Season's Greetings ....

... Hello from a very, very snowy Northville. We're all home today. The school district called a snow day last night, so Kat has spent the day just chillin! Jonathan's office also called a snow day, but he's had to work from home. The main thing is we're all safe and warm in the house. I've spent a large part of today in my craft room, but you'll have to wait until Sunday to see most of the cards!! But I do have a simple Christmas card to share with you this afternoon:

Stamps: Uniko - Winter Foliage, Big & Bold Wish, Rustic Wreath, Essentially Christmas, Simply Said Christmas
Inks: Gina K - Christmas Pine, Red Velvet; Versafine - Onyx Black; Delicata - Golden Glitz; SU - Emerald Envy
Dies: Die-namics - Pierced Oval Frames #2
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Emerald Envy; Gold Canvas Finish Mirri Card; Copics; Shimmer Pen

I got the idea for this card from the inspiration photo over at Merry Monday - MM#276. The colours are from Your Next Stamp - YNS#82 and I'm also playing along with Addicted to Stamps and More! - ATSM#278 where they want to see Holiday cards.

I die cut an oval of white card and placed it into my MISTI. I stamped the holly leaves and berries, covered them with masks and then stamped the candles. I added some pine branches at the top of the image, added berries and lots of stars. I finished by colouring the candles in two shade of pink and added sparkle with my Wink of Stella brush. I adhered the finished panel behind the gold frame and attached the whole lot to the front of the card. I finished with a simple Christmas greeting. On the inside, I cut a mat layer of green card and on the white panel I stamped a greeting and added some branches and berries.

It's been snowing since about 3.00am this morning and we've got about 6 inches of snow on the ground. As it's not expected to stop until about 8.00pm this evening, we're likely to end up with about 8 inches on the ground. This is one of the times that I'm very, very grateful to have a company come round and clear the snow. However, I'm not expecting them until tomorrow!

I took a few photos of all the snow around the house:

This is a view from the back bedroom across the swimming pool - although you would never know it! The winter wonderland beyond the fence is Northville Commons, the park area behind our house. I have played a bit with this photo to bring out all the texture.

This is a view looking down onto our patio - I always leave the furniture out. I'll have to get new cushions in the spring - but you can see the piles of snow on the table, chairs, and sunbeds!!

This is the postbox over the road - I've played a bit so that you can see the snow falling and the texture of the tyre marks on the road. That's all for now. Do stop by on Sunday for a special celebration. See you soon.

Uniko Challenge - Christmas ....

... Hello! Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in the States - Kat has a couple of days off school and Jonathan is off work - and we've had a very relaxing time. We went out to lunch at a local golf club, where the food is amazing, it was just super. And I got to spend some time playing in my craft room. It's time for our new challenge at Uniko and the theme is Christmas. I had fun making my card:

Stamps: Uniko - Jolly Christmas, Festive Sentiments, Most Wonderful, Reach for the Stars
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress - Cracked Pistachio, Lucky Clover, Evergreen Bough, Tumbled Glass, Wilted Violet
Dies: Waltzingmouse Stamps - Stitched Tags #3
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Emerald Envy; Uniko Stencils - Wonky Stripes, Scattered Polka Dots; Clear Embossing Powder; Copics; White Flock; Martha Stewart Coarse Crystal Glitter; Green Fibres

Plaids are very on-trend at the moment, so I decided to use the Wonky Stripes stencil to create my own fun plaid. I taped the stencil to the card and sponged on pale green ink, then I turned the stencil and repeated the process with a bold, bright green. I used my ordinary distress inks for this card. I stamped Santa on some scrap card, coloured him with Copics and put the image back in the MISTI, restamped in Versafine and embossed with clear powder and then carefully cut him out. I added some gold ink to the belt buckle, used white flock for his beard and coarse crystal glitter for the trimming on his clothes. I used a die to cut out the tag and sponged on some dots using a few shades of ink, stamped the greeting, attached Santa with some dimensional pads and finished the tag with some green fibres from my stash. On the inside, I cut a mat layer of green card and added a greeting to the white panel, along with some stars!

I'm submitting this card to Merry Monday - MM#266 where they want to see Santa, and also to Happy Little Stampers Mixed Media - HLSMM#11 where they want to see a tag.

Don't forget to visit the Uniko blog to check out more inspiring projects from the rest of the team. We are joined this month by Sue of Sue's Card Craft - her card is just fabulous! If you do decide to play along with our Christmas challenge there are prizes too:

• Main winner - picked by DT - £25 e-gift certificate
• Random Uniko stamps winner - £4 - in stock clear stamp set of winner choice
• Top 3 - chosen by DT - 150 loyalty reward points

You've got plenty of time to join in with us. Deadline for submission is midnight (GMT) Friday 29th December - that's 7.00pm EDT in the States.

It's Black Friday today and I plan to check out some of the many Crafty sales going on today! See you again soon.

More Plaid ...

.... Morning! I had fun making yesterday's plaid card and plaids are very on trend at the moment, so I made a couple more cards. First up is a very simple card:

Stamps: Concord & 9th - Plaid Background; Uniko - Stunning Snowflakes, Festive Sentiments, Most Wonderful
Inks: Gina K - Kraft, Red Velvet
Dies: Die-namics - Peace
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Gina K Card - Kraft, Black Onyx; Saved Deer

This card came together so quickly. I adhered the plaid background to the card base. I die cut the word 'peace' and used it on one of my Uniko cards yesterday, I found the leftover negative space on my desk and decided to use it on this card. I finished the front with a sparkly stag - another saved element - I got this on one of last year's Christmas cards. On the inside, I stamped a Christmas greeting and some snowflakes on the white panel. I'm submitting this card to Merry Monday - MM#264, for their red and kraft challenge. I'm also playing along with City Crafter Challenge Blog - CCCB#287 where they want us to use the word 'love' or 'peace'.

This next card features another plaid, along with a very pretty poinsettia:

Stamps: Magenta - Poinsettia; Uniko - Festive Sentiments, Most Wonderful; Concord & 9th - Plaid Background
Inks: Gina K - Kraft, Cherry Red; Versafine - Onyx Black; Versmark
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Gina K Card - Red Velvet; Clear and Gold Embossing Powders; Zig Clean Colour Brushes; Wink of Stella - Clear, Gold; Tim Holtz Water Colour Card

I changed the plaid on this card by stamping the thin lines twice. I adhered it directly to the red card base. I stamped this fun poinsettia in Versamark on watercolour card, embossed it with gold powder and coloured it with Zig brushes. I added a touch of sparkle to the red petals. I carefully cut it out and attached it to the card with dimensional pads. I stamped the sentiment directly on the panel and heat embossed it with clear powder. On the inside, I stamped a Christmas greeting and the poinsettia.

I'm submitting this card to The Card Concept - CC#81, I think this is in the clean and graphic style. I'm also submitting it to Addicted to Stamps and More! - ATSM#267 where it's Make Your Mark week.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, plaids are very on trend at the moment and the theme at Inkspirational - INK#147 is TREND. Another trend in this set of cards is that they are all for Christmas:

I've had so much fun making these plaid cards, that I think I'm going to make a whole lot more. They come together really quickly and if I change the colours and decorations I should be able to get a whole lot more made today! That's all for now. See you soon.

Plaid and Snowflake ....

.... It's been another really cold day here in Northville, so I decided to spend the day indoors and play in my craft room. This morning I organising my Gina K ink pads - I used Jennifer McGuire's tip of labelling each side of the pad so that I can always see the name of the ink. At the moment they are all stored in a box, but I'm going to get a new ink pad holder from Stamp 'n' Storage soon.

This afternoon I decided to make a card for this week's Merry Monday challenge - MM#264, where the team want us to use Red and Kraft on our Christmas card:

Stamps: Concord & 9th - Plaid Background; Uniko - Most Wonderful, Stunning Snowflakes, Festive Sentiments
Inks: Gina K - Kraft, Cherry Red; Versamark
Dies: Uniko - Snowflake Trio
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Gina K Card - Kraft; White Embossing Powder; Kaleidoscope Embossing Powder; Gem

I cut a piece of kraft card onto which I stamped the large plaid in kraft ink and added a thin stripe in dark red. I had a spare die cut snowflake left on my desk from my Uniko session yesterday. I covered it in Versmark and heat embossed it with white powder. I repeated this three times to give a lovely enamel type finish and then added a final coat of iridescent powder for a subtle sparkle. I stamped the sentiment directly on the panel and heat embossed it with white powder. I attached the snowflake with dimensional pads. I finished the front with a bold red gem in the centre of the snowflake. On the inside, I cut a mat panel of kraft card and on the white panel added a Christmas greeting and some more snowflakes.

That's all for today. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to see my Uniko revisit and thanks for all the lovely comments, they are much appreciated. See you tomorrow!

Christmas Joy 2 ...

... Hello again! I'm on a roll! I've been shopping recently and got a super layering stamp set from Hero Arts, and I've used it here to make another ultra CAS Christmas card. It's another one that would work well for mass production:

Stamps: Hero Arts - Colour Layering Joy
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Pink Pirouette, Pear Pizzazz; Gina K - Black Onyx; Versamark
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Silver Tinsel Embossing Powder

The colours are from the new Paper Players challenge - PP#361. I'm also submitting this one to Merry Monday - MM#255 and to Happy Little Stampers Christmas - HLSXMAS09.

I used my MISTI to help make sure that my layers were accurate. I started by stamping the solid word in pale pink. Next I stamped the shadow layer in Versamark and heat embossed with silver tinsel embossing powder. I finished by stamping the thin word joy in black and adding some words above. I completed the front by adding some stylised foliage around the word in green. On the inside I simply stamped some more foliage.

Once again my card has come out slightly grey when its actually bright white! I think I need to change where I take my photos.

I think that might be all for today, but it's so nice to feel creative again. I'm sure I'll have more to share with you in the next few days. For all my friends in Florida - please be safe and take care. Bye for now.

Christmas Joy .....

.... Morning! Before I go on, I must say a HUGE thank you to all the wonderful comments I've had about my cards for the recent Uniko release - I really appreciate them all.

I seem to be back into my crafting groove, and while I was in my craft room yesterday I realised that I'm very, very short of Christmas cards in my stash, so I've got one to share with you now:

Stamps: Concord & 9th - Joy
Inks: Gina K - Black Onyx, Lemon Drop, Red Velvet, Grass Green
Dies: Concord & 9th - Joy
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Allton Silver Glitter Satin Sticky Paper

It's almost one layer and is ultra CAS. I used my new Concord & 9th stamps. I stamped the large solid image in pale yellow, cut a mask and then stamped the Christmas foliage. After removing the mask, I layered on the silver sticky letters, cut with the matching die. I completed the front by finishing the sentiment. On the inside I simply stamped some more foliage and berries. I'm submitting this card to Cupcake Inspiration Challenge - CIC#422 where I got the colours, also to Merry Monday - MM#255 where they want to see "joy" on the card, and finally to Happy Little Stampers Christmas - HLSXMAS09 where the option is sparkle. Done!

I must apologise for the photos - light is not great and my card is brilliant white - sadly doesn't look it in these photos. I really like this one and I'm going to make a whole lot more - I need to get my Christmas stash built!! See you soon.

CCT - Colours ....

..... Good afternoon! I'm a bit late with my post for our new colour challenge over at Christmas Card Throwdown - CCT14. We've gone just a bit mad with our colours this time - we want to see a

RAINBOW

You have to use at least 5 colours, but you can go crazy and use all seven if you want. I've kept mine very clean and simple and gone for five colours. I actually made two cards:

Stamps: Uniko - Stunning Snowflakes, Simply Said II, Most Wonderful
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress Oxide: Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade, Lucky Clover, Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet, Fired Brick, Fossilized Amber, Peeled Paint, Faded Jeans, Seedless Preserves
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up Card - Basic Black; Gems

I decided to keep these cards ultra clean and simple and just allow the rainbow colours to be the star of the show. The top card is the brights and the bottom is the more muted colours. In order to make sure the snowflakes all lined up accurately I used my MISTI. I layered the finished panels on black card and then adhered them to the card base. I finished the front with a very simple Christmas sentiment. I decided to add some sparkle with tiny little gems in the centre of each snowflake. On the inside of each card I cut a mat layer of black card, and on the white panels I stamped a greeting in black and added some more colourful snowflakes around the words.

There are a couple of Christmas in July challenges around at the moment, so I'm submitting these cards to them. The first is Merry Monday where we can catch up with any previous challenge and I've based the cards on MM#233 where we had to use 5 of somethings. The second is CAS-ual Friday Challenge - CFC#178.

Do visit Christmas Card Throwdown to see more inspirational cards from the rest of the Design Team - we have all gone for totally different looks! You've got slightly longer than usual to join in with this challenge. You have until midnight (BST) Friday 4th August (that's 7.00pm EDT) to play along. That's all for now, see you soon.