Merry and Bright

December arrived yesterday with a magical flurry of snow, a sprinkling of frost which made for a wonderful early morning walk along the partially frozen canal and I loved it.  

On my return, I'd had chance to think about my card design which I decided to use Lawn Fawn Snow Days - cant think why!

Its a little scene featuring two bunnies proudly decorating their Christmas tree with a red bow.  I inked and used a dots Cuttlebug embossing folder for the backdrop, die cut a snowy hill and then just coloured the furry friends with Copics and placed them in position.  I added the sentiment in festive red and inked and die cut the little snowflakes before taking to the sewing machine for a simple straight(ish) stitch border.

This little card has been sitting on my coffee table for the last day and I'm not sure I can part with it - I can't be the only crafter who struggles to give certain cards away, am I?

Challenge Links...

CASology - Round
Crafty Cardmakers - Animal Magic
The Holly and Ivy - Anything Goes

Supplies:  Lawn Fawn Snow Days stamps/dies, Cuttlebug dots embossing folder, Whispers/DewDrops ink pads and Copic pens

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

Merry and Bright

Jingle Bells

When I saw Allsorts challenge this week, I had to smile.  I've been singing Christmas songs for weeks now and I'm not sure if its my angelic voice (cough) or the fact I've been doing it since late September that prompts groans from my family.  So with that in mind I just had to enter with Jingle Bells...

Once again I used TH tattered poinsettia cut from white cardstock, and a few holiday greens.  After assembling the poinsettia, I splodged pva randomly all over and sprinkled with glitter because snow does not drop evenly and I thought it would look more like a natural covering.  I infilled the gaps with Stickles to give it a real glisten when the light caught it, not particularly visible in the photo :(

The stars were die cut six times, and I sandwiched the string between the bottom and middle layers.  The top stars were glittered and then spritzed with hairspray to help stop the glitter shedding.  The two little gold bells were added after marking where the poinsettia was going to sit with hot glue, the rest was then layered onto the kraft cardstock that was embossed with a wood grain effect.

The sentiment is Stampin Up and stamped with Brilliance gold ink and that might be the last time I use the poinsettia die... hmm!

A better shot to show how sparkly it is in real life.

Challenge Links...

Allsorts - Christmas Carol/Winter Themed Song (Jingle Bells)

Jingle Belles - Baby its Gold Outside (or Silver or Copper) 

Supplies:  TH tattered poinsettia and Holiday greens dies, Spellbinders Nestling star dies, Stickles, Hobby Craft pearls, Stampin Up wooden sentiment stamp, Brilliance gold ink and unknown wood grain embossing folder.

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

Jingle Bells

Santa has some Favourites!

I love MFT products but I wish we all spelt words exactly the same, I know 'favourites' can be spelt with or without the 'u' depending on which side of the pond you're paddling in but for me it looks a little strange - although if it did have a 'u' in it, it would slip right off my card ;)

I stamped Santa and watercoloured him so his present matches the MME plaid paper and then fussy cut him out.  The Christmas trees are die cut on plain white cardstock and then coloured using distress inks with some Stickles added to the branches.  I die cut the scalloped border and used 3D foam to lift it from the paper.  Stamped the sentiment, which are two separate designs, coloured some pearls with a red Sharpie, some glitter and a pompom on his hat to finish off.

Challenge Links...

Sweet Stampers - Christmas
Double D - Santa 
Fusion - Photo Inspiration/Sketch

Supplies:  MFT Jingle all the Way clear stamps, Clearly Besotted 'son' clear stamp, Gansai Tambi watercolours, Kaisercraft pearls, unknown Christmas tree/scalloped dies, MME Be Jolly patterned paper, TH distress inks and Stickles.

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

Santa has some Favourites!

Greetings of the Season

After my 'throw everything at it' card, I'm back to doing a more 'me' type of card although I like doing fussy every now and then.

This one features TH tattered poinsettia - yup again!  I can't help it, I just think its one of the best poinsettia dies and I've even used it on a none Christmas card so its pretty versatile :)

I watercoloured it this time, not exactly with precision - I mean poinsettias are red and that's about it, although I used artistic licence by splashing some gold paint on mine and then edged with Stickles frosted lace.  I wanted a traditional sentiment to match the flower and found a very old wooden stamp from Stampin Up which I thought suited the style of the card.

I added some faint paint splatters behind the poinsettia, popped a few gems on in red and then adhered to the card base using 3D foam tape, easy peasy... funny because it still took me hours, one day I'll make a quick card! 

Challenge Links...

Love to Craft - Anything Goes
Crafts Galore - Anything Goes
Allsorts - Glitter
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes/optional blue

Supplies:  TH tattered poinsettia/holiday greens dies, Gansai Tambi watercolours, Stickles frosted lace, Stampin Up sentiment and KaiserCraft gems.

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

Greetings of the Season

A Wreath on a Card

Todays card is one I've made for my parents, now my Mom is extremely bias when it comes to anything I do but... she's not fooling me when she views my cards.  I allow her to think she is but I secretly know she's not a fan of my CAS cards so for this one, I've thrown everything bar the kitchen sink at it just because I know it'll make her smile everytime she walks past it :) 

I started by making the wreath, which is pretty easy.  You just draw two circles, one inside the other and cut it out, then wrap string around it, as if you were making a pompom.  I decided to use a couple of yards each time because I had a cat wafting a paw at me and eyeing the ball of string with malicious intent, crafting with a mischievous cat is not for the faint hearted.

I also cut another circle on kraft card and one out of the music sheet which I glued together then attached the wreath to that using a glue gun as string can be somewhat stubborn.  The patterned papers have all been distressed before layering.  I then set about cutting out the dies, for the poinsettia I used the music sheet, again adhering kraft card behind it because its really flimsy, then inked them using various shades of red, brown and green and a few white paint splatters... just because!

The reindeer was an after thought and actually I really like him nestled amongst all the other die cuts and that's it, my fussy throw everything at it especially for my Mom.

Challenge Links...

Holly and Ivy - Anything Goes Christmas
Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes Christmas
Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies
Craft Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes Christmas
Pixies Crafty Workshop - Use Snippets (yup lots)

Supplies:  8x8" card base, My Mind's Eye Holly Jolly patterned paper, BG Wassail snippets, Tim Holtz tattered poinsettia & mini Holiday greens dies, MB dandelion die, unbranded reindeer die and sentiment, green satin ribbon from local Haberdashery, music sheets (purchased from local charity shop), Tim Holtz distress inks in vintage photo/tea dye and various Whispers ink pads in reds and greens and Stickles for a bit of sparkle.

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

A Wreath on a Card

Nice List

In all the years I've been crafting, I have never done a one layer card but decided to give it a go after seeing Stamping Sensations November challenge.  I usually like to throw a little more at my cards but I think it turned out OK-ish!

I used MFT Jingle Bells and coloured the stamped image with my limited Copics, added a few paint splatters in blue with some Stickles on Santa's hat and pompom.  As its a one layer challenge, I added a black line around with a fine marker to give an illusion of another layer.  I did debate about adding a couple of sequins in a nice Christmas red but I didn't know whether that was allowed so I aired on the side of caution.

Challenge Links...

Stamping Sensations - Christmas one layer

Supplies: 6x6 white card, MFT Jingle Bells clear stamps, Copics, Inktense pencil and Stickles

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

Nice List

Believe...

This card took me blooming hours to complete, initially it was going to have a tag as the main focal point for a challenge but boy do I hate tags of any shape, size, colour or style.  Try as I did, my loathing for tags just made it impossible to make anything that resembled half decent and after ditching the doomed tag idea the card came together pretty quick.

After pushing the completed tag to one side, still in my line of sight and niggling me I decided to make the card base but as I was putting it together I realised the tag was just going to make the card look ugly as hell.  Instead I die cut a deer family out of white cardstock and inked up using distress inks to pop in the middle where said tag was going to sit which for the first time yesterday worked better than anything else I'd tried.  Its a bit fussy but compared to where it was going its a vast improvement so I stepped away and considered it done.

Lesson learned - never ever make a tag or use a tag, horrible little blighters!

Challenge links...

The Holly and Ivy - Christmas/Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore - Anything Goes
Love to Craft - Anything Goes
Daisy Chain - Christmas/Winter

Supplies:  Making Memories Christmas Vellum sentiments, TH Distress ink vintage photo/tea dye, Stickles, unbranded dies and ribbon from local haberdashery

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

Believe...