Christmas Card Throwdown - May colours

Whoosh, that was another week flying by and it's time for a new challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown.

This time it's a colour challenge and yummy colours they are too. I'm sure they will inspire you to get creative.

I chose these house stamps from Polka Doodles then I embossed in gold on kraft card. They have lots of detail on them. Then I coloured the windows with yellow pencil crayon.

You'd never know that this gold ribbon says Marks and Spencer on the back! I can't throw anything like that away. I managed to tie the knot and keep the words hidden.

Finally I added a few stars in the sky which gives a little sparkle.

We hope you enjoy our latest challenge and feel inspired to join in. 
Thanks for visting and I hope you have time to get crafty this week. 
x

I've used:
Polka Doodles - Be neighbourly
Gold embossing powder
Versamark embossing pad
Gold stars

CCT - May sketch

Hands up whose cards always go exactly to plan? That's not what happened here.
Our current challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown is layers.

I had an idea to do layers of die cut stars but to inlay them so the card is still flat.
The first plan was to cut a star in a round card but that didn't quite work and I hadn't thought it through properly, no change there then.
The more ideas I had the more stars and circles collected in piles around me until I finally manged to make a card.

Then I wanted to use up all the bits and pieces so in the end I made four. That brings my quota for the year up a bit. I chose the smallest sentiment stamps I could find, from a Penny Black set.

Not having planned this very well, I found that I wanted a bit of a frame around the outside so I embossed in silver after I'd made the card. Don't do that after you've added silver thread - it melts!
I moved around all the bits and pieces, added few sequins and some silver thread and it only took a few days...

Two things about this last one. Firstly I was getting blase and when I cut the base card I forgot to have the die over the edge so I ended up with two circles instead of a hinged card. Grrr. Instead of added them to my pile of 'bits I'll use one day', I made a hinge and stuck them together. With a snippet of course!
Then I didn't think the words stood out much so I cut them again in dark green and offset them. I've never done that before but it's quite effective. I've seen it on many other peoples cards.

Top Tip*  - Cut a tiny sliver off the bottom at the back and your round card will stand up without rolling away.

So I'm popping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground with these. I've used lots of snippets, made some more and used them too! I think I can just sneak in before the gates clang shut for the week.

Anyone who reads my gardening blog will know we now have some hens. They don't take much looking after but I keep finding myself out there talking to them and just watching their antics.
Here is Dora (the Explorer) who just hopped into my wheelbarrow.

* I don't pretend to be able to teach any seasoned stamper anything and if you are new to stamping all I would say is - Get out now while you still can!

Christmas Card Throwdown - May sketch

At Christmas Card Throwdown we have a sketch challenge for the next fortnight. It's open to all sorts of interpretation. Visit the post here to see the inspiring cards from the rest of the DT.

I must admit to finding it difficult to get in to the swing of Christmas cards now that we are in the full throes of Spring. The weather has been fabulous and, though I haven't made many cards, my garden looks great!

This is the sketch so I had to put my thinking cap on and get busy.

I usually make square cards so for a change here is a swing card. Happily I'd kept the template from the last one I made so that prevented me diving in and cutting and scoring in all the wrong places!

Once the template is cut it's just a case of decorating. I've used Docrafts paper and a Leane Creatif leaf die the layer up the wreath. The paper is peachy pink, I'm not sure if you're getting that here. The sentiment stamps are all from Creative Stamping magazine last year. I'll look out the numbers.

The good thing about these is that when folded they make a square card which fits in a normal envelope. 

Here is the inside. I've used the same fir branch die and gold thread to make a simple wreath.

I'd forgotten how hard they are to photograph, they always look squint.
I hope you'll feel inspired to join in. 

Thank you for visiting. Enjoy your crafty time. 
x

April Technique - Shaker card

A very quick post to show this card for Christmas Card Throwdown.
Our April technique challenge is:

I'm not at all happy with my card but here it is:

It's not what I'd planned and I've had no time to spend on making it better. The first idea resulted in glitter all over my desk and shoes!
Do have a go at our challenge and show me how it should be done! You have two weeks to play along. 
I'm going away to try again for next week. Do visit the rest of the DT cards, they are amazing as ususal. 
x

It's your birthday...

Hello lovely crafters.
I bought a stamping magazine last week even though I'd decided not to buy any more stash for a bit. I saw it at a great price here so that was that. Sorry if I'm leading you astray too.
To assuage my guilt I made a card immediately!

I added the dots after 'It's your birthday' as I feel it's rather like saying 'You've had your hair cut'. You usually know both of these things. 

I've glued all the flowers straight down so the card is quite flat even though it gives the impression of dimension. I'm challenging myself to colour as I'm not great at it. These turned out ok, I think.  

So inside I added a 'Let's celebrate' and a couple of spare flowers:

 I'd cut and coloured the flowers when I saw the sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches and thought that would work well here.

I'm also entering this into Mrs A's Butterfly challenge #75 Butterflies + R is for Repeat and/or the colour Night sky. 
I've repeated the flowers and the blue border and butterfly are 'Night sky' colours though I have seen purple too, on occasion, green may be pushing it but maybe in a thunderstorm (or the Northern Lights!)
Also popping over to Pixies Snippet's Playground. My snippets mountain is mostly white so I've used a few here. Everything bar the card base is snippets. It's lovely weather for running around with friends.

All the stamps are from the Creative Stamping #41 apart from the butterfly which is from JustRite Lilies and Butterflies. There is a butterfly with this set but it was a bit too big for this card.
I've coloured with Pro-markers and added a Wink of Stella on the butterfly and flower centres. 

I hope you've had the beautiful weekend weather we've had. Enjoy your week.
xxx 

April Theme - Musical Notation

It seems that we have suddenly whizzed on into April. How did that happen?

 It means that it's time for another challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown. This time it's a theme that should get you all humming.

I've been using up my stash and things found lying around! 
The musical notes where in a packet of die cuts I bought once, ready cut, so I can't tell you the brand, I'm afraid. The background was left over from the last card I made. I used emboss resist and then inked and stamped the snowflakes and flourishes.
 

I've added the fa la la's with these little peg stamps. See the A is black, I tried using the wrong end! What a fool.
I usually forget I have these but  they are useful for all sorts of things.
I practised on a piece of scrap first to get the spacing right and managed to avoid getting any black marks from the corners.  There is definitely an art to it.  

The finished card is nice and flat for posting, I avoided adding any more dimension. 

You have two weeks to join in with the challenge, we look forward to seeing your designs. 

I've used:
Mememto Teal Zeal
Personal Impressions snowflake stamps
Artemio flourish stamps
Dovecraft peg letters. 

CCT Burgundy, lime and cream - you still have time to join in.

Here is another card for the Christmas Card Throwdown colour challenge. 

  

I think this was heavily influenced by our previous sketch challenge. I used scraps of card to raise up the front and make the circle indented. This has made it quite weighty but I hope not too thick to post. 
You might be able to see a bit better here:

I'm still using the cream card which I mentioned in a previous post. The front has odd purple swirls on it but the back is very pretty. I'll be sorry when I run out as I can't get any more. 
Do have a go at this challenge, you have one more week to play. 
As I write this there are very few entries, either everyone is very busy or the colours have put people off. If you are not sure about them you could try using just a little bit of colour, as I have here.  

I'm also skipping over to Pixie's snippets playground. I've used quite  few snippets on the front and to pad it out and raise it.  
Also Scrappy Mo's Rudolf Days Challenge which is to enter a Christmas Card between 25th and the end of each month. As this is the 25th, I'm heading over there.  

I've used:

Inky Doodles - Print backgrounds 2 stamps. 
Tonic circle die
Tattered Lace edge die
Cranberry and Twisted Citron ink pads
Wink of Stella clear pen.
I don't have names for the other items.