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Navy & Cream Color Hues Challenge

Navy and cream. A pretty different combo for me! They are colours I don’t seem to have in any inks or embossing powder either! So this turned out to be a real challenge.

I tried inking up panels with some distress ink Chipped Sapphire refill ink and Ultra Marine color burst powder (literally the only inky options I could rustle up), but while it looked pretty cool with gold heat embossing, the challenge was to include cream. I didn’t feel cream would ‘go’ with the panels I created. (Look out for these inky panels sometime in a future card or two!).

The background stamps here are both from MFT – Baccarat Background and City Background. I’ll provide a link to them below.

I went back to what I know best, which is die cutting. I cut out a BUNCH of floral foliage from MFT and Altenew with a cream coloured cardstock I was lucky to find a random sheet in my stash! I put the wreath together using the oval frame die in the Altenew Create a Wreath set – you could use a circle frame, or simply pencil in your preferred outline.

I stretched a vellum strip across behind the wreath with a gold heat embossed sentiment from Gina K Designs and glued two further oval frames to the back of that.

PRO TIP: Use tape runner or double sided tape on any vellum pieces – the merest hint of liquid glue sends it all wrinkly! Not a good look!

I used a piece of Hero Arts Nautical cardstock for the card front, but wanted it to have a little interest – I clear heat embossed the Pinkfresh Studio floral diamonds stamp.

To finish, I added some pretty Studio Katia pearls – a very pretty cream colour! – onto the wreath

This completes my card 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.

You can join in the Color Hues Color Challenge too! Click here to visit their blog to find out all the details.

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!

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 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.

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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 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.

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: