Cornflower blue

 Hello lovely crafters!

We're starting a new challenge at Shopping our Stash:

Across the border - use any border die or punch. Dig into your stash and see what you have. 

I've used a pretty lace effect edger die diagonally across the card. 

I started this by using my Inky Doodles stamps to create the pattern on the paper at the bottom of the card. The stamps are Print Backgrounds 2 and layer up to create many different patterns. I've had them for a few years and still love them. They should definitely come out more often. 

I stamped a green and pink grid layer. The pink is faint and doesn't show up here. I added a blue Card-io flower in the squares. 

The  big flower is Little Claire stamped, embossed in silver, inked and cut out twice. With inked leaves from a different nameless die set. 

Love this Cornflower blue colour. 

I hope you will search out your dies and punches and join in with us this fortnight. 

Thank you for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Rainbow stockings

Hello lovely Crafters, 

I'm joining in with a new-to-me Christmas challenge:

My first thought was these Inky Doodles stockings. I stamped them out and coloured in rainbow order.  Got in a muddle so I have some spares! Lol.

The background wood stamp is also Inky Doodles. 

 Die cut ivy from a scrap of inked paper and then I found some silver shapes in one of my many boxes with little bits and bobs in so they went on too. 

 I'm progressing through my January sort out and finding all sorts of things and stamps I'd forgotten I'd got. I know I'm not alone. 

Thank you for visiting, enjoy your day. x

 

Twofer snowflakes

 Hello lovely crafters. 

 I'm catching up with my Christmas cards, after I checked last month thinking I had a little stash and found 3. 

Here are two more, it's great when you can create 2 at the same time. I wanted to cut this inky piece and use it angled at the top of a card so then I decided to use the remainder on another one. 

I've stamped and embossed Tim Holtz snowflakes and then inked with Brushos. Layered on scraps of blue card and edged with die cut 'icicles'. The snowflakes are also cut from scraps and snippets. 

I'm joining in with Shopping our Stash #459: Triple Threat - use three of something. 

I've used three snowflakes on each and also 3 pearls. Very old snowflake dies, snowflake stamps new last year, greeting several years old plus snippets - good job!

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

White and gold snowflakes

Good morning

We have a lovely colour combination to tempt you to join in at 52CCT this week. 

After a bit of thought I came up with this idea. Eight snowflakes are die cut and glued onto the card. I cut the ninth from the front of the card and embossed in gold and, after a bit of fiddling, glued it onto the inside of the card so it shows through the cut out. 

Here is the inside. Showing the gold star and gold embossed 'Merry Christmas'.

I glued the snowflakes on first before cutting out the last one which meant they were all rolled through and firmed down during cutting. This is a technique which Di from Pixie's Snippets Playground recommends but I never remember to do. It beds the die cuts into the card though I should have used a shim on the inside as there are a few marks from the base cutting plate. 

I'm popping into the Playground with this as I've used snippets - of course! 
CraftyHazelnutsChristmas Challenge #428

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

March sketch challenge

March is here and a new set of challenges at 52CCT.

We always start the month with a sketch and here it is:

I used an topper image which someone once gave me. I don't normally use this sort of thing but I think it fits well here with my inked an embossed background. 

The left side is clear embossing on green and the right is clear embossing with pink and green inking. I often struggle with sketches but I managed to put this together without too much of a headache. 

I hope you like it an are inspired to join in with our sketch challenge. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Snowy white

Hello lovely crafters. 
We have a new challenge at 52CCT.

 This week the theme is White Christmas. 

I designed this in my head one night while trying to sleep and it actually turned out as expected. Does anyone else design at night? I often do but they rarely turn out as planned. Then sometimes I can't wait to get up and get going with it. 

I die cut a square frame and then cut all the snowflakes from the central square so I knew they would all fit in. 
There is a fair a mount of glue in places it shouldn't' be as I don't have the sticky backing sheets but getting messy is half the fun. I actually washed my hands in the middle of making this card which never normally happens. (I do wash my hands but not in the middle of card making!)

I'm not sure the sentiment fits the design but it fitted the space and was fun (excuse the pun).
I'm popping into Pixie's Snippets Playground to remind them who I am. 
and ABC Christmas I is for Ice

I hope you like it. Thanks for visiting and Enjoy your Day. x

52CCT Watercolour

Hello lovely crafters...

Welcome to another week at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. I was pleased I managed to make a flowery spring card this week but now it's back to Christmas. I'm short on birthdays at this time of year.  
For our final February challenge Myrna has chosen Watercolours. A lovely theme with so much scope. 

This background is made using a more successful attempt at the Cling film technique (than my last card here). This time I used smooth, coated cardstock so the colour sits on the surface rather than soaking in. 
I used purple Brushos, a touch of yellow and possibly black. There are plenty of videos on You Tube for anyone who hasn't tried it. It is one of those ideas which looks a real mess when wet and then you never know what wonders might appear as it dries. Sometimes it is still a mess.
I used a Die-namics frame die I won in the Playground a little while ago and an unknown snowflake die. After it was finished I wished I'd stamped the sentiment but resisted pulling it off and ruining what I'd one. 

We hope you will join in with this fun challenge.

Thanks for visiting and Enjoy your Day. x

I'm hopping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground as I've used snippets and my playground prize. Thanks Di. 

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

Make it simple

Hello lovely crafters.  Our challenge for you this week  at  52 Christmas Card Throwdown is a colour challenge.

I went round in circles, confused and lacking inspiration and eventually remembered that it is best to keep things simple when you are short of ideas.  

If you are not sure about a colour challenge choose the colour you are most comfortable with and start with that. 
That is not what I did here but it turned out ok in the end!

I can't tell you where the red twine came from. 
Oh, alright then, I know I am among friends and you are all as daft as I am. 
It is the loopy stitching from a bag of chicken feed! Don't tell me you wouldn't have saved it too.

Do join in with our challenge and get ahead with those Christmas cards. We had several new players last week who have resolved to do just that and were very pleased with themselves. 


I'm popping over to Pixie's Snippets Challenge to show Di and Parsnip, as this is all made from snippets. 

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Guest designer Christmas tags.

Hello Lovely Crafters,

I'm very pleased to be guest designer for Di at Pixie's Snippets Playground this week. Di encourages us to use those scraps of paper and card we all have stashed away. 

My snippets are mostly plain card so I am always looking for ways to use them. I saw some tags like these and, with Christmas looming, thought they were very pretty and a good use of off-cuts. 

I saw them for sale from an online retailer so it's not an idea I've stolen from another blogger. 

I used 5cm strips of kraft card for these first tags and added embroidery thread and a couple of strands of gold for the ties. 

I think it's the gems which make them special. 

Of course you do need the right sort of die as some just leave a hole without much pattern to it but luckily I had one which worked. 
I found a good size was 5cm x 9cm. I made some a bit shorter but they didn't look as good. (Top line).

Then of course I was left with the cut out snowflakes so I just added them to a square of card with a similar tie and a gem in the middle. 

I also made some white ones but I think I prefer the kraft, or do I? I do like the pink gems...

 This photo now looks grey but they are white I promise. White with a pink gem and pink and silver thread. 

Dark gems and red and gold thread. 

Now I'm left with some 1cm strips. What can I do with those? Hmm. Or should I just throw them away! I think I know the answer...

So now I am stocked up with tags and have made a dent in the snippets mountain. I look forward to seeing what inventive  and creative ways people have found for using their snippets this week. 

Thanks for visiting. Enjoy your Day. x

Christmas Card Throwdown - November sketch

Here is my late card for our new challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown. This time it's a sketch. 

You have two weeks to join in with this challenge. Somehow we find ourselves in November so it is definitely time to get on with the Christmas Cards. Hopefully  you'll find this inspiring. 
Thanks for visiting. Enjoy the Day. x

Christmas Card Throwdown - October Stash

The weeks are rushing by and we have a new challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown:

I've had moments of brilliance and moments of sheer stupidity today. The brilliance was making the star.
I die cut the shape (remembering to cut first then emboss - having learnt the hard way).  Then I inked the embossing folder before placing the star inside to give the two tone wood effect. I used Versafine which I think gives a better inky finish. The folder doesn't seem to have a name on it. 

After that moment of brilliance I wasn't sure what to do with it. 
I finally fixed on the idea of cutting out a star from the card and hanging in in the centre. 
Top tip - I started with a top fold card, thinking it would look good hanging from that. In reality it hangs down inside the card as the star hangs straight but the front of the card is angled forward. So a side fold is better, I hope you understand what I mean. 

Having finished it and photographed it I realised firstly that you can't write inside the card as it would show and secondly that the front was a bit flimsy as most of it is cut away. So I set about it again to improve. I decided to face the inside with DP. I chose a double sided paper with a subtle grey flower pattern. 

I cleverly cut the star first meaning to trim the paper to fit as that would be easier than getting the hole exactly in the right place. The stupidity was placing the die on the wrong side so the pattern I chose had to be glued down for the cut star on the DP to fit with the front of the card.
But hey, pink and brown look great together and Christmas feathers are a thing aren't 
they?

Here is the back. I added a panel to write on. These stamps are Inky Doodles. 

I hope that you have a moment of brilliance and create something to join in. The challenge runs for two weeks. 

I'd like to link to:
The Merry Christmas Challenge - #39 Anything Goes

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge #356



Thanks for visiting and Enjoy your Day. x

CCT - October Theme

We still have a week left of our current challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown. 
The challenge is Winter Sports. 

I'm not sure if sledging is really as sport but it's certainly a winter activity. I've used one tiny stamp from Issue #36 of Creative Stamping. 
I used a piece of brushoed background and chose an area with darker blue for the sky though it does look rather like Northern Lights. I stamped a couple of trees then added a line between to make a hill and ground the trees. 
The I framed it with some pretty paper and bits and pieces found lying around. The ribbon was snipped off my newest top after it was pointed out that they were not hidden away as they should have been.  

I hesitate with this sentiment as I don't really want it to snow but I'm sure plenty of people do. I don't like driving or walking on ice but if I can stay inside an look at it, that's fine. 

See if you have any wintery stamps and join in with our challenge. 

I'm skipping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground as I've used snippets. In fact as I was cutting out the square of brushoed background I found it is on the back of an old calendar. I saved it as is was nice smooth cream coloured card. Mad, I know. Recycling snippets!

ABC Christmas Challenge has V for Vibrant or U for unlimited. I think this sky is vibrant so I hope you agree. 

Thanks for visiting and Enjoy your Day.