Away in a Manger

From CAS to OTT?
Was a bit concerned about the colour scheme I chose for this card - I wanted to do another 'non traditional' colour and sorting through the stack of papers - (did I really buy all those paper pads????) - I picked out pastel pinks, blues, pale greens but then found this pad from My Mind's Eye full of brown, cream and blue tones.
So decided to give it a go. What do you think?

I Know the designs on the paper are not 'christmassy' and probably the traditionalists with red green gold silver etc may not be particularly enamoured with it but I think it's turned out OK.
The image is from Mo Manning. Isn't the expression on the little angel's face just brilliant?!I coloured it with promarkers and pastel chalks (although you can't see the pastel blue background behind the little angel very well) and added some glamour dust onto the wings.
Papers were all layered and distressed.
Coloured the flourish with a promarker to tone in and added a couple of brown pearls to the bottom left corner.
The flowers are from Wild Orchid and my local haberdashery shop!
Oh and look what I got for Christmas - a new nestie set of tags!!! (Well they were a Christmas present to me from me......and I actually bought two sets but shhhhhhhhhh.......lol)

Challenges -
Digistamp 4 Joy - Christmas but no animals
For Fun - Christmas
My Mum's Craft Shop - Keeping Warm (and baby certainly is that all snuggled up in the hay!)
Craft Your Passion - Anything Holday Related

Thanks for visiting - appreciate all your comments.

What horrible day it's been here weather wise - we've had lashing rain and howling gales and it's not very warm at all!! On the up side is the wind has almost stripped the trees bare so once we can get a chance to get outside and clear up all the dropped leaves the garden shouldn't need much tending to - thank goodness.

Here's my offering for today - love these mischevious elves from Mo Manning - there's a whole set of them - this one is called Little Elf Mim.

The pic is a bit wishy washy - when really the Echo Park backing papers are a rich deep red but you get the general idea!

Mim is coloured with promarkers and I used some fluffy stuff on the hat and hemline.
The bauble was run over with a glue pen and then glittered.
I finished with a PC generated sentiment and a dark red satin bow.
Another one for my Christmas pile!

Challenges -
DP2 - Elves, Fairies, Santa or Snowmen
Pollycraft - Christmas Fun
Craft Your Days Away- Buttons OR Bows
MAWTT - Ribbons and Bows 

CASE'd card

I saw a card made like this some time ago and scribbled a sketch of it onto a bit of paper. I wrote down who's card it was on another piece of paper and dabbed a bit of glue to keep them together - yesterday I found the scrap of paper with the (bad) drawing on and a torn corner where the other piece had been stuck on - so - if this was your original idea I thank you for the inspiration and hope I've done your awesome card justice.

Spent a long long time punching out the leaves for this and made my hand sore so resorted to using my foot after a while!! (A trick I learnt from Maureen.....lol)
It was painstaking sticking them all on the embossed circle individually but I got there in the end.

I'm beginning to use this diamond shaped embossing folder nearly as much as the swiss dots one - But I do like it and think it's a perfect 'all occasion' design and is suitable for a man's card too.

I used white pearlised cardstock and red polka dot paper and placed some red satin ribbon across the paper join.

I put the 'wreath' on the card with foam pads for a bit of dimension positioning it slightly over the edge of the card and then trimmed it to the card edge for an 'off centre' effect.
I stuck on a small red bow and some red gems for a bit of bling!

The sentiment was stamped using Stazon Blazing Red Ink.

This is my second entry into the 'Bit of Bling' Less Is More challenge this week and I'm feeling quite smug with myself as my Christmas card stash is growing - albeit slowly!
Guylou also has a 'wreath' challenge this week.

Having problems with the camera today! (What's new???? LOL)
This is the first of 2 cards for Less Is More challenge this week (the other not dry so will post later!).
The challenge was 'a bit of Bling!'

This really is a CAS card - just white pearlised cardstock embossed with a winter design layered onto a dark grey pearlised card then onto more pearlised white cardstock.

The sentiment and tiny snowflakes were stamped in Pearlescent Blue ink and clear embossed. The sentiment was a freebie in a homestyle magazine and I thought it was one of the best freebies I've acquired recently! It came with a couple of flourishes, four different types of tiny snowflakes and a flourish frame. Not bad!! 

I just spent a wee while sticking tiny sparkly gems on each of the snowflakes.

Sorry the pic is a bit naff - I'm actually pleased with the way this one turned out - it looks quite good 'in real life'!

Challenges -
Dream Valley - Sparkle
Paper Sundaes- Winter Wonderland
Crazy 4 Challenges - Snow
Less is More - Bling

Back to other things

Our Art n Soul group over at Flickr has periodic challenges and the last one for this year was to make a Bookmark.

The group is an International one so setting challenges for swaps is quite hard as we can't make anything that will cost a fortune to post.
The bookmarks were going to be swapped randomly between the group as Christmas presents and  I also added a second challenge of a Christmas tag to accompany your bookmark so the recipient had something to open!

Never one to set simple tasks I also told the group they had to have lace somewhere on their project.

The closing date is 30th November and here I am with only the darn bookmark finished!

I'll set to tomorrow and get the tag done but thought for now I'd better blog the bookmark as even though it's on the Flickr group's photostream we always upload onto our blogs if we have one as well.

The bookmark measures about 6" long and is linen textured 'Paris Night's paper on thin but strong mountboard.
The image was printed onto cotton fabric and stitched to the paper.
I added some scraps of lace from my bits box which I stitched by machine and hand.

The printed ribbon seemed quite fitting for a bookmark as I think reading is such a great thing - there's nothing better than burying your head into a book and losing yourself in a story - so these times when you can escape into another world and not worry about everyday life for a short time are definitely moments to be treasured!

It's been quite a while since I made anything other than cards and even though I was panicking a bit because I had so little time left to complete my own challenge (LOL), I quite enjoyed assembling this!

There's a couple of challenges that my little bookmark will fit -
Fussy and Fancy - Make a Gift
Dutch Dare - Recipe - Ribbon, Image, Layers
Papercrafting Journey - Anything Goes

The Christmas Flower

Here's a card made with one of the images I've coloured over the last couple of days.
I spotted a layout similar to this while blog hopping and thought it was beautiful - so thought I might have a go at my own interpretation!

The flower has three layers and the top two were finished with glossy accents. I used some gold Stickles on the flower centre and dotted some red glitter onto the holly berries.
I am really pleased with the way the glossy accents has dried on the petals - they're shiny and bright - just like a Xmas card should be!

White pearlised card was used for the embossing and I put some broad red ribbon between the two embossed designs.
Am undecided whether to add a greeting or not - I quite like the starkness of this card as it is.
Shall pop it in the stash and decide when I come to send it!

Challenges-
Make My Monday - Flowers, Foliage or Snowflakes
CardMadFairy - Texture
Digi Doodles Best - Red and Green (and although there's more red than green, there is some green on the leaves!)
Digital Tuesday - Sparkle and Shine
Pile it On - the letter 'P' 

Happy Monday!

Hope all is well with everyone here in blogland - thanks for visiting!
Quite a grey day but at least the overnight rain has stopped - had a reasonably craftie productive day yesterday - gots lots stamped and coloured - now all I have to do is assemble them all onto papers and cardstock!!! 
 

This card is for my own stash - I love these snowmen from Sassy Cheryl - the whole collection make me smile - and isn't this one just brill with his cup of cappucino - just what is needed on a cold grey November day - complete with marshmallows of course!!

I wanted to give him a 'cool' look so opted for the blue/brown colour scheme rather than trad christmas colours. I used some glamour dust on his scarf and dotted his clothes with a white gel pen. The spotty background paper just seemed to fit him even though it's not specifically a Christmas paper!
The sentiment is a freebie but I altered the centre wording to something I thought more appropriate for a coffee bringing snowman (!) and the blue seam binding ribbon was a pressie. I threaded a sparkly snowflake button through the ribbon and finished off with some punched snowflakes with tiny gems for sparkle.

Challenges -
Sassy Cheryl - Anything Goes
I Did It - Snowmen
Pan Pastel - Frosty and Bright
2 Sisters - Let it Sparkle
Crafty Emmas - Snowflakes
One Stop Challenge - Blue 
Crafty Catz - Snowflakes

Second visit!

Don't say you weren't warned - you'll be sick of me by the end of today....

Second entry into this week's 'Silhouettes' challenge at Less Is More.

Image stamped with Onxy Black Versamark over a background sponged with Whispers Inks - Royal Blue and Starry Night. I ran a distressing tool round the edge of the image before mounting onto black card.

The 'moon' was dusted with some glamour dust and thanks to Chrissie I ventured with the glue pen and some glamour dust across the wording to give the 'magic' some sparkle.

I randomly sponged the excess on the make up sponge around the white space - I was real careful as normally I am so 'heavy handed' what I want to appear 'subtle' sometimes looks the 'Invasion of the Coloured Blobs!'

Thankfully, the colour is very light and there's still lots of white space to satisfy our Head Girls! LOL 

Two tiny black pearls in the bottom right corner finished it off.

Be warned - this will not be the only post of the day!
And if you've any bunting, then put it up cos here I am with my FIRST entry this week into the LIM challenge (and it's only SUNDAY!!!!) Don't know what I'm going to do on Thursday now - or for the days inbetween - no anguish over what I'm going to do and I'm running out of time etc etc.... trouble is, my head is full to bursting with stuff that I want to do for this week that I probably won't get anything else finished cos I'll be flitting about from one half finished thing to another!
So here's the first of the 3 that I've started - this one is complete, the other two are waiting on the desk!
I have had numerous discussions with other crafters about digi stamps. Some think they cannot be classed as 'hand made' as it's the PC that does all the work! Not true! Whilst I love good old fashioned rubber stamps and making messy with ink, I DO also like digis and think that if you've limited space for storage and not a lot of cash to throw about then a small stash of digis are invaluable and anyone who has ever worked with them will know that it's not easy and the PC definitely DOESN'T do all the work particularly if you're printing straight onto card!!!! 

This beautiful digi was a freebie from TLC and I thought it perfect for the challenge this week which is 'Silhouettes'.

I know this has a couple of layers but I have tried to keep the card clean and simple - I like black/white/pink colour combo so it was natural that I would use it - I wanted to use the linen textured card and have found that sometimes printing direct onto it doesn't turn out the best so played safe with this one and printed it separately just in case it wasn't as sharp as it should be. Actually it printed beautifully, which I think is probably to do with the brilliant quality of the image rather than the quality of my printer!

The sentiment also is a TLC digi freebie and it's one of my favourites as I think it is so true, when someone does show you kindness your day seems so much brighter.

Challenges -
Less Is More - Silhouettes
Crazy 4 Challenges - Black, White and one other colour
Mark's Finest Papers - Black,White and one other colour

Thanks for visiting - off to see if my ink has dried - be back later!

A 'grey' Christmas!

Been a lovely day here today so made the most of it out in the fresh air!
Am sitting here thinking about what I am going to do for another challenge but in the mean time - brain cells are struggling for inspiration - I thought I'd better post this.

I was a bit unsure about these papers but decided to keep the clean stark colour combo of grey and white and just add a splash of colour on the image.

I also followed a sketch for the first time in ages! 

The little boy hanging stars on his tree is another from LOTV (just for a change - LOL) and I added some crimson onto his hat and stars and used three different shades of grey for his clothes. Some glitter used for a wee bit of bling and I popped the image onto a nestie frame and layered onto the card with 3d pads. I used a Nellie Snellen die for the corners.

I thought about puttin red gems instead of the card candy on the white ribbon but once I'd coloured them with one of the grey shades decided to leave it as it was and just let the image make the statement.

Challenges -
CRAFT - Stars
Willow Sketchie - Sketch
Frosted Designs - Die Cuts
Winter Wonderland - What a Cutie 

Thanks for visiting - off to try and galvanise my grey cells into action!

Anyone seen the number 14?

Bus I mean!!! So I don't post for a week then here I am two together! LOL
I apologise for the pic - will take another tomorrow but I really wanted to get this second go at last Saturday's LIM challenge....

Found the leaf stamp (as mentioned in previous post)................. not in any of the stamp drawers at all but there I was looking for a nestie (to make a frame for a christmas card) when I saw this little bit of red rubber complete with cobweb poking out from behind the metal cabinet.......... so after making the spider homeless, I inked it and accomplished my mission to use this brilliant quote.

Unfortunately electric light is not good for pics is it? But never mind, you'll get the general idea!

I used Versamark 'Umber' ink for the outline of the leaf and then clear embossed. I coloured it with a variety of distress inks (amazing on something so small- lol), used Frayed Burlap, Rusty Hinge and Barn Door! I think maybe I could have made the stem of the leaf a wee bit thicker so that it covered the end of the twig but overall am reasonably OK with the finished article!
I sponged some Vintage Photo distress ink round the edges of the card and finished with a gingham ribbon.
(Oh and the twig image was a digi download from somewhere about two years ago and I altered the colour to brown using Page Plus.)

I toyd with the idea of stamping more leaves along the bottom below the ribbon but decided to leave bare - the 'one red leaf' didn't look to me like it needed any friends!

First one for tonight!

Oh boy am I sooooo late posting this card. I did this for last Saturday's Less is More challenge and only got a chance to take a decent pic of it today. Whenever I've had any free time, it's been after 5pm so it's dark and gloomy and my camera REFUSES to take any decent pics even with the flash.
Tried scanning but because of all the white space the scan wasn't very good either! So finally found time this afternoon to take a pic before the light went.
It was 'one layer' week this week and I always struggle with it. (Who knows this might eventually end up being more than one layer but as it is at the moment I can submit it!)

The one layer challenge was entitled 'leaves'. I had a fab quote from Samuel Coleridge but couldn't find the damn leaf stamp I needed to use (note to self - tidy up the stamp drawers....).  I have promised myself that as soon as I put my hand on the elusive stamp I will make a card using the quote anyway!

Is anyone else like me? Is everybody always happy with their entries into one layer challenges? Having finally overcome my fear of stamping straight onto card I don't know why my heart drops to my boots every time it's one layer week!
So cos I couldn't find the stamp (and all the hundreds of other leaf stamps simply would NOT do - well in my mind anyway), I threw away the stamp and quote idea and ended up with an embossing folder!
This though was a 'first' for me - not the embossing folder, but I used distress ink on the folder before embossing. On the third attempt it finally looked OK enough for me!
I added a wee bit of stickles onto the berries and some sparkly red string to the top. No sentiment as yet - might add one to the front later - am still considering the options!!!
Challenges -
Christmas Card Challenge - Holly
Less is More - Leaves

PS - Have just seen that this effort looks soooo much like another LIMette entry - she used the same folder for this - and she's my namesake - so Viv, if you're looking I promise I didn't CASE your card!!!!! (great minds etc etc ...or fools seldom...????????) I actually only looked through the other submitted cards when I'd uploaded both of mine......... sorry.

Brrr...............

Flippin 'eck, it's been cold here today!
Been out all wrapped up and am now sat in the craftie space with the heaters on high. Supposed to get a bit warmer over the next few days thank goodness.
I have a few cards done but it was too dark today when I got home to take the pics so am sharing this one which I  finished over the weekend.
The little boy who it's for is, I'm told by his proud great grandparents 'a little love'! They all are aren't they when you can give them back when they become tetchy or misbehave! LOL.
The image was given to me by a fellow crafter - isn't he a happy chappie all wrapped up AND he comes with a present too!!!
He's coloured with promarkers and glittered, then layered onto red and green cardstock. A sparkly snowflake and a teeny red bow with a bauble popped on for a bit more bling!
I added some fluffy stuff round his feet - (bet they're not as cold as mine are though!)

Challenges -
Here Come The Boys - Red/White/Green
Partner in Crafting Crime - Use Something Free (and that's my free image)
Craft Your Passion - Let It Snow
Fab n Funky - Baby it's cold outside.

Whiter than White

I made a whole batch of these yesterday - they were quick to do and I like the CAS style - this week I have gone through various styles - Lots of frills to Vintagey/Distressed back to frilly and fussy and now on to CAS!! For a further change I opted to do 7 x 5 cards instead of my usual 6 x 6!

Two cuttlebug embossing folders, white pearlised card, some ribbon to hide the join (lol), a die cut snowflake suitably blinged with lashings of glitter and a freebie sentiment with a few sparkly gems and voila!!

Last year I was so rushed making my own cards to send and I am hoping to be more organised this year - so the few made yesterday will swell my stash a wee bit.

I did them in two different colours - gold and silver and changed the sentiments on each so am keeping to my 'never make two the same' rule.

Challenges -

Creative Craft - Minimalistic

Delightful Challenges - Snowflakes

PaperCrafting Journey - Embossing

Crafting For all Seasons - Texture

Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Christmas 
Southern Girls - Inspired by a Song (white Christmas)

Busy?

I have a couple of makes to post today - spent a couple of hours yesterday clearing up leaves in the garden - looked real tidy - come out today and it doesn't look like I did any tidying up at all!!!
Anyway after the exertions with the rake I treated myself to some crafting time.
First one for today is another commisioned card for a baby born this year and am still on the 'do non traditional colours' theme!
I remembered seeing a Mo Manning image of a baby and a bauble........... when I went to Mo's new shop I couldn't find it!! So I emailed her and asked her where it was - it was still in her old shop and she put it in the new one for me - how good was that?  After all that effort I hope I've done it justice for her!

I didn't want to colour the baby's clothes in 'traditional' colours as I thought it would be too 'in your face'!. I tried paper piecing which again looked too strong and bold. So I opted for the mustard yellow which I hope is not too wishy washy or 'unbabylike'.

I wanted to make the bauble sparkly so I used two different colours of GlitterMagic fine glitter. I dusted the edges of the image with distress ink to take away the stark white and them framed it onto dark gold pearlised cardstock.
I went completely overboard with the glitter and stickles on this card - I attacked the doily, the edges of the image, the edges of the sentiments and the ribbon! Nothing escaped the glitter maniac.............. not even the colour co-ordinated inside.
I finished by dabbing some random dots using a white gel pen on the background of the image and popped a couple of flat backed pearls in the bottom right corner and resisted the urge to stickle them too.......
Am hoping this baby likes sparkles!

Challenges -
C.R.A.F.T - Cute
My Mum's Craft Shop - Sugar and Spice
Scrapbook Sisters - Baby
Truly Scrumptious - Bingo (and I chose Glitter/Punch or Dies/Ribbon)
Papertake Weekly - First Christmas
Partyime Tuesday - Bling It On

My participation in the Less is More challenges has been much depleted of late and I really wanted to try and enter some more as the ' little tasks' set DO make me think!
I was determined last Friday that whatever the challenge was (even if it was ACETATE!!!!LOL), I would take part. How Admirable!!!!!!!
By Saturday night when I got round to reading the challenge I was regretting my rash announcement that this week was definitley the one where I would find time............ I mean....... red and ORANGE????????
I am not an 'orange' person- the occasional clementine or satsuma maybe but otherwise orange is not in my colour or taste palette! (and I don't like Tango either!!)
So consequently it has taken me three days to finally come up with something that I thought was passable enough to submit. The other entries are all amazing (-aren't they always???) and these talented people bring out such feelings of inadequacy!!!!

This DL card shape is something of a change for me, but it seemed appropriate for the stamps. The stamp is from Clarity and although I bought it about 3 years ago, this is the first time it's seen any ink!! (Go on, admit it, you've all got 'virgin' stamps in the drawer!!!)
I used Spiced Marmalade and Barn Door Distress Inks and some clear embossing powder. The dark red strip has a velvety texture although this hasn't shown up very well in the pic - I think it's called 'suede paper'. I added a couple of sparkly gems, the sentiment was pc generated and the card base is linen cardstock.  
Other Challenges -
Cards For Men - Christmas Card
Bows n Berries - CAS
   
Thanks for stopping by - have a crafty day wherever you are. 

A very vintage Christmas

I still have a few more commisioned cards to complete but I spent yesterday making a couple for my own use.

It's been a while since I got embossing powder all over the place so enjoyed myself making a bit of a mess with the powder and the distressing tool!

This card has lots of layers - gold cardstock layered onto white card, then cream flourish paper from the Echo Park 'Season's Greetings' stack. I distressed the edges of the flourish paper then embossed with gold. The music script paper was also distressed and embossed then layered onto gold card.
The Tag also got the same treatement!

I used Frayed Burlap and Antique Linen Distress Inks on the paper doily. The gold flourish was just done by gold embossing a plain white die cut.
I added some cream grossgrain ribbon and a metal snowflake brad to secure the ribbon knot and finished with the same ribbon on the tag.

It was a change for me to get back to vintagey/shabby and I really enjoyed it - so no doubt there'll be more on the way once I've finished the ordered ones! 

Challenges -
Crafty Emmas - Inspired by a Song - (O Christmas Tree)
Corrosive Challenge - With a Flourish
I Did It Creations - Christmas
Our Craft Lounge - Distressed
Craft your Passion - Anything Goes plus Brown
Heart Song Inspirations - Anything Goes

Non Traditional?

Decided this year to try and use more than the traditional colours for christmas cards, so up to now have used lilac and pale green, the traditional red/green, an aqua blue and here is the latest one - pink and brown!
I have had this brown and pink polka dot ribbon for quite a while and found it the other day whilst ferreting about in the ribbon scrap box so made the decision there and then to use it on the next Christmas card.

I coloured Mo's image with promarkers - my colouring on this wasn't the best as I tried to do it in electric light - but it's passable!(just....) - the Daylight lamp is on the christmas list as a present to myself..... I glittered her hat and parts of her coat and the dog's scarf with Stickles.
The backing paper is a glittered brown and pink spots from the First Edition 'Love Letters' stack and I layered it onto dark brown cardstock. I used the same dark brown to frame the image and then ran some tickles round the edge.
The flowers are by Wild Orchid Crafts which I added a liberal helping of glitter for some more sparkly bits and the jingly bells are from my christmas stash! I printed the words onto another piece of card from the Love Letters stack and made into a tag shape to co ordinate with the sparkly spotty tag from the mat pad.
Couple of pink pearls and a die cut sparkly snowflake finished the front and the inside  has a co-ordinated colour scheme.
Lots of Challenges -
The Craft Garden - Christmas Card but no red or green
Sundays with Crissy - Christmas Card with non traditional colours
By the Cute and Girly - Christmas Girls
Crimbo Crackers - Anything Goes
Crafty Ribbons - Bingo - and I chose Flowers, Ribbon and punches/dies
Paper Crafting Journey - Use a Digi
Delightful Challenges - Sparkly Christmas
Winter Wonderland - Glitter
Crafty Cardmakers - Pink and Brown
Ribbon Girls - Jingle all the way to Christmas

White Christmas

Quick share today - got to get on making the rest of the order!
This Christmas Roses image is from Just Inklined. I used it quite a bit last Christmas but coloured it with more vibrant colours than this one. I wanted to do a predominantly white card and didn't want colour overload!

So I used the palest promarkers I had for the actual flowers and pale greens for the leaves. I was left with no choice for the red holly berries!!!!

First I tried the image with an embossed snowflake background but the folder I have only has large snowflakes and it was not balanced - so out with the trusty swiss dots and white pearlised card instead.
(I'm sure I can use the snowflake background on something else).

I tried some lace too but ended up with the punched strips instead topped with some organza ribbon and tied a big bow.
Just popped two pearls in the bottom left to finish it off and a wee bit of bling in the flower centres and to highlight the frames.

Challenges -
 Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes (plus a bit of bling if you want)
Craft Your Passion - Bingo - I chose the middle row - Ribbon, Free, Pearls
The Pixie Cottage - Make a Christmas Card