Altenew Build A Flower - Poinsettia

Back in April I raved about the Altenew Build A Flower stamp and die sets that the company began releasing then, in fact I did a post on the first set which was the Camellia Build A Flower and I haven't posted anything since on these fabulous collections. They've so far done 9 releases and of those I've purchased 5, I intend to buy 3 of the remaining 9, but the Coral Charm BAF just didn't sing to me so I'm not getting that one.

Amazingly though despite having bought 5 of these sets, prior to making these cards above I've only used the Camellia set, the rest are sat in my stuff to be used box! Something I intend to rectify over the next couple of weeks, as soon as the Xmas cards are done. By then I should get the latest release which is the Carnation BAF, the carnation being my birth month flower and also one of my favourite flowers.

When they began releasing the BAF collections I hoped that they would do a Christmas set and the Poinsettia was top of my list, but I wasn't sure they would as they had already released a poinsettia stamp.

Like all the other Altenew layering stamp sets the poinsettia is very easy to stamp, a job made even easier if you have a stamping platform. Because I wanted to make a batch of cards I cut several sheets of card so that I could stamp one image and rotate 90 degrees to stamp another and repeated this process on 3 pieces of card to give me 6 read images.

The process was repeated using green shades of ink to give me a batch of green leaves to use. For both the red and green images I used Altenew inks Red: Crimson, Velvet & Grapevine and Green: Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades and Evergreen, the yellow centre was stamped with a couple of Memento shades Dandelion and Toffee Crunch and I used Jet Black Altenew ink for the stamen tips.

I decided to give the outline a gold embossed treatment and finished off the flowers with some sparkle pen. Once I'd finished the images I started to put together the cards, I wanted to keep them fairly flat because of postage, so all I did was die cut the scalloped base and the stitched top panel from my Tonic Beautiful Day Sew Pretty set, I embossed the white stitched panel with a poinsettia embossing folder I got free last year with one of the card making magazines, although I can't remember which one now.

Next I randomly cut in to the green leaves and after placing the red flower I added the green leaves behind stuck direct to the embossed panel with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive. I then added a coating of Clear Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen and attached the panel to my card base, I used gold metallic effect cards that came with matching envelopes that I got from 'The Works' in the January sales. Finally I added a "Warmest Wishes" sentiment in the same gold foil card I Cut the scalloped circle from using a Sue Wilson die and glued that direct to the front of the card.

The process was fast and before I knew it I had 6 cards ready to send to friends, with a few green leaf bits left over for another batch, I glued a few white panels inside the cards with a pre-stamped sentiment and they are now ready to write. I can see this set having a lot of use over the years, I've already started another batch and will add some of them to my charity card pile.

Sizzix Meadowcat

Hello crafty blog land lovelies :) I'm frantically trying to finish off all my Christmas cards, make a couple of birthday cards, some gifts and do the usual wrap presents and write card thing that some of us do at this time of year. I'm winning on some counts, but where the xmas cards are concerned I keep getting distracted...

Like when the crazy cat lady in me stretched out her virtual paw after seeing this shiny new Sizzix Meadow Cat die and knew I had to play with it as soon as I saw it for sale on the Craft Stash website.  So order it I did and as soon as it arrived yesterday I dropped the xmas cards I was working on and had a quick play with Miss Meadow Cat and this is what I created in no time at all.

Like all Sizzix dies it cut like a dream and it made a simple almost 1 layer card very quickly. I die cut the image from black card stock and then using Arteza metallic marker pens to colour the various bits of flora on the die.

Sadly the photo doesn't show the shine of the pens on the black card as well as I'd like, I need a better camera or a light box! The Arteza pens I used are water based, I want to try colouring the die cut with my Promarker metallic's and also my Spectrum Noir Metallic Pencils as I'm sure they will give totally different effects. I made this card to put in my box for the future, I sure hope that I don't have to use it though. I thought I'd make some for giving to my local Cats Protection to sell.

I think that this die can work for lots of different occasions, paper piece the flora in lots of bright colours and add a stamped tiny butterfly to the nose and suitable sentiment for a summer birthday, colouring in red, green and gold could also make an Xmas card for a cat friend and autumn colours will produce a thanksgiving/halloween card. So the die has a lot of versatility and not just a use for sad occasions.

I wanted to keep the card pretty simple focusing mainly on the image so all I added to the white card blank were a couple of rows of pawprints from my Justrite 'Pet Sympathy Sentiments' stamp set and the sentiment comes from the Newton's Nook 'Furr-ever Friends' stamp set and both are stamped in Onyx Black Versafine ink. I added a few gems from my stash to the flowers, but in hindsight may have been a touch too much?

Before I go I thought I'd mention the affliate links that have started to pop up on my blog, I've joined an affliate scheme which means if you click on one of the links on my blog and then you make a purchase at the store I get a small commission. It's a way of earning some extra crafting pennies for me and it doesn't cost you anything, so if you happen to click and buy thank you :)

Step Into An Enchanted Wood

Back in June I became aware a company called Craftwork Cards thanks to the massively talented and creative wonder of a woman Jennifer Kray, she designs for CWC and Tonic Studios, if you haven't checked out her blog I urge you to do so, I checked out the wealth of projects made with CWC products and I fell in love with the 'Enchanted Wood', 'Hedgerow', 'Pampered Pets' and 'Potting shed' designs to name a few. Suffice to say, I acquired a couple of the pads, but some of them are no longer available I found to my chagrin, I missed the chance to play with the Botanica collection sadly.

The first collection to turn up was the 'Enchanted Wood' paper pad and I got a set of the toppers off Ebay of all places, as the Enchanted Wood set is no longer available on the CWC website. The designs that resonate with me most are the ones that appeal to my inner gardening, herb and wild flower loving crazy cat lady, so naturally I wanted to play with these beautiful papers. I was so happy to raid my 'Maybe Someday' box for bits of water colour paper scraps I've kept that were perfect for die cutting ferns to echo the ferns on the papers.

The papers are fabulous, I've since bought the 'Winter Woodland', 'Pampered Pets' and the 'Festive' USB stick which is cram full of lovely papers and toppers, so far I've drafted out a couple of cards that need to be put together mostly for Christmas, I just need to get round to finishing them.

Both the cards I made in the photo above use the 'Enchanted Wood' collection and were very simple to put together, I made a stepper card and an oval easel card and used the backing papers from the set. The flowers are made from cheap craft foam that I added some Nuvo Drops to the centre of. I used a selection of Tattered Lace (fern), Tonic Studios (scalloped circle), Spellbinders (white oval frames) and Crafters Companion (flower and leaf) dies.

The hardest part about putting these cards together was deciding which of the lovely papers to use, I have a problem with collection paper pads, once I buy them I then struggle to use them, because when I do I don't have it anymore!? Ironic as I buy them to use them, but some papers are just so lovely it seems wrong to rip them out of the pad to use them! That's why designs on USB sticks are brilliant because you can print them off as often as you like and never use them all up!