Love and Friendship

This category includes: Valentines Day, engagement, wedding, anniversary, friends

Colourful block print radiant butterfly

Hello everyone!

First up today is my entry into this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

My focal point again today is the stunning Birch Press Design Block Print Radiant Butterfly die set – I first used it for this card that I made as soon as it arrived a couple of months ago! I don’t know about you, but I always feel pretty chuffed when I use new products a lot – or more than once at least!

This time I cut the fabulous bold butterfly from Spellbinders card and adhered it to an ink-blended background embossed with the Stampin’ Up Painted Posies folder.

The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG

You are Treasured

Hello everyone!!

Last month, I was lucky to win the entire Sunshine and Smiles release from Pinkfresh Studio. It was like Christmas when it landed on my doormat! I finally had time to play with some of the release on Saturday and made a card for this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

I lightly blended some distress ink over some Craft Consortium patterned paper, cut it with the largest die from the Dotted Postage Square die set and adhered to my square card base. I then stamped and stencilled the branches and vases using the Keepsakes of the Heart product suite. the sentiment is from the same set.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG

Row of Poppies

Hello again!

I haven’t played along with the Color Throwdown challenge for a few weeks. I think I was better when it was a weekly challenge! Anyway, I just saw that Broni was stepping down from the team and I knew I had to play along for her last challenge. I’ve loved seeing Broni’s inspiration for each challenge – she came up with some amazing takes on the combos and has been so kind and supportive about my cards over the years. I remember when she asked me to be a guest designer for a month – I was so honoured! The Color Throwdown is a challenge that I have always wanted to provide inspiration for! So thank you Broni for all your kindness over this years – your local community and church are lucky to have you! I hope you still continue to make and share your cards from time to time!

Onto my card. The combo is quite retro – aqua, grey and red so I was tempted to create a retro design… In the end, I opted for a classic floral card using a beautiful Memory Box die that I’ve had for a long while.

The sentiment is by Pinkfresh Studio.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Floral pail

Hello everyone!!

After having a migraine yesterday, I made a quick card for this week’s Freshly Made Sketches challenge today.

I used Craft Consortium paper for the background panels. The focal image is a Taylored Expressions die filled with floral die cuts from Spellbinders.

The sentiment is by The Greetery.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG

Spellbinders Weekender 2025

Hi everyone!

This weekend, I took part in Spellbinders’ Weekender event. I was only able to watch a few classes live as the event was held in the US Pacific time zone which is 8 hours behind us in the UK, but it was a fun event!

Kim Kesti was first up on Day/Evening 1 (which I watched the following morning) and used a fabulous ship die set called Deckside Dreams. Kim’s ship was pretty colourful but as I’ve only been on one cruise (with Holland America), I used that ship as inspiration for a more monochromatic take. I sponged a little white ink on the hull/bow of the ship to mimic breaking waves.

The kit included some blue Hero Arts shimmer spray which I hadn’t used before. I was expecting it to behave like Distress Mica Sprays but it was far less easy to manipulate. The shimmer is amazing though!

Next up was Channin Pelletier’s card using my favourite product from the kit – am amazing die set called Beyond the Door. I’ve already played with this for this card and I think I will be reaching for it again and again! The kit included an amazing selection of coloured cardstock which I was particularly keen to see as it’s so hard choosing cardstock online. I supplemented it with some of my own cardstock for this card – including glitter card for that sea!

On Saturday, I was able to craft along with Cathy Zielske and created two cards. For the first card, we inked up an embossing folder using a Hero Arts Reactive Ink cube. I was VERY impressed with the coverage which is far better than I’ve achieved with other inks. May have to order more of those cubes!

I veered away from Cathy’s instructions on the second card – instead of embossing a yellow panel with the folder, I masked off a centre section, blended two distress inks (Mustard Seed and Wild Honey), rubbed in some Perfect Pearls, removed the masking tape and embossed the entire panel. It’s on old school Jennifer Maguire technique which she used with what I believe were the OG 3D embossing folders by We R Memory Keepers. Her post about this is still on her blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Made in May Card 14

Hello everyone!!

It’s been a busy bank holiday Monday for me – mainly dodging rain showers to cut my lawn! Fortunately I just managed to squeeze in time for my entry into the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

I used a few images that I had already created during earlier crafty sessions – more images from Pinkfresh Studio’s beautiful Sakura stamp set that I used last month and that woodslice is by Stampin’ Up.