Just Us Girls Guest Designer Week 2

Happy Saturday!

I’m so honoured and excited to be the June Guest Designer for the Just Us Girls challenge! Thank you to all the lovely design team for making me feel so welcome last week – you are all so kind!

The theme of this week’s challenge is ‘add a moving element’. Now I’m not really into making interactive cards but I have always had fun making them in various cardmaking classes! Today I decided to keep it super simple with an action wobbler. And I have a story again too!

First, the card, which I made using some products sent to me by Penny Black. I started by masking an area on my card base and blending some distress ink. Then I cut and adhered the Geometric Circles background die (51-644) on top. Then I turned to the fabulous Sweet Sip mini set (30-905) which I stamped twice with my Frayed Burlap archival ink. I fussy cut the kitty and her tail from one image and fussy cut the whole of the second image, and trimmed off most of the kitty so that I would have room for the wobbler. I coloured in the images using my Twinkling H2O paints.

I then adhered kitty’s tail to the mail image and then used two layers of foam tape to adhere the cup to the card base (I didn’t want a big gap between the kitty’s head and the cup). I added the action wobbler under the kitty’s head and positioned it on my card. I then stamped out the sentiment, which I had straightened slightly on my stamping block (as it is a curved sentiment) and added it to my card base along with some tiny gems.

And now for the story. My action wobblers had gone AWOL but while I was searching for them, I finally found a tiny pinecone stamp that I have been searching for for ALMOST ONE YEAR! It was from a long-retired set and was one of my favourite pinecone images. I was so upset when it went missing during Christmas in July 2021 – I knew it hadn’t been thrown out with my craft room rubbish, but also knew it could have ended up anywhere in the house… I never gave up hope, but didn’t expect to find it in a drawer right to where I sit!

Head over to the Just Us Girls challenge to see the amazing inspiration from the talented design team – we hope you can play along this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Just Us Girls Guest Designer Week 1

Happy Saturday!

I’m so honoured and excited to be the June Guest Designer for the Just Us Girls challenge!

The theme of this week’s challenge is ‘paintbrush’ – and I wanted to share the story behind the card! Sorry this is rather on the long side!

I’ve been crafting for almost 15 years…. but do I own any paintbrush dies or stamps?? The short answer is no. The longer answer is I spent a ridiculous amount of time going through ALL my craft supplies as I was CONVINCED I had a paintbrush stamp from back in the day. I was SO SURE that I even recalled colouring the image…. but ‘it’ was nowhere to be found. I did come across an old Elzybells Art Stamps set which included some fun sentiments and a small image with some paintbrushes, but I wanted the brushes to be more of a focal point….

I have a rule that I don’t buy supplies just to make a challenge card and although I could think of ways of incorporating brush MARKS, I felt I had to stick to the theme of paintbrush…. so I broke my rule and ordered the My Favorite Things paintbrush die set from my go-to craft store that usually dispatches the same/next day… can you see where this story is going?

Well, yes, this time they did not dispatch my order for 3 days and as it’s the Platinum Jubilee super-long weekend in the UK, I knew that I wouldn’t get the die set before the challenge launch.

So what did I do? Well, I went through my dies and created my own paintbrushes using parts from die sets by My Favorite Things and Simon Says Stamp!

I stencilled some glitter paste on my card base before I added the ‘paintbrushes’ and a pot. And all that searching wasn’t wasted as I even used a Pablo Picasso quote from that old Elzybells set!

What do you think of the outcome?

Head over to the Just Us Girls challenge to see the amazing inspiration from the talented design team – we hope you can play along this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Butterflies Galore!

Hello there!

Today I’m playing along with the Color Throwdown challenge which has a fun retro palette of aqua, red, yellow and black.

After prevaricating for far too long, I went for a simple take on the challenge colours using some of my patterned paper mountain and all the butterflies from the new Intricate Mini Butterflies set by Memory Box. The sentiment is also by Memory Box.

ETA unfortunately I missed the challenge deadline this week – only by a few minutes!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

 

Thanks be bold blooms

Hello Everyone!

Today I’m playing along with the Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

This card definitely evolved as I was making it and it’s very different from the card I had originally planned! In fact the only item that I kept the same was the panel that I’d embossed with the Spellbinders May 2022 Embossing Folder! I decided to adhere it to a piece of patterned paper and then found the fabulous Be Bold Blooms die cut image in my bits and pieces bowl – it matched the paper I’d chosen so well! I added a few Nuvo Jewel drops and a sentiment by Pretty Pink Posh to complete my card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Happy Thoughts Butterflies

Hello Everyone!

Today I’m playing along in the Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

When I saw the sketch, I decided that butterflies would work so well… but you would not believe how many butterfly dies and stamps I looked at before I settled on using a die from the Memory Box Pinpoint Butterflies set! I added a sentiment from an older Hero Arts set and lots of little sequins!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Perfect Posies and Mini Butterflies

Hello there!

Today I’m playing along with the Color Throwdown challenge which has a fun palette of aqua, lime green and navy.

I decided to use my brand new Perfect Posies Bouquet die by Poppystamps. I absolutely love these swirly flowery dies which I feel are classic Poppystamps. Every year, they seem to release a die like this – an investment purchase that I use time and time again on my cards. (Last year for me it was the Floral Cluster die, which I adore and have used a lot!)

I coloured the bouquet using my Twinkling H2O paints, adhered it to my navy card base and added some gems and Nuvo drops to the flower centres. I felt I needed a few more die cuts and decided to add a couple of butterflies from the Intricate Mini Butterflies set by Memory Box. The sentiment is by My Favorite Things.

I’m also entering this into the May Poppystamps challenge where the theme is Floral Fantasy.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.