A Scandinavian Christmas

Hello, crafting friends!

I've always been an admirer of minimalist Scandinavian Christmas decor. You know the kind of thing - simplicity, neutral colours, pale or white-washed wood, texture, plenty of winter greenery. That's the feel I was going for with today's card.

I started by sponging part of Stampin' Up's Hardwood stamp (retired) with light brown ink and stamping it directly onto a good thick card base. Sponging ink onto the stamp, rather than inking it directly with the ink pad, gives a much softer look. I masked off the top section and sponged more of the ink below to provide a 'ground' for my images.

While cutting out shapes with the large Optical Illusion die from Spellbinders, you get left with a large hexagonal trellis shape. I've had this in my snippets box for ages so was delighted to find it gave the mandala effect I was looking for! I glued it over my background then added some pine branches cut from snippets of green card stock using my new Flora and Fauna Holiday Foliage dies. 

I'm rather pleased with the pot. On my desk there was a scrap of card that had blue ink sponged on it which I thought would add a nice bit of texture. I stamped a pot from Woodware's Succulents onto it, coloured it with alcohol markers, fussy cut it and popped it up on dimensionals.  The card was finished with a sentiment from Cityscape by Clearly Besotted, and a sprinkling of clear gems.

CHALLENGES

I was so inspired by the photo from Time Out Challenges this fortnight so I'm linking up there; I'm also joining in with The Snippets Playground (where I won the die one of my snippets comes from today!); and NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) where I'm showcasing my new Holiday Foliage dies from Flora and Fauna (and I'm devaschtated there are no Ss in there Darnell!!)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've realised that this is the time of year, when the days get shorter, tha I usually cheer myself up by looking forward to Christmas, planning get-togethers, making lists of presents and organising everything. It just doesn't feel right to do that this year while everything is so uncertain, and I don't know quite how to cope! Anyone else?

Sending hugs, 

Christmas snippets patchwork

Hello, crafting friends!

There have been some of what my youngest son describes as 'Sad boy hours' here at Crafting Clare Towers, but I'm just about managing to squeak in with a quick Christmas card before the end of the month! Come and see:

The Optical Illusion set of Spellbinders dies I won at the Snippets playground are proving to be VERY useful for using up my snippets! For this quick and simple card, I used the hexagons to cut out bits of left-over designer paper in similar colours and arranged them patchwork style over a good thick card base.

I spent ages trying to find the right sentiment and ended up with this one from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks. I expect if you're a Patcher, any time of year is the season to be patching!! I experimented with embossing it in gold, then in black, but the breakthrough was stamping it in brown ink and then, when it was dry, pressing it into a versamark pad and clear embossing it.

Sorry about the bad photo but I wanted you to see yow deliciously shiny it is!

CHALLENGES

The card was a CASE of this gorgeous one of Stephanie's from last year, as per this fortnight's challenge at Jingle Belles. Ann's tic tac toe board at The Paper Players was helpful too - I chose the diagonal line Die cuts, Embossing and Patterned Paper. I'm also linking up at the Snippets Playground and joining in with The Rudolph Day Challenge.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I was absolutely delighted to have my daughter and her partner to stay last week but sadly I suffered excrutiating toothache for most of the time. I managed to get an emergency dental appointment in the end and my dentist found the offending tooth had split vertically and had to be extracted. No wonder it had been so painful!

I was well looked after at any rate, but now Nurse Eva has taken over and the only treatments she recommends are brisk walks and golden cuddles! 

Sending hugs,

Patchwork wild flowers

Hello, crafting friends!

Ok, so Eva and I haven't melted but it was touch and go there for a minute. Luckily a massive thunderstorm cleared the air yesterday evening and, as we no longer felt as if we were being boiled in oil, we were able to go off on a refreshing walkies! While we were out in the countryside, I admired all the wild flowers which seem to survive in the most inhospitable of conditions. When we returned I made this card: 

Look! I'm using the Spellbinders Optical Illusion dies I won at The Snippets Playground again! I can see that this set of dies is going to be out on my desk permanently! 

I started the card by cutting a hexagonal window in a card panel. I wanted a design to show in my hexagonal window, so I masked off the top and right hand side of a card base, sponged the area inside with SU Pool Party ink and stamped over it in navy with a leaf stamp from Funky Fossil's In The Meadow stamp set. When I attached the card panel over the top with dimensionals, it gave a shadow box effect.

The solid hexagon from the aperture wasn't wasted! I sponged it with SU Melon Mambo ink and stamped it with a sentiment from Thoughtful Blooms, a free stamp set from Stampin' Up during this year's Sale-a-bration. I also cut a hexagon out of a snippet of yellow designer paper. These hexagons were glued to the card panel alongside the aperture, patchwork styyle. 

Finally, I stamped wild flowers from the Funky Fossil set, using markers to ink them up. These were fussy cut, tied together with a piece of bakers twine and used to embellish the card along with an enamel dot.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

This card was show-cased at Less is More!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up again with CAS on Friday's Nature themed challenge and Just Us Girls' Die-cut A Window challenge. The sketch is a beauty from CAS Colours and Sketches and those fab colours were dreamed up by Joanne at The Paper Players. Less is More have a Summer Flowers theme, so I'll play along there and since everything on this card used left-overs except the card panel, I shall pop over to The Snippets Playground too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The temperatures have dropped considerably after the thunderstorms. We woke up this morning to overcast skies and drizzle - perfect weather for a golden retriever (they were originally bred in the highlands of Scotland.)

We had a long walk this morning and when we got back, Eva still had the energy to raid the laundry basket, play 'Toss Mummy's Wet Shoe About' and drag the towel I'd used to dry her off the radiator. She spent a pleasurable ten minutes burrowing about in it while making fierce noises, presumably pretending it was a rabbit hole. After that she was pretty well exhausted!

Sending hugs,