The Return of the Merry Snowflakes

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Last week I posted THIS snowflake card. The colour combination was inspired by Nancy's palette at CAS Colours and Sketches but I felt my card wasn't clean and simple enough for that challenge. So I made another one today :)

 

This one uses the same snowflakes (from Dies by Chloe) and stars (from the retired Stampin' Up Twinkle punch) but there's no stenciling, I used only one of the Nordic Frames (from the Greetery) and the sentiment is much smaller.

 

I heat embossed the sentiment in silver, cut it out with the small frame die, and attached it to a card base. The snowflakes and stars were arranged above and below the sentiment and I added a few drops of silver liquid pearls to link them.

CHALLENGES

Just squeaking in at CAS Colours and Sketches colour challenge *waves to my former teamies there* ; I'm also linking up with Perfectly CAS where the current challenge is Festive - and as always we are asked to use up to a third of the card front.

 

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Today's card would make a perfect note card for this weather if only I had a sentiment that said 'Sending Cooling Wishes'! After I press send on this post, I'm off to the supermarkety; I don't actually need anything - I just want to hang out in the freezer aisle!

Sending hugs,

Baby, it's cold outside!

Hello, crafting friends!

It's time for a new challenge at Addicted to CAS! Ceal is hosting this fortnight and she's chosen Snow as her code word. 

Snow usually makes me think of Christmas, even though it's quite rare to have a white Christmas here in the heart of England! But I think a snowflake motif also works well for sending heartwarming cards in the winter. 

I started this card with a retired die from the Stained Glass set by Stampin' Up. I cut it twice and attached it to a card base with spray glue. The banner is from Winnie & Walter's Sugar Rush which I stamped in green/blue ink and added the sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Warm Wishes. The snowflakes are from Dies By Chloe and the centres have been decorated with gems.

Now it's over to you! What comes to your mind when you hear the word snow? There's plenty of inspiration from the rest of the team at Addicted to CAS as well as a beauty from our talented guest designer Melanie. Click here to have a browse and to link up your own creation :)

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Happy Little Stampers' Anything Goes With Dies challenge and am also joining in with Cardz for Guyz where the theme is Let it Snow.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Well we DID have snow last week, but only briefly. A little dusting on the ground when I took Eva out in the morning and a few of those tiny magical flakes that fall very slowly. By the time we got home, it had stopped and the snow on the ground had pretty much gone. Enough for me to sing 'Do you wanna build a snowman?' to the empty fields but not enough to actually build one!!

Sending hugs,

Snuggle up warm!

Hello, crafting friends!

I love the autumn when the weather is bright and warm enough to dispense with a coat. The young lady in today's card has added a hat and scarf, so presumably her day is a bit chillier, but she looks ready to scamper through piles of leaves doesn't she!

My girl was made up of elements from Concorde & 9th's Winter Wear and I scribbled in the illusion of a sweater. She was stamped on a semi coated card stock, trimmed with a Heffy Doodle stitched rectangle die, and coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.

To  finish the card, I swooshed ink pads over a piece of scrap card stock and used dies from Mama Elephant's Botanic Envelope to cut leaves from it. I added a suitable sentiment from Clearly Besotted's Warm Wishes and attached the panel to a card front.

CHALLENGES

I'm using the gorgeous autumn colours from CAS Colours and Sketches because they were irresistible! And I'm also linking up with Just Add Ink where they're going back to basics with just Ink, Stamps and Paper - just how I like it!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I took Eva down to the fields behind our house the other morning and was amazed by the scene - it didn't seem cold enough for frost! I knew there was something up when Eva didn't cast herself to the ground and have a good old roll as she normally would in frosty weather! Have a look at the close up...

Isn't that extraordinary! A million little webs draped over the grass and hung with dewdrops! What astonishing beauties there are in nature if we take the time to look!

Sending hugs,

Warm winter wishes

Hello crafting pals!

Today I attempted to make something that was in my head, and it worked - YAY!!! Come and see:

It's really simple isn't it? But I love the way the elements work together and I'm delighted with the way those embossed snowflakes turned out.

The card started with the wood background. I placed a wood background stamp (Hardwood by Stampin' Up, retired) in my stamp positioner, worked out where I wanted the stamping to be on my card, inked up with Weathered Wood distress ink and went for it! I was prepared to try this a few times but it worked perfectly first time!

To make the snowflakes, I smooshed versamark ink all over an off cut of  Coastal Cabana card stock, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder before cutting with my new snowflake dies from Dies by Chloe. When the flakes come out, they crack slightly, like ice, for an interesting effect.

It was time to assemble everything so that I could figure out where to stamp my sentiment. I thought this one from Warm Wishes by Clearly Besotted was appropriate! I wanted to keep the card masculine, so I finished the snowflakes with dark enamel dots rather than sparkly gems.


CHALLENGES
There are lots of wintery challenges about at the moment! I have chosen to link my card with Addicted to CAS, where the cue word is Frosty; The Male Room, which wants masculine cards featuring snow; Jingle Belles, where Stephanie and Lauren want you to use something you got for Christmas on a festive card; and last but not least, Rudolph Day (thanks for the reminder Sarn!) which asks for a Christmas card on the 25th of each month.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Eva and I have one of her best friends to stay at the moment. He is Henry, an adorable golden lab who is the perfect gentleman to her flighty lady! I don't think I've ever met a dog that communicates more eloquently using only the power of Tail and Eyes! (Eva knows she needs only to turn a tragic little face on me to send me scurrying to do her bidding!)

Here they are last summer. Eva is tempting Henry with A Shoe and Henry's expression is that of men the world over when their lady is encouraging them to get up to mischief!

What are you up to today? I'm about to take the dogs swimming in the river. Eva and Henry are both big fans of leaping into the water to retrieve sticks (and I may need some towels!)

Hugs,

Snuggle up warm!

Hello crafting friends!

As I'm typing this, the wind is howling outside and whooshing down the chimney, and it sounds as if buckets of water are being hurled at the windows. I've put an extra jumper on and today's card seems entirely appropriate! Come and see:

Those adorable mittens, from a stamp set called Warm Wishes, were a bargain in the Clearly Besotted sale. I stamped them twice - once in white craft ink on red card stock and once in red ink on white card stock. One thing about using a stamp positioner is that you can use up the tiniest snippets of card stock! I fussy cut the red mittens and just the cuffs of the white ones. The cuffs were coloured with my white gel pen which, if you keep overlaying ink, creates a fluffy dimensional look. Once they were dry I glued the cuffs to the red mittens.

I thought the mittens would look good on a tag. I found a striped one, left over from a kit, and turned it over to use the white side. This was decorated with a couple of black and white washi tapes from my stash and stamped with a sentiment from the mittens set. I tied bakers twine to the tag and attached the mittens to the ends with bits of washi, then securing them to the tag with glue. The tag was finished with a bakers twine bow.

I used dimensionals to attach the tag to a panel I cut out of textured blue card stock using one of my new Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle dies (thanks for the recommendation Di!) These were designed to be used on A6 card fronts and I highly recommend them to anyone who, like me, despaired of finding any that weren't made for the US market where card stock sizes are different. Finally, the panel was attached to the card base.

CHALLENGES
When I saw the inspiration photo at Inspired By, I immediately got crafting - the equivalent of the music that gets everyone up on the dance floor! I'm linking up there, and at Just Us Girls, where the challenge is to Add Dimension this week. Lots of snippets were used in the making of the card, so I shall be playing along at The Snippets Playground too.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
The stormy weather has been brought by Storm Brendan. We're not in its path at all and there have been torrential wind and gales here, so I dread to think what the poor people have had to cope with where the storm really hit. I know there has been quite a bit of storm damage with trees falling, power outages and damage to roads and sea defences. I hope everyone keeps safe and warm.

Thanks for coming to visit me today.

Hugs,