Happy blue, orange and yellow Christmas!

Hello, crafting friends!

I'm skipping about with a happy spring in my step today because I'm guesting with the incredibly talented team at CAS Christmas! And what a fun challenge they've got for you this month:

I love a non-traditional colour palette for Christmas and my only difficulty was choosing which colours! If you have this problem too, my top tip is to choose your stamp set first and then let the colours choose YOU! 

I went with this utterly adorable polar bear from Funky Fossil's Christmas Characters and immediately thought of some zingy yellow stars and orange accents in a turquoise and white landscape.

I started by die-cutting a stitched rectangle of watercolour paper using a Heffy Doodle die, then water-colouring a smaller rectangle in blue ink. When it was dry I added some snow using an opaque acrylic paint. The bear features a little heart which I masked off while inking the image up with black ink, then un-masked and coloured with an orange marker before stamping. I added a little shading with an alcohol marker before cutting him out and adding him to my scene. The card was finished with a sprinkling of punched stars and a sentiment from a retired Uniko set.

Now it's your turn! I can't wait to see what colours pop into your head this month. Head over to CAS Christmas here and prepare to be knocked out by the fabulous inspiration from the DT. You can link up your card there when you're ready.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at the 'Not A Creature Was Stirring' challenge at Jingle Belles; also at Merry Little Christmas where Anything Goes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The bear in today's card reminds me of a little white bear that my daughter had when she was tiny. She had a whole collection of bears and this one was called Polo. My daughter was an early talker and used to enjoy solemnly reciting the names of all the bears. We would weave funny stories around them and I seem to recall that Polo was always a very naughty bear which would make my daughter giggle!!

Sending hugs,

Autumn beauty

Hello, crafting friends!

One of the great pleasures of autumn is seeing the leaves turn into beautiful ambers, reds, golds, tans and every shade in between. You do get a lot of wind and rain but every now and then Mother Nature seems to take a breath, and the sun comes out, and you get to see the glowing colours of autumn against a pure blue sky. That's what inspired today's card:

I started by sponging some Tumbled Glass distress ink onto a card panel and stamping leaves from WPlus9's Modern Roses over it. The panel was trimmed to size with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle.

The leaves were stamped again on some offcuts of card stock, coloured with alcohol markers in shades of orange and each individual leaf cut out. The leaves were then glued over the stamped leaves on the card panel - this makes them really pop against the background. I added a bit of detail by clapping wet hands over the panel and, when it was dry, stamping a sentiment from Clearly Besotted and some blue sequins.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Inkspirational, where I was inspired by the leaves against the sky in the inspiration photo; Color Hues, where the colour duo this fortnight is Orange and Blue; and Watercooler Wednesday where it's Karen's turn to host the Occasions challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Thank you to everyone that has been lovely about Eva. She is definitely on the mend. The swelling on her ear flap is beginning to come down already and doesn't seem to bother her at all - she doesn't scratch or paw at it or shake her head. Her ear infection seems to have cleared nicely too although I will continue to monitor her ears.

Getting wet is not the best plan for Eva at the moment but the weather can be pretty unpredictable here. Here she is with her pal Jasper after an eventful walk in torrential rain with an added thunder storm! Those ears had to be extra well-dried today!

Sending hugs, 

The doves from above

Hello, crafting friends!

Like everyone else that is reading this I love playing with stamps, but my favourite thing is to find a surprising way to use them!

The bird in the recently-released Christmas Characters stamp set from Funky Fossil usually carries an envelope but it occurred to me that if there were two of them, they could carry a festive banner! 

So, I stamped one bird, then used the mirror technique to stamp another, shaded them with an alcohol marker and fussy cut them, snipping off the envelopes as I didn't need those. You can see what the stamp usually looks like from the image on the right in the photo above.

The banner is from WPlus9's Be Merry and I used an appropriate sentiment from Uniko's Pure Florals Poinsettia (retired), curving it slightly to fit. To give a suggestion of church, I stamped a stained glass window image from Stampin' Up's retired Painted Glass (retired) and added a rough plaster wall courtesy of their In Good Taste designer paper.

CHALLENGES

I shall link my doves from above up with this month's bird-themed challenge at CAS Christmas; I'm also joining in with Merry Little Christmas where as always, Anything Goes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I have decided The Craft Square Metre needs an overhaul! My crafting space is in the living room, so I have to be very tidy. I had cunningly interspersed the books on the bookshelves with tasteful boxes and baskets concealing a variety of exciting crafting goodies but the shelves were beginning to groan a little! So I have decided to move the crafting things to some stronger and deeper shelving in an alcove and move the CDs (yes, we still have those!) and paperbacks over to the other side of the room. I may be some time...!

Sending hugs,

To absent friends at Christmas

Hello, crafting friends!

This year, there is a possibility that some people will be missing the usual crowd at Christmas, and a toast to absent friends and family was the idea behind today's card.

I started by masking the bottom off a card panel and sponging soft pink ink through Funky Fossil's Funky Circle stencil, fading it out towards the edges. The mask was swapped to the top of the card panel and I sponged the same ink across the bottom to create a 'ground'. The panel was trimmed with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle and mounted on dark pink card stock.

The glasses and bubbles from Clearly Besotted's Raise a Glass were stamped onto the background and I added colour with alcohol markers. The finishing touches were a bow from WPlus9's Silver Bells on one of the glasses, shimmer on the drinks courtesy of a Wink of Stella pen and some gems.

CHALLENGES

Every year in October, Stephanie and Lauren from Jingle Belles raise money for breast cancer research by donating $2 for every card linked up to their Pink Christmas Card challenge so I'm linking up there. I'm also joining in with The Christmas Kickstart Challenge where the theme is also Pink Christmas.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva is, I'm glad to say, on the mend and is getting lots of TLC. She did suggest that extra snacking might be an effective convalescent treatment but I vetoed that idea firmly. She might have become a little gloomy after that but luckily she found the clean laundry and made an interesting arrangement of socks up the stairs which cheered her up no end!

Sending hugs, 

Hello there autumn!

Hello, crafting friends!

While romping about in the countryside with Eva, I'm definitely seeing some beautiful coloured leaves swirling about and lots of bright berries too. Very inspiring for cards!

The panel on this card started off with the Birch Trees stencil from Funky Fossil. I held it over a scrap of card stock and used a pale orange alcohol marker to add colour. While the stencil was still in place, I over-stamped the colour with a tree from White Christmas (retired) by Stampin' Up.

When the stencil was removed I coloured the trees with alcohol markers and added detail with a black fineliner pen. Then came the fun! I chose some tiny leaves from an ancient Clearly Besotted set called Flower Arrangement and stamped them in gorgeous autumnal colours. When those were done, the panel was trimmed with a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die

I stamped a few more of the leaves directly onto the card base, using the panel as a guide. Then I stamped more of the leaves on scrap card, cut them out and popped them up for a bit of dimensional interest. The sentiment is from WPlus9's Strictly Sentiments 2, cut out with a stitched rectangle die.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So happy that this card was the Diamond Winner at Color My Heart Color Dare  and a Librarian's Choice at The Library Challenge!

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by a few of the many autumn-themed challenges out there! The trees and falling leaves were from the Library Challenge's fabulous book cover; the colours from Color My Heart Color Dare's stunning inspiration graphic; I fell in love with the sketch from Fab Friday; and I made an autumnal scene as per this month's Autumn Glory theme at Stamping Sensations.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The leaves are beginning to drop now, and some of the trees are looking very autumnal, but you can see from this photo taken this morning...

... that there's still a lot of green around. Eva, who was on Squirrel Patrol, had scampered on ahead and had disappeared around that corner; I called her and am delighted to report that her recall was absolutely spot on - which is quite impressive under the squirrelly circumstances!

Sending hugs,

The autumn fairy

Hello, crafting friends!

I had an autumnal moment in the Craft Square Metre and when I came up for air, this card had happened:

I adore this little fairy from Funky Fossil's Christmas Characters stamp set. She may come from a Christmas set but she's definitely an all-the-year-rounder! I made a layered background for her with three Funky Fossil stencils (Brick Wall, Fancy Trellis and Arched Window), stood her on a bit of wood-effect designer paper from SU and surrounded her with stamped leaves from Reverse Confetti's Fall Foliage.

The leaves were coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers and because I'd used my semi-coated card stock they have a lovely sheen. The fairy was stamped, coloured and fussy cut. I've given her the Wink of Stella treatment so she shimmers and she has a glowing amber gem on her dress. She looks as if she's summoning up a wind to swirl the leaves around but maybe she's just trying to remember where she left her keys...!

Tiny dots, added with a gold pen and with the Wink of Stella pen give that magical feel. To make the sentiment, I stamped the banner from Concord & 9th's Hello Sunshine turnabout set in Stazon ink on vellum, added a greeting from Clearly Besotted's Simply Said, and snipped it out.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

This card was chosen as the Sapphire Winner at Color My Heart Color Dare!

CHALLENGES

I'm squeaking in under the wire at The Rainbow Challenge's Autumnal Amber challenge. I will also link up at The Color My Heart Color Dare 413 where I've chosen Canary, Espresso and gold, adding in Toffee and Sundance! Allsorts are looking for Autumn Colours this week so I'm joining in there too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've been cleaning Eva's ears today. She is a very good girl about it I must say and the most difficult thing about it for me is getting her to sit in a position in the light where I can see what I'm doing. She always gets a nice treat when I've finished and she certainly looks forward to that!

It's terribly tiring though!!!

Sending hugs,

Birthday celebrations!

Hello, crafting friends!

The other day, I came across a birthday linky party going on in Blogland! It had been organised by Loll Thompson to celebrate the birthday of her friend Nancy at Scandinancy Creates - you may know her through her fabulous work as a design team member at the CAS challenges and at Stamplorations. It struck me as such a lovely idea for lots of us crafters to join in the celebrations, so I settled down to create a card for her today. If you'd like to join in too, you can link up HERE at Loll's blog.

I have long been an admirer of the fabulous graphic at Seize The Birthday, so when I saw that they were celebrating their 200th challenge with that as the inspiration I thought it would make the perfect celebration card for Nancy. I chose semi coated card stock, sponged inks onto it, then clapped wet hands over it to create the splatters. The panel was trimmed with a Heffy Doodle stitched rectangle die.

Choosing to let the background take the limelight, I chose a bold birthday sentiment from Avery Elle's Big Birthday, stamping the 'happy' in the same blue as the ink underneath and the birthday in black. The card was finished with a sprinkling of sequins, again in the colours of the background beneath them.

Happy belated birthday Nancy! I hope you had a really lovely day - and that you're still celebrating!

CHALLENGES

I shall link this card up with Seize The Birthday I think it's fairly obvious that the background inspired my card with its bright colours and splatters but I also chose a sentiment that echoed the font on the graphic; also Watercooler Wednesday (for the second time) where it's Occasions week.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

This little sign in a small local stationers/print shop made me smile today :)

Sending hugs, 

Snowing cats and dogs

Hello, crafting friends!

I don't believe my house would be a home without my adorable golden retriever Eva, and it appears Father Christmas feels the same - at least according to Raymond Briggs!

This Father Christmas stamp is from a set I found in a charity shop for just pennies! The set is an old one from Crafters Companion and uses the Raymond Briggs images. I couldn't resist that cute little doggo and the cat doing a great job as a neck warmer!

The image was stamped onto a card panel and coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. Once that was done, I masked the image, sponged in a fade-out inky background and added snow with my white Uni Posca paint pen and the Snow Day stencil from Clearly Besotted. The panel was trimmed out with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle.

I chose a sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Red Robin and used my stamping platform to stamp it neatly in the corner of the card panel. Except that I should have gone to Specsavers because it came out at a jaunty but not very attractive angle! So I stamped it again on a piece of scrap card, added faux stitching and trimmed the bottom into ribbon tails and stuck it over the top. Save!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

Delighted that this card was A Cut Above at The Paper Players :)

CHALLENGES

I couldn't miss out on LeAnne's CAS challenge at The Paper Players this week - the theme is Pets! I'm also linking up at Retro Rubber where Anything Goes with stamps older than a year - this stamp is from a set that came out in 2013 I believe. I'm also joining in with Rudolph Days where Christmas cards are the order of the day and Jingle Belles where Lauren and Stephanie want to see cards laden with snow!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Eva thoroughly enjoyed her birthday yesterday (well okay, she enjoys EVERY day!!) For those of you that may be curious as to how a golden princess celebrates her birthday, it goes like this:

She had an extra eggy with her breakfast; she had a surprise walk with a black lab who she loves and who we haven't seen since March; she got absolutely filthy and then she went for a swim in the river; she had a nice snoozle in the afternoon; later on, we went out to the fields and she chased squirrels and said hello to some friendly boys who were walking home from school; at home, she was given her tea followed by a large bone to entertain herself with in the garden; she helped me make dinner (this involves lying in the middle of the kitchen floor in case a scrap of yumminess comes her way and she normally gets politely requested to Go And Lie Down!); she hung out with us in the living room as usual before having a stroll at bedtime and a glorious night's sleep :) It sure is a dog's life!

Sending hugs,

A corner of autumn leaves

Hello, crafting friends!

I've no idea why the autumn has been taking its time to arrive but the leaves are beginning to turn now and the wind is picking up so I daresay things will start moving along quite quickly now. That was enough to inspire me to do a little autumn crafting anyway!

I got my Reverse Confetti Fall Foliage set out for this CAS little number, stamping some of the leaves on scrap card stock and colouring them with a mix of Spectrum Noir and Stampin' Up alcohol markers. 

The leaves were fussy cut and arranged on the corner of a panel trimmed with a Heffy Doodle stitched rectangle die. I added a simple thank you sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Elegant Butterflies before attaching the panel to a card base.

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by The Sisterhood of Crafters, where the theme is Autumn Inspiration and by the beautiful colours at CAS Colours and Sketches. This simple card has a masculine vibe so I'm also joining in at Watercooler Wednesday where Heidi's challenge is Anything Goes With A Masculine Twist.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

In this action shot (!) of Eva having an enthusiastic roll, the leaves are actually dead ones from last year that the wind is flushing out.

Eva is fine with that. She would prefer a dead bird or something to roll in but hey, she'll take whatever there is!

Sending hugs,

Chalk it up

Hello, crafting friends!

Here's a simple little card I started last night and then finished in daylight when I could actually see!

I've used the chalkboard technique, choosing a sentiment from Concorde & 9th's Beautiful Branches stamp set and heat embossing it in white on black card stock. To get that 'rubbed out' look, I used my embossing buddy liberally and rubbed it into the black card stock with my finger.

I gave my blackboard a frame using two Heffy Doodle stitched rectangle dies, then added some greenery from Reverse Coinfetti's Fall Foliage and some pretty yellow daisies from Clearly Besotted's Sending Sunshine.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So pleased this card was chosen as a Watercooler Rocker!

And it was a winner at The Card Concept - woohooo!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with Less Is More's Chalkboard Technique challenge and was also inspired by the beautiful inspiration photo at The Card Concept. I chose the green leaves, the yellow flowers and the blackboard to make my Clean and Simple card. I'm also playing along at Watercooler Wednesday where it's Kath's All About Occasions challenge 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I was looking on Pinterest at the kind of blackboards people put outside pubs and shops and some of them really made me chuckle. I'm sharing them here because don't they say laughter is the best medicine? You're welcome!

(Source: Pinterest)

Sending hugs,