Christmas Cards

I thought I'd share a few of the Christmas cards that I have finished making.

I don't make many cards for the festive season and these ones won't be going in the post.

I love foxes and opted for this ever so cute Festive Friends topper digital download from Opulence by Design Crafts. There are 4 toppers to a sheet with sentiments and I layered this with mirror card and added a sheet of Festive Grunge backing paper which you can just see peeping out from behind my card. This is a beautiful design that would make a fabulous festive card on its own.

I die cut my poinsettia from some faintly patterned vellum that I found in my craft stash and also embellished with the easy cut ivy  leaves  and some extra die cuts.

For this card I have just used a festive Spellbinders embossing folder and added a few leaves from another download collection. These always come in so handy for other projects and I'm always looking for foliage to accompany my blooms. These leaves were from the Chalky Wonders Clematis collection also from Opulence by Design Crafts.

For my third card I used Amelia the topper and sentiment download from one of the Pom Pom & Posies collections. She is my favourite from their Christmas collection. I've added some die cut frames and repeated the layout as before.

I have also used a clear overlay glitter pen on my poinsettia to lift the red cardstock and add some shimmer.

I've also added it to the background of the toppers as its soft enough to add shimmer without overpowering and used my gel pens to highlight.

My last card is a different colourway but I have used the same format as before and  added a white gel pen to highlight on the topper. The downloadable topper sheet comes with 4 beautiful toppers and sentiments and these would also work perfectly on winter birthday cards too.

All my cards also have personalised inserts inside and I've made box envelopes for them too.

Thanks for stopping by today to view my little crafty space.

If you want more inspiration from Opulence by Design, follow the links below

They have a beautiful selection of digital kits and crafting sheets that can be mixed and matched with your crafty stash.

 opulencebydesign - YouTube

or Instagram Opulence ByDesigns

Have a great week, whatever you have planned for yourself.

Happy Crafting

Challenges

Festive Friday - bright colours/ephemera/patterned paper   Festive Friday Favs

Try it on Tuesday - Get ready for Christmas

Allsorts - Christmas Cards  Top 7

CD Sunday Plus -Christmas

Little Red Wagon - Gold  Featured Project

Halloween Card

I'm sharing a Halloween card that I made for a friend

I used this cool Spooky Girl stamp from IndigoBlu and coloured her in with alcohol markers.

For the background, I used distress inks and added some second generation stamping around the edges with some Visible Image stamps.

My pumpkin is already sitting my garden (with an LED tea light inside this evening) much to the interest of all the birds today.

Have a great rest of the week, whatever you have planned for yourself.

Happy Crafting

Challenges

A Place to start - pump it up for pumpkins  Rising Star

Make it Monday - Halloween Colours  Special Mention

Pammies Inky Pinkies - ATG

Stamps&Fun - Halloween

Crafty Calendar - Halloween   Top 3

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - S is for Spooky

Crafty Catz - Halloween 

Crafty Rocket - Halloween

Park Hopping My Happy Place - Halloween  Top 3

Fun kids card

 I'm sharing a fun themed Super Mario birthday card that I made a my friend's little boy 

Trying to think of something different every year can be a challenge when you make cards but I came across some free download pages on Pinterest for children's parties that I thought I could use to create this card.

I have seen other variations of a card like this online and think it's a fun idea for a pop up kids card.

I printed a sentiment onto card to attach to my main character, which will then go in the pocket on the front.

I decoupaged the question mark on the pocket to add some dimension  and added some faux copper brads.

For the background I used a cloudy sky backing paper that was a free digital download from one of the Tattered Lace collections.

I carried some of the features over to the inside of my card and added  some studded letters for the birthday boys name.

I'm finishing off with a few pictures from the mischief makers from my garden.

The squirrel eats his share of the monkey nuts that I leave out and then buries the Jay's share in my garden, if its not quick enough to pick them up.

.....sometimes they get forgotten and start to grow in my pots!

I've left this 'monkey nut' to grow next to my Rosemary 

We've noticed a pair of Jays with a youngling in the garden  this year which is promising for this normally shy bird.

And this is Kiera, she loves to visit my garden and sit behind my pond, watching all those birds that she'd love to catch.... when she's not trying to eat their bird food.

Have a great rest of the week, whatever you have planned for yourself.

Happy Crafting

Challenges:

Dragonfly Dreams - Birthday

Krafty Chicks - Masculine 

A Place to start - circles

Lets Craft and Create - Layers

Birthday card Clematis

 A  birthday card with some blooms to share today that I had made for my sister-in law.

For my card I have used the Chalky Wonders Clematis PDF digital download kit  by Opulence by Design crafts.

There are a lovely selection of flowers and leaves in this beautiful kit and I decided to print one of my layers on a piece of satin paper.

It is worth having a play with your printer settings and mediums that you print on to see the different results that you get.

Saying that, I have an Epson Ecotank and hadn't intended to change the printer settings when it came to printing the flower sheet, but when I looked a little closer at these printed flowers,  I actually liked the darker hue to the blooms and decided to go with it for my project even though this is not the original colour on the design.

I've edged my blooms with a little purple ink to add some tone and green for my leaves. They have been gently shaped to look more natural.

I've also added  some 1cm pink organza ribbon and blue string pearls. The flowers have just had a touch of shimmer from a clear overlay sparkle pen (I think it was one of Crafters Companions brush pens).

Checkout a few of the links below for Opulence by Design Crafts for some great inspiration on their designs and tutorials too. They have a varied selection of kits and crafting sheets and a freebie section that you might what to download too.  Beautiful designs that makes crafting easier.

opulencebydesign - YouTube

or Instagram Opulence By Designs

I do love a clematis. I have three in my garden now, pale pink, cerise and this vibrant purple one around my arch.

I love to seeing the bees going from flower to flower and was fortunate to catch the broad-bordered bee hawk moth  flying around my garden early one evening, they are really quite striking.

Areas for nature to thrive in are becoming smaller unfortunately.

Have a great rest of the week, whatever you have planned for yourself.

Happy Crafting

Challenges

Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers

Triple B - Blooms

Love to Craft - AG

Allsorts - Pretty Flowers 

Krafty Chicks - AG

Tic Tac Toe - any colour - pinks /free - flowers /sentiment - birthday

Wellbeing cards

I have been making a few wellbeing cards with some of the papers from The Ultimate Apothecary Collection from Opulence by Design Crafts, following on from  the other projects that I have been sharing this week.

The Ultimate Apothecary Collection Herbs & Remedies Kit for Cardmakers and Papercrafters is beautiful a digital download kit containing 50 A4 pages in PDF format.

It has a wide selection of toppers, papers, labels, embellishments, inserts for your cards,  etc. Lots to cut out and cut into.  

I have selected just some of the papers and elements to create a few cards and these are more focused on health and wellbeing.

I've chosen this design sheet for my backing paper on both cards and along with an insert for inside my cards.  Adding some toppers and embellishments along with one of my yoga Duo dies.

A few years back this die got rather mangled in my old Cut n' Boss die machine before I had the chance to even get my samples cut. Miraculously, we managed to get her out  and unfold her with no damage done to die or machine! Apart from being a bit bendy, it still cuts perfectly well,  which is good testament to the quality of the die too.

I also added a stamped sentiment to the inside of my DL card.

My second card is an easel and I've fussy cut this beautiful flower to fit exactly where I wanted it on the base of my card, using a cacti embellishment as a stopper.

I have left space on the back for a message just under my stamped sentiment.

For my final card I used one of the floral toppers with two alternative papers to coordinate with this beautiful topper.

On my little get well card I've also added a few of Amanda's flowers.

Take a look at my Tea Bag Gift Box and Apothecary themed journal that I have also been making with this kit.  

Thanks for stopping by today to view my little crafty space.

If you want more inspiration and demos from Opulence by Design, follow the links below

They have a varied selection of digital kits and crafting sheets that can be mixed and matched with your crafty stash and gorgeous flowers to add to your projects too.  Beautiful designs that makes crafting easier.

 opulencebydesign - YouTube

or Instagram Opulence ByDesigns

When you are sitting in the garden with your cup of tea in the morning and you hear that familiar scurry of little feet!........

 

Have a great rest of your week, whatever you have planned for yourself.

Happy Crafting

Challenge

Ellibelles Corner - AG

DL.ART - AG

Love to Craft - AG

Classic Designs -AG

Tea Bag Gift Box

Today I'm sharing  a tea bag gift box which I've made using some of the fabulous papers from The Ultimate Apothecary Collection from Opulence by Design Crafts.

This is a huge kit with lots of elements to cut out and great to use with your scrapbooking, collaging and home décor projects.

The Ultimate Apothecary Collection Herbs & Remedies Kit for Cardmakers and Papercrafters is beautiful a digital download kit containing 50 A4 pages in PDF format.

It has a wide selection of toppers, papers, labels, embellishments, inserts for your cards,  etc. Lots to cut out and cut into.

I have also used  some of Paula Pascual's box dies from her 'Miss P Loves' collection for my gift box.

I chose a selection of papers that I wanted to use. These have been printed on  a mix of 120gsm, 160gsm and 200gm for the topper on Navigator paper/card. The higher weight card isn't always on offer but is definitely worth looking out for.

I've also reduced the print size  to 70%  and 85% on some sheets so that they would fit more of less into my gift box.

I used the Miss P Loves - Boundless Box Tray die along with the Boundless Wrap die 

which makes a 6 x 4 box/folder with many more possibilities.

I double side printed onto 200gsm Navigator card and then die cut the base for my box and wrap using one of the papers from the kit.  I also inked around the edges to add some tone.

This box/folder is such a clever design, doesn't necessarily need to be glued but can be, depending what you want to use it for. 

This fabulous topper for the front of my box was printed  on 5x7"  to get the right fit.

I also used my clear glaze Sakura gelly roll pen on the glass bottles to add a touch of glossy texture and done this around the  larger bottles too.

Whilst watching TV I cut out all the elements for my project and added some die cut foliage, cream lace and the fruit tea bags.  

I've made some decorative stitched holders for my teabags from the papers and added the circular tabs to the tea bags with embroidery thread. On the other side of the tag there is a little label saying  'fruit tea.'

The idea behind this little gift box was simply a little 'hello Friend', a little cup of friendship, for you to sit and chill and relax. It can be a thinking of you or even a feel better soon. 

It doesn't really need many words. You can craft with the kit to suit your theme or project which is really what I have done.

Inside the flap of my box, I created a pocket using one of the topper sheets to pop my little bottle tags in. I also cut out some taller jars from another sheet to fill in the gap at bottom of the flap between the baskets and make the jars look as if they were originally part of that page.

Inside the box, I've mounted the panels that I cut out on foam pads to add dimension and the foliage hangs behind it.

The little gift card that I made will fit perfectly in my gift box and I cut out these wonderful little bottles to create little tags which I have attached some twine to with a die cut flower on the end.

I added a few little holistic quotes on the reverse of the tags so that they were not plain on the back.

I've inked around around the edges of everything that I have cut out

The cream lace just adds a little texture, along with the flower and as the floral band didn't quite stretch all the way around, I just added another of the disc toppers that I had originally reduced in size for my teabag  embellishments, and cut it to fit the side of the box where my flower would sit.  

You can always find an alternative to embellish, especially in a bumper kit like this with so many things to cut out and cut into.  Another beautifully designed kit with alternative themes.

I have also made an Apothecary Themed Journal using some of the papers and elements in this kit too.

This has been a fun little project to make and thanks for stopping by today to view my little crafty space.

If you want more inspiration and demos from Opulence by Design, follow the links below

They have a varied selection of digital kits and crafting sheets that can be mixed and matched with your crafty stash. Beautiful designs that makes crafting easier.

 opulencebydesign - YouTube

or Instagram Opulence ByDesigns

I  have had a lot to do in my garden this summer and this was taken before I started, but I'm fortunate to get a Jay visit my garden regularly for it's monkey nuts. They are normally quite a shy bird.

Have a great rest of the week whatever you have planned for yourself.

Happy Crafting

Challenges

Try it on Tuesday - add some text

Allys Angels - AG  - Spotlight Winner

Love to Scrap - AG

Crafts Galore - AG

Path of Positivity- sending unexpected correspondence

Crafters Cafe - AG