Peace and Goodwill

Hello, crafting friends!

 

What a chilly old spring it's been this year! When you have to reach for a woolly throw most evenings and can't imagine what short-sleeved tops and flip flops are doing in your wardrobe, there really isn't any difficulty making festive cards! Here's one I rustled up earlier:

 

This has become a 'go to' recipe for a Christmas card for me - a sentiment label on a DSP background, embellished with foliage and berries. I trimmed a piece of Simple Stories designer paper with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle and glued it to a card front. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Hope and Peace and was stamped and heat embossed in red, then cut out with a label die from The Works. I popped this up on dimensional pads.

 

The foliage dies are from The Greetery and Flora and Fauna and I also used some unbranded holly dies. The die cuts were sponged with green inks except the berry branches which I left white. Everything was glued into place and I finished with some lovely shiny enamel dots.

CHALLENGES

Linda has an intriguing sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week which I used for this card; I'm also linking up with Peace on Earth which inspired me with another of their gorgeous mood boards; also the Anything Christmas Goes challenge at Rudolph Days where you can link up until the end of the month.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's been good to have a bit of time to craft this weekend. The chilly weather has made me glad to get in from our walks and the golden girls are happy to settle down for a bit of serious napping while I create piles of papers, inks and dies all over the living room! 

 

Here's Eva being queen of the sofa! Of course it's important to keep one eye half open in case mum goes to the fridge for cheese!!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend :) Sending hugs,

Hope in a cold climate

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Have you all had a lovely time over the Christmas holidays?

 

Apologies for doing a disappearing act! I'm afraid I went down with flu in December and although I'd recovered by the week before Christmas, you can imagine how much catching up I had to do. Luckily, I was (for once in my life!) quite beforehand this year with gift-buying and some of the card writing and posting.

 

I'm so sad to say we lost a family member in December too. Christmas has been a quiet affair this year. Here are some cards I made to send messages of comfort.

 

The cards were made by masking off the edges of some thick card bases with low-tack tape. I inked backgrounds with Stampin' Up Soft Succulent ink and clapped wet hands over them to create a icy, snowy look.

 

When they were dry, I removed the tape and stamped a beautiful bible verse on the background.

 

The cards were decorated with die cut winter berries and foliage, coloured with inks using sponge daubers and some markers. I added more snow with a Posca white acrylic paint pen.

CHALLENGES

I'm linking these cards up at Allsorts where Lorraine has chosen the theme of Cold and Ice.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

It's been so dark and rainy and muddy here in the heart of England and my heart is yearning for some proper bright frosty days. Of course my Golden Girls are not interested in silly excuses and expect to go on long walks whatever the weather! My Christmas decorations this year have included a large basket of dog towels by the door and I'm slightly sad that Santa didn't bring me a larger house with a mud room containing a luxury dog shower!

Sending hugs,