Another 80th birthday.

After my father in law's
 birthday back in December,  it is my own dad's today.

The whole family are heading up to Sheffield for the weekend,  including his two sisters.

I made Dad a card using lots of Tim Holtz papers and dies.

The pocket die was ideal for tucking in photos, I printed a pair of pictures of him as a little boy, and others linked to his life: South London, a vintage routemaster (he was a bus driver) and pictures of Charlton Athletic.
Happy birthday Dad!

Altenew Cards

After going to the class run by Altenew I was inspired to make a few cards using stamps.

At church, our Parish Priest had an idea to give us £2 so we could take it away and make some money to support the parish.  I spent my cash on a set of blank cards and envelopes along with some plastic card bags.  I then took the made cards into work and sold them to raise money.

They were popular with my fellow teachers, I liked the silhouette leaves stamped in very pale colours...

with added sequins and a sentiment to complete the card.

My favourite card took the longest, stamping a series of layered flowers to make this floral spray...in fact, I liked it so much, I left this one at home in my own card stash to give to a friend or member of the family.

Wood slice backgrounds

One of my favourite issues of this year by Tim Holtz is the Wood Slice Bigz die and embossing folder.

 It has made some rustic style cards, but I can see it being really useful throughout the year. 

The die is a great match with an Xcut stag and wreath die set along with the winter greens.

The large Tim Holtz retro sentiment seemed to go well with the background too, so much so, it gave me an idea for my Christmas journal for this year- more about that later!

I also made use of the leftovers to my Christmas Journal from last year (Basic Grey), more cards coming up.

Stamped Christmas Cards

I have been playing with inks and stamps to make cards for Christmas this year.

The cards are from a mix of manufactures, mostly old sets from years gone by.  When I make my Christmas cards I do enjoy getting out my festive stash, not seen since last January when I completed my Christmas Journal. 

The first card is a simple layered Christmas rose by Altenew with a sentiment from the Lyrical Script set a clean and simple design.

This card has a focal stamped image by Do Crafts, I used my MISTI to stamp it in a variety of colours and add sequins and Nuvo drops to finish it.  Underneath I stamped the design using an Anna Griffin Noel stamp in slightly lighter shades.

Next, a very pale stamped card with Pink Paislee stamps, the background was repeatedly stamped to cove the card front in a pale Altenew ink in pink, The lights and sentiment are also Pink Paislee, again sequins, pink this time, finish the design.

My final cards use a stamp set I use almost every year. I can't recall the manufacturer, but they were UK based, sadly my stamps are starting to degrade a little, I'm not sure how much longer they will last. I used a background stamp heat embossed in an irridescent gold; the words are Latin "Gaudete" meaning rejoice.

More heat embossing with the same Gaudete stamp in white this time used as a resist to Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens used as a watercolour.  The pictures were coloured very simply with Muji pencils...I'm not really an alcohol pen person!
Looking at the amount of Christmas papers and dies I have, I think I need to dip into these for my next set of cards.

Die Cut Cards

I made a start on a few Christmas cards last weekend using a couple of sets of dies and some fun foam. 

The papers are also by Sizzix, a bargain set of 6x12 papers by Brenda Walter I picked up in their sale last year. 

The sentiment dies are by Altenew, I also added gems and enamel dots to finish them off. 

Christmas???

I rarely begin preparing for Christmas so early in the year,  October is my usual starting point, but this year I felt the urge to get ahead. I had picked up a few Sizzix dies in the sale last year, a nd saw them being used on the TV, so got cutting myself.

I love this Father Christmas by British designer Pete Hughes.  He makes for a lovely clean and simple card design, the only thing I needed to add  was  a few sequins for some extra sparkle.

The angel is also one of his designs, after cutting in a variety of different types of card (rose gold ,  textured and glitter ) I spent an enjoyable afternoon snipping and paper piecing them together.

Simple stamped sentiments by Tim Holtz and again a few sequins completed the cards.

Twelve down, a few more to make!

Vegetables on Paper

When I saw these stamps called Farmer's Market by Altenew, they struck as being so unusual that I felt the urge to order them!

I had a play with them last weekend making some simple cards for my card box.  First, I started with the carrots, stamping in the common orange and brown/purple for a heritage vegetable too.

I went onto the simplest of all, an avocado!  I think this card might suit a man.

Finally, I stamped a whole background of veggies, looking at it, I think a second generation fainter stamp might have made a better card, maybe next time.

I had the idea that it might remind a poorly recipient of the joys of veggie soup. 🥄

Fruity Cards

I bought a lovely set of stamps by Altenew called Simple Fruits and had a play with them last weekend.

For my first card I was inspired by citrus fruits.  Although the stamp I chose was actually a  watermelon, when stamped in yellow, green and orange I thought it had the feel of lemons, limes and oranges.

Next, I decided to do a little masking to make a fruit bowl towards the top of the card.  I also masked the lower two thirds, and so ended up with a clean line below the fruit.  A line of gingham washi and a sentiment finished this one.

I finished the cards with this kiwi fruit congratulations card.  I stamped in Altenew parrot with a little mocha around the edges, and drew in the seeds by hand. The sentiment comes from Label Love. My daughter Katie loved this card so much that I gave it to her for doing so well in her second year undergraduate exams.

Baby Cards

My cousin's daughter is about to have her first baby in Canada -a little girl- and Mum asked me to make her a card for the new arrival.

I used Sizzix dies to make these, along with Lawn Fawn stamps for the sentiments.
This card uses baby vest dies from the new Sizzix range of dies for this year.

I think this one might be my favourite, the dies are by Katie Skilton; the  unicorn set.  The sentiment and sun are from an older Sizzix die set.

Now, all Mum needs to do is choose whih one she likes best to send over the Atlantic.

Sizzix New Home Card

I know I'm getting old...a former colleague of mine has five children, her eldest is just a little older than my Hannah and we first met her when she was around 8 years old. Now she has joined the property owning masses!

She invited us to a housewarming party for a lovely flat she bought in the city, so I made her a special card as a gift (along with a bottle or two!)  The card is a clean and simple design.  The background is stamped with Altenew splats in the lightest of shades.  I die cut a cross-stitched circle, and my Sizzix elements from the My Life: Home set.  I backed the house with blue card, and added die cut house, trees and sentiment to the circle.

April already, the year seems to be flying by!

New Tim Holtz Die Range

When I saw the new range of cityscape dies by Tim Holtz, I immediately had ideas about making use of them with my moon Altenew stamp set and distress inks, so this is where the inspiration for my cards came from.

I first stamped the moon shape onto some edge to edge Post it Notes and cut a couple out to act as masks.  After putting the masks onto white card, I gradually built layers of Distress ink onto the card, starting with yellow and red around the moon, then adding gradually darker shades of blue, grey and black soot to finish.  I splattered a little water onto the ink to redissolve it, taking off the excess with a paper towel to give the distressed look.  Finally, I removed the ink mask and stamped the moon in layers using the warm grey palette; all by Altenew.

Then it was time to add my foreground buildings.  I die-cut some from the Metropolis set, and others from the Skyline set. I added yellow card behind some of the buildings to look like lights in the windows.  I have to admit that the Skyline dies were far easier to use than the Metropolis set, some of the pieces were miniscule, and very fiddly to layer together.

They do look good, but I'm not sure if they are worth the time taken, I'll use the first card for my card to my husband on our upcoming Anniversary, so at least I know it will be kept, as I store cards I make for him (or those that the children make for me) in the pages of my scrapbooks.

WRMK CMYK Cards

I saw this set of stamps and positioner that was shown at Creativation this year, nd thought I might have a go.



The stamps layer, but they give an almost cartoon style shading method using dots of coloured layers to form the image.

They come with a frame to help line up the stamps, but I found thi more trouble than it was worth so I simply lined up the stamps by eye. Here are some of the cards I made.

I loved this typewriter stamp, I do think the sentiment could be changed using a small die cut or banner too.  The woodgrain star sequins are by Studio Calico.

Another favourite stamp is this camera, amazing to think the brown colour is made up of black, magenta, cyan and yellow inks!

These two cards with the gifts were the simplest to make, I can see the stamp being useful at Christmas too.  The sentiments are by Altenew.

 My favourite stamp from all the sets is this 'Happy and Bright' paint swatch image. On the first I used a Tim Holtz stitched rectangle to cut the card I stamped onto, the second has  Sizzix die cut polaroid frame under the image.

 The stamps were not the easiest to use, but after a bit of practice, I am really pleased with how my cards turned out.

Richard Garay and Altnew Cards

I picked up a set of Origami stamps, dies and scrapbook papers by Richard Garay back in January, and used them (along with watercoloured backgrounds) and some Altenew stamps to make a set of cards.

This first card has a stamped start lower third, the rainbow strip is left over from the rainbow cards I made here. I stamped and die cut the large stars, using Altenew Halftone Circles to add the dotty background colour.

The next two cards have Altenew Halftone Circles stamped backgrounds with the lovely new ink colours; I especially like the new greens and oranges! The butterflies are stamped onto leftover card made from the post mentioned earlier and have a glittery finish you can't see in the photos.  I used my MISTI as stamping onto watercolour paper can be tricky. I added an unusual Altenew sentiment onto a handcut and doodled banner to finish this one and sent to a colleague who had supported me over my recent illness.

This card is similar to the one above with a different colourway.  The sentiment is stamped onto a punched shape from a favourite EK Sucess punch of mine.

A similar card to the one above with a cute stamped and diecut flamingo.

And my favourite card to finish.  this one was inspired by one I saw by Altenew design team member Lydia Evans...I used a mix of inks in rainbow order from Simon Says Stamp; Altenew and Stampin' Up. it is a one layer card, the splat stamp is by Altenew, a stitched rectangle diecut covers the front of the card and the sentiment is by Richard Garay.

I was tempted to add a sequin or two, but I did resist for that clean and simple look.