A happy Christmas ornament

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another Thursday challenge from The Tic Tac Toe Challenge. This week it's my turn to come up with  a board to inspire you and here's what I've come up with:

I'm still happily making Christmas cards and have chosen the top row Plaid/Stencil/Tree to create this festive little number:

I started b creating an ornament, die cutting a circle from a scrap of textured blue card stock and stencilling an ornament top using Funky Fossil's Ornamental stencil. I cut another circle from an off-cut of plaid paper from Stampin' Up and then lopped off half with a curved border die to make an interesting (and unlikely!) snowy hillside.

There are lots of different techniques you can use with stencils; as well as inking directly onto your card base or panel, you can ink through bits of a stencil onto scraps of card and fussy cut - as I've done here using just one of the trees on Funky Fossil's Skinny Trees stencil. Once everything was assembled and glued together, I finished with a sentiment from The Greetery's  Snowflake Soirée and some orange enamel dots.

Okay, now it's your turn! You can choose any row or column or either of the diagonals but first, do hop over to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge site and admire the beautiful samples from my clever teamies! You'll find the Linky Tool there as always and will be able to link up your own creation. Have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up at Happy Little Stampers Stencil Challenge where Anything Goes; I'm also joining in at The Snippets Playground as all items used on this card were snippets - AND The Christmas Kickstart Challenge where Di has put her Elf hat on and is helping Jo celebrate Christmas snippets; I'm also sharing this card at Darnell's NBUS Challenge as the schtencil is Never Before Used Schtuff!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm looking forward to meeting my daughter tomorrow afternoon. We're going for a walk in the grounds of a local manor house and visiting an outdoor Christmas fair - and if that doesn't get me in the mood for preparing for Christmas, nothing will!!

Sending hugs,

Lantern light

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another Tuesday and another fun challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches brought toy you this month by the lovely Joanne! Look at the beautiful colour palette she has come up with this week:

I've been wanting to get my Reverse Confetti Lanterns out to make some pretty Christmas ornaments, and thought this was the perfect opportunity to do it!

I used a colour as close as I could find to the Polished Pink for my ink blended background, stamping the lantern over the top in grey ink and colouring it with a metallic silver pencil. The pine branches were stamped in the green ink at the base of the lantern. To hang my lantern ornaments, I used the chain on Funky Fossil's Ornamental stencil.

The card panel was mounted on a panel of green before attaching to the card base. To finish the card, I added tiny snowflakes and berries with a fine tipped Posca acrylic paint pen. The sentiment is from The Greetery's Boughs and Branches.

Okay, so now it's your turn! I hope you can find the time to hop over to the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge site to admire the gorgeous samples the design team has made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool at the bottom of the post and can use it to link up your own creation :) Don't forget to keep your card nice and clean and simple but above all have fun!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge where Anything Goes with optional Make A Scene; I'm also playing along at Jingle Belles, where I'm hoping these lanterns count as ornaments :) and Allsorts, where Wendy has chosen the theme of Christmas.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I'm going to let you into a secret... I made this card in what felt like the middle of the night. Like lots of us, I can't see so well in artificial light and reached for the wrong ink. I only realised what I'd done next morning when I saw my orange background!

Honestly, it's only November and already I'm dreaming of spring with its longer, lighter days. On the plus side though, I have an extra Christmas card!

Sending hugs,

Deck the halls with stencilled baubles!

Hello, crafting friends!

I'm bringing you another fun challenge from CAS Colours and Sketches today and this time we have a fabulous sketch to inspire you from our host Bhavya. It's worth mentioning that all our previous sketches and colour swatches can be found on the top bar of the challenge site - a wonderful resource. Here's this week's sketch:

I love that repeat sentiment which I decided to make do double duty as a background. For my card, I chose a small and tidy sentiment from Uniko's Background Builders Christmas and stamped it 14 times on a card panel, using a stamping platform to keep the spacing nice and regular. The panel was trimmed with my favourite stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle.

The ornament is from Funky Fossil's Ornamental stencil which I inked with a pale neutral ink which enabled me to layer coloured pencils over the top. Once I'd coloured the ornament, I fussy cut it and gave it a lovely shimmer with a Wink of Stella pen. Before attaching it to the panel, I stencilled a chain to hang it from and finished with a coordinating bakers twine bow.

Okay, so now it's over to you! My teamies have come up with all sorts of gorgeous interpretations of this sketch so do hop over to the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge site to admire them :) You'll also find the Linky Tool there so that you can join in with your own creation. Please remember to keep your card nice and clean and simple with plenty of clear space!

CHALLENGES

I hope I'm in time to link this card up with CAS Christmas Card Challenge where the theme is Decorations; also Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge where Anything Goes (with optional Winter Wonderland theme); and Jingle Belles, where the challenge is to not use any patterned paper at all on a Christmas card.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

After all this talk of festive baubles, I am glad to say the sun has decided to shine here at last and it seems summer is back on the menu|. This means that swimming is back on the menu for Eva who has taken full advantage. On the way back from the river today, I spotted a couple walking along the path towards us and immediately put Eva on lead as most people prefer to keep some distance between them and a soggy dog. Not this couple! They begged to be allowed to say hello so I let Eva off lead and watched her proudly as she sat nicely to be petted. It was then that she noticed the lady was holding a tissue in her hand and gently relieved her of it! Fortunately the couple were charmed by her naughtiness.

Here she is at home with a tissue. She is a terrible tissue thief and I am constantly finding shredded little piles of tissue around the place!

Sending hugs,

Exciting news and a Christmas ornament

Hello, crafting friends!

I don't know how I've been able to keep this one quiet but today I can reveal some very exciting news: I have been lucky enough to be invited to join the fabulous design team at one of my favourite challenges, CAS Colours and Sketches! How brilliant is that?! I shall become a regular in the new year but am guesting there today. Let's have a look at the challenge:

The idea is to take a sketch or colour palette from 2020 and give it a seasonal twist. Just go to the challenge site and click on the archives on the top bar and you'll be able to see all the past challenges. I've chosen the sketch from February's challenge number 359 and really enjoyed creating a Christmas card with it!

The shapes immediately suggested a Christmas tree ornament to me so I pulled out my Ornamental stencil by Funky Fossil. I watercoloured a 'ground' first, then stencilled two shades of red ink into the stencil. When it was dry, I used alcohol markers to colour the rest of the bauble, adding the cap with a silver marker and the highlight with a  Posca white paint pen.

The 'Merry' part of the sentiment was die cut from red card stock using a bargain die I picked up from Hobbycraft. I added a little silver embossed Christmas tag I made using a Uniko block stamp, and allowed the 'y' to curl around it. The card was finished with a few red gems on the bauble.

Here's the sketch I used - which one will inspire you? To celebrate the milestone of 400 challenges and the last challenge of 2020, there'll be a prize for the winner this week from the wonderful Uniko!  Click here to go to the challenge site for details, have a look at the handy archives of sketches and colours past, and use the Linky tool to join in. I can't wait to see what you make!

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with The Paper Players where they want to see our Christmas makes; I'm also linking up with Jingle Belles' last hurrah :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's been pretty hectic here as it became clear that Christmas was going ahead! The tree went up at the weekend and I've been up to my ears in baubles. Eva is very excited to see all the decorations come out again and has been sniffing at everything and wagging gently. She has a decoration of her own that my daughter gave me one year - a beautiful sparkly golden retriever!

I love decorating the house at Christmas, partly because bringing out all the ornaments is like meeting up with old friends, with all the memories they bring :)

Sending hugs,

Leaping out of a bauble

Hello, crafting friends!

We had the most beautiful sunshine here yesterda and Eva and I made the most of it out in the countryside. When we got home, I made a quick, one layer card in the small window of light opportunity that is the British winter!

Masking, sponging, stencilling, stamping... all my favourite techniques have been used on this card! The first step was to make a mask for the small stag on Funky Fossil's Leaping Stags stencil with a sticky note. (There's one provided for the large stag but not the small one for some reason.) I stencilled the stag directly onto a thick card base and then covered it with the mask. I positioned a circle stencil over the top and a piece of torn paper over the top of that, so that I could sponge blue ink over it for the sky. I added trees from Stampin' Up's Waterfront stamp set then repositioned the torn paper and sponged more blue ink gently to create shadows on the snowy ground. 

Time to remove all the masks to reveal my stag leaping out of a winter wonderland! Then I had the idea of making the circular scene into a hanging Christmas ornament. I brought out Ornamental, another Funky Fossil stencil, and added a topper and chain to my scene with a silver marker. To finish the card I added detail, highlighting and shading with a Posca white paint marker and a fineliner pen, and stamped a Uniko sentiment in bright red ink.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with 52 {Christmas Card Throwdown, where the lovely Gill is hosting *waves hello* and the theme is Winter Wonderland; also Less is More for their One Layer Festive challenge, where it's lovely to see Chrissie returning as a guest to the challenge she founded with her friend; Last but not least, I'm linking up with Uniko's 'Tis The Season challenge with optional sparkle! There are fabulous prizes on offer so do pop across and join in!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Deer are not uncommon in the countryside here and you can even see muntjacs in the green spaces of the town in the early morning or at dusk. I wasn't prepared for the rare creatures I spotted in the trees in the park the other day though...

... the Lesser Spotted Tree Surgeon!

Sending hugs,