Gift cards ....

... Morning all!  This is the last of my scheduled posts.  I made a couple of small gift cards into which I put vouchers for gifts.

Stamps: Stampin' Up! - Festive Flurry
Inks: SU - Primrose Petals, Island Indigo, Pool Party
Dies: SU - Festive Flurry Framelits
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SEI DP - Berry Melody

These were really quick and easy to put together.  I cut the backing paper to fit and then stamped the snowflakes onto white card and used the matching dies to cut them out.  The insides were left blank for messages.

That's all for now - I hope to be back to normal sometime this week!!  See you soon.

Christmas Banners .....

... Morning all!  Today's the day - Kathryn finishes school mid-day and tonight we fly to the UK to see family and friends!  So excited now.

But I did find some time to play in my craft room yesterday evening and I've a Christmas card to share with you today.  I used a couple of challenges to make it:

• CAS-ual Fridays - CFC104 - to use flags and banners
• Jingle Belles - JB:13:12 - a sketch - which has banners!

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Nordic Winter, Secret Santa (Chief Elf), Compliments of the Season II
Inks: Distress - Festive Berries, Evergreen Bough
Dies: Die-namics - Fishtail Flags Layers Stax # 2 & 3, Fishtail Flags STAX #2; Spellbinders - Circles Sm (S4-116) #3
Accessories:  SEI DP - Berry Melody; Stampin' Up! - Scalloped Circle Punch; White Lustre Card

This was fun to make.  I picked out three coordinating papers used my Die-namics dies to cut the banners and layered them onto the card.  I stamped the Chief Elf image twice, in green and red punched out the green layer adding some ink to the edges for definition, and used my Spellbinder circle die to cut out the centre.  I adhered the rosette with dimensional tape.  To finish the front I added some elf footprints leading to a simple sentiment.  For the inside I cut a mat layer in another pattern and a white panel on which I stamped a simple sentiment.  Sorry about the quality of the photos, but I had to take them under artificial light!

I have a series of scheduled posts lined up - so do drop by to check them out.  But that's all for now - I'm off to the hairdresser this morning, then it's packing and off to the airport.  See you soon.

Follow Yonder Star .....

... Good afternoon - back again!!!  I'm making excellent progress with my Christmas cards and have another for you to share.  I used two challenges to make this one:

• Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge - WMSC123  designed by Lenet Mos
• Colour Throwdown - CTD218 - I adore these colours, and the photo is just fabulous!

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Yonder Star Background, Compliments of the Season II, Yonder Star, Seasonal Remedies
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Soft Suede, Tempting Turquoise, Early Espresso; Distress - Tumbled Glass, Broken China
Spellbinders: Small Labels (S4-169) #5; Edge Classic Scallop (E8-001)
Accessories: SEI design paper - Berry Melody; Twine and card from stash

I absolutely love the Yonder Star background stamp - makes wonderful Christmas cards and I can see it working for guy cards too!  So easy to use too - see Claire's tutorial here.  I stamped the background in Soft Suede directly on to the card base.  I don't have SU Cool Caribbean, but I do have some lovely design paper that is almost exactly that colour.  I cut the scallop border with my Spellbinder Edgeabilities.  I made the focal image from the rectangle in Seasonal Remedies - stamped and embossed, the cut out with the small labels die.  While still in the die I shaded with Tumbled Glass and Broken Glass.  Next I made the big star - I inked up with Versamark and then Tempting Turquoise, and then heat embossed with clear powder.  This star is so easy to cut out.  I finished off with the little flag - I had some Yonder Star BG scrap, cut it to size and then stamped this elegant sentiment in Early Espresso.  Here's a close up of the lovely foiled finish on the SEI paper.

Before I go, I'd like to say Hello and Welcome to Michelle Brinker - a new follower; so pleased to have you join me.  It's been a really productive day - both in my craft room and in getting some laundry washed - sadly that means the ironing needs to be done now!!  Bye, see you soon.

Be Good and altered art ....

..... Good morning.  This is likely to be a long post as I've a lot to show you!!  I'll start by sharing a card that I've made for two challenges:

• My Favourite Things Wednesday Sketch - MFTWSC92
• Waltzingmouse Christmas Card Challenge - WMSCCC12-02 - February

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse -Around Christmas Time
Inks:  Stampin' Up! - Real Red
Spellbinders: Pinking Circles Sm (S4-172) #5, Circles Lg (S4-114) #5
Accessories:  Design Paper - SEI - Berry Melody; Sakura Clear Stardust Pen, Glitter, Flock and Card from stash

I used this photo as the colour inspiration - red, cream, pale turquoise and this fab sketch for the layout.  The is very little stamping involved, most of the design comes from these super paper by SEI - so pretty.  I love this Santa stamp - I kept it very clean and simple as the papers are quite busy.  I stamped in red, cut it out with my Spellbinder dies and added some glitter and flock for sparkle.  Done!  Below is a close up of the Santa stamp showing the different textures and types of glitter - it looks super in real life.

Now, the rest of this post is all about the classes I attending on Saturday 6th October - which just happened to be World Card Making Day!!  The classes were held at Stampeddler, my local shop, and run by Amy Flowers.  She is an amazing artist and great teacher.  I was booked in all day to attend classes on:

• The Bee's Knees - how to use beeswax in collage.  It was such fun.  We made a small ATC size canvas first and then moved up to a large piece of art.  I'm already planning to attend Amy's class again next year.  Not only was it fun, but the class smelt great too!
• Art Journal Adventures - I've been admiring some of the Art Journal pages produced by many of you out in Blogland.  But I've had no idea where to start.  Amy gave us a huge A4 watercolour paper book for our journal and we then spent the session learning different techniques to decorate pages.  This is very much a work in progress and I've lots still to do.  But I think I'm hooked.
• Altered Book - the last session was to make, well start, an altered book.  Amy had prepared some old books by cutting a shaped edge and then we learnt how to prepare the pages for us to work on.  I managed to get a few pages completed, but this one will take a while.  I've always kept a journal of sorts with sayings, quotes, poems, even whole songs, and I intend to make this altered book a place to keep some of these words.

It was the best way to spend WCMD!!  Kathryn had a super time too - she went to stay with my friend for the day, and they were out at a Fall Festival.  And Jonathan was in Las Vegas taking photos - which I hope to scrapbook - eventually!  Here are a few photos (in totally the wrong order) of the work I did on Saturday:

The photos above are the pages we worked on - using paints, spraying, stamping, etc - I've still got lots of empty pages to fill and techniques to try.  I was covered in paint by the end of the day!!

These are pages from my Altered Book.  I've started to firm up the pages and there are a few that I've decorated already.  I've made vertical pockets in one page and included a tag - I'm going to put one of my favourite quotes on the back - not sure which one yet!  The cover is really dull at the moment - but will be done in due course.

These two photos are of the beeswax work done at the start of the day.  The little ATC canvas with the playing cards was the first one I made.  Working with wax is very strange - not only is it very hot, but it sets really quickly too, so you have to move fast!  The ATC has a very autumnal colour palette, while the clay board picture is much lighter and more subtle.

That all for now - time for some house stuff! Bye for now.

St Luke's Charity Card Challenge ........

Click here for my CR84FN64 post!

..... It's the first of the month and that means it's time for our new challenge at St Luke's Charity Card Challenge.  There are only 86 days to go before Christmas day!!  Seriously!!!  If you haven't started on your cards yet, then our challenge is perfect:

Clean, simple designs with lots of white space

I made two cards to share with you - variations on a theme!!

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Sewing Box Christmas; Woodware - Christmas Borders & Vertical Words FRCL017
Inks:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Accessories:  Cuttlebug EF - Snowflakes from Winter Wonderland; SEI Designer Paper - Berry Melody; Card from stash

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Sewing Box Christmas, 2011 Holiday Ornaments
Inks:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Accessories:  Cuttlebug EF - Snowflakes; SEI Designer Paper - Berry Melody; Card from stash

To add interest to my clean, simple Christmas cards I have used embossed backgrounds.  Then I added a touch of colour by using some patterned paper onto which I attached the white embossed layer.  I added a simple, homespun snowman to each card.  On the first card I stamped the sentiment before embossing and on the second I stamped the tree.  I finished the second card with a simple sentiment added after the embossing.  While the designer paper has busy patterns  the top layer has lots of white space with snowflake details!

I am submitting these cards to the Waltzingmouse Christmas Card Challenge too.  I'm running very behind on these challenges, but it's never to late to link up, which is fortunate as these are for the June challenge where we had to use stitching on our cards - real, faux, transfer or stamped.  Mine are stamped!!

Click on the links below for more inspirational clean and simple Christmas cards:

Tara Cardwell

Jenny Mullens

Anne Forrest

Sylvie Colledge

Lynne Atkinson

Oh, yes before I go, I must let you know that there will be a prize for this month's winner - and it couldn't be more appropriate.  Donated by Claire Brennan, the prize for our October winner is a Christmas set called "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

Good luck!  Looking forward to seeing your cards - have fun!!