Christmas Roses

 A couple of years ago, an online friend gave me The Paper Boutique's "The Christmas Visitor" collection to thank me for a favour. I used the papers a lot for a while then, of course, other things came along and that got set aside. But they are lovely papers and deserve to be seen more often! 

I've used several of the papers here, matted with one of the lovely coordinating plain cards from the collection, and used one topper image twice in order to be able to cut a second one of the roses in the foreground to add a little dimension. 

I'm sharing this at 

Jingle Belles - All bundled up  (In places there are up to 8 layers, not counting the base card!) 

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - anything goes 

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - sketch 

Balloon ride

 One sunny morning last week, I opened the bedroom curtains just in time to see a hot air balloon floating over the area, and felt that summer really is here at last! I've never ridden in one, have you? It must be a wonderful way to see the countryside. I've enjoyed seeing it from a helicopter and a light aircraft, but they move so fast everything's gone before you can really appreciate it. 

Which is a round about way of saying I've been using the wonderful balloon stamp from the Indigo Blu #2 kit again. 

I took a standard A5 sized card and cut away a third of the front  then added a narrow strip of brown card to the edge. Then I cut a piece of pale blue card to the same size as the card front, stamped the balloon over the right hand third and stuck the whole panel behind the front flap, so that when the card is open none of the joins and layers show. 

I stamped the image again, lightly coloured it with pencils and added the sentiments then layered with  blue and brown card then attached it to the front, then finished with a little brown candi. 

I am sharing this with 

Inkspirational - Photo challenge  

Sweet Stampin - Masculine Makes 

Pearly Sparkles - For Men/Boys  

Watercooler - All things Masculine 

Colour Hues - Blue and Brown 

Kitten in a basket

 No, that's not a new take on a 70s pub food classic! 

This adorable little Heffy Doodle stamp and die set has been sitting around in my stash, completely unused, since I won it in last October's Cat Lover's Hop. Simply because I lost it! I've searched high and low, then yesterday while looking for an embossing folder I found it tucked away in the back of my embossing folder box. Goodness knows how it got there! 

Anyway, here it is at last,  and I thought it would be great for using some of the tiny snippets in my box, simply stamping on my chosen colours and die cutting the stamped images - much quicker than stamping on white and colouring them! The grass-effect washi tape looks very much like carpet, so I used a scrap of that then added the sentiment (don't you just love that script font?) from the stamp set. 

I am sharing this with 

Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge 404  (actually this card goes well with the prize on offer this time!) 

Shopping Our Stash - Fur Babies  

NBUS - NBUS (but only because I'd lost it!) 

Show us Your Pussycats - Furrything Goes 

Besties

 As you've probably noticed, I really love this "Besties" stamp that was a gift with Making Cards magazine a few years ago - it has certainly seen a lot of action! 

And I also love stamping on kraft - especially when heat embossed in white, or stamped with Versamark to give a watermark effect.  For this card, I used white embossing powder (anti static pad VITAL!) to heat emboss the image and sentiment - the sentiment was part of a very useful set I won a few days ago in the Allsorts birthday challenge -  then used booze related stamps from my stash to randomly fill the rest of the space. 

I am sharing this with 

Taylormadecards4u - Use your words 

Stamping Sensations - I love....

Sisterhoodd of Snarky Stampers  - K is for Kraft 

The Flute Player

 In a few days' time it will be my oldest granddaughter's 12th birthday. And only a few days after that, she is taking part in a music competition, playing the flute which she loves. So I wanted to make her a card with a musical theme and, as she's turned into a lovely young lady over the last year or so, make a more grown-up card than I've made for her before. 

I found the perfect digi at Digi Doodles - it is called Sweet Melody and it even looks a bit like my granddaughter. I coloured it with pencils and cut it with a circular die, adding layers of plain and scalloped circles  in white, blue and kraft. 

For the background, I used pale blue card stamped randomly with musical notation, using Versamark ink. Next came layers of stencilled, embossed, stamped and real music paper and a die cut stave. The matted image topped all these then I added die cut leaves and fabric flowers for a finishing touch.  

I am sharing this with 

Fab'n'Funky - Go Girly 

CD Sunday Plus - Anything Goes 

We love Chocolate Baroque - hand coloured (or paper pieced) image

Crafty Calendar - Anything Goes 

Getting buzzy

 I only started to use stencils a few years ago - you wouldn't know it now from the size of my collection, it almost rivals my collection of stamps! I really love the versatility - stencils can be used in a very CAS way, or in the inkiest, messiest of ways. They can be used with inks, pastes, pints, sprays, glitters and gels. This time I've gone for a very CAS look 

I sponged distress inks in honey, orange, yellow and brown through the stencil then stamped  the bees and sentiment over the honeycomb background and finished off the bees' bodies with a deep yellow pencil. The whole card took about 10 minutes to make, and most of that was choosing the best placement for the stamping. 

I am sharing this with 

AAA Cards - No layers/use hexagons 

Alphabet Challenge - E is for Easy, Simple card

Less is More - your favourite technique (stencilling) 

2 Crafty Critter crazies - Anything goes with a creature

Christmas Three

 Not tree, THREE. Three owl themed cards. I've got a new CD, the first new craft CD I've had for ages. Well, it wasn't strictly new, just new-to-me; I'm in a craft swapping round robin and this was one of the lovely goodies that came to me recently. The CD is Debbi Moore's Shabby Chic Christmas Owls and  for this collection I printed off two design sheets and two backing papers, then mixed and matched the elements. 

For this card, I started with a sheet of kraft card and inked the edges in red. Then I added elements, with  the image matted in red. The holly sprays and sentiment were added with 3D adhesive. 

I am sharing this card with 

Christmas Crafts All Year round - Something beginning with K or L  - KRAFT (well, I did promise not to choose Kings or Lights!) 

Sparkles Christmas - Kraft 

Next I made a Twisted Easel card, using kraft for matting this time and adding lots of red crystal bling. 

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

The third card is a slimline card with distressing on the edges and green pearlescent card used for matting. There is a single layer of decoupage to make the owl stand out from the tree behind him. 

I am sharing this with Fezziwig's Festive Frolics - Red and Green 

And now..... drum roll.... all three cards together, courtesy of Collage-It. 

I am sharing the collection of cards with CD Sunday Plus - anything goes using a CD or digi