A warm penguin?

It was touch and go whether I'd get a card made for the Less is More challenge today but then hubby announced he was making dinner! So, after collecting a variety of boys from a party I snuck a quick one in... There's a fab sketch at LiM today which I've combined with the Emboss-Resist challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown. Come and see:

Both the penguin and the polar bear from Zoo Review are fabulous for Christmas cards and they lend themselves well to emboss-resist scenes. I used two stamps from Gorgeous Grunge for the background, stamping with versamark and heat-embossing with clear embossing powder. The penguin was stamped and I masked off the ground and inked around it with Pool Party ink. Once the excess ink was wiped off, it gave a very snowy effect.

The penguin was coloured with markers and I used my new chalk marker to add subtle detail to his front and to the ground. The scene was cut out using my 2 1/2" circle punch and I pierced a border round it for added detail. I wanted the penguin to be looking at the sentiment so I flipped the sketch, adding a banner with one of the fabulous candy dots.

Here's Jen's sketch from LiM that I used today - you can see that I turned it upside down.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Zoo Review, Gorgeous Grunge, Remember Christmas (sentiment)
Ink: Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Pumpkin Pie
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Markers, candy dots, versamark, clear embossing powder, heat tool, Essentials piercing kit Chalk marker, stamp-a-majig

You can order from my online shop any time, day or night, but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help. You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

And as a special thank you for shopping with me, you'll get a free gift and a handmade card when you place your first online order with me during September.

While other couples enjoyed their Friday evening eating out perhaps or enjoying drinks and nibbles with friends, my hubby and I went to Ikea! As we entered the shop via the escalator, we saw an artistic display of children's toy cookers which had been attached one above another up a wall. "Bit dangerous for the kiddies," remarked my husband.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll be back on Monday.

Remembering Christmas with a leaf

I normally have a fair few Christmas cards made by this time of year but this year... well, suffice to say I'm beginning to feel that it's time to roll my sleeves up and get on with some! Luckily there are the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and Rudolph Day challenges to help me get my act together! Come and see what I've made:

 'Christmas Tree' is the theme from 52CCT and having had great fun turning the leaf from Wonderfall into a tree yesterday, I thought I'd try one of the leaves from Gently Falling into a Christmas tree! I stamped the background trees into a masked-off area and then fussy cut a separate one for the foreground. I think it works! What do you think?

I absolutely love this decorative scroll from the Merry Little Christmas set for a bit of subtle decoration. Here I stamped a bit of it on the oval mat and used my stamp-a-majig to line up the rest of the image on the card base itself. You can see the fussy cut leaf as a tree in this photo (although you might have to put your right ear on your shoulder to do so - free stretching exercises and everything on my blog today!) all dressed up with rhinestones and a bakers twine bow.

And this is the loveliest sentiment for all those folk you don't get to see very often. It's from Remember Christmas - a set I'll be show-casing a lot more of I can tell you!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Gently Falling, Merry Little Christmas, Remembering Christmas
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Garden Green classic inks, Whisper White craft ink
Card stock: Whisper White, Soft Sky
Other: Big Shot, Ovals framelits, Basic rhinestones, Cherry Cobbler bakers twine, Chalk marker, stamp-a-majig

You can order from my online shop any time, day or night, but if you have any queries, or prefer to speak to me, I'm always happy to help. You can contact me by email or phone on 01280 820593.

And as a special thank you for shopping with me, you'll get a free gift and a handmade card when you place your first online order with me during September.


I'm thinking of renting myself out as a weather guage for weddings and picnics because whenever I settle down to make a chilly-looking Christmas card we seem to get a heatwave! A cardigan came off with every layer I added to today's card until I was seriously thinking of getting the shorts out of storage!

See you tomorrow,