Snowflake Winter Wonderland

 Hi there and thanks for stopping by my blog today. 

My card today is for the Christmas Craft Creations February Challenge where the theme is Blue and Silver.

I began with stamping the Recollections Snowflake background stamp in Versafine Clair Paradise ink. 

I die cut a frame from silver cardstock and framed the background before layering to a silver card base.

A strip of double-sided tape was attached to a scrap of white cardstock.

I then die cut the different snowflakes from the Recollections Snowflake die set.

The dies were released from the strip and the sticky backing was removed ....

and glitters were applied to the sticky surfaces. I used, Silver Dreams, Surf and Fascination glitters.

The sentiment which was from an old Sparkle N Sprinkle set called Winter Swirl was stamped in Versamark. I applied Silver Lightning and Silver Detail embossing powders and heat set. I hand cut the banner and then edged it with blue Copic.

The sentiment and the snowflakes were added to the card front with foam pads and then I sprinkled Waterscape glitter over any sticky open areas, like the center of the snowflakes.

Here is a close up of the sparkle from the glitters.

That finished up my card for today. Please do pop over and see what the rest of my Teamies came up with. Lots of inspiration! We hope to see you join along in our Silver and Blue Christmas Challenge.

I'd like to join in the following challenges, please:

The Four Seasons February Winter Challenge

Peace on Earth Challenge #9

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #580

Thanks again for stopping by!

Till next time, stay warm!

Shona

Eat, Drink and bee Merrry

Hi there and welcome back to my second blog of the new year! Today I am sharing the card I made for the January Christmas Craft Creations Challenge, where we have to include some stenciling. For my card I am using the cutest little Bee Merry set from Clearly Besotted. A "newbee" for me!!

I began by stamping the cute little stamps in Versafine Clair Nocturne ink and heat embossing them with Clear Detail.

The images were then colored with Copics and fussy cut.

I inked the honey comb background using one of the Recollections Stencil set and Distress Oxide Peeled Paint ink. 

 

The sentiment was die cut with an old Spellbinders Hexagon die to match the stenciled background. I added some of the Peeled Paint before removing the die.

Dimensional Glue was applied to the snow on top of the hive to which I added Diamond Dust Glitter. 

Sparkling Snow glitter was applied to the bauble using the same glue and Snow White Flocking to the Santa hat.

The glue was also applied on top of the colored lights. Everything was set aside to dry.

Here is a close-up of the finished card, once the pieces had been attached with foam pads to the stenciled card base. Hopefully, you can see the dimension of the different glitters and flocking.

A red and white bakers twine was tied around the side of the card to finish off.

Below, you can see the products that I used on my card today:

Clearly Besotted Bee Merry set

Recollections Stencils 658160

Distress Oxide Peeled Paint ink

Versafine Clair Nocturne ink

Clear embossing powder

Copics

Spellbinders Hexagons dies

Dimensional Glue

Diamond Dust Glitter

Sparkling Snow Glitter

Snow White Flocking

Foam pads

Red and white bakers twine

I hope I've inspired you to take a look at the rest of the Team members' cards. Please give the stenciling theme a try while adding  to your 2022 Christmas card stash!

I'd like to join in the following challenges with this one:

Dies R Us Challenge #184: Using a die that DRU carries

Peace on Earth Challenge #7: Anything Christmas Goes

Stamps & Fun = Creativity #401: Colors of Christmas

Critter Crazy Challenges #58: Anything Goes with critters

So that's it from me today! Hope to have you stop by soon! Till the next visit, stay safe and warm!

Cheerio for now from chilly New Jersey,

Shona

Turner Syndrome Awareness

 Today I am sharing a card I made specifically for a Challenge that promotes Turner Syndrome Awareness. I first became aware of  Turner Syndrome two years ago when the stamping community, headed up by Lori Kobular, started the Turner Syndrome Awareness Blog Hop. 

Turner Syndrome is a genetic disorder where a female is born missing all or part of her second X chromosome leaving her with life-long medical issues and learning disabilities. This condition occurs one in 2,000 female births worldwide, but is more common among pregnancies that do not survive to full term. That is why Turner Syndrome Females are considered MIRACLES! I hope you will go to Lori's site to learn more!

Here is the mood board for the Challenge:

I started this card a couple of weeks ago and it changed directions several times before it was finished. I had this never before used Stampendous Hydrangea Garden stamp, stencil and die set that I recently came across during a clean-up in my stamping room. Since the Butterfly is also a symbol of TSF, I thought this set was the perfect choice!

I began with stamping the hydrangea bloom in my stamping platform with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink. The outline part of the stencil was placed around the bloom and I colored using inkers and some Distress Oxide inks.

This was returned to the stamping positioner and was reinked with Nocturne and then heat embossed with sparkle. The mask part of the stencil was then placed on top of the bloom in the stamping positioner and the leaves were positioned and stamped with the Nocturne ink.

I then placed the leaf mask over the first set of leaves and stamped a second set over to the left.

This was the result, once the masks were removed.

The leaves were then colored using inkers and different green inks, with the bloom and leaf stencils being put in place of areas not to be inked.

The butterfly was then stamped, colored with Copics and die cut.

I covered the butterfly with Versamark ink and then heat embossed with Clear Detail and then again with Super Thick Clear. This gave the butterfly a beautiful shiny coat!

Back to the hydrangea, Broken China was applied to the background and then misted with water.

I found this a little darker than I had wanted, so I'll deal with that later!!

I covered a piece of pink cardstock with double sided adhesive and cut out a frame with the Tonic Topnote Trellis Layering die.

Lavender Iris glitter was then applied to the sticky surface of the frame when I took of the protective backing.

To tone down main image I decided to cover it with vellum. I attached it with a little Pixie Spray to hold it in place temporarily. I attached the glittered frame to the piece using a flower and brad in each of the four corners.

I placed the finished panel back in the stamp positioner and positioned the butterfly stamp on top of the vellum.

Just the body of the butterfly was then inked:

The glazed butterfly was then placed on top of the body of the butterfly. Now she has legs and antennae again! The card front was layered to pale purple and then on to a white card base.

I searched high and low for a sentiment. As luck would have it another dear stamping friend, Donna Ellis, had recently gifted us a sentiment that we could use on our personal projects and I thought it would be perfect for my card. However I did have to change the size to fit where I wanted it to go. So after adjusting the dimensions on my computer, I printed it out on the same pink cardstock that I had used for the frame. I then die cut the sentiment using the inside die cut of the Tonic die set. 

The sentiment was attached with some mounting foam. Some pink baker's twine was knotted around the spine of the card to finish off my project.

I hope you have enjoyed stopping over today? I also hope that you take the time to go back and check out the Turner Syndrome Awareness Blog Hop. Not are there many fun prizes to be won, but you can also learn much more about these miracle girls!

Below you will find a complete list of all the products that I used in my project today:

Donna Ellis’s sentiment

Stampendous Fran’s Hydrangea Garden Stamp and Stencil Set

Stampendous Fran’s Hydrangea Garden Die Cut Set

Versafine Clair Nocturne ink

Sparkle embossing powder

Distress Oxide Inks:

Worn Lipstick, Wilted Violet, Peeled Paint, Fossilized Amber, Broken China

Versafine Clair inks: Cheerful, Verdant, Shady Lane

Blending Brushes

Vellum

Copics markers: RV02, Y13, YG256, YG13, W-3

Versamark ink

Clear Embossing powder

Super Thick Clear embossing powder

Tonic Topnote Trellis Layering Die Set

Double sided adhesive sheet

Lavender Iris glitter

Flowers

Brads

Pink Baker’s twine

Foam mounting tape

Along with the Turner Syndrome Awareness Challenge I would also like to take part in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge Blog Week 613: Feminine

Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C573: Flowers

Cute Card Thursday Challenge 675: Feminine

Crafty Creations Challenges February #418: Anything Goes

Creations in Pink Challenge #31: Anything Goes: Mainly Pink

Creative Sketchy Girls Challenge #57: Girls Only

Take care, until next time!

Shona

Hap-Bee Birthday!

Hi there, 

I'm back today to share a card, with one of my favorite coloring techniques - with glitter (and a little flocking)!

The following dies were used in my project today:

Tutti Honeycomb die

Tutti Cross Stitch Nesting Circles

Celtic Square Boutique Stacker Frame (not in stock)

(any of the stacker frames would work)

Lawn Fawn Just for You Labels

I began with cutting the Honey comb die from black cardstock.

I took a 4 1/2" square piece of Super Adhesive sheet and layered it to a slightly bigger piece of yellow cardstock. I then die cut the Tutti Cross Stitch Nested die from the middle of the square. It did not cut through the yellow cardstock, only the protective sheet was cut.

The Honey comb die was then placed in the center of the circle.

Let the coloring begin! First up is Daisy Glitter for the honey comb. I carefully just poured a little glitter at a time and burnishing it in to the comb sections with my finger.

Till the honey comb was filled! I accidentally filled in one of the flower centers with the Daisy glitter - that would be rectified later!

Then I did the flower centers (missing one) as you can see above! I just used an orange Copic marker over the top of the Daisy glitter, to make it like the rest.

Next in line was the bee, which got the "butterscotch" treatment.

With everything else colored, I was looking for a "quiet" background, so I chose to do Crystal Ice.

So then on to the perimeter! I pulled the protective layer off the rest of the square. There were little areas that were not sticky, so I went in with the Quickie Glue pen and then the background was applied with Canary flocking.

Next step was to make the black frame. I chose the Celtic option, however any one of the Cheery Lynne dies will work.

The focal front was then centered on top of the black frame. 3/4" Tear-ific Tape was added to the back of the entire piece. 

Butterscotch glitter was then applied around the edges.

I had thought to do the create a buzz as the outside sentiment, then I decided to put that in the inside with just the Hap-Bee Birthday sentiment for the outside. The Lawn Fawn Just For You Dies were perfect for both of the sentiments from an old Sparkle N Sprinkle set. Both sentiments were stamped in Versafine Claire Nocturne and then heat embossed with Black Detail embossing powder. Then I also stamped the hive with Versafine Clair Morning Mist on the inside to finish off the card.

That finished off the card for today! 

Here are the products that I used today:

Honey Bees Stamp Set 775 (Sparkle N Sprinkle)

Tutti Honeycomb die

Tutti Cross Stitch Nesting Circles die

Celtic Square Boutique Stacker Frames dies

Lawn Fawn Just For You dies

Daisy Glitter (G2019)

Tangerine Glitter (GM2043)

YR04 Copic Marker

Butterscotch Glitter (GM2051)

Crystal Ice Glitter (G1058)

Canary Flocking (FL108)

Super Adhesive Sheets

¾” Tear-ific Tape

Quickie Glue Pen

Memento Dandelion Ink

Versafine Clair Nocturne

Versafine Clair Morning Mist

Black Detail Embossing Powder (EP171)

I'd like to join in the following challenges:
Scrapy Land Challenge #130: Use a brand of die that SL sells
World Wide Open Design Team Challenge #1: Anything Goes
Classic Design Challenge #1: Anything Goes

Hope you've enjoyed my share today? Would love to hear what you think!

Some bitter sweet news on the personal front, on my return from my Scotland trip in
December, I found that I had lost both of my bee hives, due to the Varroa mite,
which as a new beekeeper this year, I had only done the sugar roll method
to ascertain the mite counts through the year. Although I could have extracted
some honey in August, I left all the honey that the bees had produced for them
to survive the winter months. However the stronger hive which had almost 10 full
frames of honey in the top box hadn't even reached that honey before they died.
So I took those frames off and extracted the honey. I was able to harvest 21.5 lbs
of liquid gold! It was certainly a learning year and I have already bought boards
for the hives that will help this year in maintaining a stricter mite control regime.
Here is a picture of the harvest!

Happy stamping until next time!

Shona