Trees & Leaves WLSC mid month

     Hi Everyone my DT make today is for 

We Love Stamping

This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme from Emma

Trees & Leaves

 

 

On one of the hottest days of the year, 34C 93f, I decided to go into my North facing craft room, and craft in the shade, I should have just left things as they were and just read. 

 

However, I made 4 cards, 2 went into the bin, #3 I spoiled by smudging my hand over the ink, grrr, so my card today is my offering, but under the circumstances....

 

Anyhow, I shaded DO's over a piece of card, then using a leaf stencil I went over it with an alcohol wipe. Next I stamped the leaves around the left and top and stamped a sentiment into the space left. Even that I got wrong! I think I should have used the colour of the leaves, oh! well. I then clear embossed the sentiment. 

 

Next I placed the stamped piece onto a matching piece of paper and then added a pink layer with leaf shapes. The paper layers were edged with DI's in darker colours.  I then added tiny pink gems. It turned out OKish, I think in the end. 

 

Even then, the photo misshaped the card, taken twice, then straightening, it has made the sentiment look wonky! Told you I should have read instead.  

 

leaf stencil and stamps - Chloes Creative, mag freebie SCP#217 

inks - Distress Oxide, kitsch flamingo,lucky clover, mermaid lagoon 

sentiment - Woodware, It's the Little Things (old)

green paper - Lidl

pink paper - The Range, Happy Colours 

pink gems - stash 

Let's cheer ourselves up with the fabulous prizes. We have two wonderful prizes this month from

 Taylored Expressions & Penny Black

 

 

 

2 prizes, $30 store voucher from Taylored Expressions and Penny Black stamp set and stencil from Buddly Crafts (photo's not to scale).

 

Don't forget to use your stamps. 

Dots & Stripes TMR Challenge

 Hello everyone, my card today is for 

 

The Male Room 

 

I knew I had this stamp, and have never used it, so thought this was an opportunity to use it. I decided bright was my plan, I have yellow paper, I bought for a project and lots left over, a good time to use it. 

 

I stamped randomly in a sort of pattern, in different colours. Then horizontally, with a dots stamp and then again with the original stamp. With no plan as always, I went looking for a sentiment and luckily found this stamp, it suited my plan of bright. It was stamped onto white card. I then die cut a button, adding it to the stamped, and label cut sentiment. Next I die cut some candles, same as the button, out of gold mirror card. 

 

The background was added to blue mirror card, and added to the base card, next the candles and sentiment were added. For a randomly stamped card, I think it ended up bright as intended.  

stamps - Stamp Addicts, Vicky's Borders 

sentiment - Sissix, Catherine Pooler 

button die - years old! can't remember the makers

candles & label die - Magazine freebie SCP (old) 

inks - Distress Oxide, mustard seed,twisted citron,mermaid lagoon,spiced marmalade

gold and blue mirror card - The Range 

 

 

There’s great inspiration for your Male cards at the Challenge. 

Anything Christmas WLSC

  Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for

We Love Stamping.  

This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme of  

Anything Christmas

 

With no idea on such a broad spectrum to choose from, I decided to use a stamp and colour I saw in my subscription magazine. Not a colour I would normally use for Christmas, but I quite like the effect. 

 

With inspiration from Sarah Phelan in the magazine, I stamped the tree and embossed in gold, then blended seedless preserve distress oxide onto the card. I rubbed over the gold, but it didn't come up as bright as I wanted, so I stamped and embossed again. 

 

I then stamped and gold embossed the star corner and the stars on the right. The layer was attached to the mirror card. Next I blended a piece of white card, stamped and gold embossed the sentiment and die cut it. I decided not to layer onto gold.

 

tree and other stamps - Magazine Freebies SCP274

die - Card Making Magic A5 Nested Set

inks - Distress Oxide, seedless preserve 

embossing powder - Papermania gold

mirror card - The Range 

 

 

Wonderful prizes this month

Stamp Addicts, 2 prizes (photos not to scale)

 

Dogs and/or Cats TMR

 Hi everyone, my DT card today is for 

 

 The Male Room 

 

I've only got digital images for cats or dogs, so that's what's used today. The images were edited in Photoshop, adding a sentiment, then printed and die cut it. Looking for cat images in my files, I found a shape I thought I could use. I tried cutting it with Silhouette, but it was too fine and didn't cut properly, so I made a shape similar, but with thicker lines, in the design area, and cut it out of gold mirror card.

 

I embossed the edge of the printed background then decided to add splots to the background, after seeing another blogger do the same, but now I don't know who it was, sorry. I used hickory smoke and faded jeans DO's mixed to match the images, shame they don't show up in the photo. I attached the image layer to the card and then the gold frame. 

cat & dog - Creative Fabrica

frame - my own design

sentiments - my own

inks - Distress Oxide, hickory smoke, faded jeans 

gold mirror card - The Range

 

 

I have a few nephews on the cusp of old in the next few months, so I made another. Much the same but with a different sentiment and cut to the frame to hide a cutting error. You can see the splats more on this second card.  

 

 

I hope you can join us in the challenge, and get your creative juices flowing for those difficult male cards. There are great ideas from the DT to view. 

100th Birthday Bash CCC

  Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for the -

 Critter Crazy 100th Birthday Bash 

 

A Rule change for our 100th Challenge

Your card MUST feature a Birthday Critter as the main focus 

Whether Furry, Feathered, Fantasy, Fairytale, 

Scaly, or Insect, there must be a Birthday critter.

 

And also don't forget to check in on the last day of the month again, if you are a winner or a DT-Favourite! #100's brag recognitions will have 2 extra winners! Read on for details: 

Since we have now reached the 100 challenge, we would like to thank all the participants and the followers from the bottom of our hearts for all the years, the inspirations and the kind comments. 

And 100 challenges must also be celebrated... so this month there are 3rd & 4th winners and a small rule change for the theme along with an opportunity for a prize winner visiting Becca's blog. (Use my blog link to get to my homepage and find my CCC post after 2am central time on July 1st for instructions on commenting and receiving a special prize package of animal-themed products!)

Special 3rd Winner: Entry #50 will be an extra Guest DT invite honoree in September 2025! Plus Special 4th Winner: Entry #100 will be an extra Guest DT invite honoree also for September 1st. There will be special badges available and these persons will be revealed on July 31, 2025. 

 

 

With no mojo, I was struggling to make a card, so I went through my digital stamps to see if anything jumped out to me, and this is it. I love this birthday sheep. I printed and cut, with Silhouette, 2 layers of the sheep and the sentiment, onto multi use card, then coloured it with DI's. 

I cut a piece of the same card to fit onto a 5x7inch base card, then blended the sky, and the grass, with DO's. Next, I used stencils for the grass and clouds. The clouds didn't work for me, but they are there, albeit faint, so I die cut some clouds and a sun. The sentiment was inked around the edge and then added to pink paper, can you guess this is for a female member of the family?

sheep - Bugaboo 2021, (sorely missed)

stencil, clouds and grass - Funky Fossil 

inks - Distress Inks

inks - Distress Oxide

dies - Magazine Freebies

Silhouette 

Fun Folds TMR

 Hi Everyone, my post today is for 

The Male Room 

I can't believe I pondered so long in doing this card, only just making it for the challenge. With so many beautiful folds, I decided on this one. Then went on to do 4 others, 2 went into the bin, so I decided to show you the 2 I'm not too happy with, I could have done better work methinks.

My first card is a Double Z fold, a super card designed by my blog friend Shirley, I didn't do her justice on this card. The tools and sentiment with white card, and the grass with the green of the base card, were cut with my Silhouette, the background paper was cut to size and then stencilled with DO, and added to the green background. 

The tools, shelves, and sentiment were coloured with DI's, when dry, the shelves were added, and the tools placed onto them, held with the bracket piece. Then the ladder, the gloves, the grass layer with the sentiment were arranged.

double Z fold Card - Shirley's Cards 

stencil - Funky Fossil brick, coloured with Distress Oxide hickory smoke

ink - Distress Ink (lots)

card - white 300gsm Craft Card Hobbycraft 

green card - Lidl

Silhouette

My second was a template from Craftworld, a Z fold, which I transferred into Silhouette, I cut the shape, then folded it and added the printed shapes and the rabbit centre. I really don't know where my mind has been on these folds, with so many other shapes I could have done. I spent a long while looking on the web to be able to do something different, it just didn't happen - sorry.

images - Creative Fabrika

Go see what the DT have done, they are amazing.

  Great ideas for the men in your life. 

Close to Nature WLSC

 Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for We Love Stamping. This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme chosen by Karen of  

Close to Nature

trees, animals, flowers

 

 

A lovely theme, don't you think? I have had this stamp, a long while and thought it perfect for this subject. A dragonfly. 

My mind went off on a tangent and I thought of stamping on acetate, I have had the heat acetate for many years and had a hunt, where I thought it was, and thankfully it was. I stamped and heat embossed in gold, then cut around it. 

The first step complete, what do I do next, you may know by now I am not a planner with my cards, I just go with the flow, so to speak. I thought of the colours of a dragonfly, so added DO ink to my glass mat, sprayed with water and placed my card onto it, I was thrilled with the result of just one pressing. 

I wasn't too keen on the sentiments with the stamp, so went looking for a simple one and came across this, it was stamped with Stazon. Then the card was cut with a die, the dragonfly was glued onto it and was 3D'd to the card base. 

heat acetate - Hobbycraft

stamp - Imala, Be Brave

sentiment - magazine freebie

inks - Distress Oxide chipped sapphire, lucky clover twisted citron

die - Card Making Magic 

 

you can see the shine of the acetate here

 

A fabulous prize this month with a 

Glorious Bouquet, a large Tim Holtz floral stamp from Buddly Crafts

 

Under The Sea TMR

Hi Everyone, my card today is for 

I've gone overboard, literally with my card today, so many items on it, not like me at all, but I had to do it!

Anyhow, I started with embossing the shell images, then I decided to colour it, back it went into the ef after I added ink to the plain side. I then thought of sand, so blended some sand colour around the centre.  It was then I had a look at my dies and found the perfect ones, rather than use one or two, I used the lot. They were coloured with DI's. Next I looked through my paper pads and found one that looked like it was under the sea, I used that as the background. 

 I added all the die shapes, putting some at the back of the embossing folder. They were then added to the "sea" layer and all added to the base card. I couldn't find my stamp sea sentiments, why do they disappear like that? I did have some digital sea sayings, but they wouldn't fit into the space, so I added a digital birthday sentiment, printed and layered 3 times and 3D'd onto the card. A busy card, but as I said, for some reason I had to.

embossing folder - Creative Craft Products, magazine freebie

ef ink - Distress Oxide uncharted mariner 

dies - I think they are Cut & Make, no packing

die inks - Distress Inks, lots of colours

birthday sentiment - Crafters Companion, mag freebie  

 

 

I hope to see you at The Male Room, great inspiration for those men out there, if you're having trouble making a card for them. 

Hello Spring mid month WLSC

Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for We Love Stamping. This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme of  

Hello Spring

   

 

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my birthday and for the card. I had a wonderful birthday and an extra couple of days with #3 brother and SiL staying on. After they went back, hubby and I went down with something, I had a severe headache, like a migraine for 4 days, hubby wasn't well, but couldn't say why. We didn't have a Covid test kit to check and couldn't be bothered to go get one either. Saturday morning we woke feeling much better, so whatever it was the family haven't had it, thank goodness, and we are back to normal, well as normal as I can be!

My card today turned out to be about Spring Greens, which are so fresh. I had a few stamps to use, but decided on a clean and simple Lily of the Valley flower, I nearly missed it on the A4 sheet of Spring floral stamps.

I thought it needed to be layered, so I cut a mask for the leaves and the flower, then stamped the large leaf and then the flower and the smaller leaves. I wasn't sure whether to add more flowers or leaves, but decided no. Then I used an oval die to cut the flower, I used the same die and the next size up, to cut a frame. Feeling it needed something else I looked for green paper in my files, I came across this, that I liked. I decided on these sentiments and stamped them and the frame, then die cut them. A sparkle pen was added to the flowers.

The paper was printed, and the edges inked, it was glued to the base card, the flower, and the frame were added then the sentiments. An unexpected monochrome card, but I'm not too sure about the design. Oh! well, it's done now. 

flower stamps - Magazine freebie SCP#226

sentiment stamps and die - Julie Hickey, Birthday Message Stamp Set 

ink - Distress Oxide, rustic wilderness

digi paper - A.J. Roberts Winged Jewel Paper Pack 1 2008

sparkle pen - Spectrum Noir

  

this kinda shows the sparkle added to the flowers

 

 Don't forget, your image must be hand coloured. We now require At least one stamped element on entries. Those of you like us, who love to stamp, we would still love you to enter your fully stamped entry.

 

  Important - Please read the updated Rules of the Challenge Here

 

Our prizes this month are - Two Spring themed Penny Black stamp sets from Buddly Crafts

Anything but a square card mid month WLSC

 

 Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for We Love Stamping. This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme of  -

Anything but a square card

   

One of my nieces has a birthday this month and I made this card for her, taking the opportunity to use the challenge as inspiration. I used the Silhouette to make a scalloped stitched circle card. Which I edged with pink ink. I stamped the jumper and the scarfs, using the main colour of yellow, to colour and make them more feminine. I then added the pink and a green. Perhaps I should have made the embossing folder bigger, to hide the fold, would you believe it, I didn't think of it until I had put it all together. DUH!

The background was embossed with a cable design, the scarfs were stamped with the sentiments, and 3D'd onto the embossing.

stamps and embossing folder - Nordic Winter, SCP freebies

stitched circle design - Font Market CCC234 Stitched Nesting Shapes

inks - Distress Ink & Oxide, kitsch flamingo, scattered straw, peacock feathers.

 

 Don't forget, your image must be hand coloured. We now require At least one stamped element on entries. Those of you like us, who love to stamp, we would still love you to enter your fully stamped entry.

  Important - Please read the updated Rules of the Challenge Here

There are Three great prizes from AALL and Create, a die set and two stamp sets

Pop Up Christmas card

Hi everyone, just a quickie today. I made this card for my brother and his wife. It's a cut file from Lori Whitlock, made with white, navy, and gold mirror card. I added gems to the stars. The sentiment is included, which I printed out and added to the cut pieces. The star is a layer, although it can't be seen properly. I think it has great impact, I hope you like it too. 

cut file - Pop up box Wise Men by Lori Whitlock

Silhouette

ink - Distress Oxide mustard seed 

gems - stash

I'm, like you, will be busy in the next week, so, just in case I don't get around to you.  I'm wishing you all a 

 

Anything Goes TMR

 Hello Everyone, my card today is for

 

Santa Wine bottle wrapper (freebie) - Dreaming Tree

inks - Distress Oxide, lost shadow, lumber jack red

sparkly card for the white pieces - stash

red card and tree card - Hobbycraft

pink card - Lidl

sparkly bobble - stash

curled silver ribbon, off a past present

 

Anything goes? That means my Silhouette comes out, especially as I wanted to make a few bottle pressie labels. I cut out all the pieces, using white sparkly card for the white pieces. I glued them all together, then inked the edges, but the piccie doesn't show much of the inking.  I found a previous present twirly ribbon, that I could use on this one. I added the cut out bells to it, and added them to the neck of the bottle.

 

I think this will bring a smile to the recipients. I hope it does to you too.

Winter WLSC

 Hi Everyone, my second DT card today is for We Love Stamping. This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme of  

Winter

   

 

What could be more Winter than a snowman? So that's what I went with, a favourite happy Snowman. I stamped the snowman and made a mask of him, then stamped the stones either side of him and made a mask of them. With the masks in place, I blended the background with DO's. Then using a snow stencil to add snowflakes, added a touch of water to the ink, but it spread a little, so I added some Stickles for sparkle onto the snowflakes. Next, the stones were coloured and the snowman, adding more sparkle to the snow. I also added 3D gloss to his nose. 

 

Next, I stamped a couple of snowflakes and the sentiment and die cut the sentiment. They were layered onto a blue card which has gold through it. The image was attached to the base card following the CAS #334 sketch.

snowman stamp - Penny Black "Snowy"

stones stamp - Chocolate Baroque "Sticks & Stones"

snowflake stamps and dies - Pink Fresh Mag Freebie SCP 251 

snow stencil and sentiment - Magazine freebie SCP 182

 sentiment die - Julie Hickey

inks - Distress Oxide, mustard seed, fossilized amber, ripe persimmon, peacock feathers, chipped sapphire 

Don't forget, your image must be hand coloured. We now require At least one stamped element on entries. Those of you like us, who love to stamp, we would still love you to enter your fully stamped entry.

 

 

 This month we have Three prizes from AALL and Create, A4 sets Pheasants, Alstromeria and Key Botanicals

 

 

Important - Please read the updated Rules of the Challenge here

Delicate florals

Hi Everyone, it's been a while since I made a card, apart from my DT items, but my SiL asked me to make a card for my Niece. It was quite short notice and I decided to make a side opening landscape, I looked through my stamps and decided to go all out with stamping multiple times.

 

I stamped in green, seeing as the details are small, and then added a little more green on the stems and tiny leaves with DO. Next, I coloured the flowers in red DO. The sentiment was then stamped in the same permanent ink. I die-cut the layer and attached it to a red layer, both laid onto the base card. I decided to add tiny butterflies with a dab of ink on a piece of card, placing them onto to the card.

 

I then turned to the insert and found a few sentiments for "daughter" on the web and a couple I had in my files, SiL chose what she wanted, so I printed it out. Next, I stamped the floral onto the insert and placed it inside the card.

  

stamp - Penny Black, Delicate Florals 

permanent ink - Whispers, pine green (very old ink}

inks - Distress Oxide, rustic wilderness, candied apple 

insert verse - CraftsUprint

butterflies - Tattered Lace?

red layer - Lidl paper

 

 

A Note: I love the top hung format portrait 5x7-inch size, but all my cards always open wide to display. I hate that, so I decided to cut mine in landscape. I took an A3 card and cut the landscape shape with my Silhouette. I also used an A3 160gsm paper to cut the insert. 

 

It was only then I realised my printer wouldn't recognise the A3 size, DUH! I thought how am I to get the insert paper to go through my printer and print correctly?  A lightbulb moment, had me attaching the cut insert to a piece of A4 paper and printing it out, it was perfect. Now I can do more of the landscape shape and not worry about the insert printing correctly. I expect a lot of you already know how to do that. I blame my age for not knowing!