Love Lives Here

 

A bit of colour blending, paperpiecing, diecutting, stamping, heat embossing.  What more could you want?  Stacked geese... watchgeese.

The background card is sponged & colour blended with DOxI's, splattered with water, dried and diecut with a stamp frame (...), then subtly stamped with stars (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)and embossed with sparkly clear EP.  Houses stamped and fussy cut from snippets of scrap patterned paper.  Geese (TimHoltz) diecut and stacked from snippets of white card.  Sentiment stamp is magazine freebie.

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Sympathy Butterflies

 

I love to see things with wings on sympathy cards.  It aways feels like such a lovely symbol of freedom and release.  

Here I let the EF do the work, adding Stickles and pearls (which symbolise tears).  Stamped sentiment on strip with a row of pearls. EF is Craft Concepts Flutterby.  I like the white on white too, although it is quite difficult to get something interesting.  I use texture and dimension to make shadows and I like to make it so people want to touch.

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Split-Colour Robin

 

Made for a NZ cardswap; theme is using the split-colour technique or spotlight technique.  I chose the split colour.  Check it out, lots of fun but really need a stamping tool of some kind.  It gives a two-fer, because you have two pieces of card (white and coloured), stamp and clear emboss one, and stamp and colour the other, then slice them and swap them over to reassemble.  

You really need a biggish stamp and probably best to keep it fairly simple.  I screwed up my first attempt as it was too fussy and then I smudged it ... started over with this new stamp.   SO new stamp, new technique.

This is a statement stamp and worked well.  Colouring with Copics, gold heat embossed sentiment, gold pearls to embellish.  I made a coordinating envelope.

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and the envelope:

Happy Geese

 

Start the new year with a critter creation!  We'd love to see what you make.

Come and join us here to celebrate: crittercrazy, all you need is a critter as the focal point!

Did you know geese eat as much grass as a sheep? and apparently they make good watchdogs alarm systems (does that make them watchgeese?)

A bit of ink blending with Distress Inks, spritzed with water and also silver Shimmer mist, layered onto brushed silver card.  I stamped (I think it's Kaisercraft) the sentiment in two colours to match the background and layered with silver too.  Diecut geese with a touch of Copics, and pearls to complete.  I do love pearls.

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Find Joy

 

This is a totally free card.  A cardmaking friend sent me a couple of the gold diecut borders and some extra pieces of the gold card to play with.   The strips are leftover patterned paper strips collected in my strippy bin over time.  I diecut the sentiment from the extra bits and matted in black from the scrap bin.  I think the monochrome green snippets make a great background for the bright gold borders.

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Beary Special

 

I made this for a NZ cardswap.

The background  is made using DI's as watercolours,  smooshing and blowing - it's the aurora!  A diecut bear complete with cosy scarf, popped up.  Shadows made with Copics.  A bit of stamping and some bubbly embellys.  And a peek inside...

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My own best of 2024

 

January 2024, its a sun umbrella, not a rain umbrella!  We celebrate summer in NZ.

February 2024  You know I love to get inky.

March 2024  a special birthday deserves recognition.

April 2024  sometimes a little sweet & pretty is necessary.

May 2024  I had such fun with this one.

June 2024 A mid-winter holiday in Samoa.  I really enjoy making strippy layers.

July 2024  I'm so glad I made this for Peter when he was having treatment and feeling rotten.  He loved it and kept it on display.  He died in September.

August 2024  This one is filled with joy - it made me happy making it, and I hope it brought joy in the receiving.

September 2024  I like the twist of the message not being words but music.  It was for the Simon Says Stamp Stamptember design team.

October 2024  I like the lush colouring and the fragility of the leafy stamp.

November 2024  I do like using patterned paper and liked the layering effect as well as the cheery bright colours.

December 2024  I liked making this because it has stamping, diecutting, some paper piecing... and is fun!

*** 

Shared with i-spy-with-my-little-eye-crafty-year

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Tell me what is your fave?

I hope to see you all in 2026 with your creations, and I hope you'll check in to see what I am up to.

Happy crafting whatever kind it is!!

CarolG

Pengi Wishes

 

A simple card.  Background blue card stamped with HeroArts unicorn ink, AALL & Create stamped penguin coloured with Copics.  Sentiment stamped, punched & framed with Stickles.  Of course we don't have a cold Christmas we had over 28 deg C yesterday.  We celebrate in the shade with a cool glass of something.  This is for one of my northern hemisphere buddies, but I reckon a kid would love to get this cute penguin all cosied up in hat and scarf.

NZ is home to 13 of the 18 penguin species in the world and we often used to see the fairy penguins swim by when we were out fishing.  

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Pohutukawa Christmas

 A New Zealand Christmas!  The pohutukawa is known as the NZ Christmas tree as it is out in flower now!  A sight to see - greyish dark green foliage with bright red fluffy flowers all over, flowering throughout December, while it grows in large gardens it is particularly a beach tree which is why I chose the turquoise background.  

A large background stamp with Hero Arts Unicorn ink, a diecut pohutukawa flower (Craft Creations), gold Stickles, and a matte gold strip for sunshine.

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Pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa), also known as the New Zealand Christmas tree

New Year

 

CAS and cool.

A strip EF, and a diecut senti.  I left the lettering in place and wrote over in Stickles.  A good card to mail.

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Beach Santa

 

Here in NZ we celebrate Christmas in the heat, usually in the shade with a cool drink.  Most Kiwis head to the beach for a week or two, school is finished, some businesses close down for a couple of weeks to enjoy the summer.  We have two grandchildren off to university in February, so they will be making the most of it.

This is a cool santa & senti stamp.  I stamped santa, masked him, stamped the tree, and coloured with Copics.  The edges of the panel and senti are outlined in hot pink Distress Crayon, a nice informal edge to go with a relaxed santa.  The navy blue background panel is stamped using white ink (Hero Arts Unicorn), and I like this because of the subtle messages.  White pen highlights, Glossy Accents, and gold pearls to hang the sentiment like a bauble.  I like the non-trad colours, and the navy blue and hot pink look fabulous.

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Poinsettia Joy

CAS and colourful.

Card & elements from Rosie's Studio pad. The poinsettia is popped up on 3D foam.  Joy die is Rosie's Studio diecut from gold mirror card.  Stamens have Glossy Accents.

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Let it Snow

 Tags for a gift.  I like this non-trad colour combo.

Diecut, stamped, embossed, a bit distressed, some Stickles sparkle.

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Sweet

 

A pillowbox to fill with something sweet ... or maybe something sparkly for someone sweet?

Diecut pillowbox, diecut senti, DPapers, heart sequins

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Joyeux Noel

 

I made this for a french speaking friend of mine.

Three patterned paper strips/snippets with two corners of each punched (Punch: Couture Creations).

Diecut gold greeting, with die drop-out dots for accents.  Glossy Accents applied to berries and centres of starry shapes.

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