Showing posts with label Tonic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tonic. Show all posts

01 August 2026

Summer cat CCC

  Hi Everyone, my DT make today is for -

Critter Crazy #112

Whether Furry, Feathered, Fantasy, Fairytale, 
Scaly, or Insect, there must be a critter.

I was going through my digi stamps the other day and found this lovely image, so I took it into Silhouette and print cut 3 images. I coloured it in DI's, a yellow cat? well it's a Summer cat! It should have been more mustardy, but I took it as it was as it seemed a happy cat, then as normal, with no plan, what do I do next?
 
I went looking for a sketch and found this simple one that looked like it could work.
Off to my dies for an oval and cut them out. I coloured the background on the background oval and placed them together onto the card. Then put all 3 layers of the images together and placed them onto the die cuts.
 
I found these sentiments that I thought were suitable with the image. They were stamped and die cut and added to the base card. Not following the sketch, but I think it worked? I have a recipient for it, so it's on its way. 
 
image - Cat & Mouse Karen's Doodles 2011
inks - Distress Inks as below
dies - Tonic 
sentiments and dies - Julie Hickey

 

I hope to see your Critter over on the challenge.
 
I'm entering my card to the CD Sunday Plus Challenge 

07 June 2026

Sports & Hobbies WLSC

  Hi Everyone my DT make today is for

We Love Stamping

This month, we would love to see your cards with the theme chosen by Anesha. 

 I have very few sports stamps, in fact just one set, I've had for years. I've not used this set of images, so decided to follow a sketch and case a card that was shown on the back of the stamps package.
I firstly stamped the pins, I was going to write the Happy onto the pins, but I'm a bit shaky of late, so decided to see if my Silhouette could cut, out of card, 5mm x 7mm letters. It did, incredible really, I'm always impressed how good it is. I added them to the pins. 
 
Next I die cut the circle for them and die cut a paper from a pad for the larger circle, with the same colours, that I had decided on. 
 
For the background I stamped the ball over the card and die cut it to fit the base card, it was added to it.
 
Next the circles were glued together, and edged with the ball layer. The pins were added, one sideways, as if it was hit by the ball. I then added a die cut orange piece of card and stamped the birthday on it. Adding the ball. 
 
 sport stamps - Creative Stamping Magazine #56
stamps are by Joanna Sheen
inks - Distress inks
coloured paper - Craft Sensation Happy Colours The Range 
circle dies - Tonic pin dot
orange card die - Card Making Magic 
Silhouette
 
 
I hope to see your Sport or Hobby cards at We Love Stamping

18 April 2026

WLSC Spring has Sprung

 

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

 
I saw this stamp set and had to have it, I thought it cute.  My mojo is still on holiday, so a sketch from 2013 for inspiration this time. 

I stamped the girl, then the raindrops, can you spot my deliberate mistake? The raindrops are upside down, duh! I then die cut it, with a larger size to layer. Next I went looking for umbrellas in my files, and found these fab papers, so perfect for what I wanted and forgotten about.  

The girl was coloured with DI's and I simply watercoloured a background to match the papers, which were cut to fit the 6x6 base card. I then stamped the sentiment. They were all layered and placed to match the sketch, but I also wanted a couple of umbrellas on the paper to show, and the "singing in the rain" showing too.  

I think I may go to a couple more sketches, perhaps I'll get some mojo back. I really enjoyed making this card, even though a couple of things could have been better. 

 stamps - Polkadoodles, Hello Sunshine
papers -  Jessica Dunn "Singin' in the Rain" Bundle, at Digital Scrapbook.com 2019
 (It is still available, you may have to register)
inks - Distress Inks, carved pumpkin,shaded lilac,mustard seed,stormy sky,
tea dye,vintage photo,tattered rose,wild honey,seedless preserve,
shabby shutters,twisted citron,
dies - Tonic Pin dot
pink card - Lidl 
 

 I hope to see you at WLSC 
What do you think of in Spring? 
 
We have Two lovely prizes of Lavinia stamps
 
Spring weather we had last week, lots of hail, the photo was taken after it had melted a bit, the reflection as it was taken inside.
  

04 March 2026

Blue & Brown TMR

 My DT card today is for 

 
I'm struggling with mojo, so I'm using my Silhouette, sketches and casing some cards to get me through this complete blockage. I had pieces of brown card on my desk from my previous post and then realised the colours were what I wanted for this post. How handy was that? I went looking for more of the brown card and I didn't have any! Just little pieces that were far too small. I had to order more, who runs out of brown card? 
 
Anyhow, I had already chosen this treasure box to make. I then I picked a different paper for the blue, I decided on pearlised, so that I could stamp the greeting on it. 
 
I cut the base box with my Silhouette, and after glueing it all together. It was fiddly, as I had reduced the size of the box to fit the gift I was using it for, it's still 85mm x 80mm (31/4 inch x 3inch). I tried to keep the paper pieces together, also cut with Silhouette, whilst stamping, again a little fiddly, but they were done and added piece by piece to the box. I then used dies for the fastener, with an anchor cut with Silhouette, and a little velcro to close it. I'm quite pleased how it turned out. Although the quality of the stamping could have been better! My apologies.  
Treasure Trinket Box - Dreaming Tree. 
card - Florence Cardstock 216gsm Amazon
blue pearlised paper - Bumaga (years old) 
stamp - Stamp Addicts
dies -  Tonic
anchor - Jessica Dunn "Coastal Spring element" at Digital Scapbook.com
 Silhouette 
 

05 November 2025

TMR Floral

 Hi Everyone, my DT post for today is for 

 The Male Room Challenge

After looking through my Christmas stamps, I decided to use the Christmas Roses and the oval leaves from the same set, stamped and embossed in gold. I then coloured both in DI's. The robin was found in my bits box, already coloured, and he was just what I wanted for this male card. Both sat on my desk for weeks, with me wondering how to use them. I found a sketch online that helped me place them, so off to my dies. I cut the oval and dry embossed it.  I added the same green as the leaves to wipe over the embossing. I flipped it and placed the oval to enable the flowers to show.
 The flowers were added with 3D pads onto the leaves, and they were then 3D'd onto the oval. The Robin also had 3D pads added and then placed onto the oval. I wasn't sure which sentiment to choose, but this popped out to me. It was stamped and embossed in gold. The flowers, leaves, and sentiment were then painted over with a gold shimmer pen. Next, I used gold paint to splatter onto the whole card. It's a lovely effect in real life.
 
flower and leaves stamps -  Chloe's Creative, magazine freebie SCP#262
 sentiment - Christmas Special magazine freebie 
robin - British Garden Birds magazine freebie SCP #287
embossed die - Tattered Lace
Oval die - Tonic
inks - Distress Inks 
gold shimmer pen - Nuvo Midas Touch 881
gold splatter paint - Kuretake Starry Colours

01 October 2025

CCC Fishes

  Hi Everyone, my DT card today is for -

Critter Crazy

Whether Furry, Feathered, Fantasy, Fairytale, 
Scaly, or Insect, there must be a critter.
 
 
 Looking through my files I found these fish, that I have had a long time but not used, so many files I have in the same predicament.
 
Anyhow, I took them into Silhouette, chose some coloured paper and cut them out. I also did the water layer and the sentiment at the same time. I'm sure I saw the sentiment on the web at some time.  Then what was I going to do with them? I decided to paint the water with DI's, spreading with a wide brush the colours across the background in a wavy pattern. 
 
The fish were then glued together, with a 3D glaze over the top layer and added wobbly eyes. I thought they needed more, so I die cut a background frame for the water layer and the sentiment. All were glued together and attached to the base card. 
 
inks - Distress Inks, cracked pistachio, twisted citron, salty ocean
tropical fish -  Printable Cuttable Creatables
dies - Tonic 
sentiment font -  2PeasHighTide
3D glaze - Nuvo Crystal Glaze 
 card - stash
 
 
 
 
showing the glaze 

03 September 2025

Create your own background TMR

 Hi Everyone, my card today is for

I had a card to make for our neighbour, so went looking through stamps and my digi stamps and found Ted. I've used him a couple of times, and cased one of my cards here, our neighbour loves his garden, it was for his 82nd birthday.

I took Fred into Silhouette and cut him 3 times, the background twice, in case I made an error, you know I hate fussy cutting!  I coloured the background in DI's, adding a few bushes in the garden, then some grass and sky. All layered onto a die cut circle. Ted was coloured, and the 3 layers glued together and added to the background.

digi stamp - Dr Digi, Ted & his shed
inks - Distress Inks
circle die - Tonic pin dot
hollyhock die -  AliExpress
sentiment - from the web  

18 August 2025

Flowers 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 chosen by Hilary of  

Flowers
 
 

Our prize this month is a £25 store voucher from Personal Impressions (inc pps, winner meets costs of any additional spend). Personal Impressions is one of the UK’s leading brand managers/wholesalers/distributors in the arts and crafts industry, specialising in mixed media, papercrafts, card-making, scrapbooking and journaling. PI are proud to represent over 70 brands from global, recognisable brands to small, niche and new.
 
My second card for the Flower challenge has Poppies. I thought of the yellow Welsh Poppy, for a change. Especially as the card is for a friend of mine in the USA. I stamped the main image in a bright yellow and stencilled on a second layer with a slightly darker yellow. Then stamped the stem and details onto the lower layers in green.  
 
I was then stumped, so I thought I used a die for my first card, I would look for another, and found a die I haven't used before. I cut it, it didn't cut the centre of the die, but I persisted and after putting it through at least 10 times, with varying weights of paper. I doubled some 300gsm card and put it through again, which worked. So frustrating, but it's a beautiful result. I'm glad I persisted, and hopefully I'll remember next time to use a heavyweight card, just for the centre. My boards are straight, so it wasn't that. Anyhow, I cut a piece to add to the card and decided to frame it. After more use, I think my poor Grand Calibur is on its way out, I've had it so many years. 😞
 
Next was to stamp the sentiment and die cut it. Before putting, it together, I decided to add to the yellow theme by adding a strip of ribbon. I don't mind it shows through the die. After completion, I added some gold gems. 
 
stamps - Altenew Poppies, a mag freebie Simply Cards & Papercraft
sentiment stamp - mag freebie 
pattern die - Crafters Companion Diamond Trellis 
frame die - Tonic 
ribbon and gems - stash 
 
 
 
 
I thought, seeing as it's a Flower theme, I would show you photos of the garden borders this week.  It all looks so lovely. I hope you don't mind my indulgence, hubby deserves praise for his work. 







03 August 2025

Flowers 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 Hilary of  

Flowers
 
 
with a wonderful prize for the winner from 

Our prize this month is a £25 store voucher from Personal Impressions (inc pps, winner meets costs of any additional spend). Personal Impressions is one of the UK’s leading brand managers/wholesalers/distributors in the arts and crafts industry, specialising in mixed media, papercrafts, card-making, scrapbooking and journaling. PI are proud to represent over 70 brands from global, recognisable brands to small, niche and new.
 

A lovely subject, which I'm sure we all love. I have numerous flower stamps, but I went for an old one. I also wanted to use a new die and a new technique to me. 

I stamped the flower twice on pieces of the same card, then coloured with DI's side by side, trying to copy one to the other. Next, I die cut a slatted square in the top piece and die cut it again, adding a scalloped edge. Then, I 3D attached the bottom piece, matching it to the top.  

I found this sentiment in my files, copied from somewhere, which I printed and die cut to match the top layer. I also found a music file that I cut with the Silhouette, which I added to the edge of both the top pieces.  

flower stamp - Chocolate Baroque Floral Musical
square slatted die - CraftAddictionUK
scalloped edge die - Tonic
sentiment by Edwin Curran
music staff - Scrapcationgetaway 2017
inks - Distress Inks, evergreen bough, lucky clover, milled lavender, victorian velvet
Silhouette 


from a different angle 
I'm sure you agree the prize is wonderful, I hope you join in, see you there? 
 
Here are more photos of our Green Woodpecker, he's come back again, this time not flying away from the Magpie, but hiding from him. The photos were taken in the rain, so not good, but I hope you can see him. 

03 November 2024

Christmas Card 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  

Christmas
   
 

Out of the selection of Christmas stamps I have, this Jolly Santa shouted at me. I had seen a card that I thought would be great with Santa, so I went looking in my files for suitable paper for the face of the card and found this one. Thinking it is a simple design, suiting the theme of the card.

I added the paper to the cut shaped card, then die cut the circle. The circle needed to be highlighted a little more, I thought, so I embossed it with the next size up die, you can see it in the insert photo. I marked the circle through the hole, to stamp Santa, then coloured him with markers, then rubbed the circle guide out.

Next I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of card, and used a marker to make a simple outline around it, to match the outline theme of the paper, attaching it to the front of the card. I then stamped the insert sentiment. Whilst writing this post, I realised it didn't say "have a". I had a look through my stamps again and luckily found one I could adapt. Too late for this post though.

A fun and simple card, that I think will be duplicated for the small children of the family.

Santa and other stamps - Magazine freebies SCP221
paper -  magazine freebie 2023
markers - Spectrum Noir
dies - Tonic



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 of Sweet Dixie Christmas die sets from Aldridge Crafts
 
 Important - Please read the updated Rules of the Challenge here
 
 

01 June 2024

Rainbow Lorikeets CCC

 Hi Everyone, my DT cards today is for -

Critter Crazy

Whether Furry, Feathered, Fantasy, Fairytale, 
Scaly, or Insect, there must be a critter.
 

I thought I would bombard you with colour today. I had to have this colourful Rainbow Lorikeet after seeing it on Beccy's page with discontinued digi stamps. I must admit to not being aware of the name Lorikeet. You learn something everyday day! 

Anyhow, he is a ready coloured image, I print and cut him 3 times on the Silhouette, then looked for the most colourful paper I had, the wavy paper is from my computer files, printed and then die cut. The other papers were found after a search in my paper pads. All die cut and layered onto the base card. The sentiments were played with in Photoshop to make them colourful too, printed and die cut. 
 Lorikeet and sentiments - Beccy's Place
wavy paper - Piggyscraps (2012)
all other papers - Craft Sensations - kids
square dies - Sue Wilson Noble dies
round die - Tonic Studios
sentiment die - Card Making Magic

07 April 2024

Spring Time WLSC

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

 

Mojo was lacking for me and has been for weeks, but after looking through my stamps I found this and thought him cute. I stamped the chick, then die cut him and coloured him, I then added another die cut layer for him and inked it. Next came the butterfly stamped and coloured, the sentiment was next. I stamped it in the same pink of the inked layer and embossed it. 

From there I was stumped, I went through my files looking for Spring paper and found this one, which went with the pink beautifully. After playing with the images a few times, I thought they needed something else, but what? My mind went into overtime and I thought Spring Time? Out came the clock die, I wiped green ink over it, then added the paper to yellow card and layered the elements, all attached to the base card. Seems my mind was in time motion, with my cards this month!

stamps - Uniko
inks - Distress Oxide, mowed lawn, kitsch flamingo, stormy sky, squeezed lemonade, carved pumpkin 
paper - I don't know, I have had it since 2005
rectangle dies - Tonic
clock die - Amazon


 
Three prizes from AALL and Create, 1) Key Botanicals 2) See you Soon and 3) Hexagon stencil with Delicate Wings stamp

 
 
Don't forget, we will now require At least one stamped element on the front of each entry. Those of you like us, who love to stamp, we would still love you to enter your fully stamped entry.