Saturday 26 November 2016

The Griswold Family Christmas Tree


The Challenge at Seven Hills Crafts is to use your favourite Christmas song, movie or carol as inspiration.
For me that has to be National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Such an awesome movie. I never get tired of watching it.

My card was inspired by the scene where the family trek into the snow for their tree. As the perfect tree comes into sight, the choral music starts up and it is bathed in a bright light.

"Dad, that thing won't fit in our yard."
"It's not going in our yard, Russ - it's going in our living room."


I die-cut my rectangle and inked it up, trying to create an area where the light would glow behind my tree.
Then I added some water drops for 'snow'.
This is still a new technique to me, and I'm flicking the water on with a paint brush, but I need to find a better way that will give me smaller spots.

Once the background was dry, it was a simple case of adding my hillside border,
stamping the sentiment,  attaching the tree with foam pads and then placing the panel inside the scalloped frame.

Challenge



MFT - Oh Christmas Tree stamps and dies and  Stitched Scalloped Rectangle Die
Sentiment - WPlus9 Heartfelt Holiday
Lawn Fawn - Stitched Hillside Border
Inks - Versacolor Cyan and Bisque. DistressInk Scattered Straw and Mermaid Lagoon

Monday 21 November 2016

POINSETTIA

Arghh!  This card was so out of my comfort zone,
and it nearly ended up in the bin several times.
But I wasn't going to let it beat me :-)


I wanted a more traditional style card for my Mum, 'cos that's what she likes.
So I dug deep and came up with a few, very old, stamps on red sponge. 
I think they must have been a magazine freebie - eons ago!

I stamped my random design, and stamped and gold embossed the sentiment.
It took me forever to Copic colour my flowers and then I was quite pleased with the final result.
Then I ruined the whole thing by using a white wink of stella brush on the petals.
I didn't realise this dried so white, and it washed out the red colour.
Despite going over and over it with the red copic, it's still not as vibrant as it was originally. 
I messed up adding some black dots to fill in the gaps, and also on the grey outline to add a little more depth.
Isn't it frustrating when a card goes like that?


Challenge


Stamps that were, I think, a magazine freebie.
Avery Elle - Postage stamp die and 'merriest' sentiment     Copics.   White Wink of Stella
Wow Gold Metallic embossing powder   

Friday 18 November 2016

Rockin' Christmas

Hello.
It's a pretty miserable day here today.
Cold and sleeting.
I am just debating whether to wrap up and drag myself to the Christmas market tonight. The eggnog lattes are calling me :-)

Here's my card for this week's MFT Sketch Challenge.




If you had told me a few months ago I would be playing with inks and water drops I would have laughed at you. It was so NOT my thing. But, it's kind of crept up on me and I'm having so much fun with it.

Here, I inked and blended a couple of pieces of card. One was die cut with the scalloped rectangle and the other with the alphabet dies. For the alphabet, I placed the dies down the centre blend, so they would have a slight ombre look.

I die cut my bunnies, and coloured them with copics and then everything was popped up on foam tape, for some extra dimension.


Challenge.



MFT - stitched scallop die, stitched alphabet dies, strike up the band stamps and dies
'wishing you a' is from MFT together forever sentiments
'Christmas' is from Avery Elle Merriest
Inks - distress cracked pistachio, Versacolor turquoise.


Tuesday 15 November 2016

Wobbly Penguin

Hello.
I am so bad at waiting.
When I get an idea in my head (as I often do) I want to carry it out then and there.
Take this card. I wanted to give a 'wobbly' card a go, but scouring the net for the little 'wobblers'
and then waiting for them to drop through the letterbox is just not my style.
Instead, I threw myself head-first into the craft box and came up with a bobbin of wire!
We crafters never throw anything away :-)



For the 'ombre' style, I blended a couple of inks onto some card and then die-cut the MERRY letters. I attached these to my scalloped edge panel, and also smudged a little of the light pink ink, where my penguin would go.

For the wobble, I wrapped some of the wire around a pencil a few times to get a spring, then just used tape to stick the spring to the penguin and card.
Easy Peasy.



Challenge.


Mama Elephant - Arctic Penguins
MFT - Stitched scallop rectangle and stitched alphabet
Avery Elle - merriest sentiment stamps
Inks - DistressInk Spun Sugar, Versacolor Camelia
28 gauge beading wire.


Monday 14 November 2016

Snow is falling

I am so excited for Christmas.
Is it too early to put my tree up? 🎄🎄🎄
I don't know how much longer I can hold out :-)

 - and when did we get emojis?
Have we had them for ages and I've only just noticed??
Questions, questions  :-)


This is my card for the Muse Christmas Visions challenge.
I've followed the overall design, keeping it pretty simple and adding some background interest.
My elements are fussy cut, with minimal colouring.


card by Chriss Blagrave


Stampendous - holiday home
MFT - stitched scalloped rectangle
Lawn Fawn - stitiched hillside border
Avery Elle - falling snow die

Saturday 12 November 2016

Doe, A Deer

Hello.
Today I'm sharing a card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge.
This one had me stumped for a while, but I kept playing with die cuts
until my card started to take shape.


I wasn't sure about it at first.
But the crisp, clean, kind of vector style is growing on me .
At first the green was right the way across and on the bottom of the circle,
but at the last minute I covered it with the red, (you can just see I haven't lined it up perfectly)
but, I think it helped to balance it.


Challenges.


MFT - Deer Friends and scalloped stitched rectangle die.
Lawn Fawn - stitched hillside borders.   Nestie circle die  

Friday 11 November 2016

It's too late to be good

Happy Friday everyone.

Today I'm sharing a fun card, that I made for my niece.


The sentiment is stamped with alphabet letters.
I have one of those stamp blocks that has grids marked into it, which is great for lining up the individual letters.
If I have to use a plain block, I attach a sticky note to help line the letters up and then take it away for inking.

Once the sentiment was done I stamped my Mademoiselle Noel at an angle, and then coloured her with Copics and some glamour dust.

Sorry - the pics are a bit dark and they don't show off the pretty sparkle.  I take my pics in the conservatory and the roof in there is still covered in snow!!


Challenge 

Anything Christmas

Penny Black - Mademoiselle Noel, coloured with Copics and Glamour Dust
Avery Elle - postage stamp die
Lawn Fawn - Violet's ABCs



Tuesday 8 November 2016

Arctic Joy

Hello.
I couldn't resist playing along this week at Less is More.
The theme is 'purple and gold'.
What a fabulous combo that is, and there are lots of stunning cards already up.
Here's my entry.


I am having lots of fun with inks at the moment, and learning as I go along.
This is the second time I've attempted water drops on my blended background. 
I flicked them on with a paint brush, but they don't show up too well.  
Any tips???



Challenge.

Less Is More  -   Purple & Gold

Mama Elephant - arctic penguins, coloured with Copics
MFT - posage stamp die.   Lawn Fawn - stitched hillside border die
Sentiment - Avery Elle merriest, embossed with Wow metallic gold powder
Inks - Versacolor heliotrope and boysenberry. Distress Ink fossilized amber




Sunday 6 November 2016

Deer Baby

Hello.
I'm paying along at Freshly Made Sketches again this week,
with this 'baby's 1st christmas' card.


I tried to keep the colours a little softer than usual, but still add a touch of sparkle
with the glitter paper and sequins. 
IRL the glitter paper catches the light beautifully.



MFT - Deer Friends, stamped in Altenew evening grey ink
Lawn Fawn Hillside borders and Avery Elle postage stamp dies
Lawn Fawn, let's polka mon amie dp and American Crafts glitter paper
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday 4 November 2016

Mistletoe and wine

This just about sums up my holiday season.  snort**
Mistletoe and wine with my two gorgeous daughters.


It's hard to capture glitter.
But IRL these party dresses have a lovely sparkle.



Challenge

**Holiday**

Stamping Bella - uptown girls Victoria and Juliette's night out
coloured with Copics and Glamour Dust
Lawn Fawn - Violet's ABCs
Avery Elle - Postage Stamp die

Wednesday 2 November 2016

Door to Door

How will you decorate your door?

That's the challenge theme this week over at Merry Monday.
I have an artificial wreath that gets tied to the door knocker - 
it's really very pretty, but I do dream of getting a fresh wreath,
with lots of holly and berries and pinecones.  *Sigh*


For my card I've made a more simple wreath,
adding a few hearts and dots for colour.
The mugs and bow are die cut and popped up on foam pads, 
to give some dimension.



WPlus9 - heartfelt holidays
Inks - Altenew - evening grey. Versacolor - camelia, mint, turquoise.
Echo Park - dots and stripes dp

Tuesday 1 November 2016

Dasher and Dancer

Yikes!
November already.
I need to speed up my Christmas card production.
Bring on the reindeer...


This was one of those cards that just wasn't working.
It started with the brown reindeer and tree. Not great!
Then, to try and balance it, I added the other tree - 
still not right.
So, I went with another reindeer.
It's definitely better, but I'm still not feeling it  :-)
What do you think?


Challenges
Simon Says - Anything Goes

My Favorite Things - deer friends and zig zag rectangle die
Avery Elle - postage stamp die
Lawn Fawn - stitched hillside border
Echo Park - dots and striped dp