Just Believe... in Welcome Christmas fairies?

Today's card is all about glitter and fairies - not my usual thing at all! But the 'Something Shiny' challenge at Less is More has been triggering ideas, and the new challenge at Make My Monday is to make a card which includes fairies or anything dreamlike, so I thought I'd combine them. Come and see what I came up with:

I couldn't get a decent photo to save my life despite the weather being bright, but I hope you get the idea with this. The plant image and sentiment were stamped onto a panel before attaching to the card front which had been scored with a double frame. After that, a halo of glitter and three gems were added, along with...

... this little chap! Now, you may be thinking you haven't seen him in the catalogue, but I bet you have. He was just in disguise as a sledger boy in the Welcome Christmas set!

Yes, he's the one on the right and I've often thought that his scarf could easily be extended into wings. I stamped him in Sahara Sand and then coloured him with markers, giving him a tunic with a belt and some pixie boots, and glittered his wings for that extra magical look.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card:

Stamps: Welcome Christmas, Just Believe

Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Concord Crush

Card stock: Whisper White

Other: Markers, Basic Rhinestones, Heat and Stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, heat tool, paper snips, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593.

Making today's card brought a whole lot of memories flooding back for me: When my daughter was very small she was given a book that opened out into a pop up castle. She was fascinated by the little card soldiers that went with it and that started me drawing, colouring and cutting out little figures for her to play with. When I mentioned this to my daughter she disappeared upstairs and returned with a boxful of the little characters - she has kept them! They were never made to last of course and there are limbs missing but here's one that remained intact - I remember he was called Blueberry Buttons!

Thank you for joining me on my magical mystery tour today! I'll be much more sensible tomorrow (or maybe not!)

Hugs,

Christmas greenery with the Medallion

Thank you so much Chrissie and Mandi for giving us green for this week's colour theme at Less is More - yes I have got one or two Christmas cards left to make (and that is ever so slightly understating it!) Come and see my little green card:

I've used my lovely Medallion stamp for this card and the fab new in colour Lucky Limeade. The ribbon is Old Olive as I didn't have any Limeade, but I'm happy to put any greens together - if it's good enough for Mother Nature, it's good enough for me! It also serves as a useful colour comparison for anyone who thought Lucky Limeade was similar to Old Olive - it really is quite different. You can see how I've 'stamped off' to create variations in the shade of Lucky Limeade - I love making layered backgrounds using this technique.

The tag shape is from Welcome Christmas and is so useful for sentiments. I used the Merry Christmas from Season of Joy and stamped the swirl from the same set which never seems to leave my hands at the moment! I'm a big fan of the Medallion too. It's a huge image and as well as being great for stamping layered backgrounds as I did on my card today, it makes a great contemporary card on its own, is brilliant for stamping wrapping paper and gift bags like this one I made a while ago...

... and popped up gift tags like this one...

Altogether a very useful addition to the craftroom!

Supplies needed for today's card:

Stamps: Medallion, Season of Joy, Welcome Christmas

Ink: Lucky Limeade, Garden Green

Card stock: Naturals Ivory

Other: Garden Green marker, Old Olive 1/8" taffeta ribbon, 1/8" handheld punch, corner rounder, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

I have a new Stampers 6 club group starting in January and there are a few places left on it, so if you'd like to have a lovely parcel of crafty gorgeousness to open each month, do contact me as soon as possible. I'm offering places as Christmas presents this year too, presented in my voucher box, which can be personalised. Now wouldn't that be a very special present to open on Christmas morning?! Start dropping those hints now ladies!

This was supposed to be a very short post as I've got heaps to do... so I'd better stop wittering on now or I'll find myself spending Christmas on the naughty step! 

Hope you're enjoying your weekend and I shall be sneaking back later to have a look at everbody's green creations! See you then,

Another Welcome Christmas silhouette

Welcome Christmas has to be one of my favourite Christmas stamp sets! On Saturday, I used it to make this card for the Less is More silhouette challenge and enjoyed it so much that I've made another one using the other silhouette in the set! Come and have a look:

I'm absolutely fascinated by the variety of cream card stocks I have and the way they look together. Here, I've used the gorgeous suede-feel Naturals Ivory for the card base and teamed it with Very Vanilla smooth card stock which contrasts beautifully with the watercolour paper I've used for the focal panel. Actually this isn't a very good photo but you can see it better in the close up:

That's better! Look at the textures - I get very excited about this kind of thing! I made a background by washing three coloured inks over my watercolour paper with my aquapainter and when it was dry (which only takes a few minutes) the silhouette was stamped over the top using Basic Black ink. Watercolour paper is specially designed to take watery inks so it doesn't buckle and the inks blend perfectly. The sentiment is also from the same set and is stamped on a strip of Naturals Ivory card stock, which anchors the panel to the card base.

Supplies needed for this card:

Stamps: Welcome Christmas

Ink: Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Basic Black

Card stock: Naturals Ivory, Very Vanilla, watercolour paper

Other: Aquapainter, Basic Black marker, dimensionals, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these supplies for you and can have them delivered to your address in the UK. I am committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to help and advise. Just send me an email or give me a call on 01280 820593. 

Yesterday I had some chores to do in Buckingham so I stopped off in the town after collecting my youngest son from school. While we were there it got quite dark and felt so festive with all the bright shop windows showing off their Christmas wares that I thought it would be a good moment to help my son start his Christmas shopping. We spent an enjoyable half hour wandering about looking at things, and even managed to buy one present before my son suggested we have a bit of a rest in our local gelateria... Mmmmmm! I chose a delicious strawberry cheesecake ice while my son opted for a lemon and lime sorbet! It's time to start some gentle Christmas shopping folks and my top tip is to take a ten-year old boy with you!

It's Three Minute Thursday here tomorrow and I shall have some more fast inspiration for you so do pop back if you have a minute.

Hugs,