Dreaming of a PINK Christmas

 The January challenge at Christmas Kickstart is Dreaming of a PINK Christmas.  

Today 26th January is a holiday - to celebrate Auckland Anniversary Day - so the last day of 4 days off for me.   It's been very un-summery weather all of the last week or so and today was no exception.  Spend a little time in the craft room and made this card for the challenge

I started with some ombre paper - from Uniti.  Picked out the pinkest part of the paper and embossed it with a snowflake folder (from a magazine from a few years back) Ran some white pigment ink over top of the raised areas.   I used a Gina K stamp set called Playful Penguins to stamp and die cut the pair of penguins.  I stamped and fussy cut the sentiment.   I used some cheapo watercolour paint pens to add colour to my sweet pair.   Added some glossy accents to the beaks and boots and some kindyglitz sparkle glue to the ear muffs, pompom and the centre of the snowflakes. 

First Christmas card for 2026!   

Blue Magnolia

 Hi - I'm here to share my card for this month's challenge at Die Cut Divas.  We have a new sponsor this month 

Sunbird Spark is a Vancouver (Canada) based paper craft supply company and the creator of the patented Stencils 360°™ stenciling tool. Formerly known as Penguin Palace, the brand is known for its innovative tools, high-quality photopolymer stamps, and its specially curated ink collection inspired by color psychology. Sunbird Spark is dedicated to inspiring creativity through bold color, versatile designs, and a passion for exceptional customer care, helping makers of all levels craft with confidence and joy.

I don't have any of their stamps or dies so my lovely team buddy, Cindy, sent me some stamped and die cut images and sentiments and a few frame dies.   Thank you Cindy.

Here's my first card - using a stamped floral and sentiment from Magnolia Beauty.  

I coloured the Magnolia with some Jasart pencils.  I paired this with an embossed background using a WRMK's 3D texture folder.  I needed something to ground my flowers so chose to use a Lattice Frame from Catherine Pooler.  The base layer was cut from some textured metallic card.   I picked up a 60 sheet pack of A4 card for $12.  That works out 20cents a sheet - and I cut that into 4 pieces.   The top layer was cut from white card.  The die cut sentiment is from the stamp set.   

Do come and join us Here with your "New" projects.  Just remember to use at least one die cut or embossing folder.  You can use any die cut machines, including Silhouette and Circut machines.

You make life beautiful -

 Took advantage of my non-working day yesterday to have a play.   I had done the housework first thing, and then travelled about 20 minutes to got to the Outlet Sports Shoe shops to get some new walking shoes and then had time in the craft room. 

Grace had been playing with some watercolour powders when Pop was looking after her on Thursday (the long summer school holidays here in NZ) and she made several sheets of mixed colours.  One of which was a vibrant mixture of purples, blues and greens.  Very rich looking and they inspired this card

.

Isn't it a stunning colour.  I used Altenew Pitcher Vases die and embossing folder set to cut out the pitcher.  In real life, the shimmer is incredible.  I chose to have just a single flower - Altenew Petite Mountain Aven die.   I cut it from some Lawn Fawn Pearlescent cardstock. I added some colour with alcohol markers for the centre.  Cut the leaves with some dark green card and added a couple of die cut twigs from Altenew - Charming Foliage - that did get a bit of pruning first.  I decided to keep the background simple and did a little partial embossing with Altenew's Dotty Circles 3D folder and added a thin strip of gold across the edge.  Trimmed a 1/4 inch off one side and added to my card with a strip of the some card I used for the pitcher.  And die cut some dots to add as embellishment.  The sentiment was one I had in my stash from Pinkfresh - Peony Glow stamp and die set.

I am entering this into the Time Out challenge - A favourite card making technique   in my case - two favourites - 3D embossing and die cutting and a bonus - using homemade dots for embellishments 

Summer has forgotten us here in NZ... The whole country has had some horrendous stormy, wet weather - lots of floods and slips - an unfortunately lose of life.  Two people died when a slip ploughed through their home and in a beach town a few hours south of here, 6 people have been caught in a large slip which came down on a camping ground, demolishing an ablutions block, tents, caravans.   This was on Friday and it is now a "recovery" operation.   Very very sad times.  

  

Happy Anniversary to my Hubby

 Yesterday  (21st January) was our 48th wedding anniversary.   Can't believe it's been that long.

Here is the card I made for him.

I was inspired by a card from Christine Stokes where she used some gauze ribbon.  I had a large piece of this gauze so trimmed a stripe for my card.  I took Altenew Inline Leaves and cut one from black and one from textured gold.   I did trimmed bits of the leaves to fit onto my card.   I used a pre-printed sentiment from Paper Roses.  I layered it onto some of the gold card.  Added some Ranger Black faux enamel dots. 

Adding this to Darnell's NBUS - first time using the leaves 

And these are the gorgeous flowers hubby got for me 

One of the lilies has opened and the scent is stunning.   

Altenew Live Challenge - Ombre

 I watched Jen's Live Challenge on replay over the weekend and had some fun making an ombre background and some ombre florals.

I started by ink blending the four colours from Lapis Lazuli Crisp Dye inks.  I took a Tim Holtz stencil - Doily and then used the darkest of the colours to add the stenciling.   I trimmed the panel and matted with a die cut from Gina K Master Layout 2.  Love how this leaves a good sized border on the card base.  To make my flowers I used Altenew Zero-Waste 3D Floral cover plate and die cut from white card.  Used the Lapis Lazuli inks and Deep Blue Seas inks to add the blues - in a gradient way.  Also used some greens for the leaves in a gradient as well.    Added a sentiment with the Scripty Sentiment die.  I had some pearlescent Charcoal acrylic ink on a scrap from some over paint on my gelli plate and once it dry was a lovely shimmery colour and was perfect for this sentiment.  Used white for the shadow layer.   This one has lots of dimension so will need to make a box envelope for it. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope your weekend has been as crafty as mine.  

Momigami Card

 I can now share the card I made using some of the Momigami papers I made a week or so ago.   Momigami is a technique of Japanese kneaded paper.  My local swap group had this as our theme for February.   Here are the papers I made  - you can check out some of the tutorials on YouTube. 

I used hand lotion to make these papers.  Three thinner papers and one thicker double sided scrapbook paper.  I used bits of all of these to make the card that was sent to Carol.

The background piece was the thicker paper.  I kept all the scrunched up areas and ran a teal green Distress Oxide over the paper.  I used two of the thinner papers to make the flowers (Altenew's Petite Mountain Aven Layering Dies) and the flower centres were cut from the third paper.  I die cut a gold frame from Gina K Master Layouts 12 and added the flowers.  Finished with a foiled sentiment and  some glitter dots.   The papers feel so soft and fabric like.  And I was delighted on how the card turned out. 

First week back at work has been hard!  Getting up 2 hours earlier than the past few week has taken a toll.... I'm shattered.   Luckily tomorrow is a non work day and I'll be able to sleep a bit later.  

I'm sitting typing this while thunder is rumbling all around - have had some heavy rain too... but very warm and humid.   

Altenew Love

 #AltenewLove  - I came back from my break away last Sunday and in my mail was the gorgeous Blooming Thanks mini stamp set - a free set from Altenew.   So excited to get this free set.

So yesterday (another HOT day) I headed into the craft room for bit of cool.  And to make a card using the stamp set.   I started by stamping the floral image a number of times and used my Scan'n'Cut to cut them out. 

I used similar colours to yesterday's card but with a much lighter hand.   I got a new Gelli Art stencil called Dot and used the Sea Shore inks from Altenew to make the background panel that was cut with Gina K Master Layout 4.  I made myself a little stencil for the flowers by stamping one and cutting out the flowers.  Used some Buttercream and Warm Sunshine with some Paper Bay ink for the centres.  I used some micro blending brushes to add some of the Volcano Lakes and Lagoon inks for the leaves.   Added a touch of a teal Jasart pencil for the leaves as well.   I cut some teal textured card with Gina L Master Layout 1 and some darker teal for the layering layer.  Added the flowers around the oval and stamped the sentiment from the Blooming Thanks stamp set in Grey Denim ink.  The card base was just under A2 size at 5.25" x 4.25"  Finished with some gold sparkle pen on the flower centres and some silver dots. 

As both the stencil and the stamp set are having their first outings... I'm entering this into the NBUS challenge.  

Today was another scorcher - so after doing the housework in the morning, hubby and I went on a lunch date - to the Bay's Club in Browns Bay for a lovely lunch - Gold Card special $20 per meal.  Your get your Gold Card when you turn 65.  The meals were lovely - Lambs Fry and Bacon for him, Creamy Mushrooms on ciabatta bread for me.   Luckily the breeze picked up a bit in the afternoon and there was a bit of relief.                                              

Hello 2026 with Altenew Challenge Live.

Yesterday was a really warm one... and in the morning I hid in my craft room to keep cool.. I was watching Jen from Altenew on her live challenge on Facebook.   She does a weekly challenge live and usually I have to watch on replay but as I'm still on my summer holidays, I got to watch live and I crafted while watching.   The challenge was to use "Hello" on your project. 

I immediately remembered a Circle Greetings - Hello die and pulled it out together with a stencil and a sentiment stamp set. 

I made a 4.25" square card. Cut a panel at 4 x 4 and die cut the circle greetings die from the middle.  I decided to use the Altenew Sweet Spring stencil and used only two tones of green - Volcano Lake and Emerald Crisp Dry inks. Added some bronze-gold watercolour splatter.  I die cut the "hello" part twice more, once in white and once in textured gold card.  The white one when underneath and the gold on top.  Added some extra card strips on the back to give some height.  Gold embossed the sentiment from Sentiment Strips 2.  Finished with some matching gold dots. 

I didn't quite get it finished during the live - mainly because I changed my mind about the stenciling behind.  First panel didn't float my boat so started again.  

Did end up down at the beach later in the day - lay under the shade of a Pohutakawa tree and enjoyed the warmth of the day.