Wednesday, 4 March 2026

Spring is in the air

The northern hemisphere has entered meteorological spring and the Die Cut Divas would like to see some signs of the new season in our projects this month.The challenge provided a perfect starting point for a birthday card I needed to make.

A couple of months back I bought a bundle of Lisa Horton products on eBay which included a pretty buttercup set. As they generally start flowering in March I thought that might be a good place to start. I’m still enjoying playing with some dark backgrounds so I added my stencilled, die cut and embossed spray of buttercups to a black card base with a white heat embossed sentiment and a frame drawn with a white paint pen and given some smudgy, chalkboard sort of corners with a white pencil.

I only used two ink colours on the stencilling, one yellow and one green, which sort of made up for the amount of other stuff taking up real estate on my desk! The camera hasn't picked up the shading details of the green leaves very well but it's the best I could manage.

Paper: Bristol board, smooth black

Ink: Adirondack by Ranger (Sunshine Yellow), Memento by Tsukineko (New Sprout)

Other:
Buttercup Bloom bundle (3D folder, outline die, layering stencils — Lisa Horton Crafts)
Sentiment from Enjoy Quotes (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)
Bright white embossing powder (Wow!)
White Posca paint pen
White pencil
Corner Chomper

Thanks for stopping by! 



Monday, 2 March 2026

Link in the chain - February

I've finally managed to reach a state where I felt I could join in again at Card Chain Challenge — hooray! My card for February has gone to Brenda. Stylistically this is a total contrast to what Brenda tends to make herself but I figured that's part of what CCC is about!

From the options on offer I chose the theme (On the Farm) and the colours (indigo, lime, violet). I did use a die but as it's a plain square I think I'd be pushing it to claim the technique option of dies/fussy cutting!

There was a lot more lime showing on the first version of this but nothing else was quite right so it got framed for a sort of Polaroid effect, selecting the bit of the image I was happiest with. In an attempt to get closer to indigo than anything in my ink stash, I stamped the sentiment with both Blueprint Sketch and Dusty Concord - thank goodness for stamp positioners, eh? For some reason the colour balance went to pot in the photo and in a way that resisted adjustment — the sentiment is a bit darker in real life and the violet is a bit lighter!

I think this cow has probably just spotted something tasty so the sentiment seemed appropriate! 

Stamps:
Cow Selfie and Enjoy Quotes (Katzelkraft, no longer with us)

Paper:
Bristol board

Ink:
Tim Holtz Distress Oxides (Wilted Violet, Twisted Citron)
Tim Holtz Distress (Blueprint Sketch, Dusty Concord)
Brilliance

Other:
Square Nestabilities
Copic markers

Thanks for stopping by. There are a few more days to sign up for the next exchange if you fancy making and receiving a hand made card.