Needle Felting

 A little something different!  My daughter and I took a needle felting course today, and we created this little fox!

I have wanted to try this for ages, so jumped at the chance.  It wasn't difficult, but there's definitely a bit of a learning curve!

This was a 5 1/2 hour class if you can imagine?  And we worked pretty solidly the entire time.

Lots of new skills learned, and I definitely have the bug now.  And of course, I hurried home and did a little photoshoot.

Painted Daisies

 I am revisiting an older set from my craft room.  This is Painted Daisies from Pinkfresh Studio.

This stamp set has a set of stencils that produce the most amazing floral cluster.  I used three colours of Distress Oxide ink (Scattered Straw, Bundled Sage and Faded Jeans), then used the coordinating die to cut it out.

I mounted it to my white card base with 3D foam adhesive, and added my gold metallic sentiment from the Serenade Sentiments die set by Spellbinders (doubled!).  A few gold pearls finished it off.

Cascading Lilies

The April Betterpress Society plate, Cascading Lilies, is SO pretty!  Lots of possibilities with this one.  I decided to create a tri-fold card with it.

I decided to hot foil the plate in gold, along with a couple of the sentiments, then used the coordinating dies to cut them all out.  I was even able to successfully do the reverse foil of the image!

I added a little ink to the flower centers to match the gingham background.

The gingham paper was attached to the card front, and the tab that I cut with the foiled image was adhered behind the card back:

I hid the sentiment and a couple of vellum vines under the lilies, so they show up after the first flap has been opened.

I added an organdy ribbon to the back of the card, and tied it closed, then placed a few gold pearls on the gingham.

The inside has a companion sentiment.

You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

Pride card

 I am celebrating Pride month today with a pretty rainbow card.

I blended five colours of Distress Oxide ink in irregular rainbow order on a piece of white cardstock, then pulled out the Market Place Mini dies from The Greetery, and cut them out in white.

I added some white paint spatters, then double stacked one of the Perfect Sentiments from Pinkfresh Studio, that was heat embossed in gold.

Happy Pride everyone!

Mosaic Christmas card

This was one of those lying-awake-in-bed ideas... I wanted to try pressing the March Betterpress Society plate, Teardrop Mosaic without ink.  Metallic cardstock works really well for this, so I pulled out some Emerald Prism Studio metallic cardstock and gave it a try.

                             

After I pressed it onto my cardstock... (check it out below!) I somehow decided that I should try to make it into a Christmas card?

I pulled out my Holiday Blooms die set from Spellbinders, and found a bunch of pieces already cut in cream cardstock.  So I added a few contrasting black pieces, and some metallic gold (for even more glimmer...).  This was an unusual colour combo for me, but I felt like the metallic tones already adding enough excitement to the card without going crazy with colour.  

The sentiment was also pressed without ink - and was from the Christmas Whimsy press plate from last fall.

You can get a Betterpress Society subscription from The Papercrafter's Workshop.

L is for Lawn Fawn

I am playing along with the Alphabet Soup challenge in the Papercrafter's Inner Circle group on Facebook, and the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge (masculine!).  Not only is L for Lawn Fawn, but also for 'Let's Bbq' - the name of this stamp set.

I stamped the images onto some cream cardstock, and coloured them up with my Copic markers... then fussy cut them all out!

I pulled out my Buffalo Plaid Betterpress plate, and pressed it in Pinkfresh Studio's Berrylicious ink, which was quite a dark red - but it dried considerably more muted.  It was supposed to look like a classic picnic tablecloth, but I ended up quite liking the muted tone that matched the meats.

I mounted it on some matching deep blue cardstock, and added the sentiment.  The inside says "Relish the day".  I was able to get two of these made, and will use them as Father's Day cards.

Set of Thank You cards

 I made up ten thank you cards to give as part of a bridal shower gift.  I made the shower invitations for this bride, so wanted to make the cards in a similar design.  

I made five of each design.  Both use the Fresh Picked Buttercups dies (even though they're 'supposed' to be Forget-Me-Nots!).

I used Altenew's Dotted Tile piercing plate for all the backgrounds, adding a little ink blending behind the arches.  I created an arch using Essential Arches for the peach arch, and Arch Pierce and Punch dies for the blue one.  The sentiments are all cut in brushed silver, double layered - using Serenade Sentiment dies all from Spellbinders.

Last Anemone card!

Last card with Fresh Picked Anemones... at least for a little while.  I had two of the blooms leftover from my previous card, and couldn't let them sit on my craft desk.

I chose a yellow background, and used the Diagonal Stitched Plaid coverplate on it, then added a brushed gold Stitched Scalloped Rectangle frame die (double thickness) - both from Pinkfresh Studio.

I glued down the two flowers, adding their blooms with 3D foam adhesive.  Then I added some spatter with gold paint.  *I think I'll add a sentiment to the front of this one before I mail it out, and maybe a gold pearl or two.

More Fresh Picked Anemones

 While I had this colour palette still out on my craft desk, I decided to try it with the Fresh Picked Anemones dies from Spellbinders.

I've always used this set with bold colours!  So I'm kind of loving the softness of this.  I did a plain white background that I used Altenew's Dotted Tile piercing plate on, and I spattered some gold paint to pick up on the touches of gold on my card.

The sentiment is from the It's Your Day press plate set, that I glimmer hot foiled in gold.  Happy to have two of these on hand!

Colourful Anemone

I have a bright card today, which was inspired by the Fresh Picked Anemone die cut (Spellbinders) that I'd already cut out...  It's a bit of a funky colour combo, so I decided to go with it, and pulled out a bunch of Concord & 9th cardstock colours to create my card.

I placed it over my new favourite Arch Punch & Pierce Plate die, which I mounted on a larger arch created with the Essential Arches dies (both Spellbinders).

The background was created with Altenew's Dotted Tile debossing plate, and I used a gold foiled sentiment and gold paint splatters to finish it off.

Sweet Stems

So excited to have added this set to my craft room!  This is the Sweet Stems product suite from Concord & 9th that came out last year.

The main panel is all one die, so I cut it out in white, aqua, pale yellow and a moss green.  Then I mixed and matched the pieces to put my Hello card together.

I got creative with my next two cards, as I really wanted the leaves to be green, so for the card with the aqua frame, I used yellow leaves and blended some Bundled Sage Distress Oxide ink on them.  I also added a little Speckled Egg ink to the centers of the white flowers, to make the centers stand out more.

The first two cards are using the Dashing Sentiments from Pigment Craft Co., double layered.

For the Yellow framed card, I used the white leaves & stems, adding some Scattered Straw and Bundled Sage ink onto each, and added some Speckled Egg ink to the flower centers.

For this card, I used the sentiments included in the set, which you can create several different sayings.

Father's Day card

A fairly quick Father's Day card for my Dad today, as I wanted to get it off in the mail pretty soon.  This is the 5927 - Father's Day Die Set from Art Impressions.

I had this ancient patterned paper from CTMH in my stash, with the decorative blue border, so I cut the sentiment die twice in a matching blue cardstock and stacked them together.  I mounted it on a cream stitched circle, then adhered it over a larger brown circle with 3D foam adhesive for a little dimension.

The paper itself has a soft, slightly distressed look to it, so I used some Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink, and softly inked around all the card edges, as well as the cream circle.  A few cream enamel dots finished it off.