DT card

Snowy scene and zig zags

Hi again. There is a new challenge starting at ABC Christmas Challenge. The letters are ‘Y’ for Yuletide, and ‘Z’ for Zig Zags. We would like to see your Christmas related creations using one or both of these themes. Here is my take on the zig zag theme:

This isn’t the card I started out making, but I am pleased with the result, and the simplicity.

I used MFT ‘Snowy Scene Builder‘ for – well – the scene! This die set includes the two hills, the house, trees, and even the clouds. The cloud die I cut in half and used a piece either end of the card.

The house die I placed all the windows and the door back in – paper piecing I suppose – and die cut extra trees for a full treeline.

The zig zag paper background works quite well, I think, quite muted, but certainly adding interest to the card – which is why I kept the rest of the scene white.

The sentiment is from Uniko – quite a bold but open sentiment – and I tried to match one of the brown colours of the background paper with an Altenew ink.

I also took the Spectrum Noir glitter pen and added some to the roof of the house, the hills, and even the clouds – but that may be difficult to see.

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

xx

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Just Us Girls – anything goes

Aud Sentiments – Christmas or Winter sentiment

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas

Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge – atg with patterned paper

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.

xx

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

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

Blingy Star

Hi there. Another challenge has begun at Cardz 4 Galz and this time we want to see something beginning with ‘S’ as the main image. Here is my Design Team card:

A couple of close-ups of the bling:

Well – I certainly went all-out with the glitter and shine, didn’t I?

The card stick if from Crafters Companion, and the pack comes with 2 blue shiny card, and the glimmer card. I only used only of the shiny cards to keep it more-or-less monochrome. I do like monochrome when it comes to Christmas cards.

The die set which cut the three layer star is from Presscut, which I bought at a crafting show a couple of weeks ago – especially for this challenge, actually. As a DT member, you know we get the challenge themes well before the challenge goes live – and I’m planning my cards for the next month……talk about organised!

I didn’t know which layer to put where on this star – so I cut all the layers in both the blue and glimmer card, and played around with them. I decided to put a white background behind it, just to show-case the lower blue layer, and a frame cut out of some square dies I have to – well – frame it!

I die cut the sentiment and adhered as you see – onto the glimmer card so it would show up better, but leaving the actual star itself open in all it’s glory……..I may have to cut this out of other colours too – loving that star.

I did find that I had to use the metal shim in my Gemini Junior to make sure it cut through both these card-stocks, as they have a coating, making it so a little more pressure is needed to get through that coating.

I hope you can come and join us – I am sure you have lots of ‘S’ themed dies and stamps……..Santa, Star, Snowflakes – just to name some Christmas ones.

I hope to see you in our gallery – and please visit out DT members blogs for hints and tips into their own creations.

XX

Challenges I shall be entering:

Crafting with an attitude – anything goes

A Bit More Time to Craft – anything goes

Happy Little Stampers – anything goes with dies

Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge – Christmas with option of sparkle

One Word Sentiment

Hello there. There is anew challenge beginning at The Alphabet Challenge’ and this time the letter is ‘O’, and we want ‘One Word Sentiments‘. Here is my card:

This a new stamp set to me, and I couldn’t wait to colour it, especially after doing the first class (out of four) of a Copic colouring course.

I usually struggle with doing an image and sentiment on the same layer – usually smudge it, sometimes even colour outside the lines, but basically it is usually the last thing I do on the card which ruins it – or means I have to cover things up somehow.

For this card – it all went according to plan. No smudges, no outside line colouring – it just happened. Yay!

The background behaved too – trying a little blue for the sky, and a little green for the grass – I can see the main monkey is hanging from the tree, but still some green behind him/her…..

I hope you can come and join us – it would be great to see your creations using a one word sentiment. The Design Team have some fabulous cards and ideas………..I hope to see you there.

XX

Challenges I shall be entering:

Addicted to CAS – CAS creature

Crafty Card Makers – add a critter

Polkadoodles – anything goes

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes

Shades of Brown

Hello again. I am hosting the new challenge at Cardz4Galz, and chosen the theme of ‘Shades of Brown‘. I thought this would incite some creative juice production to make a girlie kinda card using this theme. Here is my card:

I started by stamping the Altenew ‘Engraved Flowers’ onto a dark brown card-stock, and heat embossed in white. I stamped out all the images, but only used the two you see above.

I then took that same dark brown card and a lighter brown card and dry embossed with a Sue Wilson embossing folder for some added background detail – but not too much, as I wanted this card to be quite simple.

The sentiment is also from the same stamp set, again heat embossed in white.

I hope you can pop along to our challenge blog and have a look at what the rest of the Design Team have made, and take the plunge and join us by entering. I look forward to seeing your ‘shade of brown’ creations in our gallery.

XX

Chllanges I shall be entering:

A bit more time to craft – anything goes

Brown sugar challenge – anything goes

Vrooming by to say….

Hello there. A new challenge has started at The ABC Christmas Challenge. This time the letters are ‘U’ for up-cycle, and ‘V’ for Velocity.

Here is my card for Velocity:

This stamp set was bought at the ‘pop-up-shop’ whilst attending my first Copic Colouring lesson last Saturday with Faye Wynn-Jones. I knew the letters for this challenge and so I thought this image fit perfectly.

I started by stamping then colouring the image, and using my Scan’n’cut to cut around the outline.

The background is Distress Oxide blending with a Heffy Doodle stencil, and not being too ‘blendy’ with the blues to make quite a stormy sky, adding white gouache and sparkle splatters. I also used the blue colours to just darken the edge of the silver glitter ‘road’ a little.

The puffs of snow and the Christmas hat is from MFT ‘Ready, Set, Snow’ stamp set – the little Christmas hat just about fitting onto the cycle helmet – I didn’t want to leave the helmet off and mask around it to add the hat – it’s dangerous riding a bike without a helmet!

The larger part of the sentiment is from the Gerda Steiner stamp set, and the smaller part is a freebie from Heffy Doodle with one of their orders.

I hope you can come and join us this month, and create a Christmas card with the challenge theme. The Design Team has some wonderful inspiration too – I hope ou can pop along and have a look – and then join us.I

I look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery.

xx

I shall also be entering the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas

Always Fun Challenges – anything goes

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge – let’s get ready for Christmas

Crafty Sentiments Designs – anything goes

Merry ‘tweet’mas

Hi everyone. Today is the start of a new challenge at The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. As always, the theme is Christmas anything goes.

For my card, I took the opportunity to use one if the new stamps I bought at a craft show near Coventry the other week:

I loved this simple stamp when I saw it, and decided all it needed was some Copic colouring. It’s also a tall and skinny card, managing to create it using an A4 sheet of card, without going into my 12×12 inch stash.

I used a selection of brown Copics, wanting the deer to be darker than the birds, which I wanted darker than the antlers – just so they stood out.

Of course – they are all robins, with their little red breasts.

I hope you are able to come along and join us in this challenge – I look forward to seeing your creations in our gallery – and don;t forget – making Christmas cards is almost a ‘must’ at this point in the year…….no pressure!!

Also – I’m struggling with photographing my cards in the darker days – have a light box, have a light stand – but just can’t seem to get the lighting quite right. I seem to have done better with this photo – but I think it’s a work in progress………if you have any suggestions, hints, tips – feel free to either leave a comment on my blog – or send me an email….. xx

Challenges I shall be entering:

Trimmies Craft Challenge – animals

Clean and Simple on Sunday – CAS animals

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge – anything goes

Colour Crazy Challenge – anything goes colouring

Pretty Bows

Hello there. There is a new challenge beginning at Cardz 4 Galz, and the theme this time is ‘Pretty Bows’. We would love to see your paper-crafting related projects with this theme.

We are also have a Design Team call – so if you can create a card every two weeks following a set theme, be able to comment on your allocated numbers in the entries – I usually comment more – and host a challenge or two, picking the spotlight winners – then please come along and submit your entry for consideration. I’m looking forward to seeing what you create, and looking forward to greeting a new teamie…… xxxx

Back to the current challenge. Here is my card:

I began with a lilac card layer using Sue Wilson Stitched Squares, cut a smaller square with one of the layers, and then die cut one of the verso layers from the tonic die set. The bows in this verso layer can be lifted for added dimension, as you can see from the close photo.

After cutting a couple more layers from the Tonic set, I created a lattice bow using the Spellbinders tiered Mulitloop Bows die set, using a gem brad to put the layers of the bow together, and added to the card as you see.

I decided not to put a sentiment on this card, and will instead use a verse or poem in the middle instead, as I feel this could be quite a generic card.

I hope you can visit the Cardz 4 Galz challenge and see the creations from the Design Team – and I also hope you can come and join us – I look froward to seeing what you create.

XX

Sparkle and Texture Christmas

Hi there. A new challenge has started at ABC Christmas Challenge. The letters this time are ‘S’ for Sparkle, and ‘T’ for Texture. Here is my take:

I die cut the Stamps By Me Bauble outline of of green shiny card, then the actual bauble inside from Crafters Companion glitter card, adhering them together.

The white piece of card is embossed using the We R Memory Keepers Next Level embossing folder called ‘Gemstone’. I liked the ‘fractured’ look of this folder, almost like ice crystals, I think.

The whole card is 5×7 inches, a size and shape I like to work with quite regularly.

The Altenew die-cut sentiment put to keep the card quite clean and simple. I was toying with the idea of putting some red on the berries, but I like this green look for the card, and adding another colour didn’t seem right.

I hope you can come and join us for this challenge, and I look forward to seeing your creations. Feel free to pop along to the challenge and see the other amazing creations from the Design Team. :) :)

Challenges I shall be entering:

Crafty Hazel nuts Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas with option of something beginning with ‘S’ (sparkle)

Simply Less Is More – CAS metallics

2 Sisters on the Blog – something beginning with ‘S’ (Sparkle)

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – atg Christmas