Tag: New Zealand Cardmaking

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Peach & Green Color Hues Challenge

I was very excited to be the Winner of the Navy & Cream Color Hues Challenge – you can check out that card here. My prize is to be Guest Designer for this challenge, yay!

I ended up creating two cards with peach and green colours, I was having fun with my new (to me) Altenew Watercolor 36 pan set – they are so nice to paint with!

Floral Garden Birthday

I die cut the Hero Arts Flower Garden from watercolour paper and leaving it all together, painted directly onto the entire panel. I found this easier to paint the delicate piece.

I cut two more from Bristol Smooth cardstock to stack behind for dimension.

I did a gentle watercolour wash on another piece of cardstock using Distress Ink Shabby Shutters, a really gentle green. I used a wide paintbrush and painted water over the panel first. I smooshed the ink onto my work surface and picked up colour with my brush, and swept it back and forth across the panel, aiming for a pretty ombre effect. Once dried, I then used the Simon Says Stamp Detail Bohemian Plate to add a little interest – the dot details kind of matched the floral shapes of the die cut.

I cut the larger heart from the Simon Says Stamp Heart Duet set (sadly discontinued, but any heart die would work), and stamped the birthday sentiment and a tiny heart towards the bottom, and a stacked Hero Arts ‘happy’ die cut on top. I finished the flower garden with some dark peach gems and gold Liquid Pearls.

Flower Fields Birthday

I have been using this Flower Fields background stamp in a number of projects lately, and decided to paint it with the peach and green colour way. I stamped the image with Antique Linen Distress Oxide for the ‘no line’ look.

I used the Altenew watercolours to paint this too, using the exact same colours as the above card. This time, I was going for a more subtle look – subtle takes practice!

I used the Honey Bee Stamps Birthday die – this little set comes with the birthday die itself, the shadow die and a further shadow die with extra piercing. There’s a matching sentiment set, and I’ll link to that below too.

I used the plain shadow die to cut the floral panel just below the centre and popped the pieces up with double sided foam onto Gina K Grass Green cardstock. I stacked the birthday die cut with gold in the space between.

I felt the white card base was too stark, so I added a lighter green mat in Jellybean Green. I finished the card with a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words Birthday and a few Peridot gems from Studio Katia.

I have recently discovered a new black ink pad – a friend was visiting and introduced me to the Versafine Clair Nocturne ink pad, an incredibly dark, crisp black. My new favourite for sentiments! Especially those hard to stamp solid lettering sentiments, wow, what a difference! It is a pigment ink, so not suitable for Copic colouring, but you can use it for watercolour.

This completes my pair of cards as Guest Designer for the Color Hues Color Challenge today. Thank you for stopping by! Below are links to the products I used. Some are affiliate links (not all), which simply means I may get a small commission when you shop, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.

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For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series.

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Cute Hedgehog Gift Tag

You can find more of my Christmas Gift Tags from over the years by checking out #inkyandstampytags on Instagram, or my dedicated Pinterest board

Last year I made many many gift tags – and as a result, I have a box full of little projects that never came to fruition. This is one of those. I had stamped and cut the hedgehogs using Copic X-Press It cardstock, and coloured the hats, but that’s as far as I got :/

Inspiration hit finally! I decided to go with a Kraft and rich red colour scheme. I used scraps I had in my craft room from my local stationery store, but Gina K or Lawn Fawn cardstocks would be comparable and I have linked to those at the end of this post.

I chose the MFT Treat Tag because the hedgehog is quite a large image. I wanted to frame him somehow, and decided on the delicate frame in the Concord & 9th Just Because die set.

To get the gold heat embossed background in the right place, I created a mask tag out of scrap cardstock by cutting the frame out where I wanted it placed. I used my little MISTI to stamp and heat emboss the MFT background stamp, Christmas Words.

I used the dot colouring technique for the grey quills.

I completed colouring the hedgehog images – copics used are:

  • Red: R59, R29, R27, R24
  • Green: G28, G09, G05, G14
  • Grey: W9, W7, W5, W3, W0
  • Skin: E21, E00, E000

To feature him in the frame, I carefully fussy cut out the stocking up to his fist, and trimmed the bottom of the stamped image off. It now sits flush directly on the bottom of the red frame.

Before adhering the framed hedgehog to the tag, I added fluff to the hat with Tsukeniko Radiant Neon Amplify in White – a very effective puffy paint! This stuff puffs up tremendously when heated with the heat gun and STAYS white, giving a lot of dimension.

I glued the frame to the tag, where it fits over the gold heat embossing perfectly

For the finishing ribbon, I added a wide red ribbon found at my local emporium store. It has No Peeking printed on it, and I thought the tone suited the cute image. I used gold ornament cord to secure the wide ribbon, and tied it in a bow.

Finally, the To and From is stamped at the bottom in black, and this stamp is from the Scrapbook.com Gifting and Tag Sentiments – there are three other To & From stamps to use on other gift tags too, plus some other fun sentiments designed for gift tags.

This completes my little gift tag today. Thank you for stopping by! Below are links to the products I have used – some are affiliate links (not all) which simply means I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you when shopping. Thank you for your support – it means I can keep creating and sharing with you.

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708

You can find more of my Christmas Gift Tags from over the years by checking out #inkyandstampytags on Instagram, or my dedicated Pinterest board

For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series.

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Confetti Filled Diamonds

Cards that weren’t my original intention, but, in my play session, I ended up with two very different cards using the Pinkfresh Simply Diamonds die and Pop Out Diamonds rubber stamp. It’s a little bit of a journey!

One of my most used items when I use my Misti or Stamp Platforms, is the Scrapbook Adhesive Repostionable Tape Runner – a non-permanent stick, perfect for keeping things in place temporarily. Refills are available too.

I started by stamping the Diamond frame only, and cutting it out. I was impressed at how easy it was to have the heat embossed frame lines cut perfectly centrally with the die. There is a frame on the outside of the stamp itself which is 1/4″ wide all around, also equaling one square in the Misti for ease of lining up.

I was also suddenly taken with the idea of stamping that gold frame on a richer coloured cardstock – Peacock by Lawn Fawn. Delicious!!

Original vague plan now abandoned, I focussed on the Peacock piece. I decided to stack up the diamond pieces remaining from frame cut outs, leaving the gold frame peeping out from between them.

I stamped the flower images using Antique Linen Distress Ink and watercolored them with Ken Oliver Color Bursts (Fuchsia, Yellow, Turquoise and Lime Green). They are such fun to paint – quick and easy to do!

I had a spare Happy Birthday die cut from the Pinkfresh Classic Words set in my box which I placed in the middle. It didn’t stand out very well so I added a second glittery layer. I wish now I had used the ‘Beautiful’ sentiment from the Classic Words set instead, but hey, live and learn.

I added teeny gems in the intersections to finish.

My attention turned back to the original frame – I decided to create a confetti shaker. I stacked the plain frames I had cut, and glued them to a background I had in my stash. This was a watercolour piece of cardstock inked up with Distress Oxides in Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers.

I chose confetti to match the colour blends.

I used my Marvy Uchida jewel picker to place escapees in their correct places.

I put the blue hexagons in the top row, plus in the top half of the two diamond openings in the second row. I then completed filling the second row with purple butterflies, along with the third row plus the top half of the diamond openings in the fourth row. I filled the remainder of the openings with turquoise stars. The result is a blended effect with the confetti. The heat embossed frame and acetate attached on top to seal them all in.

I was a little generous with my confetti (or short a layer or two of cardstock lol) so the confetti doesn’t shake around too much.

With a bold, glittery card all done, I felt it needed a bold glittery birthday sentiment – learned from previous mistake hahaha.

I chose The Stamp Market’s Happy Birthday from their Time to Celebrate bundle (sadly apparently discontinued, my apologies), cut twice from white cardstock and once from gold glitter, stacked.

I considered gems, but after doing an initial placement, decided against it.

Both card fronts were mounted onto #110 Neenah top folding card bases. There, two cards created with the Pinkfresh Diamonds – such fun!

This completes my pair of cards today. Thank you for stopping by! Below are links to the products I have used – some are affiliate links (not all) which simply means I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you when shopping. Thank you for your support – it means I can keep creating and sharing with you.

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708

For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series.

Follow me on my social media channels:

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Ornate Floral Cards

When I saw this die in the new PinkFresh Studio release, I just knew I wanted to play with it. It takes a little longer to receive the newest goodies here in New Zealand, but I don’t mind being a little late to the party!

Here are the two cards I made today

Let’s start with the green card. I was aiming for a monotone look, and almost got there! I started with Lawn Fawn Peacock cardstock for the card front, and white Neenah for the remaining die cutting.

I filled in the flower petals plus added an extra layer of petal die cuts for dimension.

I cut it out a couple of times from white cardstock to start with, and glued a white frame to the Peacock card front. I built up the flowers a little by adding the white petals beneath the coloured ones – I think I ended up cutting it out three times in the end for this first card.

I then coloured the flowers I wanted with the other die cut, while all the pieces were still together. I find this makes it quite a bit easier to see what I’m colouring, I can do it quite messily and not worry about getting ink where I don’t want it. To keep the die cut pieces altogether and secure whilst colouring, I did use some strips of purple tape and post it tape.

I realised I wanted the leaves to have some depth of colour, to differentiate from the coloured card base a little. I cheated here, and coloured directly onto the card base with copics (BG78, BG49, BG09). As it was impossible to keep that original white die cut frame from getting inky bits on it, I ended up glueing a second white frame on top, and building up the flower petals again.

Copics used for the petals: BG45, BG13, BG10, BG000.

I added the coloured petals on top – and the depth and interest I achieved was pretty good!

I used my Nuvo glimmer gloss pen to add shimmer to the uncoloured parts of the card front and adhered it to a Lawn Fawn Mermaid card base.

To finish the card, I die cut the word Hello from Altenew three times, including one in silver, and stamped the sentiment from the Altenew Statement Flowers. I wondered about shortening the strip, but decided it looked good extending right across the card. I added ivory iridescent gems to the flower centres, plus a few extras scattered about, and this completes my card.

Rainbow Ornate Floral Card

Well, after I finished the first one, I immediately wanted to do another! This time, I wanted to try out more colour – a rainbow.

I used the remaining frame (complete with post it and purple tape strips) from before to do my colouring – I may just keep a frame in the envelope with the set for future colouring, just because it seems handy.

I went around from red to yellow, blue to purple and green for the leaves. The copic colours I used are:

  • Red: R59, R29, R27, R24
  • Yellow: Y38, Y17, Y15, Y13
  • Green: G28, G09, G05, YG07
  • Blue: B23, B32, B12, B00
  • Purple: BV08, BV04, BV13, BV02

I adhered a frame to a white card base and inlaid the green leaves directly. The flowers have a couple of extra petal layers beneath the coloured ones and I really like the subtle difference in depth.

I finished off the card with a Simon Says Stamp Thanks sentiment – white shadow layer and two black layers for the intricate word die. I did use a Nuvo Black Glitter cardstock for the top layer for added sparkle.

Plus, a little sentiment strip, gems in the flower centres and little extra gems scattered around the Thanks.

I went for a monotone look first up, and couldn’t help myself and did a rainbow one too!

This completes my pair of cards today. Thank you for visiting! Below are links to the products I have used – some are affiliate links (not all) which simply means I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you when shopping. Thank you for your support – it means I can keep creating and sharing with you.

Also, I have another post using the same Ornate Floral die where I created a beautiful shaker card here.

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708

For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series.

Follow me on my social media channels: