Giant Snowflake

I am loving the snowflake dies from Uniko so much, and the biggest of the three is perfect as the stand-out centrepiece of a bold, bright card like this:

I cut it in red card then added it to a circle cut with my trusty old Nesties. The glitter card is from Lidl, and because it's often hard to stick things to glitter card, I used a smaller Nestie to cut a circle from the glitter card behind where the topper was to go. Then after adding the ribbon and matting onto red, I used foam pads inside the circle, which were now stuck to the red background card instead of the glitter, and added my die cut topper to that.

I couldn't resist another photo from an angle to pick up all that sparkle!


This was inspired by this week's photo at Just Us Girls

There is just so much to work with in that photo - I've gone for the red, white and turquoise colour scheme,  the sparkle of the turquoise tinsel, the red and white ribbon and the round tags with giant snowflakes on them. But really I could have made a dozen different cards that would all have been inspired by it!

I am also sharing with
Cuttlebugmania - Let it Snow
Holly & Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes



Sparkle all the way.

This is one of those rare - VERY rare - cards that turned out in real life exactly how I had pictured it in my mind's eye.

It really couldn't be much simpler - ideal for mass producing if i find at the last minute that I need a few more cards. The snowflake is die cut from glitter card, using one of the lovely dies in my wonderful  Uniko prize, and glitter washi tape in plain and spotty purple arranged in a "tick" shape on the card, positioned so that the starry middle of the snowflake exactly matches the plain tape where it joins up. This sentiment, from the stamp set given free with a recent issue of Papercraft Essentials, is the perfect size  and style foir the card and the snowflake is added with very small dots of 3-D adhesive.

I am playing along with
Uniko challenge - Christmas
Jingle Belles - Baby it's Gold Outside
Less is More - Let it Shine
AAA Cards - Christmas  

Star tree

This star tree stamp is one of my oldest stamps, it's unmounted  red ubber and came in a grab bag about 20 years ago.

For this card I've combined it with a santa stamp that was a magazine freebie a few years ago. First I stamped Santa, then masked him and used green ebossing ink to stamp the tree, heat embossing it with green sparkle powder. I coloured Santa with makers, stamped  a sentiment then added gems, ribbon tape and a button and a red mat.

I am sharing this with
Just add ink - red, green and white
Winter Wonderland - red and green

Chloe Stem Sympathy

I always say I'm not superstitious - and yet I also have this feeling that keeping sympathy cards in stock is somehow tempting fate, which means that when I need one I have to make a very quick one (or *shudder* BUY one - which would sort of imply to the bereaved person, if they are used to getting hand made cards from me, that perhaps I didn't care enough to make one) . So I like to have a few quick designs up my sleeve for such times, and that generally means they need to be CAS.

Sadly, yesterday I had the news that a friend's husband had passed away. Out came the Cloe Stem die from Memory Box, always a great one for sympathy cards because of its simple elegance, and a rummage through my snippets box yielded black, grey and purple card to cut this cluster of flowers and butterfly, to arrange on stitched ovals. A stamped sentiment and some caring words on the inside and my card was ready to post.

It seems strange to head into the Snippets Playground with something as sombre as a sympathy card, but sadly we do all need them from time to time and this one is made entirely from snippets. Actually my friend's husband was a witty, playful man with a great sense of humour and would probably have fitted in very well in the playground, if he'd been a crafter, so maybe it isn't so strange after all!

I am also sharing this at Addicted to Stamps and More, where the theme is CAS.

Glasgow Butterfly

The latest Butterfly Challenge is H is for Handwritten and/or the colour Lemon. Now if you've ever seen my handwriting, you'll probably understand why I love stamping! So I'm going to have to stick to just the colour option this time.

The stamps I've used came with a magazine (Creative Stamping?) a year or two back, and I've kept to a very simple yellow, grey and black colour scheme instead of using the rich jewel colours I generally use with them. I'm still getting very excited by how accurately I can position corners with my Misti and have used it to full advantage here so those rose clusters really frame the central image.

For the layout, I have used the sketch at this week's Little Red Wagon challenge,  and am entering this card into both this and the Butterfly challenge.

Dashing through the snow

It's exactly a month to Christmas Day - how is your card making going? If you are way, way behind, there are some very quick and easy ways you can get up to speed and still send home made cards. CDs can be really helpful for this.

For this card I used the Ooh La La CD Yesterday's memories. There is a section on the CD that contains some extra quick cards, ready just to print, trim, fold and use, although if like me you have a printer that won't take a decent weight of card you will have to stick it to sturdier card once printed. The CD provides both front and back of the card - or the back could be cut off and used as a fly leaf on the inside.

You can send your printed card right away, or if you have a little more time you can do as I did and add a little creativity to it - there is a printed border of gems and pearls which I covered with real gems and pearls (by real gems, I don't mean actual rubies or anything, but just not paper ones!) and went over all the edges of the image and background with silver peel offs to give a sensation of depth. Then to balance the silver on the right of the card, I added a silver peel off border to the left.

I am sharing this with Allsorts challenge, Inspired by a Christmas Carol or Winter Themed Song - the song, of course, being "Jingle Bells" as there, among the trees, is that one-horse open sleigh, dashing through the snow!

And as it's the 25th of the month, I'm also hoping to share this with Rudolph Day at Scrappymo's, although Maureen doesn't appear to have unlocked the gates yet and I'm sure I'm not the only one hammering on them waiting to be let in!

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenge 98 - Industrial

Our new challenge at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers is I is for Industrial

What Edna means by that is Steampunk, so don that flying helmet, crank up that steam engine and let's see how snarky and steampunky you can get!

I nearly always go for a masculine look when I attempt steampunky styles, so I thought I'd try something a bit more feminine. The image is from a Kanban die cut decoupage sheet and I computer generated the sentiment, matching the colours as closely as I could.

The base card is covered in tissue paper with vintage ads, and edged with two tones of metallic gilding wax. I added an embossed panel and die cut cogs, feather and penny farthing bicycle plus a random ticket I found lurking in my stash.

Some like it hot!

As you probably know, Mark is a very keen chilli grower so I was delighted, about 2 years ago, to find that Rubber Dance has a whole sheet of chilli themed stamps, and had to get them straight away.

When I saw that their November theme is "Inspired by a Movie",  the film "Some like it hot" immediately sprang to mind - perfect for these stamps!

I made a background with orange and yellow distress inks then stamped the sketchy chillies all over in red and green, then stamped two each of the large open chillis, just for position, stamping them again on separate card, and filled in the gaps with the word "Hot!".

Then I coloured in the separate chillis. You may be wondering why I didn't just stamp them on red card, since I coloured them a uniform read, and the answer is that didn't occur to me until I'd finished colouring and cutting them out. I stuck them down over the "placemarker" ones I had stamped on the background, and then covered them all in Glossy Accents - the shine doesn't really show on the photo but it looks pretty good in real life!

I am sharing this with
Rubber Dance - Inspired by any movie (Some like it hot)
Fab 'n' funky - Inspired by a song, film or book (Some like it hot)
Retro Rubber - anything goes (all stamps are 2+ years old)

Winter landscape

I had the idea for this card, with the glittery pine forest, while I was stuck in traffic the other day and it was 5 days before I could get home to try it. No, I wasn't stuck in traffic for 5 days, but I was heading away from home for a trip...

I made the sky with a little water colour then stamped the snowflakes, from Uniko, in pale blue. I stamped the trees, which I think are an old Clarity stamp,  with a green embossing ink and embossed them with sparkly green embossing powder. The sentiment is another Uniko stamp.

I used a Tonertex pen to go around the edges and make a few "starry" dots in the sky, then when it was dry, foiled it with a silver holographic foil from Foil Play. Silver organza ribbon tied around the panel is the finishing touch.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Creations Challenges - Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday - All about Christmas 

 

Reindeer at Cardz 4 Guyz

It's time for our new challenge at Cardz 4 Guyz and this time it's all about Reindeer.

I used the Gummiapan text reindeer stamp, and using the Misti stamped it first in light brown ink and then just inked the hooves, horns, tail and nose in a darker brown and stamped again. I love being able to stamp over again so accurately! I've mounted it on squares of reindeer paper and two shades of brown, all from my snippets box and cut with stitched square dies.

I am sharing this with
Inkspirational Challenge - Christmas card using neutral colours

Christmas Things With Wings at CD Sundays

It's time for our new challenge at CD Sundays and I've chosen the theme this time - Christmas Things With Wings. I was thinking of birds when I chose the theme, but of course angels have wings too and are perfect for the season, so you have plenty ideas to choose from. And there's some great news for any of you who would like to join in but don't have a blog - we now have a Facebook page where you can post your entry!

I've used an image and paper from the Joanna Sheen Vintage Christmas CD set, and in order to use every scrap of that lovely paper I've made a card that is a bit of a hybrid between a fold-back card and a joy fold one. There is just a single layer of decoupage on the robins, just enough to make them stand out without adding too much weight to the image.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Blue or anything goes

Pine cones and ivy

The new challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown is a rather unusual colour challenge - brown, green and kraft. Not a traditionally festive combo, but it made me think of pine boughs.

I made the background by stamping the old PSX Large Pine Cone stamp randomly over kraft card, using Versamark ink, and then dusting it lightly with brown and green chalk - I didn't want to add a lot and make the images too bold, or it wouldn't have shown up the die cutting and sentiment so well.

I used one of the sentiment stamps from my recent Uniko prize  and then edged the panel with green ink. Finally I added a selection of die cut pine cones, pine and fir branches and ivy.

Right, I'll be offline for a few days now - unless I get so desperate I end up taking my iPad to Tesco and using the free Wi-Fi. I do have a couple of scheduled posts coming up, for CD Sundays and Cardz 4 Guyz, so YOU can see ME tomorrow and Tuesday - and I can see YOU again later in the week!

Santa and sparkle

Sorry to be throwing so many posts at you today but I'm likely to be without internet for a few days so I'm trying to get ahead of myself. Also it's a grey, wet, gloomy day so what better to do than spend it crafting?

Today's Less is More challenge is to CASE a card made by DT member Susan. Here is her card:

 

 

and here is my CASE of it:

 

 

The Santa image is stamped and punched using the SU "Cookie Cutter Christmas" set, and the sentiment is from the same set. Now, you may be wondering why I've added pink and purple speckles to the background? Well, they're not pink or purple at all! Because I loves Susan's touch of sparkle in the background, I brushed the area around Santa on my card  with a product called Jo Sonja's Opal Dust - it's an Australian product and I've had it for about 20 years. (I've just googled - it's still available). Tiny opalescent flecks are suspended in a clear gel, and you brush it onto card, or just about anything else, and when the gel dries it leaves a scattering of tiny, tiny particles here and there that reflect the light. In the main photo it doesn't show very well, so I tried a different angle to the light and you can just about see the effect below - it's so pretty yet very subtle, making it perfect for CAS cards.

 

Sparkling stencil

I love the cover gift that came with the current issue of Papercraft Essenials - a stencil of a mandala quarter-circle with a coordinating small circle and border, and just couldn't wait to play with it. Here's my first attempt:

I've used Imagination Crafts Sparkle Medium to stencil it onto brown card, and stamped and heat embossed a sentiment onto matching card, then matted everything with turquoise pearlescent card.

Sparkle is very hard to capture in a photo but I'm sure you can picture how gloriously glittery it is in real life!

I am sharing this with
Allsorts challenge - Glitter 
Sweet Stampin - Birthday
Just us girls - Turquoise, gold and brown

Lots of Washi tape

I have loads and loads of Washi tape, but can never really think of ways to use it. Much of it is Japanese Kawaii style stuff with oddly translated sayings on it - that might never get used - but today I had a good furkle around Pinterest for ideas, combined about 350,000 of them, grabbed several NBUS rolls of tape and set out to see what I could come up with.

I'm a bit impressed with myself actually! The leaf sprigs and sentiment are stamped with a Crafters Companion clear stamp set. (Hang on, do they actually MAKE clear stamp sets? I have it quite fixed in my mind that's where they are from!) and the flower stamp is a very old Craft Stamper freebie.

I am sharing this with
CAS on Friday - Washi Tape
Just Add Ink - R is for...... (red)

Sparkling snow

That spotty Uniko stencil has been out to play again, this time in a totally different way.

I stencilled the background layer using Imagination Crafts Sparkle Medium  - actually in the photo it looks almost fluffy rather than sparkly! Then I added three layers of buildings cut with X-Cut "Build-a-scene" dies. These dies are a bit peculiar, some of the buildings follow the lines of the hills rather than being perpendicular - I wouldn't like to drop anything on the floor in those houses in the middle row! But they do build up into a sweet scene, and I used 1mm foam pads between the layers to emphasise the dimension. A simple stamped sentiment on the front layer is the only thing breaking up the white-on-white look of this card.

I am sharing this with
Dies R Us - Snow
Addicted to Stamps and More - Holiday 
C.R.A.F.T. - Christmas 
Sparkles Monthly - White Christmas

Master Detective

I've been having a play with papers and chipboards from Graphic 45's Master Detective range today:

Sorry about the out of focus second photo - I don't seem to have much depth of field so maybe I should have opened the card wider to make a flattish surface instead of a deep "V". Oh well, it does show you that I decorated the inside too!

This card involved a lot of fussy cutting - which is often the case with Graphic 45's fabulous papers - a bit of distressing and the addition of a key and some twine.

I am sharing this with

Fab'n'Funky - Masculine Touch
Watercooler Wednesday - Masculine Anything Goes
 

-o0o-

While I had the goodies out to play, I made another card, inspired by a sample in Papercraft Essentials. Their sample was designed for a much smaller card, but I adapted it for a bigger A5 one because I think large images deserve large cards.

The sentiment is cut with a Spellbinders die from a sentiment set I got recently.

I am sharing this card with
Cuttlebugmania - Masculine

Going dotty!

Here I've used yet another of the goodies from my wonderful Uniko prize, a stencil with a random all-over spot pattern. Stencilling isn't a technique I generally associate with clan and simple cards but this is one that can really lend itself to the style.

I used a sponge and the Kaleidacolor "Birthstone" ink pad to colour the spots, then added a simple die cut sentiment.

I am sharing this with
AAA Cards - Celebrate


and also with two challenges I don't usually associate with CAS cards, simply because stencilling doesn't have to be part of a complex design!
Country View Challenges - Stencils 
Mix it up - anything goes & stencilling

That reindeer again

I am loving this Gummiapan text reindeer stamp! It seems to work particularly well with the Tonic Studios Winter Wonderland papers.

Apart from the reindeer, which I stamped and fussy cut (must check to see if they have a matching die!) everything has come from the pad, so it was a great way to use up some of the snippets - I used pieces of 7 different papers as well as one of the sentiments.

I am sharing this with
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Reindeer or anything goes
Use Your Stuff - 5+ patterned papers
The Holly and Ivy - anything Christmas goes
House of cards - holiday and/or colours
 

In the bulrushes

One issue I've had with silhouette stamps over the years is that if you don't get a clear impression the first time, you can never sort it out, except perhaps with a black pen and a lot of care. The invention of stamping platforms has changed all that and at last I can get a crisp, clear and fully black image of this lovely Katzelkraft stamp of a heron/stork/crane  taking flight from in a clump of bulrushes.

I stamped it onto glossy card on which I had created a background by sponging on individual colours from a Kaleidacolor Caribbean Sea pad, then cut it out with a stitched oval die and layered it with black and turquoise, finishing the corners with black gems.

I am sharing this with

A bit more time to craft - anything goes
Just us girls - silhouette stamping
 

Walking in a Winter Wonderland part 2

While I had the stamps from my previous post out, I decided to make a second, completely different card using them:

For the background I used a stencil from Imagination Crafts - there is a deer in the middle but I masked it off before using Sparkle medium to stencil the scene. Then I stamped the girl but this time added the bird and dog from the same stamp set. I fussy cut the girl and dog and used the die that came with the stamps to cut the bird. The sentiment is stamped with a Dylusions stamp.

You can just picture the scene, can't you - the girl is out walking the dog, stops to look up at the snowy sky, and the cheeky little robin swoops over and scores a direct strike in her eye! Oh well, it's supposed to be lucky.

It reminds me of a doggerel verse from my childhood

"Little birdie flying high
Dropped a message in my eye
As I went to wipe my eye
I thanked the Lord that cows don't fly."

And on that delightful note I'll head off to share this with
Naughty or Nice - Walking in a Winter Wonderland (naughty entry)
C.R.A.F.T. - Winter

Walking in a Winter Wonderland part 1

I made this card using the papers, embossing folder, stamp and die set that came with the October issue of Papercraft Essentials.

The background scenery, red paper and border all came from the booklet of papers. I stamped the little girl and letter and used Promarkers to colour them to match. I used red and black papers for the embossing, choosing one with a white core for the red areas so it could be sanded to give a frosted effect. I found it was very fragile and tore easily though so I couldn't sand it as much as I would have liked - next time I do this I'll use Core-dinations card.

I am sharing this with
Naughty or Nice - Walking in a Winter Wonderland (my nice entry)
Make My Monday - Snow Fun

A snowy tag card

I'm really enjoying the stamps, dies and stencils I won from the Uniko blog hop - here's another card I've made using them.

I cut the card from a piece of watercolour paper that I had coloured with brushos in two shades of blue and then stamped and heat embossed the snowflake background. The eyelet was added using my Cropadile - I use that a lot for making holes but very rarely for setting eyelets, I still have most of the eyelets that came with it when it was new, many years ago.

The snowflake and stars are cut with a die set from the prize, and I used some glitter card I got from Lidl of all places, it cuts really cleanly and doesn't shed bits all over the place or leave white edges in the way some quite expensive cards do.

The sentiment was stamped using a stamp from a set that came with Papercraft Essentials a month or two back.

I am sharing this with

Winter Wonderland - Tag it!
CAS watercolour - Holiday
 

Dragonflies and seed heads

I've used two Crafty Individuals stamps on this card - the main image, a standalone stamp that I've had for 4 or 5 years, and a sheet of co-ordinating individual stamps that I've had for about 3 years. I think they have been around for a lot longer, but they are so timeless I'm sure they will still be around for many years.

First I made a background by blending distress inks in Aged Mahogany, Spiced Marmalade and Twisted Citron then stamped the main image in black and added a few highlights with a white gel pen.

The card background is made by randomly stamping some of the individual stamps using the same inks. I was going to leave it at that until I realised that the stamped dragonflies look exactly like miniatures of the Gummiapan dragonfly dies, so I couldn't resist cutting a couple and adding them. After all you know how much I love my dragonflies!

I am sharing this with
Rubber Dance - November Colour Challenge

Dies R Us - Anything Fall
Allsorts - Colours of Autumn
Retro Rubber - Fall colours

Lazy Sunday

Are you having a lazy Sunday? We are - and for me that means lots of crafting! Not, however as lazy as this chap, who is having a post-lunch snooze in front of the TV.

The stamp is a Little Claire Dinkie - I got it a few years ago as a standalone but it only seems to be available in a larger version as part of a set now. I decided to paper piece it - a rather rash decision considering how tiny some of the pieces are - using snippets which I then die cut the remains of to make the layers. The dog, beer and hair are coloured with pencils so I could give them the look of a little texture.

I am sharing this with
The Male Room - paper piecing
Pixie's Snippets Playground - weeks 307/308
Glitter'n'Sparkle - Anything Goes  

Teeny Tiny Christmas Kitty

Isn't this little kitty adorable? The image and sentiment stamps were in one of those boxed magazine/CD/Ctamps/stuff kits a couple of years ago - I think it was a Crafters Companion one. They are very tiny, but when used in a CAS way can have a lot of impact!

I stamped and heat embossed the kitty and coloured her in with makers and pencils, then used a Quickie Glue Pen (I've fallen back in love with them of late) to add red and white glitter to the hat. The sentiment and gingham ribbon were all that was needed to make this little kitty the star of the show, and let's face it, where there's a kitty involved it always wants to be the star of the show!

I am sharing this with
CAS-ology - Tiny
Fab'n'Funky - Gorgeous Gingham
Addicted to CAS - Bows  
CAS mix up - stamping & glitter & 1 (heat embossing)

Butterfly and chevrons

The challenge at The Butterfly Challenge this fortnight is chevrons and/or the colour purple. I really wanted to combine the two but all the chevron papers I could find were in colours that would have looked really horrid with purple, so I made my own using a zig zag border stamp and the Misti.

I also stamped three pennants from the same stamp set as the border and embossed them with clear powder to give a change of texture. The white band across the middle is cut with pinking shear effect scissors (NOT my actual pinking shears. As with my fabric scissors, I reserve the right to implement the death penalty for anyone who uses them on paper or card) with a butterfly, cut with the classic Cuttlebug die, and some enamel dots on it.
It's hard to believe that the enamel dots are actually exactly the same shade of purple as the card and ink that I used - I think the gloomy light conditions today are to blame!

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers Challenge 97 - Remember

Today at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers we have a new challenge for you - R is for Remember.

Now here in the UK it is Remembrance weekend, but I thought it would be rather tasteless (even by SOSS standards, and we're not exactly known for our classiness!) to be snarky about remembering our lost servicemen and women, so I've gone for something we all struggle with as we get older..... memory loss. Or at least memory-getting-a-bit-fuzzy-around-the-edges.

I've used one of my favourite digis, Weekend Walter from Dr Digis, coloured with Promarkers and fussy cut. The sentiment is computer generated and the backing paper is one I've had in my stash since Walter was a sprightly young 40 year old. It looks to me like the kind of wallpaper he might have.

I am sharing this with
Addicted to stamps and more - Make your mark
Crafty Creations Challenge - Anything Goes
Watercooler Wednesday - All about birthdays