Classic Christmas Blooms

Hello.
Have you spotted the new Christmas card challenge?

It's been set up by Maaike and has a fab DT, so lots of great Christmas card inspiration is coming our way.

This month the challenge is for traditional styles.

Poinsettias are one of those flowers that scream Christmas to me, so I dug out this old stamp and die set.

The flowers were stamped in versamark, heat embossed with gold powder, and then die cut.

I wanted a nice vibrant colour, so I got out my ecoline pens. They are so lovely to colour with, but I haven't quite got the hang of blending with them.

I also got rid of that white outline on the die cuts, by using a copic as close to the background green as I had.

Challenge

AAA Christmas Cards

• simon says stamp - winter flowers
• wow - gold embossing powder
• concord and 9th - tiny trees (sentiment)
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• Ecoline brush pens

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Antlers!

Hello.
I think I've gone overboard recently, and drifted away from a simpler style,
so I was determined not to throw too much at this freshly made sketches card.

But, now I feel as though that clean space is missing something.
What do you think? 
Some embossing on the blue? A higher sentiment? More florals?

Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches 

• spellbinders - floral stag dies
• concord and 9th - sentiment - holiday home stamps and dies
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• glossy accents

Cosy Christmas Vibes

 Yikes!!
What possessed me to buy this holiday home set - with a gazillion tiny dies??
I'm happy with the end result, but it's taking me forever to put together :o)
Would you have the patience?

There is definitely plenty to play with in this set.
Once you have the tree and fireplace sorted you can customise the other elements to make your own cosy Christmas room.

I added some wall art, candles, snow globe and presents.

Challenge

Christmas Crafts All Year Round

October Challenge T and U

I've gone for T is for tree / traditional scene

• concord & 9th holiday home stamps and dies
• altenew - turquoise ink 
• ranger distress ink - festive berries

A Night On The Razz

Hello.
Just having a bit of fun today, with these Uptown Girls,
all ready to hit the town.

I was in the mood for a little colouring, and came across these party girls in my old stash.
All they needed was a fun sentiment, that I made up using letters from some birthday sayings, and lots of post-it notes masking!

Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches

• stamping bella - uptown girls victoria and juliette's night out
• copic markers
• my favorite things - scalloped border die
• lawn fawn - offset birthday sayings

Racing towards après ski

Hello.
So, this week's Allsorts Challenge got me thinking.
A card with more than one fold.

After going down the inevitable Pinterest rabbit hole,
I came across this box fold card. 
Very easy to make, and folds flat for a standard envelope. Win win!

I started with my standard card base and used a stencil and distress ink for a background.
I added in some extra, die cut trees.

Then, I added the box part to the bottom of the card, and attached my skiing pup.
Finishing with a simple sentiment.

The full instructions and video for the box card are by Jennifer McGuire  here

It's very simple to do though and you can make your box different sizes, or add more than one.
Mine was made with a piece of card 4 1/4  x 5 
scored at 3/4, 1 3/4, 3 1/4, 4 1/4

Hopefully, you can see from the photo below how it attaches.
Then it just folds upwards so you can get your card into an envelope.

 Challenge

Allsorts

* More Than One Fold*

• waffle flower - snowy hills stencil and cool pup die and stencil
• concord & 9th - yuletide lane stamps and dies (trees and sentiment)
• pretty pink posh - snowfall stencil with white gel pen
• distress ink - tumbled glass, cracked pistachio, mowed lawn
  
  

Nutcracker

Hello
Here's another card for my Christmas pile.
Full disclosure:
I'd almost finished this stitched panel when the 'stitches' theme came up at little red wagon. 
We must be on the same wavelength :o)                                                           

At first, I thought I’d just add a simple sentiment to this stitched background, but then I spotted my nutcracker dies and decided to give them another outing.

I wasn’t really a fan of these when I first got them. I could never quite decide what colours to use, and I wasn’t very good at sticking all those tiny pieces together. I’ve definitely got better at that though, and this time I kept him monotone. I think he's starting to grow on me.

So, if you’ve got something lurking in your stash that you weren’t quite sure about, dig it out and give it another go. 

Little Red Wagon

Challenge #879 Stitches

• spellbinders - stitched fanfare die
• concord and 9th - nutcracker

Beware Of Ghosts

Hello.
Today I'm sharing another Halloween card with you.

This one definitely worked better in my head!!

           

I went for a twist on my first spooky house design, and tried to make a face with the dies I had.
I kept the windows all black for eyes, the mouth was a string of lights, and I had to cut a little shape for the nose.

This is for my grandson (age 5) so I added some cute pumpkins, fun ghosts and, of course, a black cat.

And, did you spot today's deliberate mistake, yep, I stuck the door on upside down!!

Challenge

Crafty Calendar

October Challenge - Autumn/Halloween

• concord & 9th - yuletide lane dies and stamps
• my favorite things - ghostly greetings
• my favorite things - little buddies (cat)
• distress ink - shaded lilac, wilted violet, dusty concord
• spellbinders - holiday haul (pumpkins die)

Are You On The Naughty List?

I'm not worried.
There's loads of time to get off that naughty list - isn't there???     :o)

Here's another Christmas card for the pile.

I've combined a couple of die sets for this card. 
The Santa is from Spellbinders, and the tree and sentiment are from Concord & 9th (the great thing about that tree is that it is actually 5 pieces, but you can make it smaller if you need to).

I've also kept this pretty flat, using DS tape instead of foam. 
Something I'm going to have to really work on, because I do not want to be paying £3.30 postage on all my Christmas cards!!

Challenge

Freshly Made Sketches

• spellbinders - dancin' st nick
• concord & 9th - holiday home dies and stamps
• dotted embossing folder - I think it was a magazine freebie years ago
• my favorite things - in and out stitched square die
• pinkfresh studio -diagonal stitch rectangle

Bark the Herald Angels Sing

Hello.
Yikes! Where has September gone?
As usual, I'm late getting started on my Christmas cards, so this is a nice easy one to get going.

The sketch over at Freshly Made screams large Christmas Tree so, obviously, I went with caroling pups ;o)

I managed to mask my pups, the lectern and the tree, so the card is kept flat for easy posting.

The background is distress ink and, because I am rubbish at splatter, the snow is a white gel pen through a snowfall stencil.

I did have a problem with that stripe across the card - because it was flat I couldn't use paper or ribbon, so in the end I went for the little 'fa la la' stamp. Not a complete disaster, but not great.

Freshly Made Sketches

• clearly besotted - howl it's the holidays
• ranger distress ink - tumbled glass
• pretty pink posh - snowfall stencil
• pinkfresh studio - diagonal stitch rectangle
• copic markers / sakura white gel pen

The Healing Power Of A Hug

Hello.
Today I'm sharing a card with one of my favourite dies sets - songbirds on branches.
Part of the reason I'm rubbish at nature/flower cards, is that I never know how to arrange things -
this set makes it easy.
Everything has it's own place. No faffing around :o)

This is for someone special, who is going through a really tough time right now - so I kept things to a minimum (for me) with lots of white, a little copic colouring and a heartfelt sentiment.

Allsorts Challenge Blog

#858

Sympathy/Thinking of You/Get Well

• pinkfresh studio - songbirds on branches stamp and die
• pinkfresh studio - perfect sentiments - stamp and die
• pinkfresh studio - stitched diamonds coverplate
• my favourite things - stitched scalloped frame
• copic markers

Home Sweet Haunted Home

Hello.
It's almost spooky season.
I only make a couple of Halloween cards, so I don't feel the need to splash out on any new goodies.
Instead I raid what I have and make do.

Here, I've teamed up an old MFT ghost set, with some Christmas house dies.

This is for my Grandson, so I've gone with bold, bright traditional Halloween colours.
You can't really beat the orange, purple and lime green combo - it just works so well.

I've added some ghosts, bats and a pumpkin - and used distress ink for a moonlit sky.

Challenge

As You Like It

Favourite Halloween Colours

• concord & 9th - yuletide lane
• my favorite things - ghostly greetings
• spellbinders - holiday haul (pumpkin die)
• distress ink - shaded lilac, wilted violet