An old boyfriend, who has remained in my life and is a good friend to both my hubby and I, has a birthday coming up. He is a classical guitarist as well as a doctor and I usually try to make him something related to music. This card is what I came up with for him and it fits the challenge at Make My Monday, #205 An Aperture Card so it will be entered there.

Using an unbranded guitar die, I cut all the pieces and assembled the guitar. Quite fiddly to do, but the end result makes it worth it. I have a sheet music stamp but no idea who made it and it is an older rubber stamp so I used this to create the PP behind the aperture. The die used to cut the opening is another I can’t remember the brand of, but I know one of my stamp buddies has the same die so perhaps she can tell me. I also used the corner dies made by Cherry Lynn Designs. Sentiment is from Hampton Arts and I added a second one inside from the same set. The inspiration for the design came from a Pinterest post, but there was no info with it so I can’t add anything more on it. I popped up the die cut panel and added the guitar as you see.

I’m quite pleased with the result although using black pieces on the guitar means they disappear in the photo. It was fun to create. Many thanks for spending your valuable time with me, it is appreciated.

The stamp used for this card is an old wooden block from a company called Stampede Rubber, that I’ve had since forever. In my early card making days I often had no idea of how to use stamps but I remember getting this one as a gift and used it fairly frequently at the time.

The challenge colours from Color Hues are Olive and Berry so I coloured it as best as possible to match those. Once it was dry I added some Nuvo Crystal drops to the window pane section and a Sakura Glaze pen over the grapes and partially over the leaves. I backed the window with some black for more definition and added some sequins to the corners. The sentiment is computer generated as I had nothing that seemed right and this too was backed with some black. I thought I would say Make Wine, but it came up with Grapes. Kind of a play on the fishes and bread in the bible in a weird way. The PP is from StampinUp and I used a Spellbinders folder to give some texture. I quite like the result which isn’t always the case.

I’m entering it into the following challenges:

Color Hues #68 Olive and Berry

Anything Goes With A Twist of Stars – twist not taken

Summer Season July 2023 Challenge – Four Seasons blogspot.

Thanks for stopping by, it is appreciated.

For the longest time, I’ve wanted to make a card like this but never seemed to have the time. Then after making these panels, I realized that it would make a fun background for the otters. In the case of this panel, as opposed to the one I posted the other day, I turned it upside down so the swirl is going in a different direction. Basically I followed the directions found here, but I also followed another link to see a bit more how it was done and that can be found here. Both are helpful tutorials but I still had a few small issues with the pull up mechanism before it worked properly. As with everything, if I make another I already know how to make it a bit easier next time. The otters were stamped (StampinUp set) fussy cut and coloured using distress oxides and a water pen. I used Antique Linen and Tea Dye as well as a Sakura Glaze pen to enhance eyes etc. The little fish was done solely with Sakura glitter pens. The sentiment is from a Simon Says pre-printed set that I’ve just received. When I added the panels to the card front I didn’t quite get them centered so I ended up cutting a small amount off to make the margins even. This small piece was added to the bottom of the sentiment to tie it all together. I may add a few embellishments but at the moment am not sure about that. I also couldn’t find my little stamp set that has pull etc. as part of the words so I hand printed it. All in all I’m quite pleased with the end result.

I am entering it into the following challenges, both of which are new to me.

https://craftinghappinesschallenges.blogspot.com/ – July: 144 Anything Goes – Every type of crafting welcome

https://aperfecttimetocraft.blogspot.com/ – A Perfect Time To Craft Open Challenge for July, #7-2023

Thanks for spending your valuable time with me, it is appreciated.

It has been quite some time since I pulled out the Crazy Cats by Tim Holtz so this challenge was a good one for me bring them out and use them. I also used a sentiment (cut up) from Dylusions which is another set I’ve not used anywhere near enough. The snarkiness of this set amuses me.

I started by stamping the fish skeleton for a background and inked the edges to make it stand out a bit more from the card base. After die cutting the center panel using an unbranded stitched frame set, I inked those edges with same colour ink. Then the two cats were stamped coloured with Inktense pencils and also die cut. I like that the dies for this set don’t leave a white border. I enhanced the eyes and whiskers with a Sakura glaze pen . The sentiment was added as you see but I forgot to add something to the panel and it looked a bit stark. In the end I used a couple of very tiny stamps and added hearts and some flowers in Wild honey ink. To make it fit in with the background I added a few hearts around the edges of that piece too. Cats were popped up on foam tape.

Thanks for taking a look. It is always appreciated as I know your time is precious.

Somehow I managed to use all five colours for this challenge. This is actually a CASE of a card that Natasha Foote has done which intrigued me enough to want to try a version of my own. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get my die to cut through the acetate so in the end I used scissors which didn’t give me as clean an edge as I would have liked. No matter – I persevered. Getting a close colour match is a challenge of its own, so this is as close as I could come. I used Distress oxides in Scattered Straw, Lost shadow, Mowed lawn, Broken china, and Salty Ocean. Because I couldn’t get really crisp edges I added lines by hand using a sparkle Sakura pen and the embellishments are Trinity Stamps. The sentiment is from a set by MFT and I curved this as best as I could follow the inked curve. I also tried another one but still didn’t have truly crisp lines. It will be used at some point but not today.

My last card for today and I’m off to cook some supper for a hungry hubby. Thanks for stopping by.

A while back a stamping buddy made a card using this same stamp and I said one of these days I shall CASE it. This is my take on her card, kind of the same but using silver heat embossing. Stamp used is from Nellie’s choice called Idyllic Floral Scenes and is made by Nellie Snellen. As well my frame is different and the die is from a Paper Roses set. The sentiment is from a Hampton Arts set that I’m using quite a lot lately. Although this card is pretty close to Lisa’s and is quite nice I still prefer hers to mine. Looking at it again if I make another, I will use a smaller frame so I get more of the image in the sides. I find this scene so peaceful and calming and I really like the stamp.

I’m entering this into 2 challenges.

Thanks for stopping by, it is appreciated.

My mojo is a bit lacking at the moment and while I don’t think this card is a bad one, it isn’t making me feel inspired either. That said, it works for 3 challenges so here goes.

Obviously I followed the sketch and with the seashells added it fits the theme at JUG’s and perhaps the outdoor theme at Double D. I had the embossed piece and the gold oval already cut and left over from other projects. Luckily I was able to find another piece of the same green and I embossed this with a Memory Box 3D ocean theme folder. Finding a small strip of pale green Mulberry paper in my stash spoke to me, so I used this and heat embossed some shells top and bottom in gold before adding it over the background layer. Stamps used are from an old Hero Arts set, an Inspired by Stamping sentiment set and a Newton Nook set. I cut up the sentiment so I could make it fit properly. The octopus was coloured with Tea Dye ink, a gold pen and watercolour pencils that I mixed a little to get the heart similar in colour to the card base. Once he was die cut he was popped up as you see, with the additional heat embossed and fussy cut shells tucked in.

Thanks for stopping by and spending some of your precious time with me.

Challenge links: http://www.asyouseeitchallenge.com/ – Challenge #302

Just Us Girls # 687 Word Week

The Great Outdoors Challenge – https://daranddiane.blogspot.com/

As promised I have begun another small batch of pet sympathy cards for a friend and this is one of them. The background was done with an unbranded die I’ve had for a month or two but not yet used. The challenge calls for an inlay so I die cut the umbrella section again using some PP and inlay that piece along with a small piece for the handle. The stamp used for the sentiment is from Joy Clair and the paw prints are from a dollar store set. The sticker is from my friend who tried to make her own and gave up in disgust, hence me doing them for her. It’s a very simple card but I think effective for its purpose.

Thanks for spending some time with me, it is appreciated.

I find this Stampendous House Mouse stamp quite cute and I had seen another stamp in this set where the creator spotlighted only a portion of the image. As I liked the idea I decided to try it with mine. I stamped the image in black on the white layer and lined up another piece of white card so I could stamp it again. Then I die cut the middle into a circle after I had coloured the parts I wanted to spotlight. Mainly used pencils for the colouring with a little Ohuhu inks for faces, paws and tails. I die cut a couple more circles so I could layer for a bit of dimension and then lined everything up to assemble as you see. Added the black layer to give a border and then to the card front. The sentiment is from a Joy Clair set.

Entering it into the two challenges at Make my Monday and Crafting Happiness just for fun. Hope you all have a great weekend. It is another hot day here and likely to continue for some time to come. Thanks for stopping by, it is appreciated.

Last week I didn’t get to do much crafting so I missed one or two challenges that I usually like to participate in. This week it is easier so I’m back in my craft room trying to regain some mojo. I don’t do a lot using pastels so decided to have a go with this challenge at JUG’s.

I pulled out some marble paper that was gifted to me and cut a frame, using Hero Arts Infinity dies, for the card front. I also cut a circle, also Hero Arts, to go behind the dotted die piece. This die is from Your Next Stamp (sadly closing shop). With an older SSS set called Lifting Hearts I stamped the cute image, coloured it with pencils and then covered it with Versamark ink so I could heat emboss it. Once I had one coat done I repeated it only this time I used the Ultra Thick powder and kept adding it until I was happy with the result. I die cut several pieces so I could stack them for a bit of dimension and now the image is shiny and to me, quite pretty. Using a stamp from the same set I added the sentiment at the bottom. I decided against any embellishments but may change my mind later on.

I hope you are having a good day, and thanks for taking a look.