Once again the photo hasn’t shown the true colour of something and as I’ve already mailed this card I cannot redo the photograph. It is however tones of pink for the rose and a dark green handmade paper for the leaves. The paper was something I had in my scrap file that was purchased long ago and only a small amount used. It was kind of crinkly with a fleck running through it but none of that shows on the picture. The rose was from a die that came with a craft magazine from the UK. I lost the solid shaped piece in my last craft room so I improvised with one from GKD to get the bottom part. I think the solid shape die went under a built in cabinet but we never found it, sigh! Then I added the layers in 2 different pinks. The little hearts are from a new die I simply had to have and the gems are from my stash. The background layer is a pinpoint die from Altenew and I cut it down before adding it to the card front. Sentiment is also from GKD. Leaves were cut from a SSS set that I love. I really wish you could see the paper as it is quite pretty in the right light. The DT for this challenge will have to take me at my word that it is green and not black or a dark brown. Thanks for looking.

A maple leaf is the perfect way to say Canada so here is my card for this challenge at AAA. I used an old rubber stamp by Petaluma Crafts (not sure they still exist) and Aged Mahogany distress ink to stamp along the bottom edge of my card front. The sentiment comes from an MFT set and I stamped this in Hickory Smoke as I didn’t want it to be really black. I forgot that wooden block stamps are a bit of a challenge to use as you can’t see the placement the way we can with the clear stamps or without the block. To me this card is a bit stark but for a CAS challenge I guess stark is best. I can always dress it up if I send it to someone.

Paper Dragonfly invited me to be a guest designer either April or May and I chose to do one for April. This challenge requires an origami dragonfly. Having been given some links to origami folding I took a look and tried to make one following along with the tutorial. Links viewed:

https://youtu.be/ieZ4OF551RMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–il4SNRhuohttps://youtu.be/tIgB_nxFN9I

Although the folding isn’t technically hard, I found it a challenge and after 4 tries got a bit frustrated. My hands simply wouldn’t cooperate and my folds were uneven each time. In desperation I went to my Japanese friend and asked for help. She does a lot of origami and has sold some of her work in craft markets. The dragonfly on my card is mostly her work and I shall be forever grateful that she was willing to help. Using an infinity die set called Peek-a-boo shapes from Hero Arts and some DSP from StampinUP I die cut the shape and added foam to the back. Using a stamp from an MFT set I stamped the word open and added it to the edge of the flap. With a StampinUp set I stamped directly to the inside of the shape on the card front and coloured the image. Then I added the top layer to the card front. The dragonfly was added to the flap along with a small mirror die cut piece for grounding him. The sentiment was stamped from the same set as the bird image and I used a decorative label die that I think is from Spellbinders but am not sure. It has been a while since I used this die but I know I got it at HomeSense a long time ago. Every once in a while they’ve had some decent craft supplies on sale. I also added a few darker blue gems on the card front. In a way, I find this card a bit on the busy side, but it does look quite nice nevertheless.

The expression on this poodles face reminds me of my own dog, who is a female poodle and can look exactly like this on occasion. We don’t clip our dog to look like this, but poodles have a way of looking at you that is so superior you have to chuckle. The DSP is from StampinUp and the poodle was fussy cut from a scrap piece. The speech bubble is from Divinity Designs and the sentiment is from stampinUp. The bow and gems are from my stash. A quick and easy card to put together except for the fussy cutting.

Its an anything goes challenge for Krafty Chicks so I am entering this card which I made a while ago but hadn’t yet posted. During organizing my new craft room I came across this piece of paper, which I made a long time ago when I was into making my own paper. I figured it would make a good background for Easter so here it is. The images are from a couple of sets, one by Claire Brennan (GKD) and the other by GKD. Some were die cut and others fussy cut. I folded the sentiment strip as you see and stamped the 2 sentiments and the bow before gluing to the square background layer. I was careful to leave some looseness so I could tuck in the other images. These were coloured with a combination of pencils and Sakura gelly roll pens. I added the embellishments and then added the entire piece to the card front. Thanks for spending time with me today.

With these two challenges I managed a twofer, although the only true commonality is in the colour green. After dry embossing the panel using a Craft Concepts folder I die cut the band piece using a die I received with my Gemini machine. It is really a border die but I wanted something a bit different for my band so after die cutting I trimmed the top with scissors and added it to the panel. Using a new die set of words from MFT, I die cut three of them and added them as shown. As I used a paint swatch for the word piece I noticed that the edges lost a bit of their colour so I went around the edges with a Sakura pen. Once the panel was added to the card front it looked a bit blah, so I added the green bling to liven it up.

For this card I used a new stamp set that I just received by Catherine Pooler. Its been around for a while and I’ve admired it in the past, so decided to purchase it. The challenge is for pink and gold and I’ve seen Koi that are not just orange so I watercoloured mine pink after gold heat embossing. The bubbles are also gold but look green in the photo for some reason. As well I used a gold mirror scrap piece and a lattice die from Paperrose.com. This I die cut twice, once in the gold and once in a marbled pink paper which I then offset slightly when gluing to the card front. In R.L. the gold really shines especially the mirror piece but I can’t get a photo to show that and I tried several times. I have deliberately left off a sentiment as I’m not sure what I want at the moment. I quite like the end result for this card.

The sketch challenge at Make the Cards looked fairly straight forward and this card is what I came up with. I just love the DSP from StampinUP, and those owls are gorgeous. Once I had my paper layers added I realized that I hadn’t come up with an image to go with them – honestly – I think really weirdly sometimes and do some things backwards or without thinking it through. Fortunately I remembered this little mouse stamp from Wild Rose Studios and as owls catch mice at least the images kind of go together. Mind you that mouse is so cute perhaps an owl might leave him alone? I stamped him on a mixed media piece and used Tombow markers to add colour. I’ve only done this kind of water colouring once before as I usually use pencils, but I’m really happy with how he turned out. The butterfly die cut is from Crafters Companion and the sentiment is from Divinity Designs. The sentiment was stamped with Hickory smoke as I wanted a softer look for this card. The image panel was die cut using a deckle edge Spellbinder set and I bent the edges a bit more by rubbing against my desk edge, for some dimension. That tip came from Tim Holtz by the way. Thanks for spending time with me today.

With Easter coming up soon, a lot of cards are featuring bunnies and eggs and in the Inkspirational challenge we require a critter that hops. Instead of using a bunny I decided to use frogs and the stamp set from SSS that features a kit with several frog stamps. Deciding on a slimline I stamped the 3 frogs and masked them off so I could stencil clouds and a few water lilies. Before removing the masks I also added the green section at the bottom using distress inks. The reeds were added and coloured with inks but I added some Inktense pencils to them after they dried. I also used some Sakura glaze pens to add details or some darker colour to the frogs. The frogs were mostly done with Inktense pencils, but I used different greens so they aren’t all exactly the same. My hubby liked the result. I cut the panel down slightly before adding it to the card front, but the panel is the only layer. Everything else is one dimensional. Hope you like it.

One of my friends helped me with something the other week and as a thank you I bought a small gift to give her when we go over next weekend. I needed a small bag for the gift and didn’t have any in my stash so I made this one. Once it was completed I realized that it fits the challenge at Double D, so I’m entering it as my 2nd entry. I’ve never made one of these before and I had some slight difficulty adding handles. Now I know more about the how, I can make others with less issues. DSP is from Stampin Up and I made a thick base inside so it won’t tear with the weight of the item. As the Mod Squad challenge is anything but a card this bag fits their challenge as well. Thanks for spending time with me today.