Little Star

I have a Christmas card to share today...featuring an adorable Lili of the Valley bear stamp called 'Little Star'. I stamped him on to watercolour paper, then coloured him using watercolour pencils...adding some sparkle to his star using a Sakura stardust pen, then carefully cut him out. I used my Tim Holtz/Sizzix 'Snowy Star' wreath die to make a simple background...cutting it into plain white card, then layering gold glitter card behind. I added a sentiment from the 'Starry Backdrops' set by Lawn Fawn to the centre, heat embossing it in gold, then matted it all on to red glitter card before adding my bear on top using 3D foam pads.

Challenges for this card:

• C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas
• Cute Card Thursday - Christmas
• Fab 'N' Funky - Christmas
• Penny Black & More - Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Stamping Sensations - Traditional Christmas Colours
• Stamps + Fun = Creativity - Stars

Angel Cat

I have a Christmas card to share today...featuring an older Penny Black stamp called 'Angel Cat', which I stamped on to watercolour, coloured using watercolour pencils, then cut out using one of my circle Nesties. I made a simple background using a die from the 'Snowy Stars' die set by Tim Holtz for Sizzix and a snippet of paper from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad by Craft Sensations...mounting it on a piece of silver glitter card.

Challenges for this card

• A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• A Perfect Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Animal Friends - Cats
• Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas Goes (Optional 'Stars')
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Happy Little Stampers (Christmas) - Anything Christmas Goes (Optional 'Twinkle')
• Happy Little Stampers (Dies) - Anything Goes with Dies
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Christmas
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

ABC Christmas Challenge - U & V are for?

We have another fun ABC Christmas Challenge starting today...the themes this month are:

'U is for Upcycle'

&

'V is for Velocity'

And the prize for the lucky winner:

(Paper pad & Lili of the Valley stamp)

For my 'U is for Upcycle' card, I used the inside of the cover of a Christmas gift guide (from 2010!) as the background for my image. 

I paired it with a cute pup from the 'Wintertime Cheer' set by Penny Black, which I stamped on to watercolour paper, and coloured using watercolour pencils. I added a sentiment (from a set by Pollycraft for C. C. Designs), then distressed all of the edges before assembling my card and adding some adhesive pearls.

For my 'V is for Velocity' card, I picked another Penny Black image...this time a snowboarding chicken stamp called 'Snowboard Ride'. I stamped it on to watercolour paper, added in a slope for him to ride down using a black gel pen, then coloured him using watercolour pencils and carefully cut around the top of the image. I made a simple background using a falling snow die from the Tim Holtz/Sizzix 'Winter Wonderland' set and a snippet of navy card. I layered it over a snippet of silver glitter card, then matted it all on to some red glitter card.

Challenges for these cards:

• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Everybody Art - Use Dies (Just the second card)
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets (Just the second card)
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Getting Ready for Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin' - Distressed (Just the first card)
• 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.

Baubles!

I have a couple of simple Christmas cards to share today...using a new Thinlits die set by Sizzix called 'Intricate Baubles'. I used the dies to cut the baubles from snippets of navy and red card...then cut a plain bauble shape from glitter card to mount behind. I used DL card blanks...adding a sentiment stamp from a set by Lili of the Valley, and doodling a thread for each bauble to hang from using a black gel pen, before adding my baubles to the cards using 3D foam pads.

Challenges for these cards:

• CAS Christmas - Glitter
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - CAS
• Winter Wonderland - Christmas Ornaments

White on White Winter Wonderland

I have a Christmas card to share today...made using snippets of white card. I cut a couple of circles using one of my Nesties, then embossed one of them using a Tim Holtz/Sizzix folder called 'Snowfall'. I used a Poppy Stamps die called 'Pine Tree Border' on the other to cut a row of trees, then distressed the edges a little. I mounted the trees on top of the snowy background using some 3D foam pads, then added it to my card blank. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Scribbly Christmas' set by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous.

Challenges for this card:

• AAA Cards - Max White Space (Optional Christmas in July)
• C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas
• Craft Catz - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Christmas in July
• Crimbo Crackers - Anything Christmas Goes
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Shopping Our Stash - Christmas in July
• Sparkles Forum Christmas - Include a Tree

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

Pile It On! Challenge - Lots of Layers and/or Use Your Scraps

I  have some more inspiration for this month's Pile It On! Challenge, where the themes are:

'Lots of Layers'
and/or
'Use Your Scraps'

Our sponsor for this challenge is Angie's Digital Stamps:

Prize - 2 Images of the Winner's Choice!

I combined the two themes, and used lots of scraps of papers from the 'Blue Floral' pad by My Mind's Eye (I'm on to my second pad of these papers, and have lots of scraps!) to make a birthday card for my brother. I paired them with a Tim Holtz 'Crazy Dog'...colouring him using watercolour pencils, the using the corresponding Sizzix die to cut him out. I distressed all of the edges, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen. The sentiment stamp is from a set by Lili of the Valley.

I used more scraps of the papers and another of the 'Crazy Dogs' to make a matching gift tag.

The tag is actually quite large...I wanted to make a pocket on the back for a gift card:

And here it is on his gift:

Here are the challenges I've piled on:

• Pile It On! - Lots of Layers and/or Use Your Scraps
• A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Aud Sentiments - Happy Birthday
• Cheerful Sketches - Sketch
• Corrosive - Anything Goes
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes (Optional 'All Creatures Great & Small')
• Crafty Sentiments - Just for the Boys
• Happy Little Stamps (Dies) - Anything Goes with Dies
• Love to Scrap - Masculine
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampers - Birthdays/Celebrate
• Sweet Stampin' - Anything Goes
• The Male Room - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Pile It On! Challenge.

O' Christmas Tree

I have a quick and simple Christmas card to share today using a few Tim Holtz products. I started by stamping one of the trees, and accompanying sentiments from the 'Scribbly Christmas' set on to a piece of watercolour paper, then used the 'Falling Snow' embossing folder over the top. I coloured the tree using watercolour pencils, then added a touch of gold with a gel pen. I distressed the edges a little, then added the panel to a kraft card blank.

Challenges for this card:

• AAA Cards - Made in Minutes (Optional Dry Embossing)
• C.R.A.F.T. - Inspired by a Song (O' Christmas Tree)
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Goes
• Creative Knockouts - Anything Goes
• Happy Little Stampers (Christmas) - Anything Goes (Optional Nature)
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
• The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Goes

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.

Oh Deer!

I have a Christmas card to share today...featuring all Tim Holtz products, and lots of snippets. I cut the 'Snowy Star' wreath shape in to plain white card...then mounted it on to some gold mirror card. I cut the largest of the stars from the same die set from a snippet of more of the mirror card, and the stag (from the 'Winter Wonderland' set) from a snippet of kraft card, and added them over the top popped up on 3D foam pads. The sentiment is from the 'Scribbly Christmas' set (for Stampers Anonymous), and was stamped and matted on to more snippets of white & gold mirror card.

Challenges for this card:

• As You Like It - Favourite Dies or Stencils (Dies - I've never really tried using stencils (I really don't need another 'thing' to get into!) and although I'm a stamper at heart, I do like the impact that a card make just with dies can have)
• CAS Christmas - Deer
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Goes
• Fab 'N' Funky - Christmas
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets

ABC Christmas Challenge - E, F & G are for?

We have another fun ABC Christmas Challenge starting today...Carol is the host, and we have three wonderful themes this month:

'E is for Embellishments'

'F is for Fabric'

&

'G is for Glitz'

Carol has donated these two awesome Hunkydory card kits as prizes for two lucky winners:

I know that I probably could have combined all three of the themes on one card, but I couldn't resist making a separate card for each one...so that's three more Christmas cards for the box!

I tend not to embellish my cards too much (especially Christmas ones that I may ending up paying to post!), but I found some simple little adhesive gemstones that I used on my first card. The image is 'Xmouse Ornament' by Penny Black, which I coloured using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut it out and added the gemstones to his snowflake. I made a simple background by embossing a piece of white card using my Tim Holtz/Sizzix 'Snowfall' embossing folder, adding a Lili of the Valley sentiment along the bottom. I popped the little mouse on top using some 3D foam pads.

Challenges for this card:

• Addicted to CAS - Fluffy 
• Allsorts - Your Favourite Season (Winter!) 
• Crafty Friends - Gemstones/Pearls 
• Happy Little Stampers (Christmas) - Anything Christmas Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Whatever the Weather 
• Winter Wonderland - Fuzzy Wuzzy 

I'm also not one for using fabric on my cards...despite having quite the collection of ribbon, lace and other trims! I picked a snippet of cream coloured lace, and found a vintage-looking Lili of the Valley image (from a really old sheet of pre-coloured die cut images), and some vintage-looking papers (from the 'Mistletoe' pad by Craftwork Cards...picked up as a total bargain in a charity shop recently) to go with it. I inked around the edge of the image using 'Old Paper' Distress Ink, to take the edge off the whiteness of it and make it blend in better with the papers, then distressed all of the edges and added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Challenges for this card:

• As You Like It - Layers...One or Many (Ooh, this is tough, but I'm going to go with many...more opportunity to use up those pretty papers!)
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Goes (Optional Vintage) 
• Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Anything Goes 
• Creative Knockouts - Lots of Layers
• Sparkles Forum Christmas - Vintage 
• The Sisterhood of Crafters - Red

The 'G for Glitz' theme is right up my street! I have a fairly sizable collection of the embossing glitters by WOW...and love how sparkly they are, and can make a really simple stamped image look really pretty (and impressive!). I sued a new stamp on this card...it's called 'Connor's Crown Jewels' by Indiglo Blu and I found it in the 'Bargain Bin' of a lovely 'Aladdin's Cave' of a craft shop a couple of weeks ago. There are two elements combined in the stamp...some beautiful hanging baubles and a snowy border, so I decided to try to use two different embossing glitters. I stamped the image on to a piece of black card using Versamark Ink, then carefully poured 'Sparkling Snow' embossing powder on to the snowy border part of the image, removed the excess, then covered the middle portion of the stamp with 'Metallic Gold Sparkle' embossing glitter. The sentiment stamp is from a set by Lili of the Valley.

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

• Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes
• Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Love to Scrap - Anything Goes
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• 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.

Snowy Stars Twofer

I'm sneaking in under the wire into this month's Twofer Challenge, where the theme is 'Stars'...I picked up a new (to me) die set...called 'Snowy Stars' (by Tim Holtz for Sizzix) this week in a lovely little Aladdin's cave of a craft shop, and couldn't resist! I used it to make a birthday card and a Christmas card.

For the birthday card I used the large circular die on a piece of navy card, then backed it with some yellow so that the stars would 'shine' through. I used it as a background for my 'Cat on the Moon' stamp by Penny Black...I coloured the image using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut it out. I added a star cut using one of the single star dies from the same set, and heat embossed a sentiment made up of stamps from the 'Wish Upon a Star' set by Lawn Fawn.

For the Christmas card, I cut the same circular die into a piece of paper from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad by Craft Sensations. I distressed the edges a little, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a white gel pen. I added a die cut sentiment ('Folk Merry Christmas' by Poppy Stamps), then added the panel to a white card blank.

Challenges for these cards:

• Aud Sentiments - Bingo + a Sentiment (Die Cut - Pencils - Favourite Colour (Blue)) (First Card Only)
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Goes (Second Card Only)
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - No Stamps Allowed (Second Card Only)
• Twofer - Stars (Birthday & Christmas)

Pile It On! Challenge - Pretty in Pink

We have another fun Pile It On! Challenge starting today...the theme is:

'Pretty in Pink'

We are sponsored for this challenge by All Dressed Up

Prize - 2 Digi Stamps of the Winner's Choice!

Pink is really not my colour, but I found a snippet of very pink watercolour paper left over from making this card last year. I made it by smooshing Distress Inks (Tattered Rose, Picked Raspberry, Fired Brick & Festive Berries) on to the paper a couple of times, drying in between layers. I embossed it using a folder from Craft Asylum/Sizzix, then cut out a circle using one of my Nesties. I lightly sanded over the hearts to reveal some of the white core of the paper, and used it as a background for this cute kitty. He's by Penny Black (of course!), and is from the 'Every Which Way' set...I coloured him using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut him out. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Sending Sunshine' set by Simon Says Stamp.

Here are the challenges I've piled on:

• Pile It On! - Pretty in Pink
• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies - Anything Goes
• A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• A Perfect Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Allsorts - Love
• Artistic Stamper - Heart It!
• Card Mania - Love is in the Air
• Cards Galore Encore - Anything Goes
• Catch the Bug - Anything Goes
• Crafting with Friends - Anything Goes
• Creatalicious - Anything Goes (Optional Hearts)
• Cut It Up - Hearts
• Cute Card Thursday - Valentine's
• Gem of a Challenge - Anything Goes
• My Time to Craft - Love
• Penny Black & More - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Love is in the Air
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Simply Create Too - Anything Goes (Optional Hearts)

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Pile It On! Challenge.

Favourite Five Cards 2018

Today, I'm sharing my favourite (non-Christmas) cards of the year...I've included links back to the original blog posts, so please click through for the full info on any of the projects.

Crazy Dogs
I love these little weirdos...and picked up the matching die set this year to make my life a little easier! I love to group them all together as I find it impossible to choose just one to use!

Sorry I Forgot
This card is a bit fussier than my usual style, but I love the combination of colours.

Blossom Branch
This Penny Black stamp is one of my favourites of the year, and I experimented with several different ways of using it, but this simple coloured pencils on kraft technique is my favourite.

Uplifting Occasion
Of course, there had to be a Penny Black critter in among my favourites...and although pink is not one of my favourite colours, I can't help but smile at the expression on this kitty's face!

Big Blue Butterfly
Finally, another of my most used stamps of the year...a huge butterfly by Stampendous, combined with another of my favourites...a sparkly embossing glitter by WOW, and in my favourite colour too!

Before I go, I'd like to wish all of my lovely blog visitors a very Happy and Crafty New Year! See you in 2019!