22 Jul

A Birthday Wreath

Anyone in for a birthday wreath? Yes? Then, you are on the right page today as I would like to show you one of my latest cards. I know it’s been a not so consistent writing over here, but health takes the first place over anything else.

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imgn0465So, this card features one of my all time favourite brands: My Favorite Things. I just love the high quality of their products! Don’t you? They give you a lot of room to create with and that’s what I love about! Well, I used a new set to me, called ‘Spring Wreath’ and stamped the wreath towards the center of a piece of white card. Then, I started adding one by one the various flowers and leaves that are part of the stamp set, using an assortment of colours. I wanted a joyful card for my precious niece. Since she turned 5, it went without saying that I stamped that right in the middle of the wreath.

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imgn0474And being a birthday card, too, there is a greeting sentiment from the same stamp set. To add a bit of a shine, I wrapped some thin gold twine and tied that into a bow just about the top of the front cover. After that I taped it onto a top folded red card base. And ready it was! Hope you like it.

The inks I used are all coming from the same brand as the stamp set: Brick Red, Olive, Biscotti, Blue Breeze, Pink Lemonade, Periwinkle and Black Licorice.

Have a lovely weekend,
Talida

06 Jul

Flower Christening Decorations

Hello, everyone!
Let me show you a part of the flower decorations I made for my youngest niece at her christening. I created décor for the candy bar, some accessories for hair and clothing.
The table decorations consisted of 2 frames and some flowers. One was with the baby’s name and another with just a greeting. I designed them using different stamp sets, dies and various techniques.

For the 1st one I used My Favorite Things stamp set ‘Beautiful Blooms’ and dye ink cubes matching the event’s colour theme. The name is stamped using Concord & 9th ‘Perfectly Penned’ set. I also made a matching envelope to hold a card, stamping each letter one by one. You can see it when playing the animation from the gallery.

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The 2nd one has a heat embossed ‘hello’ in gold, a Docrafts Capsule stamp sentiment. It also has an Intricate Enchanting Blossom die cut and a stamped sentiment saying ‘little bundle of joy’. The latest comes from Docrafts Papermania ‘Honey & Hugs’ clear stamps collection.

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Hair clips and headbands with anemone like felt flowers were the hair acccesories. I also used felt flowers for the brooches that went on the baby’s hat. The hot glue gun from Dremmel came in hand for the hair clips. Flower petals were die cut using the Xcut Petal Posy die set.

That’s all for now. There will be some other posts on the topic. 🙂

Photo credit: Lukian FM

12 Mar

Kindness – thank you card

Kindness begins with each and every one of us.
This being said, I hope you have a wonderful day filled in with joy, happy thoughts and warm hearts!

I created this card a while ago, actually – last year, but haven’t got the chance to share it. It’s part of a set of three thank you cards I made for a dear friend of mine.

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img9176The card base is made of cream card stock, cut and top folded. For the background, I chose simple, that meant a piece of kraft paper. I ran this through the die cut machine using Lawn Fawn stitched border dies. The focus is on the flower. I die-cut it out of a patterned Dovecraft paper using the Daisy layering dies. I threaded it with some lilac elastic twine (cord), added a big button and tied in a bow.

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A sentiment that matches the theme is the one I used. It comes from the Hero Arts ‘Acts of kindness’ set. Now, the photos look a bit dark. I took them in a different photo set up where lighting was low. Thanks for your understanding.

Wishing you all the best,
Talida

bookmarks
10 Feb

Gorjuss Little Thoughts

Hi, everyone! Care for some Gorjuss little thoughts? They come in the shape of bookmarks. And this post features just a few and I hope you like them. I made these on the first day of the New Year while enjoying some special time colouring with my niece. A great year started and I have already got lots of ideas and crafts to share with you.

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bookmarksAs usual, I used the Avery Elle die to cut a lot of bookmarks out of kraft recycled card. I get this card from Klipa, a shop worth buying from (and I love the little gifts you get with your order). All of them have Gorjuss stamps and for this winter I used the collectables: ‘Holly’, ‘The Hatter’ and ‘The Scarf’. The ones in this post show the latter and hopefully soon, I will share the others too.:-) For those who don’t know me, Gorjuss is a constant presence in my life. For those who do, there’s no surprise in seeing or receiving crafts made using Santoro stamps.

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imgn0251Now, I love colouring with Derwent Inktense pencils. They are very rich colours and using some waterbrushes you can play with the intensity you wish to get on your designs. My thoughts were to obtain a similar colouring to the original Gorjuss design and make little adjustments, nothing else. You can see some sparkling on the hanging hearts and on the shoes, but also on top or bottom part of the dress.
At the top of each bookmark, I added a sentiment from the big ‘Holly’ stamp set: ‘gorjuss little thoughts’ and there is green & white Fancy Twine tied too.

I would like to thank you for stopping by and I look forward to sharing crafts with you soon,
Talida

bundle of joy
08 Feb

Welcome, little bundle of joy!

Hello, everyone and welcome, little bundle of joy! She’s got a beautiful name and an amazing smile! We’d like to wish her health, happiness and God blessings!

The post is about the handmade card that accompanies the gift we got her. The card matches the gift in colour combination with emphasis on red and white while having a bit of contrast in blue and black.

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Card and envelope

Read more

Christmas Ornaments and Gifts
27 Dec

Christmas Ornaments and Gifts

Hi, everyone! It’s the 3rd day of Christmas and I have some gifts to show you today. As a tradition started a few years ago, I like giving handmade crafts to family and dear ones. This year, I chose to make some ornaments, bookmarks and Christmas cards.

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I made the first tree decoration, last year, for my niece, Antonia. She loved it so much and hung it in her tree right away. You can see and also read about it here. At that time I wanted a shaker ornament that is what I actually made. For this year, I wanted a bit of a more special one.

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So, I began with the same tag die from WPlus9 – Anastasia Tag. But, this time I went on die-cutting it differently while keeping a window into all the layers as I wanted to use it for the ornament. For the 2nd layer, I used some funky foam in different colours: 2 shades of red and 2 of green. I added a beautiful bauble in each of the windows.

The baubles are from Newton’s Nook Designs and they’re the most exquisite ones I’ve ever seen.:-) I die cut 2 of each, coloured them in with inktense Derwent pencils and added enough layers of Wink of Stella for a sparkly look. All the ornaments got a tag with my name on and a tied fancy Twine bow.

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The next handmade crafts I gave as gifts were some Gorjuss bookmarks. I used the collectable stamp and some of the small stamps that come with the same named stamp set: ‘Holly’. Gorjuss girls are really dear to me and I love colouring them so much. Avery Elle die set is what I used to die-cut the bookmarks. Inktense Derwent pencils and Santoro’s Gorjuss Watercolour dual-tip pens – Neutrals are the colouring medium I used for the girls. I applied generous layers of Wink of Stella on the hats,boots and the mistletoe. Then, I added some twine to each of the bookmarks.

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Now, some of the gifts had a set of cards to accompany either the ornaments or the bookmarks. I made quite a lot of cards this year and I went on multiplying them while making a great use of my new precision stamping tool.

Hope you enjoyed learning about my crafts and thanks for stopping by.
My best wishes,
Talida

26 Dec

With Love at Christmas

With love at Christmas starts the wish for you today! May you have a wonderful time together with your dear ones! While having a blast on Christmas days with my family, I’d like to share some more of my holidays’ crafts. I made more than 200 cards and it will be a true challenge to share them all with you.

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imgn0530The one here is a very simple but elegant one. I used a ‘Create Christmas‘ stamp to build the background. The ink I used is ‘Chocolate’ – Artiste dye ink. Sequins in white, gold and chocolate give the necessary sparkle together with some gold thread wrapped around the front card base. A white string bow is what gives some dimension and brings the focus to the top of the card. All these bits and pieces can be found at any haberdashery. I got mine from my neighbours’ store.

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imgn0547I’ve always wished to go for a look just like this one. And I was a bit not sure of the result in the past. But once I tried it, would definitely make me apply the pattern again.
Hope you like it too!

With all these said, I let you enjoy the second day of Christmas together with your dear ones!
Talida

Stockings
25 Dec

Were stockings ready for Santa?

Merry Christmas, everyone! If the stockings you hung weren’t filled with presents last night, hope they have been topped up this morning. You know – Santa’s been pretty busy!
I am one of the lucky ones, so Santa stopped by and left me some goodies. What can I say? I am beyond grateful!

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These cards showcase a die-cut from Stix 2 Anything and I bought a pack of these a while ago from Craftmall. I still love to use them on Christmas crafts. First thing I did was to decorate the stockings. I used my white gelly roll Uniball pen for this and when ready, I went on to create the backgrounds.

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imgn0555One of the cards has got a panel created with a Heidi Swapp chevron stencil using some distress inks in green. The front card has a first layer with a cream recycled card which has a sentiment stamped at the top. I adhered the stencilled panel, then the stocking and finally I added a red ribbon bow on it.

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imgn0551The second card has a background created with a sentiment stamp from one of the Create Christmas sets. I stamped it using an Artiste dye ink (Red) all over the front card base. A velum panel holds the stocking, some white sequins create interest and a cream string bow gives the necessary extra dimension.

Many thanks for stopping by my blog and Happy Christmas wishes to you all with the hope you enjoy these holidays together with family and dear ones!
Talida

24 Dec

Christmas Wishes

Hello, dear friends and crafters! I’m sending my best Christmas wishes to you all today!

imgn0089It’s the 24th of December and we’re all getting ready for the celebrations. While my favourite biscuits are baking in the oven, I’m trying to catch up with the posts on my blog.
This year I made a lot of seasons’ cards and I would love to share them with you.

imgn0086This card features another mini Xcut die from Docrafts – the stocking one. They came with a lot of new products this year and I love the mini dies, especially the filigree ones. I chose to combine two of the sentiments sets ‘Happy Christmas’ and ‘Best Wishes’ and use only two of the words.
The card front is embossed. I used the ‘tartan’ embossing folder and it (the card) has just a few elements on it in order to keep the CAS (clean and simple) look.

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Christmas Wishes

When I adhered the stocking, I chose to use the bits and pieces from 2 different die-cuts (red and white). My wink of stella clear brush came in hand and gave a bit of shimmer to the sentiment. Both, the stocking and the sentiment have some white gel pen dots for a nice finish.
Thanks a lot for stopping by.

Happy Christmas Wishes to you all,
Talida

23 Dec

Bells are ringing

Hello again, dear friends and crafters! Can you hear the bells are ringing? They are just letting us know that soon we’re all gathering in our homes and by our Christmas trees.

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imgn0071The cards today feature a mini Xcut die with some filigree bells.
I used kraft recycled card in different colours and also some metallic/shimmery and glittery ones. The twine ties the bells and it is either simple in white, red, purple or in assorted Christmas colours. The inks match the colour combination of the die-cuts and the twine. And for these cards I chose two sentiment stamps from Docrafts Create Christmas series sets: Merry Christmas and Seasons’ Greetings.

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imgn0064These cards match the challenge of making at least 5 cards with the same stamp or die. They also go in the CAS (clean and simple) category of cards. The die-cuts are pretty intricate but I love them.

imgn0070Many thanks for stopping by and wishing you all the best,
Talida

19 Dec

The Trees and the Season

Hello crafters and dear friends! As much as kids love decorating trees, I love creating them on paper or card. These cards use some new die-cuts from Docrafts which come in a smaller size than their usual ones. They are intricate and I really like the way they look on my crafts.
As per lately, I used kraft recycled card for the card base, green recycled card for the tree and some cream cardstock from the scrap stash for one of the sentiments.

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imgn0099The first card has the front cover embossed with Docrafts”Tartan‘ embossing folder. I bought it a while ago from here. It has the mini die-cut tree adhered onto the card with glossy accents. It also hangs from the top fold and it’s got a bow. For this I used some green twine. There some metallic embelishments made with a gelly roll pen from Sakura.
The sentiment is die-cut using one of the latest Xcut dies from Docrafts.

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imgn0065The second card is a CAS (clean and simple) too. It has the die-cut tree, a piece of Fancy Twine tied into a bow and a sentiment stamped in Artiste red dye ink.
Both trees have a star on top: one is tiny and golden and the other is a bit bigger and silver.

Hope you enjoyed your visit on the blog and look forward to having you back,
Talida