or ‘I’ for Icicles

Hello once again. It is my turn to host the challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge. We have reached the letters ‘H’ and ‘I’, and we want to see your Christmas and festive creations with the themes of Houses/homes and/or Icicles. Here is my card:

I’m trying to use my patterned papers – I have loads, and sometimes struggle knowing what to do with them. This background paper came as part of a Simon Says Stamp card kit, and is from Whimsy Stamps – I had no problem with using this and the rest of the papers won’t last long, especially when creating festive, winter or Christmas creations.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/Festive makes following one or both of our two themes. The Design Team has created some fabulous inspiration – and very different makes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

My Time To Craft Christmas – Christmas and make a scene

Just Us Girls – stripes

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – anything goes with patterned paper

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HLS CAS – Flames or Fire

Hello. I am continuing to be a guest designer for Happy Little Stampers CAS challenge – and this time the theme is ‘Flames or fire’. Here is my card:

This card took a lot of thinking about – a lot. I was going to go down the fireplace route, then I was going with camp fire, then birthday candles – so much choice actually – but I decided to go with some candles – as you see here.

This is a Stampin Up set – the outline, then a couple of stamps for the filling patterns of the candles, then a stamp for the flames. I ke0pt the colour scheme quite muted, the same on each candle, so the flames seem to stand out more. The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

Instead of stamping directly onto a card base, I decided to stamp and die cut the image with a stitched square – just one layer, still CAS, but some added interest.

I hope you can come and join us in our challenge – there are also some other challenges going live each month – a water-colour challenge, a die-cutting challenge, a Christmas Challenge, and even a stencil challenge.

I hope you can come and join us in at least one of our challenges – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Here Is A Place To Start – pick a shape (rectangle candles and square die cut)

Fab’N’Funky Challenge – Christmas

Addicted To Stamps – Christmas

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

SPREAD THE MERRY LITTLE LOVE AND GRAB A BADGE!

Lot’s Of Birthday Wishes

Hello there. I am very pleased and excited to announce I am going to be a Surprise Party Guest and Design Team member at Seize The Birthday for the next couple of months.

Here is my party guest invitation and challenge theme for the next two weeks, followed by my card:

The invitation to join this challenge came just a day or two after I had received this ‘Lift Flap Grid‘ die from Mama Elephant – it’s almost fated…..

I started with a piece of Distress white heavy card stock and ink blended three Distress Inks, then cut that with the lift flap grid. I initially placed a piece of white card behind the back, but I thought this was going to be a little stark, so I used some ‘Dove‘ card stock from Concord & 9th.

The white grid I had die cut – I do this just to see how things cut and how they look – I placed on the grey card, drew a little pencil line around each opening – so I knew where I wanted to put each of the tiny little sentiments.

I hunted through my stash – using the CML app – and found a multitude of tiny sentiments – I was stuck deciding on which to use – but just went with it.

I then stamped a few of the images from ‘Little Cat Agenda’ – well I stamped them all actually and picked which I wanted to use -then coloured as you see – quite muted colours, but I think they stand out well on this flap background.

The theme of this challenge is always birthday, with an optional topping each challenge. I am looking forward to be a part of this challenge, and I look forward to seeing you in the gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Watercooler Challenge – occasions

Simon says Stamp Wednesday Challenge – anything goes

Lil red Wagon Challenge – Happy Birthday

Die Cut Divas – window or aperture card

Happy Christmas Deer

Hello. A new challenge has started at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. As always, the theme is anything goes Christmas/Festive. Here is my card:

I started with ink blending the background using Distress Inks Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers. Just the two colours – and where they met, a light coverage, as I knew I wanted to stamp the hillside there.

Once the panel was dry, and the hillside stamped, I die-cut the rectangle with a stitched die to add some interest, then stamped the sentiment.

The three deer were stamped in Gina K amalgam ink, then coloured with Copics, adding some blush to their cheeks, and some white gel pen for highlights.

I thought the two prancing deer were looking down at a very drunken deer – but maybe that’s the way my mind is working currently……..

I hope you can come and join us and add some festive creations to your stash – I look forward to seeing what you create. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – occasion

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Watercooler Challenge – Occasions

Aud Sentiments Challenge – animals and a sentiment

Monster hugs and love….

Hello. I have a monster slimline card to share using the colours from the Color Throwdown Challenge:

This stamp and die set from Concord and 9th was one of the freebies when I attended the Virtual Crop On The Cape last weekend, hosted by Jenn Shurkus. I mean – how generous was this? Concord and 9th also included the matching die set too…………There was a session with Becky Roberts showcasing this stamp and die set, and I couldn’t wait to play with it using these colours.

The papers I stamped the images on are from Lawn Fawn, and those dots shine – as you can certainly see from the uppermost heart.

The monster has a stamp for it’s belly – even though mostly covered up – and those fingers? A separate stamp and die for those.

The background circles/bubbles die – I did toy with the idea of a colour behind it, then toyed with the idea of paper piecing all those circles in – some of them coloured……..well, that didn’t happen.

All the circles fell out when I die cut it – and even though I tried to match some up – I was getting a little frustrated…….so I left them all out. I like the tone on tone white I must say – the monster and hearts are the centre of attention!

I managed to find some purple polka dot ribbon – perfect for the balloon ribbon. I decided to attach arms to the hearts too – it made me giggle…….monster hearts……

I enjoyed creating this card and shall be entering the following challenges:

Color Throwdown – pink, yellow, purple, aqua

Die Cut Divas – Slimline card

Z is for Zoology

Hello. The Alphabet Challenge has reached the end of the alphabet, and for the letter ‘Z’, Caz has chosen ‘Zoology‘ (Study of Animals). Here is my card:

I actually struggled with this theme. I have lots of animal stamps and dies, but I didn’t know which direction to go in. In the end I went with a rainbow selection of animal from Clearly Besotted. A simple layout and design, with simple colouring.

I toyed with adding die-cut letters, but when I was sorting the layout, it didn’t look right – sometimes you got to go with your gut!

I hope you can come and join us with your ‘Zoology’ inspired creations. The design Team has some amazing creations – we all seemed to go a different way……. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

A Bit More Time To Craft – anything goes

Shopping Our Stash – rainbow or rainbow colours

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring – week 11

Tea and/or Coffee at Cardz 4 Galz

Hello there. I am the host for the new challenge at Cardz 4 Galz , and I have chosen the theme of ‘Tea and/or coffee’. Here is my card:

As of next week in the UK, we can start to meet with people in our gardens – these current restrictions are easing slowly, but hopefully the weather will improve so we can as least sit and have a coffeee/tea and a natter…….

I decided to play with a Clearly Besotted stamp set – and my scan-n-cut before my blade became too blunt – and used a bunch of animals meeting up for coffee…………..coffee for me, anyway.

One coloured and die cut, I used a Mama Elephant slimline die for the light grey frame, and the fence, and stuck each animal down as you see.

The owl is holding two drinks as he is waiting for me, holding my drink, as I am taking the photo……in my world – anything is possible!

I hope you can come and join us with your girlie cards following our theme the design team have some amazing inspiration – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Animals Challenge – anything goes with an animal

2 Sisters On The Blog – coffee

Die Cut Divas – slimline card

Addicted To Stamps – Make Your Mark

Paper Minutes Challenge – food and drink

Lots of sneaky kitties

Hello. It’s been almost a week since I last posted, but I have just spent the past three days virtually attending the ‘Crop on the Cape‘ hosted by Jenn Shurkus……….and I am absolutely shattered!

A fabulous two full days, and one evening – all at Eastern Time and I am GMT – so later start – but finished the day at 2am, 1am, and 11pm respectively…….chock-a-block with inspiration, laughs, a little time to create – but all worth it. Learnt so much, and some techniques I’m going to have to have a better try at – but all-in-all a great virtual event.

I was also on Whatsapp with my sister the whole time – she lives in Canada so ET was her time – but it meant we were crafting and getting involved together.

Anyhoo – back to my card. I cleaned and sorted the mess from the weekend – the ‘Craftermath’, as it were – , and decided to do a very CAS card – two cards for the price of one actually:

I started by creating white card base, then die-cut the Simon says Stamp ‘Sneaky Kitties‘ die out of dark blue card. The eyes stayed in the kitties – so I decided to leave them there, adding some tape to the back so they stay in, then cut the strip to a couple of inches and added foam pads to stick down to the card base. The sentiment is also from Simon Says Stamp, stuck down after running it through my Xyron.

The left-over piece of blue card – I used that for the second card. I glued it straight down onto the card base, put the die back in place and dotted where the eyes would be – then used a black gel pen to make them just a little more noticeable. The sentiment is from Mama Elephant.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks – CAS

The Paper Players – CAS Animals

AAA Cards – CAS, along the edge, with a twist of using only die cuts

Scruffy Cat Christmas

Hello there. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge for the next couple of weeks. The theme is always anything goes Christmas/festive. Here is my card:

I bought this digital image from Whimsy Stamps quite a while ago, but as with most of the digital images I buy – I forget I have them. I was sorting out my files and folders – cos what else am I going to do to keep busy at the moment – and ‘found’ lots of images I had completely forgotten about…….there will be more of these in the future, I’m afraid. :)

Once printed , and coloured with Copics, I die-cut with MFT wonky rectangles for a little more interest, and then used some patterned card-stock – I forget where from, and found a sentiment stamp from a previous Simon Says Stamp card kit which matched perfectly the colours and the gingham effect.

So this Christmas Scruffy cat turned out to be quite dramatic in the end.

I hope you can come and join us and increase your Christmas stash – I look forward to seeing what you create. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Krafty Chicks Challenge – Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Cup Cake Inspirations – Cats

Colour Crazy Challenge – atg colouring

Bee Happy…..

Hello once again. The Alphabet Challenge has started a new challenge, and having reached the letter ‘Y’ – Dawn has chosen ‘Yellow’ as the theme for the card. Here is my creation:

I really enjoyed creating this card. I recently attended a Jenn Shurkus online class about Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. During that class, we made lots and lots of different background ink smooshing, blending, water-colouring with both, and also used Distress water-color card stock, and also Distress heavystock – which I have never used before. I learnt to dry between each layer, to not think too much about what goes where – and just to play….

That class reminded me how brilliant the Distress products are – and how much fun it was to create a background – and to have an inky mess. Now I just can’t stop myself – any excuse to get inky and messy – loving it!

This yellow layer is using two Distress Inks – and layering at least 5 times…….just two colours of yellow. I was also ‘Jennabled’ to purchase the Ranger Heat Tool – so much better than trying to use my embossing tool – much gentler, less warping.

The honeycomb die was cut from white card stock, and those greeny/browny pieces? Well that was another messy ink layered background also die-cut with the same die, and just adding some of the pieces. The white was too stark on it’s own.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations featuring yellow – I look forward to seeing you there. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps – Die cuts or stencils or both – die cuts for me

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

We Love 2 Create – atg mixed media – (lots of ink smooshing, splattering, watering – inky messing!)

Mix It Up Challenge – atg mixed media with option inlaid die cut – option not taken

Crafty Creations Challenge – anything goes