

Last month, I decided to play along with the international Card Chain Challenge, where you link up to send a card to someone and then receive a card from the next person in the list. 

My card went to Linda G in Michigan.


I went with the colours and combined it with the food (and drinks) theme. I started creating an ink blended panel using DOIs and then used a NBUS die that was an add-on for a recent Alice in Wonderland themed Love from Lizi card kit. I used the same inks to blend around my kraft background panel and adhered everything to a card base that I created from centura pearl card.



And here's the sweet card that I received from Lucille in Colorado.


Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you have a crafty day!

Thursday 22 October 2020

Super quick card

When I was preparing to take a photograph of my previous card, I realised I had several elements to create yet another pink Christmas card. This one came about in less than 5 minutes. I used another coloured Daisy Mae image (which coordinates with the images on my previous card) and combined it with a smooshed panel, a tag that I created last year but have no real use for and a couple of stars from my old stash.


I'm playing at:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas ... for the cure


The 12 Months of Christmas - #70 Anything Christmas goes

Merry Little Christmas - #27 Anything Christmas goes

CHNC - #512 Anything Christmas goes

No tricks - just treats

Hi everyone. So happy I managed to complete one more pink Christmas card today. I had coloured these sweet coordinating NBUS Daisy Mae images by Clare Rowlands some 10 days ago whilst enjoying one of the final summer days out on the terrace but did not get around to turn them into a card until today.

I'm playing at:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas ... for the cure


Christmas Kickstart - #40 Pink Christmas



CCAYL - No tricks, just  treats

SSS Wednesday - Layer it up

The 12 Months of Christmas - #70 AG Christmas (twist: colour combo)


Merry Little Christmas - #27 Anything Christmas goes

CHNC - #512 Anything Christmas goes

NBUS #19 - Anything goes with NBUS



Tuesday 20 October 2020

Two galaxy Christmas cards

Hello everyone. I'm back with two more Christmas cards featuring pink. I was inspired by an older video tutorial by Taheerah Atchia's to create these quick and easy galaxy skies.


After finishing my ink blending, I spritzed some clean water and then added some splatter using white acrylic paint (which did not work too well) and white gold Gansai Tambi paint from the Starry colours set. When my panels were dry, I simply stamped my sentiments (Right at Home) using Versamark ink and heat embossed them in silver ep (Ranger).

I'm playing at:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas ... for the Cure


For every card that is being linked up this fortnight, 
the lovely Jingle Belles will be donating $2 each 
to the US Breast Cancer Research Foundation

ABC Christmas - U for Up in the air

CHNC - #512 Anything Christmas goes (option: flowers)

The 12 Months of Christmas - #70 Anything Christmas goes (option: colour combo)


Merry Little Christmas - #27 Anything Christmas goes

Dreaming of a pink Christmas

Hello crafty friends. It's high time for some pink Christmas cards for the annual pink challenge at Jingle Belles. I haven't been able to create as many pink cards this year, but I'm hoping to at least create a few more tonight and tomorrow (work permitting).


Anyway, here's the first one, created using items from my NBUS magazine/kit #07 by Designs by Chloe. I started by blending a little ink (DOI in Worn lipstick and Speckled egg) along the edges of my peachy pink card panel en then fed it through my Cuttlebug using the (A6) embossing folder from the kit. Because I wanted my panel to fit onto my (US-sized) A2 card, I tore off a strip and used one of the included stamps to create my sentiment background. The snowflakes were die cut and stamped using the same DOIs. To finish off, I rubbed some gold gilding wax onto the raised embossing and adhered a few gold sequins for some added festive sparkle.

I'm linking up my card at:

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas cards for the cure

The lovely ladies at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ always devote the 
first theme of each October to making pink holiday cards 
and for each card that gets linked up, 
they (Stephanie and Lauren) each donate two dollars

NBUS #19 - Anything goes with NBUS


CHNC - #512 Anything Christmas goes (optional: flower(s))

The 12 Months of Christmas - #70 AG (optional colour combo)
This is a new to me Christmas card challenge

Friday 9 October 2020

Rainbow crayons

Hello crafty friends. I managed to create a quick card today using an older set by Whimsy Stamps (Smarty Pants). My card was inspired by a card on the Whimsy blog, where Alanna Moss featured a fun card with lots of paint tubes in rainbow colours. I CASEd her card using the crayon stamp (and a lot of masking) and changed the orientation from landscape to portrait. I also decided to pop up a few crayons for added interest and dimension. I used CP inks for the crayons and Versafine black for my sentiment.


I'm playing at:



Love to Craft - #51 Anything goes

Uniko - #61 Anything goes



Tuesday 6 October 2020

Another Hedgehog Hollow card

After creating my previous two cards, I decided I wanted to further CAS-ify my design for the current CAS Mix Up challenge. To do so, I die cut my scene using a SSS stitched rectangle die and stamped a simple sentiment from a beautiful NBUS SSS stamp set (Holiday Cheer) that I'm hoping to put to good use soon. I popped up my panel using fun foam.


I'm playing at:

CAS Mix Up - Stencils, tone on tone


SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

NBUS #19 - Anything goes with NBUS



Crimbo Crackers - #216 Anything goes


Hedgehog Hollow cards

Last year, I won a gift certificate to the Hedgehog Hollow shop and managed to snag this fabulous subscription box during the Black Friday sale. By the time it arrived, the holidays were over and the box was left on the shelf ... until now.


I used several supplies from my NBUS box to create these 2 cards: 1 stencil, 2 image stamp sets, 1 sentiment stamp set.


I did some ink blending (Tumbled Glass DI) for my sky and stencilled snowflakes and stamped both the rows of trees and the sentiments in CP Black Jack ink.

For my CAS card, I kept the stencilled sky a bit softer. I matted my panel with black cardstock before adhering it flat onto my card base.

The sweet snowman was stamped in a light grey ink (Altenew), so that I could try some no-line colouring using my Copics. I fussy cut the snowman and hat and popped them up using thin foam tape, just like the background panel.

My snowman card is playing at:

Jingle Belles - Dashing through the snow

SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

NBUS #19 - Anything goes with NBUS


Colour Crazy challenge - wk39 Anything colouring goes

Allsorts - #592 Cute Christmas



We Love Chocolate Baroque - Anything goes

And I'm linking up my CAS card at:

CAS Mix Up - Stencils, tone on tone





Monday 5 October 2020

Happy Birthday rainbow stripes

Hello crafty friends. Have you been crafting this weekend to celebrate World Card Making Day?
I have, and here are the first two cards I have created.

To get the creative juices flowing, I kept things very simple. While I was rearranging some of my crafty supplies last week, my eye fell on this striped paper from a NBUS paper pad that I discovered in my local supermarket last year. It instantly reminded me of the rainbow colours from the challenge graphic at Seize the Birthday, who are celebrating their 200th challenge this fortnight.


The challenge graphic inspired me to add 2 balloons that I die cut from coloured vellum using the smallest balloon from a SSS die set. To mimic the scripty font on the image, I used my NBUS Happy Birthday die (by Chloe) to die cut the sentiment from black cardstock and the outline from vellum. I love that the set comes with 3 dies (sentiment, shadow and outline) as well as a stamp for maximum versatility. I used a fine Micron pen to add the strings to the balloons.


The papers in the paper pad are all double sided, with a plain print on one side and added glitter elements on the other. I used the plain side on my first card, but decided to use the glitter side for my second card that was supposed to be a shaker card. But after I finishing the card, I discovered the glitter (Ice Maiden, Sparkelicious by Chloe) had stuck to the acetate (even though I did use my powder tool before adding the glitter in an attempt to decrease any static). So now it looks like I have used holographic card instead.

I'm linking up my first card at:

Seize the Birthday - #200 Inspired by the graphic


SSS Wednesday - Anything goes

NBUS #19 - Anything goes with NBUS


As you like it - Favourite: bright or pastel

Actually, I love both. It all depends on the type 
of card, colouring medium (if any) and mood. 
But I love rainbows and rainbows should be bright, right?!