White Christmas

Can hardly believe I haven't blogged for over two weeks, apart from making a couple of DT cards for scheduled posts haven't had time for any crafting.  Very hard to get a decent picture of my card as its almost white on white, click on it for a better view,  it does have a lot of glitter which doesn't show up on here. My favourite stamp of this year, Inkylicious Winter Lodge, certainly had my moneys worth out of this little stamp. First layer embossed with die sire snowflake EF, second layer is glittered with some very ancient Judikins Iridescent embossing powder, very sparkly and pretty. Very lightly inked the main panel with DI ( used my new foam ink blenders, not too sure about them !) and the lovely Sizzix die cut trees.    I'd just like to wish everyone who visits my blog a Very, Very Happy Christmas  and hope you all get lots of lovely crafting goodies from Santa , I'm sure you've all been very good girls LOL.

Tradional Christmas colours

 

This week at Cardz4guyz it is my turn to choose the challenge and I'm asking for Traditional

Christmas colours.

I've gone with red/green and gold for my card. I've used an old Penny Black brush strokes stamp, coloured the stamp with some old Tombow marker pens and spritzed with water before stamping.

I've had these pens for ever and they are still going strong ,long after my copics and promarkers are all drying up.  The red panel is embossed with an embossing folder that was free with a magazine as was the Dashing through the snow stamp.  I wish I could remember where I got the twine as I could do with some more, I like it on mens cards where it would not be appropriate to use ribbon.

Hope you will join us in our challenge, just remember your card must be masculine design for any age group.

Joyful Tidings

This month at Stamping Sensations we are sponsored by Crafty Ribbons and there is a fabulous prize of ribbons and embellishment to be won.  Our Challenge is Anything Goes With A Stamp and Ribbon so lots of scope there !  As we are a stamping challenge we must see stamping as a focal point.

 

I have really struggled with getting a photo of my card, I normally scan my cards, quick and easy, but I didn't want to squash the bow.  It took me longer to tie the bow than make the rest of the card, I really struggle to get a decent one and I'm disappointed at how it looks on here, the ribbon is a gorgeous green satin and nowhere near as dark as it appears here .Background is an old Hero Arts Christmas script and the sentiment is Stampers Anonymous.

Peace On Earth

For My card this month I have used Sizzix Holiday Joy Stamps and Dies. Background is homemade spray made with metallic acrylic paints ( lovely shimmer in real life!) torn paper mask, memory box star which is actually shiny gold and the frantage blizzard .

 

This month at Christmas Sparkles the challenge is Die Cuts

We are sponsored this month by

Di's Digis who are offering a $10 voucher

 

and Crafty Individuals who are offering this lovely stamp

 

 

 

 

 

CAS Christmas

Challenge 99 at Cardz4guyz is for CAS Christmas. Not often I do CAS but I am increasingly finding myself drawn to it.  For my card I have used a snowflake embossing folder and my all time favourite snowman !  He makes me smile just looking at him. I have to confess it is not my stamp but he has lived at my house for years now and I was quite devastated when his owner decided to take him home, however she has very kindly brought him back and left him in my care again.  I hope you will join us in our challenge this week

Making a scene

 

I had my afternoon all planned, half an hour to put some inserts in a few Christmas cards I have made for my daughter, order a few things from Ebay and then write some cards, never plan your day or it will just turn into disaster.  I did do the inserts but Ebay ! it would not let me into my account ,took me an hour and a half to order some vitamin pills !.  Last night I tried to order some craft stuff from a site I use a lot, every time I got to the point of paying couldn't get anything to work, gave up and went to bed. Anyhow to get back to my card, I bought these Hobby Art stamps along with a lot more at Port Sunlight back in October and have never used them. I saw a challenge to make a scene so thought I'd give them a go. As I have been making my Christmas cards I have been "gutting" a lot of the bigger layers ,instead of just cutting a piece out I used the biggest of the stitched square dies so now I have quite a stack of them ready to use for other projects and used one  of them on here.

 

I'd like to enter my card into

 

Rudolph Day - Always a Christmas card

and

The Glory Of Christmas challenge - outdoor scene

 

also here's a couple of cards I just made with scraps and bits and pieces left over from other projects

 

 

 

 

I seem to have run out of 6x6 card blanks so these are little 5x5 cards. The second one is a triple embossed tile that has been in my Christmas bits and bobs box for ages. I think the top stamped Santa

is from last year and I've layered him on more of the left over stitched squares. I would like to put these two into

 

Pixies Snippet Playground - anything goes- snippets

and

Jinglebelles - holiday leftovers.

 

 

Fun In The Snow

This week at cardz4guyz the challenge is Fun In The Snow.

This card is for a Great Grandson who is not quite a year old so this will be his first Christmas. I have used a topper from Card Making magazine, I get tempted to buy these mags because they often have some lovely papers in them but I don't usually use the toppers, however I found myself tempted by this cute little teddy on his skis.  The papers are Lili Of The Valley, die cuts are spellbinders, memory box and a freebie Christmas tree die from last year. Hope to see you on our challenge.

CAS Christmas

Well here we go, back to the blue again !  While I was looking through my Christmas stamps I came across this old PSX church stamp, this was one of very first Christmas stamps and I have always loved it, I see its dated 1996 and its had a lots of use over the years.  I have stamped it with versamark and embossed it with snowflake EP, stitched circle die edged with glitter and lovely snowflake EF,think its Die Sire but I've lost the packaging. The sentiment is a freebie from a magazine and the snowflake is memory box.  Its very, very sparkly in real life but hard to see on here. I,d like to enter
it in these challenges

The Glory Of Christmas - CAS
Clean and Simple on Sunday - Christmas
Christmas card Challenges- anything goes.

Now its back to putting inserts in cards, 57 done about another 40 to go LOL so boring !

Its Not Blue !

I just had a notion that I wanted to make a vintage card, I'm not particularly pleased with my Christmas cards this year so thought I'd have a break and just play. Another old fashioned Santa from Stampendous., I just stamped him in red as he never looks as effective when I try to colour him, various bits of scrap papers left over from other cards, the fabulous Sue Wilson Ivy die which I love, memory box snowflake and holly dies and the Happy Christmas die which was a freebie last year. Found a few challenges to enter

Penny Black and More  - Anything Christmas
Ink On My Fingers        - Vintage
Fantasy Stampers          -  Traditional Christmas
Allsorts                         -   At Least Three die cuts.

Blue Angel

 

Still seem to be in a "blue mood" with this card.  trying out my new holly frame die again, love it and also the other dies that come with it, its a fabulous set.  As a contrast the Angel stamp is an old Inkadinkado stamp and I've stamped it with Encore ultimate metallic blue, haven't used this ink pads for a long time and was happy to find they are still very useable as I thought they might have dried up.Hard to get a decent picture but it has a lovely sheen to it and all the snowflakes are sparkling with glamour dust. The tiny poinsettias are part of the same set. I would like to enter my card into Twofers challenge - Things with wings

 

 

I

 

Trains, planes and automobiles

This weeks challenge at Cardz4guys is Trains, Planes and Automobiles. Usually I would be getting out my stamps for this challenge but at the moment I'm up to my ears in Christmas cards and can't seem to get my head round anything else.  I found this image on the internet and the papers which seemed made for this image were free from a magazine. A little matting and layering and another card for my stack, this one destined for one of the great grandchildren.  Hope to see you on our challenge this week.

Winter wonderland(again !)

Yes its that stamp again !  this is really the last batch of cards made with this stamp which I just love.
I also seem to have been rather obsessed with the colour blue this year although yesterday I did batch make twelve cards and there is not one iota of blue on them.  I think I'm starting with a migraine, too long on the computer this afternoon so will just get this onto these challenges.

A Snowflake promise  - winter/ Christmas
Try It OnTuesday - create a scene
Fantasy Stampers  - winter wonderland
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas - anything goes as long as its Christmas
Country View Challenges - The colour blue

More folds

For the latest challenge at Cardz4guyz the theme is more than one fold.  Now although I love to see step cards etc  I'm not very good at making them so after a bit of head scratching I remembered the
"fortune teller" style cards I made a few years ago, lots of folds here but very easy once I had got the  folds back in order !  I've used a very old piece of papermania paper and stamped a little scene with some freebie stamps.  I think I can get away with the little bit of burgundy ribbon on a male card as it
matched up with the backing paper. Hope to see you at our challenge this week.

Vintage Santa

I feel like I'm really struggling with Christmas cards this year, normally its my favourite card making time but this year I'm sadly lacking in inspiration despite all the stamps etc I have.  I do love traditional Christmas colours and vintage style so I was quite happy creating this card.  This is my all time favourite Santa stamp and the plus factor is that it doesn't need colouring.  Spellbinders oval die and poinsettias cut from DP paper. Papers are Craftwork cards from a couple of years ago and Dec 25
is an old Stampers Anonymous cube stamp.  Bit of ribbon and some shabby white frontage.  I'd like to enter this in

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas challenge   - Anything goes as long as its Christmas
Crafty Hazelnuts patterned paper challenge - Anthing goes with patterned paper
Make My Monday  - Shabby Chic
Vintage Stamping - traditional Christmas Colours
Try It On Tuesday - lots of layers
 

Get well soon

Over at Cardz4guyz the challenge this week is to Feel Better Soon.  For my card I have used a topper from a Kevin Walsh card making pad and a piece of an old map, now we all seem to use sat navs
these old books of road maps seem to be quite redundant but they are so useful to use up on masculine cards.  Other bits are from my scrap box and the sentiment is computer generated.  Hope to see you on our challenge this week

Festive Florals and foliage

This week at Stamping Sensations we are sponsored by Be Creative who are offering this lovely prize
check out their Facebook page.

For my card I have used papers from the Festive Paper pad for the background and the main image of the deer. Stamped a few snowflakes on the paper and added some gems. I stamped the Penny Black poinsettia on vellum and white embossed them, then added some colour to the back of the vellum, finished off with a few more gems on the poinsettias. Hope to see you at our challenge this month. Don't forget we are a stamping challenge so must see stamping as a focal point on your card. I'm sure you all have holly, ivy and festive flowers in your stash!

.

Christmas Wreath

This week at Sparkles Christmas the challenge is Christmas decorations.
For my card I have chosen to make a Christmas wreath using Card-io stamps Festive Fir Cones, I have found these tiny stamps quite addictive, totally different to my usual stuff and I've made a very CAS card with them.  Hope you will join in our challenge.

This month we are sponsored by



DeeDee's Digis
who are offering a $25 dollar voucher

and Crafters Companion who are offering a £10 voucher

Winter Wonderland

Woops, nearly missed entering this months Rudolph Challenge, I made this card a couple of weeks ago but its never got blogged so I'm doing it now.  I love this Inkylicious Winter Cabin stamp and it goes so well with the sentiment which is also from them. The Deer, star and snowflake are all memory box dies. The background paper is the music for the song but can't really see it on here.  There is lots of glitter and chunky white frantage on here but the glitter doesn't show. I'd like to enter my card in these challenges :-

Rudolph Day  - Christmas
Allsorts  -          Christmas
Crazy4challenges - Christmas
Winter Wonderland - Anything goes as long as its Christmas

Double.double, toil and trouble

 

Not got much crafting done this week, can't seem to shift this horrible virus, seems to get a bit better and then ,wham, its back again with a vengeance. O.H is in even worse state with it, I even managed to drag him to the Docs which is something he never does, didn't do any good though, just told it's a virus will go on its own, well I wish I could put a spell on it and get rid of it !

I came in here to make a DT card for next week but somehow ended up making this Halloween card instead. Mixture of stamps ,Tree and bat are Hero arts, witch and cauldron are  Lavinia and toadstools are Inkylicious. Catching a few challenges:-

 

Daring Card Makers - Non cute Halloween

That's Crafty Challenge - Halloween

Cardsundmore - Halloween

Fantastic Tuesday - Halloween

Just Add Ink - W - is for witch

 

round and round the cauldron goes, in the poison'd entrails throw !   

 

I've eaten too much treacle sponge pudding and feel like I've eaten something from the cauldron !

 

 

 

 

 

Bah Humbug?

Had a really nasty virus over the last ten days or so and O.H is still quite poorly with it, of course its all my fault for gadding out and fetching germs home LOL ! Really not been in the mood for doing anything but tonight I've just been playing about with various bits and pieces laid about. The background papers are left over from another card, the inkylicious house was a colouring mistake and I had stamped and coloured several of the "happy" sheep.  I think I must still be running a temperature as this card is a bit crazy ,having said that I do love this sheep with his Santa hat, baubles and lights, just a bit of fun. He does come with a bah humbug stamp but I prefer him to be merry.  A couple of challenges to enter

Fantasy Stampers - Animal Antics

Pixies Crafty Workshop  - my card is all snippets

Least Favourite colour

Its my turn to do mid month at Stamping Sensations and to make a card using my least liked colour. I found this quite difficult as I don't really dislike any colour but after a lot of thought realised I don't use yellow very much on my cards , never wear anything yellow and don't have it anywhere in my home.  For my card I've used the lovely Penny Black sunflower stamp, Die'sire lattice flourish die, yellow enamel dots and yellow ribbon.

You Rock !

This week at Cardz4Guyz it is my turn to choose the challenge and I have chosen " You Rock" 
I usually go for very bright colours using this stamp but decided to go for a black and white theme this time, main stamp is Inkadinkado, guitar, stars and plectrum are from 1950's set from Creative Stamping magazine and I found the music background paper in my scrapbox.  The design team have come up with some fabulous samples so please visit us and have a look . Hope you will join us in this challenge.

Crazy witch

Feeling short on inspiration lately, even the two craft shows I went to last weekend didn't really spark anything creative in me. Tonight I've just been playing about with Crazy Bird Stamps , I did get the accessories set but not really played with it so tonight I thought I would try out the witchy bits and pieces. The trees are a obsession impression die and the skeleton flying across the moon is
Stampendous.

I'd like to enter this in these challenges

Fantasy Stampers - Fright Night
and
Creative  Corner Challenges - Halloween
                                                                                                                  

Retro for Twofers

 

Nearly forgot to do the Twofers challenge this time, the theme is Retro and nothing immediately sprang to mind but last night I picked up a creative stamping magazine which had a sheet of 1950's stamps with it and it gave me an idea for a card.  Stamped the 50's housewife straight onto a piece of white card, stamped the star clusters from the same set and added some sparkles with glitter glue from the new Creative range from Once Upon A Stamp and it is really sparkly ! the banner and icecream sundae are Mollie Bloom stamps, again freebies, what a cheap skate I am  LOL !

There is still time to enter this challenge and there is a prize to be won ! Although it is called Twofers you only need to enter one item, have a go !

 

Twofers Challenge  - Retro

 

away with the fairies

 

Well this is a very pink card, not my usual stuff but it's for a seven year old girl's birthday and she is very into pink!  The fairy is a Lily Of The Valley stamp, one of the very few I own, the papers I bought at the Harrogate show along with some blue ones, an impulse buy but already come in useful. two diecut ovals and a punched strip. The little heart I stamped for another card and didn't use it so came in handy for this.  I'd like to enter my card in a couple of challenges

 

Cardz4galz  - Fairies

 

Moving along with the times - Fairy enough

 

I almost forgot to mention that I used one of the new glitter glues from Once Upon A Stamp on the fairies wings, I wish you could see the glitter in all its glory, its iridescent and just beautiful !

 

Button Up

This week at Cardz4guyz , Jan has chosen the theme of "Button Up" so lets see some buttons on your entry .  For my card I've used a new stamp I just got from Visible Image. layered up onto a inked and splattered background, I added a bit of frayed hessian and a couple of buttons. Hope you will join us in our challenge.

More autumn colour

I think this will be the last of my autumn cards for this year, saving the rest of my orange papers etc for Halloween.  I bought this Woodware stamp at the Harrogate Craft show, mixed feelings about the show, we went on the Friday and it was very quiet. I think there would be some not very happy Exibitors there. It was in a huge temporary building and seemed quite empty, not a lot of atmosphere. However I did manage to get myself a "few" stamps, mainly from Inkylicious, watched a great demo by them, bought the stamps and now I can't remember how the cards were made, kraft card and white ink pad needed but now I've no idea what to do with them , about right for me .  Anyhow back to my card, the background panel is made with brusho paints and Inkylicious leaf stamps, I have no idea what this plant is meant to be but it reminded me of something called Chinese lanterns which we used to grow as kids. I'd like to enter it in the following challenges

Simon Says Stamp  - Autumn is in the air
Simply Create Too - Autumn Splendour
Penny Black at allsorts - warm autumn colours
Allsorts - Nature

Autumn Colours

This month at Stamping Sensations the challenge is to use Autumn colours.  For my card I have used lots of tiny stamps, mostly from Cardio. I have had some Tapestry stamps for years and never used them but I remembered watching a demo by them at Port Sunny last year and remembered how the wreath was done, first time I have even managed to make one without messing it up. The sycamore leaves stamp at the top was a freebie from Crafty Individuals years ago and is my favourite leaf stamp, sentiment is Clearly Besotted.  Remember we are a stamping challenge and your entry must have stamping as the focal point.

We are sponsored this month by Foilplay who are offering a £35 voucher to spend in their store




Foil Play specialises in rub on foils and ultra fine glitter, along with card toppers and 3D decoupage (die cut and traditional) and a great selection of greetings and embellishments too. New products are added often and the site offers an array of over 11,000 different paper craft products from classic and well known brands, including Kanban, Hunkydory, Dufex, Craftwork Cards, La Pashe, The Hobby House, Debbi Moore Designs and many more.

Foil Play has no minimum order and you can pick just the individual products that you want, without needing to buy a huge kit. There are plenty of crafty bargains, including big discounts for bulk packs of selected products. UK P&P is free when you spend over £10, orders are packed carefully and sent speedily by First Class mail.

Sassy !

A last minute entry for the Twofers challenge which now doesn't have to have two cards, come on girls get behind this new challenge that Zoe and Co are trying so hard to get off the ground, there are going to be prizes for the challenges in future so what's stopping you !

For my card I have used a Lost Coast design stamp, love these girls, they have such pretty, happy faces, masked them and stamped Cityscape Paris behind them and Kaisercraft Sketchy stamp for the ground.

I'd also like to enter this card into another new challenge cardz4gals and their challenge is to use your favourite colour, now that's a very difficult choice for me but I do prefer the warmer colour range,purples, reds, magenta etc for feminine cards, not quite sure what this colour is called but I love it.

Distressed

This month at Sparkles Christmas Challenge the theme is Distress , for my card I have used distress inks to colour my card , used a piece of white card to form the snowy ground, stamped the trees with distress inks too, the deer are from a memory box die as is the gold star.  I distressed all the edges of the layers.  This month we have two sponsors .

Fantastic Ribbons who are offering a prize of £10 (with free P&P) to spend at their store

 

and a surprise prize from Marianne Designs

 

 

 

 I would also like to enter my card into Christmas card challenge - anything goes

A little bit of steampunk

Well its ages since I've done anything Steampunk as it seems to have lost its popularity in the crafting world, when I saw that the challenge at Fantasy Stampers is Steampunk I thought I'd have another play.  I dug around and found a folder with papers and oddments in and I knew I had these Hampton Art stamps that a friend gave me and I hadn't used. The large butterfly is a Tim Holtz die and emboss and the wooden clock is something else I had given. This is a 6x6 piece and will go into my steampunk book I made a couple of years ago.

Mini

This week at Cardz4guyz the challenge theme is for something beginning with M. For my card I have used an old stamp of a mini car and various papers from an American Crafts paper pad. The wording is from visible image.  Hope you will join us this week

Autumn Leaves

 

I was very happy to be asked to do a guest designer spot at Try It On Tuesday challenge which is Autumn Leaves.  My background is coloured with distress inks and mounted onto another piece of card which was coloured with Brushos. Stamped the Crafty Individuals tree twice and added a few smudges of orange DI to try to represent the last of the leaves, then added more colours under the trees for the fallen leaves. The three stamped and cut out leaves are done with my favourite leaf stamp that was a freebie from Crafty Individuals years ago.Finished with a bit of frayed mesh and a wooden button with a twine bow ( and of course the inkylicious birds which seem to get themselves onto so many of my cards! )

Rudolph Christmas Card

This was going to be a quick simple card for The Rudolph Challenge but this is my third attempt and I don't think I'll be making any more.  Everything on this card is from freebies other than the ribbon and the snowflake die cut, the stamp and embossing folder from Papercraft Inspirations and the papers from Simply Homemade. I'm also entering this into Pixies Snippets as the ribbon is a snippet left from last years Christmas card making.

Kraft and Blue

This week at Cardz4guyz the challenge is to use Blue and Kraft.  I don't know where this image came from, I found it in a folder full of bits and pieces, I think someone may have given it to me as its not my usual style although I do think he's quite a cute little fellow !  I had a job to find some Kraft card as the only pieces I had were too small, finally found a sheet of 12x12 which is patterned on one side so this is the reverse. The other papers are from my scrapbox,Craftwork cards sentiment and candies.
Hope to see you joining in this week.

Words

I never used to miss Fashionable Stamping Challenges but seem to have missed a few of the most recent ones. Their challenge this time is Words and I do love my wording stamps, hard part was which one to use. I haven't used this Inkylicious stamp for ages so thought I would give it an airing (or inking ) Simple Ink duster background with distress inks and a little bit of sequin waste stencilling . The tall twigs stamp is a Paper Artsy recently rediscovered and the plants as the bottom are a Indigo Blu freebie. I'd also like to enter it into Make My Monday Challenge which is nature.

P is for ?

 

I decided I would make a card for Alphabet Challenge which has got round to the letter P  and the the theme of Peacocks, Pelicans or other birds, what did I do ? got out a Polar Bear stamp LOL !  After I finally got my brain in gear I found this old Kanban stamp , I think I had bought the set for the other stamps on the sheet.  I  made an Inky background with Creative Chemistry inks, a bit of splattering and some stamped leaves from the same set. The peacock is stamped with Cobalt archival ink and coloured with mermaid lagoon distress ink. I then stencilled some sparkle medium through a swirly stencil, coloured another piece of cardstock with the mermaid ink as I couldn't find any toning card and dyed a piece of seam binding . I'm not a big fan of peacocks (is that a pun ?) as we had one who took up residence for a while in our small close, they make a terrible mess and an even worse noise!

Two For Twofers !

Well I've been a real miserable so and so the last couple of days, no particular reason just mooching about with no inclination to do anything. Having spent the best part of this afternoon shredding years and years worth of bank statements etc didn't help !  Anyhow tonight I thought I'd mess about with distress inks and and use my Cityscape stamps which I had to have and then didn't know what to do with them which is not unusual for me LOL . Gave me another chance to use the Runway girls too, think the two sets of stamps are made for each other.  Anyhow I thought I could enter these into TWOFERS challenge which is a fairly new challenge and I like the idea of making pairs of things.