A bird in a bush

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Ages ago, I found a bargain set of dies on eBay that were perfect for a set of bookmarks I wanted to make for a friend. They were called Sparkle and Lace by Tattered Lace and as well as the bookmark shape I wanted, the set contained some animal and bird scene dies. I thought I'd try making a Christmas card with one of them today.

 

I die cut the scene and coloured it with ink and water and a paintbrush, adding snow with a white Posca acrylic paint pen when it was dry. The scene was backed with a piece of card trimmed to the same size, sponged with blue ink and with more snow added with the Posca pen.

 

I found a split sentiment from an old Stampin' Up set that fitted the width perfectly - isn't it amazing when that happens?!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Peace on Earth where there is a wonderful inspiration board featuring birds; also Rudolph Day where Maureen is inspiring us to get a head start on our Christmas cards!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We have nearly made it to the end of January and I can't help thinking that must surely be a good enough reason to crack open the fizz! The month has featured black ice, dental issues and technical difficulties, none of which has been a particular joy :/ 

 

The beginning of February is looking much more fun though, with a day of watching my daughter try on wedding gowns to look forward to!

 

Here's a photo of a model frolicking about in a lacy little number which my daughter tells me is just the kind of thing she's looking for! Watch this space...

Sending hugs,

Woofers and twofers

Hello, crafting friends!

I am so delighted to  be guest designing along with Donna at The Twofer challenge this month, but it's a bittersweet kind of delighted because this will be the final one. Darnell has made the difficult decision to close the challenge. You can read her message about it on the challenge website and I know you will want to leave her some love.

So, here is the final Twofer challenge: Make two different designs of card, for two different occasions, and use the same stamp, stencil or die on each featuring a cat or dog.

I decided to bring out my favourite Holiday Huskies stamp set by Clearly Besotted, choosing as my stamp the little dog that was doing a nice Sit. I love this set because all the dogs remind me of Eva, my adorable Golden girl!

CARD ONE

I made a clean and simple Christmas card for my first card.

The edges of the card base were masked off with sticky notes and I positioned Funky Fossil's Fancy Trellis stencil over the centre and brushed blue ink through it. After removing the sticky notes, the dog was stamped, coloured and fussy cut, then glued to the stencilled area.

To finish, I stamped one of the sentiments from Holiday Huskies in festive red and added a Santa hat from Mama Elephant's Gingerbread Cookies, which fit my little pup perfectly!

CARD TWO

For this friendship card, I allowed my little pup to have a play date with a pal and they bounced off into the countryside for a lovely romp! 

I used Clearly Besotted's Tear Away stencil for the cloudy sky and am really pleased with the result. The trees were fun to make too. I used the leafless, wintery trees from Stampin' Up's White Christmas, stamped them in light brown ink then scribbled tree shapes over them with alcohol markers. These were cut out and glued to my scene and I added some die cut grass using Lawn Fawn's Grassy Border die.

Here's the pup - looking exactly like Eva does! People are always stopping me in the street and asking "Is your dog SMILING?!"

Here's her pal - looking like Eva does when she's just smelt a exciting smell and needs to investigate! Both dogs were stamped, coloured and fussy cut and popped up on dimensional pads. I thought this sentiment from Stampin' Up's Water Front was perfect for this card :)

BOTH CARDS TOGETHER

So now it's your turn! I know all the talented Twofer Team designers will be pulling out all the stops to inspire you as always, so do pop over to the Twofer Challenge website to check out their samples. You will find the Linky Tool there too so that you can join in the fun with your own creation.

CHALLENGES

CARD ONE - I'm entering this card at Stamping Sensations where the challenge is to Celebrate Any Occasion; also Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes; and CAS on Sunday where the theme is Favourite Stamps.

CARD TWO - I'm linking up with Chocolate Baroque where the challenge is to use our Favourite Stamps; also As You See It where LeAnne's challenge is to complete the phrase My Favourite Animal Is... and I think you can see that mine is Dog!!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I thought you'd like to see a photo of my own little doggy pal, Eva, the Golden Retriever...

Oops! She's an upside down pudding! This is a favourite position of hers and I definitely think that Clearly Besotted missed a trick when they forgot to include an upside down pup in the Holiday Huskies set. Perhaps there could be a new set called This Is How I Roll!

Sending hugs,

When Christmas is a challenge

Hello, crafting friends!

I have two more cards to share with you before I sink into holiday relaxation mode!

CHRISTMAS ON THE MOVE

A friend of mine moved house this month. Can you even begin to imagine how stressful that must have been at this time?! After many ups and downs, she is finally going to be spending Christmas in her new home and I felt her Christmas card should reflect the move. This is what I came up with:

I adore stamp sets that feature houses, furniture or room sets, and New Home by WPlus9 ticked some of those boxes for me! I used the plank stamp to create a clapperboard background panel which I coloured with alcohol markers. The door was stamped, 'painted' blue, fussy cut and attached to the panel.

Then came the fun bit, adding the little details. There's a wreath for the door, and some pretty topiary which I planted in these nice modern pots. The sentiment is from Uniko's Background Builders Christmas and is so useful when you need something to stretch across a landscape card!

GRIEVING AT CHRISTMAS

I had news the other day that reminded me that not everyone is looking forward to a jolly Christmas and that bright glittery cards are not always appropriate. It prompted me to make this card.

I started by masking off the edges of a thick card base, then masking off the bottom with a torn piece of scrap paper. The area that was left was sponged with grey and pink inks to create a cloudy sky, then stamped with fir trees from Stampin' Up's Waterfront and Inkylicious' Spruce Trees. The torn paper was removed and I sponged in a bit of shading to the 'snow' in the foreground.

This sentiment is from a long ago retired Stampin' Up set called White Christmas which I felt expressed what I wanted to say. I doodled in a few birds to add some movement to the card and used my Posca white paint pen to add some subtle snow over the trees.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Thank you for all your company this year. I have been so grateful for my crafting hobby and for the friendship of my fellow crafters :) Eva and I wish you a very happy Christmas and hope for a brighter new year.

Sending warm Christmas wishes,

Hello there autumn!

Hello, crafting friends!

While romping about in the countryside with Eva, I'm definitely seeing some beautiful coloured leaves swirling about and lots of bright berries too. Very inspiring for cards!

The panel on this card started off with the Birch Trees stencil from Funky Fossil. I held it over a scrap of card stock and used a pale orange alcohol marker to add colour. While the stencil was still in place, I over-stamped the colour with a tree from White Christmas (retired) by Stampin' Up.

When the stencil was removed I coloured the trees with alcohol markers and added detail with a black fineliner pen. Then came the fun! I chose some tiny leaves from an ancient Clearly Besotted set called Flower Arrangement and stamped them in gorgeous autumnal colours. When those were done, the panel was trimmed with a Heffy Doodles stitched rectangle die

I stamped a few more of the leaves directly onto the card base, using the panel as a guide. Then I stamped more of the leaves on scrap card, cut them out and popped them up for a bit of dimensional interest. The sentiment is from WPlus9's Strictly Sentiments 2, cut out with a stitched rectangle die.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

So happy that this card was the Diamond Winner at Color My Heart Color Dare  and a Librarian's Choice at The Library Challenge!

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by a few of the many autumn-themed challenges out there! The trees and falling leaves were from the Library Challenge's fabulous book cover; the colours from Color My Heart Color Dare's stunning inspiration graphic; I fell in love with the sketch from Fab Friday; and I made an autumnal scene as per this month's Autumn Glory theme at Stamping Sensations.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The leaves are beginning to drop now, and some of the trees are looking very autumnal, but you can see from this photo taken this morning...

... that there's still a lot of green around. Eva, who was on Squirrel Patrol, had scampered on ahead and had disappeared around that corner; I called her and am delighted to report that her recall was absolutely spot on - which is quite impressive under the squirrelly circumstances!

Sending hugs,

Do you wanna build a snowman?

Hello crafting friends!

I think I've made enough Christmas cards now but you can't have too many can you? And anyway, card challenges keep pinging into my inbox and I can't resist joining in! So, anyone for a little snow...?

I fell in love with this little Altenew Snowman and he was SUCH a bargain, and I didn't have any snowmen in my stash (can you believe that?!!), and I loved the sentiment, so he hopped into my shopping basket!

The card started life as a card base and panel cut out of kraft card stock. I stamped the snowman onto the panel using white craft ink, then stamped a tree from Stampin' Up's White Christmas in black ink right next to him. Then came the pens! With a black fineliner, I elongated the trunk of the tree and added detail to the arms of the snowman; a white gel pen came in handy for sketching in a snowy ground, piling up snow on the branches of the tree and making it snow in the background; and a silver Stampin' Sparkle gave the tree trunk, the snowman's arms and the snow a silvery shimmer.

I stamped the snowman again, using pale blue ink on white card stock, and fussy cut him. His hat and scarf were coloured with a pale blue marker (I don't have Seaside Spray but this was close) and details added with my fineliner, and then I glued him over the snowman on the panel. The card was finished with a sentiment (to warm things up a bit!) and a pierced frame before attaching the panel to the card base.

CHALLENGES
I used this week's great sketch at Freshly Made Sketches for this card and the colour palette at The Paper Players which has been playing on my mind ever since Sunday!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
Making this card made me feel quite wistful for snow! It rained all day yesterday and the dogs and I got drenched. Today, we found the river has burst its banks again.

How about you? Are you ready for snow? Or does the very thought of it make you lock all the doors and crank the heating up?! Let me know won't you :)

Hugs,

A Redbird Christmas card

Hello crafting friends!

Guess what? YAY! I am so happy to be Guest Designer at Addicted to CAS for the latest challenge - and the last one of the year!

The cue word  is TREE - perfect for making Christmas cards. Or, if you've finished those for the year, how about a tree-ish card you could use to send new year wishes or to say thank you for Christmas gifts?

The card I've made is for my lovely friend Sarn, who recommended her favourite Christmas book to me a month or two ago. It's called A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg and this is my illustration of one of the scenes. It's the most wonderful, uplifting Christmas story, quick to read, and I urge you to read it this season!

To make the card, I masked off the bottom of a panel with a torn piece of paper and sponged pale pink and blue inks above it. The trees, from Stampin' Up's White Christmas (retired) were stamped over that in pale grey ink. The stamp set contains cardinals, the redbirds of the story, which I stamped lots of in the trees, and snow flakes, which I used to fill the sky above the trees. I coloured the birds and added definition to the trees with markers, then added snowy details with a white gel pen.

I love the two-part sentiment in this stamp set...

... and used both parts on the front of my card. It is perfect for this Redbird Christmas card :)

CHALLENGES
I hope you'll give this fun challenge a go - we've all got some tree stamps in our stash, dying to be inked up!

I shall also link this card up with the Uniko challenge, which is Christmas with optional twist of Tree.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
We have a little robin living in our tiny garden! I am so thrilled I can't tell you. Nothing could make me feel more Christmassy than to see that little chap sitting on a post with his head on one side.

How are you feeling in the run up to Christmas? Excited? Stressed? I'm really busy until next week when I have a flurry of Christmas preparations planned - decorating, gift-buying, card-sending and so on. I'm not thinking about it until then!

Hugs,

Off to the woods for a tree

Hello crafting friends!

One of the rituals I enjoy in the run up to Christmas is going out and getting a tree. We go to a nearby farm and spend a while choosing the perfect one. We exchange best wishes for the season with the farmer, load the tree onto the roof of the car and drive home. Like this:

Doesn't this scene conjure up a feeling of excitement? This family have a bright pink car, because that's the jolly kind of family they are!

The card started with a sponging of blue ink for a sky and the fir woods were created with the trees from Stampin' Up's Waterfront. I used two shades of green for the trees to give a bit of dimension and added 'snow' with a white gel pen. The foreground was shaded with Spectrum Noir TB1 around the trunks of the trees and to give the impression of tyre tracks.

I cut an aperture out of a card panel with Stampin' Up nesting square framelits (Thanks Gill - I use them ALL the time!) This was glued over my scene to frame it.

The car is from Stampin' Up's White Christmas (retired), coloured in with alcohol markers. I stamped part of one of the Waterfront fir trees onto the roof and fussy cut the card and tree out together before popping it up on the edge of the aperture. The card was finished with one of the greetings from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks, Christmas.

I have been trying to join in with the wonderful CAS Christmas Card Challenge all month and have just about got there with this card! The theme this month is Winter Scene.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
My 'getting a Christmas tree' scene reminds me of a wonderful book I used to read to my children as the festive season approached. We all adored Oliver and Amanda Pig! I hope this jogs some memories for some and introduces some wonderful characters to others. Enjoy!

Thank you so much for coming to visit here today. Do you have any favourite rituals for the run up to Christmas? Or any favourite books? I'd love to hear about them :) Do let me know in the comments below!

Hugs,