Soft Noel

   This weeks Christmas card is a simple one, time is precious this week as I prepare to teach with a friend on a scrapbook retreat this weekend.
   I have used a felt greeting cut out with a Sizzix die to qualify for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge.  This greeting is stuck on to a piece of white card embossed with snowflakes which is then mounted on a background paper of snowflakes, this is Winter Wonderland's requirement this week.
   I have also used a punch to make glitter snowflakes which I have stuck on with a little Cosmic Shimmer PVA. Plus a few gems on the greeting to add sparkle.

   Inside the card I have used a small snowflake corner stamp and Distress Ink Salty Ocean, the greeting is a Funstamps stamp also in Salty Ocean.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Felt Embellishment

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas challenge - One Word Only

CraftyHazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes

Winter Wonderland - Snowflakes

Christmas Hearts

  This weeks Christmas card is a combination of four challenges.  It started with a sketch from Jingle Belles, and themes from 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, Christmas Cards All Year Round, Winter Wonderland and Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge.
   I have stamped a white card with small snowflakes in Distress Ink Fired Brick because it matched the red card I have used on the left. The white snowflakes are stamped with Archival Brilliance Moonlight White.
  The strip of white card is embossed using a small snowflake folder that was free on a magazine and has three small punched hearts stuck on it. I have also used small punched hearts on the Penny Black sentiment in place of  two of the letters.

  The tree is made from ten punched hearts all stuck together with half a heart for the trunk.
  I have also stamped snowflakes inside as well as on the envelope.
  This works well as a non specific seasonal celebration card too.

I would like to enter it in the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - Sketch

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Hearts / Love

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Snow (snowflakes)

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything goes

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Anything goes

Winter Wonderland - It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Hearts / Flowers,  Red & White

Definitely No Snow

   This colour challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown was just that for me but thanks to the inspiration given by the DT this is what I came up with. It also falls nicely in with Craftyhazelnut's challenge of  No Snow!
  I'm not very good with a brayer yet so I've used gloss card and Distress Inks. To begin with I stamped my camel train in Archival Ink Coffee and made a mask on a sticky note too. I masked off the sand and used two more notes to make a triangle shape, then I used Scattered Straw and a tiny bit of Wild Honey to ink my pyramids.

  Using the top half of the mask I then inked up the sand with Scattered Straw only. The image is then mated on a layer of pearl chocolate card before being put on a yellow background paper that has been in my stash for years.
  I have added a gold star brad in the top corner to finish off the front of the card. Inside I have stamped the camel train again in Coffee and coloured the sand as well. The greeting was a freebie on a magazine, the camel train is an Inkadinkado stamp but it doesn't appear to have a name on it.
  I've also stamped the envelope with camels so there is definitely No Snow!

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Yellow / Brown / White

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - No Snow

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything goes

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Anything goes

My Hearts On Fire - 12 Tags of 2013

   I've been looking at Tim Holt 12 Tags of 2013 and been inspired to join in this month. I can't promise to make every tag, especially as I've already missed January, but I shall try.
   I began with a white tag that I cut out with my Sizzix Tag and Bookplate die. I don't have many Distress Stains so I used a Distress Ink Pad and blending foam to colour the tag with Festive Berries. I then spritzed and dabbed followed by watermark stamping using Fabulous Flourishes. Once completely dry I stamped across the bottom with a border stamp from Stampers Anonymous Rock Star and embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Lava Black, it looks black but at an angle it shows a deep maroon.
  I have also used Lava Black when stamping the heart image from Rock Star. The centre of the heart is glittered and then covered with a layer of Glossy Accents. I have used a silver glitter pen to colour the scroll work around the heart and Distress Marker Picket Fence to colour the banner. 'Alex' is written with tiny peel offs as my hand writing is not that neat.

 I found the definition of Valentine in an old dictionary and tore it out to go on my tag. I have also used two tiny silver heart brads to help hold it in place.
  There are two more silver heart brads on the right of the tag, one tiny and the other larger. I've finished it off with some red ribbon with little hearts on and thin black satin ribbon through a black reinforcing ring. I do enjoy making tags and find that I am a little more artsy than I would be on a card. Must make the effort (and time!) to do more.

Liebster Award Nomination

What a surprise this was. Thanks Danielle.

Danielle's very kind nomination has come from her amazing blog which you can take a look at here.

ABOUT THE AWARD - this award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion. Once you've been nominated you in turn award it to blogs that you like to visit that have fewer than 200 followers.  This is to encourage new visitors to visit these blogs - isn't this a fabulous idea?!

 

RULES FOR ACCEPTANCE - you must thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Post the award on your blog. Give the award to 5 bloggers who you appreciate that have less than 200 followers.  Leave a comment on their blog letting them know that you have given them this awesome award.

 

PAY IT FORWARD - Listed below are five blogs that I think you should visit:

Lynn  -  Lynn-d-lou

I have had the pleasure of knowing Lynn for a couple of years now, she has been very encouraging and supportive and I love her work. She is a woman of many talents which you will see when you pop over to her blog and take a look.

Naomi  -  Ni's Papercrafting Place

Naomi is a demonstrator for a well know papercraft company who is always willing to share her knowlege. Her enthusiasm is infectious, which is always helpful when a crafting block hits, and there are some great tutorials on her blog so pop over and have a look.

Pauline  -  Piglets Paradise

As yet we've not met in person but I know Pauline from serving on the same design team at J&C Creations. Pauline has some great ideas and her cards are always beautifully finished. Go and take a look at her blog and you'll see what I mean.

Tracy Anne  -  Tracey Anne Designs

Tracy Anne is also on the J&C Creations DT, she makes some lovely cards as well as a host of other items including crackers and boxes. Please go and take a look at her tinsel covered motorbike!

Nat  -  Crafty Nats Card Making Corner

Nat is on several design teams but I know her from J&C Creations. She has a passion for Penny Black and Promarkers and makes some amazing cards with that combination. Pop over and take a look at her colouring, it's great.

Please go and see what these lovely ladies have to offer. It wasn't easy choosing just five out of all the talented blogers I know but I'm sure you'll agree these are all worth the nomination.

Thanks again Danielle, I'm honoured.

Chinese New Year

Happy New Year!  This is the year of the Rat.

   As New Year is celebrated with fireworks and the giving of Lucky Red Envelopes containing money I chose to make this card for the celebrations.
   If you would like to know how it was made then please pop over to the J&C Creations blog to find out all the details.

Purple Snowflakes

 This weeks Christmas challenges gave me something to think about. I wanted to try and tie all of them together in one card if I could so I really had to put my thinking cap on.
  52 Christmas Card Challenge is a sketch so that was my starting point, then Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge is anything beginning with 'P' so I chose purple. The subject came from Jingle Belles who are asking for anything to do with H2O (water) so that meant snowflakes would be good. Winter Wonderland are asking for monochromatic so using only purple and white would do that one and Sparkles are looking for anything Christmas.

I have used a snowflake stamp that was free on a magazine and embossed it with a mixture I made myself, it was pure white but I wanted some sparkle so I have put one child's medicine spoon of white in a tiny jam jar and added a generous half spoon of a clear sparkle powder to get the mix I wanted. I've never done this before but I have heard of other people doing it so I thought I'd try and I'm pleased to say it worked. The centre of each snowflake has a purple gem on it and I've also added three gems to the greeting bar. The two snowflakes are embellishments from my stash and I wish I could remember where I got them because they're so pretty, they do sparkle, it's just my photography that lets them down.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

52 Christmas Crad Throwdown - Sketch

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - 'P'

Jingle Belles - H2O

Winter Wonderland - Monochromatic

Sparkles - Anything goes

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything goes

Steaming ahead

Just to show it's not all Christmas on here I've made a card for my Dad. He's getting better slowly and I think this will cheer him up a bit as he's very much a steam fanatic.  I would also like to enter it in a couple of challenges, Make My Monday and Cards For Men, I'm sure he wouldn't mind.
   I began with a sketchy steam engine stamp from Creative Expression - Vintage Illusion and used Perfect Medium and Cosmic Shimmer Mica Powders. This has been sealed using a well known supermarket's value hairspray. I cut the image out using Spellbinders Labels Twenty One as this shape makes me think of railway signs. I had to use the largest size die for the image so then I drew around the outside of the die on gold satin card to get that extra layer and cut it out by hand.
  The background is copper mirri card run through my Bigshot with a mask to get the checker plate pattern. Masks give a softer impression than folders which sometimes can be better. The card was a bit too shiny so I have gone over it with an acrylic paint dauber from Ranger to grunge it up a bit. The base card was cream before being dabbed with Distress Ink Brushed Corduroy on my trusty shaving brush and stamped with a crackle stamp in the same colour.
  The ticket is a Creative Expressions stamp and says Just For You so it's useful for any occasion. I have stamped the envelope and inside the card with cogs just to bring it all together. The cog is cut with a Sizzix die Tim Holtz Cogs in greyboard. Then I've embossed it with Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder in Vintage Photo and once cold rubbed off the excess crystals that do not melt and coloured it with Distress Ink Vintage Photo to complete the rusty look. There is a screw head brad in the centre of the cog and it's stuck on with thin foam pads.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Make My Monday - One For The Boys

Cards For Men - Transport

Triple layer, two tone stamping

 This weeks challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to 'triple layer/time stamp'. This involves using three layers of card and stamping over all three at the same time. It doesn't matter about perfect edges as matting is used to cope with this and add that finishing touch too. There is a link on 52CCT site to a tutorial by Dawn Olchefske if you would like to see how it's done.
  This is my second try at this technique, the first one was not defined enough in its image. That then set me to thinking how I could change it slightly, I then hit upon a positive / negative style.

I began by cutting my mats and layers to fit a 5 3/4" card. I arranged my layers carefully and tacked them in place while I stamped. The stamps are from Stampin Up - Ornament Keepsakes. I stamped with black Archival ink then separated the layers and used white embossing powder on the black card and clear embossing powder on the white card. I then built up all my images and mats before placing them on the card blank. A friend pointed out at craft club that a little red would be good, thanks Ann, so I have coloured a white card blank with Distress Ink Festive Berries to get a nice bright red base and then added a few red gems to the baubles.
I have also decorated the inside and the envelope to finish it off.
I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Triple Time Stamping

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - Anything Goes
Sparkles Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

Winter Wonderland - Monochromatic