TMR - Theme ...

.... Morning! I'm back with my card for our new challenge over at The Male Room - TMR#50. We have a very simple theme, and you won't be at all surprised to know that it's CHRISTMAS/WINTER WISHES/DECEMBER CELEBRATIONS. I had fun making another Christmas card for my stash (now 106 cards):

Stamps: Winnie & Walter - Winter Woodland, Comfort & Joy
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake; Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Kaisercraft - Deer Head; Die-namics - Cross Stitched Ovals #4; W&W Cutaway - Noel
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Early Espresso, Cajun Craze; Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Tidings; Wink of Stella - Clear

I think that a stag's head makes a perfect masculine Christmas card and I had fun with this one. I stamped the background with the cut tree trunk rings in light brown. I die cut a plain white oval on which I adhered the stag's head. I die cut it from some lovely plaid design paper. I made the word "noel" with three die cuts - one in dark brown and the other two in Cajun Craze. I adhered the dark brown slightly offset to create a drop shadow effect. I finished the front with a light dusting of clear Wink of Stella on the word noel. On the inside I cut mat layer of the plaid paper and on the white panel added a greeting, another stag's head and some birds.

I'm really pleased how this one turned out. I'm going to submit this to AAA Cards - AAA#79 where the theme is CHRISTMAS, although it might not be CAS enough for them!

For more inspiration do visit our blog to see more from the Design Team. This challenge has an extended deadline to allow for the fact that most of us are very busy this month, and also to allow you to keep any special cards hidden until after 25th December. Submission deadline is midnight (GMT) on Saturday 31st December - that's 7.00pm EST for those in the States. Have fun!!

52CCT - Sketch ....

.... Morning all!  I finally managed to get into my craft room yesterday afternoon to make today's card.  As it's the first Saturday of the month, that means it's our sketch challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.  Our host this month is Julie and she's got a really nice sketch for us - you can flip or rotate the sketch and add any embellishments you like.  Here's my take:

Stamps: Stampin' Up! - Delightful Decorations; Winnie & Walter - Winter Wonderland
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black, Olympia Green, Crimson Red; Versamark
Dies: Lil Inkers - Dual Stitched Squares #3
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Kaisercraft DP - Christmas paper (FOC with Simply Cards & Papercraft); Gold Tinsel Embossing Powder; SU Punch - Christmas Ornament; Martha Stewart - Christmas Ornaments Border Punch

I used some lovely vintage style papers as the basis of my design - great colours and I think the snippet of Christmas newspaper is super.  I stamped the Christmas bauble in Versmark and embossed with Gold Tinsel powder - it has a lovely shimmer - and cut it out with the matching punch.  Sadly, both the punch and stamp set are discontinued.  On the inside of the card I cut a mat layer of design paper and added a greeting to the white panel.

Don't forget to visit our blog to see more inspiration cards from the rest of the team.  Have fun!

AC - Too Late to Negotiate? ...

.....  Good morning!  For some reason I haven't had chance to get into my craft room this week - I can't even blame housework!  And I'm running a bit late with this post too. 

Today's project is not cute and cuddly, in fact it's a bit creepy and possibly downright scary!  I've made a Creepmas Tag.  What's Creepmas?  Well, in recent years many retailers have put out Christmas products silly early.  I remember seeing Christmas cards on sale in the UK as early as August!!!!  Duh!  And here in the States, many stores had removed all their Halloween products by mid-October, way before Halloween and replaced them with Christmas stuff.  So as a friendly response to Christmas creeping into Halloween, various groups decided to put Halloween into Christmas - hence CREEPMAS!!!  The annual 13 Days of Creepmas starts on 1st December and allows those of us with a warped sense of fun to play!!!  I was playing yesterday and came up with this tag, it's somewhat early this year :) :)

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - Early Thaw; Dylusions - Christmas Words; Winnie & Walter - Winter Wonderland
Inks: Archival - Jet Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Manilla Tag; Distress Stains - various; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - Clear; Ribbon

Last year I went to a really fun class with Valerie Brinchick to play with Distress products - inks, stains and paints.  We tried all types of techniques on tags and as a consequence I have quite of lot of half finished tags.   I used the colours in the tag for inspiration to colour this very scary snowman.  I printed it on white card and coloured with Copic markers and carefully cut it out with a scalpel.  As the colours are similar to those on the tag, I layered the image on black card.  I stamped some fir branches and pine cones in archival ink on the tag and then adhered the snowman with dimensional gel.  I finished the front with a fun sentiment which I stamped on vellum.  I created a tag for the back - using Distress stains and more stamps.  Finally I added a black ribbon and tied on some purple sparkly thread. 

If, like me, you have a slightly twisted (but still fun) take on Christmas or you simply love Halloween and all the associated images, you'll find this snowman and many more Creepmas images at Rick's online stores - Zibbet and Esty.  Of course, if you don't like creepy and scary, Rick also has a fabulous selection of cute, fun and elegant images.

Looking out of my office window I can see blue skies and sunshine, a marked contrast to the snow - yes, I said SNOW - that we had yesterday.  It might look lovely, but it's absolutely freezing!  I was told when we moved here, that if you didn't like the weather to"wait five minutes and it'll change!".  They were right!  That's it for now.  Have a good day - see you soon.

Winter birthday ....

...  Hello!  I hope everyone has had a good weekend and is ready for the coming week.  I've had a super time and now that we're back to "normal" weeks, I hope to be back into my "normal" routine!  I've a birthday card to share with you this morning. 

Stamps: My Favourite Things - LJD Cozy Mittens; Winnie & Walter - Winter Wonderland
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Pink Pirouette, Tempting Turquoise, Gumball Green, Melon Mambo; Archival - Jet Black
Dies: Die-namics - Cozy Mittens; Spellbinders - Shapabilities - On the Edge (S5-168)
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Pink Pirouette; SU DP - Pink Pirouette; Kaisercraft DP - Mistletoe

I used the layout from this week's MFT Card Challenge - MFTWSC#212 and the colours from Colour Throwdown - CTD#326.  I like these bright, cheerful colours and think they're just right for a winter birthday card.  I die cut a scalloped border along one edge of the design paper and adhered it to the card.  I cut a strip of white card, layered on some pale pink paper and adhered the panel to the card.  I die cut the mittens from white card and then stamped on the base colour and decorations.  I stamped the mitten string directly on the card and adhered the mittens with dimensional gel.  I finished the front with a simple birthday greeting.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of pale pink card and on the white panel stamped a mitten with a fun greeting.

One of my favourite sports is Figure Skating, and being in the States means I get to see much more of this sport on TV.  I watched the US Championships over the weekend - it was super.  I also found out that the 2016 World Figure Skating Championships are being held in Boston next year.  I'd love to go and watch it all live, but it's not cheap!!  I'm going to have to do some thinking!!!  Bye for now.

52CCT - Sketch ...

... Good morning!  I do hope that you all had a super Christmas and a wonderful New Year.  Here at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown we've got some new team members, lots of new challenges and a new look too.  I'm hosting the challenges this month and first up is a sketch for you to play with.  Feel free to turn the sketch and you don't have to use a star.  Here's my take:

Stamps: Stampin' Up! - Cheerful Christmas; Winnie & Walter - Happy Christmas, Winter Wonderland
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Spellbinders - Labels 24 (S4-353) #3
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Kaisercraft DP - North Pole; SU Card - Real Red; SU Markers - Real Red, Pistachio Pudding, Marina Mist; Silver sticker

I've gone for a folksy feel on my first card for 2015.  The stamps and paper are from different companies, but they work really well together.  I cut two coordinating pieces of design paper to cover the base of the card and then adhered a silver glitter sticker over the top to hide the join.  I used marker pens to selectively colour the stamped image and matched the colours to the papers used.  I cut it out with a die (one that hasn't been used for ages).  I made the mat layer by drawing round the outside of the die.  I finished the front with a bold sentiment on a white banner.  On the inside I have another mat in green gingham and a simple greeting on the white panel.

For more inspiration using the sketch, check out the blog to see what my team mates have made.   Don't forget to drop by and visit our new team members and leave a comment.

There's a really good reason for joining in with our weekly challenges, if you make one card every week during the year, you'll have a stash of 48 cards ready at the beginning of December.  Of course, if like me you make more than one card each time, you make have even more cards ready.  This challenge helps to reduce stress at Christmas.  Looking forward to seeing your creations.

Creepmas Day 7 ....

.... Hi!!  I'm back again!!  It's Day 7 of the Smeared & Smudged 12 Days of Creepmas.  I was browsing challenges this morning and saw that this week's Just Us Girls challenge - JUGS#271 is to feature mixed media.  Now that was really lucky as my submission for Creepmas Day 7 is a mixed media tag:

Stamps: Smeared Ink/Teri Sherman Digi - Skully Pendant; Winnie & Walter - Winter Wonderland
Inks: Distress - Various; Archival - Various;
Accessories: Many and various - ribbons; metal tag; deer die cut; pine branch die cut; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - clear

I made some of this tag at a craft class last year - the front of the tag with the background, metal tag and die cut deer.  I didn't know what to do with it last year, but decided it would made a great place for me to hang the Skully Pendant image.  I printed the skull on white card, coloured with Copic markers and added sparkle with my clear Wink of Stella brush.  I made the back of the tag last night.  I used several Distress Ink Stains to create some splats, then covered that with the brass stain.  Next I stamped a number of different images around the edge and finished with a deer in silhouette, a place to write a message and some wonderful ribbons.

Here's a close up of Skully Pendant - I really like the image, it's clean and simple and such fun to colour!

Here's a link to all the ladies taking part in the 12 Days of Creepmas - do check out their work - it is fantastic!

Terra- Hop Hostess
Black Dragon
Maureen
Teresa
Julia
Sue The Nanny
Jane
Susan
Nan
Shell
Kim
Monique
Airless Chambers
Keren
Sarah
Leigh
Lisa
Lady Brayton
I wasn't sure that I'd posting anything today - we're a sick Family Frings at the moment.  I had Kathryn home from school yesterday (the first time in about 5 years) with a high temp, bad cough and running nose.  Not only was Kathryn unwell, but so am I.  I think it's the same thing, only not quite so bad - head feels like it's full of cotton wool, sore throat and bad cough.  As we're not going out at all today - I'm going to play in my craft room.  That's all for now - see you soon.

Creepmas Day 4 ....

.... Hello!  We're on Day 4 of Smeared & Smudged 12 Days of Creepmas. I've another Creepmas/Christmas card for you today:

Stamps: Smeared Ink/Teri Sherman - Holly Sugar Skull; Winnie & Walter - Winter Wonderland
Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black
Dies: Spellbinders - A2 Locking Loops (S5-175); Lil Inkers - Stitched Rectangles
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Kaisercraft DP - North Pole; Stampin' Up! Card - Real Red; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - Clear; Glitter

I absolutely love the Mexican Day of the Dead sugar skulls - and I think Teri's Creepmas style sugar skull surrounded by holly leaves and pretty berries is just fabulous!  I printed the image on white card, coloured it with Copic markers, cut it out with a die and then added sparkle with my clear Wink of Stella brush and glitter.  I used my new WOS brush - so there's a bit more sparkle than I'd normally like!  I think the image is so beautiful that I decided to finish it off with a lovely frame.  I die cut this frame from some winter design paper and layered it on a red card base.  On the inside I cut a white panel, added some decoration and a greeting.  Here's a close up of the sugar skull with sparkle and glitter.  I'm submitting this to this week's Just Us Girls Challenge - JUGS270 where the word is SPARKLE.  I've got lots of sparkle on this card - it might be a bit left of centre, but it sure does sparkle!!  Hope you ladies like it.

Here's the list of everyone taking part in the 12 Days of Creepmas challenge.  Do check out their work - some of these ladies make the most amazing 3D projects - something that I might have to try!!

Terra- Hop Hostess
Black Dragon
Maureen
Teresa
Julia
Sue The Nanny
Jane
Susan
Nan
Shell
Kim
Monique
Airless Chambers
Keren
Sarah
Leigh
Lisa
Lady Brayton
I think that today I'm going to have to get some housework done - my ironing pile is getting bigger and bigger.  That's all for now - have a great day.  See you soon.

AC - Creepmas tag ...

....  Hello!!!  I've been having lots of fun making Creepmas projects - and have lots more scheduled for the challenge.  But this is an extra!  A couple of months ago I did a class with Valerie Brinkcheck where we were learning various techniques using Tim Holtz's distress inks.  We left the class with a pile of tags ready for use.  I used one of them to make this Creepmas Tag:

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - Monster Candleholder; Winnie & Walter - Winter Wonderland
Inks: Distress - various; Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Manilla Tag; Ribbon Fibres; Copic Markers; Embossing Folder; Wink of Stella

You can get this fun guy at Rick's Zibbet shop.  I printed this guy onto white card and coloured him with Copic markers.  Initially I was going to make him green, but I decided to go for orange as a bold contrast to the greens on the tag.  Once coloured, I fussy cut him out, went round the edges with a black marker, added a layer of sparkle with Wink of Stella and then adhered him to the tag.  I stamped the sentiment onto white card, cut it in half and drew a border by hand.  I finished the front with a cardinal bird - generously covered with sparkle.  The reverse of the tag is a little more Christmas oriented!!  I stamped a winter wonderland scene.  Here's a close up of the little monster with all his sparkle.

It's fun combining elements of Halloween with Christmas for the Creepmas look - it's a good thing I have several friends and most of my family who share my sense of humour :)  That's all for now.

52CCT - Pick a Previous Sketch ...

... Good morning!  It's the last Saturday in November and it's the fifth Saturday, so we have a bonus challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.  We have a Pick a Previous challenge and Jacqueline has asked us to pick a previous sketch - you can find our previous sketches here.  I decided to go back to our July sketch for my card:

Stamps: Winnie & Walter - Winter Wonderland, The Big The Bold and The Merry
Inks: Versamark; Stampin' Up! - Early Espresso, Gumball Green, Crumb Cake
Dies: Winnie & Walter - The Big The Bold and The Merry Cutaways
Accessories; White Lustre Card; SU Card - Crumb Cake; Green Tinsel Embossing Powder; Studio Calico Wooden Snowflakes; Sequins

We did things a bit differently in July with a blog hop and I didn't use the sketch, so it was nice to be able to make a card based almost exactly on the sketch.  I got some new stamps from Winnie & Walter last week and I just love this big fir tree.  I cut a panel of white card slightly smaller than the base and stamped the tree in Versamark, heat embossed with green tinsel powder - you can just about see the sparkle in the photo above - in real life it has a fabulous shimmer.  I edged the card with brown marker for some definition and adhered it flat to the card.  I used a new W&W die for the word Christmas - cuts like butter.  I finished the front of the card with some wooden snowflakes and added a few sequins for some more sparkle.  On the inside I cut a mat in Crumb Cake and on the white panel I stamped some fir branches and a simple greeting.

For more inspiration cards using previous sketches, check out the blog to see what the rest of the team have made.  Don't forget we're still running our DT Call - you have to play along with all our challenges this month - add the initials DT after your name when you submit your project.  That's all for now - see you soon.

Dazzling Snowflake ....

... and no, I don't mean the ones outside on the roof tops!!!  I have a very clean, simple and elegant Christmas card to share with you this morning.

Stamps: Winnie & Walter - Winter Wonderland
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Memory Box - Dazzling Snowflake
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Silver Holographic Card

I'm submitting this card to CASology - CAS#121 where the cue word is Festive.  It's been a while since I played along, but I just had to with this week.  I think the card is so festive and so elegant.  It's super easy to make.  I positioned the die on the front of the card, cut out the flake backed the inside with holographic card and finished with a simple sentiment.  I used the same holographic card to make the mat layer and stamped a simple greeting on the white panel.  Also below is a close up photo of the snowflake where you can see the shimmer and the rainbow effect on the holographic paper.

I've almost made enough cards for this year, but as this one is so easy to make and is absolutely flat (so easy to go in the post), I think I'll be making a few more but with the snowflake in different colours.

You might not see me around for a while as Ben arrives tomorrow and I plan on spending lots of time with him and his girlfriend.  They are going to find it much colder than the UK, but I think they'll enjoy themselves.  I've got lots of posts scheduled - so please drop by tomorrow and check out my card for the new challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.  See you soon.