Five Christmas cards

A few of my 2014 Christmas cards, some have been blogged and some not , had to add an extra one as I could not leave out Bah Humbug, still makes me smile ! Its taken me for ever to do this post ,blogger is playing games with me !  I'm linking this to Debby's "show your five favourite Christmas cards of 2014"

This is my card for my sister and her husband

Using one of my oldest Christmas stamps which I use every year


Spellbinders Christmas bauble die with other memory box dies

Stampin Up Lovely as a tree with Sizzix trees and memory box deer

Stampin Up Dasher Stamp and snowflake embossing folder

Happy Christmas

I didn't get to put many of my Christmas cards on my blog this year, seemed to be so busy making them all I didn't get round to doing it.  This is one of my this years favourites so I'm just posting it on here to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and hope you all get lots of  lovely crafting goodies from Santa !

Santa

Just a very quick card to enter the Cardsz4guy challenge which is Santa ( The Big Guy)
I love this image which I got from the internet a few years ago and I think I've used it on something every Christmas since. The papers are from Making cards Victorian Christmas mag which I got last year and promptly forgot I had it, discovered it when I decided to clear out some old craft magazines last week, oh well maybe will use some of the images and papers next year !

Nativity

Can't seem to get a decent picture of this card, the colours are all wrong, the background is a lovely  soft gold but it looks more khaki on here!  Just a quick last minute make for Make My Monday challenge which is Nativity.

Had quite a nice day delivering the last few cards  to friends we always hand deliver to and a few more gifts delivered to some of the family who we won't see at Christmas. Also popped into a garden centre and had a quick lunch in their café and just happened to see a few things in one of the outlet stores in there plus a couple of Christmas Robins happened to hop into my basket too! They do have a craft section too but I was very good and didn't buy anything in there as I do know there are some crafting goodies coming my way at Christmas, don't know just what as yet as I made quite an extensive wish list so it will be fun to see which items have been chosen for me. 

That awful wind seems to have died down for now after having wrecked our garden fence, I'm hoping to maybe get a new nicer one but have a feeling that other half is planning on repairing it ! 

Winter Wonderland

Christmas is coming up fast and here's another card to add to the stack, almost finished now!  This is my DT card for this months Stamping Sensations Challenge which this month is Winter Wonderland.
The background is coloured with Pan Pastels and trees second generation stamped to give distance, torn paper "hills" stamped and die cut trees and deer are from Sizzix holiday joy set, sentiment stamp from Inkylicious.  My fave snow which is frantage chunky white embossing powder. 

This is the fabulous prize on offer this month from our sponsors - Stamps By Chloe and Crafty Ribbons.

 

Snow People

This is a bit of a "cheat" Christmas card, looks like I've spent ages making it but its one of the quickest cards I've made this year. The cheat bit is that the background is a piece of printed paper from a pack of paper that says Copier Notecards Blue Trees on the label. I have this pack of papers for years and have no idea where it came from, so I just cut a square from the top of the paper, added a bit of glitter to the snowdrifts, stamped and coloured the snowman and stamped the greeting, inked the edges and stuck it on a 5x5 card blank. I made 12 of these in just over three hours, normally takes me that time to make one card and I'm getting slower and slower these days. Entering it on these challenges

Creative Corner - winter wonderland
My Time To Craft - Snowmen
Christmas at Sweet Stampin - snow people

Bah Humbug

Was just flicking through a magazine this afternoon and came across this digital stamp to download, it made me smile and reminded me of a certain person not far from me attitude to Christmas if only in a half joking kind of way, so here's my OH's Christmas card !

Few bits of scrap DP,bit of corrugated card and a torn bit of ribbon from the Christmas wrapping box .

I'm entering it into these challenges

Cardsz4guyz  - food and / drink
The Male Room - use ribbon in a masculine way
Through the craftroom door - anything goes

All is calm

Well the post title refers to the card and not to me!  still battling on with Christmas cards although now I have a pretty reasonable stack of them I'm starting to relax a bit and just enjoy making the last few batches. I really need to get into the Christmas spirit and think about doing some Christmas shopping but even a couple of hours in town today just about wiped me out and I've been lolling about in front of the TV instead of getting something done.  I think I maybe need to add a sentiment or something to this card but I'm liking the white space on it which is quite unusual for me as I normally have to fill every corner. Tree stamps are Stampin Up, lovely as a tree, deer is memory box die and the pine trees are Sizzix. Glittery star is also memory box die.Background coloured with pan pastels

Pan Pastel Challenge  - cold and frosty colours
Simply Less Is More - more than one tree
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge extra - anything goes as long as its Christmas
Dies r us challenge - Christmas

Holly wreath

Make My Monday challenge is for foliage and berries this week. I made this card last week but didn't get round to blogging it. Background coloured and stamped with two shades on memento inks, the background stamps are Bobunny and came free with a magazine, I keep saying I'm not buying any more magazines but then get tempted with the stamps which I guess is what they are there for!. The centre wreath is an old one , wood mounted Stampendous dated 1998, been well used over the years and I still really like it. Bit of stickles on the berries and its a fairly quick card to make so will be doing some more.

Make My Monday   -Berries and foliage
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - Keep it flat'

Frosty The Snowman

Love this Penny Black Snowman, never fails to make me smile !  Hit a bit of a block with Christmas cards this week but this little chap always works somehow. Bit of torn corrugated card,snowflake embossed red card and there is some   patterned paper that I seem to have almost covered up, die cut stars and snowflake and an Inkylicious stamped sentiment. Think he fits a few challenges this week

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - All wrapped up
Winter Wonderland - Frosty The Snowman
 Christmas at Sweet Stampin - Snowflakes
Fantasy Stampers - Red

Christmas Wishes

Here for another challenge at Stamping Sensations where the theme this month is Christmas.  I love old fashioned Christmas cards and as soon as I saw this Stampendous stamp I had to have it. The background is inked up embossing folder, love the wedgewood look it gives, there is lots of glitter which doesn't really show up on here. The challenge this month is Christmas and our sponsor is  Little Claire who are offering a very generous £35 voucher for their store. Go along to the challenge and see the lovely examples from the design team.

Santa's back

Just spent a messy hour playing about making this card and now I'm quite disappointed at how it looks on here, maybe I should have gone in a bit stronger with the colours, I wanted a vintage, faded effect but looks a bit wishy washy to me.  However I made the card for a challenge so here goes

Make My Monday - Shabby Chic

Craft Room Challenge - vintage Christmas


 

Freebie stamps

Just been having a little play with the lovely Penny Black stamps that came free with Papercraft Essentials, love this poinsettia stamp, the little sprig is from an imagination crafts decoupage set, I've hardly used the main image but this little stamp is so useful and I've used it loads.  The strange thing is I've used the same ink to stamp the sprig as I've used to stamp the sentiment and yet they look totally different on here but just the same in real life!   Just sneaking in at last minute on the Penny Black and allsorts challenge

Penny Black And Allsorts - Get ahead for Christmas

Paper Minutes - Christmas/Red

Enjoy the journey

This is my final card as a guest designer for Cardsz4guyz, the theme this week is metal . I got so engrossed in making this card I must admit I almost forgot what the theme was! just remembered in time to add the metal wheel and spinner .Randomly stamped background using Stampin Up gorgeous grunge with iced spruce distress ink and then some Tim Holtz stamps using memento cocoa brown and archival jet black .Loved making this card, change from Christmas stuff I'm surrounded by at the moment.

Sailingpineapples - newsprint/wording/sentiment/quotation

whatever the weather

Thought I'd just have a bit of a break from trying to make Christmas cards, can't really seem to get in the mood, last year I romped through making them and just wanted to carry on even when I had more than enough, this year its a struggle, can't get inspired even though I have enough Christmas stamps to stock my own shop.  Anyhow this is a set of stamps from Inkylicious that I bought at the Harrogate show, thought it was about time they saw some ink.  I'm not sure I should have added the pink umbrella but its well and truly stuck on so there it stays ! Couple of challenges to enter it in

Fashionable Stamping - Weather forecast

City Crafters - A piece of sky ( sun/moon/stars/rain/snow etc )

 

More spooky stuff

This is my third week as a guest designer for Cardz4guyz challenge and I've enjoyed joining in with the team. THis week the challenge is Its Spooky/ Halloween.  I don't really have anyone I could send a Halloween card to but I do find them fun to make. The Tree and the bats are from a Hero art set I found at a bargain price at Port Sunlight show and the rest of the stamps are stampendous Halloween charm set. I'm quite enamoured of the spooky cats as I have my own "familiar" whitchy cat who arches his back just like that, he's a bit mad, today he leapt off the conservatory roof trying to catch a bird, don't think he quite understands he can't fly, silly boy ! Would also like to enter it in the following challenges

Shopping Our  Stash  - Halloween

Artistic Inspirations  - Halloween

Wedodoobado - Halloween

Fussy and Fancy - orange and black

That's Crafty - Spooky

Spooky!

A while ago I was asked if I would like to do a guest spot on Try It On Tuesday and I was very happy to accept.  The theme is Spooky ao a good chance to have a place with my Halloween stamps. Stencilled the ghostly trees in the background and kept the stencil on while I coloured the background with distress inks.The wicked witch is from Graphic 45 and the rest of the stamps from Stampendous Halloween charms, I just love the cat and the rats LOL

Easel card

I haven't made an easel card for ages and had almost forgotten how to make one.  This is my second Guest Designer card for cardsz4guyz challenge. The background papers are from DoCrafts chronology pad and all the stamps are Indigo Blu. It was a nice change to make something like this but I didn't like having to take a photo instead of scanning, my desktop computer is very contrary and its takes for ever to to get a photo onto it.  I'm looking into buying a new all in one wi fi printer and it really needs to be one that will upload my photos without a load of messing about!

Guest DT

This month I am happy to be a Guest Designer on Cardz4guyz, I actually enjoy making cards for men which is maybe just as well as I do have to make lots for all the men in the family.  This weeks challenge is Time To Relax and I think this stamp just about says it all. Background inked with distress inks. The stamp is Inkylicious as are the birds, the wording stamp is from an old Hero Arts set.

Warm Autumn Colours

                                                            

The Challenge This month at Stamping Sensations is Warm Autumn Colours and this month we are sponsored by Imagination Crafts who are offering a very generous £35 store voucher.

These are my design team cards both made with Imagination Crafts products

This one using one of their lovely decoupage stamps, the wording also comes with the stamp, all coloured with various distress inks.

and this one using their bullrush stencil and more distress inks

No cards this time!

I've been struggling with a flare up of my rheumatoid arthritis , the worst part is the terrible tiredness, if I sit down I fall asleep!   BUT, it's Port Sunlight Happy Stampers tomorrow and I'm going if I gave to crawl on hands and knees LOL.  Can't believe that it's Port Sunlight and Great Northern papercrafts on the same weekend, the only two shows I can ever get to. Might manage an hour on Sunday at GNPS if I can.  Hope to come back all inspired and raring to go.

Autumn Colours

more autumnal stamping, thought this Artistic Outpost stamp lent itself to an Autumn scene. I seem to have a large box full of skeleton leaves so added a few of those and a cut out leaf which was already on my desk from a previous project. Would like to enter this on these challenges

Fashionable Stamping - Trees with autumn colour
The Artistic Stamper - Autumn colours
Lunagirl moonbeams -Autumn
Artistic outpost - anything goes

Sail away

 

Hardwood stamp making yet another appearance, I think this is going to be one on the most useful stamps I've ever had, it seems to go with anything. Made this quick and simple card for Cardz4guyz challenge which is not to use any designer papers. The ship is from an old Artemio set ,everything stamped in archival cobalt blue.  I think I'll probably add a sentiment to the bottom left hand corner when  I decide where the card is going.

 

Cardz4guyz. - Do not use any patterned paper

Addicted to stamps - for a man or boy

Speedy fox and friends- masculine card using navy

We Do Doobadoo -  something  masculine



 

 

Clean and simple

This is a very quick clean and simple card except for the fact I have had to make it three times! first time I dropped the happy birthday stamp on it, second time all stamped fine, drew a squiggly line round it and then decided to draw another line and smudged the first line. It is a one layer card, the black is just the card I scanned it on, not easy for me to do clean and simple as I'm usually covered in ink but good to try something different now and again. Stamps are all from Stampin Up.

Cardz4guyz challenge - clean and simple
Cards und more - clean and simple

En Vogue

Have to say I love this Flonz craft stamp because it reminds me of my youth! these are the styles of dresses we wore in the late fifties, early sixties, strange times for fashion as  as well as wearing these ladylike styles we also wore drainpipe trousers , I was thrown out of a dancehall for being "inappropriately dressed" because I was wearing them and the obligatory tight polo neck sweater, so funny when you think of how young people dress (or rather don't dress LOL) nowadays, still think we had the best teen years ever !

Anyhow, back to what I'm supposed to be talking about , made this card for Fashionable stamping challenge which is Fashion, one of my favourite themes ,just hard to choose which stamps to use. The background paper is dusted with Victorian velvet DI and then stamped with the same colour ,old butterfly kisses stamp used. The flowery/net trim is a bargain buy from the Works.

Fashionable Stamping - Fashion

Eclecticellapu  - Ladies Birthday

Allsorts Challenge - Pretty in Pink

Things with wings at Stamping Sensations

I've been dying to tell everyone that I've been invited to join the design team at Stamping Sensations and this is my first post as a DT member!

The challenge for September is Things With Wings , the sponsors for this month are Crafty Devils and the prize is a very generous £35 voucher

My DT piece is here

 

The background is inked with distress inks and I water stamped butterflies onto it, can hardly see them though, then stencilled with a memory box stencil. Stampin up swallowtail butterfly stamped and embossed and painted with distress inks and some glitter added ,bit of frontage embossing powder in the top corner , the thank you stamp is from Inkylicious.

Autumn colours

I'm still loving this Hardwood Stampin up background stamp, seems that it goes with everything depending on the colour its stamped with, really useful for masculine cards but it also looks great in paler colours with flowers on it,.  This is just another quick card while experimenting with the stamp.
The trees are an Inkylicious stamp and the leaves are a very old freebie from crafty individuals.

The Male Room - Autumn / Fall

Artistic Stamper - Autumn colours

Bright colours

I've spent ages tonight trying to put a card together but it just wasn't working so abandoned it for now and made this card instead, very quickly.  few taps of Brusho powder, few spritz of water and a quick blast with the heatgun, I do love these Brusho paints.  Stamped with Inkylicious create a collage meadow and the verse is from their Dandelion wishes set. Entering it for

Make My Monday - Indian Summer
Sunday Stamper - Bright Colours  (Mr Brightside)

Trade winds

After looking at Country view Challenges I took it upon myself to do my own little challenge of making a nautical card without using blue, I have a load of nautical style stamps as they are something I really like and they are so handy for masculine cards but I always make them tones of blue, everything just goes together then.  I have struggled with this card but I'm reasonably happy with the finished project. DP is from Portabella road pad, thought it looked vaguely sea like, the script stamp is a very old one from The Stampman, schooner is from Hunkydory, compass from Indigoblu, anchor from Kanban and wording from Artistic Outpost, no wonder my table was such a mess !

Country View Crafts - Nautical

Scraps

Last year I joined in an ICAD swap (think it was last year ?) never being happy with what I make I had made several which were not used, found them the other day, along with a box full of tags, anyhow this topper is one of them, struggled to put it on a card until I suddenly realised I was trying to use it with a square card and it just didn't go! I hardly ever used anything but 6x6 cards but I did have a few 5x7 so tried it on one and yes, made all the difference. The two back layers are out of my mountain of inky papers, stamped the middle one with the same TH stamp as on the topper and mounted all the layers on black card, will maybe add a sentiment later.  Just squeezing it in for

Make My Monday - Tags or toppers

and also

Red Rubber designs - stay focused on stamping - anything goes

and after my yesterday post about my printer, my DH squirted some magic stuff  from an aerosol into various apertures in the printer and hey presto its working again! I am still looking for a wireless printer but can take my time in finding the right one.

printers

My trusty all in one printer decided to die a couple of nights ago, I have had it for 10 years and it has been excellent for all I needed it for. I have been wittering on about buying a wireless all in one so now it seems I have to make a decision!  Anyone bought one recently? any recommendations ?  Although my HP was high on ink costs it produced good quality prints and copies, quite true to originals , I'm dreading getting a new one and being disappointed !

Pink Lady

I've been doing that boring task tonight of sorting out cards for another charity event, my daughter is doing a Strawberry Tea for MacMillan Cancer next weekend and she wants some cards to sell.  I'm always saying I'm going to actually finish cards at the time of making but I hate doing inserts and sorting out envelopes etc so inevitably I end up with a lot to do at once. I also realised I haven't blogged quite a lot of them either so trying to scan the ones I haven't used before. I'm pretty sure I haven't shown this pretty lady before so I'm entering her onto Sugarcreek Hollow challenge. All papers etc are Graphic45.

Sugar Creek Hollow - Lets celebrate - Birthday/anniversary

Life

 I have had two whole days in which I could have been creating all kinds of wonderful things and what have I done nowt! Well I did manage to put together this card which is made up of bits and pieces from previous projects. Don't know why I made the piece of paper with stamped leaves but it was in the pile, the next piece up is  resist stamped from when I first got my Hero flourish stamp and tried it out in all kinds of colours and techniques, there's still quite a few of them in the pile.The wording (Inkilicious) was already stamped on a piece of brusho experimental paper and the flourish is die cut from the same piece, all that is new is the card blank and the black card for matting,that said I put it together for Try It On Tuesday challenge -Use your stash

Try It On Tuesday - Use your stash
Country View Crafts Challenge - Word Play

F.E. LINUS

I have had this cat stamp for quite a while but it doesn't get used very often, don't know why as he is rather smart, thought he fitted rather well on my new hardwood stamp, looks quite relaxed on there.

Craftroom Stamping - cats

Penny black and more -anything goes

Sunflowers

Looks like summer is over for us, its been quite chilly today even though the sun has been out most of the day, had to dig out my winter slippers and a sweatshirt tonight. I was tempted to turn on the heating but did resist.  Love this cheerful sunflower stamp, don't know why but sunflowers always make me want to smile ! Background paper stamped with versamark and coloured with pan pastels, the stamp is a Penny Black and is coloured with inktense blocks.Couple of challenges:-

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Floral Fantasy
Pan Pastels UK - bold and bright

Sew Special

Saw a couple of challenges that mentioned sewing and I don't need much encouragement to get out my sewing themed stamps.  This card is not as dark as it looks on here, the backing paper has a red stripe but it looks brown on here, can't get it to look any brighter! Justrite Grandmas attic stamp and a few bits of sewing theme ribbons.

Artful Times - Sewing
A Little Bit Crafty -Sew what?

A sequel to the shrew drama yesterday, this morning we were presented  with a headless corpse ! It was even smaller than the yesterday one, there are times when I just hate my cats !!!! We are keeping them in at night as it seemed to be then that they did their hunting, as shown by the times they brought in live mice in the middle of the night but it seems they have just changed their hunting times too.

Summer Fun

This card started with a piece of card I had used to play with Brusho paints, the girls stamp just fitted perfectly on it, I love this Crafty Individuals stamp its just so joyful ! Still not sure if it doesn't look a bit lost in the middle of this card but I enjoyed making it, distress inks, memory box stencil ,some stamps which were free with Creative Stamping and Inkilicious birds which you can't have a good seaside scene without.

Fantasy Stampers - By The Sea
The Artistic Stamper - anything goes
Our Creative Corner - Summertime

Capture the moment

We were supposed to be going to a 40's day at Pateley Bridge today but just as we were thinking about making a move one of our cats deposited a live shrew in my craft room! it ran behind my desk and sets of drawers, believe me if you saw what is there you would realise what a mammoth job it would be to move everything to get it, we shut the cats in another room and spent best part of an hour chasing it around the house, had to laugh afterwards at the sight of my husband with pint glass and feather duster chasing after this tiny little thing, they can't half shift! anyhow got it released into the hedge eventually. By which time we had decided we would stay home after all, its very,very windy and keeps raining. Anyhow made this card for Cardz4guyz challenge which is cameras/photos. The background is my new Stampin up Hardwood stamp which is going to be appearing on lots of stuff, I love it.

Cheeky!

Just a quick card for Fashionable Stamping Challenge - Make Us  Laugh

Hope you can read the wording its a bit cheeky!

The wine glasses were a late addition to cover up  finger print , clean and simple cards are so hard for a mucky tyke like me !

Wish you were here

Well this card is nothing like I started out to make, original bits and pieces just would not go together  so another root about found these stamps, the beach hut stamps unused for some reason and the very ancient  Pink Cat Studio beach stamps. I've decided to stop doing any more cards for my charity this year, seemed to be just churning out card after card with no enjoyment in the making, I have sold quite a lot although not as many as I usually do. Anyhow now I feel like I can have a bit of me time and just enjoy playing. I had started out with some Brusho pieces last night, I'm loving the stuff but I'm not very good with it as yet, quite a few pieces have gone in the bin up to now! Anyhow enough rambling, putting this on these challenges

Try It On Tuesday - Wish You Were Here
Eclectic Ellapu - Seaside or Nautical
Vintage Stamping - Summer days

messing about!

A friend gave me this stamp of the lady with a fan ages ago as she didn't know what to do with it, neither did I!  Anyhow while looking for something else I came across it and thought she would fit Lunagirls challenge Victorian flowers and fans. Stamped the image on a piece of DP and then randomly stamped with an old set of Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque I think) Stamped some extra flowers and hearts and cut them out, added a few white highlights to the flowers and a bit of lace.  I Decided the lady needed some makeup but the eyeshadow looks a bit lurid on here, anyhow just a a bit of playing which I enjoyed. Oh I nearly forgot to mention its also ties in with the language of flowers bit as of course Roses = Love !

Also
That's Crafty Challenge - Stamping Ground
The Artistic Stamper - anything goes

Antique bird

I love this Indigo Blu stamp but I never seem to be able to do anything with it!  This time I stamped it on a piece of card from my stack of inky bits and pieces, its very shimmery IRL ,coloured it with distress inks. The frame is cut from another piece of inky paper and just added a die cut tag with sentiment.

Make My Monday challenge - Birds
Rubys Rainbow - for the birds

Words

I've been playing with Brusho paints with limited success, I keep seeing fabulous pieces on various blogs but up to now most if my efforts have been bin fodder ! I finally made this piece which is at least passable, I do love the vibrant colours of the paints.  Cut a tag shape and mounted it another tag shape cut from a piece from my pile of inky bits and pieces, stamped with one of my favourite Inkylicious wording stamps and dyed a bit of seam binding for the bow.

Country View Crafts - Word Play

Summer fun

I was wanting to enter Fashionable stamping challenge but was struggling to find anything suitable, I had two stamps I could have used but both had already appeared in the challenge, I have a stamp of a little boy playing football, didn't appeal to me, then I remembered this stamp, its not mine but its been in residence in my house for a while! I do love these two off for a paddle. Stamped on a piece of DP, restamped, coloured and cut out, added a bit of frantage for sand, some birds from inkylicious and a seahorse from an Oxford impressions set. The wording is computer generated and is part of a little poem from a Childs Garden Of Verse.

Fashionable Stamping - Childhood games
Pan Pastels - Summer fun
Eclectic Ellapu - Seaside of nautical
Sugarcreek hollow - summer sunshine