Painted Holly

Good morning and welcome to the final week of January. 

As usual we have a technique challenge for you at 52CCT. This time it's everyone's favourite:

I embossed these holly leaves in Bronze and then filled in with Brusho inks. I like painting inside embossed shapes as it makes it easier to keep the paint inside the outline! I'd love to be a skilled artist but I don't spend the time practising so this is good enough for me. 

This panel was mounted in several ways and even went into the bin before I settled on this layout. One of my favourite and most used. 
I couldn't decide on where to add a sentiment so there isn't one. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Silent Night

January is rushing by, as all months do, and it is time for our theme challenge at 52CCT.
Andreja has chosen:

A lovely theme with plenty of scope. 
I made a one layer card! Perfect for posting. 

This card came out almost exactly as planned and that almost never happens. 
I sponged through a stencil and added the trees and then sponged on the moon with silvery white ink. I added a few stars with white pen. 
The sentiment looked a little plain but I think adding the holly flourishes just finished it off. I hope you think so. 

Thanks for visiting. Enjoy your day. x

Joining in with CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge

Purple and Green

Hello everyone. I hope you've had a good week. It's been chilly here but bright and clear so that makes it better. 

We have a new challenge for you at 52CCT.  This week it's a colour challenge:

I created an inky background and then embossed a tree on it. It's very simple but I do love the way inks react with water. I've used Distress Oxide Pine Needles and Memento Grape Jelly as I don't have purple oxide pad. 

A few stars finished it off. 

Thanks for visiting. Do visit the rest of the design team as they have made some great cards and as usual everyone designs something completely different. 
Enjoy you day. x

Here we go again..

Just as you are getting over Christmas, taking down the decorations and sweeping up pine needles and tinsel, we start all over again here at 52CCT.

I don't blame you for running away and hiding. Do go over and have a look though. We have fancy new watermarks designed by Gill and a talented design team including 5 excited new members. Gill has been unwell for the last year but we are hoping she will be back with us sometime this year. 

We have a sketch to inspire you this week:

I found a piece of embossed vellum which inspired this card. 

Embossing vellum gives a really cool effect. It looks rather like parchment work. Not as fancy, of course, but no where near as much work. 

I should do it more often. 

I used some tape under the ribbon and some paper fasteners to hold the vellum in place. You do need to be careful how you adhere it as most things show through. It does mean the card is quite lumpy and my first one of the year its probably too fat to post!

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Me time

Now the festivities are over I am spending some time on myself. Plenty of sitting around reading, I hope, as well as crafting. I hope you all had a good time and are able to find some time for yourselves too. 
I'm linking this card to Pixie's Snippets Playground where Di is having a huge and generous Christmas giveaway. 
I cut out these flowers and then when I looked at them under good light against the base card I discovered that 5 were a different colour. I must have used two types of card so I cut out a few more.  Now I'm working on another card in a similar but different design to use up the spares. 
Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Inked flowers

Hello lovely crafters
I've finally finished a card I started about 2 weeks ago. It was for a challenge which has long gone. 

Having smudged the first sentiment, I carried on undaunted and stamped the second. I managed to remove most of the smudge with the Tombow eraser which I won in the playground last Christmas. It's very useful for a clumsy stamper! I don't  think anyone would notice it except me. 
After creating the background with ink and water on an acrylic block the card was warped. I always forget that will happen. I damped it slightly, rolled it through my Big Shot then put it under a book. . This could ruin the card but I got away with it today. 
I added Glossy Accents to the centre of the flower and to the two little hearts. I'd forgotten how much I love the glossy look. 

I'm skipping over to Pixie's Snippets Playground. I've used snippets, of course, and I've started using a few scraps glued behind to raise things up slightly but not give as much dimension as foam pads. This is in the hope that they will still go through the post. 

Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

Stencil snowflakes

Hello lovely crafters, 
This is my last Christmas card for the year. Yeay. I should add that I have not bought one single present so perhaps I should focus on that now! And the food, decorations, wrapping...

At 52CCT we encourage you to create your Christmas cards all year round and our loyal and talented participants now have a lovely stash of cards to post and a feeling of smug satisfaction.
It's not too late to join in though. Our final challenge runs for the whole of December. 

The challenges are listed on tabs on our blog and there are plenty to choose from. 

I chose August 2017 - Embossed impressions

I created it using a stencil. I brushed ink over it direct from the ink pads and spritzed with water before running it through my Big Shot. I used very cheap water colour paper. 
It gives quite  a subtle raised effect and I like the inky look. 

I also added a little shimmer with Perfect Pearls. 

We hope you will be inspired to join in.
Thanks for visiting, enjoy your day. x

I'm linking to 
CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge #414
Jingle Belles Rock - Taking back December
Pixie's Snippets Playground - must use snippets.