Technique – dry embossing

Featuring dry embossing

Three Textures

Hello everyone!!

After seeing how many embossing folders I still have in my new/unused container, I’m stepping up my use of them today! Admittedly these two are very new compared to others in my container but I’m very pleased to have used two on one card!

I’ve had the Mod Vases die set by Altenew for a long time although rarely use it because it was too big for my flower dies. But I think it works very well with this beautiful bouquet from Pinkfresh Studio’s Flowers for the Soul washi suite! I embossed the vase with a section of the amazing Textured Blocks folder by Altenew. I just got this and I love that it provides a choice of four textures at a perfect scale in my view. Mind you, this vase is so big it only just fit in one section of the folder!

The background folder is from an order I placed in December – the Lined Circles embossing folder by Dina Wakely for Spellbinders. a big folder but it works well on UK A6 cards.

The sentiment is by The Greetery.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Chocolate Flowers

Hi everyone!!

Last year, I started seeing this amazing square embossing folder on Instagram. After doing some digging, I discovered that it only seemed to be available as part of the Altenew Chocolate Flowers kit…. which was out of stock everywhere. But good things come to those who wait… or wait and persevere! I managed to grab this as soon as Seven Hills got it back in stock and used a voucher to pay for most of it. It’s a bit crazy to buy an entire kit mainly for the embossing folder isn’t it?

After all that, it just sat in my new box! I got it in June, people! I’m quite ashamed of myself! Anyway, today was the day to rid myself of that shame and actually use the kit! And I used the whole thing, not just the folder!

I don’t buy many Altenew products nowadays (I think I overdid things back when layering stamps were all the rage!) so I was keen to try their stencil/die combo to compare with Pinkfresh. It wasn’t quite as easy as Pinkfresh for me and I didn’t line the die up properly… you can see a few white lines on my image, but I don’t think they’re too obvious? Next time I think I’ll die cut first because the die doesn’t add any additional etching onto the images.

I arranged the die cuts in a wreath on the embossed background and added a few die cut gold accents and a Poppystamps sentiment to complete my card.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Mix n Match butterflies

Hello again everyone!!

Quick admin note: After some significant computer problems, I can finally update my blog! Over the next day or so I’ll be catching up with the posts I couldn’t share here but which I shared on Instagram – blog posts will be dated per the date I created/shared the cards.

Back in August I bought this fun Waffle Flower Studio Mix n Match Butterfly set, but somehow didn’t get round to using it…. until today!

I coloured each butterfly with various Pinkfresh and distress inks then added some glitter card inlaid accents – those dots were a bit fiddly but totally worth it!

I paired my little butterfly collection with an amazing Spellbinders embossing folder that landed on my doormat this morning – yep THIS morning! I’m starting 2026 as I intend to go o – by using goodies when I get them!

The sentiment is by Pinkfresh Studio.

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Hello Friendly Birdies

Happy Sunday everyone!!

Today’s CAS card showcases two Simon Says Stamp product that I bought last year – the fabulous Birdies die set plus a pretty floral wreath embossing folder. Although this is a very simple card, I spent a while on it – mainly second guessing myself as usual.

The sentiment is from a Waffle Flower Stamps that I’ve had for a while but rarely used, even though it lives in my sentiments box, right on my craft table!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Piped Floral Lace Hello

Hello everyone!!

Between Christmas and the New Year, I started to tidy/reorganise my craft room and was a little taken aback by the amount of new/little used products I unearthed! I have promised myself that I will use them this year. Now this doesn’t mean I won’t be buying any more goodies (I’m only human after all…. and already have an order en route), but I will be mindful about using newer stuff more frequently and more than once!

I also want to send more cards this year. I have realised that I don’t send a lot of my creations – I prefer to make something as and when for my recipients. The only exception is Christmas in July, although I do craft with ‘categories’ of recipients in mind in that month for instance CAS admirers or those who don’t celebrate Christmas. Last July, I was also careful about the thickness of the cards I created as there’s a restriction for a standard card. So this year I will actively create with my existing goodies AND make Royal Mail-friendly creations…. AND get them in the post from time to time!

And so here we are today with the newest arrival in my craft room aka The Most Beautiful Embossing Folder Ever! This is the Altenew Piped Floral Lace 3D folder and I LOVE it! Just look at the incredible detail! It was VERY difficult to find a suitable die cut to add to this – in the end I cut some vellum with an older Honey Bee Studio die and added the Simon Says Stamp Giggle Hello die plus some pearls.

Technically this should be Royal Mail-friendly card but given the state of the cards that landed on my mat this Christmas (almost every single jewel ended up being exposed) – I would definitely add a piece of card to protect it… which probably pushes it beyond the standard postage limits.

I have ideas for making a more postage friendly card with this folder though…more of that later this month!

Thanks for stopping by!

LucieG.

Thank you Color Throwdown!

Hello there!

Well it’s the end of an amazing era! One of my favourite challenges – Color Throwdown is very sadly finishing. Many thanks to the team for their amazing combos, creations and kind words over the past few years, I will miss the challenge and the inspiration.

I discovered the challenge back in 2016 and oddly I can clearly remember the card I made for the gorgeous combo of peach, yellow, light pink and white! I didn’t have a blog back then but shared my entry on instagram. For many years, I loved playing along with this challenge every week and I longed to join the DT! Alas that was never to be but I was so chuffed to be invited as a monthly guest designer in August 2019. I stepped away from a lot of challenges this year but knew I had to post one last entry!

My card today uses the combo of yellow, green and orange in a festive card. I’m pretty much over autumn now (as is our weather) and I adore creating Christmas cards! I knew this combo would work well with the Pinkfresh Festive Foliage tree product suite. My design is drawn from a Jennifer McGuire card from the last Create and Connect event – the whole card is supported by the tree pot (an octogen from the Octogen coverplate die) and the tree/pot are raised from the card base using some folded card – such a clever mechanism that adds amazing depth but flattens right down for posting!