Crafted by Alison

 Hello and welcome to my mid week blog, These mid week blogs are designed to be shorter than my Sunday blogs so that I can share techniques, card design or other tips and tricks with you. Today I will show you how to use the super cute little fingertip sponge daubers to create different finishes. #1. Background colour. Step 1. Gather materials. Step 2. Gently dab the dauber onto the ink pad. Step 3. The inked up dauber. Step 4. Gently rub the cardstock with the dauber to create the amount of colour you want. #2. Edging highlights. Using some acetate behind the cardstock, gently rub inwards from the edge of the cardstock to give a speckled finish. #3. Fill in colour. Step 1. After stamping your images onto the cardstock gently rub outwards from the centre of the flower using a flicking motion.   Step 2. Continue adding colour outwards until all the flower is coloured to your liking. As you can see from the pictures above I have used the dauber to create most of my card images. I stamped

 Hello & welcome to my blog, If this is your first visit, I hope you enjoy it & come back again. If you are returning, welcome back & thank you! I hope you all got to spend some time with loved ones for Christmas. I had Christmas lunch at my house with my Mum (93 not out!), my family & my husband's family plus my niece. Crazy busy during the week finishing getting ready for the big day & crazy at times on the day but so worth it as we don't get many opportunities during the year to all be together. The busy week meant that I've only got 2 cards to show you today, but they're super cute. 😁 For my last regular blog for 2021 I am showcasing one of the new stamps & punches from the Jan - June 2022 Mini Catalogue. It is such an adorable set & is very versatile. I can imagine lots of different ladybugs & lots of different occasions for this set. Here's what I came up with this week just by playing around a lit

  Hello and welcome to my mid week blog, These mid week blogs are designed to be shorter than my Sunday blogs so that I can share techniques, card design or other tips and tricks with you. Today I will show you how to create your own gift bags. There's still a little time to make them for last minute Christmas presents but they also come in very handy during the year for birthdays & special occasions. Here are 3 bags I made earlier in the year so this is a refresher or for those who are visiting for the first time it's a newbie! LOL The first two were made from the one sheet of Peaceful Prints DSP but have been reversed to give different finishes. Here's a pic of the cutting & scoring instructions: This template was found on Connie Stewart's Simply Simple stampin blog & is the one I used to make the 2 bags. Fold & burnish all of the score lines then trim the small rectangles at both ends of the 1/2" fold & mitre off the edges. Now, using the 1 1

 Hello & welcome to my blog, If this is your first visit, I hope you enjoy it & come back again. If you are returning, welcome back & thank you! This week I am using one of my all time favourite stamp sets - Forever Fern - but I've used it to create some beautiful Christmas cards instead. I've used some old and new products in this weeks cards but you can always pop in what you have on hand or the more current product from the catalogue. Hope you like my creations. Each card uses a different leaf stamp from the set & gives a unique finish. I've purposely kept them quite simple so that they are quick & easy to create. The colours are traditional green, red & white but could be re-recreated in any colour scheme you choose. I have used one embossing folder & die cut on the red card but the rest is simply stamping & embellishing.   For the first card I just stamped straight onto the card front to create a simple wreath. I stamped in Evening Everg

 Hello and welcome to my mid week blog, These mid week blogs are designed to be shorter than my Sunday blogs so that I can share techniques, card design or other tips and tricks with you. This week is my 10th Mid Week blog! I'm amazed that the weeks go by so quickly. Today I will show you how to create belly bands for cards & boxes.  I designed a card that specifically needed a belly band so you can see how easy it is to make. To begin with I created the card base & cut some Very Vanilla cardstock & DSP to fit the folded parts of the front as well as the inside of the card. I also cut a 3.5cm strip of the same cardstock as the base & die cut some leaves to attach to the band. To make the belly band I simply placed the strip centrally under the card then wrapped it around the front & trimmed away the excess. I punched a tag for under the leaves before sponging some yellow in the centres of the leaves & colouring the stamens using a Stampin' Blend pen.  Th

  Hello & welcome to my blog, If this is your first visit, I hope you enjoy it & come back again. If you are returning, welcome back & thank you! In this crazy lead up to Christmas it's easy to forget to find time to connect with friends & loved ones as you rush to get organised for Christmas, finish off projects that 'have' to be finished before deadlines & attend all of the end of year functions & get togethers. Today's cards are designed to be ready to send quickly and allow you to let people know that you're still thinking of them in this busy end of year time. There are two cards today that showcase the beautiful script of the Create with Friends stamp set. I went with pretty pastels in mauves & greens & the cards have a delicate feel to them. My first card is what friendships & relationships are based on - Love. It could be used to celebrate friendship, acknowledge the loss of a loved one or to celebrate an engagement or bir

 Hello and welcome to my mid week blog, These mid week blogs are designed to be shorter than my Sunday blogs so that I can share techniques, card design or other tips and tricks with you. This week I will show you a different embossing technique.  I saw a card on a post which featured a snowy scene. The card had been stamped with a scene then a piece of card had been torn for a rough finish but it had then been embossed with white embossing powder to give it a 3D effect of snow on the card. I loved it and wanted to give it a go. As we don't have snow at Christmas down under I decided to create an accent to my card front instead.  Here are some pics of the steps I went through to  achieve the finish above. I cut a piece of DSP & matching cardstock which I tore randomly across the middle.  I then assembled the embossing materials ready to start. The embossing powder is applied & then needs to be heated. Ready for the heat! One strip heat embossed, the other waiting to be heat

 Hello & welcome to my blog, If this is your first visit, I hope you enjoy it & come back again. If you are returning, welcome back & thank you! Last week I gave you fruit salad thanks to the Sweet as a Peach stamp set. This week we're going to sit back, relax & unwind with some 'me-time' themed stamps from the newly available In the Moment stamp set. This stamp set will be available to purchase from 4th January 2022 as part of the new January to July Mini Catalogue. As we head into the crazy Christmas & Holiday period I think it's important to remember to find some time to relax & focus on your wellbeing. It's also nice to create some cards to send to friends or family to let them know that you're thinking of them or appreciate them. Here's some designs to give you some ideas on how to use this stamp set.  I really enjoyed playing around with this new stamp set. It is due for release in the January to June 2022 Mini Catalogue but as