Merry Minis and bright!

Here's a clean and simple Christmas card I made for the lovely Marie's CAS challenge over at Get Creative, Addicted to Stamps and More where they want to see markers being used, and 52CCT where the theme is Christmas Lights (and, may I just say, where I was absolutely delighted to win last weeks challenge with this card!)

I started by stamping a sentiment from my Jolly Jingle wheel which I've split into lots of useful sentiments (click here to see how I did it.) The Christmas lights wire was doodled round it with a Gumball Green marker before the lights were added.

I love the retro shape of this gorgeous bulb image - we actually had some like this when I was a girl! There are three different designs of the light/ornament in the Merry Minis stamp set (I've used the plain one here), as well as stars and Christmas trees too. And, what's more, they've all got coordinating punches to cut them out, which gives you lots more time to eat mince pies and watch re-runs of The Two Ronnies Christmas Show!

I used this great sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch to make my card (but unfortunately didn't make the deadline for the challenge... hey ho!) I can see that this great site is going to be very useful resource for CAS card makers.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Merry Minis, Jolly Jingle wheel (sentiment)
Ink: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Lucky Limeade
Card stock: Whisper White, Lucky Limeade
Other: Merry Minis punch pack, markers
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593.

I'm not wittering much today because unlike the chirpy sentiment on today's card I am feeling neither merry nor bright. See you tomorrow for Three Minute Thursday though.

A Notably Ornate Christmas

With an fat, new catalogue coming out on Monday, I've been packing away all my retiring sets ready to make room for lots of exciting new ones. Is there anything more fun than playing with new stamp sets?! By the way, if you live in the UK and you'd like to put your feet up with one of the new catalogues, I can post one to your door for £4.95 - you won't be disappointed I promise you! Just email me to order one.

Of course, while putting the retiring stamps away, I couldn't resist having a go with some of them, including Notably Ornate. Now, this isn't a set you would immediately associate with Christmas but I had a sudden idea... come and see:

I started by swiping Whisper White craft ink over a Baja Breeze card base, masking off the centre and inking the exposed edges with Baja Breeze ink. To add dimension to the paler part, I scored the join with my Simply Scored board and added a little shading with a watercolour pencil.

The swallow in the Notably Ornate set makes a brilliant dove: I stamped him onto Whisper White card stock, cut him out without including the fork in his tail and added dove-like markings on the other side with the watercolour pencil. I thought this sprig from Tags 'til Christmas made a reasonable olive branch.

All that was needed was a suitable sentiment and I chose this one from my Jolly Jingles wheel. Now wouldn't this be an excellent card to send to a feuding relative!

If you'd like to make some of these little doves, Sunday is the last day to order the Notably Ornate set - and everything else on the Retirement lists! Check them out here and email your order through to me before 8pm on Sunday at the latest.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Notably Ornate (retiring), Tags 'til Christmas, Jolly Jingles wheel
Ink: Baja Breeze, Real Red, Whisper White craft ink
Card stock: Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Other: Old Olive marker, Watercolour Pencils, Simply Scored, paper snips, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

I don't know why I made a Christmas card for today as the bizarre wintery weather we've been having has been interrupted by a day of glorious warm sunshine! It was just the weather for me to venture into the garden with a pair of secateurs and do battle with the triffids - and you'll be glad to know we can sleep safely in our beds tonight!

Have a lovely weekend won't you, and I'll be back very soon.
Hugs,

PS The lovely Sandra has reminded me that a Christmas card is all that's required for Rudolph Day! This will be my second entry - go me!

Make My Monday glittery Christmas card

Good morning! And it's a VERY good morning this morning because I'm delighted to have been asked to be a guest designer at the fabulous Make My Monday challenge site this week! There's a brand new theme for December - 'Seasonal' and the particular twist this week is 'glitter'. Well, what with Christmas coming up, I felt that a Christmas card was in order! Come and have a look:

I'm not really much of a one for glitter but there are some times of year when I think it's not just perfectly acceptable but almost obligatory! I started with a card base made from the gorgeous brushed silver card stock, ran a length of sticky strip across it and glittered it with Dazzling Diamonds. I added a strip of Whisper White card stock, trimmed with my Eyelet border punch, and stamped a punchy Merry Christmas in Real Red ink. The Dazzling Diamonds made me feel instantly Christmassy, so I put some festive music on and started making some holly!

The holly's easy to make - just score some green card stock, punch out ovals, fold them in half and nibble bits away with a 1/2" circle punch. I added glittery red berries, punched from one of the papers in the Holly Berry Bouquet speciality designer range, and laid the sprig on some die cut swirls glittered with more Dazzling Diamonds.

The design team at Make My Monday are a very talented bunch so do nip over and have a look at their gorgeous projects - and why not join in yourself? A bit of glitter... oh go on, you KNOW you want to!!!

Supplies needed for today's card:

Stamps: Jolly Jingles wheel (I unmounted mine)

Ink: Real Red

Card stock: Brushed Silver, Whisper White, Garden Green, Wild Wasabi

Punches:  Eyelet border, 1/2" circle, large oval

Other: Sticky Strip, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Holly Berry Bouquet speciality DP, Swirls Scribbles die, Big Shot, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

I hope you've had a good weekend. It's been busy here but I had a wonderful time with my youngest son yesterday. When he heard that I might not have time to make that advent calendar I talked about last week, he kindly offered to help. Well I couldn't refuse an offer like that, so I dropped everything and we spent a lovely day crafting together. He did everything himself (apart from a few mundane things like wielding the bone folder and adding sticky strip), while tirelessly keeping up a flow of information about Halo, his latest passion. Halfway through, he amused me by breaking off to say: "I REALLY like this Big Shot Mummy!" The calendar looks fab by the way - I'll try to show you some photos this week.

Thanks for dropping by today. I've decided not to run Masculine Monday for the next few weeks while we're in Christmas mode but it'll be back in the new year. Meanwhile, if you're looking for male inspiration, just click on the Masculine Monday label in my side bar.

See you tomorrow for more festive fun!

Everything Eleanor robin card

My week, which started off so well with my lovely daughter's birthday celebrations, is not ending well! My cold has got worse and any dream I might have had of taking things a bit easy have been well and truly scuppered by the death of my dishwasher and the printer at the same time! They must be ganging up! Luckily the Make My Monday challenge was at hand to cheer me up - they're looking for clean and simple Christmas cards with the emphasis on the sentiment. Here's what I came up with:

The lovely sentiment comes from the Jolly Jingles wheel, which I've unmounted and chopped up to make loads of individual stamps (like I did with this one). I stamped it onto Whisper White card stock, added the bird using my stamp-a-majig and then cut out the 'snow bank', cutting around the bird. I sponged around the snow bank with Bashful Blue ink and although it hasn't really come out in the photos, it adds a nice bit of detail in real life.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I do like a bird stamp! This one is from Everything Eleanor, which has to be one of my favourite sets in the current catalogue - it has such a lot of different elements to play with. To turn the bird into a robin I coloured the rubber directly with markers before stamping. My robin's Christmas hat was cut out of the Holly Berry Bouquet shiny striped paper using my Pennant punch.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Everything Eleanor, Jolly Jingles wheel

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Bashful Blue

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Markers, Holly Berry Bouquet speciality papers, Pennant punch, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and I can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

I really do apologise for my lack of commenting this week - every time I think I'm on top of things, something seems to come along to try me! Talking of which, I'd better get this new printer installed and see if I can sort out a new dishwasher...

Have a lovely weekend and I'll hope to see you very soon.

Hugs,