C24C - Christmas Greetings ....

.... Hello again! I wasn't around much for the second part of June, and today - two posts!! The first of the month means that it's time for our new challenge at Christmas 24 Challenge - C24C#13 and we want to see Christmas Foliage on your cards. I made a very clean and simple card:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps - Festive Foliage; Uniko - Christmas Sparkle, Simply Said Christmas
Inks: Gina K - Jet Black Amalgam, Fresh Asparagus; Memento - New Sprout, Bamboo Leaves
Dies: WMS - Mistletoe
Accessories: White Card; SU DP - Pear Pizzazz; Glitter

I'm submitting this card to a couple of challenges - Less is More - LIM#422 where they want us to use an Outline image and a solid image, and to Perfectly CAS - PCAS#10 where the theme is Sparkle.

 

I went back to my old Waltzingmouse stamps for this card - so sad that Claire is no longer making stamps, but I still use them often!! It was either the holly or the mistletoe, in the end, the simplicity of the mistletoe won. I stamped the outline image in a dark green ink and used a couple of different shades of green for the solid image. I cut them both out with the matching die and then added some fine glitter to the mistletoe berries. I stamped a bow at the top of the card and adhered the mistletoe and used a fine black marker to draw in the bow. I finished the front with a simple greeting. On the inside, I cut a mat layer of green texty paper and on the white panel stamped another of the solid mistletoe images and added a Christmas greeting.

Before I go, I should mention that we have a DT call for Christmas 24 Challenge - if you're interested please add DT by your name when you upload your cards. Thanks.

Don't forget to visit our blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the design team. Christmas Foliage is an easy challenge, and I look forward to seeing your takes on the theme. That really is all from me for today - see you soon.

52CCT - Colours ...

.... Morning! It's time for our new challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and this week it's our colour challenge. Fabiola has picked super colours for us to play with - BLUE, GREY AND KRAFT. Here's my card:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Frame It, Festive Foliage
Inks: Memento - Grey Flannel; Stampin' Up! - Crumb Cake
Dies: Lil Inkers - Dual Stitched Squares #3; Spellbinders - Squares Lg (S4-126) #7
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Kaisercraft DP - Silver Bells; SU Card - Crumb Cake; Glitter

You might be experiencing a case of deja-vu looking at this card! I CASEd my own card from April, when I made pink and grey ornament card. I cut a mat of kraft card slightly smaller then the card and layered on the design paper. I die cut a square of kraft card and a smaller square in white. I stamped on the fir tree branches and a greeting and finished by adding some baubles that I'd cut from a sheet of design paper. Before adhering this panel I added glitter to the base layer. On the inside I cut another mat of design paper and finished with a simple panel. I'm submitting this card to the current challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More! - ATSM#193 where the theme is HOLIDAYS.

For more inspiration with these super colours, do visit our blog to see more from the rest of the Design Team. You've got plenty of time to play along - deadline for submission is midnight Friday 20th May (7.00pm EDT).

Before I go - here are both my cards side by side. I think I might make a teal one too.

And that's all for today folks - see you tomorrow!

Festive ornaments ...

.....  Hello again! I was on a bit of a roll yesterday. After making my card for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, I decided to have a go at another of the Merry Monday - MM#200 challenges. I picked the photo inspiration:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage, Compliments of the Season II
Inks: Memento - Grey Flannel; Distress - Iced Spruce
Dies: Lil Inkers - Dual Stitched Rectangles #3
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Kaisercraft DP - Silver Bells

I used most of the same supplies as for my 52CCT card, but changed the design paper. In the Silver Bells stack was a page full of pretty Christmas ornaments, so I cut out a couple of pink and one grey. I covered the base with pink paper, which just happens to have some Christmas foliage on it. I cut a large white panel and stamped some pine branches in two shades of grey for the background and then adhered the Christmas ornaments. I finished by adding a simple greeting. On the inside I cut a mat layer from more design paper and stamped some branches and a greeting on the white panel. This one almost works for our Christmas Foliage theme at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, but the foliage is a bit too much in the background!

That's all for now. Hopefully, I'll get some more unpacking done today and get rid of those awful packing boxes. See you tomorrow!

52CCT - Theme ...

.... Good morning! I'm back this morning with a card for our new challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - 52CCT15-16. This week Patricia has picked CHRISTMAS FOLIAGE for our theme and I've had fun with it:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage, Compliments of the Season II
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Real Red; Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: WMS - Holly Dies; Lil Inkers - Dual Stitched Rectangles #2
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Kaisercraft DP - Home for Christmas

I used a couple of my favourite stamps sets from Waltzingmouse (now sadly closed) to make this card. This week's challenge at Merry Monday - MM#200 is a multi-challenge as it's their 200th challenge. I've used their colours and the sketch on this card. I covered the card with some foliage design paper and added a strip of kraft burlap paper. I die cut some white card onto which I stamped a bold Christmas greeting. I finished the front by stamping some holly leaves and berries, cutting them out with the matching die and adding a paper arrow from the design paper set. On the inside I cut a mat layer of the burlap paper and stamped more holly on the white card.

It was a really lovely day yesterday with bright sunshine and warm temperatures. I'm still trying to work out the best location in the house to take photos of my cards, so I decided to go outside and take these photos in the sunshine. I ended up sitting out for a while! Bliss!! For more inspiration, do visit our blog to see what the rest of the team have made.  Have fun!

52CCT - Colours ....

.... Hello from an arctic cold and rather snowy Northville. The weather is just right for making Christmas/winter cards, which is fortunate as it's time for our colour challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - 52CCT06-16. April has picked some fabulous colours - BLUE, CREAM AND GOLD. Here's my card:

Stamps: My Favourite Things - Grand Holiday Greetings, Seasonal Sentiments; Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Whisper White (pigment), Night of Navy; Brilliance - Galaxy Gold
Dies: WMS - Holly; Memory Box - Postage Rectangle Layers #3
Accessories: Cream Lustre Card; SU Card - Night of Navy; SU DP - Night of Navy; Gold Mirri Card; White Signo Pen

I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with these colours, but I'm really pleased how this turned out. Over at Merry Monday - MM#191 the team would like to see the "Chalkboard Technique" and at Jingle Belles - JB:16:04 they want to see TEXT. So I thought text and chalk boards go together and my board is dark blue!! I cut a panel of design paper slight smaller than the base, ran a gold pen around the edge and adhered it flat to the card. Next I die cut a rectangle of navy card and stamped this bold greeting in white pigment ink and heat embossed with white powder. I doodled a border in white pen and then adhered the panel to some gold card and attached it to the front of the card. I finished the front with some gold die cut holly, complete with blue berries! On the inside I made a mat from navy card. On the white card I stamped a Christmas greeting and added some gold holly leaves.

Edited:  I've just added my card to the Merry Monday challenge and I think I must have been subconsciously CASing Betty!  Her card is absolutely fabulous

Don't forget to visit our blog to see what the rest of the team have created to inspire you. You've got plenty of time to play along - deadline is midnight (GMT) Friday 19th February (7.00pm for those of us in the States). I hope you all have a super weekend, I've a busy one planned with some fun stuff and some tax paperwork too! Well, it can't be all fun! See you soon.

Mixed media ...

....  Good afternoon.  I hope that everyone has had a good holiday weekend.  We've had a super time.  I picked up my new car on Saturday - it took a while, but was worth it.  On Sunday we all went to a photo shoot with two ballet dancers - it was such fun and I'll get the photos up soon.  And today, while Kathryn has been out with a friend, Jonathan and I went to the cinema this morning to see Mad Max and this afternoon I got to play in my craft room.

At the beginning of March I went to a craft class with the wonderful Dyan Reaveley and learnt lots of techniques using her Dylusions sprays.  I left the class with an art journal that I started and several loose sheets that had backgrounds ready for further work.  This afternoon I finished my first art journal page - was such fun:

Stamps: Rick St Dennis Digi - I Love My Prezzies; Dylusions - Christmas Words; Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage
Inks: Archival - Jet Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Dylusions Sprays; Copic Markers; Wink of Stella - Clear; Crafter's Companion Spray 'n' Sparkle - Iridescent; Stencils - various

I was browsing through Rick St Dennis's Zibbet shop this morning and found some super new digital images and I was fully intending to colour them in this afternoon, but I stumbled across this lovely lady already in my stash of RSD digis!  How could I have missed her? 

The background was created using three shades of Dylusions spray and several different stencils.  I decorated the edge of the page with some solid black holly leaves as well as a number of outline leaves which I coloured with Copic marker.  I printed the image on white card and coloured her with Copic markers.  I wanted her to really stand out against the background, so I picked a soft pink for her dress, which I distressed with a light grey marker.  And then I had fun colouring the parcels at her feet - bold and bright and very scary too!  Here's a close up of the main image:

Dyan has created wonderful sentiment stamps - and I found all three on her Christmas words set - I think they are absolutely perfect for this naughty girl!!!  I stamped the sentiments on white card, coloured them with Copics and then cut them out and adhered them to the page.  I finished the page by lightly distressing the edges and adding some iridescent spray - which sadly doesn't show up on the photo.

If you're wondering about the images I picked to play with they are Dance Club Witch - a fun and funky young witch (and I'll be back with something featuring her tomorrow) and Zombie Holiday Showgirl - another somewhat quirky image, but I think she's fab!  I'll have a finished piece featuring the showgirl soon.

52CCT - Sketch ....

....  Good morning!  Welcome to the first challenge of the month at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and our hostess is Patricia.  As normal, we have a sketch for you and Patricia is happy for you to flip it, change it to a square or make it a mirror image, but we must be able to see the basic sketch in your finished card.  Here's my take:

Stamps:  Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage, Frame-It
Inks: Versamark; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Dies: Provo Craft - Hippie Chick
Accessories: Cream Lustre Card; Kaisercraft DP - Holly Bright; Stampendous - Frantage Aged Gold Embossing Enamel; SU Markers - Mossy Meadow, Garden Green, Wild Wasabi, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede

The challenge over at Merry Monday - MM#156 this week is to use green, pine cones and the word Believe - check!  I flipped our sketch through 180° as it worked better for my design.  I covered the card with some lovely pine cone design paper in green. On the central panel I stamped some pine cones and branches in Versamark and embossed with Frantage embossing enamel.  I love the effect this embossing powder gives, but it does have a tendency to fly off the card!  I die cut some letters from the design paper to make the word and adhered them direct to the card.  I finished the front with a couple of extra pine cones that I attached with dimensional gel (but you can't really see that in this photo!!  On the inside I cut another sheet of the design paper and stamped a simple greeting and a few more pine cones too.

Do check out our blog to see what the rest of the team have made for you.  You've until Friday 8th May midnight BST (7.00pm EDT) to submit your card.  Have fun!!

52CCT - Technique ....

....Morning!!!  We've reached the last Saturday of the month and Louise has come to the end of her term hosting the challenges at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, and she's got a fun technique challenge for us; Triple Stamping.  If you're not sure what this means, check out this video or this one.  Here's my card:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Festive Foliage, Twas the Night before Christmas
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Basic Black; SU Markers - Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade, Bermuda Bay, Crumb Cake

I used the colours from this week's Colour Q - cQc#288 for the card - I think they give a contemporary look.  I really like this technique, it always looks very impressive and it's actually very easy to do.  For this card I cut two small squares 2" × 2" and a longer rectangle 2" × 3½".  I used temporary adhesive to attach the panels to the card front.  I started with the sentiment in the sentiment and then inked up the branch and pine cone stamps with marker pens.  I finished the front by stamping a few festive berries too.  Once stamped, I took the panels off the card and layered them on black card each panel is an eighth of an inch larger than the white panel.  Then I adhered the panels to the card.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of black card and stamped a simple sentiment and another branch on the white card.

The rest of the team have created some fabulous inspiration cards to share with you, so do drop by the blog and check them out.  You've got plenty of time to play along - submission deadline is Friday 1st May midnight BST (7.00pm EDT).  Have fun!

52CCT - Theme ....

....  Hello again!  It's time for our new challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.  Gill's theme this week is "Mistletoe and Wine".   Here's my take on the challenge:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse - Seasonal Remedies, Festive Foliage
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery
Dies: Lil Inkers - Stitched Rectangles #2
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Bravo Burgundy, Certainly Celery; SU DP - Certainly Celery

I knew exactly which stamps I was going to use for this card - I adore the mistletoe stamp, so pretty.  However, I did have a few issues with the wine bit of the theme; I couldn't think how to incorporate a drink!!  Then I realised I had the perfect colour of card (sadly now discontinued) for wine and I made the base from Bravo Burgundy.  I decided to make the sentiment the main focus as it has a sort of drinks theme, stamped it in burgundy and cut it out with the stitched die.  I layered it on some burgundy card and trimmed to have a narrow border.  I stamped the mistletoe randomly on white card which I layered onto some design paper and attached the whole panel to the card base.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of green card and stamped a greeting and some more mistletoe on the white panel.

Check out our blog for more inspiration cards from the team.  Have fun playing with our Mistletoe & Wine theme - can't wait to see what you make!  Bye for now.