Christmas Wishes

I have a Christmas card to share today...made using a snippet of snowflake embossed card that has been sitting in my 'box of bits' since I made this card back in January! It's the 'Outline Snowflakes' background stamp by Simon Says Stamp, and I heat embossed it on to kraft card using white embossing powder. I stamped my sentiment (from the 'Letter It - Christmas' set by Ranger) on to vellum, using Versamark Ink, then heat embossed it using 'Metallic Gold Sparkle' embossing glitter from WOW. I wrapped the vellum around the kraft snowflake panel, then matted it on to a snippet of gold glitter card.

Challenges for this card:

• As You Like It - Santa or No Santa (I do have a couple of Santa stamps, but they rarely feature on my Christmas cards as I'm never confident colouring 'people' stamps
• Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Holly & the Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets

Delicate Snowflakes

I have a Christmas card to share today..made at the same time as this birthday card that I blogged a couple of days ago...using the same technique. I started by stamping my snowflakes (from the 'Delicate Snowflakes' set by Stampendous) and sentiment (from the 'Letter It - Christmas' set by Ranger) on to watercolour paper using Versamark Ink, then heat embossed them in white. I watercoloured over the top using Distress Inks (Stormy Sky, Salty Ocean, Broken China Mermaid Lagoon & Peacock Feathers), distressed the edges a little, then added a few sequins.

Challenges for this card:

• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas
• Jingle Belles - Blue Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Use Blue
• Sparkles Christmas Forum - It's Snowtime

Burgundy & Gold Snowflakes

I have a Christmas card to share today...in a colour combination I don't use very often...burgundy and gold. I trimmed an A4 piece of card down to make a DL sized card, and then cut snowflake shapes into the offcut using some of the 'Mini Paper Snowflakes' dies. I added a sentiment from a Ranger set called 'Letter It - Christmas'...heat embossing it using 'Metallic Gold Sparkle' powder by WOW. I mounted it over a snippet of god glitter card using some 3D foam pads, then matted it on to a piece of gold mirror card.

Challenges for this card:

• CAS Christmas - Snowflake
• Crafty hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Crazy 4 Challenges - Christmas in July
• Cut It Up - Christmas in July
• Little Red Wagon - Christmas
• Happy Little Stampers (CAS) - Use Negative Space
• Happy Little Stampers (Christmas) - Anything Christmas Goes (Optional 'Sparkle')
• Happy Little Stampers (Dies) - Anything Goes with Dies

ABC Christmas Challenge - H & I are for?

We have a fun new ABC Christmas Challenge starting today...Lynda is the host, and there are two themes this month, which are:

'H is for Hang It Up'

&

'I is for Intricate'

There are two awesome prizes on offer from our lovely Lynda:

For my 'Hang It Up' project, I made a bauble...it's meant to be a photo ornament, but I used a couple of Penny Black snowmen (from the 'Snow Much Fun!' and 'Holly Jolly Christmas' sets) instead. I coloured the snowmen using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut them out. For the background, I cut a couple of circles from snowy paper from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad by Craft Sensations. I made the 'snow' from a mixture of white Flowersoft, Glamour Dust and white seed beads.

For my Intricate card, I decided to make a wreath from die cut snowflakes...I cut them from lots of snippets of card using a set of Tim Holtz dies for Sizzix. I stamped the sentiment (from a Ranger set called 'Letter It - Christmas') on to the centre of my card blank, then arranged the snowflakes around it...sticking some directly on to the card, and raising the others up on 3D foam pads in a variety of thicknesses.

I'm also entering these items into the following challenges:

• Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes
• Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Creatalicious - Anything Goes (Optional Anything But a Card) (Just the bauble)
• Crimbo Crackers - Anything Christmas Goes
• Penny Black & More - Going Round in Circles (Just the bauble)
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets (Just the card)
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin' - Anything Goes (Just the bauble)
• The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the ABC Christmas Challenge.

Sparkly Snowflakes

I have a Christmas card to share today...inspired by the 'All that Glitters' challenge over at Jingle Belles. I picked three different embossing glitters (by WOW) Metallic Silver Sparkle, Metallic Gold Sparkle & Fool's Gold and a piece of navy card, then stamped and embossed my Stampendous 'Delicate Snowflakes' along with a sentiment (from the 'Letter It Christmas' set by Ranger).

Challenges for this card:

• Crafter's Cafe - Embossing
• Dream Valley - Sparkle & Shine
• Fab 'N' Funky - Christmas
• Jingle Belles - All that Glitters

The Same but Different

I have a set of simple Christmas cards to share today...made using another of the stamped background pieces I made when I made this card.

I stamped my new Simon Says Stamp 'Outline Snowflakes' stamp on to a piece of watercolour effect paper from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad by Craft Sensations using a white pigment ink, then heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I trimmed the panel down into three pieces, distressed the edges a little, added some faux stitching, then added them to three card blanks, along with a stamped sentiment (from the 'Letter It Christmas' set by Ranger.

Challenges for these cards:

• Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes (Add a Sentiment)
• Everybody Art - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - CAS
• Through the Craftroom Door - Anything Goes

Krafty Christmas

I have a simple Christmas card to share today...featuring some new goodies from Simon Says Stamp. I picked up a couple of their large background stamps 'Mod Trees' and 'Outline Snowflakes', and a set of calligraphy style sentiments by Ranger... the 'Letter It Christmas' set. I played around with the background stamps, stamping them a few different ways, with different inks on plain card, watercolour paper, patterned papers...and heat embossed...like the snippets I used on this card. I stamped on to kraft card using a white pigment ink pad, then heat embossed them using white embossing powder. I used small pieces of each of the two background stamps, along with one of the sentiments, fitting them on to a square of white card, and then adding that to a kraft card blank. I have lots of left over pieces...and all of the other stamped pieces...so no doubt you'll be seeing these stamps again soon!

Challenges for this card:

• Addicted to CAS - Snowflake
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Creative Inspirations - Anything Goes
• Crimbo Crackers - Anything Christmas Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - What's New (All of the stamps are new)
• Inkspirational - Use Kraft
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Something New (All of the stamps are new)
• The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes

Brown Paper Packages...

I have a gift tag to show you today...it's my Mum's birthday on Monday, so this tag was to go on her present...I always wrap everything in plain brown parcel paper:

I stamped one of the cupcakes from the Hero Arts 'Cupcakes' set on to a tag (from Hobbycrafts)...coloured the icing and cherry using watercolour pencils...and paper pieced the paper case using a scrap of My Mind's Eye paper (from the 'Ooh La La for Her' pad). I added some shading (using watercolour pencils) to the paper case, then sparkle to the icing (with 'Tiara' Stickles), and some Glossy Accents to the cherry. Finally, I added a sentiment from the same stamp set and tied it on to my parcel using some Baker's twine (from the Ribbon Girl).

Challenges for this tag:

• Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
• My Craft Creations - Anything Goes
• My Time to Craft - Get Krafty!
• Open-Minded Crafting - Food Related
• Sweet Stampin' - Paper Piecing

Chalkboard Birthday

I have a card inspired by this week's 'Predominantly Black' challenge over at Less is More to share today. I used lots of birthday sentiment stamps...from far too many sets to mention, but there's a mixture of Hero Arts, Penny Black, Simon Says Stamp, Paula Pascual & Studio G. I heat embossed them in white, then added a doodled border using a white gel pen, before blending a little 'Picket Fence' Distress Stain' over the top to create a chalkboard effect.

Challenges for this card:

• Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes
• Crafty Calendar - Add a Sentiment
• Less is More - Predominantly Black
• Penny Black & More - Birthdays
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Happy Birthday

ABC Christmas Challenge - Z is for...

It's my turn to host the final ABC Christmas Challenge of 2011...where our theme is:

'Z is for Zingy Colours!'

And I found this funny photo for some inspiration:

Lol...rainbow coloured turkeys!

We have two wonderful sposors for this challenge...firstly our lovely Lacey & her store, Stamp & Create:

The prize from Lacey is a $20 voucher to spend at Stamp & Create!

Our other sponsor is Bugaboo Stamps:

Bugaboo Challenge Blog 

The prize from Bugaboo Stamps is 7 of their fabulous digis!

I don't mean to boast...but I finished all my Christmas cards a few weeks ago...and even had some left over! But, I've not been quite so well prepared with all my tags...or even some of the gifs themselves! lol So I've made some much needed tags for this challenge. I took some 'zingy' coloured papers (from the 'Fancy Christmas' pack by Dovecraft and one from the 'Colourful Christmas' collection by My Mind's Eye) and used it to cover some plain tags...scuffing up the egdes a little with my distressing tool. I then made some of the papers double sided, by folding them back on themselves and sticking with glue, so that when I cut out the trees (using a Marianne Designs die) they'd be patterned on both sides. I then added some 'zingy' coloured ribbons for attaching them to their gifts.

I used two trees on each tag, cutting half-way up from the bottom on one, and half-way down from the top on the other, so that they would link together to make a 3D tree:

And another view for good measure:

I'm also entering these tags into the following challenges:

• Crazy Challenge - Christmas
• Everybody Art - Anything Goes
• One Stitch at a Time - Anything Goes 
• Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Christmas

For more inspiration from my fabulous DT buddies, and a couple of the Bugaboo Stamps DT girls...please pop over to the ABC Christmas Challenge.