Love and Friendship

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

Pinkfresh Studio Create and Connect February 2025

Hi everyone!

Last weekend, I took part in the Pinkfresh Studio Create and Connect ‘Cards by Theme’ event. I signed up for this event back in November after watching the unboxing video, knowing that it would be nice to have something to look forward to after Christmas – and it was such a happy January day when the box arrived at my door!

Class One – Birthday Balloons product suite

Yana Smakula’s class was up first and her theme was happy birthday. There was only one birthday stamp in the whole kit, but I have plenty of birthday stamps already! I love the balloons and the delicate coordinating die. I thought it was very clever to include floral stamps/die cuts separately as the balloons can be used with or without flowers. I switched up my colours to make it more me.

I also used the set for my interpretation of Dawn Woleslage’s Make and Take press plate/foil card. I just used the stamp with an older daisy Pinkfresh coverplate that I’ve had for a while. but still love!

 

 

Class Two – Altenew Briar Blossoms product suite

 

Next up was Bridget Casey for the guest company, Altenew. It’s been a long while since I bought Altenew stamps and I loved using the product suite they provided, which included an embossing folder. I ‘went rogue’ with my first card! The inspiration was delicate peach/pastel tones, with these amazing gold gel pen centres. I thought they would really stand out if I used vibrant colours and a black background! For the second card, I learnt a new-to-me technique to trap ink colour on vellum using adhesive sheets – I’ve already tried it out on another card.

Class Three – Pretty Blooms product suite

 

 

The theme of the final class of the day was ‘hello’ and Heather Hoffman used a fabulous floral product suite that included washi tape! I love these products as I have the ‘quick and easy’ route with washi or I can really put my own spin on it with the stamp and stencil combo.

 

 

 

 

Class Four – Majestic Swan product suite

 

 

First up on Day 2 was one of my favourite cardmakers, Raquel Arribas. We used my favourite product suite from the event, called Majestic Swan. So versatile and easy to use! I’ve already used it on other cards. I did another Make and Take with this set using Isha Gupta’s press plate/foil card as inspiration. Isha also designed this product suite.

 

 

 

 

Class Five – Butterflies in a Cloche product suite

 

 

Lea Lawson was up next with the ‘hello’ theme using the Butterflies in a Cloche set. I love how quickly I could create with this set! Another very versatile set! Once again I used Isha Gupta’s press plate/foil card as inspiration for my Make & Take card.

 

 

 

Class Six – Mix It all up!!

 

 

Final class of the day, and always the most involved, was Jennifer Maguire who focusses on ‘stretching’ our kits. I’m not an interactive cardmaker but I could be converted after making the amazing pop up balloon card. The second card was simpler, using that wonderful Majestic Swan product suite.

I’m not sure if I will sign up for the next class which is ‘Cards for Him’ but I will definitely be hitting that ‘buy’ button when registration for the August event opens up!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Transparent Treasures

Hi there!

Last weekend, I took part in Pinkfresh Studio’s Create and Connect event, which was such fun! Bridget Casey from Altenew taught a new-to-me technique where you colour the reverse of an image embossed on vellum and then adhere a double-sided adhesive sheet on top, ‘trapping’ the colour and making the image a little more opaque.

After the event, I realised that I’ve never taken part in a Pinkfresh challenge and decided it was time for me to do so. I was delighted to see that the theme for the month was ‘Transparent Treasures’ – perfect timing for me to play with the new vellum technique! I embossed and coloured images from the Fluttering Butterflies stamp set before covering them with a self adhesive sheet (leaving the backing on) and die cutting them.

I arranged them in a frame cut from the Nested Elongated Ovals Blanket Stitched Essentials die set and added a sentiment from the Cozy Blooms stamp set that I got for the August 2024 event.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Amazing Swan

Hi there!

I spent a wonderful weekend crafting along with Pinkfresh Studio and hundreds of cardmakers across the world! It’s a full-on event which starts mid afternoon and ends close to midnight for me, but totally worth it! The inspiration was amazing, the teachers were fabulous and I learnt new tips and tricks too! I’ll share my makes later this week.

In the meantime, here is my card for this week’s challenge at Freshly Made Sketches. I used the Majestic Swan product suite that we used this weekend. The super-talented Raquel Arribas taught a class using this and it may well have been my favourite one! I love how easy it is to colour and cut so many images in one go…. and the red rubber cling stamp gives such beautiful crisp lines. N0thing beats red rubber stamps in my view. The background circle was created with a Carabelle Studios folder and the sentiment is by Sugar Pea Designs.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2025

Happy Love Day everyone!

I’ve been saving the first February Color Throwdown challenge for this card – it’s a perfect Valentine’s combo of pink, brown and white.

I used the new Memory Box small nest – I coveted the larger die that was released a few years ago but didn’t get it before it sold out in the UK. So I snapped this one up as soon as Bumbleberry’s had it in store!

I paired it with some heart dies and an older Memory Box embossing folder and coloured the die cuts with distress inks. The sentiment is from an older wooden stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Heart Week 2025 – Day 7

Hi there!

Welcome to Day 7 of Heart Week 2025 and what a fun week it has been too – mixing very old and very new products to create some fun heart cards!

My heart card today is my entry for this week’s challenge at Freshly Made Sketches. I used products from MANY different companies for this card – the branch is by Poppystamps, the hearts are Penny Black and a very old Simon Says Stamp/Kelly Purkey collaboration and the die cut hangers are from a Waffle Flower Crafts Christmas ornament die set! I used an inky panel I’d created from some Distress Mica Stain Spray for the larger heart and then some Craft Consortium paper for the aqua hearts. The sentiment is by Clearly Besotted.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Heart Week 2025 – Day 6

Hi there!

Welcome to Day 6 of Heart Week 2025!

My card today is my entry for the current challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches.

With this card, I feel like I’ve truly embraced what I wanted to achieve with Heart Week! I ended up using old/older heart supplies and it was so much fun. I started with the fabulous Memory Box Floral Heart from 2014. I can’t actually remember using it before! I cut it from glitter card and adhered it to a heart cut from Spellbinders’ Waterfall card and coloured with Salvaged Patina. For some reason, this looks bluer in my photos than it does in real life…

For the embossed heart, I used the newest product on my card – the centre of a Memory Box embossing folder that I’ve had for a couple of years. The other hearts are from Memory Box/Open Studio and Poppystamps sets.

The sentiment is by Hero Arts – a very old wood-mounted stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.