Paper Hugs

 With my great appreciation to Therese Calvird ( lostinpaper) I am posting three Christmas cards inspired by one of her latest posts - encouraging the use of strips and stripes! When I tried this technique for myself, I quickly realised it made a great Australian themed Christmas card - the sunny colours just needed a bright and breezy Santa or penguin to adorn them. Thank you so much Therese for your inspiration - I am thrilled with how quick and easy it was to make these one of a kind cards!

 I have already started on my Christmas cards, and for this one, I followed a tutorial by Gina K to create my background.  The very interesting technique is to use a stencil as an embosser - in a similar way to how you would use a die, with the rubber mat.  Then Gina suggests you score at 1/2" intervals, creating a wood effect - and finish off with your choice of spongeing.  So that's what I did with my first attempt - as you can see below. It was such fun to make, if a little fiddly - of course I didn't stop with one, as they can be addictive!  But I'm very happy with this clean and simple card.

 Not a card today, but sharing pics of the two rugs I've been making during Stage 4 lockdown, in Melbourne.  I honestly don't know what I would have done with the hours of potential boredom if I didn't have my crafts to keep me busy and interested. I normally make rugs in a square granny style, but thought I'd try a rectangle - so learned how to start this via youtube - I should have made it longer to start with but that's the learning lesson isn't it?  The wool I purchased just before lockdown, as I knew I needed something more than card making to keep me sane - I bought 5 each of the blue and pink shaded balls - giant balls of 200g each. and of course I couldn't resist making a little card to go with each one!

 My card today was made for a friend's aunt, who is turning 70.  She loves dancing and flowers and her favourite colour is hot pink.  The card base is 6 x 6". The dancing stamp is by Gina K - one of my first craft purchases back in 2011.  I have clear embossed the image, though it doesn't show in this pic.  The pink mat and banner is shiny card, and came from packaging - the little corner die is unbranded.  The embossing folder is by Stampin' Up! as is the frame die.

My card today has been created to enter into Unstampabelles newest challenge - with the theme of Magic, and a twist to allude to a Disney film.  As I'm in Christmas card mode (I'm searching for 'good' reasons to create cards and I give many cards at Christmas time) I hit on Frozen, the film, and there is nothing more magic than a snow covered landscape to me. A bit of spongeing and a couple of die cuts created my magic scene with the theme of Frozen.  I hope I haven't stretched the connection too much, but in any case I have another Christmas card completed.

A quick card, using a die cut and some pattern paper to create a card which sends a hug. I sponged the die cut in a tangy sort of brown colour, and chose some pattern paper with similar retro colour to fill the space behind it, and then reset the die back into the card front.  Added the word die and some fussy cut leaves and mounted on a Kraft base.

Today I'm joining the Unstampabelles on their 100th challenge.  Their link is below: https://unstampabelleschallenges.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-100th-challenge-may-wings-and-wind.html I made a card inspired by Connie Stewart yesterday, and once I'd chosen what my 'wings' were going to be - the butterfly - I realised I could use the same layout for this card using blue and white.  The paper I chose for my rosette butterfly is variated, so there is a little extra interest in the colour blue. Hello cards are so useful at this time - I'm sending out quite a few as a way of keeping in touch - phone calls are better, but can take up quite a bit of the day:)

I have another variation on the envelope exploding with flowers card - is that even a thing?  Anyway, here is my card - I have attempted Sam's (from Mixed up craft) envelope added to a card (picture to follow) but when I saw on Pinterest a card that simply used an envelope ON a card, well, I thought why not give this a try?  I did, and this is my result - a 5 x 7" card. My original envelope card is here: This card is an envelope BOX card and would require a box to post it or you have to deliver it by hand.  Of course it packs more of a punch, because it took 3 times as long to make!  But I think for the more everyday lovely card, the top one is worth trying!

I've just received the background stamp in the mail, and just happened to have the lovely lady die cut on my desk, so this is what I made!  The lovely lines of the lady are enough, in my opinion, so I kept the background to a monotone, just enough to add depth to the picture. Not sure of the sentiment, so that can be added at a later date.  Thanks for looking1

I have always found the sentiment 'showered with love' so beautiful, with its connotations of sheltering someone with your love, an over-abundance of love being showered on someone, and of course, the showers that are precursors of bright flowers and happier times.   So when I saw Darnell's twofer this morning, for the challenge 'umbrella and/or rain' and having one card already made that qualified, I set to to create another card so that I could enter for the first time.   I didn't stray far from my first card,  but instead added some flowers to my little gum boots (as they are called in Australia - if I was still in England they would be 'wellies' short for Wellington Boots) - I don't know what they are in the US.  Hopefully someone will let me know.

A very dear friend and her lovely husband, will be celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary later this week.  Sadly we aren't able to visit them, as they are very sensibly self isolating, as are we - so I've attempted this envelope board box card.  There is an opening card behind this front.  I hope I'm able to send it safely - but will find a box to fit it.  I would love to make a box for it, but I don't have card large enough - thanks to Sam of Mixed Up Craft for the tutorial.  I know I'm rubbish at arranging flowers, but think it'll be OK.

Just another little post to add to my Valentine cards of a few days ago - I've used a little die and some spongeing to create this tranquil scene - I hope you like it. I created a stencil for my circle shape, using a circle die to cut a plastic folder cover.  I try to cut the plastic to my card size for better placement.  I'm happy with this card:)  The words were cut from a larger die cut, which read:  Do what you love.  Very handy! This was my first effort at using the cut dog and cat - but somehow I feel it looks too contrived - perhaps there is just too much space around the focus.  The sentiment is from an old Stampin' Up! set and reads:  with you .... is my favourite place to be.  Isn't that lovely?

Such a hot day yesterday, so perfect excuse to stay in my air conditioned craft room, and make a selection of 'masculine' Valentine cards. The split heart die needed 5 different papers, so that meant I could make 5 cards!  I've not photographed the fifth card - don't know why - but I'll add it to the end of the post.  I chose these bolder colours, rather than the softer, prettier tones usually used for valentine cards, because I thought  males might appreciate the style of these more - what do you think? Here is the 5th card and a further card, made by inserting arcs from various size circles into the edge of the large heart.  The striped background is vellum (Stampin' Up from a couple of years ago). Hope you are all keeping cool on an even hotter day today, and keep safe!