A quick stylish Christmas card

Hello, crafting friends!

 

With 2024 hurtling to a close, I suspect some of you (like me!) will be up to your eyes in Christmas preparations; but I do hope you can take a little time to have some crafty fun. At the Flower Challenge, there's still time to join in with our Add Sparkle challenge.

 

On a side note, I am sad to be stepping down from this incredible design team. This year has thrown some personal challenges my way and it has made sense to reduce my commitments.

 

Anyway, back to the challenge: I've come up with a very quick design, suitable for last minute Christmas cards. Of course sparkly floral cards are appreciated all year round, so feel free to create something for other occasions!

 

 

For this card, I took an A6 card base and attached an A6 navy panel to the card front. A snippet of sparkly paper was glued over this to represent snow.

 

The focus of the design are three stamped and die cut poinsettias from Stampin' Up's Stylish Christmas. I added liquid pearls to the flower centres and finished with a shiny die cut sentiment from Tonic Studios. And there we are - Super fast, and even faster if you have pre-prepared flowers in your UFO box!

 

Do hop over to the Flower Challenge blog and admire the beautiful inspiration cards my team mates have prepared to inspire you. I hope you can find a minute to join in too! You will find the blue Linky button at the bottom of the post and can use that to share your own creation. Have fun - you deserve it!

CHALLENGES

I am sending a massive thank you to all the Christmas challenges that have encouraged this tardy crafter to at least make a start on her festive makes throughout the year :) I'm linking this card up with Peace on Earth where, as always, there is a fabulous and inspiring mood board; Jingle Belles are inviting us all to their Wrap Party - link your last minute Christmas cards there! And in the same vein, If it's Christmassy, Link it Up is Jo's final theme of the year at Christmas Kickstart Challenge!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Crafting Clare Towers, with wrapping paper, cards and Christmas decorations strewn about in all the wrong places! The Blonde Bombshells have been infected with a sense of excitement and, like toddlers, are having to be taken for long walks to help them calm down. I am constantly replacing ornaments on the Christmas tree which have been knoocked flying by wagging tails. But I am hopeful that by the time guests start arriving, everything will be sorted out and calm will reign!

How are your festive preparations going?

Sending hugs,

A pop of Christmas red

Hello, crafting friends!

 

There's a brand new board at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge today! Betty has created it very cleverly so that you can go festive with the ideas, or use them for other occasion cards.

 

If you're a regular here, it will be no surprise to you to hear that Mrs McLateness here is still making Christmas cards!  Here's what I came up with using the central column Frame/Embossing/Winter Foliage:

 

I was also influenced by the White on White suggestion (top left of the board) but opted for a pop of festive red to liven things up :) I started by embossing a frame on a white panel with a folder by Sheena Douglas called Frosty Ice Border. I thought it gave a suggestion of pine needles. Next came the beautiful sentiment from Stampin' Up's Hope and Peace, stamped in their Real Red ink.

 

The edges of the front of the card base was coloured with the same red ink. I trimmed the card panel down a little before attaching it to the card front so that a red border showed around the embossed frame. Two of the corners were decorated with a variety of winter foliage die cuts which used up a whole load of white snippets, and I finished with a liberal sprinkling of sparkling gems.

Ok, it's over to you! Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog to see the beautiful cards my team mates have made to inspire you, then choose a column, row or diagonal and create your own card.  When you're ready to share, you can link up using the blue Linky Tool button at the bottom of the Tic Tac Toe Challenge post. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

At Jingle Belles, Lauren and Stephanie are doing their annual Be Inspired By Our Header challenge! I was inspired by the red font and by the white foliage in opposite corners; I'm also joining in with Word Power, where the sentiment takes centre stage; I was marked absent for last fortnight's Snippets Playground homework (sorry Miss!) but have just managed to scrape in for this one - hooray!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We have put up our Christmas tree, aided and abetted by a pair of curious golden girls poking their soft little noses into everything! Lulu is managing to leave the baubles alone so far...!

Sending hugs,

Sparkle and shine!

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It seems we have entered the sparkling season and here at The Flower Challenge we have responded with a glittering new challenge!

 

 

Why not have a bit of fun, get out all your shimmer 'n' shine crafting supplies and join us with your own sparkly floral creation :) Here's what I came up with:

Yes I know, it's not the sparkliest card ever, but it's pretty sparkly for someone who doesn't really do sparkle!! I started with the background sponging distress oxide inks over a white panel, spritzing with water and drying off with a heat gun. I added detail at the bottom with Funky Fossil's Brick Wall stencil and lightened some areas of the top with some white kraft ink, then dried everything off again.

 

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Hope and Peace, stamped in versamark ink and heat embossed in gold. I added a liberal splattering of snow with a white acrylic paint men and then trimmed the panel with a Crimped Frame die from The Greetery. 

 

The star of the show is the poinsettia, a re-release from Uniko - Pure Florals Poinsettia. I stamped on a scrap of white card using versamark ink and heat embossed in gold. The petals were coloured with a red Arteza watercolour brush pen which gives a lovely velvety look which contrasts nicely with the gold detail. I fussy cut the poinsettia, popped it up on dimensional pads and embellished with some sparkly- yes sparkly! - gems which I coloured with various alcohol markers.

Ok, so now it's your turn! Do hop over to the Flower Challenge blog and check out the gorgeous sparkly samples my team mates have made to inspire you. When you're ready to share your own creation, you can use the blue Linky button at the bottom of the post. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

There's an optional winter theme at both Stamping Sensations and We Love Stamping this month so I'll link this wintery card up there; Brenda has chosen Winter Flowers and Fauna as her theme at Allsorts so I'm playing along there too; Triple B have a lovely red themed inspiration board and I'm joining in with my red poinsettia; and last but not least, Jo has her annual If it's Christmassy, Link it Up challenge at Christmas Kickstart - and it's been far too long since I popped by!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

December is a busy month and I am still learning how to get involved in everything and remain stress free and enjoy the season! Anyone else?! Of course I have a pair of golden treasures to keep me grounded and make sure I get plenty of fresh air - not to mention plenty of time washing, drying and grooming those fluffy coats! The days of nice, frosty winters appears to be over and we are up to our necks in mud again... happy days!

I'll be back tomorrow with another Christmas card. Do come and see!

Sending hugs,

Pine blossom - not just for Christmas

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I'm back with a reminder that you still have time to join us at The Flower Challenge with your floral thank you cards!

 

I've brought out The Greetery's Pine Blossom set to make a Christmassy thank you card which has a kind of folk art vibe about it :) 

 

I started with a kraft card base. Distress oxides are my current favourite inks and I knew they would look lovely and vibrant stamped directly on the kraft. Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean and Abandoned Coral all worked their magic - and I will definitely be using this technique more often! I stamped the flower cluster on the top of the card base using my stamp positioner, then flipped the card base round 180 degrees before stamping again for a perfect mirror image.

 

To create the illusion of layers, I held a smaller panel of card in the centre of the card front and sponged round the edges with brown ink. The sentiment is from MFT's All Occasion Sentiments, stamped on a snippet of kraft card, fussy cut and popped up with dimensional strips. To finish, I added details to the flower clusters with markers.

 

Now it's your turn! Do hop over to The Flower Challenge blog and admire the fabulous designs my team mates have come up with to inspire you. When you're ready to share your own card with us, you can use the blue Linky button at the bottom of that post. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Allsorts and We Love Stamping where there are Christmas themes, and the Anything Goes option at Stamping Sensations. Also joining in with the Anything Goes challenge at Triple B with my blossoms :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm delighted to report that Eva's paw is looking better and better and she is back to giving her fluffy sister a hunting partner to be reckoned with!

Here she is with an expression on her face that we like to call 'Noble Dog'!

Sending hugs,

Joyful tree

Hello, crafting friends!

 

There's a new board at Tic Tac Toe Challenge today and I've had the privilege of putting it together!

 

 

I do hope you'll find some ideas to inspire you here - especially if (like me) you have lots more festive cards to make! I've come up with a CAS design using a layered tree die  - not sure who makes this but any tree die would work.

 

I cut the layers from offcuts of white card and sponged them with inks in three shades of green. To these I added white kraft ink to the edges, glued them together and decorated the tree with gold glitter glue 'lights'.

 

For the background, I masked off a crisp diagonal on the front of a thick card base and used Salty Ocean distress oxide ink and a sponge dauber above it to create an organic shape representing an evening sky. I dotted this liberally with my Posca white acrylic paint pen to conjure up a nice wintery snow storm. The tree was glued to the background and a sparkly punched star added to its top. The card was finished with a sentiment from Hobbycraft, die cut from a tiny snippet of red card.

 

Okay, it's over to you! First, hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog and check out the beautiful cards the design team have made to inspire you; Next, choose a column, row or diagonal from the board and use the ideas to create your own card; Finally, use the blue Linky button at the bottom of the challenge post to link up your creation with us - we can't wait to see what you make!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm off to the Snippets Playground with this snippety card; I'm also linking up at Inkspirational where the challenge is Layer It and I'm hoping my layered tree die cut counts :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I am delighted that one of our favourite walks has become available again after the farmer has moved his livestock.  The golden girls are fans because there are different terrains: a wooded area for hunting squirrels, a lane for sniffing in the hedgerows, fields for playing chase and having zoomies in, AND (drum roll!) not only a river to swim in, but also a stream to splash about in chasing sticks! Pupperino Paradise! I am keen because there is often a lot of mud around at this time of year and the rivers and stream come in very handy to turn a duo of muddy vagabonds into a pair of demure blonde princesses, albeit rather damp ones! 

 

Here's an exhausted Lulu, arranged on a sofa, having been dried off and plied with Choice Viands! Look at the crossed paws!! A princess indeed!

Sending hugs,

A Winter thank you

Hello, crafting friends,

 

Welcome to a new challenge at The Flower Challenge! For November we'd like to see your floral thank you cards:

I do like to have a little stash of wintery thank you cards ready to send after Christmas. This one uses a new-to-me Altenew set called Hope and features what looks like a camelia - which always seem such magical flowers, blooming like hot house flowers but in the depths of winter!

 

The layered camelia and leaves were inked up with distress oxide inks and fussy cut. I teamed these with winter foliage and berry stencils from The Greetery's Banner and Bough set, stenciling directly onto a thick card front. I added fir branches using the coordinating stamp set, then glued the flower in place. I love how the pink flower really pops against the dark blue greens!

 

To create a frosty look, I used a pale blue-green ink to sponge round the edges of the card front and stamped more fir branches over the top using the same ink. A tiny sentiment from Clearly Besotted finished the card.

 

Do hop over to The Flower Challenge blog and check out the amazing designs my team mates have come up with to inspire you! You can enter your own card from there using the blue Linky button at the bottom of that post. We're looking forward to seeing what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up over at Allsorts' Magic of the Season challenge. Brenda, who organises this long-running challenge, has just announced some changes to the format and is looking for new design team members. Do hop over and check out the details HERE.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Firework season has descended upon us again. Pretty sparkly stars bursting in the sky are lovely and often don't come with loud noises - and of course you can draw blinds and curtains if your pets are averse; but can someone please explain to me why people are attracted to what sounds like the noises of war complete with exploding bombs, and gunfire? Also, why do these seem to get louder every year? Poor Eva had a tough time of it on Saturday but Lulu, who is very sensitive to voices or the sound of cars outside, was quite calm through the explosions. She didn't like seeing Eva so frantic though. There were more fireworks yesterday too and this will go on for another couple of weeks until we can finally relax until new year. 

 

Sending hugs,

Christmas in the pink!

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I got to have a teeny bit of crafty fun today and made a fun and super quick Christmas card! Come and see:

 

It's always fun to think outside the colour box for festive cards isn't it, so I thought I'd go for a pink snow scene :) I made a stencil out of an offcut of thick vellum, cut with a rectangle aperture and then fortified with masking tape. This was positioned over the front of a thick card base and taped into place. Over that, I placed Uniko's Tiger Print stencil and sponged into it with Spun Sugar distress oxide ink. This produced a graphic snowdrift effect which practically made me jump up and down with happiness!! At the top I sponged solid pink for a sky before removing the stencils.

 

The trees are just one little die from Tonic Studios' Staggered Stage Winter Village, a die set I was lucky enough to win at The Snippets Playground. I gathered together a bunch of pink snippets of card and cut lots of the trees out. These were arranged at the top of my 'hill' at different levels and I popped one of them up and finished with a single clear gem...

 

 

and a die cut sentiment from Hobbycraft. This was an impulse purchase while I was browsing for something else and it has had a lot of use. You can't beat a bricks and mortar store!

Here are the pink snippets I used. I may make a whole bunch of these in different colours - that would certainly use up a few of those small snippets!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at The Snippets Playground (thanks again for that amazing die set ladies - I'm getting lots of use out of it!) Stephanie and Lauren at Jingle Belles are doing their breast cancer research challenge again this year and you can help by entering a pink Christmas card as they are donating for each one entered. Carol and the team at ABC Christmas are challenging us with U is for Unusual Colours (as well as V is for Velvet) so I'm linking up there too.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I am giving away a golden retriever called Mucky McRoll-A-Lot. Any takers?

I had climbed to the top of a hill and was dreamily enjoying the view while the dogs (as I thought) scampered about. Young Madam WAS scampering about, however Senior Madam had discovered a pile of fox poo and was busy rolling it all over herself. We returned home in short order, I keeping a terse silence; Lulu looking smug while sniggering to herself; and Eva wagging away and congratulating herself on a job well done.

Sending hugs (and reaching for the brandy),

Hello Chrysanthemum Friends

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I'm back today with a reminder to come and join in with The Flower Challenge where we're celebrating flowers with stencils this month :)

 

I adore all the huge flower stencils from Uniko and thought this gorgeous crysanthemum was perfect for an autumn hello to a pal. 

 

Three autumnal colours of ink were sponged into the stencil and I added depth with coloured pencils. The panel was cut out with a stitched rectangle die and mounted onto a card front.

 

The bold two-colour sentiment was created with my favourite hello die from Funky Fossil and the word friend spelled out with MFT alpha dies.

I hope you are inspired to get your stencils out and join us this month to make a floral card. Do hop over to The Flower Challenge blog and check out the cards made by my talented team mates. You'll find the blue Linky Button at the bottom of that post and can use it to share your own creation. We can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at The Paper Players where Joanne has chosen the colour theme Shades of Orange and Brown; and also joining in with the Anything Stenciled Goes challenge at Stencil Fun.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Here's a photo of another friend!

 

This is Eva doing a fabulous recall! I am trying to look blasé and pretend that I'm pretty much a top trainer, but the reality is that I nearly dropped my phone when she turned and came running. Moments earlier she had been rolling in something suspect, oblivious to my feeble cries; and a little later on the walk, she was delighted to find a noisesome ditch she hadn't previously explored and seemed disappointed that I didn't share her excitement.

Sending hugs,

Give thanks

Hello, crafting friends!

 

There's a brand new board at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge today and Felicita has come up with great ideas to inspire you all:

 

 I went for the central column Leaves or foliage/Thank you/Die cuts.

Out of offcuts of white card I cut a little pocket using The Greetery's Halvsies Diamond die, and some leaves and berries with the Inside Out dies, also from The Greetery. I coloured the leaves and berries with inks and daubers and some markers for detail.

 

I spent some time arranging my foliage and berries in the pocket and, when I was happy with it, glued everything down. The sentiment is from a non-branded set that was a lovely gift from a pal :) 

 

Right, it's over to you now! Here's how to play: First hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog and check out the fabulous cards the rest of the team have made to inspire you; Next, pick a column, row or diagonal from the board and create a card using the ideas; Finally, link up with us using the blue Linky button at the bottom of the challenge post. Have fun!

 

CHALLENGES

I've not had much time to craft lately so it's lovely to be joining in at The Snippets Playground with this cards - lots of white snippets used; Lynn has chosen the theme of Falling Leaves at The Allsorts Challenge this week - my leaves have been gathered up and arranged in the pocket but I hope they still count! I'm also linking up with the Anything Fall Goes theme at Four Seasons.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Here are the Beige Beasts with long tongues due to a crazy autumn afternoon tearing around the paths the farmer has thoughtfully made for them in his harvested crop.

Sending hugs,

Christmas in Bloom

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's a brand new month and a brand new challenge at The Flower Challenge! This time we are concentrating on stenciling.

 

If you are a regular here you will know that I am a massive fan of stencils and particularly like using them to create designs different to the way they were intended! Today I used The Greetery's Always in Bloom layering stencils to create a Christmas card.

 

First, I made a swatch-style background using Funky Fossil's Postage Frame stencil. This required some measuring up a grid, masking with low tack tape and then sponging with pale blue ink. On these little swatches, I stenciled lots of different flowers and berries and leaves, using distress oxide inks and drying with my heat tool between each inking.

 

I did smudge a little of the blue ink but covered it up with the sentiment banner! I made that with the banner from WPlus9's Be Merry and used my stamp positioner to curve a sentiment from The Greetery to fit it. The finishing touches were made with my white Posca acrylic paint pen - LOVE how this stays white on the distress inks!

Okay, now it's your turn! Do hop over to The Flower Challenge blog to check out the gorgeous samples made by the rest of the design team. When you're ready to make your own card, don't forget to make flowers the focus of your creation and include stenciling. You can share with us using the blue Linky button at the bottom of the challenge post.

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at the Stencil Fun Challenge where there's an optional halloween theme but I didn't go for it! I'm also joining in at Allorts Challenge where the team are celebrating their 800th challenge - wow! They have an Anything Goes challenge this time.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Poor Eva is fed up with having her paw prodded about and we are no further on in discovering what the problem is. Clipping her claw right back so there is no pressure there has made her much more comfortable and she is able to go careering about over the countryside with her fluffy sister again.

 

We have had some grim weather and the mud is back with a vengeance, so I am doing a lot of bathing dogs and am paying particular attention to that paw. I am going to leave it at that for the time being and monitor the situation; her paw is a bit lumpy and bumpy but we love her and in our eyes she's perfect!

Sending hugs,