Rudolph the sleek black reindeer

Hello crafting friends!

It's time to have a word with myself. Sunshine or no sunshine, if I want to have a lovely big pile of Christmas cards to send out at the end of November, I need to get going! That was my stern voice, so I have gone off meekly and made this:

This card was started by smooshing diliuted Night of Navy and Pool Party inks over a card panel and there is a suggestion of Northern Lights there isn't there! No? Oh, just me and my imagination then! While it was drying, I pulled out a load of my old Stampin' Up Christmas stamps - I had hung on to those in The Great Craft Stash Cull!

Look! I made another fun sentiment combo :) The 'Happy' is actually from a current set - Merry Christmas to All, but the 'Christmas' is from Endless Wishes and all the other stamps I used today are ancient too...

That beautiful reindeer is from Winter Post and the trees are from White Christmas. Love them all! I added some detail to my scene with a Smoky Slate marker on the trees and white craft ink for snow and more of the diluted ink for shadows. The card was finished with a tiny adhesive star that came out of a scrapbooking kit. I would've liked to add a little frost to the trees but I have no glitter or metallic embossing powder... Maybe I'll invest in a Wink of Stella pen! Has anyone else tried one?

So what set me off on this moonlit reindeer scene today? It was the ABC Christmas Challenge! I'm a bit late to this challenge, having arrived when they're at P (for penguin), Q (for quarters) or R (for reindeer), but what I lack in time-keeping, I more than make up for in enthusiasm!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
It's time to drag myself away from reindeer and focus on a pair of pooches who are looking at me with reproachful eyes. My Eva is particularly good at communicating 'I don't want to put myself forward in any way but I have noticed that time is marching on and I've got a bit of a rumbly tummy and USUALLY we'd be in the kitchen now...' with just a pair of melting brown eyes.

Thanks for coming round to see me today. See you soon,

Two occasions, same colours

I was intrigued by the colour challenge at the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown this week so I thought I'd have a go at a Christmas card (in May! I know!) I set myself a further challenge by making a non-festive card with the colours too! Come and have a look:

The Christmas card uses this lovely skater image from Winters Post. I stamped it in Basic Grey on watercolour paper and coloured it with markers and an aqua painter. The card is mounted onto a square of card stock that has had Wisteria Wonder bakers twine wound round and round it and tied into a bow decorated with a Perfect Plum brad.

For the thank you card I used the sketch at Clean and Simple Stamping. I started by masking off the middle section with post it notes and sponging a border with Wisteria Wonder ink.

The central strip is made with Concord Crush card stock attached to a Concord Crush circle. these are topped with a white card stock sentiment strip with a ribbon tail end punched into it with a square punch. The circle is decorated with a watercoloured flower spray from Bordering on Romance.

Here's what you'll need to make these cards:

CHRISTMAS CARD

Stamps: Winter Post, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Markers

Card stock: Whisper White, Naturals Ivory, watercolour paper

Other: Perfect Plum brad, Wisteria Wonder bakers twine, white gel pen, stamp-a-majig, 

THANK YOU CARD

Stamps: Bordering on Romance, Thank You Kindly

Ink: Basic Grey, Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz

Card stock: Whisper White, Concord Crush

Other: Markers, paper snips, square punch, 1 3/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, 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.

My daughter might be deep into her exams but she's not too busy to organise an outfit for her prom party! She has The Dress, a beautiful bronze silk that looks beautiful with her colouring, and found a waterfall style necklace to wear with it. I found her fiddling with her necklace the other day. She looked up as I came in. "Look Mummy," she said. "I can play Jingle Bells on my necklace!" Hmmm. I'm sure that'll be in great demand as a bit of light entertainment at the prom!

Thank you for visiting me today. I shall be back tomorrow with a  quick design for Three Minute Thursday so do pop back if you have a minute!

The masked card

Honestly! It's taken me all day to have any ideas at all for Less is More, where Chrissie and Mandi are challenging everyone to make a card using masking techniques. I've got one ready now though - come and see:

The card features all my favourite masking techniques but last week's script idea has obviously stayed with me too! I made my postage stamp by cutting a square aperture in a post it note and sponging a background inside. I stamped the lovely cherries from Fruit and Flowers over the top and added the number, using my stamp-a-majig for accuracy, before cutting it out with my Postage Stamp punch.

I really like the effect and am already dreaming of all sorts of other postage stamp designs! Do you like the postmark? The wavy lines are from my lovely Winter Post Christmas set as is the 'post card' stamp - not just for Christmas you see! - the circular bit of the postmark is from the fabulous French Foliage set.

This cluster of flowers and leaves was created using post it note masks too but this time I stamped the images onto the sticky notes and cut round them carefully with sharp paper snips.  I stamped the first flower and masked it before stamping the second, then masked both flowers before stamping the leaf. I water coloured the flowers and added Old Olive stamens with a marker. I blended them in a little with the aqua painter which I'm not sure about really... the children are all saying it's fine but I suspect they want to use the computer!

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

Stamps: Everything Eleanor, French Foliage, Winter Post, En Français

Ink: Marina Mist, Old Olive, Soft Suede

Card stock: Crumb Cake, Confetti White, scrap of Whisper White

Other: Markers, Postage Stamp punch, paper snips, post it notes, stamp-a-majig

I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you (except the post it notes!) 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.

As part of the Sale-a-bration promotion, here until 31st March, you can choose a free stamp set or set of papers with EVERY £45 you spend. Click here to see all the fabulous Sale-a-bration freebies.

My youngest son had some of his friends round for a late birthday sleep-over last night. Why do they call it a sleep-over I wonder? Sleeping is the one thing that doesn't really happen at all! Actually they were all beautifully behaved and had a whale of a time but for some reason I'm feeling a little bleary!

I'll be back on Monday with a male card for Masculine Monday but in the meantime I'll look forward to seeing everyone's masked creations - if I can get back on the computer that is!