And speaking of kraft. These pieces all sit on top of a piece of Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake stamped with my favorite Tim Holtz Stamp set called Floral Outlines in black ink. The card base is (I think) Stampin' Up! Dapper Denim. I used some Tim Holtz Distress Black Soot paint to splatter on the card. I enjoyed using this many layers. Thanks for looking. Happy 20th anniversary to Distress inks! #sss20yearsofdistress

And I am ever so grateful to one of the best cardmakers out there, Inge Groot, for telling me about the S-Lon Tex 210 Beading Cord. I bought some on Etsy and I love it!.

I guess I am on a roll. I decided to make yet another slimline, mixed media card featuring a big butterfly. This time it is a stamp called Big Butterfly (really) by Impression Obsession. My other ingredients for this card were Distress Oxide Inks in Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord and Faded Jeans. I stamped on the oxides with Tim Holtz's Ledger Script stamps using his Archival ink in Black Soot. Then I applied a thin coat of gesso over what I had. I stamped with the Tim Holtz Field Notes stamp set in both Archival gray and black. I die cut the film strip from black cardstock. I stamped the butterfly stamp onto Bristol Smooth paper with black to get the sharpest image I could. Then I used Distress inks in Dusty Concord and Stormy Sky to get the purple I used to paint on the butterfly.

I made a giant mess splattering the filmstrip, cardbase and butterfly with Distress White Paint (I am splatter impaired). I stamped Tim Holtz's Floral Outlines stamp set onto heavy vellum paper with Versamark and embossed using Brutus Monroe Alabaster embossing powder. I tore a strip of that to go under the butterfly. I computer printed the saying which I found on Pinterest and cut it out in strips. I used foam tape to glue it over a white thread nest. 

I matted the entire thing onto black cardstock. This is another card going out to a young female relative. 

I am entering this card at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, the Stamping Sensations challenge, the Creative Artiste Challenge, and the We Love Stamping Challenge., and the We Love to Create Challenge and also the Triple B challenge

I am a huge admirer of cards I see on Pinterest that have delicate, almost ethereal looking die cuts. Some of the die cuts I see are by American companies like my dear Stampin' Up! or the amazing Tim Holtz. Some others are by artists like Alexandra Renke. I was searching around Google looking for something entirely different and found dies by Craftelier (I think it rhymes with chandelier), a Spanish company. You may have already heard of the site and their great designers.

On their site I found a designer named Lora Bailora. Low and behold she puts out many die sets featuring these lovely, delicate die cuts. I bought Lora Bailora Volver Die Branches and Baby M Dies Ramas. Volver means to return in English. Ramas means branches. They are gorgeous and oh, so delicate. The cost of the dies was extremely reasonable, and shipping from Spain was only $9. Pretty amazing. Check them out at Craftelier and on Insta @craftelier_.  

This card also features stamps by Park Lane from Joann's, my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, Tim Holtz Scribbly Butterfly dies, Postale dies, Tim Holtz Ideaology Collage Strips, Hero Arts nested tag dies and some little metal charms I have owned a long time. Base cardstock is Bristol vellum by Strathmore. Stitched slimline die is from Heffy Doodle. Sentiment strips are also from Mr. Holtz. It took a long time to put together because I am not a natural at mixed media, despite loving it so much. But I am happy with how it turned out. 

I am entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Birds Butterflies and Blooms, and the We Love 2 Create Challenge.

On to Valentine's Day! I love making Valentine cards because I love the color schemes that include plenty of pinks, reds and purples with lots of white thrown in. 

I've made 15 different cards with Simon Says Stamp's Outline Love wafer die set and the Heart to Heart Background cling stamp. This combo is so much fun. I love all the different combinations of die cut inlay you can do with the die. I also put my Sizzix Sticky Grid paper to the test by cutting out the word LOVE and one of the dies from the Paper Rose Stitched Rectangles set all at the same time.

First I heat embossed the background stamp with Brutus Monroe's excellent Alabaster embossing powder. Then, I used the dip and dry technique with a combination of Tim Holtz's Spray Stains and his Mica Sprays for most of my backgrounds. I used SO many and had a blast. That Mica Spray really gives a pop of glimmer where you need it. 

The You die is also from Simon Says Stamp. My embellishments are from my stash. And the cute Valentine cookie cutters are from my friend, Kristen. 

My favorite Christmas make this season. I used the 2021 Die-cember die from Simon Says Stamp and Tim Holtz called Dash Away All. I die cut it from from heavyweight black cardstock. I liberally blended two Distress Oxide inks in Uncharted Mariner and Tumbled Glass on Neenah 110lb Classic Crest Solar White. I spritzed a very small amount of water on the inked panel to make it look like stars. Next, I flicked silver watercolor paint onto the panel from my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry watercolor set.

I used the other dies in the same set to cut out the moon and the stars from the background. Then I made a cardbase from the same Neenah cardstock and adhered a piece of Stampin' Up!'s So Saffron yellow cardstock to it in a size smaller than my inked panel. I popped up the black Santa and sleigh with foam adhesive and adhered it in place, then used the same adhesive to pop up the entire panel over the So Saffron cardstock on the front of the card.

Finally, I heat embossed Merry Christmas from Taylored Expressions Modern Holiday Greetings with white embossing powder on black cardstock (always tricky for me). I trimmed the sentiment and adhered it with foam adhesive.

I hope you have a fantastic holiday season and a wonderful and relaxing New Year.