A new thing

 Wow - it's been a long time since I've updated this blog.  I went off social media at the beginning of the year and am now easing back with instagram.  I also think there are some changes with blogger coming up soon so I don't even know if you'll be receiving emails when I do post.  So if you're on instagram, I hope you pop on over and follow me there at @yourstrulybydiana

The other reason I have not been posting as much is because I picked up another hobby - crocheting and I've become a total yarn addict.  Will I use much of what I make? I actually don't know but I do love making pretty things.  It's also gardening season so there's that also!  

But I did pop into my craft room to make a special card for our BSF teaching leader for her retirement as she starts something new.  I created the verse digitally and then added all my favorite dies to it - the butterflies just went perfectly with the new theme.  Poppystamps and Memory Box always were my favorite butterfly die designers and I never tire of using them.

Challenges I am playing in:

Poppystamps : Flowers and Butterflies

Simon Says: Anything Goes

WordArtWednesday

Bonus: Some of the crochet projects I made: Shawls and mini backpacks

Sending Smiles

  I'm done with winter.  If it's not going to give me a beautiful snowfall, let's just move along.  Haha - I wish it was that easy but it is in my craft room.  I needed a cheery card and I always love butterflies in season and out of season.  So here is my happy versions of Sending Smiles in a slimline format.

I started by using an old leaf stencil by Art Impressions and sponging in some different shades of green with my Distress Oxides.  I then cut the Symbol background out of pastel green foil by Recollection and used trimmed it to use the smaller halves to flank the sides of my slimline base.

The Sending Smiles and butterflies from the Butterflies Spray and Butterfly Pocket Insert were cut from the same slightly different shades of blue cardstock.

Supplies Used:

A Way with Words Sending

A Way with Words Sweet Smiles

A Way with Words Butterflies Spray

ECD Butterfly Pocket Insert

ECD Symbol background

Quick Christmas thank you card

 It's almost Christmas! I hope you've got all your Christmas cards out by now.  I love opening the mailbox and finding a bit of that personal mail in the midst of junk mail - this is true anytime of the year but I love the frequency of it in December.  And it should keep going with a flurries of thank you cards in January.  So today I'm sharing a quick thank you card you can make and use up all those red and green scraps.

Many of the die cuts that I used were already around as extras from my previous Christmas card projects.  I did have to cut some extra pine branches to fill it in my little spray.  After gathering up one holly branch, one berry branch and 3 pine branches from the Create A Wreath set, I placed all of them together and hid the ends with a pinecone.  

I used a bit of holographic washi tape to run across the card - that was very helpful in lining up the pastel foil thank you die cut.  I topped off my spray with a bright red bow and voila - I've got a festive card ready to be filled in after all the presents are open.

Supplies used:

Thank you 2

Christmas Accents

Create A Wreath

 

Dream big slim line card

Switching gears from all things Christmas just briefly to play around with the new Spellbinders small die of the month.  Now, I am not a cat person at all but I do have friends that are.  It's just something I have to overlook.  Lol!  But I thought making a big window would work perfectly with the Dream Big die and it fits perfectly on a slim line card.

I kept it pretty simple so it came together quickly.  I made a sunset using Distress Oxide Inks.  I used the same size as my base would be so that I knew how much to ink up.

I die cut the tree branch twice and trimmed off some so that the tree peaked in between two window panes.  I added some stars using a white gel pen and made that top star into a shooting ones by adding some motion lines.

A black cat and a touch of gold on the word dies and my card is all done!

Dare we dream big for 2021?

 

Building a Christmas Scene

 I'm over on the Elizabeth Craft Designs Blog today with a Christmas scene I made using a lot of different die sets.