The greatest gift

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Despite apparently living in tropics this week, I've been thinking about Christmas! The 25th of the month rolled round again, sparking another 'Aaargh! We're halfway through the year and my festive stash has failed to grow' panic. So I consulted some challenges and got to work.

 

Recently, I had a big clear out of my designer paper drawers and donated a whole load of tone-on-tone papers to some resourceful local children who were raising funds for their school by making and selling paper flowers. While I was sorting, some beautiful old Stampin' Up Christmas papers came to light and I used this cheerful stripe from them to create my gift. I cut a red card panel, and a smaller paper panel; the paper was cut into four pieces which were glued to the edges of the red panel. This revealed a 'ribbon' as the red panel showed between the paper pieces.

 

The tag was cut out of white card using an arch die from The Greetery. I stamped it with two sentiments from Reverse Confetti's The Best Gift of All and heat embossed in gold before mounting on another arch cut out of red card this time. The tag was glued to the 'gift' at a jaunty angle, decorated with various foliage and berries and finished with a die cut bow and a matching enamel dot. I attached the panel to a kraft card base to pick out the kraft colour in the paper design.

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by the Christmas Kickstart Challenge where this month's theme is It's a Gift; also Peace On Earth Challenge where there's a lovely kraft and green mood board; also Word Power where the sentiment is required to be the focus of your card; and last, but not least, Rudolph Days where Anything Christmas goes - this challenge has been triggering me to make Christmas cards on the 25th of each month for years now!!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Lulu has learned some useful tips from her fluffy sister since she's been here. One of them is that the hallway is a cool and shady spot when the temperatures soar...

 

... and it's also an excellent surveillance spot - she knows EXACTLY where everyone is at all times, even if she does have a little snoozle!

Sending hugs,

A Spray of Carnations

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Today's card has been lying about on my desk all month! In early January, I had enthusiastically stamped some carnations on some snippets of white card and fussy cut them, but then came up blank on what to do with them. From time to time I'd pick them up and arrange them on a card base and then rearrange them, and then sigh and put them to one side. Can anyone relate?!

 

It's now nearly the end of January but here's the card in a state of completion! The carnations are from a retired Stampin' Up set (rather confusingly called Inspiring Iris.) To showcase them, I finally decided to stamp a Uniko background called Wonky Stripes onto a card base and colour the stripes with a variety of pink coloured pencils. On this background, the carnations were assembled into a curved spray and glued into place.

 

The card was finished with a favourite sentiment from another ancient SU set, stamped first with versamark and then dark red ink and heat embossed for a lovely shiny look. I also added a pink bow, cut out of a snippet of pink card with a die from MFT's Birthday Cocktail die set.

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up with Stamping Sensations, the challenge that had got me stamping carnations in the first place! There's a mood board featuring them and I took my pink and red colour palette from the board too. I'm also skipping over to play at The Snippets Playground as plenty of white and pink card off cuts were used in this creation.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

One of the joys of having two dogs is that it changes the dynamic with the other dogs you meet. Eva loves other dogs but is not very confident around bold dogs, especially now she's an older girl. Lulu on the other hand IS a bold dog!! On our walks we sometimes meet a lady with a large boxer called Boris. He is playful but rather pushy around Eva who stays close to me when he's around. He was out on the fields this morning and Lulu, noting his behaviour, told him off for leering at Eva and then proceeded to flirt outrageously with him herself! I love her boldness: when other dogs try to establish their superiority over her, she just frolicks around them, dancing just out of reach; when she's got their interest she gallops off, luring them to chase her, and she is SO fast they can never catch her. When they return, they are always her slaves for ever and she has protected Eva from their unwanted attentions! Darling Lulu :)

 

Sending hugs,

Spring in the country

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I've been having such a lovely time playing with the 3D embossing folders I recently acquired! Today's card started life as an experiment and I kept adjusting it and adding to it until finally I think it works!

 

I started by embossing a card base with the Daffodil Delight embossing folder by Altenew, letting the image hang off the edge. I wondered if I could watercolour it and so I coloured the flowers with water and inks, adding a wash of colour on the background and finally some splatters of ink. I let this dry. Of course the main problem was that I had used a standard card base and the image warped badly so I left it under a pile of heavy books and forgot about it :)

 

When I eventually came back to it, I was surprised at how well it had flattened. It looked all wrong though; the top of the card was all empty and not in a good 'white space' kind of way! I came up with the notion of scoring a pair of lines to separate the coloured area with the top of the card but it wasn't a great solution. That's when I suddenly thought of raiding the snippets drawer!

 

I gave the card a country look with a snippet of fabulous gingham paper and added a strip of coral card. I found a sentiment which fit the space perfectly and coloured it with a marker. The final touch was a bow, die cut from another snippet of coral card with an MFT die.

 

Here are the snippets I used.

CHALLENGES

I am linking this card up with Four Seasons where March sees the shift to spring! Happy Little Stampers Birthday is back with an Anything Birthday-themed Goes challenge so I'm playing along there; and This card is also my homework for the Snippets Playground where I hope there's some hot chocolate left because my hands are freezing!

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Isn't springtime wonderful? The flowers, the sunshine, the animals becoming frolicsome...

 

Here is a frolicsome dog for example. She is dripping wet because she has just frolicked in the river and now she is about to frolick in the earth. That face is saying "Promise me extra meaty chunks for tea, or I roll!"

Sending hugs,

Flowers in the snow

Hello, crafting friends!

 

It's Thursday and time for another fun board to inspire you at the Tic Tac Toe Challenge! Joanne is in charge of the board this time and we are certainly spoilt for choice!

 

I chose the diagonal from bottom left Pattern Paper/Flowers/Ribbon or Bow to make a winter birthday card.

 

I started with a snippet of 'plaster texture' paper from a favourite Stampin' Up pack. This was trimmed to size with a Crimped Frame die from the Greetery and stamped with a leaf spray (from a long-ago retired SU set) and a birthday sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio.

 

I topped the stamped leaf spray with my latest favourite thing: some die-cut wildflowers from a new-to-me Greetery die set. I cut these from white paper and coloured them with sponge daubers and then attached the flower heads to the stems and I can't tell you how much fun that was!! Finally, I added a bow from an MFT die set and attached everything to the card front.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Little Red Wagon where the theme is Happy Happy Birthday; and also TGIF where there's a birthday challenge too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

In early January we had a lot of rain and the river burst its banks as it often does in the winter. When the temperatures dropped below freezing, the floodwater completely iced over, creating a natural ice rink! It's wasn't deep so wasn't dangerous at all, so I took a couple of lads from church to play there. They had a wonderful time skating (with non-grip shoes) and playing 'ice hockey' with a pebble and two sturdy sticks. Eva tried to join in and made us all laugh by doing Bambi impressions!

 

We went back there today and it has pretty much all melted. Eva was able to walk on the ice that was left without her legs splaying about!

Sending hugs,

Texture and sparkle wreath

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Thursday has come around again and with it comes a whole bunch of inspiration courtesy o the Tic Tac Toe challenge! Felicita had Thanksgiving on her mind when coming up with this board but, as usual, the suggestions work brilliantly for other occasions too.

 

I chose the right hand column for my Christmas card - Any Shape Die/Wreath/Gold Foil or Glitter. This card was created mostly from embossing and die cuts with only the sentiment being stamped.

I partially embossed a square panel with a Honeycomb embossing folder from Hobbycraft, then layered a die cut wreath from Stampin' Up over the top.

 

The wreath was decorated with glittery gold baubles and red berries cut from snippets of paper and I added a die cut bow from a cocktail set by MFT.

 

 

The card was finished with touches of gold glitter glue, white highlights on the berries and a stamped sentiment from Uniko.

 

Right! It's over to you :) Which row or column will you choose this week? Or will you go for one of the diagonals? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site and check out all the fabulous inspiration from my team mates. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and you can use it to link up your own creation. Have fun - we can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at the Snippets Playground where we are invited to make cards with snippets: m card panel was from a spoilt card base,  and all the die-cut and punched items were cut from off-cuts. I'm also joining in with Let's Squash It where the challenge is Make a Christmas Card, and Can Yyou Handle The Pressure where Anything Embossed Goes with optional theme of Wreaths. The challenge at Sparkles Monthly Challenge is to Use Dies and Punches so I'm joining in there, and I'm also playing along at Happy Little Stampers Die challenge where Anything Using Dies Goes.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I love a wreath and my whole world was rocked when my sister showed me how to make one with just bits and pieces from the garden! Here's one of my favourite photos of my youngest son admiring my (slightly wonky) creation a few years ago!

 

My sister and I enjoyed making wreaths together so much we decided to make it a regular run-up to Christmas event :) Do you have any annual rituals as the festive season draws nearer? Do share in the comments below!

Sending hugs,

It's a wrap!

Hello, crafting friends!

Oh the joy of seeing a couple of challenges and snatching some time to join in!

This card looks simple but I had a bit of problem solving to do before it came together. I wanted the stamped 'ribbon' to look as if it was wrapped around the panel, but the stamp I had from Uniko's Background Builders Classics wasn't long enough for a standard card so I trimmed the  card base and panel down a bit. Luckily I had a kraft envelope the right size!

I stamped on the kraft card stock with Stampin' Up's Poppy Parade ink. The kraft darkens it down a bit so Real Red card stock was a good match when I die cut the bows using MFT's Birthday Cocktail die set. The holly sprig is from Budding Beauties Winter by the Greetery.

I had planned a circular tag style sentiment but I couldn't get my elements to work well together. In the end, I found this sentiment from Thye Greetery's Snowflake Soirée which fit the space exactly and that excited me so much I forgot about circles!

CHALLENGES

I loved the brown-paper-parcels-tied-up-with-string in the snow and the sketch at Inspired By this week; Sparkles Christmas Challenge's theme for November is Presents and I thought it would be fun to create a card that looked like a present!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It was my darling dayughter's birthday yesterday and her floofy sister naturally wished to send birthday greetings. Normally she greets the family with cute little 'hen noises' or raises her nose and 'arooos' gently but since we were celebrating at a distance this year, we sent this:

It is not natural for a retriever to hold a thin rose stem in her mouth I can tell you! I removed all the thorns first and used kitchen paper to create a padded area for Eva to hold on to. She was rewarded with dried sprats!! Isn't she adorable?

Sending hugs,

Starry starry wreath

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fun challenge at Tic Tac Toe :) LeAnne has come up with a wonderful board to inspire your creativity this week and there are lots of different options!

I've opted to make a festive card using the bottom row, Green/Holly/Star. I started by sponging green ink into the Holly Wreath stencil by Funky Fossil. There are holly berries on this stencil but I inked the whole thing in green and then went over the berries with gold stickles. I left this to dry overnight.

The card front was covered with one of the beautiful (retired) Plaid Tidings papers by Stampin' Up and I offset the panel, trimmed with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle.

The wreath was decorated with stars punched from card stock I'd sponged orange ink over - a technique which makes them all different shades! I added a die cut bow from MFT's Birthday Cocktail die set and finished with a block sentiment from Uniko.

Now it's over to you! Which row or column will you choose? Or will you take one of the diagonals on the board? Do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe challenge site and enjoy the inspiration from the design team. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post so that you can link up your own creation.  I can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Chrizstmas Kickstart where the theme is Make One For A Loved One. I have deliberately used the 'Happy Christmas' sentiment  as opposed to 'Merry Christmas' as some members of my extended family associate 'Merry' with an ungodly drunkenness!! So this card is destined for one of them :) I'm also joining in with Merry Little Christmas where Anything Goes. (I know, it's ironic isn't it!)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

All the cards I've been blogging recently were made and scheduled in advance as I am very busy with the dogs at the moment. I'm getting terrible crafting withdrawal symptoms! Does anyone know of a 'clinic' to treat people that are seriously craft-deprived? Help!!

On the other hand, how cute are these two?!

Sending hugs,

Get your skates on

Hello, crafting friends!

Almost five months of 2021 have whizzed by already and we all know what that means for a crafter: If we are going to be posting out handmade cards towards the end of the year, we really need to get our skates on!

And talking of skates, it was a real pleasure to play with Avery Elle's Holida Skates set again! I stamped my skate with mink coloured ink and sponged pink ink over it to colour it. The blade was coloured with a silvery grey pencil which is so pretty and shimmery! The skate was fussy cut, laces added with black fineliner and a die cut bow attached.

The background was made by masking most of the cardbase and sponging pink ink below it. I topped that with a strip of blue designer paper gifted to me by my lovely Stampin' Up demonstrator Lesley - thanks again my friend! I thought one side looked suitably icy and the dotty side worked well for the circle background feature.

To finish the card I filled my skate with stamped greenery and a little candy cane, then used a stamping platform to add the sentiment which curves nicely round the circle of designer paper. 

CHALLENGES

Jaydee's sketch at The Paper Players this week was the perfect starting point for this card so I'm linking up there; I chose my unconventional colours from Color My Heart Color Dare challenge 445 - New England Ivy/Flamingo /Bluebelle/Mink. I'm also joining in at the Rudolph Day Challenge as usual - this is a challenge where from the 25th of the month onwards we link up one Christmas card. I've just been pointed in the direction of the Fab 'n' Funky Challenge, which is always about Christmas cards on the last Wednesday of the month, so I shall link up there too :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've been chastising myself for leaving a pot out with last years dried up lobelia stems in it - very untidy! But yesterday I saw a busy pair of blackbirds strip the pot of the hay-like contents. It was perfect for building a cosy nest and I felt pleased that I'd left it there. Are this pair the owners of the destroyed nest I found the other day I wonder, ready to try again? I know that they can raise several lots of young in a season but they'd use the same nest I would guess.

Sending hugs,