This time last year ...

 

......I bought this lovely oval floral stamp from Honey Doo Crafts, so it was about time that it re-appeared in the blog!

I have used it several more times over the last 12 months, so it has proved its worth!

Plus, I've just made a cute anniversary card, these die cut cats were last featured on another anniversary card back in February 2024!

Embossed Christmas

 

This embossing folder was a freebie with a magazine ages ago and has not been used much. The sprig of holly die was bought back in Nov 2021, and was used for a couple of years and then forgotten about. 

So I have teamed them up together to make some quick and easy Christmas cards for this year

Using slightly different colour schemes for them and the embellishments

Cloudbusting

 

I bought a very cheap 'cloud edge' stencil off Temu, that arrived today - only took 8 days to come from China.

The first cards I made with it are these these 2 new baby cards with a flying elephant - for a boy and girl.

I then found some die cut birds to put against a cloudy background.

Think it was a bargain!

More Feathers

 

For ages now I've been hunting for my favourite feather shaped die. I haven't been able to find it for months and had to rely on stamping out feathers or using a smaller die to decorate my cards (like on the card on the left)

Then I picked up a pad of background papers, and there it was, stuck to the back! I was so pleased and made a couple of garden bird themed cards to celebrate.

Tonic Floral Cuff

 Having a break from making Christmas cards ( you can have too much of a good thing!) So I decided to have a play with the tonic goodies I won last week.

The floral cuff die has a lovely clean, crisp cut and comes with 5 matching graduated flower dies

The embossing folder makes a nice clean pattern too - I think I will get alot of use from these in the future!

Time to experiement

With time on my hands, there is no excuse not to play around and experiment a bit! I'm using different colour schemes and matching up toppers with backgrounds I might not have considered before. Are you?

A Frollick of Fairies

Yes, that is what a collection of fairies is called - a frollick!

Had to go to The Range today today to get some silicone glue and door mat, but finished frugal February by not buying any other craft stuff - so that is 2 months now that I have resisted buying anything other than basics such as card blanks, DST & glue. I've managed to make over 40 cards just using up papers, dies, embellishments and sentiments  I already had in my stash.

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Flowers, Leaves and a Moroccan Tile

Some more cards made with some old dies that have been sitting around unloved and unused for a while.

Experimented a bit using some Kraft card that was sitting at the bottom of the pile too!

Still on track with frugal February and I  have only bought card blanks and double sided tape so far this month!

Baby Girls

There seem to be a lot of baby girls expected amongst friends and work colleagues, so I thought I'd better get prepared!

Made a few different styles and sizes

I went to The Range earlier on to buy a few basics - double sided tape, card blanks and glue dots and this reduced X-Cut Moroccan Tile die fell into my basket too!

I like the effect cut into holographic card on the baby card above - plus its quite effective in plain white as well!

More Cards made with my New Die

Experimented with different coloured card for the words and backgrounds to make these new birthday cards

The cuts are easy to get out of the die, even though they are so intricate with all those curly bits!

Happy Birthday Die

Here's my new 'Happy Birthday' die with shadow backing. I've been looking for something like this for a while, as it will be so versatile. You can snip out some of the curly bits for more masculine makes, like this card!

Tattered Lace Magazine no 65 - Cute Elephant Die!

I don't often buy the Tattered Lace Magazine as it is one of the more expensive crafting  mags out there, but I couldn't resist the sweet little Baby Elephant die that came free this month!

It is ideal for birth congratulation cards as well as birthday cards for little children.

I also like the free downloads of the image  and backing papers in lots of different colours, so you can use it time and time again.

And with most tattered lace dies, you can snip bits off and decoupage it too!

Three of a Kind ....

Today I've been playing with one of my die sets that gives this lovely oval border. Each of these cards has the intricate border cut out of a yummy chocolate glitter card and backed with a gold sparkle card.

Each card then has a wooden embellishment of butterfly, bird or guitar

 and then different sentiments and backing papers - for 3 similar but different square birthday cards

Upcycling Your Christmas Cards

Several people save all their Christmas cards and hand them over to me, as I love cutting them up and re-using them. It is such a shame to throw away some of those lovely designs. I often take off any embellishments such as sentiments, bows and charms to re-use too

 

Here I have several cards that I am going to die cut using some bauble and snowflake dies. Snowflakes can be really tricky to get out in one piece and this die is a favourite as it cuts so cleanly.

This stag bauble die was a cheapie, only £2.55 from China - see more cards made with it back in 2017 here

I've even used the cut out as a negative to make some more cards.

The ribbons were originally from the Christmas crackers!

All the scraps can be put into the recycling - unless they have glitter on them, then my local Council won't take them, so I tend to use the backs for shopping lists etc

All these will be put away until Autumn when I will start to make Christmas cards again!

My New Cat Die !

I bought this trio of peaking cat die from AliExpress - it cost only $2.16 including postage!

It did, however take a month to arrive from China.

So I couldn't wait to make some cute cards with it using different coloured cardstock

I even added balloons from another die I had bought from AliExpress back in August