One thing is certain, I am no water colourist and am now considering finding someone to teach me. That said this card isn’t a total dud and may grow on me.

I started by stamping the rising bubbles, by Designs by Ryn, with Amalgam Ink. On a separate piece I also stamped the Seahorse from a Gina K Designs stamp set. Added a few seaweed images with Distress oxides after I had used water colours to try to get a watery look. It looked awful but I refused to throw it away so ended up using a curved die to cut it down to what you see. This was much better so I adhered to a card front and then stamped the sentiment. I fussy cut the seahorse and popped him up. Sentiment from same set.

Trying out various new things with this card. Had fun doing it.

The new stuff is as follows, 3D Embossing folder by Crafters Companion, Embossing powder from Ranger and a new Stamp set by Unity Stamp Company won in a recent challenge. Started off by stamping the images onto white cs in Versamark and then heat embossing in Gold. Added a bit of colour using Sakura pens. I had a very thin gold frame left from a project and decided to use it here. Cut the white card down to the size I wanted. My Christmas gift from Hubby was a Gemini, but it initially didn’t work due to a faulty switch. Managed to get it changed this morning so just had to try it out. Folder came with the machine so I embossed the card front and added a swipe of versamark and my new powder called Lemon Drop which I heat set. Added the image panel and a die cut word on top. The embossing powder has a lovely shimmer to it.

The Modsquad challenge is to create your own PP and Double D’s mood board is using a punch. I managed to do both with this card.

Taking a piece of the light blue background paper I used an old stamp set by CTMH and peacock blue Distress oxide ink. I randomly stamped several of the Paisley images over the paper. I found a scrap of the same colour as the ink card stock and punched the border with an old Martha Stewart punch. I glued that onto the white card base first and then added the rest. I added the focal piece to some gold CS to tie it to the sentiment embossing. From the same stamp set I stamped the sentiment and heat embossed with cosmic shimmer powder. I rounded the corners with a corner punch and popped it on top using a foam back. It is a very simple card but I like it a lot.

The DiesRus challenge is for anything Christmas and I needed a box for a card series I had made as a gift and decided to create one.

I had done 10 cards all different and many with layers so I needed a fairly decent size box and initially wasn’t sure how to go about it. A little bit of research and I found a link to a tutorial that I could follow: https://intatwynedesigns.co.uk/intatwynedesigns/?p=10157 . Very good explanations and measurements. I literally just followed along pausing while I did the cutting etc. I had also seen an idea for using my HeroArts kit found here – https://heroarts.com/blogs/hero-arts-blog/november-my-monthly-hero-countdown-idea-giveaway-1 and I incorporated that into my box. The box is the same on both sides so it took me quite a while to do. Die cutting panels, colouring them with Prisma pencils and adding the embellishments etc. over the past 2 days. I even die cut the pot bottoms in PP to make them look more realistic. For the sentiment on the roof section I used a word die I’ve forgotten the brand name of. The card set and envelopes fit perfectly inside and I’m really happy with the result.

Global Design is a CASE the designer challenge this week. I had some time and still had a few left over bits and pieces so used them to create this card.

Card base is white with some pp and washi tape added at the bottom. Using a left over piece of Distressed sprayed card I cut it into the shape similar to what is on the designers card. I popped it up and added the die cut word on top. I had the pine cone and one leaf left from a class project done late October and hadn’t used them yet so I popped both up at the bottom of the shaped piece. I added the little bird as he was also left over. Now I think all my scraps are completely used for the time being.

The mod squad wants a Christmas or winter card for this weeks challenge. I created this one a few days ago but hadn’t yet had the chance to upload it.

Using a Spellbinders bracket die I cut the bottom of the card front. I also cut the label out of mirri card using a Spellbinders nestibility set. After adding a strip of washi tape to the middle of card front the label was adhered over the top. Using a word die by Dees Distinctively and some opalescent origami paper I cut out the letters and adhered them as shown. With a piece of GKD pp I die cut the deer and popped him up on top of the O. A fast and easy card to make.

Double D continues with part 2 of its winter challenges this week and I decided to go with Day 7.

A while ago I had found a free digital with swans and coloured it using my shimmery water colours. Forget where it came from so I can’t give credit. I added a slight touch of yellow to the necks of the swans. As well I had been playing with Distress oxide sprays and I had a piece of the blue left and I thought it would make a nice water background. It is quite shimmery as I had sprayed it with gold perfect pearl mist. I die cut various trees in different papers and adhered them to the card front. Then I added the water piece over which I popped up the fussy cut swans. I made my own sentiment with a line from the song using CorelDraw and I fussy cut this out in curves following the curved text. I stamped a couple of music notes and fussy cut those to add at each end of the sentiment strip. Added 3 tiny stars to some trees and it was finished. Fun to make this one.

Created for another challenge at Double Trouble this morning.

And because I used 3 colours as well as black and white stripes I’ve added it to the Color my Heart blog. Colours used for the inked piece are Dried Marigold, Twisted citron and Shabby Shutters. I had this piece made from a while back and decided to use it here. I cut the striped pp from a paper pack and added to card front. Then using one of my Sissix pattern dies I cut the shaped piece through the inked piece and then added this to striped part. Before doing the gluing I also added a small amount of inka gold around edges and smeared a little here and there over the panel. I die cut the oval out of metallic gold sticker paper and using Stazon I added the sentiment hello. Came from my Hero Arts Xmas set. It didn’t show quite enough so I went over it with a copper pen from Sakura. The mouse is from a Penny Black set and I coloured it with Prisma pencils and fussy cut out. Popped up on top of oval. I also added a small amount of shimmer to the icing and the heart but it only shows in certain light as it is very subtle.

I had this small die cut backed with the glitter cs on my desk for a while as I didn’t have any ideas of how to use it. I also had a few snowflake cut outs left. After creating my recent ornament card I had the bright idea to use all these bits for another similar one. This is the result…

I glittered the snowflake pieces and then adhered them around the gold die cut. Added a hole for the cord and a small gold bow at the top and then added it to card front the same as the last one. It is quite effective and I like how it turned out.

I made a second card for the Paper Players colour challenge so I could use up both the positive and negative scraps from the previous card. Having received a very pretty handmade card, which has a removable ornament on the front, I used the idea with my scraps.

Using the negative blue piece I paper pieced the positive bits into it and backed it with some shimmery vellum. I die cut this out using an old nesting set for which I stupidly didn’t keep the name, but suspect it is from Spellbinders. I punched a small hole at the top and added a loop of silver string tied into a bow. The loop is attached to the card back but is easily removed by recipient for later tree hanging. On the kraft cs I dry embossed some lines and added silver washi tape and left over striped piece. It has quite a bit of sparkle but once again camera doesn’t pick that up. I like the ornament shape as it is a bit different than is usual.