Friday, December 6, 2024

Celebrate the Season

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing four cards I created recently using embellishments I rescued from last years Christmas crackers. Fortunately I was able to grab the baubles and reindeers before they landed in the rubbish bin! 


The patterned paper used on all cards is one I found on Etsy. I kept the design fairly simple as I am in need of quick and easy cards this year!


I used a stitched rectangle panel to mount the bauble/reindeer to the cards. For the ornament cards, I added the Pine Needles to the top using a older die from Memory Box.


The sentiment used on all cards is a very old stamp from my stash, probably one from when I first started stamping :)


Here is a close up of the reindeer card.


For the inside of the card, I added a strip of the patterned paper to the right side of the card. I also added a sentiment which is from Divinity Designs. I love these long sentiments which fit the length of the card.




















Tuesday, December 3, 2024

December 2024 Karen Burniston Designer Challenge

 

Hi Crafty Friends,

Welcome to our December Karen Burniston Designer Challenge.

Check out Karen Burniston's blog on Wednesday (US Time) when you will be able to see what all the designers created for the challenge this month, plus Karen will have an amazing video tutorial to share with us all.

Our challenge theme this month is ... "HAPPY NEW YEAR" - make a card that celebrates the new year. This can be a "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" card or just New Year. You can also stretch the theme to be a celebration of resolutions or manifesting something positive to arrive in 2025, etc.


It's been quite a few months since I have been able to participate in a Designer Challenge, but I have been able to find a little time to make some cards recently so I wanted to get one made for this challenge.

As you can see I opted for a New Year card rather than one that combined Christmas & New Year. I also wanted to play with a few of the new dies which were released in October.

For this card I used the Postage Pop-up and the Fireworks dies from the October release. As you can see I created a double postage pop up.

I created a 5 x 7 card, adding dark patterned paper to the inside panel. I then die cut fireworks using various colours of glittered cardstock. Before adding the fireworks to the background, I added the two pop up mechanisms so that i could figure out where the best places to add the fireworks.


I die cut the two of the postage frames from white cardstock and layered them onto a square panel of blue cardstock. I used the smaller dies included in the Postage Pop-up die set to die cut the inner panels of the postage frame from the same patterned paper I used on the background. I added fireworks to each of these panels, trimmed off the excess before adhering to the postage frames.

I used the "Welcome" and the "Numbers" die sets to create the Welcome 2025 to the left hand postage frame. I used the Happy New Year die set to add the sentiment to the right hand postage frame.



I kept the front of the card fairly simple as the focus is on the inside. I added the Celebrate to the centre of the card which has been die cut from silver glitter cardstock.

I die cut 4 of the smaller fireworks from coloured glitter and arranged them around the sentiment. I then added the 2025 to the centre of each of the fireworks.









Monday, December 2, 2024

Postage Christmas

 


Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing another 8 Christmas cards I created recently. They are all "postage" themed style cards using Waffle Flower Crafts Postage Frame die set and pattern papers. These cards are all 5 x7 and are side folding.


This year I need reasonably quick and easy cards to make for Christmas, as I started late. Using patterned papers for the postage panels, made this very easy. I found some pretty patterned paper from a cheap shop which was ideal for this purpose.


Here is a close up of one of the cards I made using the blue poinsettia flower. I used Waffle Flower Crafts Postage Collage Frame and Postage Collage Frame Block. I didn't know until recently there was a die to cut the squares inside each of the panels, but there is which made this even easier.

I used some foiled sentiments from Spellbinders on most of the cards, these were left over from another project so it was good to be able to use them.


As you can see by the photos posted, I created three each of the blue poinsettia and ornament postage cards and 2 of the other one as I had already use d up one of the sheets of paper.


For the background panels of the cards I used the Festive Tartan Embossing Folder from Made To Surprise by Sam Calcott, loving this embossing folder. I rubbed Catherine Pooler Gold ink over the background to add some extra interest.


And my final two cards I created in this series.


For these last two cards, I used Waffle Flower Crafts Merry Christmas Duo which is hot foiled using black foil. These were two more leftover sentiments I had in my stash.


For the inside of the card, I added a strip of paper to match the postage frame on the outside, along the right edge of the card. I then added a Christmas sentiment which is an older one in my stash.



















Friday, November 29, 2024

Blue Christmas

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing the final card I created after playing with Spellbinders Festive Poinsettias Betterpress Plate. I love that the Betterpress plates can be foiled and that when foiling you can make use of both the positive & negative pieces of foil. So two cards instead of one! 

For this card I used another piece of the negative foiled papers, gold foil on blue card. I layered onto gold card and then onto a pale blue card which i embossed using Made to Surprise by Sam Calcott’s Tartan Embossing Folder. 

To finish off the card, I added the foiled Christmas sentiment from Waffle Flower Crafts.


For the inside of the card, I added an older Christmas sentiment from my stash. 





 

Friday, November 22, 2024

Thinking of You


Hi Crafty Friends,

Recently when I was going through my foil plates & Betterpress plates, I came across this floral panel which had been created using my Betterpress, coloured and die cut using a stitched rectangle die. As I am in need of sympathy cards it did take long to add it to a 5 x 7 card base. I added the “Thinking of You” sentiment from Altenew to finish the card.


For the inside of the card I used the sentiment from Made to Surprise by Sam Calcott’s With Sympathy stamp set. I masked off the last part of the sympathy sentiment for this card.





 


Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Pink Poinsettias

 


Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing three more Christmas cards I created using Spellbinders Festive Poinsettias Betterpress plate. 

This time around I used gold foil to create all the poinsettia backgrounds & foiled sentiments. All cards are 5 x 7 in size.


For all these cards, I coloured the flowers using various shades of pink inks. I created a top folding 5 x 7 card. I added texture to all of my cards using the Festive Tartan Embossing Folder from Made to Surprise by Sam Calcott.

I added a gold foiled sentiment using Spellbinders Yana’s Christmas Sentiments Glimmer plate.


Another top folding 5 x 7 card using a sentiment foil plate from Waffle Flower Crafts.


This is a side folding landscape style 5 x 7 card .