Month: November 2019

Let it snow, deer…..

Hello again. There is a new challenge beginning at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge and the theme is – anything goes as long as it’s Christmas….

Here is my design Team card:

And another variation:

I was fortunate enough to win this brilliant die from Poppy Stamps over on Instagram – and just had this idea in my head from the get-go.

I die cut the image from a gorgeous white glittery card – possibly Stampin’ Up but not sure – then die cut it again out of white. This is the die that broke my Gemini Junior…..well, this is the die which made me realise the Junior wasn’t working properly – but it worked and cut beautifully in the original Gemini………I’m just missing my smaller machine.

The deer on second card is stamped from Stampin’ Up ‘Merry Patterns‘ then cut out using my Scan’n’cut and a little white border. Then, using the same outline, I cut it again out of Kraft card stock, but this one cut to size, and another cut out of white to enable a little border.

The sentiment is from Clearly Besotted, heat embossed twice using Creative Expressions gold embossing powder. I like embossing twice as it gives a smooth and shiny result – thank goodness for a Misti to enable correct positioning…..

I hope you can come and join us in this new challenge – I look forward to seeing your creations.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Daring Cardmakers – natural, gold, white

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Always Fun Challenges – atg

Wishing you the best birthday ever

I have a card I made during what seemed like a crafting marathon yesterday:

I used the colours from CAS Colours and Sketches, and the stamp set from Concord and 9th called ‘Kindness Blooms‘. This stamp set is two turnabouts in one, which is actually quite easy to get your head around.

The first smaller flowers were stamped and turned twice, then I took the acetate with the flowers to see where they would go – and then stamped them and then the leaves. If it sounds a little confusing – here is a link to the YouTube video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUn2FXEEL-I , and another https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ5WbLyvkfY

I also added some extra small flowers to fill the gaps, and even took the second leaf layer – the sprig looking thingy – and stamped that in some spaces too.

The sentiment is from Gina K , as is the circular stamp stamped using Rich Razzleberry – which fit just absolutely perfectly within a Stampin’ Up stitched circle die.

I stamped some extra leaf clusters, and shoved them under the circle. Well – I placed them gently, actually, but I like the word ‘shove’ today!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches – Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz, Blushing Bride

Pink Gem Challenge – atg

Addicted To stamps – atg

QKR Stampede – atg

Warm Winter Wishes and cutting machine heartbreak!

Hello there. I have managed to get some time in my craft room – working less seems to be completely the opposite to what I thought would happen……..I find other things to do except crafting – but at least I’m keeping busy in some way!

Here is a card for a few challenges:

My photography and lighting skills seem to have taken a holiday – I just can’t get it right at the moment. I’ve tried to capture the shine on the snowflakes using the Crafters Companion Midas Platinum ink pad – and it’s very, very shiny in real life – and also tried to capture the shine on the word ‘warm:

I began by using Narwhal card stock from Lawn Fawn, and stamped the little snowflakes from Concord and 9th ‘Warm Wishes Turnabout‘ stamp set, using the Platinum ink pad.

I then found an orange piece of water-colour card I had done, and die-cut the ‘warm‘ word from that, thinking the colour orange would be so applicable, then I tried to cut the word another few times to add some dimension…….but…………

…… my Gemini Junior packed in! Gave up the ghost! No pressure to cut! Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch – even though I added ALL of the plates – including the cutting plate, plastic shim, magnetic shim, metal shim – and even the rubber mat. It would go through the machine but no pressure…………. 😦

I’m sooooo glad I have another 6 machines!!!!! 🙂 🙂

I went to my local Crafters Companion store in Chesterfield – they couldn’t suggest anything except contacting the main Customer Service, but the machine is probably out of warranty………..hmmm……..didn’t expect the machine to pack in after one year……we’ll see what they say…….

So – back to my trusted Sizzix Big Shot……………..I’m sure it’s been missing me……………..

After cutting three more words, I stacked them then added to the snowflake background, and even added some glossy accents for some additional shine.

The remainder of the sentiment and curved banner is from the same stamp and die set.

I’ll let you know the outcome from Crafters Companion, but for this card, here are the challenges I shall be entering:

Tuesday Taggers – cold, cold, cold

Color Throwdown – Turquoise, orange, grey/silver

Just Us Girls – photo inspiration

Craft Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas – option of something beginning with ‘R’ not followed

Getting Ready For Christmas

Hi there. After quite a few days without posting, I have a couple of cards for you today. There is a new challenge starting at Cardz 4 Galz and this time the theme is ‘Get Ready For Christmas’. I am sure a lot of you are making lots of Christmas cards at the moment, and it would be great if you were to join us in our challenge.

Here is my card:

After I had stamped and die cut the Christmas tree, I stamped and die cut the poinsettias and leaves and arranged them all as you see. I wanted to add some ‘girlie’ pearls to the tree, and found some pink and green gems in my stash – goodness knows where they came from, or who made them, but I added quite a few. They are so tiny I thought I could get away with it……

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, and I think the font is simple enough against the trees and flowers on the bottom of the card.

As I stamped and cut two trees, I went ahead and made another card with a completely different layout:

This time just the tree, but with a larger sentiment – same stamp set – stamped and heat embossed using a green Wow! sparkly embossing powder.

The two cards together:

I hope to see you in our gallery, and I look forward to seeing what you create.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

AAA Cards – CAS one image, with option of shimmer

Twofer Card Challenge – Christmas Greenery – can both be Christmas this time

Addicted to Stamps – anything goes stamping

Christmas at Sweet Stampin‘ – Christmas and Trees

Google eye, wobble action, Santa

Hello there, I’ve been playing with things I have had for absolutely ages, ready for the new challenge which has begun at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge.

There isn’t a particular theme – anything Christmas related is absolutely fine by us, including boxes, tags, cards, scrapbook pages -= as long as it’s Christmas – you’re good to go,

Here is my DT card:

It looks fairly straight-forward doesn’t it? Well – there are hidden gems for this guys……….

I started by die-cutting the elements from MFT ‘Christmas Crew Santa‘ out of shiny red, white glitter, silver glitter, black glitter, and gold card stock, then adhering them to a blush card which I had cut to size – as per MFT web-site.

Once I had stuck most of my elements down – I had a sudden thought about his eyes………..so I went and searched for my google eye stuff, decided which size to go for – and there we are.

Wait – I haven’t finished yet……………I then decided I wanted him to move on the card to make the eyes go all jiggy………..so I added an action wobbler to the back of him:

So I can’t show a video of the movement – I’m sure you all know what the action wobbler does – but I did take a picture with the card rotated 90 degrees – to show some movement:

The hardest part of this wobbler was to decide where to put it on the Santa – so I more towards the top, behind his hat.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge, and continue to build your Christmas card stash………….there’s some fabulous inspiration from the rest of the Design Team. I also see there were quite a few entries to apply for joining our DT – good luck to everyone, and I hope to get to know you better.

Challenges I shall be entering:

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – ATG with option of Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – ATG Christmas

Christmas Crafts All Year Round – Stockings or Christmas Clothing (hat)

Brown Sugar Challenge – ATG

Rose Gold and Snow Flakes

Hello there. There is a new challenge beginning at The Alphabet Challenge. The letter this time is ‘Q’ – and we want to see your Quick and simple cards…

Here is my card:

Once I had got my head around the die cutting INTO the card – then I was away…….isn’t it funny how some things just confuse you sometimes? I really couldn’t sort out what this die-cut did – so I cut it out – then it was like ‘Hey Presto‘ – I got it! Now I understand! Blimey – what an eejit! 🙂

It’s not as though I don’t have these kind of dies, and not as though I haven’t used them before – but for some reason……I didn’t get it……weird, huh?

Anyhoo – very quick (in the end!) and very simple. I used some rose gold non-shed glimmer card from Pink Frog Crafts, used a layer on the card base, die cut the snowflakes…………..all done.

I used a straight-forward and simple sentiment, to suit the CAS card

I hope you can come and join us by entering your ‘quick and simple’ creations – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler challenges – feminine

Rainbow Card Challenge – metallic

Happy Little Stampers November CAS challenge – CAS ’tis the season

Stamplorations – November CAS challenge – CAS option shades of brown (not taken the option)

Let It Snow

Hello everyone. There is a new challenge just begun at Cardz 4 Galz, and this time the theme is ‘Let It Snow’. It’s an ideal time to create more Christmas cards for your stash, and I hope you find time to join us with this theme for the next two weeks.

Here is my card:

Now this stamp set was a challenge – it is the ‘Invisible Snowman’ from Kitchen Sink Stamps. there is no outline to line things up with, it’s a case of placing items where you think they will go and then layering all the stamps for each individual item.

Yep – each item stamped has two, three, even four layers – and I like layering stamps. It still took me a while to figure out how to do this…….and even at the end I still went in with Copic C00 and C01 to create a light kinda outline for him – and added some snow lines underneath him – very faint, but they’re there.

Then I thought the background was a little too blank – so I went in with two lighter greys and two Uniko snowflakes – I’m itching to make something else with them – and stamped all around him. So it’s snowing….maybe….

I layered him with a red shiny card, and stamped the Clearly Besotted sentiment – a freebie with a crafting magazine.

So – definitely going to play with this guy more, but I’ll need patience – and no puddy tat trying to ‘help’!

I hope you can come and join us – I would love to see your ‘Let It Snow’ creations in our gallery.

Challenges I shall be entering:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Christmas at Sweet Stampin’ – atg Christmas with option of stars

Addicted to Stamps – atg

A Bit More Time To Craft – atg

Meowy Christmas

Hello there. A new challenge is starting at ABC Christmas Challenge, the letters this month are ‘W’ for Wreath, and ‘X’ for fauX.

Here is my card for ‘W’ and Wreath:

I played around with the images I wanted to use first, then began by stamping the wreath, using Catherine Pooler inks, and the Uniko bough from the ‘winter foliage‘ stamp set.

I then used a red ink to stamp the dots around the wreath, but can’t remember which stamp set it’s from – as I’d tidied it away afterwards – very unlike me! I think it was Altenew – but not sure………

After placing the Simon Says Stamp ‘Christmas Cats‘ image in the centre, I masked it’s ears, then stamped the antlers, then coloured with Copics.

The holly and berries are from the same Uniko stamp set, and the sentiment is from the same Simon Says Stamp set.

I’m trying to use some of my designer papers, and found this brown one from Stampin Up which seemed to match the brown of the wreath, so I used that as a matting layer.

I hope you can come and join us this month, and add another card to your Christmas stash……..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Color Crazy Challenge – atg colouring

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – atg with a critter

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Fractile Leaf Thank you

Hi everyone. I’ve been itching to play with the Simon Says Stamp ‘Fractile Leaves’ stamp set, and saw the opportunity for several challenges:

I used quite a few of the leaf stamps in the set and stamped them onto Arteza water-colour card in a variable pattern, to try and cover a lot of it – but leaving quite a few spaces.

I used Catherine Pooler ‘Green Tea‘ ink as the olive colour for the colour challenge, then heat embossed in a clear embossing powder – twice – to give a raised edges for all the little lines in each leaf.

I then took the Arteza Teal brush marker – and just played – putting the ink down,, and using quite a bit of water – as I wanted some pooling of the ink in each little area on the leaves.

Whist that was drying I took the MFT ‘Thank You’ die and cut it out of a rust coloured card stock, then a navy card stock – but when I put those colours together – even off-set – they didn’t look right. So – I die cut the word again in plain white, put that in the middle of the two colours – and I think the three layers work well together, with the white showing the other two colours nicely.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – teal, olive, navy blue, rust

Just Us Girls Challenge – thanks

Time Out Challenges – inspired by words (grateful)

A Bit More Time To Craft – atg

Looking for latest Challenge Here Click Badge Below

Wishing you Christmas Joy

Hello there. It’s a very, very wet day here today, so plenty of opportunity to get to my craft room – after I’d done some tidying and sorting out, anyway.

I decided to use the colours and sketch from the current challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches, and create this Christmas card:

I began by stamping one of the Christmas tree images from Simon Says Stamp Festive Trees and all three of the challenge colours, and filled-in some of the triangles for added impact.

Once I had die cut them, I added them to a small square of white card which I had embossed in a rain embossing folder – but used the de-bossed side. I did toy with the idea of ink blending – but I wanted this card to be quite clean – so kept it white.

The sentiment is from the same stamp set, piecing together three of the separate stamps, and that gorgeous little snowflake is from a Uniko stamp set – and I actually fussy-cut the snowflake out! I know! Me? Fussy-cutting? Well – I was desperate to use this snowflake on the end of the tag – so a girl’s gotta do, what a girl’s gotta do, right?

The blue layer on the square is a piece of Stampin Up DSP – which I’m trying to use a lot more of, and I think is in the correct colour……

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketch – sketch and colours

Die Cutting Divas – atg with die cutting

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – atg

Fab’n’funky challenge – atg Christmas