Happy snowman

Hello Lovely Crafters
Whoosh, there was another week and now we have a new challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. 

This week Myrna is hosting and we have a sketch challenge to test your creativity. 

I wasted a lot of time fiddling about with this and not making anything I liked so one evening I set myself the challenge of making a card in half an hour. I know other people do this but I never have. I'm more of an 'ink a bit, cut a bit, go away and think and then stamp some more' kind of girl. 

I abandoned everything I had tried and used this Brushoed background which I already had. It wouldn't have taken long to do but obviously the drying would have been more than half an hour. 

I stamped all over it and then cut a white, snowy hill from a scrap of plain white. Stamped the snowman on a scrap and cut him out. 
Once the hill was glued I stamped the snowman in place so I didn't have to cut out his arms! Then I could stick on the cut out. 
Sentiment and die cut stars and it was done. Oh yes, and I added some Stickles along the brow of the hills. 
It is mounted on plain white with the edge coloured with Pro-marker as I couldn't find anything to suit. 

So that is my happy snowman, I'm not sure what he is looking at...

I've used:
Snowman - Leane Creatief
Snowflakes - Cut and make from The Range
Snowflake and sentiment stamps - Creative Stamping #49

Thanks for visiting and enjoy your day. x

52CCT - January sketch

Hello lovely crafters!

Just when you thought the fuss was all over, 52 Christmas Card Throwdown are back with our first challenge of 2018.
Yes that's right - we are reverting to a weekly challenge to keep you on your toes and we have plenty of fun ideas to inspire you.
Have you managed to draw breath since Christmas? We've barely put away the decorations and taken down the cards and now we are starting again. 

This week is a nice simple sketch to get you started:

I started with piece of water colour paper and brushed on the sky with Ink Dusters using torn paper to make the snowy hills. This doesn't always work for me but this time it came together very well and quickly, too. 

I'm lucky enough to have seen skies like this recently. There is often a pink tinge in a winter sunset and I also have a Robin who has learnt to hang off the bird feeder.

I used stamps from Creative Stamping #37 Winter Garden. This Robin started life as a Great Tit stamp and has had a change of identity courtesy of some masking tape and ink and paintbrush. That would have worked well for a winter birthday but I wanted a Robin.

I have also Winked the trees and snow, of course. 

I hope you'll feel inspired to join in and do visit the rest of the team who have made some great cards. 

I'm also linking this to:
ABC Christmas - A&B for Antlers or Birds. 

and

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes or upcycle or use something old. The paper and backing are both old and the stamps are not new. 

Snowdrops

Hello lovely crafters
I hope you are not all rolling around groaning in a stupor of too much food and drink. It's not over yet, we have another family bun fight later today and then I am free to craft and garden for the rest of the week.

I've lost count of the number of times I stamped out these snowdrops and coloured them in different ways. I've used plenty of snippets but perhaps not in the way Di intends the challenge to work. (They are all in the bin).
This final version is painted with dilute Brushos and brilliance white for the flowers. There is also very light blue inking behind the flowers which gives a slight contrast and background but doesn't show much in the picture. 

I had a plan for the offset circle but, as usual, didn't really think it through so if I did it again I'd do a few things differently. 
The snowdrops were stamped on a snippet and then stuck to the main card but it would be better if the stamping were on the main card and a die cut front glued on. That would save mess on the inside. 

Here is the inside. I'd like to decorate the insides more often but I usually run out of time. 
Don't think I just did this to cover up a failed stamped snowdrop on the back of my final version...why would you think that? 
I'm sure I'm not the only one who stamps on both sides of the card.

Well it finally turned out OK and I'm linking to the following challenges:
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Di is generously offering extra prizes of the holiday period and Parsnip is cooking up treats for the playmates. 

Stamping Sensations - the current challenge is Winter trees and flowers. I've seen the very tips of the snowdrop shoots above the ground. Brave souls but so welcome in the dark days of winter. I wanted this for a January birthday.  

Thanks for visiting. I hope you get some time to yourself in this busy time. 
x

December - How did we get here?

Hello lovely crafters,
Suddenly we find ourselves in December. I know I'm not the only one who wonders how we got here and that the world must be spinning faster on it's axis. 
We have our final Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge for 2017 and it runs all month. 

Hopefully you have a nice little pile of Christmas Cards stashed away but if not we are asking you to Pick a Previous CCT challenge from the 2012/13. There is plenty of choice and you can see the lists of themes, sketches, colours and stash/technique archives at the top of our challenge page.

Here is my card inspired by the August 2013 challenge - Holly. Click here to see that challenge. There are some fabulous cards there. 

I used one of my favourite techniques for this. I stamped all over a piece of watercolour paper with holly stamps and embossed in clear powder. Then I wet the paper and used Brushos to all over. 
I should perhaps have tried to keep the green off the berries but instead I used water to fade the green, once the sheet was dry, but finished up using a drop of bleach in the water to help. I'm not really allowed to play with bleach having ruined various pieces of clothing over the years! I really only used a drop here though.
I rather like the blue berries but, for the sake of tradition, I went with red. 

After I'd bleached out the green I added Scarlet Brusho and blotted to give paler colour. 
The final step is to iron off the embossing powder with a hot iron and plenty of copy paper under the iron to absorb the sticky mess. 
I only used a quarter of this sheet so you may well be seeing more of it at a later date. 
I finished it off with some washi tape and bow and also a little heart which is punched out, inked and covered with Glossy Accents. I made 6 of these for another project and only used one. Now I've used 2, lost one, found it again and still have 4 left.  
The holly stamp is Honey Doo and the sentiment Creative Stamping #49. 

I hope you'll find time to join in with our challenge. 
Thanks for visiting and Enjoy Your Day. x