January Elemental Picture Challenge

 Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place, and Happy New Year! 

 

I've managed to get behind with blogging my projects (again) so this one is another catch up post!

Its a card for my own Daring Cardmakers challenge at the start of January

 

 January Elemental Picture Challenge.

It's Kathy here to host this week and my mood board has a mix of cool colours and natural botanicals along with chocolatey drinks and treats to bring comfort and warmth to winter days!

Pick at least 3 elements from this image to interpret on your card (remember colours count collectively as one element) and enjoy some crafty time!

Click Here for some ideas from the design team

 

From the picture I chose the hot drink, the pink flower and some  texture.

The gnome die set was a Christmas present, but the tulips, leaves and flowerpot are from a few different die sets.  I think the bright green base card makes a good background for this 

 

Thank you so much for coming by

Just a Note

If you buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty

 friend with a stash addiction, then I's really appreciate it if you'd log in using

  my Affiliate Link for the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site 

  Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

Kathy xx

Floral Frenzy

   Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place!  I'm sharing this week’s card for the Daring Cardmakers challenge today. The chance to look ahead to Spring was not to be missed! I’m not a fan of Winter and admit to having a tendency to hibernate so looking out for the brave shots of Spring bulbs and waiting for that time you feel  some warmth in the sun for the first time is important to me. Anyway,…

Our host this time is Shabneez and her theme is

Floral Frenzy!

A new year also means a new Pantone colour of the year, and 2024 

is the year of Peach Fuzz!
So to celebrate this new focus colour, I want to see you use 

peach tones on your card in some way.

Click Here for some ideas from the design team

I’ve a few tulip dies in my collection so I was able to use a couple to make cutting this lot out a bit quicker. First though I inked some scraps of card with bright tulip shades and some green for the stems and leaves and set them aside to dry. While looking for those card scraps I came across a piece of ready printed wood effect Bazzill card left over from another project. It made a lovely background, along with some fine corrugated Kraft card. 

Just in case you’re interested - my corrugated card is actually  the trays from Tesco Finest croissants - the top layer of brown paper comes away really easily after a quick spray with some water to reveal the fine ribbing between the layers. Most packaging is too thick but this stuff is perfect!

The pots are cut using a die from a lovely Spellbinders set. 

When I create anew sentiment on the pc I usually print at least 2 versions in different fonts or sizes so I already had this one in my zippy bag of such things!  

I don’t know why I get such a buzz from using ‘saved’ stuff when it happens, but I do!

Probably because it just makes me feel better about keeping all the stuff that  “might come in handy one day”

Thank you so much for coming by

Just a Note

If you buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty

 friend with a stash addiction...

  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

 

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

Kathy xx

 

Spellbinders Clubs January Wax Seal of the Month

    Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

 

I've spent a very happy few days playing with items from some of the fabulous Spellbinders Monthly Clubs - I know, I'm very lucky!

 

This time I've a couple of projects made mainly using the Wax Seal of the Month set for January, which has a lovely 'Made with Love' stamp and a bag of wax beads in a beautiful shade of royal blue 

 

I thought this message stamp was perfect to add to hand-made gifts, so I made a loop of blue cord before adding the wax over it and stamping

 

Now you need to forgive me as I'm very much a novice with the wax seal gear, but I thought this would be a great way to make sure I got some practice in!

 

You can get perfect 'rounds' by using a silicone mold, but I also like the more 'freeform' look which was easier for this than using a mold anyway!

making the wax seal itself is easy compared to adding a bit of highlighting with ink or whatever - I've always struggled with rather shaky hands so this is a bit of a challenge!

 

 

 

I also added a wax seal message to this card made using January's Glimmer of the Month set

To get a more suitable colour I added some red and white wax beads to a couple of the blue ones and gave it a good mix in the melting spoon ad I don't have many ready-made colours yet

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If you ever buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...

  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

Kathy xx

Spellbinders Clubs January Glimmer of the Month

 

  Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

 

I've spent a very happy few days playing with items from some of the fabulous Spellbinders Monthly Clubs - I know, how lucky am I?

This time I've a couple of projects made mainly using the Glimmer of the Month set for January, which has just been released 

 

Glimmer of the Month 

For this card I chose a dark blue-purple card and hot-foiled the glorious flower in bright green foil. 

Next I hot-foiled the flower part twice using the same card and some pink-purple foil.  I cut the whole of one out and just some of the petals from the other. I also hot-foiled a small scrap of card with just the centre of the flower and created a domed shape using a ball tool

All these pieces were adhered together using foam tape and added to the card

To complete this card I made a sentiment using the January Wax Seal of the Month and some waxed green cord

 

 As well as the beautiful flower plate you also get a roll of gorgeous foil 

and two sentiment plates with the January GOM (Glimmer of the Month) club 

so I used the foil and the sentiments on the cards I made with the Small Die of the Month set

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If you ever buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...

  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

Kathy xx

Spellbinders Clubs January Die of the Month

  Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

 

I've spent a very happy few days playing with items from some of the fabulous Spellbinders Monthly Clubs - I know - how lucky am I?

So today I'd like to share a couple of cards made mainly using the Small Die of the Month set for January, which has just been released 

 

Direct Links:

Small Die of the Month

Glimnmer of the Month

 

 

They call it "Small Die oif the Month" but you do get quite a LOT of dies in it! The picture below shows all the components.

I chose to make two cards  - one for each of the two flower shapes

 

Those ;itt;e birdies are so cute, and using this lemon, peach, red colour palette definitley made these cold days seem warmer and helped me over the "I've forgotten how to make a card that isn't Christmas themed" hurdle!

I added a message using one of the sentiment dies from the Glimmer of the Month set too

I deepened the colours for my second card - this one is a 'scrapling' style (made with an off-cut) of dark chocolate brown card.  I thought the bright colours  would look good on a corrugated card background

Again the sentiment is another from the Glimmer of the Month set

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If you ever buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...

  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

Kathy xx

BAUBLE

 Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

its the last challenge of 2023 over at the Daring Cardmakers this week, and this time I've gone 3D and made something to hang over our hearth

Jolly Crafty Christmas Time 2023

 One Word Prompt:

BAUBLE

What to make?  Anything Goes!

Its not just cards and its not just Christmas!
This week share any crafty project - Tags, Bags, Cards, Décor, Boxes - whatever you want, Christmas themed or not
just be inspired by the word 'Bauble'

See what the team made HERE 

I cut two of the largest of my Nested Stars set from a soft gold glitter card, 

Next using a bone folder and a ruler to add the fold lines then folded the mountain and valley folds to make the stars 3d,

 To fix the two stars togeher and have a glittery one of each side I cut lenghts of scrap card and made hinges which were glued to the inside of the points and were much more fiddly than i'd hoped!

Before sticing ht top point and the opposite indent I added gold twine to use for the hanging cord and the decorative beads at the bottom.

I cut a coule of smaller stars in mirror card, folded in the same way and glued one to each side of the star. I added a glitter card snowflake and a pretty flat backed gem to each side,

The bead hangings are a randon selection of beads I had to hand threaded on gold twine and then attached to the twine I'd glued inside the star.  I added a gold ribbon bow that I think came from a cracker at some time!

A few more beads at the top and some knots along the length to give several choices for hanging up the star

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If you ever buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...

  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

Kathy xx

 

Light

 Hello

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

I've the card I made for the latest Daring Cardmakers Challenge to 

share this time. 

Jolly Crafty Christmas Time 2023

This week's One Word Prompt is
LIGHT
What should you make?
Anything you like!
Its not just cards and its not just Christmas!
This week share any crafty project - Tags, Bags, Cards,
Décor, Boxes - whatever you want, Christmas themed
or not just be inspired by the word 'Light'

See what the team made HERE 

 I'd planned to make some kind of decoration for this challenge rather than a card, but that didn't work out very well so at the last minute I needed to come up with somehting else!  I have a lot of Christmas greenery bits and bobs already cut out, so using that along with a candle seemed the solution.

The candle is part of a group of three candles on a very old Memory Box die.  I like it but hardly ever use it bcasue its really fiddly - its one of those which is just one die so you have to fit the candle into the outline 'melted wax' parts. It would have been so much better to make it in two pieces, with the outline section cutting separately so it could then be adhered on top of the candle base. 

In case you didn't realise it, this is one of my biggest die bugbears!

I really should look for a better candle die set! 

Anyway, the inner parts of the candle were cut in a glossy red card, the outer, edges and dripping wax from red glittler card. I hand cut the flame pieces because I just couldn't be bothered to run that die through again for those tiny pieces!

 

All of the 'greenery' pieces are cut with dies from this years Spellbinders Christmas sets - I love dies like this, they don't just come out at Christmas because I make a lot of cards with flowers on and usualy use some leafy die cuts with them.  I keep any extras I cut in a box so I can use them when I'm in a hurry!

 

The sentiment was made using one of the Christmas Die & Glimmer Sentiments Hot Foil Plate & Die Set

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If you ever buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...

  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

Kathy xx

 

 

 

Christmas 5

Hello!

 

Thanks for coming by.

Here is a round up of some of the Christmas cards I've been making

All of these use  a gnome die set I bought 2 or 3 years ago and have only just decided to give a try!

While I was making the last lot of cards I thought that it wouldn’t take much to get a Santa Claus instead of a Gnome so gave it a try and these cards are the result. 

I mixed in a few other dies and hand cut some other (like his hat) elements to give the basic gnome set more of a Santa look!!

 

 

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Just a Note

If you buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty

 friend with a stash addiction...

  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

Kathy xx

 

December Elemental Inspiration Challenge

 

 

 Hello

 

Welcome to my little crafting place! 

I've made a box this time for the latest Daring Cardmakers Challenge.

Ots a [icture challenge this time and I just adore this picture!

 

 Jolly Crafty Christmas Time 2023

Ot's the first day (and the first Friday) of December, so as always on the first Friday of the month it's a picture prompt
December Elemental Inspiration Challenge
What to make? 

Anything Goes - Christmas themed or not
Just choose a minimum of 3 elements from this fabulous Home Decor picture 

to use when you make your project.
Remember that if you choose to use the colour scheme then that counts

 as one element

See what the team made HERE 

I chose the blue and gold colours from the picture, plus the big gold 3D star and the greenery as my elements

To add a bit of extra structure to the box I cut an extra piece to glue to the top. Next I cut a length of matte gold card; measured and punched holes for the fastening.  This was made with two lengths of blue waxed cord and one of thick gold thread, which were plaited together and knotted at the ends. The gold band was adhered in place around the box, I threaded the tie through the holes before adhering the band to the box

 

To decorate I made a 3D star, then tucked pieces of die cut greenery (some sprigs in white and gold too) under the star.  To complete I used some large red pearls for berries and added a few tiny gold stars

 

My box was made from a lovely deep blue Bazzill card using an old Spellbinders ide set.  Unfortunately its a set that's not available any more so I can't direct you to it in the shop, sorry

 

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If you ever buy from Spellbinders and you're happy to help out a crafty friend with a stash addiction...

  HERE is my Affiliate Link to the Spellbinders store - you can use it to access the store any time, and I'd really appreciate it if you did, don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything!

There's a UK based shop now, so you can use the 'Visit Our UK Store' button at the top right of any page on the Spellbinders site  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for coming by

 Happy Crafting, Take care of yourself,

 

Kathy xx