Christmas blues ....

.... well, not really.  That seemed like a good title for this card.  It's based on this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge- WMSC54 - designed by Belinda.  And while I was going to make a traditional Christmas card, I ended up using blues - this week's Less is More challenge is on my mind!!!

I think the reason I ended up going with blues is because I used snowflakes as the feature images on my circle elements.  I used two different snowflakes each in a different shade of blue and I added Glamour Dust to both images - after all snowflakes sparkle!!  I cut out mats for both in deep blue satin mirri card, and the snowflake images were attached to the mats with dimensional tape.  I was going to use real ribbon on the card, but decided to use one of Claire's fabulous borders - again in different shades of blue and both embossed with clear powder.  Finally, I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to position the text and added some holly leaves and berries to accent the sentiment.  Clean, simple and reasonably quick to make.

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Join Us, Around Christmastime, Half Baked Gingerbread Joy, Very Vintage Christmas
Inks:  Stampin' Up! - Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Night of Navy
Accessories:  Card and satin mirri from stash; Shimmer chalks; Clear embossing powder

I took a close-up picture of the snowflakes so that you can see the details and just how much sparkle there is on each flake!  So pretty!

Before I finish - I've notice the follower counter has gone up again - now at 93 - and I'd like to say Hello and Welcome to Donna - glad you decided to join me - thanks!

That's all for now - I'm off to town this morning with Mum - we're going to have some girl time together!!  Should be lots of fun!  See you later.  Oops I just did something to an earlier post and it pushed this one down!!

For our son ...

... I made a very special card.  I like to make the children and my husband special cards.  I found the perfect sketch for this card, but realised that I couldn't enter the challenge as I didn't want Ben to see the card before he actually received it!!  Ben's one of my followers, so I had to leave my post until after Christmas.  The sketch was from the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge #27 - and something about the sketch really appealed to me and I thought it was just perfect for Ben.  Here's the sketch:

I also knew just what stamps I was going to use on the card.  In Claire's last stamp release she designed some fabulous round images - Around Christmastime - and there's a large image of Santa's head in this set that I thought was perfect for the large circle in the sketch.  But instead of doing traditional colours for Santa - I opted for a blue look!!  I stamped the image and embossed it with detail silver, then I coloured Santa's hat using Memento Paris Dusk - I wanted a dark blue hat - and then added glitter to the edge of his hat.  I used Polar White Flower Soft to make Santa's beard.  I added some colour to the words and flourish using a Sakura stardust pen.  The backing paper is from the Smirk Men paper set - just love those stripes!  And finally, instead of a button, in the same stamp set there is a lovely stamp that says "Nice Person" - which I stamped twice and embossed once in silver and once in blue; I cut out the centre in blue and raised up it.  Finally, I added some peeloffs, which I coloured to match, to our special son.  I'm really pleased how the card turned out and hope that Ben likes it too.  So here it is:

This one's for Ben - our very special son, whom we love very much!!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Around Christmastime

Paper:  Smirk - Men set

Ink:  Memento - Paris Dusk

Spellbinders:  Circles - plain and inverted circles

Embossing Powder:  Stampendous - Detail Silver; Cosmic Shimmer - Steel Blue Aurora Black

Accessories:  Glitter; Flower Soft - Polar White; Sakura Stardust pen; Peeloffs - Dawn Bibby; Promarkers

As you may well have realised, this is a scheduled post, as we're having Christmas at my parents-in-law!!  We always have a huge Christmas with them.  Do drop by again tomorrow, when I have another card scheduled to see.  Hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas.

Season's Greetings ....

... to one and all!!!  I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends in "Blogland" a very Happy Christmas.  If you don't celebrate Christmas - then I send Season's Greetings - have a great holiday.  Here's my card for you all - enjoy!!  I've kept the card simple - but with heartfelt good wishes for all.

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Around Christmastime, Off Beat Backgrounds
Inks:  Versamark; Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - Lady Bug, Cottage Ivy
Embossing Powder:  Stampendous - Kaleidoscope

Merry Christmas!!

"'Twas the night before Christmas ...

...  when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap."

I just love that poem - it really evokes the feeling of excitement that comes on Christmas Eve.  I wonder if Clement Moore realised what he was doing when he wrote the poem in 1823!!  It's changed how we consider St Nicholas!

This is another of my scheduled posts - while we celebrate Christmas with our family - and today I'm going to show you the cards I made for my craft club friends - I kept them a secret until today, just in case anyone dropped by for a visit! 

For these cards, as they were all hand delivered and I didn't have to worry about the post, I allowed myself a few layers.  I used a mixture of pre-printed toppers from Kanban Cards (QVC kits) and my trusty Waltzingmouse stamps to create these special cards.  Apart from the black and silver bauble card, all the others have been made by stamping a border around the edge of a 5" x 7" card and adding a topper.  My friend Kath just loves the monochrome look; she has the most magnificent black, silver and white Christmas Tree in her hall.  So it was entirely natural that her card was monochrome.

This is the one for Kath - queen of monochrome!!

That's all for today.  Whatever you're doing today - have fun and enjoy the build up of excitement.  And I don't just mean the children!!  Sending you all best wishes for a Happy Christmas.

So excited ...

... it's almost here - only two more sleeps!!!!  Can you tell I'm excited?  Well I am - all preparations done and off to in-laws.  Can't wait to see the family.  Just a few cards for today and then it's a few scheduled posts - that I do hope you'll drop by to see.

All made using my trusty Waltzingmouse stamps - do visit Claire's site - it's brilliant.  She's having a well earned holiday at the moment, but will be back in the New Year.  I haven't posted all the details today - sorry, very busy.

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday.  Currently listening to Radio 2 - Chris Evans show - now really in the mood for Christmas.  So excited :))))

Bye for now - see you soon.

Cards posted, shopping finished ...

... and now all that's left for me to do is wrap the presents and hand deliver cards to the people in my village.  It's too late to do the cards today - it's dark now and freezing cold, currently about -8C (17.5F). 

Jonathan and I finished writing our Christmas messages about 1am this morning and I took 70 cards to the Post Office this morning - all being well, people should start receiving them tomorrow.  However, that is very much dependent on the weather.  We've been so lucky in our village - there's some snow and ice about, but nowhere near the amount that has fallen in some places.  And we are able to get about - we are so lucky.

Anyway, this is just a quick post to show a few of the cards I did yesterday - I made 35 in all!!  I was shattered.  I don't think I'm going to get them all on here, but in the New Year, I'll post this year's cards onto my Flickr accout.  I kept the cards really clean and simple and, more importantly, one layer as they are easier to send through the post.  The stamps used are either from Waltzingmouse or Stampin' Up!, with Distress and Memento inks.  I've based them on the designs I did for the OLW24 challenge; they were very successful.

That's all for today.  I'm off to my craftroom to mount some photos for Jonathan - he's entering them into the Camera Club competition; results next year.  Do drop by again tomorrow - I hope to have a couple of challenge cards - not Christmas related!!!

Only a week to go ....

... to Christmas day - and here I am still busy finishing off my Christmas cards!  I really liked the blue Christmas Cheer card that I posted yesterday, so I decided to do a series based on it.  I went through all the Kanban card stock that I have (lots and lots) and found five sheets that would make lovely base cards - green, red, pink, silver and gold.  I then made the toppers (as described yesterday) and mounted them on the base cards.  Reasonably quick to make and very elegant cards - quite pleased with this set.

Stamp:  Papermania - Christmas Cheer
Card:  Kanban
Inks:  Versamark; Memento - Cottage Ivy, Lady Bug, Lilac Posies
Embossing Powder:  Stampendous - Kaleidoscope;  Heat It Up! - Gold Tinsel, Silver Tinsel
Accessories: Gold and silver peeloffs

And now I'm off to watch the final of Strictly Come Dancing.  It's going to be interesting in our house - I want Pamela to win (she's brilliant) and Kathryn wants Matt to win.  I actually think that Kara is going to win - she's a superb dancer, she's beautiful and she's so nice too!!  It's going to be fun!

That's all for now - see you again tomorrow with a few more cards.  I've almost finished - just some quick ones left to do.

Christmas cheer ...

... is one of my favourite stamps.  It's made by Papermania and I got it last year.  It's a large stamp, so can be difficult sometimes, but it makes for the most elegant cards.  So I've had a bit of a play - short on time today, so this is going to be brief.  I used versamark on the stamp and then added colour with memento, once stamped I added the embossing powder - result is a beautiful soft image that shimmers.  I stamped on vellum which I stuck to plain white card.  I added some silver peeloffs for the border and then edged with Distress ink.  I used a sheet of Kanban card from a kit purchased from QVC - it's such a pretty card that nothing else is needed.

Stamp:  Papermania - Christmas Cheer
Ink: Memento - Danube Blue;  Versamark; Distress - Tumbled Glass
Embossing Powder:  Stampendous - Kaleidoscope
Card:  Kanban

The next card uses the same stamp and technique except I went for my favourite colour - PURPLE!!  I kept this one really simple and mounted the stamped image on purple satin card.  I made the photo corners using a punch.

Stamp:  Papermania - Christmas Cheer
Ink: Memento - Grape Jelly;  Versamark
Embossing Powder:  Stampendous - Kaleidoscope

Finally, I made a square card.  This one was really easy.  I used a lovely circular topper (from Kanban kit) that featured a traditional jolly Santa.  I mounted it on a piece of red card that I'd run through my bug - using the scalloped circles (largest die).  I mounted this onto a dark blue metallic card and added some lovely foil stickers - traditional poinsettia.

Topper:  Kanban Card
Stickers:  Antia's

I've had a quick look at upcoming challenges.  I've made a note and I'm going to try and do a few - but it's getting busy here, so I might not be able to play quite so much.

It's getting cloudy here again and cold.  The sun was out earlier and the snow started to melt off, but now that it's getting colder I think it's going to be icy tonight.  I love snow in pictures or when you don't have to go out and work, go to school, etc - but that's not now.  Wherever you are - be safe.  Do come by again tomorrow.

Crafting talent ...

...  I promised some pictures of what our Cubs and Scouts made last night - so here they are.

Cards made by our Cubs (aged between 8 - 10)  - sorry it's not the best photo in the world!!

The card was reasonably simple - a collage Christmas Tree.  They started with a plain triangle onto which they glued stripes of paper - all types, colours and patterns.  The excess paper was cut away and then they added some bling using a glue pen to trace lines on the tree.  The tree was dipped into some glitter - and hey presto - tinsel lines!!  Finally they punched out a star (which was/was not) glittered and glued this to the top of the tree.  And they added a greeting and wrote inside the card. 

Cards and Plunge Candles made by our Scouts (aged 10½ - 14)

The Scouts also made some plunge candles.  This was great fun and the resulting candles were amazing - they look so much better in real-life.

We all had a brilliant evening.  That;s all for this evening.  I must go and play in my craftroom - lots of cards and tags to make. 

On a totally unrelated subject - Strictly Come Dancing!!  What a fab show tonight - I want Pamela to win because she's so amazing, but I also want Kara and/or Scott to win.  Kathryn wants Matt and Aliona to go through to the final - I think Kathryn wants to be Aliona!!  Oh well, we'll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings. 

See you tomorrow.