One for three .....

.... this card has been made for three challenges;

• Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge - WMSC76
• The Play Date Cafe - PDCC110
• St Luke's Charity Card Challenge - Let it Snow

I've taken a few liberties with the WMSC76 sketch, but I think you can see it in my card.  As soon as I saw the bright, vibrant colours for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge, I knew that I wanted to use my favourite snowman stamp.  And, as the finished card is full of snowmen, cool blues and glitter - I decided that it was perfect for the current St Luke's Challenge - Let it Snow.
This is a large card - 8" × 8" - it needed to be this big to fit on all the elements!  I made two mats - the bottom mat was coloured with a pastel blue Promarker so that it would exactly match the lovely winter cottage; the top layer is white glitter paper.  The cottage was stamped onto white card and I used the out-of-the-box technique to cut out the shape with my nestie.  I coloured the cottage with Promarkers, added lots of glitter and layered it onto a lovely pale blue lacey circle. I stamped some holly leaves and berries and added them to the back of the cottage, and then attached the whole image to the card base.   I stamped three of these fab snowmen, coloured them all with Promarkers, cut them out and added some glitter to their hats and scarves.  Finally, I made a coordinating sentiment label.   A truly frosty Christmas card.

Stamps:  Funstamps - Scribble Snowman; Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage, A Cottage Christmas
Inks:  Memento - Tuxedo Black, Cottage Ivy, Lady Bug; Stampin' Up! - Lucky Limeade
Spellbinders:  Lacey Circles (S4-293) # 5, Standard Circles Sm (S4-116) # 7; Scalloped Petit Ovals Lg (S4-139) # 2, Petit Ovals Sm (S4-140) # 2
Promarkers: Berry Red, Royal Blue, Lime Green, Marsh Green, Pastel Blue, Cool Aqua, Ice Grey 1, Ice Grey 2, Tan, Cinnamon, Gold, Soft Lime
Accessories:  Martha Stewart - Coarse glitter and card from stash

Above is a close up of the cottage showing the lovely glitter that I got from Michael's in Novi - I like the coarser texture of this glitter - it really looks like snow sparkling in the sun!

I had a really successful day yesterday - only one basket of ironing left to do today.  Well, until the next lot of washing!  Once I've finished the ironing today I've got a couple of birthday cards to make.  One for a 10 year old girl and one for a 50 year old guy!  Hopefully, I'll get to share them both with you tomorrow.  That's all for now.  I'm off to get that ironing done - see you!

Deck the halls .....

... it's the 1st of  November and time for our new challenge at St Luke's Charity Card Challenge - the theme this month - and you won't be at all surprised to see, is -

to Deck the halls with any sort of Christmas card.

You can make a clean and simple design, a shabby chic or vintage card, a funny card, an elegant card and, of course, one based on the story of Christmas.  We can't wait to see what you come up with.

The inspiration for my card came from Kathryn's new pyjamas!  Yes, really!  We were out last Saturday and found a really fun pair of Fair Isle PJs - in shades of purple, turquoise and pink - we got them!  And some of you have already seen cards I've made with the new Waltzingmouse Nordic Winter set - well  - it had to be!  This is a photo of Kathryn's PJs - aren't they just wonderful?

  The Nordic theme is everywhere this Christmas - and I love it!  Here's my take on the PJs.

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Nordic Winter
Inks:  Marvy le Plume II Pens - Manganese Blue, Pink, Pale Violet
Accessories:  Card from stash

To line up the borders, I used Claire's tip of putting them both face down on my glass mat and then placing the acrylic block on top - works a treat!  Then I coloured the stamps with the Marvy pens.  As it takes a while to colour both borders, the ink dried a little, and to reactivate it you simply huff onto the stamps.  I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to position the purple deer, the blue stars and the sentiment.  Kathryn was thrilled with this card and I'm delighted that it turned out so well.  It wasn't the card I had in mind when I first saw our challenge - but you'll get to see that one later this month!

The winner of November's challenge will win a couple of rubber stamps, kindly donated by Lily of the Valley.  Good luck.

 







For more inspirational Christmas cards - please check out the DT blogs :

Lynne Atkinson

Tara Cardwell

Anne Forrest

Jenny Mullens

Don't forget if you can spare your card you can send it to St Luke's Hospice to go into the next sale that Tara organises. For full details check the side bar here.

You know, we had over 50 entries to the "Let's hear it for the boys" challenge - you guys are so creative and have shown that making cards for guys isn't that hard after all :)

Right, over to you - I'm really looking forward to seeing your Christmas cards.  See you all later.

I see sea shells ....

.. on the sea shore.  Just a quick post this morning with a little card for this month's St Luke's Charity Card Challenge. 

Our theme this month is to make a card with a "seaside feeling".  My card is a tiny 3"×3" pearlised card.  I've used the sea shell stamp that came free with Craft Stamper some while ago.

I stamped the image directly onto the card - using my stamp-a-ma-jig to get the positioning correct.  Then I stamped it again onto a scrap bit of card and coloured the image with my promarkers.  Clean, simple and quick. 

Stamp:  Sea Shell - free with Craft Stamper
Ink:  Memento - Rich Cocoa
Promarker: Cool Aqua

There's still plenty of time to enter and we have a prize for the winner of this month's challenge - a £10 voucher for Quixotic Paperie.  Don't forget you can send your card and an envelope to St Luke's - check out the blog for full details.

I can't believe it's Friday already - the week has gone by so quickly.  Jonathan is out at a photo shoot today and I'm going to spend the morning in my craft room - I'm still trying to come up with something for this week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge!  And then I suppose I'd better make a start on the ironing.  I'll be back later.  Have a good day.