E is for Easter

Saturday here in New Zealand means lots of time to craft, and so I was excited to play along with Just Add Ink's latest challenge!



Of course, Easter is coming up and I just happened to have some leftover Easter kit items out on my craft desk so it was easy to create this Easter layout.

I loved the Juniper polka dot paper paired with my leftover Juniper cardstock, and then the layout progressed from there. Quite often I create my base first and then become inspired from those colours. Once I found a darling yellow zip strip to accent, then I was able to bring in the Canary colours as well, and then Smoothie rounded off the colour combo of this Easter layout.



This title cracked me up (haha!) and get a look at those adorable puffy stickers I was able to use as well!



I had been hoarding this sweet chick puffy sticker, and I have finally used it on my layout! He was a cute little frame for the main photo, and the candy stripe mat was a pre-cut piece that also worked perfectly with this layout.



Even though we are in lockdown I still have a fun filled Easter day planned for my two boys, and so I can't wait for next weekend when I can get some photos on this layout. How many of you pre-make layouts for future events? I love doing it as I can then plan my photo orientation (I'm weird I know!) and all I have to do is print the photos and stick them on.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you are keeping well wherever you are.

Father's Day Card for Just Add Ink

Well, I am back into crafting after a month long hiatus while I moved house. I can't believe it has taken me this long to get my craft mojo back- but now I am creating like crazy in my new craft area.

Tomorrow is Father's Day here in New Zealand, so of course I've had to put together a quick card for my Dad!

I was inspired by the sketch over at Just Add Ink as I really wanted to use up some paper scraps and play with my new masculine stamp and thin cuts set, featuring an old-style pickup truck.




I kept the colours neutral to make the wood patterned paper take centre stage, and how cute is the pickup?

The sentiment is from a retired stamp set that I love, and I stamped both the truck and the sentiment in brown ink to keep the colour scheme monochromatic.

Thanks for stopping by!

Using those Zip Strips!

I love the Zip Strips on the top of my CTMH papers, one side is a pretty pattern and the othr side lists all of the colours within the collection.

The patterns and thinness of the Zip Strips mean that they can be used for all sorts of decorative purposes for borders, journal strips, frames and embellishment accents.

This card was created using the Zip Strips as the main feature. I finished it off with a simple strip of gold foil tape, a stamped sentiment and a coloured and fussy cut flower.



This card could be used for a variety of occasions- I kept it rather neutral so that I can have a congratulations card on hand whenever I need it.



I'm entering this card in the Just Add Ink challenge for this week- Z for Zip Strips!

Card Captions Sympathy Card

A fellow CTMH consultant recently shared some gorgeous cards using the January SOTM and it inspired me to create my own version using this new stamp set as well as my new Feels Like Home Paper Packet.

It is hard to see on the photo, but the bottom half of the white panel is also embossed with my new Dots Embossing folder!



This card is going to another consultant who recently lost a family member.

I'm joining in with the Just Add Ink Something New Challenge, as well as the Color My Heart Colour Dare of Black, White and a splash of one other colour.

Christmas Cutie card

I love the whimsical look of traditional holiday cards paired with cute elements, and I knew I had to create something cute when I saw the Crafty Catz "Too Cute" challenge.

Paired with some other challenges to get my creativity mojo going, I started off with a Kraft base and then layered up elements. I embossed the Kraft base with a woodgrain embossing folder for some extra interest.

This sketch made it easier for me to figure out the look I was going for- thank goodness for sketches!

The sweet little deer is a leftover embellishment from an old White Pines kit, and I used the new Stitched Circles thin cuts to frame my sentiment, which I stamped in New England Ivy ink.



Of course I needed to added some sparkle, so the last layer was created with some gold glitter paper.

I am linking up to the following challenges:
Color My Heart- Color Dare #320
Paper Players- Theme Challenge PP421
Crafty Catz Challenge- Too Cute
Just Add Ink #436- Sketch

Lovely Layers for a 70th

One of my amazing drama and crafting friends turns 70 today! Of course I had to make her a card and I knew I wanted to to be bold and bright, just like her.

I looked through some of the flowers in the Flower Market CTMH Cricut cartridge, and decided to use one of the layered flowers as a focal point. I added some white ink splatter behind the flower and framed it with some white enamel gems.

I then cut the number 70 out of some leftover floral paper from the Vacation Paper Packet that was on special a couple of months ago, as I thought the colours all worked really well together! I also added some white splatter behind that just to tie in with the theme and anchor the number to the card.



I'm linking this card up with the Lovely Layers challenge at Heart 2 Heart- I miss being on their design team but love having the chance to play along with them again! I’m also joining in with the Just Add Ink challenge as heir beautiful rainbow flower inspired me to add the bold flower to this card.

Witchy Well Wishes

For those of you who know me, you will know that musical theatre is a huge passion in my life. I am currently involved in The Witches of Eastwick, which opens tomorrow night (eeek!)

My best friend is in one of the lead roles as the music teacher Jane, so I wanted to make her a card to tell her how proud I am of her and also wish her well for opening night.

I combined three challenges to inspire me to make my card.

I firstly got inspired by this sketch from The Paper Players.

I then used the colour combination of the bottom two rows of this week's Color Dare Tic-Tac-Toe Board.

And lastly, following Just Add Ink's challenge I added a Twist by using birthday paper and a Halloween Cricut cut to create a good luck card.

And here is the finished result!



I used my new Music Speaks stamp set to create the stamped music note border as well as the sentiment, but I wanted the witches hat to be the main focus with an underlying music theme. I am pretty happy with the balance of themes and colours in this card and I hope my friend likes it!

Framing my memories

I love putting my photos into scrapbooks, but I also love displaying them around the house and so I have a lot of photo frames.

When I saw the cute Fresh Air frame on page 23 of the Seasonal Expressions, it inspired me to decorate one of my frames.

Here is the original frame from the SE:

And here is my take on it:



I love the simple addition of the burlap ribbon, a strip of patterned paper and the cute tree sticker and die cut.

I am entering this frame into the Heart 2 Heart challenge- Let's Be Copycats! and the Just Add Ink Just Add A Frame challenge.

A simple Hello

I have playing with the scraps from my Swan Lake Paper Packet, and thought that i could use some of the leftover PML cards as card bases.



I am playing along this week with Just Add Ink- Just Add P. I used a Picture My Life card as the background of the card, which already had the word hello printed on it as well as some pretty leaves.

I am also joining in with this week's Color Throwdown colours, as the black and gold were already paired together in the beautiful shimmer ribbon and I added a blue flower from the With You stamp set.

This card came together very quickly from some scraps I had left on my craft table!

Florence in Space!

I love the Florence paper packet, but I was struggling to make it masculine with three men in the house.

Then I looked at the subtle stripes paper, and inspired by the sketch challenge, I set to work!

I stamped three monsters onto the paper in Peacock, Poppy and Saffron ink, and then added some Junebug Puffies and Poppy Thick Twine.



The sentiment was also fussy cut from one of the zip strips on top of the paper, and worked perfectly with the stamped creatures!



I am entering this card in:
Just Add Ink: Just add F (Florence)
Between The Folds: Florence Paper Packet
CASE this sketch challenge

Have a Blast!

This weekend I have created a card based on Just Add Ink (Just Add Paper Piecing) , Seize The Birthday (Bold and Bright) and the Color Dare (Crystal Blue, Sorbet, Canary and White Daisy) challenges.

My nephew is turning four on Tuesday, so I made a space themed card for him. I inked up my star embossing folder and ran it through the Cuttlebug with  piece of White Daisy cardstock to create the background.



I then paper pieced the rocket ship and added a sentiment to match!

I am really pleased with the end result- the rocket is popped up on foam squares for some dimension and I love how the inked stars came out.

You're a fine-apple!

The challenge cosmos aligned perfectly this week, with three of my favourite challenge blogs inspiring me to make a tropical card.

Just Add Ink wanted a card with stripes, Curtain Call was a Tasty Tropcis theme, and the Color Throwdown even had a pineapple on it too!

I started off by painting some watercoloured stripes, and adding some paint splatter. The base of the card was also a striped Kraft cardstock.

I still can't find my fruit themed stamp set, so I improvised with a Cricut cut pineapple from Canary, Kraft and Fern cardstock, and I wrote the saying using my Cricut and the pen attachment.



Here you can see the sentiment close up- I am a sucker for a pun and the Sour Apple pen was a great match to the Fern twine and cardstock.



This may be my favourite card of the year so far! The idea came together out of nowhere- usually I have to be inspired by a sketch or someone else, but this card only used the prompts listed above. Now I just have to find someone awesome to give it to!

A blue thank you

As you are probably aware by now, I love challenges to push me outside my comfort zone and help me create cards and layouts.

This card was inspired by this week's sketch at Just Add Ink. 

I had some leftover Jackson paper on my desk from a project I will be featuring tomorrow, and so I paired this with the Happy Times Paper Packet.

The triangle pattern was stamped from the Crazy Good stamp set in Glacier Ink. Lots of bling was added with some branches cut from glitter paper and Bronze Shimmer Trim.

I added a circular stamped sentiment on Glacier Cardstock with Cocoa ink as the finishing touch. I originally only had shimmer trim at the top of the triangle piece but felt it needed to go on the bottom as well to balance it out.

Come back tomorrow where I will be sharing a scrapbook layout using the Jackson Paper Packet.

Hope your day is sweet!

This week, the inspiration photo at Just Add Ink reminded me of some leftover Taste of Summer paper I have lurking on my shelf.

The paper packet has oranges all over it, with a matching stamp set However, I could not find the sentiment I wanted and so I improvised with a Cricut cut banner and a stamped sentiment on top.



The banners used up the last of my orange pieces, and I also cut out an orange segment from the paper to add underneath the Sweet cut out.

I backed the whole card onto yellow cardstock to give it a bright and sunny feel.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Artfully Sent Sympathy Card

Sympathy cards are always the hardest for me to put together- that is why I am grateful that my Artfully Sent cricut cartridge has a few options.

I am playing along with Just Add Ink's Just Add Sympathy prompt this week, as well as Bitten By The Bug 2's Butterflies or Bees challenge.

I started by cutting the card in a soft Champagne cardstock, which I thought worked well for a sympathy card. I then added some soft blues and greens behind the negative images.



The butterfly was cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge, and I stamped over ti with a border stamp set for extra interest. I also stamped an extra line under the cut sentiment, as I thought it needed something else.



This card was a quick and easy one of mine to put together as I have been feeling under the weather this week, but I am glad that I still made time to create.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Washi-ing you a Merry Christmas!

I know it is only April, but I have a very meager stash of Christmas cards and so it is always a good idea to play along with Merry Monday to get my Christmas cards sent out. I am also playing along with a colour challenge, sketch challenge and a washi challenge!

Here is my finished card, made using some mini Christmas tree tags. I added washi behind one of the trees, and stamped a sentiment in New England Ivy on some patterned Pear paper.



The green triangles added a little bit of bling, but I wanted to keep this card simple to make the sentiment and washi tree stand out.

I am now back into a Christmas card mood, and so I look forward to creating some more cards with a Christmas theme in the coming weeks!

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #152

This week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts is paired with Just Add Ink's challenge- Just Add "E".

I used this adorable dinosaur from the Dino Play cartridge, as well as the rocks to add my flower element of the sketch. I changed the banner to the top right of the card, stamping the sentiment directly on the patterned paper. isn't the paper adorable! It is Echo Park's Dinosaur Adventure, which goes perfectly with this card.



Now my dinosaur card is ready for a certain nephew turning five this weekend! I hope he likes it as much as I enjoyed making it, the Dinosaur Play cartridge is definitely one I will have to combine with this paper packet more often.

S1603 Sunshine Birdies Australasian Stamp of the Month Blog Hop

Hello and welcome aboard our Australasian Close to My Heart Blog Hop.

If you have arrived here from Shaunna's Blog then you are in the right place.

If you landed here by accident, no problem, please join in by following the link at the end of this post.

Today I would like to share with you a quick card that features Close To My Heart’s March Stamp of the Month, Sunshine Birdies.

I was inspired by the sketch from this week's Just Add Ink challenge, which I flipped a bit to work with the idea I had in my head.

I used the Chevron Embossing Folder and Kraft cardstock to create some interest to the card background, stamping my sentiment before I ran it through my Cuttlebug. I then punched a hole in the side of the Kraft cardstock and stamped the sun in Sunset ink to fill the gap. I watercoloured the centre of the sun to make it stand out more.

I also added a cute bow and some gold foil to fit the sketch accents and add some additional flair to the card.

This exclusive Sunshine Birdies Stamp Set is only available during March! It can be yours for just $10 with a qualifying order of $75 or for $33 if ordered separately from your CTMH consultant.

If you do not have a consultant please contact me or place an order here.

I'd love you to leave a comment before heading off to the next stop,  Mez's Craft Room.

Merry Gift Card Sleeve

When I saw the challenge at Just Add Ink this morning, Just Add a Gift Card Holder, it was just the kick I need to take a gift voucher I had just purchased and make it fancy!




I used one of the Sleeves from the Artfully Sent cartridge and then added the poinsettia and merry sentiment from the Cricut too.

Now I have a pretty sleeve to slip the gift voucher in, which will make a nice addition to the recipient's parcel. These are super easy to decorate, and I feel like I should make them more often!

Merry Christ-Moose!

I am getting into the swing of my Christmas cards early, as I will be having surgery early next month and so I need to be prepared for Christmas before then. Playing along with challenges helps me to get my cards done quickly, and so today I have combined the Merry Monday and Just Add Ink challenges.

I do not have any moose stamps, but I found an adorable moose banner in my Cricut files, and the card quickly came together in my mind.



I paired this with the tree paper from the White Pines paper packet, and added a sentiment from Holly Jolly Christmas stamped in Fern ink. The sketch also inspired me to add some Fern Twine to the card. I popped the moose banner up on 3D Foam Tape and I was done!