Christmas

Greetings For This Holiday Season

I have another card to share after being in my craft room for a few hours yesterday – can you tell hubby has been away for a few days? Lots of crafty play time…..

I used quite a few Spellbinder products to create this card, but the skates are from Memory Box.

The card itself is a larger 5×7 inch as I knew I wanted to get more on it than usual.

For the colour scheme, I wanted a teal for the skates, and red for the cardinal and flowers, so I searched through my colour cubes to see what background colour would work with those colours. There were serval darker options, but I wanted a lighter background,

The background panel is a piece of sage card stock, cut slightly smaller that the card base to add a white border, bringing in some of the white on the other elements. This panel was then embossed using a Spellbinders embossing folder.

I then set to die cutting all the things

The memory box skates were die cut using teal, white, and silver card stock, then layered together. I stitched red twine through the holes for the laces, then set them aside.

The sled was die cut in silver and white, then glued together, before turning to the flowers, foliage and the bird.

I used a combination of glue, 3D foam, and small pieces of spare card to attach all the elements, playing with the arrangement a few times.

The final addition was the sentiment, layered a couple of times for stability, then gold gems added to the centre of the poinsettia.

A lot of die cutting, but that is actually my favourite way to create.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Die Cut Divas – die cuts and critters

A Cut Above – anything goes with die cuts

Triple B – birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Christmas (Or Not) Bingo – column O – no stamping – free – pearls/gems/enamel dots

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Fill Your Heart With Joy

Hello. I have certainly been having some crafty play this weekend. I have another card to share using products from yet another virtual event from 2024 – I really need to organise the products from these events and play more with them.

The tree image was stamped onto white card stock and white heat embossed – all the white on the tree is from this embossing. I then used three tones of green from Pinkfresh Studio and ink blended – light at the top, going darker further down the tree.

After wiping excess ink from the white embossing, I then used the matching die to cut it out.

The background panel was dry embossed using a cover-plate, then using my green blending brush – no further ink added – I then lightly went around the edges to create a subtle halo effect in the centre of the panel.

The sentiment was heat embossed in silver, and cut out with a circle die. I used the same silver embossing powder to create a panel out of which I die cut some foliage. I also ink blended a smaller panel in the green, and used that to cut out more foliage.

After sticking the background panel down, I die cut two more trees from white card stock and layered them together, adding the coloured tree on top. This was stuck down to the panel, the foliage added, and then the sentiment added to the top of the tree – I didn’t want it obscuring too much of the tree – hence the placement at the top.

The final addition were three clear drops – just three – I restrained myself…..

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Crafters Café – anything goes – option of Christmas taken

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Have A Cool Yule

I had some time yesterday to attend a virtual craft event, so whilst listening and watching – I tend to do the cards at a later date – I created this card:

The background panel was created by using some plum coloured card stock from my stash, and a Simon Hurley snowflake stencil with silver glitter paste. This paste is semi-translucent, so you get some lovely hues through the glitter.

That had to dry for a while, so I used the sentiment die from Hero Arts (a product received from another recent virtual event) using white glitter card stock for the shadow layer, and lilac card stock for the top most sentiment layer.

I die cut the sentiment a few times with different colours of purple, until I decided on the lighter lilac colour. The shadow layer was die cut three times to add more dimension.

I struggled to get all the glitter from the paste to show in the photo, but I think you can see what I mean by the different hues within it.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Jingle Belles Rock – Christmas and snowy

Crafters Café – anything goes – option of Christmas taken

Christmas (or not) Bingo – column N – Christmas – masking/stenciling – free

ABC Christmas Challenge – Uncluttered and/or Vertical

Hello once again. ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘U’ and ‘V’. We have the Christmas themes of:

‘U is for Uncluttered’ & ‘V is for Vertical’

Here are my cards

For the first card, I used the ‘Sketched Poinsettia‘ from The Greetery again, and gold heat embossed the image onto some Kraft card stock, using just the one layer of the layering stencils to colour it in. I wanted a softer overall feel to this card. The panel was cut slightly smaller than A2 and attached to a white card base, with the foiled sentiment attached as you see.

The second card took a little more time and planning.

To cover the vertical aspect of the challenge, I used a slimline card base. Onto that I used a Heffy Doodle slimline die set to create the blue layer, then the white layer with three windows. Each of the windows cut out a scalloped square and all three of those squares I ran through an embossing folder to create some detail, making sure the pattern was square for each of them.

The layers were attached to the card base, the squares inserted, then I used a die set from The Greetery for the stockings, and a die set from Scrapbook & Cards Today – received as part of a recent virtual event – to create the tree and candles for the bottom two windows.

The greenery was also part of the die set, arranged as you see, and the foiled sentiment was added.

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas creations following one or both of our themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of trees/leaves not taken

Cut It Up – use more than one die

Mix It Up – anything goes – option of fancy folds not taken

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts

12 Months Of Christmas Link-Up – anything goes Christmas – option of snowfall not taken

Greetings from Santa

Hello. The new challenge at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge has just started. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas‘. Here is my card:

This card was a trial to see how it would look, and it turned out so much better than I had hoped.

The background panel is using a lot – I mean a lot – of the stickers from a Tim Holtz idea-ology sticker pad. I just took them out of the book haphazardly and stuck them down to the panel. I didn’t think too much about it to begin with, and then thought a little more when the panel was getting full – just so I could fill in the gaps.

The panel with the stickers was cut down a little, then attached to a white card base.

The main Santa sticker was adhered to a vellum panel die cut with Pinkfresh Studio ‘Double Stitched Fancy Frames‘, then adhered to the sticker panel.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations and get your stash ready for Christmas.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

Love To Craft – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

12 Months of Christmas Link-up – anything goes Christmas – option of snowfall not taken

Red Poinsettia

Hello everyone. I have a card to share for the new challenge at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge.

I again used the ‘Sketched Poinsettia’ from Waffle Flowers Crafts, but this time I used more traditional bold colours.

I first stamped then gold heat embossed the image, then used the layering stencils to colour it in. This was then die cut with the matching die, and put to one side whilst I thought about the background.

The striped red paper was cut to the size of an A2 card, and I then used some letter press plates from Pinkfresh Studio to hot foil the frame and the inner rectangular piece, cutting them out with the matching dies. This gave some subtle gold highlights to certain places of the die cuts.

The poinsettia was added, and then a hot foiled sentiment on the top. The final touch were some gold gems.

I hope you can come and join us in our challenge, and I look forward to seeing you in our gallery.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Colourful Options – any colour, any theme, any combination

Crafts Galore – anything goes

12 Months Of Christmas Link-up – anything goes Christmas – option of circles & squares not taken

Crafters Café – flowers

Beautiful Blossoms – anything florals

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

A Tree and Stockings

Hello once again. It is time for the new challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge. Helen is hosting this time round, and having reached the letters ‘S‘ and ‘T‘, we have the themes of:

S is for Stockings’ and T is for Tree’

I created a card for each of the themes:

S is for Stockings

This first card was created using dies from The Greetery – the stockings and the foliage. Once these die cut, and the stockings layered together, I created a background white panel using a Spellbinders embossing folder, and added the elements by creating a swag of greenery, hanging the stockings from that swag, then also adding ombre gems.

The sentiments is gold foiled.

T is for Tree

For this second card, I used this fabulously fun die set from A Pocket Full Of Happiness – ‘Happy Rexmas’. There is certainly a lot of die cutting for this image, and I also used an embossing folder on the tree to create the added details – the same embossing folder I used for the background, from Spellbinders.

On the die set, the words came directly from the dinosaur mouth, but I didn’t want to create a larger than A2 card, so I added them above.

I hope you can come and join us by sharing your Christmas creations following one or both of our themes. If it isn’t clear which theme has been followed – then please let us know. There seems to have been a few entries to our challenge which do not match our themes and had to be deleted……

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Die Cut Divas – anything goes with die cuts

A Cut Above – anything goes with die cuts

12 Months Of Christmas Link-Up – anything goes Christmas – option of circles & squares not taken

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Joy To The World

Hello everyone. After a busy few days over the Bank Holiday weekend, including a de-stash stall in our market area here in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, I find I am a day late in posting for the new challenge at The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

The Santa Collage is from Waffle Flower – such a joyous and festive layering stencil set. I first die cut the collage panel, laid the stencils in order, and ink blended using traditional Christmas colours – a bright red, a bright green – then added white gel pen for some extra details.

I also added some pencil scrawls across the list Santa is holding, and gold acrylic paint dots on the solid red present.

The sentiment is from a previous foiling session – I have quite a few ready for attaching to cards – and is from Pinkfresh Studio.

I will definitely be using this stencil set again, maybe in different colour ways, but I do like the traditional look for this.

I hope you can come and join us with your creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Stencil Fun – use stencils – option of trees and/or leaves not taken

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Addicted To Stamps & More – die cuts and/or stencils

Ally’s Angels – anything goes

ABC Christmas Challenge – P, Q, & R

Hello everyone. It is my turn to host the new challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge. We have three letters and themes for you to choose for your Christmas projects:

P is for Pastel colours

Q is for Quick

R is for Robins

I chose to make two cards covering two of the challenge themes:

Q is for Quick:

For this card, I used a Spellbinders embossing folder for the background panel, and onto that I adhered some die cut washi from Pinkfresh Studio, then a previously foiled sentiment. Simple and quick, but I think very effective none-the-less.

R is for Robins:

This card was little more faffy, but fun creating.

I first used the two layering Robin stamps from The Greetery, then the matching dies to cut them out. I also wanted some branches, so used another layering stamp set from The Greetery ‘Blooming Branch’.

The background is a panel of silver glitter card stock, with branches adhered to it. When I came to add the branches and the birds, I though the background was too busy, and I wanted the Robins to stand out more, but still keep the glitter effect.

I used a Pinkfresh Studio die to cut out a shaped piece of vellum, added that on top of some of the branches, then added branches and the two birds on top of that.

The final addition was a silver foiled sentiment:

I hope you can come and join us with your creations following one, two, or all three of our themes. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

wreath card:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of summer fun not taken

Ellibelle’s Corner – anything goes

12 Months Of Christmas Link-Up – anything goes Christmas

Robin card:

Cut It Up – die cuts and add a sentiment

Craft Rocket – animals

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Triple B – birds and/or butterflies and/or blooms

Sending Snowflake Kisses

Hello once again. The Holly & Ivy Christmas Challenge is starting a new challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

I started by die cutting the snowflake panel with white card stock using a Pinkfresh Studio and layering some silver glitter card stock behind to shine through the openings. This was added to the card base, then I set to ink blending the Waffle Flower ‘Postage Collage Snowman’ layering stencils.

I ink blended the images, then created a slightly darker halo effect around each image to highlight them a little more.

This was then die cut using the Postage Collage die, then each image cut apart to create individual pieces, and arranged on the snowflake background.

The sentiment is silver foiled.