Guest Designer - Christmas Craft Creations Challenge

I'm back sharing another card for the Christmas Craft Creations Challenge having been asked to guest design for this month's challenge. The theme of this month's challenge is:

'Winter Blues'

This time, I combined one of my all time favourite Christmas stamps. 'Snowy' by Penny Black, with those lovely blues. I stamped 'Snowy' on to watercolour paper, paper piecing his scarf with some blue paper from the 'Vintage Dreams' pad by Craft Sensations...it's spotty, and, although it's difficult to tell from the photo, has a 'knitted' texture printed on it. I made a snowy sky background for him by blending Distress Inks (Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans & Chipped Sapphire) on to smooth white card, then stamping my 'Snowfall' background stamp by Simon Says Stamp using Versamark Ink, and heat embossing it using 'Diamond White' embossing glitter by WOW. I carefully cut around the top of 'Snowy', then added him over the top, matting the panel onto a snippet of navy card. The sentiment stamp is from a set by the Colorado Craft Company.

Thanks very much ladies for inviting me to guest design - I really enjoyed the theme!

For more inspiration from the fabulous design team, please pop over to the Christmas Craft Creations Challenge.

Penny Black Calendar

I'll warn you upfront...today's post has rather a lot of photos! Every year I decorate a couple of the 'Create a Calendar' blank calendars to give as Christmas gifts. This one is for my Aunt. I always use Penny Black images, combining them with papers from many different companies...these are always a great way of using up lots of snippets! I make the panel for each month A5 sized, so that they can easily be recycled into cards once the year has passed.

Challenges for this calendar:

• 2 Crafty Critters - Anything Goes
• As You Like It (Favourite Person to Create For (Family or Friends - Family, as they always appreciate the effort that has gone into making the items)
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
• Penny's Paper Crafty - Anything Goes
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampers - Anything Goes

PBSC December - Anything Goes (Optional 'Winter Wonderland')...More Inspiration!

It's the third Saturday of the month, so that means it's time for some more inspiration for this month's Penny Black Saturday Challenge...where the theme is:

'Anything Goes'
or
'Winter Wonderland'

As usual, we are sponsored by the awesome 1-2-3 Stitch:

Prize - a $20 voucher!

I took inspirationd from copied a card from a video by Heather Telford (you can watch it here on YouTube), although I didn't have some of the supplies she used, so subbed in some different tree stamps, sentiment stamped and figured out a different way of making the snow as I don't  have any masking fluid. I started by painting the sky and snow banks on to watercolour paper, using Distress Inks (Stormy Sky & Chipped Sapphire). I then stamped my trees ('Before the Snow' and a smaller matching one from a little set called 'Wonder Collection')...using 'Evergreen Bough' Distress Ink...masking off the snow bank in the foreground. Once dry, I stamped each tree several times, then added a little more colour to them using more of the same ink (and a little of 'Pine Needles'). Once the trees were dry, I added my 'snow' by splattering a thick mixture of white watercolour paint all over the image. Finally, I stamped my sentiment (from a set by the Colorado Craft Company), then distressed the edges before adding the panel to a navy card blank.

Here's an angle where the 'snow' shows up a little better:

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

• Alphabet Challenge - S is for Snow Scene
• Artistic Stamper - Christmas
• Creative Inspirations - Ho Ho Ho
• Inkspirational - Snow
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Ice Cold
• We Love Chocolate Baroque - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Snowflake Tags

I'm sharing some gift tags today...made to match my kraft and gold wrapping paper. I stamped a large snowflake & sentiment (from a set by the Colorado Craft Company) on to plain kraft tags (from Amazon) using Versamark Ink, then heat embossed them in metallic gold, adding some sparkly gold ribbon to attach them to my gifts. 

And here's one of the tags on a gift:

Challenges for these tags:

• A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Corrosive - Anything Goes
• C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas - The Last Stretch
• Sweet Stampin' - Let it Snow

Sparkly Reindeer

I have a couple of simple embossed Christmas cards to share today...featuring a new (to me) set of Chocolate Baroque stamps that I won on the We Love Chocolate Baroque Challenge last month, and which arrived in the post this morning. The set is called 'Filigree Reindeer'...and I couldn't resist mounting them and inking them up after I'd finished work for the day. On the first card, I heat embossed one of the reindeer using WOW 'Metallic Platinum Sparkle' embossing glitter on a teal card blank along with one of the sentiments from the set. I couldn't resist adding a little red pearl for his nose.

On the second card, I used the largest stamp from the set...a beautiful snowy night time scene...heat embossing it using WOW 'Midnight Dream' embossing powder...a gorgeous blue, but with specks of of other colours in the blend. 

These embossing powders are so pretty, but a nightmare to get a decent photo of becasue they're so sparkly! This angle shows a few of the other colours:

Challenges for these cards:

• Allsorts - Christmas
• Crafty Creations - Anything Goes
• Creatalicious - Anything Goes (Optional 'Christmas')
• Creative Moments - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
• Daring Cardmakers - Christmas Animals
• We Love Chocolate Baroque - Anything Goes

Quality Street Wreath

Today I'm sharing a wreath...this one's not for ourdoors though, as it's made from Quality Street chocolates! I make these every year (since 2012), and each year as the tubs contain fewer and fewer chocolates, they cover less of the polystyrene wreath shape I use as my base...this year there are actually a few bald spots on the back! I attached the chocolates to the wreath in a random pattern using my hot glue gun, then gave it a new bow made from silver sparkly ribbon as the one that had been on it for the last few years was looking rather tired.

Challenges for this wreath:

• Crafty Calendar - Christmas
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Incy Wincy - Christmas or Red & Green
• The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes
• The Sisterhood of Crafters - Anything Goes Christmas/Winter

Little Boxes

I have a set of little Christmas gift boxes to share today, made using my We R Memory Keepers punch board. They're the largest size that the board can make...4x4 inches, and each one is made from a single piece of 12x12 paper (from a pad simply called 'Christmas' by Craft Sensations, that I bought at The Range in the sale just after last Christmas). I cut matching tags from another sheet of the paper (one covered in smaller square designs), using a Sizzix tag die, then attached them to the boxes using bakers twine.

Challenges for these boxes:

• Crafter's Cafe - Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Anything Goes
• Creative Knockouts - Anything Goes
• Fab 'N' Funky - Christmas, but NO Cards
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - Anything Goes
• The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
• Winter Wonderland - Anything Christmas Goes

Guest Designer - Christmas Craft Creations Challenge

I was picked as the DT Favourite over at the Christmas Craft Creations Challenge for their October challenge, and asked to guest design for this month's challenge. Today, I'm excited to be sharing my card their new challenge the theme is:

'Winter Blues'

Blue is my favourite colour...so I really enjoyed making my card. I gathered together lots of Distress Inks in varying shades of blue (Chipped Sapphire, Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, Blueprint Sketch, Broken China, Salty Ocean & Tumbled Glass), and a set of snowflake stamps by Stampendous called 'Delicate Snowflakes'. I started by stamping my sentiment (from the 'Letter It - Christmas' set by Ranger) in the deepest blue shade (Chipped Sapphire) several times to get a really crisp image, then heat embossing it using clear embossing powder. I then stamped the snowflakes randomly over the watercolour paper...each in a different blue ink, then heat embossed those too, so that the ink wouldn't smudge when I blended over the top of them. I then blended Tumbled Glass ink over the whole panel, Stormy Sky ink around the edges, and finally a little Chipped Shapphire ink just on the very edges. I then distressed the edges a little before adding it to a navy DL card blank.

Thanks very much ladies for inviting me to guest design - I really enjoyed the theme!

For more inspiration from the fabulous design team, please pop over to the Christmas Craft Creations Challenge.

Holly & Globe

I have a couple of quick Christmas cards to share today...featuring an old Penny Black stamp called 'Holly & Globe'. I stamped it on to kraft card using Versmark Ink, then heat embossed it, along with a sentiment from a set by Lili of the Valley, using 'Metallic Gold' embossing powder by WOW. I matted these on to gold card, distressing the edges slightly, before adding some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a gold gel pen.

It's always so tricky to get a decent photo of anything metallic and shiny, but here's a view of the two cards together:

Challenges for these cards:

• 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Pick a Previous Challenge (I chose May 2020 - Embossing)
• AAA Cards - Made in Minutes (Optional 'Christmas')
• Crafty Catz - Anything Goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Goes (Optional 'Quick & Easy')
• Jingle Belles - Anything Christmas
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes

PBSC December - Anything Goes (Optional 'Winter Wonderland')

It's the first Saturday of the month, so that means it's time for a new Penny Black Saturday Challenge...where the theme is:

'Anything Goes'
or
'Winter Wonderland'

As usual, we are sponsored by the awesome 1-2-3 Stitch:

Prize - a $20 voucher!

I combined snowmen from the 'Jolly Freinds' and 'Snow Much Fun' sets, stamping them on to a piece of watercolour paper, then doodling some snow to join them all together. I coloured them using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut around the top of the image. I used a piece of snowy paper from the 'Mystery Marbles' pad by Craft Sensations for a simple background, adding a sentiment from the 'Scribbly Christmas' set by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

• As You Like It - Your Favourite Christmas Film ('The Snowman' - I especially love when the snowman tries on all of the different pieces of fruit for his nose!)
• Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
• Fab 'N' Funky - Winter Wonderland
• Love to Scrap - Winter Wonderland

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Penny Black Saturday Challenge.

Let it Snow Please!

I have an ultra simple one layer Christmas card to share today...featuring a lovely big snowflake stamp by the Colorado Craft Company, along with one of it's accompanying sentiment stamps. I stamped it on to an aqua card blank using Versamark Ink, then heat embossed it using clear embossing powder.

Challenges for this card:

• A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• A Perfect Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Cards Galore Encore - Anything Goes
• CAS on Friday - Snow
• Creative Knockouts - 'Tis the Season
• Shopping Our Stash - Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow
• Sparkles Forum Christmas - Non-traditional Christmas Colours

ABC Christmas Challenge - Y & Z are for?

We have another fun ABC Christmas Challenge starting today...our last one for 2020...I'm the host, and the themes are:

'Y is for Your Favourite Things'

&

'Z is for Zzzzzzzz'

(Sleeping Image)

There's a little mystery prize from Samantha for the lucky winner:

I have so many favourite crafty things...but went with my long time favourites of Penny Black Stamps, Patterned Papers & Faux Stitching. I picked an image called 'Joy Filled Stockings', stamping it on to watercolour paper, colouring it using watercolour pencils, and then cutting it out using one of my circle Nesties. I picked a piece of stocking covered paper to match my image from the Kaisercraft 'Santa's List' pad...lightly distressing the edges and adding some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Tattered Christmas' set by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous...I stamped it on to a snippet of kraft card, then cut it into a banner shape.

As it happens, I actually have quite a collection of images of sleeping critters, but picked this cute pup from the 'Wintertime Cheer' set by Penny Black...stamping him on to watercolour paper, colouring him using watercolour pencils, then carefully cutting him out. I added a strip of co-ordinating patterned paper from the 'Jolly Christmas' pad (form The Works) along the bottom of a kraft card blank, then added the pup on top popped up on 3D foam pads. The sentiment stamp is from the 'Foxy Christmas' set by Woodware.

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

• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Polkadoodles - Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin' - Spots and/or Stripes (Second card only)
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

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