Naughty or nice?

Hello, crafting friends!

What wonderful escapism card making is! While making today's card, I imagined this little grey kitten got a bit over-excited in the run up to Christmas and couldn't resist stealing his human's ball of wool to play with!

The card started with Funk Fossil's Arched Window stencil. Arched Window? I hear you cry! There's nothing arched about this window! Well that's because I turned the arch on its side and masked off the arched bit. Cunning huh?! I sponged blue ink into the panes and added snow with my Uni Posca white paint pen.

The tree is from Christmas Characters by Funky Fossil, and that cute puss cat and the ball of yarn is from Clearly Besotted's Fluffy Furball. I stamped them all, coloured them with alcohol markers, fussyy cut them and arranged them on a rug cut out of textured red card stock with an oval die. The space between the rug and the window was the perfect place for the sentiment, which is from another Clearly Besotted set, Red Robin.

CHALLENGES

I shall link this card up with Festive Friday, where I've chosen Cats, Yarn and Clean and Simple from the inspiration list. I'm also playing along with Allsorts, where they theme is Cute Christmas, and Merry Little Christmas where Anything Goes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's too early for snow to make an appearance here but the same cannot be said of rain! What Storm Alex lacked on the wind front, he certainly made up for with the wet stuff. After four days of pretty much permanent rain, the skies cleared yesterday morning and I took Eva to the park. She was delighted that someone had laid on some water features to entertain her and went absolutely loopy scampering in and out of them!

The photo on the left shows where the path would normally go. The river usually drops in a pretty little waterfall and flows gently along to the right of the path. There are benches where you can sit and admire the waterfall and you can just about see them submerged by the fence in the photo on the right. There are picnic tables to the left of the path, although no-one seemed to be using them today!! 

Hope you are keeping warm and dry! Sending hugs,

Merry and bright... colours

Hello crafting pals!

On the 25th of each month it's Rudolph Day, a chance to make a Christmas card for your 2020 stash. I'm a big fan of this as it's very cheering towards the end of the year to be able to start sending even while you're making. Some organised folk even make their whole stash early (no, you're right, never me!) Anyway, I'm only two days late for this month... but come and see:

I'm still all about the bright colours, so I started with a wash of blue ink on dampened watercolour paper. Once that had dried, I stencilled fir trees over it with yellow and green inks using the negative space of a tree from the Tim Holtz Woodlands die set.

To create a strong horizontal, I ran two strips of double-sided tape along the card, peeled off the backing strips and heat embossed with gold embossing powder. I also gold embossed a label from an ancient retired Stampin' Up set called Winter Post, fussy cut it and glued it over the strips. The tag in the centre was stamped with a sentiment from another retired Stampin' Up set, Endless Wishes.

To bring all the elements together, I used some diluted pearlised white acrylic paint to create a snowy foreground and dots of snow in the sky, and added a sprinkling of gold jewels. Finally, I die cut the panel with a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die and attached it to a card base.

CHALLENGES
I used the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch for this card; I'm also joining in with Jingle Belles' Bling on the Holidays challenge and 52 Christmas Card Throwdown's Embossing/Dig in your Stash challenge. And not forgetting the Rudolph Day Challenge of course!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
We have a blackbird fledgling in our garden! This is a really tricky time for them as they spend a lot of time rustling about in the backs of the borders and hopping about on the lawn, but are still being fed by the parents, can't fly properly and are pretty helpless. I have to watch Eva like a hawk as fluttery rustlings are a red rag for her but, on the plus side, she keeps cats out of the garden.

Not the best photo ever, but can you spot the fledgling? He doesn't look like a blackbird yet - has no tail and is a bit speckled.

Hope you are staying safe and well.

Hugs,

Switching on the lights

Hello crafting pals!

Will Christmas happen this year? In the current uncertain world it's anyone's guess, but I will continue to make cards for a celebration at the end of the year because I certainly hope so. Come and see:

I really enjoyed making this card with this chubby little robin bird (as we call them in this house!) Isn't he adorable? He's from Red Robin by Clearly Besotted and I've stamped him, coloured him with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and fussy cut him.

I sponged in a background with Tumbled Glass distress ink and perched Mr Robin on a branch from Uniko's Winter Foliage. He is admiring the Christmas lights which are coloured rhinestones on a doodled wire! I sponged a little extra ink round the card panel before mounting it onto a card base.

I think this sentiment from the Red Robin set is going to be a favourite! I always go round singing the old Christmas songs around December time and like them as a card greeting.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
Congratulations to my little robin bird! He won an Honourable Mention from 52CCT!

CHALLENGES
I couldn't wait to join in with the fun challenge at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge this month - the theme is Christmas Lights; I'm also linking this card up with Scrappy Mo's Rudolph Day challenge - happy Rudolph Day everyone!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
It's such beautiful weather here at the moment and under normal circumstances we might think about a picnic. At the moment though, these...

...are the only rolls we'll be having in the great outdoors!

Hope you are safe and well.

Hugs,

A farmhouse Christmas

Hello crafting friends!

I'm thrilled to bits to be Guest Designing at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown today! YAY! *pops champagne corks, blows party hooter*

This weekly challenge is here to inspire you to create four Christmas cards a month for the whole year. Just think... no last minute panic! It really flexes your creative muscles too - which leads me on to today's challenge:

Make a festive card using the colours White, Yellow and Brown. Well, I've got to be honest, this colour combination didn't exactly yell Christmas at me but I had a little think and this is what I came up with:

It's a Christmas card with a farmhouse feel! The bottom of my panel was stamped with Kaiserkraft's Gingham using Stampin' Up's Early Espresso ink, a lovely dark brown. I shaded where the candle would be with a pale yellow pencil to give a nice glowing effect.

The candle image is an old one from Alota Stamps, which is sadly no longer trading now. I stamped it with Crumb Cake ink, then coloured it with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers in shades of yellow and brown, before fussy cutting it and popping it up on dimensionals. The fir branches were given the Wink of Stella treatment to add a bit of festive sparkle.

When I came to the candle, I coloured the whole lot in a pale yellow, then used a clear blender pen to 'lift' the colour from the wax.  I love the effect this creates - look! here's another version in blue :)

To finish the card, I added a sentiment from Endless Wishes (retired) by Stampin' Up, then mounted the panel onto deep yellow card stock before attaching it to the card base. And for the final touch, a sprinkling of gems, coloured with a dark yellow alcohol pen before attaching to the card.

CHALLENGES

I shall also link this card up with Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge where it's Anything Goes (with the optional extra theme Trim the Tree.)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Driving home at around dusk yesterday evening, I was amazed by the full moon - one of those huge orange ones. And when I got out of the car, I saw that on the opposite side of the sky, there was a bright star that looked actually star-shaped.

Did you see it?  Now, if I was the kind of person that believed in these kind of things, I'd predict that something pretty special was going to happen!

Hugs,

(Don't) let it snow!

Hello crafting friends!

I know it's not Christmas again for another few months (!) but you know, while it's so wintery outside, and you have your things out, and an idea pops into your head, it just seems like a good idea to make a quick festive card! Come and see:

My distress inks have turned up and I LOVE them to bits! Here, I inked up the top third of my card panel in Tumbled Glass using a piece of sponge and let it fade out.

I made a tag from an snippet of white card stock and stamped a sentiment from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks Christmas three times with the aid of my stamp positioner. I love how the red ink pops with the blue and white :) The top of the tag was pierced with a pokey tool and I sewed some cotton thread through it and secured the ends at the back.

The final touch is the die cut snowflakes. Aren't they beautiful? So delicate! They were on a stunning Christmas card I received from my friend and Stampin' Up demo Jan Malcolm, and I carefully removed them so I could re-use them. If they had been from one die or a punch, I'd have bought them like a shot, but they're from two large die sets Christmas Layers (still available) and Frosted Frames (discontinued) so I shall have to continue my perfect snowflake search!

CHALLENGES
I shall be linking this card up with 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, where there is a beautiful sketch that has been calling me; also Just Us Girls, where the theme is Snowflakes; and last but not least, CAS Christmas, where the challenge is to use a tag on a Christmas card.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Snow IS lovely isn't it. On a card. Or out of a window. Eva doesn't agree - she is dead keen on snow and likes to be as close as possible to it!

Here she is having a rootle around in some, in a photo taken a couple of years ago :)

What do you think? Do you already have loads of snow? Are you hoping for some? Or would you rather not?

Hugs,

Super fast delivery

Hello crafting friends!

I do have enough Christmas cards now but I just can't resist joining in with the challenges! And, as I read today, they'll always come in handy for Christmas 2020! Here's a very quick, one layer card snuck in for the fun of it:

Look - it's Santa! He's not dilly-dallying about either - he's got presents to deliver! In fact, I'm rather hoping one of his parcels might be distress inks for me so that I can get a smoother blend on my backgrounds!

After positioning a circle mask punched out of a sticky note, I sponged some Night of Navy ink gently over the top of the card base. After removing the mask to reveal the moon, I wiped the card with an embossing buddy, stamped the greeting (from Uniko's Pure Florals Poinsettia) with versamark ink and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. I added 'stars' with a versamark pen and silver-embossed those too before stamping Santa and his reindeer (from Stampin' Up's retired Holiday Home) with Memento black ink.

CHALLENGES
It was AAA Cards that lured me into playing along today with their Along The Edge challenge with optional Time Travel twist. And isn't Santa the original time traveller?!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

There's no dilly-dallying for me either today! I'm just about to whisk my little dog out for a walk and then it's off to the station to collect my youngest son and there's a whole host of other things to do... Now, if only I had a magic sleigh...!

How are you getting on with your holiday preparations? Are you on top of everything? Or are you having a week-before-Christmas panic? Let me know won't you - and don't forget to breathe!

Hugs,

Do you wanna build a snowman?

Hello crafting friends!

I think I've made enough Christmas cards now but you can't have too many can you? And anyway, card challenges keep pinging into my inbox and I can't resist joining in! So, anyone for a little snow...?

I fell in love with this little Altenew Snowman and he was SUCH a bargain, and I didn't have any snowmen in my stash (can you believe that?!!), and I loved the sentiment, so he hopped into my shopping basket!

The card started life as a card base and panel cut out of kraft card stock. I stamped the snowman onto the panel using white craft ink, then stamped a tree from Stampin' Up's White Christmas in black ink right next to him. Then came the pens! With a black fineliner, I elongated the trunk of the tree and added detail to the arms of the snowman; a white gel pen came in handy for sketching in a snowy ground, piling up snow on the branches of the tree and making it snow in the background; and a silver Stampin' Sparkle gave the tree trunk, the snowman's arms and the snow a silvery shimmer.

I stamped the snowman again, using pale blue ink on white card stock, and fussy cut him. His hat and scarf were coloured with a pale blue marker (I don't have Seaside Spray but this was close) and details added with my fineliner, and then I glued him over the snowman on the panel. The card was finished with a sentiment (to warm things up a bit!) and a pierced frame before attaching the panel to the card base.

CHALLENGES
I used this week's great sketch at Freshly Made Sketches for this card and the colour palette at The Paper Players which has been playing on my mind ever since Sunday!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Making this card made me feel quite wistful for snow! It rained all day yesterday and the dogs and I got drenched. Today, we found the river has burst its banks again.

How about you? Are you ready for snow? Or does the very thought of it make you lock all the doors and crank the heating up?! Let me know won't you :)

Hugs,

Designer paper? Make it yourself!

Hello crafting friends!

Like most crafters, I have a lovely big pile of designer paper that never really seems to go down. And it's not surprising really when it's so much fun making your own! Come and see:

The panel on this card started life as a simple piece of aqua card stock. I stamped it repeatedly with the dotty line in Uniko's Background Builders Classics, using Stampin' Up's Daffodil Yellow ink. Because it's a photopolymer stamp, it's easy to curve into a 'garland of beads'. I stamped over these with the fir branch from Winter Foliage, also by Uniko, using Stampin' Up's Granny Apple Green.

I wanted glitter and shine and different finishes, so I used gold Stickles on some of the beads, my gold Stampin' Dazzle pen on others and left the rest unembellished.

I felt the panel demanded a bold sentiment, so I pulled out Stampin' Up's Letterpress (retired), stamped it with Memento black ink, cut it out with my trimmer and popped it up on dimensionals.

CHALLENGES
I'm joining in with CAS(E) this Sketch where the sketches always get me going - and  it's so lovely to see my friend LeAnne guesting there this week :) The Colour Throwdown has a gorgeous Aqua, Green, Gold and White colour palette which really inspired me, so I shall link up there too. Finally, this is my second entry into the current Uniko challenge - Christmas with optional Tree.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
So, it's December. For many, this is the month for writing Christmas cards, planning family get-togethers, wrapping presents... but for Eva, it's the perfect month for jumping into the river and pretending to be a duck!

So how are you spending your December so far? And please note that I'm desperately hoping someone is going to send me a picture of themselves in a river dressed as a duck!

Hugs,

A Redbird Christmas card

Hello crafting friends!

Guess what? YAY! I am so happy to be Guest Designer at Addicted to CAS for the latest challenge - and the last one of the year!

The cue word  is TREE - perfect for making Christmas cards. Or, if you've finished those for the year, how about a tree-ish card you could use to send new year wishes or to say thank you for Christmas gifts?

The card I've made is for my lovely friend Sarn, who recommended her favourite Christmas book to me a month or two ago. It's called A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg and this is my illustration of one of the scenes. It's the most wonderful, uplifting Christmas story, quick to read, and I urge you to read it this season!

To make the card, I masked off the bottom of a panel with a torn piece of paper and sponged pale pink and blue inks above it. The trees, from Stampin' Up's White Christmas (retired) were stamped over that in pale grey ink. The stamp set contains cardinals, the redbirds of the story, which I stamped lots of in the trees, and snow flakes, which I used to fill the sky above the trees. I coloured the birds and added definition to the trees with markers, then added snowy details with a white gel pen.

I love the two-part sentiment in this stamp set...

... and used both parts on the front of my card. It is perfect for this Redbird Christmas card :)

CHALLENGES
I hope you'll give this fun challenge a go - we've all got some tree stamps in our stash, dying to be inked up!

I shall also link this card up with the Uniko challenge, which is Christmas with optional twist of Tree.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
We have a little robin living in our tiny garden! I am so thrilled I can't tell you. Nothing could make me feel more Christmassy than to see that little chap sitting on a post with his head on one side.

How are you feeling in the run up to Christmas? Excited? Stressed? I'm really busy until next week when I have a flurry of Christmas preparations planned - decorating, gift-buying, card-sending and so on. I'm not thinking about it until then!

Hugs,