G'Day Mate!

G'day Mate and Happy Australia Day for all my Aussie readers.

The last three months have been pretty rough down here in Australia due to the drought and the fires which have been burning almost continuously since November, The fires started in Queensland and New South Wales, but come December and January they had pretty much covered every states. It has been heartbreaking seeing the loss of people, animals,  homes etc. A big thank you to the firies out there who have done their best to keep the fires under control in the most extreme conditions.

As today is Australia Day and I am a proud Aussie, I have an Aussie themed card to share with you today.

I used Paper Rose Studio's Gumleaf Border to create the panel in the left hand side of the card, I backed this panel using woodgrain paper.

I used MFT Stamps Kangaroo Crew Stamp set to create the cute scene in the oval panel.

I added the sentiment using a stamp from Couture Creations.

For the inside of the card I created another scene using the remaining stamps from MFT Stamps Kangaroo Crew. I also added two sentiments from this stamp set.

Supplies:

For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below. Compensated affiliate links are used where possible with no extra cost to you. This helps me to continue to share all the projects I include on my blog. For the benefit of my Australia readers, I have started to include some links to Australian stores when available. Please note I only use and share products I love.

Happy Christmas and New Year

Hi Crafty Friends,

I am back today with another foiled Christmas card. There have been a number of fabulous Christmas themed hot foil stamps released this year and I could help but add a few to my stash. You can capture the beauty of the foil when you take a photo, but in real life this card has beautiful gold and silver shiny appearance.

Both of the hot foil stamps on the front of my card are from Crafter's Companion. The one along the bottom of the card is called Pine Forest Border, if you look carefully you can see all the trees and to deer on the left where there is an opening. I gold foiled the trees to the bottom of my card onto a teal cardstock. Once I had that along the bottom, I was able to trim my card to the size I wanted. I blended Distress Oxide Inks in Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire around the top and sides of the card.

I added the "Happy Christmas" sentiment to the left side of my card which I foiled using silver foil.

For the inside of my card I added an older foil stamp I have had in my stash for a few years. This one is Couture Creations/Anna Griffin Peace on Earth.

Supplies:

For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below. Compensated affiliate links are used where possible with no extra cost to you. This helps me to continue to share all the projects I include on my blog. For the benefit of my Australia readers, I have started to include some links to Australian stores when available. Please note I only use and share products I love.

Foiled Merry Christmas Banner

Hi Crafty Friends,

I recently purchased some of Spellbinders new Christmas themed Glitter Hot Foil Plates and dies. It's been a while since I used my Go Press & Foil Machine, so it was fun to pull it out and have a play to make a card.

This card uses Spellbinders Merry Christmas Banner Glimmer Hot Foil Plate. I used gold foil which I added to red cardstock. I then sponged around the edges of the cardstock using red ink.

I layered the red square panel to a gold mirror card and then to a folded white card.

To finish off the card I added a few gold jewels randomly around the card.

Here is another view of my card taken at a different angle. Foil cards can be so pretty, but they can also be difficult to photograph.

For the inside of my card I pulled out two of my older hot foil stamps from Couture Creations and Ultimate Crafts.

Supplies:

For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below. Compensated affiliate links are used where possible with no extra cost to you. This helps me to continue to share all the projects I include on my blog. For the benefit of my Australia readers, I have started to include some links to Australian stores when available. Please note I only use and share products I love.

 Joy To The World Hot Foil Stamp - Ultimate Crafts

Reindeer Hot Foil Stamp - Anna Griffin/Couture Creations

Best Wishes

Hi Crafty Friends,

t’s challenge time with the “Crazies” over on the Crazy 4 Challenges blog. Rebecca Ednie our challenge hostess for the month, finishes off the month with one last challenge.

Back to metallics for the end of the month. Use foiling on your project. If you don’t do your own foil, look for foiled patterned or mirror papers or embellishments like chipboard or stickers in your stash.

I had planned on buying one or two of the new Spellbinders Hot Glimmer Stamps for this challenge, but never got around to it as I couldn't decided which I wanted. When I finally sat down and look through my Hot Foil Stamps I already own, I discovered a few I purchased about 12 months or so ago and hadn't used, so of course I pulled those out to play for my card today.

I have the Couture Creations Go Press & Foil Machine which I have had for a couple of years, but with one thing or another I have been ignoring it recently ... so challenges like this are great.

For this card I used three hot foil stamps for the front of the card .... the swiss dots, the flourish frame and the sentiment. Each of these were foiled using gold foil.

I used an older embossing folder for the base of my card and layered all the foiled pieces using gold mirror card. 

To finish off the front of my card, I added two roses from Altenew's Rinnie Roses stamp set.



For the inside of my card I created a pop-up card using Karen Burniston's Katherine Label Pop-up die set. I added two panels of gold foiled swiss dots to the top and bottom of the card.

The sentiment is another hot foil stamp that I have had for some time, it's a large sentiment so I used Hero Arts Infinity Rounded Rectangles die set to die cut and layer it before adding to the pop-up arm.



Here is another view of the inside of my card, so you can see the pop up part of the card a little better.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the “Crazies” cards over on the Crazy 4 Challenges blog and also their individual blogs for more details.

Amy Ottmers

Joanne Grzelak

Karen Aicken

Karen Ostergard

Kathleen Adams
Maryann Einam
Rebecca Ednie

Tracey Farr

Supplies:

For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below. Compensated affiliate links are used where possible with no extra cost to you. This helps me to continue to share all the projects I include on my blog. Please note I only use and share products I love.

Special Birthday Hot Foil Stamp - Poppy Craft
Anna Griffin Best Wishes Hot Foil Stamp - Couture Creations

Let Your Dreams Set Sail

Hi Crafty Friends,

It's challenge time with my friends over on the CCEE Stampers challenge blog. Anne Harmon our challenge hostess for the month continues to issue the challenges.

Anne tells us that she wakes up in the morning to the NEWS.  Make a card using each of these letters…..N, E, W, S.

When I was recently thinking about what to do for this challenge I was flipping through some products sitting on my desk and came across the Swirl Easel Card from Crafter's Companion. Once I saw this I knew that this die covered two of the letters I needed to do for this challenge ... E for Easel Card and S for Swirl. So this became the starting point of my card.

To Cover the challenge these are what I came up with for this challenge

N - Nuvo Drops (the color is Neptune, so another N); Nautical

E - Easel Card

W - White; Wheel (ships wheel on the patterned paper.

S - Swirls; Sentiment; Sail Boat; Sea Breeze

When I was looking through papers for another card I noticed this paper which I thought would make a great Easel Card and also worked with this challenge. 

I added the swirls from the die set to the bottom layer of my card and added a sentiment onto a white piece of cardstock.

Here is a look at my card when it is closed ready to be placed in an envelope.

And finally a look at the inside of the card.

Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog (goes live 12 AM EST) to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs:

Anne Harmon

Joanne Grzelak

Liz Williams

Lois Bak

Lynn McAuley

Maryann Einam

Vicky Gould
Kelly McKown-Santi

Stamps: The Sea View Collection - Sheena Douglas/Practical Publishing

Paper: White; Green; Sea Breeze Paper Pad - Couture Creations

Dies: Swirl Easel Card - Crafter's Companion; Dotted Scallop Rectangles - Elizabeth Craft Designs

Other: Black Ink; Nuvo Neptune Gloss Crystal Drops; Foam Tape

Oh Christmas Tree

Hi Crafty Friends,

I have another foiled card using the Go Press and Foil Machine.

The background is an embossing folder which I used to apply the gold foil to the red cardstock. (Sorry I am not sure which embossing folder this is, and I created this background months ago when I first got my machine and have only just gotten around to turning it into a card). 

The tree is a hotfoil stamp which I foiled using light green foil. I then added Nuvo Drops to the ornaments and tinsel on the tree.

To layer my tree I used the Stitched Mod Rectangles Stax.

Here is another view of my card so you can see the foiled background a little better.

I kept the inside of this card fairly simple, using an oval frame and Christmas Sentiment hotfoil stamps foiling in gold and green.

Stamps: Little Santa Agenda - Mama Elephant

Hot Foil Stamps:  Christmas Tree; Merry Christmas; Oval Frame - Couture Creations

Paper: White; Gold; Red; Green

Dies: Stitched Mod Rectangles Stax - MFT Stamps

Other: Green Foil; Gold Foil; Merry Christmas Word Background Embossing Folder; Red Berry; Bright Gold, Woodland Green & White Blizzard Nuvo Crystal Drops; Foam Tape

Foiled Merry Christmas

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing a Christmas card I created using my Go Press and Foil Machine.

For the background I used an embossing folder to add gold foil to the green cardstock. I love how the Go Press and Foil Machine lets you use so many different options for foiling. I used a Stitched Rectangles die to die cut the background and then added some Autumn Red Nuvo Crystal Drops to the berry areas on the foiled background.

The reindeer is a hotfoil stamp that I foiled using Brown Copper Foil. I die cut this panel and the layer underneath using the Stitched Mod Squares Stax.

To finish off the card I added a sentiment that I embossed using gold embossing powder.

Here is another look at the front of my card. It's very hard to take a photo to share how beautiful this card looks in real life.

For the inside of the card I used another hotfoil stamp to foil the Merry Christmas sentiment with gold foil. I then layered this using the Stitched Mod Rectangle Stax.

Stamps: Puffy Christmas Greetings - Mama Elephant

Hot Foil Stamps:  Reindeer; Merry Christmas - Couture Creations

Paper: White; Green; Red

Dies: Stitched Rectangles - Elizabeth Craft Designs; Stitched Mod Rectangles Stax; Stitched Mod Squares Stax - MFT Stamps

Other: VersaMark Ink; Gold Embossing Powder; To Be Jolly Embossing Folder - Couture Creations; Gold Foil; Chocolate Copper Foil; Autumn Red Nuvo Crystal Drops; Foam Tape

So Many Snowmen

Hi Crafty Friends,

Today I am sharing another Christmas card with you all.

A few months back I shared a couple of cards with you all using Mama Elephant's The Cat's Meow stamp set. When I saw that they also had a snowman stamp set along the same lines I just had to get it! Of course here in Australia, snowmen and Christmas really don't go together as it is hot down here and all you would end up with is a puddle!!!! But I couldn't resist using it for a Christmas card today.

I went with a tall card this time around as I wanted to use the snowmen image and also the Merry Christmas sentiment which is pretty large!

For the background I used MFT Stamps Snowfall Background stamp which I embossed using white embossing powder and then sponged on Faded Jeans & Salty Ocean Distress Oxide inks. 

To finish off the card I added the smallest snowflake from Elizabeth Craft Designs Snowflakes die set, die cutting the snowflake from white cardstock that has Clear Double Sided Adhesive on the front. I then covered the adhesive with Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter. 

Here is a close up of the snowflake, I love how 3D this snowflake can be.

For the inside of the card I stamped a sentiment from Couture Creations and then added a few snowflakes from an Avery Elle stamp set.

Stamps: So Many Snowmen - Mama Elephant; Snowfall Background - MFT Stamps; To Be Jolly - Couture Creations; Snowflakes - Avery Elle

Paper: White; Red; Black

Dies: Retro Merry Christmas - Sizzix/Tim Holtz;  Ornate Snowflakes - Elizabeth Craft Designs

Other: Black Ink; Faded Jeans Distress Oxide; Salty Ocean Distress Oxide; Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter; Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape 6mm & 64mm; Navy Blue Nuvo Crystal Drops; Autumn Red Nuvo Crystal Drops; Foam Tape; Copics

This the Season to be Jolly

Hi everyone,

It's challenge time with my friends over on the CCEE Stampers challenge blog.  Our challenge hostess for the month, Maryann Einam continues to issue the challenges.

This is our last challenge for 2017, so everyone can enjoy spending time with family and friends over the Christmas Season. But we will be back in January for more challenges.

Let's keep things simple for our final challenge for the year. Use your favorite holiday stamps to create a card.

I am not sure whether any of these stamps are my "favorite" as such ... I have too many stamps I love including many of the new Christmas ones I purchased this year. I probably went a little crazy, so I am trying to use as many as I can before Christmas.

For my card today I wanted to use this cute Santa PopCard stamp set from Art Impressions/Hampton Arts, I got a couple of the bigger sets earlier in the year and when I had the opportunity to get this one at a reasonable price I jumped at it. 

Normally you use the PopCard stamps on the inside of a card so they become a "pop up" card. I wanted to try something different this time around, so decided to create an accordion card that has the pop up piece on the last page of the accordion. I am more than happy with how it turned out.

Here is a short video showing my card in action. 

I added snow to each page and sentiments to the middle and last pages of my accordion card.

On the front page of my accordion card which what you first see when the card is closed. I add the Hero Arts North Pole Sign. I also added 3 tiny reindeers playing around the sign, these are probably reindeers in training to help fly Santa's sleigh in the future.

Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog (goes live 12 AM EST) to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs:

Anne Harmon

Joanne Grzelak

Liz Williams

Lois Bak

Lynn McAuley

Maryann Einam

Vicky Gould
Kelly McKown-Santi

Stamps: Santa PopCards - Art Impressions/Hampton Arts; North Pole Signs - Hero Arts; Little Reindeer Agenda; Puffy Holiday Greetings - Mama Elephant; To Be Jolly - Couture Creations

Paper: White; Red; Knit Picky 6 x 6 Paper Pack - Lawn Fawn

Dies: Santa PopCards - Art Impressions/Hampton Arts; North Pole Signs - Hero Arts; Stitched Hillside Borders - Lawn Fawn

Other: Black Ink; Clear Double Sided Adhesive Tape; Cool Diamond Silk Microfine Glitter; Foam Tape; Copics

Joy to the World

Hi Crafty Friends,

It's challenge time with my friends over on the CCEE Stampers challenge blog. Being a brand new month it is time to introduce our new challenge hostess which is Maryann Einam.

Who doesn't love singing Christmas Carols at this time of year. For our challenge this week, take you inspiration from any Christmas Carol.

There are a few Christmas this card would work with including "Joy to the World"; "Silent Night" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" come to mind looking at the card. I will go with the sentiment at the top left side of the card .... "Joy to the World"

A few months ago I purchased a couple of the 3D Embossing Folders from Crafter's Companion, I have used two of them already the third a Christmas one has been sitting on my desk in a place I almost forgot about it until I spied it the other day, so grabbed it out so I could make something with it.  I just love the detail in these embossing folders.

For this one I decided to make an Easel Card as it has been a while since I have made one.

After embossing the Silent Night Embossing Folder onto Navy cardstock, I applied Silver Rub Ons all over the raised images. Along the bottom border I added some Midnight Blue Nuvo Drops.

On the base of the card I added a couple of flourishes and sentiment which are all Hot Foil Stamps and I used Silver Mirror Foil on them all. I also added a sentiment to the top left hand corner of my card which is another Hot Foil Stamp.

Here is a look at my card when it is closed ready to be placed in an envelope.

Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog (goes live 12 AM EST) to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs:

Anne Harmon

Joanne Grzelak

Liz Williams

Lois Bak

Lynn McAuley

Maryann Einam

Vicky Gould
Kelly McKown-Santi

Hot Foil Stamps: Peace on Earth - Couture Creations/Anna Griffin; Joy to the World - Ultimate Crafts; Flourished Corner - Couture Creations/Lincraft

Paper: Navy; Silver

Other: Silent Night 3D Embossing Folder - Crafters Companion; Metallic Rub Ons; Nuvo Midnight Blue Gloss Crystal Drops; Silver Mirror Foil; Foam Tape