Creativity takes courage

Creativity takes courage - I agree with that. It is also wonderful and fun. I wanted to play with ink blending and this fun doodle-like stamp so I heat embossed the image onto some cardstock and then blended it with some Distress inks. 

I heat embossed various sentiments in white on black cardstock, then popped them up with foam tape. I added foam tape to the entire panel.

Supplies: White cardstock, Stampers Anonymous - Tiny Text, Wild Whisper Designs - Fanciful Bloom

Did you know: The inventor of television, Philo Farnsworth, developed the concept when he was fourteen.

Cheers,
Nina

Happy Birthday

At the last retreat I attended, I challenged myself to make my way through a 6x6 designer paper pad, this is one of the cards I created from my Honey Bee Birthday Bash paper pad.

The layout is pretty simple to put together, I have a black cardstock panel as the base, I then cut two pieces of patterned paper, and using some adhesive I added them to the black panel leaving a small border across the center and around the edges.

I took part of the sentiment from the paper on the bottom of the panel and popped it up with foam tape.

Supplies: White and black cardstock, Designer Paper - Honey Bee (Birthday Bash), foam tape, gems.

Did you know: Tiger shark embryos fight each other in their mother's womb. The survivor is born.

Happy crafting,
Nina

Happy Birthday to you

I could not wait to try this die-cut, it has two of my favourite features, stitching and leaves. The patterned paper is two sides of a 12x12 paper sheet. 

I created a panel strip with the geometric side of the paper, then die-cut the top panel. I added foam tape behind to pop it up, and I used a sentiment strip and matting to finish.

Supplies: White cardstock, Paper Rose - Gum Leaf border die, Taylored Expressions - Simple Strips Birthday.

Did you know: Grapes explode when put you put them in the microwave.

Happy Crafting,
Nina

Hippity Hoppity

Perhaps I am a little behind on posting some cards, and I am working through the backlog. Let's go back to last month and enjoy a review of Easter.

This card was simple and turned out so cute.

I used small stitched rectangles and squares to die-cut the background panels. The sentiment panel was part of a paper pad and I added some foam tape to the back. I finished with some gems. An easy and quick card.

Supplies: White cardstock, Designer paper - Echo Park, Simon Says Stamps - Stitched Rectangles and squares, gems.

Did you know: A goldfish named Tish lives to be 43 years old making it the oldest goldfish ever.

Cheers,

Nina

Washi Tape - Thank you

I am just going to say it, I have a problem with Washi Tape, it has joined my obsession with patterned paper. 

I am pretty excited about some I found a used stamp sale this past weekend, and I make something with it soon. Today, I have another simple layout to share, and some more pretty Washi.

I have used this layout a few times now and I love how it showcases the pretty Washi patterns. This was a pretty quick card to put together, I started with the patterned Washi then put cut a coordinating solid strip in half so was nice and thin. I added some foam tape to the panel to give it depth.

I die cut the branch, added some foam tape to some of the leaf tips, then used a sentiment strip, and also popped up with some foam tape. I finished the card with some gems.

Supplies: White cardstock, The Washi Tape Store - Washi tape, Memory Box - Lorelai Leaf, Simon Says Stamp - Sentiment Strip, gems.

Did you know: Chocolate milk was originally sold as medicine.

Cheers,

Nina

Holiday Wishes

Good Morning and a Merry Monday to you. I have a short post for today. This little bird is adorable, I chose to showcase it as the focal point on the card.

I started with a stitched rectangle panel in sage green, I used a rectangle die to cut the section from designer paper. I used a small section from the patterned paper to stamp the sentiment and popped it up with foam tape.

Supplies: White and green cardstock, Simon Says Stamp - Stitched Rectangle, Hero Arts - rectangle, Stampers Anonymous - Tiny Text Christmas.

Did you know: Banana "trees" are actually a type of flowering herb.

Happy crafting,

Nina

Let's go fishing

Good Morning crafty friends, I have an outdoor adventure card for this morning's post.

I have a couple of family members that love fishing and the outdoors, this card is for my brother.

I started with a piece of 6x6 paper pad, Echo Park and Carta Bella have long been favourite brands of paper pads for me, and why not, look at this perfect background, it does all the work for me. 

I die cut a frame from brown cardstock and then added some foam tape to pop it up. I die-cut some fish and added some 'line' to them and popped two of them up. I added the sentiment and the card was done.

Supplies: White and brown cardstock, Designer Paper - Echo Park, My Favorite Things - Stitched Rectangle Frames, Joy Crafts - Fishing fun, thread.

A little shout out to the Make-a-Wish #Trailblazechallenge, I have been a little hobbled by a foot injury but hit still managed to hit the 50K marker yesterday.

If you would like to support this fabulous challenge with a donation it would be greatly appreciated, you can check out some of the heartwarming stories about what a donation can help to achieve.

Did you know: Leaving the bottle, Heinz Ketchup travels at .028 miles per hour.

Cheers,

Nina

Beautiful Bokeh

Isn't this Bokeh effect beautiful, thank you Crystal for the technique class, I love this.

This is one of two cards, I made. I started with some ink blending, I found the colours a little vibrate so I did spritz my panel with some water and then dab off which reacted with the Distress Inks to leave additional patterns.

I used a piece of vellum to make a mask with some circle die-cuts and I started to add some different sized circles to my panel with white pigment ink, going from a lighter application to a heavy one. As I let that dry, I die cut the leaves and added some foam tape to the top leave to pop them up.

I cut the sentiment and layered it, then added some foam tape. I put all the panels together and then finished the card with some gems, sequins and pearls. I mounted the panel with some thin foam tape.

I found by the time my card was fully dry that most of my circle has faded slightly and blended nicely into the rest of the background. I can see myself trying this technique again.

Supplies: White and black cardstock, Simon Says Stamp - Sentiment Strip and Tattered Leaves die-cut, gems.

Did you know: Humans and bananas share about 60% of the same DNA Structure.

Cheer,
Nina

#Trailblaze for Wishes 2022

I don't have a card to share today, I will be back a little later in the week with one. Today is all about #Trailblaze for Wishes 2022.

I am doing it again, I have joined the 10-week virtual Trailblaze Challenge for Make-A-Wish again this year; this is such a great event. This is the third year in a row I have accepted Make-A-Wish Trailblaze Challenge.

This challenge runs between April 27, 2022 (Today :)) and June 25, 2022, I have logged over 200KM during this event for each of the past two years, and I am looking forward to trying to achieve that again this year.

I had such wonderful support last year so thank you to those who donated or even cheered me on, it means so much. 

Don't you want to make someone's wish come true? Your support could help with that.

Thank you for stopping by,

Nina

Happy Ever After

I made this stunning card the other day, I was super excited, did I remember to take a proper photo... of course not. This photo was taken just before I did the final assembly.

The design is not my own, I used this card as a template. A friend had asked for something clean, fresh and modern and this fit that perfectly.

I started by using a splatter stamp and adding silver embossing powder to the panel. I die-cut the larger scribble heart, then two solid hearts. 

I then embellished with smaller hearts, sequins, half pearls and gems. I popped up the sentiment panel with some foam tape. I added a layer of silver glitter paper to the panel and added foam tape to that as well.

Supplies: White and silver cardstock, Stampin' Up! - Gorgeous Grunge, Simon Says Stamp - Stitched Heart Collage, Sizzix Thinlets - Scribbles and Slat, Simon Says stamp - Sentiment strips, gems and half pearls.

I love having a nice supply of these Simon Says Stamp sentiment strips on hand, one - is saves on buying a larger stamp set just to get one sentiment, but two - it gives me lots of options. Love them!

Did you know: Our Moon is the largest satellite in the solar system, relative to the size of the planet it orbits.

Cheers,
Nina