Smile

Happy Wednesday! I’m currently in Ringwood, England after disembarking the Queen Mary II yesterday. I had an absolutely wonderful time on board. 

I’m hosting this week’s challenge at Little Red Wagon and, in keeping with my Elton John-inspired themes for 2025, I’ve chosen Honky Cat. I’m looking for any projects with a cat, dog, or any other household pet - even exotic ones!

I used a stamp and sentiment from Your Next Stamp (no longer in business) and did a bit of masking to create my “wall”. Mats were cut using MFT dies and I added a heart-shaped gumdrop to finish things off. 

Please head over to Little Red Wagon to see what the rest of the Girlfriends have created - and then join the fun by linking up a “Honky Cat” project yourself!

Joy…Peace…Love

Brenda is hosting our Little Red Wagon challenge this week and her theme is “Ya Gotta Have Christmas in July”. I’m always so impressed with crafters who have their Christmas cards all made by this time of the year. Well, now I have one!!

I’m currently in the North Atlantic, on board the Queen Mary II as I sail from New York to Southampton. This has been a dream trip of mine for a while - and I’m doing it SOLO!! I had a pretty nasty spring and this is my “You are worth it” voyage to remind myself that I am a brave, strong and resilient woman. Also, July 11 would have been Ralph’s and my 33rd wedding. Since 3 is a special number for me, I’m pretty sure I would have insisted on something extra special to celebrate this year. All this to say that my next few cards will be fairly simple ones. For this one, I cut and inked a little reindeer head and the rest is some Christmas paper. He’s pretty cute though so I’m happy with how this turned out. 

Please head to Little Red Wagon to see the rest of the Christmas inspiration - then join us by either starting or continuing your Christmas card collection for 2025. 

Just a note

Jan is our fabulous hostess at Little Red Wagon this week and she's got another Star Trek-inspired challenge for us: To Boldly Go. Jan is looking for bold and/or bright colours on our projects. 

I created this card with another new generic flower die set. Once again, I was fortunate that the pieces cut smoothly. For the flowers (all parts, including stems!), I cut from a piece of orangey-yellow patterned cardstock and then used distress inks to either highlight or colour the various bits before assembly. I then cut an arched panel and dry embossed it and then stencilled the same colours I'd used on the flowers. Finally, I heat embossed the sentiment and cut from a coordinating die. All dies and the stamp are generic products. 

Please Boldly Go over to Little Red Wagon for inspiration and to link up your own bright/bold project! 

With Sympathy

The wonderfully creative Chrissy is hosting this week's Little Red Wagon challenge and she's asking us to "Water Paint It!". 

I smooshed some paint on my blending mat, spritzed it with water and then used some bubble wrap to water paint my background. I also coloured the edge of the card base, The flower was created with a generic die using watercolour paper and some vellum. The die-cut sentiment is from Avery Elle. 

Please head over to Little Red Wagon to see the rest of the water painting! We'd love for you to join the challenge too, 

Life is Better With You

The fabulous Imke is back with her alphabet challenge at Little Red Wagon and we're on the letter E this month - E for embossing! Feel free to use heat embossing or embossing folders or both!

I used a new generic embossing folder and die set to make my card. I embossed two of the panels and then used one of the dies to cut out a flower. I used distress inks and water colour markers to colour the flower. The sentiment with shadow die is also from a generic set. 

Please head over to Little Red Wagon to see how the rest of the Girlfriends have embossed. We'd love for you to join the challenge too!