Twofer Stars

I am the first to admit that I find Darnell's Twofer challenge just that... a challenge. Often I can make a reasonable job of one card, but when it comes to a second one, it's frequently totally lacking in imagination and often the effect looks contrived... as if I was trying too hard.  Reminds me of a phrase from my youth... try hard, fail easy!

Anyway here is my contribution for the Twofer Star Challenge

I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches for the first card, which is actually a similar one in a different colourway to one I had already made.

For the second one I chose to make a baby congratulations card using a die I ordered from France. It's from a set of four dear little dies with baby related images. The tiny star aperture from this little die was used for some of the stars flying out from the envelopes in the first card.

It's another dreary day outside.. perfect for crafting!

Take care and stay safe!

 

Feliz Navidad

I'm really fond of these trees, I don't remember if they're Simon Says Stamp or Memory Box, but the shape really appeals to me.

I took the idea of cutting the front section into thirds from Just Us Girls

Merry Little Christmas 

Anything Goes

...but I started with the idea of making a second card with the trees after seeing Darnell's latest Twofer Challenge

Both cards use the same stamp set from Mama Elephant, the same Embossing Folder from Sheena Douglass and the same tree die, so I'm not sure if they fulfil the criterion of being 'different'! I find Darnell's challenges really tricky... maybe I have a one track mind and once I've come up with and idea for a stamp or die, find it difficult to deviate... 'til the next time I use it!

Time to go for our daily walk, trying to walk off the effects of the lockdown cocktails!

Nautical Twofer

It's time for another Twofer over at Darnell's blog. I find these challenges really ... what shall we say? .... challenging!

The theme  this time is Nautical

 

For the landscape card, I used a stencil from Neat & Tangled called Rice Paddies and I love it. With this I used some home made embossing paste and it worked beautifully. I had added some extra PVA glue to the mix and it was much better. 

Here is my amended recipe

• 1/2 cup of talc
• 1 tablespoon of White Acrylic paint
• 2 tablespoons of PVA Glue

After I had masked and spread paste over part of the stencil, I removed it from the card and sprinkled over some WOW Vintage Peacock embossing powder. I waited until it had dried out somewhat before heat setting. It was a fabulous twinkle.

 

The silver heat embossed sentiment is from The Alley Way stamps. I simply added a whole shoal of little silver die cut fish.
Freshly Made Sketches

The second card uses the same fish over an ocean daubed with Distress inks, and stamped with some white acrylic paint grunge dots. It's topped with a die by La La Land Crafts of Sea Bubbles. The sentiment here was computer generated. As I inlaid this die, I still have the negative die cut to use on another card!

What fun!

Floating Die Cuts

I really enjoy watching videos from Jennifer McGuire, she always has fresh ideas and ways to extend my range of techniques. Here is a pair of cards which I made after watching her video about making cards with 'Floating Dies'. Thanks to amazon Prime i only had to wait a day to get my roll of Press 'n' Seal, the product needed to do this technique.

I used a coordinating stamp and die from Clearly Besotted. I cut a foliage spray from a piece of card and then placed the die cut, still in  position in the piece of card, in my MISTI. I placed the stamp over the diecut and inked it up with Lucky Limeade ink from Stampin' Up. I then proceeded to cut many more die cuts and each time placing the cut piece in the gap of the original piece of card in my MISTI and stamping, using that card as a jig.

I arranged the stamped die cuts over a piece of card the same size as the card front. When I was happy with the arrangement I covered it with a piece of Press 'n' Seal and die cut the aperture and the edge at the same time. It cut the Press 'n' Seal, the card and the diecuts all at once.

I carefully removed the card from the  the back of the diecuts leaving them temporarily adhered to the plastic. I then added dimensional pads to each of the leaves, before laying them back over the cut card front. Once stuck down I peeled off the Press 'n' Seal and Hey Presto apparently 'floating' leaves. I stamped the sentiment from Penny Black and embossed in gold before sticking the panel onto the front of the card.

This technique always gives you a Twofer, so the centre section which was cut, forms the basis of another card. I simply cut a larger frame from Framelits to surround the leaves. As there were tiny fragments of diecuts on this piece I decided to merely stick them straight onto the card instead of letting them float. So after removing them from the card on which they were cut, I glued the them, placed them in position and stuck them to the card front and then removed the Press 'n' Seal.  The bits were too small for dimensional pads... even cut down pieces! I popped the frame on to pads instead.

The sentiment was cut twice once in white and once on gold and layered to stretch across the frame.

Jennifer explains it all beautifully on her YouTube post so if all this is gobbledegook, do check out her video.

After all this, it's my contribution for Darnell's  Twofer Garden Challenge!

Well leaves grow in gardens don't they!

We're off to see our granddaughter in Bath Theatre School's  production of Aladdin this afternoon, should be fun!

Twofer Birds

Here is a pair of cards for Darnell's Twofer Challenge which this time has to be birds!

Those who know me, know about my penchant for chickens... particularly the ones from Penny Black. Isn't this a fabulous image!

I stamped a couple of them and and coloured them, then promptly misplaced the white one, so having done a little tidy up looking for it, I gave in and stamped and coloured another! It may well turn up sometime when I least expect it! The Congrats is from Hero Arts and the 'Surprise' I believe is from Penny Black!

The black backdrop was embossed with a Sheena Douglass folder and the white card was partially embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Anything Goes

I recently discovered the fabulous voice of Josh Groban, so he is my crafting companion of choice at the moment... he's singing away on my phone... via my Bose speaker!

Twofer

Darnell's Twofer Challenge this time is for a wreath!

Here I used a die from Memory Box I believe, for a Christmas card and a card which might be suitable for a Wedding, Engagement or an Anniversary!

Here are the cards individually

The Noel on this one is from Sizzix, the leaves from Crafter's Companion and the bow from MFT. To make the depth of colour of the greens for the leaves I used some glossy photographic paper and daubed it with alcohol inks. When dry, the colours are rich and vibrant and after die-cutting look fab!

The silver base for this card was the cover from a menu at a meal we attended! The dove die was a freebie from a magazine, the Congrats is from Hero Arts, and I'm not really sure of the origin of the tiny leaf sprig.

This next one is for the challenge at AAA Cards where the theme is On the Move

For this one I used some old Stampin UP stamps, tree dies and sentiment from a Magazine freebie and the embossing folder from Sheena Douglass!

This is also for the challenge at The Card Concept where there is this inspiration photo!

   

Having done a count of my Christmas card makes, I realised that I'm still a few short, so I'l be turning my hand to a few swift makes in the very near future!

Twofer

At last I have managed to join in with Darnell's new Twofer challenge and must admit that I found taking a picture of two cards together somewhat difficult, but this is the best I could do.

My item which I used on both cards was the large heart die from a set from Little B.

For the first I used simply the whole heart and cut the Memory Box elephant from it, adding the 'welcome' sentiment from Paper Smooches. The backdrop was embossed with an EF from Creative Expressions.

For the second card I used part of the heart diecut upside down as the top panel of the card. This time adding the peacock which was a mag freebie and the sentiment from Hero Arts. I don't think it's really cheating to use just part of the heart, but this particular die is so large it's good to be able to use it in a different way!