Sunflowers with Woven Background

 This pretty card was made with a few dies and the Sunflower washi tape from Pinkfresh Studio. 

The background was die cut with a stitched leaf die and then a hexagon was cut from the centre. I also die cut a thin border of the same hexagon shape from gold glitter paper and that was adhered to the leafy front. Inside the frame, a basket weave die was cut and I wove pieces of lilac cardstock through the openings. The front was adhered on top with foam tape and I also added a stitched rectangle. The sunflower pieces were adhered on top of the open frame, along with a foiled sentiment. The last step was to add some champagne gems around the card. 

Enjoy,

Alyson

CD 509 - Birthday Tulip Arrangement

Welcome to Colour Dare Challenge 509!

Choose your greys and add ONE colour - black, white and gold are free to use. 

This was my third attempt at this challenge - I had to walk away after two failed attempts and even this is not what I had in mind. I suppose we all have those days, right? 

I stamped and die cut several tulips (shades of grey on the stems/leaves and shades of pink for the bulbs). I also die cut several leaf shapes from both white cardstock and vellum as well as two doilies from white cardstock. All of that was arranged on a piece of black embossed cardstock. The black cardstock was adhered with craft foam to a grey brick paper piece and then to a white card base. I added a birthday sentiment on the left side and arranged a ribbon and gold and pink metallic thread at the bottom. A few white enamel gems were added and I brushed the darkest parts of the flowers with a gold shimmer brush.

Come and join us at Colour Dare and show us how you interpret the challenge shown above. 

You have two weeks to link up your project. 

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Hand Stitched JOY

A friend was kind enough to send me a new Spellbinders stitching die... the concept is really neat but WOW - the amount of time to create these cards was crazy! 

I die cut the image from white cardstock twice and decided to make two cards in different colour schemes. I prefer non-traditional colours for Christmas so that explains the teal card but I also wanted to do a traditional red and green card. 

The stitching isn't hard to do but it is very time consuming. The embroidery floss had to be adhered to the back of the die cut and it wasn't possible in most cases to just continue with the same colour and move to the next section as the floss would cross over other sections and be visible from the front. I stitched two colour schemes. 

The backgrounds are silver and gold foil paper and I embossed both of those panels. They were adhered to glitter paper backgrounds and then to top folding card bases. I added either silver or gold gems to the centres of the small flowers, depending on the colour scheme. 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Make the Cards 61 - Friends Mini Slimline

 Welcome to Make the Cards Challenge 61!

It's colour challenge this week... please see the graphic below. 

I used a stamp, stencil and die set that I received as part of a recent virtual event. I stamped the images in black and used shades of pink, orange and green to stencil the layers before everything was die cut. I also die cut a stitched scalloped rectangle and stacked it three times. I inked the corners of the card base using the same dark green ink I used for the stencilling. The sentiment was embossed on vellum and placed across the images (which I had to lift as I had adhered them down before deciding I wanted them on top of the vellum...) I added some iridescent gems and brushed the flower centres and the butterflies with a clear shimmer brush to finish off the card. 

Come and join us at Make the Cards and show us how you interpret this colour challenge. 

You have two weeks to link up your project.

We can't wait to see what you create! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Polar Bear Rocker Card

I have made rocker cards before - the inspiration for this one came from a friend of mine, Melanie Hungerford. 

I also wanted to be able to share this design with others and since I created the base for this card using my Cricut, that is hard to share unless others have a Cricut machine. My friend, Trina Wirihana of Scrap'nSeason Designs created an SVG file for me! 

Using the SVG file, I cut the blue circle plus the two snowbank pieces. The front snow bank was aligned with the folded circle to stamp the sentiment on a straight line. The polar bear and the trees were stamped, inked or coloured and fussy cut as I don't have dies for them. I also embossed the snowbank pieces before adhering them to the half circle. The trees and the bear(s) were arranged so the card was relatively even on both sides. The card can be opened to write a message inside. 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Fold Back Gatefold Card

 This gatefold card with a bit of a twist is very easy to create... I decided to do one with a rainbow theme. 

The outside of the card has a belly band to hold it together. I used a star shaker to hold the band together and filled it with the same colour sequins as in the rainbow papers.

Inside the card, each panel was decorated and I created a circle using stamped stars. Some were stamped inside with the full shape and others were stamped with a half star shape. I stamped the sentiment in black and fussy cut it and also added "the best" inside the star circle to complete the sentiment. No other embellishments were added to this card as it won't sit flat if anything is on the inside. 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Celebrate Everything Slimline Card Set

 When I go to day crops, I plan carefully ahead of time so I take only the items that I need. Taking the "kitchen sink" and deciding later what to do simply doesn't work for me as I can't take everything and I inevitably end up forgetting something.

This set of cards was stamped ahead of time and I just coloured them while talking with others. I made the box and added envelopes when I got home. The inside of each card is also decorated with a coloured panel but I didn't photographs that. There are eight cards - four oriented vertically and four oriented horizontally. I used eight different colour schemes. This will make a nice gift! 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Sunflower Topper Fancy Fold Card

 This is such an easy card to create but the recipient has much to see as there are two separate sections. 

I chose old patterned papers with a sunflower theme for my card. Three panels were stamped and the sunflowers were coloured. I also masked the front panel so one sunflower looks like it is behind the other. The photos show the series of openings on the card. The only embellishments I added were gold Stickles and I brushed the sunflower leaves with a gold shimmer brush. There are two places to write messages - one on the first inside panel and another larger space inside the fully opened card.

Enjoy,

Alyson

My Favourite Christmas Card Ever!

 I saw this gorgeous card posted by Sandi MacIver in her Facebook group - I had just purchased the dies so it was time to CASE her card because it is my favourite Christmas card ever! 

The set of dies is a large one with tons of small pieces. I spent a full day die cutting multiples of several images so I could make a few of these cards. The assembly took a few hours as well - definitely not a card I would use to make multiples of the same design! 

The light turquoise cardstock was embossed and the pieces were arranged on top. Once everything was dry, the embossed piece was adhered to a white card base and I added a sentiment at the bottom and some gold Stickles in the centres of the flowers. 

Enjoy,

Alyson

Happy Little Stampers (HLS) August - Christmas Poinsettias

 I am thrilled to announce that I am on the Happy Little Stampers Design Team - for their Christmas challenge! This is my first project for them.

The theme is always Christmas but there is an optional element to use flowers. 

I stamped, stencilled and die cut several poinsettia blooms plus the wreath. The floral collections were so pretty that it didn't take much to turn them into a card. I used a light grey brick background and added the wreath offset to the right and placed a sentiment across the centre. A few floral sprays were arranged at the bottom and I added some silver metallic thread and silver glitter gems around the images. The centres of the flowers had silver Stickels added to them. The front was adhered to a black border and then to a white card base. 

Come and join us at Happy Little Stampers and show us your Christmas cards! 

You have until the end of August to link up your project. 

We can’t wait to see what you create! 

Enjoy,

Alyson