All Things Merry

Hello everyone!!

Today I’m playing along with the current Pinkfresh Studio monthly challenge which has a theme of ‘Texture & Shine’.

I used a few of my new Pinkfresh products – the fabulous Bloomlight Stitches Coverplate die that landed on my doormat yesterday plus the Holiday Express dies (trees) and some patterned mirror card and got crafty! I added some glittery thread for added texture and replaced a few little circles on the background with glittery circles.

The sentiment is from a set that was the October 2025 Create & Connect event swag.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG

Basket of flowers

Hi there everyone!!

I’ve been taking a break from card challenges recently but when I saw that one of my favourite challenges, Freshly Made Sketches was celebrating a major milestone, I had to play along. This week’s challenge is number 700 meaning that the weekly challenge has been running for 14 years! 14 years!! Isn’t that amazing?! I’m really grateful to the team who always work so hard each week – coming up with amazing inspiration and leaving kind and uplifting comments. Thank you so much – I know being a challenge DT member is quite a commitment and I really appreciate all you do.

The challenge this week uses sketch number 14 and each DT member shared when they first started playing along with the challenge. I got curious and I think I started back in November 2016 for challenge number 261 – I didn’t have a blog back then but shared on Instagram only.

For my card, I used the gorgeous Into The Blooms – Above Ground die set by Papertrey Ink. This beautiful set was just released last month, and I just had to buy it from the US as I haven’t found a UK retailer for Papertrey. I love that basket and all the little elements… although I think some of those tiny dies may end up on the AWOL list before too long! I coloured the images with various inks and then arranged them on a card base that I had covered with four squares from the Dotted Postage Squares die set by Pinkfresh Studio.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG

LucieG Christmas in July 2025 Challenge

Hi everyone!

And that’s a wrap on Christmas in July 2025! Once again, I really enjoyed devoting a whole month to Christmas cards!

One of the aims I set myself was to create cards that weren’t too thick for standard mail and I have just spent the last 15 minutes checking each card! I created 36 cards this month and all bar 5 of them sailed through the 5mm slot in my mailing size guide ruler! Yay! I started to find it quite restricting to create thinner cards and I eased up on that part of my challenge as the month wore on so this result was a pleasant surprise!

I also enjoyed making a few twofers. In the past I’ve stamped/die cut lots of images (mainly trees!) and thought I’d use them at a later date, but I never did… so creating twofers was a good way of avoiding that!

It was so much fun to use the products that I bought in post-Christmas sales and also to dust off my older products. Playing with those 10+ year old stamps and dies brought back so many happy memories!

Many thanks to everyone who followed along and shared kind comments with me – I really appreciate all of you!

Have a great day!

LucieG.

Christmas in July 2025 – Bonus Day

Hi there!

I can’t believe it’s the first day of August and Christmas in July is over! But it is Festive Friday so that calls for a bonus Christmas in July card I think!

When I was thinking about this card, I felt I HAD to use the Hero Arts Tree Pattern cover die again – I used it for this card on Day 9.

This time I cut it from some Craft Consortium paper and chose five of the trees. I adhered them to a panel that I had embossed with my favourite Sizzix tree folder and added a few stars and a Mama Elephant card to complete my CAS card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Christmas in July 2025 – Day 31

Hi there!

It’s difficult to believe but today is Day 31 of LucieG’s Christmas in July 2025! 31 days of cardmaking! I did it (again)! Yay!

Today I pulled out the older Simon Says Stamp Corbel Tree die and some purple ink and got cutting and blending. It didn’t actually take me too long to blend each of the petals, but rather than colour the little dots, I used dots cut from glitter card.

I adhered the tree to a background that I had embossed with Simon’s Sprinkle Snowglobe folder. Then came the nerve wracking part – stamping the sentiment! I deliberately chose a small one so that I didn’t need to curve it to align with the snowglobe base, which I always find difficult.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Christmas in July 2025 – Day 30

Hi there!

It’s Day 30 of LucieG’s Christmas in July 2025 and my last non-tree post of the month!

Originally I thought I would do a snowman card but then I remembered that it was Woodblock Wednesday … despite my best efforts this year, I haven’t managed to play along with Amy’s monthly challenge – time to change that!

So I pulled out one of my favourite wood-mounted festive stamps – the wonderful Kitty Claws by Stampendous. I’ve said it before, but I could never part with many of my wood-mounted stamps because they have stories attached to them – like my Christmas ornaments. I shared Kitty Claws’s backstory in my first Christmas in July here. You know I still remember my mum buying the original stamp?!!

The challenge with using older supplies is coming up with different ways of showcasing them. Fortunately this year I have the Spellbinders Molded Frame embossing folder which can showcase a focal point in an elegant and crisp way!

After colouring and fussy cutting the image, I adhered some glitter – I do hope you can see it? I also added a sentiment by Newtons Nook and a random snowflake that was on my table from an earlier card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.