Snowflakes are falling ...

... on my card for The Daily Dare challenge - The12 Days of Christmas; Day 11 of which is being sponsored by my favourite stamping company - Waltzingmouse Stamps.  The challenge card has to be uploaded to the Splitcoaststampers Gallery with the reference "DD12DAYS11".  The challenge is to use snowflakes - well I'd sort of moved onto more spring-like stamps, but who can resist snowflakes?  Not me!! 

I stamped a mixutre of snowflakes - from Stampin' Up! and Waltzingmouse - using Versamark.  Then I added some pastel perfect pearls - soft pink, blue, violet and green.  I burnished this into the snowflakes and was really pleased with the subtle shimmer on the card.  I added a topper which had been embossed using my Cuttlebug - The Winter House - I added some glitter for a snow effect, and cut out the centre of the design with my Spellbingder petit scalloped circle.  Finally, I added a greeting - let it snow!!  Actually it seems totally appropriate as the cold weather is coming back and we have snow forecast.  I think this is the first of my 2011 Christmas collection!!!  Gosh, I'm ahead of myself :)

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! - Serene Snowflakes;  Waltzingmouse - Compliements of the Season
Perfect Pearls:  Pastel
Accessories: Spellbinders - circles; Glitter; Craftwork cards - greeting

I'm really pleased with this card.

Finally, I'd like to say Hello and Welcome to Clare - who's become a follower of my blog - thank you, I appreciate it.  I can hardly believe that I've suddenly got 40 followers - thank you all so much!!  Do drop by later - still have a few more cards to show you.

Rockstar and grunge ....

...  the current fashion which the teens really love.   And the Rockstar set from Inkadinkado is so appropriate.  I decided to use it and several other sets for the commissioned cards.   Sam will be 12 this weekend.  Inspiration came from several cards which I've seen on Splitcoaststampers - specifically Stampersandee, Hartvillestamper, Kellybee, Corrosive 69 and Stampersandee again; as well as from some guitar cards that I've previously made.

Sam's card - from his mum and dad

Jacqui wanted a large card (which is from her and her husband) and a smaller card which will be from Sam's brothers and sister.  Jacqui bought one of my guitar cards earlier this year and she thought that style would be good.  But I wanted to do something a little more special. 

The card is 10" x 7" and the supplies used include DCWV 12" x 12" Rockstar paper; the Inkadinkado stamps; Making Memories stamps - Just Chillin'; Waltzing Mouse Stamps - Music; Tim Holtz Distress Inks and some holographic silver card that I got from QVC.  The birthday greeting is made from a Docrafts stamp (now discontinued) which I layered using Spellbinders pinking circles.  I used Spellbinders long rectangles to make the two smaller panels and I simply cut out the backing panel.  On all three panels I used a very subtle dotty background stamp which gives a nice distressed look.  I've also done an insert for the card which has a smudged border and guitar in very light grey.  I'm pleased with how this card has turned out. 

The other card was created from most of the same supplies - but in shades of blue, brown and copper.  I added a lovely star stamp that I got free with Craft Stamper.  I used the Spellbinders Small and Large Labels to form the toppers and to finish the card off I added three little copper brads.

For Sam - from his brothers and sister

Insert from the big card

Sorry, but I haven't included links on all the supplies - as it takes soooo long to write the blog!!  If anyone wants specific information - make a comment and I'll get back to you.

As for the OLW - I'm still think about that one.  As you can see from these cards, clean, simple and one layer are not my usual style!!  So it may be a while before I get the challenge card finished.

That's all for today.  I have to do some work on my assignment, so I'll be back tomorrow.  Who knows, I might even get to post a picture of my OLW!!!  Here's hoping.

This is fun ...

... I'm really enjoying this.  The learning curve is not too steep (fortunately) and, more importantly, my creative juices are flowing again.  So much so that yesterday I spent quite a lot of time sorting through various photograph galleries (mine and Jonathan's) to find pictures of Kathryn.  I'm going to make a 6 " x 6" scrapbook, similar to the one I made about Ben.  I've got the pictures together and later this week I'm going to start putting it together.  Check back for progress.

The cards that I'm showing today were made for my Aunty Sue and Annette (one of my oldest friends).

This card was made for Sue.  The backing papers came free with a number of crafting magazines (I get them all!!) and the image is Pink Petticoat again!  I coloured it using Sakura glaze pens and allowed the colours to mix, I the cut it out using a scalloped punch.  The two backing layers were also cut using punches, the middle was embossed with my wonderful Cuttlebug.  I'd recommend it to anyone.  Two great sites for cuttlebug ideas are Ikki's and Cuttlebug Challenge - I haunt both sites :)

The next card was made for Annette.  She's a very special person and I had a great time thinking about the type of card to make for her.  So once again I used a PP image!!  This time it's Lola with a glass of champagne (coloured on the PC) - most appropriate for my girlfriend.  The card base is from Kanban - and I thought it really went with the birthday greeting.  I added a flower made up from a number of flowers (from a variety of companies) and held together with a lovely stripped brad.  Once again the mount was run through my cuttlebug - used the lovely D'vine Swirls folder.

And the next job for today is to make some invitations for friends to attend a Stampin' Up party I'm having to mark the launch of their new catalogue.  I love visiting the Splitcoaststampers gallery and often see cards made using Stampin' Up products.  I've seen several that I'd like to get; here's hoping they will be in the catalogue.

That's all for now - must get off and be busy!!

More experiments ...

.. so today I think I'm going to try and list some of my favourite places to visit.  There are so many talented people out there in "blog-land", and the variety and style of blogs is amazing.  However, I'm going to try and keep things relatively simple for the time being.

It's amazingly easy!!  I've only added four places at the moment (as I should be doing the mundane stuff - you know, ironing!!).  I'm going to try links in the text too, so bear with me.  Places of interest include: Waltzing Mouse Stamps  -  where you can get the most wonderful clear stamps (designed by Claire Brennan - that girl's a genius) and Simplicity - this blog is an inspiration to me, as I love the clean and simple designs (just wish I could do it too).  Now, as time goes on I'll add other sites of interest, but in the interests of family harmony - I'd best finish for now and get on with the ironing.  Hey ho!!