Christmas

Hats and Inky

Hello. It’s time for the new challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge. Carol is hosting this time round and having reached the letters ‘H’ and ‘I’ the themes are:

H is for Hats

I is for Inky

Here is my card for both themes:

I started with the background, as I knew I would need drying time for this – something I am a little too impatient for usually.

I applied some crackle paste through the Tim Holtz stencil in the middle of the panel – not straight, very haphazard – and set that aside to dry. I left it until the following day, then took out my Mica sprays – and just sprayed, added water, sprayed again, moved it around, added some drops of water – you know how it goes……then let that dry…..

I then used some Tim Holtz die sets for the foliage, which were die cut from a couple of previously created ink smooshing panels, with the berries die cut from Spellbinders red glitter foam.

I used a Lawn Fawn die and silver glitter foam for the large sentiment, backed with a layer of white card stock for some stability.

I wanted to add a Christmas hat so Tim Holtz to the rescue again with one of his die sets – and red and white glitter foam from Spellbinders.

This background is really shimmery in real life – difficult to capture in a photo – but I think you can make out some shimmer and shine.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Addicted To Stamps and More – die cuts and stencils

Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Creative Fingers – anything goes

Craft Rocket – layer it up

Creative Artiste Mixed Media – anything goes mixed media

Seasonal Cat

The ABC Christmas Challenge has reached the letters ‘C‘ and ‘D‘, Helene is hosting this time round, and we have the themes of ‘Cats’ and ‘Dogs‘ – Christmas of course. Here is my card:

I used this large cat die set from Spellbinders/Stampendous to create the cat. A few layers to him, but quickly put together. I coloured the ears, nose and mouth before adding them.

I wanted a hat large enough to be able to fit his head, so searched the CML app to find one in my stash. I Saw this – also from Spellbinders – so I die cut the two layers from glitter foam.

I then chose the colour background which would enable to cat to stand proud and used an embossing folder. The sentiment is from a previous foiling session

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas creations featuring a cat and/or dog – the Design Team has some fabulous inspiration for you. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Christmas Bingo – holiday Bingo – column ‘G’ – die cuts, red, free

Peace On Earth – Christmas

Krafty Chicks – Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

2 Crafty Critter Crazies – anything goes with a critter

Stenciled Merry Christmas

The new challenge has started at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas/Festive’. Here is my card:

I started by using the layering stencil from Simon Says Stamp to create the background and let the inks dry.

I then add some gold heat embossing to the centre of the flowers, and used a gold marker pen to add some extra small and larger dots around the background.

Using Gina K Master Layouts dies, I cut the black layer, then the stencilled layer, and added to a white card base.

The foiled sentiment was added, and then some iridescent gems here and there.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Avenue 613 Create – anything goes – option embossing wet or dry

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Lil Patch Of Crafty Friends – anything goes

Stencil Fun – stencils – option of leaves taken

Crafty Gals Corner – dots and/or stripes (gold dots around the background)

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Glittery Joy

Hello once again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge – anything goes Christmas/festive. Here is my card:

This ‘joy’ die set is from The Stamp Market, who were the guest company as part of the Pinkfresh Studio ‘Create and Connect‘ event. Such a gorgeous stamp, die, and stencil set. I chose to use the die for the word, and die cut out of Spellbinders gold glitter foam, layered with a couple of layers of white card stock for a little more stability.

The background is a dry embossed panel, adhered to the card base, and the word adhered onto that as you see, with a slight overlap on the bottom at each side of the middle letter.

I then used Spellbinders dies and Concord & 9th card stock for the flower, leaves, and foliage, arranged on and around the middle letter. A few gold glitter foam dots in the two diagonal corners and the middle of the poinsettia.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – anything goes

CYHTP – embossing folder – option of Turkey/Thanksgiving not taken

My Time To Craft – Christmas and Poinsettias

Daisy Chain Challenge – Christmas/Winter

Unicorn Challenge – Christmas

Die Cut Divas – die cuts – any holidays

Most Magical Time of the Year – anything goes Christmas/Halloween

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

Christmas Florals

Hello again. The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge has started a new challenge. As always, the theme is ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

For the main images, I used an older Concord & 9th stamp set, and heat embossed in gold. I then Distress pencils to colour the image, and added some gold marker to the berries for more detail.

I then used the matching outline die to cut it out, and layered this image onto the black panel to ensure it stood out, then onto a white card base.

I die cut the ‘merry’ with gold card stock, and layered that a couple of times with black – a little off-set.

I hope you can come and join us and add to your Christmas stash – I look forward to seeing you in our gallery. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Beautiful Blossoms – anything goes with flowers/florals

Love To Craft – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Mix It Up Challenge – anything goes – option of aperture not taken

Crafting Happiness – anything goes

It’s Snow Day………

Hello. I was proud to be the winner for the Christmas Craft Creations May 2023 challenge, and therefore offered a Guest design Team spot for July.

This is the second card I created for the half-way reminder post.

I used a panel of dark blue card stock, and the same embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp as my first Guest DT card, then gently rubbed a white pigment ink pad over the top to highlight the snowflakes.

Whilst that was drying. I die cut all the elements I wanted to use from the ‘Santa’s Workshop’ die set from Spellbinders, then arranged them all as you see.

The lighter blue panel is ink smooshed and then die cut. The hills and sentiment die cut from silver glitter card.

We are half way through the challenge, so you have plenty of time to join us with your ‘anything goes‘ Christmas creations. xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Craft Rocket – Christmas in July

12 Months Of Christmas – anything goes Christmas

Country View Challenge – 4 legged friends

Sparkles Forum Christmas – Christmas and include gold

Get Creative – Christmas in July

Peace On Earth – anything goes Christmas

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

ABC Christmas Challenge – N and O

Hello there. I am hosting the new challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge. We have reached the letters ‘N’ and ‘O’ and the themes for those letters are:

‘N’ for No Layers – card base only, no added layers, and/or ‘O’ is for Ornaments.

Here are my cards:

The ‘No layers’ card was created by using layering stencils from Pinkfresh Studio called ‘Winter Foliage’. I first stamped the image then used the stencils to colour in the images, and added some gold dots to the berries. I also went in with the gold marker and added some extra gold dots in the more open spaces.

The sentiment was heat embossed.

The ‘O is for Ornament’ card was created using a foil plate from Hero Arts – silver onto black card stock, adding a foiled sentiment in the centre, and even though I tried to restrain myself with the silver gems – I couldn’t resists just filling in the centre of the bauble with them……..

I hope you can come and join us with your Christmas/Festive creations using one or both of our themes. I even have a couple of stamp sets up for grabs to a random winner – so everyone is in with a chance of winning these:

I shall be entering the following challenges:

One layer card:

Inkspirational – Christmas In July

Craft Rocket – Christmas in July

Aud Sentiments – stencils and/or Christmas in July and a sentiment

Sparkles Forum Christmas Challenge – Christmas and include gold

Get Creative – Christmas in July

Bauble card:

A Perfect Time To Craft – anything goes

12 Months Of Christmas – anything goes Christmas

Dragonfly Dreams – Christmas in July

The Crafty Addicts – anything goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Believe In The Magic Raccoon

Hello. I was proud to be the winner for the Christmas Craft Creations May 2023 challenge, and therefore offered a Guest design Team spot for July.

The July theme is ‘anything goes Christmas’.

Here is my card:

The background was created using a Simon Says Stamp embossing folder and some light blue card stock. I cut that down slightly and adhered with 3D foam to the card base.

I die cut the ‘Christmas Bandit‘ from Spellbinders layered together – fiddly but I persevered – and added some red glitter foam and silver glitter card for the hat.

I used another Spellbinder die set for the cloche, the frame itself from silver glitter card, and I die cut it again to get the white inner piece, and dry embossed that with another Simon Says Stamp embossing folder. I created a hill by cutting some glitter card to size.

The sentiment is a silver foiled strip, and I chose that sentiment because who doesn’t want to believe in the magic of a Christmas raccoon…….?

I hope you can come and join the team with your Christmas creations. xx

I shall be entering th3e folloowing challenges:

Inkspirational – Christmas in July

My Time To Craft Christmas – Christmas and Christmas animals

Crafty Animals – anything goes with an animal

Country View Challenge – 4 legged friends

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Ho Ho Ho

Hello once again. A new challenge has started at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. The theme is always ‘anything goes Christmas’. Here is my card:

The snowflake background was created using a Simon Says Stamp embossing folder with blue card, then swiping some white pigment over the top for highlights.

I cut this down slightly and adhered to a white card base.

Now onto the construction of the main image – lots of die cutting and layering, using different combinations of red and gold card stock.

I added some silver glitter foam die cuts to the hat and the cuff of Santa.

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

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Most Magical Time of the Year – anything goes Christmas or Halloween

Die Cut Divas – die cuts and critters

12 Months of Christmas – Christmas – option inspired by Christmas Song

Inkspirational – emboss your background

Sparkles Forum – no stamping allowed

Christmas Fireplace

A new challenge has started at ABC Christmas Challenge. Having reached the letters ‘L’ and ‘M’, we want to see your Christmas/Festive makes with ‘L for lots of layers‘ or ‘M for Mice’. Here is my card:

It is very obvious I went with the ‘lots of layers’ theme to create this card.

The background panel is dry embossed using a Simon Says Stamp embossing folder.

The main image and additions are all from Spellbinders. This is another card where I had to watch a YouTube video to see how everything came together, and from that video made the decisions for each colour.

I wanted the stockings hanging on the mantle to be a pop of colour, and added them with gold string through their loops, but didn’t glue them down, so they move around when the card is picked up.