Santa Kitty and Candy Canes

Hello again everyone. Welcome to this posting and the second challenge for my Design Team position at ABC Christmas Challenge. This month, the alphabet runs to ‘C’ for Candy, and/or ‘D’ for Decorations.

Here is my card:

and another view:

I took the opportunity over Christmas and New Year to order from Simon Says Stamp, when they were having quite a sale on their products, as I have liked the look of these Picture Book dies for ages…….

This cat is black and white because my cats are black and white. I thought this would stand out from the coloured background too, and show the Candy Canes in his hands. I decided to put the head on the body with a little tilt – looks like a cheeky chap to me.

Those candy canes are from a Tim Holtz set – never used before.

The background green and red striped DSP from Stampin Up, and the glitter on the hat is from Crafters Companion.

I enjoyed the die cutting, but I must admit to checking out some You Tube videos for hints and tips – those little pieces do get away from you, let me tell that now!

It’s a good job I have plenty of scraps of card, as these little scraps were ideal for all the die cut pieces. Placing them and gluing them were a challenge – but I like how this turned out.

The body is a die cut from the same group of dies, and I like how the arms have a cut part to them so you can put things in them, as though the cat was holding them – hence the candy canes.

If you enter this challenge, you are in with a chance to win some stamps, dies and washi tape from this months host Wilma, and the rest of the Design team have some amazing projects to share with you – A-maz-ing! We all seem to have different styles of cards to share, but all great inspiration, so I hope you can join us…….. :) :)

CASology Bouquet

Hello everyone. I have a card for you today that is for the Guest Designer position this week at CASology: (little jumpy dance!)

The cue word is ‘BOUQUET’, and let me tell you – I actually struggling with a stamp set and design for this card………..

I hunted through my stash and took out several stamps to consider, but as you can see – I finally settled on Altenew ‘Celebrations‘ stamp set and this little bouquet image, along with a sentiment from the same stamp set.

I stamped it on a separate piece of card first and tried several variations of colour with my Copics, then decided on this layout, and these colours. The stamp itself is quite sketchy – so I went that way with the colouring too – no shading, and not quite filling in the leaves and flowers.

It ended up being a one layer card – very, very unusual for me – but I am really pleased with how this looks.

I hope you can play along this week, and I look forward to seeing what you can create. :)

Love and Best Wishes

Hello again. It seems crafting is a good distraction for me today, and I have been able to create a couple of cards. My puddy tat is still doing alright, and in fact seems a little better with moving around as he is on an anti-inflammatory…….he even jumped onto my craft desk this afternoon. He’s not been up there for weeks!

Here is the card he interrupted, so it took me much of the afternoon:

The scribble is a Tim Holtz die and the tags are from MFT. The card stock is Stampin Up. The little stamps are from Uniko, a set I have had for a while, and like to use when I am trying to fill some space, and there are lots of little stamps in these sets.

The layout AND the colours are the double trouble (!!) challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches this week. I shall also be entering this into the current challenge at Crafty Gals Corner, asking for a CAS card, and Just Us Girls – asking for a card with the word prompt being ‘Love’.

This second card:

is based on the colours from Color Throwdown, to use Aqua, saffron, brown, and yellow; the layout sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches.

The stamp set is a new one from Altenew – courtesy of Seven Hills Crafts (again!!). I buy most of my American stamp and dies sets from there, as the price is always good, and the delivery is 99% within a 48 hours time frame. (I think I need to take shares in that company………..!!)

Anyhoo – I used the set of brown Altenew inks for the Primrose – why?, I hear you ask – well, because I could, and because I like brown flowers…..I was in a floral mood today, but not a bright flowery colourful floral mood, but I am definitely going more vibrant with these flowers in the very, very near future – the detail is a good as one has come to expect from Altenew, and I can’t wait to see these flowers in the purples and the reds and the pinks and the yellows and the……well, you get my drift.

The first layer of the leaves was stamped in yellow, the second layer in Saffron, and the third layer in one of the browns – who knew that would work as good as this for leaves?

The aqua you can see, is Aquatini from Catherine Pooler, blended onto the base rectangle, and the sentiment strips are from a Sue Wilson die set and stuck down after putting them through my Xyron.

I hope you are getting some crafting done yourself – have a good one, and I’ll catch you again real soon. :)

Bronze Thanks

Hi there. I have a CAS card to share with you today:

I took refuge in my craft room, as I may have to put one of my puddy tats to sleep this next week, and sought some challenges I could mix together. I have just received my Concord and 9th Turnabout Toolkit too, so I thought I would combine all things, play around a little and see what came up.

I used two green inks and two brown inks for the turnabout stamp – masking off the top and bottom – keeping the card quite neutral.

The sentiment is stacked four times with white card stock, with the uppermost letters being embossed with a bronze embossing powder to create some dimension and shine, which I think shows better in the first picture.

I do have to get my head around a couple of other things – I continue to be on the Design Team for ABC Christmas Challenge, and the new challenge starts next week, and I am also the Guest designer for CASology this coming week. What a roller-coaster I am having at the moment!

I shall be entering this card into the following challenges:

AAA Cards – use up to one third, optional masking

Watercooler challenges – anything goes

Addicted to stamps – anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Beautiful inside and out…

I have a card to share I started yesterday, but struggled with a sentiment. I finished it after work today, and am quite pleased how it turned out:

I stamped the Altenew ‘Extra Special‘ sprig and used Altenew inks for the layers, going with the darker reds, then die cut them with the matching dies.

The two background rectangles are – again – Reverse Confetti ‘Diagonal Stitches cover panel‘. I had some red card in my stash which matched the reds I had used, and used as you see.

The sentiment took hunting through my stash and finding the Ultimate Crafts ‘You are beautiful inside‘ stamp set, stamped in one of the reds, and stuck down onto the framelits dies from Stampin Up.

The two sprigs were positioned like this as I wanted some of the red at the top right edge to break the whiteness up there.

I shall be entering this into the following challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches – sketch

Rainbow Card Challenge – monochrome red romance

Swing by anytime….

Hello again. My crafty mojo seems to be with me after a week away on holiday. I have another card to share with you – and this one took a little planing:

I haven’t used this stamp set before, despite having it in my stash for a while, but it came to mind when I was thinking about a few challenges.

I stamped the images you see, and coloured them with Copics. I wanted a vibrant dragon, with matching little people. I then took some Distress Oxides and smooshed a panel, using colours which I felt were vibrant, but also didn’t interfere with the main images.

Using the ‘Tall Triangles‘ Reverse confetti die to cut the white card, I re-inserted one of the cut triangles in the smaller end, so it matches the sketch I am following, and stuck that down onto the inked panel.

I was toying with the idea of the dragon blowing smoke and flames etc – which are included in the stamp set – but I didn’t want him scaring the little people away……just as he is dropping by for a visit.

The sentiment is from Heffy Doodle and I thought matched perfectly, so it meant the dragon was actually a friendly one! What a story I had going on in my mind at the time – thinking about Puff The Magic Dragon – but not the sad part! (Showing my age, now!)

Guess what? I did what I normally do – and try not to – I forgot about the sentiment until I had already put the card together……and stamped it using my Misti just hoping and praying I didn’t mess it up…..I must learn to plan ahead more!

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Simply Less Is More – sketch

Addicted to CAS – Friends

Crafty Friends Challenge – animals/birds

The Library Craft Challenge – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I’d Pick You……

Hello everyone. It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post, as I have been enjoying a week in Tenerife with friends. Even though the weather has been cloudy, there has also been some sun…..and certainly warmer than the UK.

I have able to get to my craft room in between washing and drying clothes and visiting family, and I have created a card for a few challenges:

I have just bought a new tablet, too, and am in the process of changing things over. The Samsung ‘smart switch; is great – but you still have to OK a sign-on from another device – and I had forgotten how many apps I use each day! This photo is with the new tablet, and to me looks a little dark – despite my photo box………..I will obviously persevere.

I stamped and heat embossed the Altenew ‘Perfectly Perfect‘ flowers, and water-coloured them with the Altnew water-colour pan set. I only used one blue, and one green, but drew the colours out to be lighter at the edges of the petals, and darker in the centre.

The background is a Reverse Confetti die cut out of white, then grey, and I even lined up the stripes when I stuck them together!

The sentiment is from a Chloe stamp set I bought yesterday with a gift token I received for Christmas to a local craft shop. I had a challenging time wondering where to place the sentiment, as I usually do this at the bottom, but I decided to go higher this time. (There are a few bigger splatters than I liked which are hidden now!)

I shall be entering the following challenges:
Color Throwdown – navy blue, grey, green

Time Out Challenges – inspirational words

Happy Little Stampers January water-colour challenge – Watercolour with option of adding texture (background texture die)

I’m off to craft again – I’ve missed it despite the holiday – and am preparing for my Guest Designer stint over at CASology from 5th February…..I hope you can join us. Speaking of design Teams, have you also entered the ABC Christmas Challenge for January yet? It’s still open, and the theme is ‘A’ for anything goes, and/or ‘B’ for berries………….

You have a beautiful heart

I’ve been on a roll today, probably as I won’t be able to post so much next weekend as I have previous things arranged. This time a quick post for the card using the colours from Color Throwdown – black, brown, white – and the theme from Time Out challenges – Loving -:

This flower is one of the freebies when I attended the Altenew day in Daventry last year. It is a three step layer flower and leaves set, but I decided to colour with my Copics because – well – I could!

The outline of the flower was stamped in Gina K amalgam ink, then coloured with four – yes four – brown colours. I’m getting very daring with the Copics, aren’t I?

The leaves were stamped in Versafine black onyx, and the two layers stamped with the Altenew grey inks – the grey is my ‘added’ neutral.

The background is a purchase from Seven Hills Crafts with a couple of gift tokens from my family for Christmas. How lucky am I?

I hope you have a good week, and I’ll catch you all soon. :)

Die cutting Birthday

Hello there. I am finding my card making all over the place at the moment. I am working on Christmas cards for the next ABC Christmas Challenge, so I have a lot of Christmas stuff out.

I am also making some birthday cards to put together a stash of them for when needed- and that’s mostly stamping and colouring.

I also turned my hand this weekend to make a birthday card for my mum-in-law. She doesn’t follow my blog or Instagram, so I think I am safe posting this. Her birthday is on Tuesday – the big 80…………but that is the day after we bury her second husband……….my step-father-in-law……a true gentleman, who took great loving care of her for many years……

Mum-in-law particularly likes my intricate die-cutting cards, the kind I made lots of back when I started crafting – mainly because I couldn’t stamp clean and clear images! The arrival of the Misti stamping tool changed the cards I make, and the way I craft, and following other card making blogs and Instagram led me to the American crafting industry – wow. What a selection of crafty stuff over there – but lets also not forget out UK companies – Clearly Besotted, Heffy Doodle, to name just a couple.

Here I am rambling on – maybe I’m getting a little maudlin because of what the week is about to bring…..

Back to the card:

I turned to my Sue Wilson/Creative Expressions stash for virtually all of this card. The card stock – lilac and teal; the dies – stitched rectangles and leaves; the glitter jewels behind the lattice. The only other company was Crafters Companion – the sentiment, and the glitter card stock for the leaves.

I actually ‘gutted‘ the bottom two layers to die cut the top few labels, so it made it more economical, and raised some of the layers on foam tape. Another couple of pictures and close-up:

I am tempted to change the way I did the sentiment, as I think it gets a little lost on the card, but it certainly shines and glitters more in real life – may be the last photograph shows it better?

I also used my Gemini Go for the first time. I am finding a lot of my die-cutting is for small images, and I used it for the mosaic leaves here – first pass, cut straight through – no backwards and forwards – just done…..I am so impressed as these leaves are quite intricate. It now has a place on my craft table……

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Die Cutting Divas – glitter or foil with die cuts

Seize the Birthday – anything goes birthday (option of confetti not used)

The Alphabet Challenge – use some stitching – real or faux (Stitched rectangles)

Santa and Candy Cane

Hello there. Having some time to craft today, despite being full of cold – and boy did that kick in this afternoon! I am glad I managed to complete this card before my eyes went……

I have tried a new thing today, well , several actually, but the main thing was colouring a digi stamp. With Copics…..! I am a total beginner with Copics, a complete novice with digi stamps, and so my morning was challenging – but in a good way. This stamp is from QKR Stampede, and I fell in love with the image as soon as I saw it……….

I am really pleased how this turned out, and even I can see the dimension on the candy cane! I have been working through some colouring classes from Kit and Clowder. The videos are very informative, and just the encouragement to give a go is enough for me to – well – give it a go.

One of the most basic for me – sometimes my Copic just belches out colour…..messes your colouring completely. The answer – take the lid off the other end of the pen! That way it gets rid of the vacuum, and no more colour belching!! Wow! Who’d’a thunk!

It’s a game changer for me – yet another tool in my box. One I will keep trying, and even try some other digi stamps – but, yes, colouring still not the most enjoyable time for me……..only for short periods, before I get stamping and die cutting withdrawal!

The sentiment is from a Honey Doo set in Rockin’ Red from Catherine Pooler.

A little closer look: (in my brand new, bigger photo box! I think I’ll make some backgrounds which are more interesting)

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenges – occasions

Addicted to stamps – Holiday

QKR Stampede – anything goes

The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Christmas at Sweet Stamping – Christmas

Just a reminder – there is still plenty of time to play at ABC Christmas Challenge – you know it’s my first ever Design Team position – with the them of ‘A’ for anything goes, and/or ‘B’ for berries – I hope to see you there. :)