Monday, 30 November 2020

Frosted Flurry

 


For Day 30 at Beccy's Place Month Long Holiday Cards Challenge the prompt is to Do What You Love.

I love making Christmas cards full stop. I love pretty papers, I love dies, I LOVE snowflakes so this card embodies all of those. This is also the last race for this year and I wanted to try and make it in time to be able to enter it. I love a challenge ☺

The die cut is Frosted Flurry from Crafter's Companion and is the last of my birthday pressies from the Glittering Snowflakes items I bought. I think it is a first for me that all of the items I purchased I have used.

The die has been cut from a really heavy weight cardstock. I backed this with acetate and added a foam border to make a shaker card. The snowflakes are silver, white and blue confetti and they have a lovely shine. I backed this with another layer of acetate and played with it for a bit to make sure it would shake okay.

The card blank is an 8" square and I cut the vellum to size. This is an offcut from a previous project and was the perfect size giving me a decent white border around the paper.

The ribbon is a recent purchase from 'middle of Lidl'. They had some lovely ribbon packs that were only £1.49 for 3 rolls of 5 Metres each. I of course could not pass up such a bargain as I love me some ribbon. I made a looped bow (blooming fiddly, probably took longer than the rest of the card) I added a gemstone brad to the centre to pick out the blue from the shaker snowflakes. The sentiment was the final touch and I kept it simple to not detract from the rest of the card.

Beccy, thank you so very much for these fabulous challenges. I really hoped to be able to do them each day and I am sad to have missed out 7 of them. I have truly enjoyed taking part, tried new things and new techniques. The inspiration you have given us each day and the lovely comments on every card must take you a long while. You are so generous to us all and I hope you get as much enjoyment out of it as we all do. With a bit of luck by the time the linky ends we will have beaten last year's high score of 1166 entrants too.

Card Details -

Size - 8" x 8"
Die - Frosted Flurry (Crafter's Companion)
Paper - Glittering Snowflakes Vellum (Crafter's Companion)
Embellishments - Ribbon, gem brad, confetti snowflakes


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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Sunday, 29 November 2020

Poinsettia Wreath

 


For Day 26 at Beccy's Place Month Long Holiday Cards Challenge the prompt is the letter W. 
I have chosen Wreath

The image on this card is an old digi from Anne Fenton which I coloured way back in 2011. I had made it into a card at that time and my husband hd forgotten to give out the cards at work to his colleagues. I found them in his workbag about 3 weeks after Christmas and was blooming gutted as they were all handmade ones. They didn't have inserts so I threw them in a box to re-work them at some stage and they never saw the light of day until this year when I came across said box. (I've had both parents die, mental heath issues, moved house, major building work, new craft room and a really good sort out in between so they haven't just been gathering dust)

I have re-used this image as I am now in my 'love poinsettias phase' as I used to absolutely hate them (and I do mean hate.... I know strong word!). When we went into lockdown in March I started growing plants and vegetables from some little pots that M & S gave away when you bought £20 of shopping and it gave me a new love of gardening. I always said I could appreciate a nice garden but wasn't old enough to do it myself. I put my new love affair with Poinsettias to learning to slow down and appreciate what is around us more as I am sure many others have during this time.

The paper and sentiment are both from the Poinsettia Perfection range from Crafter's Companion. This was a freebie with a craft magazine and has really come in handy with Christmas cards this year. It has a lovely patterned frame on both sides so doesn't really need a lot adding to it. I used some of the lovely printed poinsettia ribbon and a simple sentiment.

We have an elderly asian couple who live over the road. They don't celebrate Christmas so I always make them a card without a specifically Christmas sentiment.

Where we live it has been really foggy for the last 2 days (sorry for rubbish 'daylight' on my photo). Last night t was the start of a Christmas tree trail in the neighbourhood and Santa Claus came round in a horsedrawn carriage so it has been very atmospheric, just like something out of an old Christmas movie. Loads of people have put their trees and decorations up but I always wait until 17th December as hubby has his birthday in the 10th and then his cards are up for a week. From December 1st I will start watching Christmas movies though 🎄🎅

Card Details -

Size - A5
Image - Wreath (Anne Fenton)
Colouring Medium - Promarkers
Papers - Poinsettia Perfection (Crafter's Companion)
Embellishments - Ribbon, gems, glitter glue


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)
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Saturday, 28 November 2020

Sparkling Tree Tile

 


For Day 23 at Beccy's Place Month Long Holiday Cards Challenge the prompt is the letter T. 
I have chosen Tree

I purchased this tree die a good number of years ago before I had my crafty hiatus. I saw it on a blog and just HAD to have it..... you know how it is 😉 However this is the first time I have used it which I am embarrassed to admit. There I have come clean and no longer need to feel guilty as it has finally been used.

This card unfortunately didn't come out as originally intended though. The silver is a glittery self adhesive vinyl. My plan was to use the outline on one card and then piece in the waste onto another card. However what I didn't consider is that the die didn't completely cut through the plastic layer on such a material, especially being so intricate. Never having used this kind of sticky backed plastic before lesson learned....

So my initial idea ditched I put it to one side and forgot about it (as you do!) 

I have been following Hannelie's Desert Diva blog for years. She makes some amazing CAS cards and although my own style is not usually like that I really do admire her work. She did a recent post as brand ambassador for Uniko and it had some super cards that inspired me to dig out my tree and make something similar.

The base is a navy blue DL card blank. Long and thin cards are in fashion at the moment and seem to really work as a more CAS style. I cut a panel of good quality white card and cut a triangle window out of it to suit the tree. The vinyl I had trimmed down into a triangle and coloured the inside with a dark blue Promarker. This section was stuck down onto the blue card. The white panel is raised up on foam pads so the tree is in the background.

I have added a few star gems to the panel and some blue and clear to the tree for a bit more sparkle. To keep it simple I used a silver peel off sticker sentiment.

I am not entirely sure if I should have cut out a 'trunk' but thought it might make it less clean looking. I really struggle with CAS as I always want to add more to fill in the white space. That kind of defeats the style of card I guess so for now I am leaving it alone.


Card Details -

Size - DL/Slimline
Dies – Sparkling Tree Tile 98919 (Memory Box)
Colouring Medium - Promarkers
Embellishments – self adhesive gems, peel off stickers


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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Friday, 27 November 2020

Frosted Elegance

 


For Day 25 at Beccy's Place Month Long Holiday Cards Challenge the prompt is the letter V. 
I have chosen Vellum

The main centrepiece of this card is this fancy Frosted Elegance embossing folder from Crafter's Companion. It is a large size at 6" square so on this 8" square size you don't really need an awful lot else.

 When it was my birthday at the end of September I had some pennies to spend from family and treated myself to some of the items in the Glittering Snowflakes collection that CC brought out. This fabulous embossing folder was one, as was the patterned vellum. This is an offcut from a previous project. It was a really expensive pad but the thickness of it really is impressive. By backing it with a layer of the blue card it really shows the colour through it.

I embossed some Core'dinations cardstock which has a whitewash finish to it. I then sanded it back and the blue the comes through. I also sanded the corners lightly to create a vignette effect.

The middle is a plastic embellishment that came from the wedding section at The Range. It is meant to look like diamante but the plastic comes out of the little holes so I filled them in with some silver glitter glue blobs to make it more sparkly. The centre is a blue self adhesive gem.

Finally the sentiment has been recycled from a card and matted onto a scrap of silver cardstock. You know sometimes you look at something you have made and think you had an out of body experience? This is one of those cards that looks so elegant that I'm not sure it was me that made it!



Card Details -

Size - 8" x 8"
Embossing Folder - Frosted Elegance (Crafter's Companion)
Paper - Core'dinations Whitewash cardstock, Glittering Snowflakes Vellum (Crafter's Companion)
Embellishments - Plastic flower centre, self adhesive gem, Silver Stickles glitter glue


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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Thursday, 26 November 2020

Marleen's Christmas Stocking

 


Imagine That Digistamp is now running a Digi of the month Progressive Freebie challenge again. Yay! Kris' images are always so much fun and delightful to work with. Marleen's Christmas Stocking is a lovely set with the outline and coloured images plus 3 matching papers. Such a generous set. Thanks Kris. Looking forward to playing each month.

I have coloured the image with Promarkers and added some red glitter gel pen. I drew lines on the dress with ultra fine Sharpies to create a plaid effect. I used lots of Stickles glitter glue on the Christmas hat and some star gems on the background and a gold one on the stocking tree top.

I have used sketch 485 from Try Stamping on Tuesday for the layout. 


The base is a sheet of A4 card. For Day 20 at Beccy's Place Month Long Holiday Cards Challenge the prompt is the letter Q so I chose to use a paper from my scraps box which suited this and then added a gold gel pen to look like quilted stitching on it. From my scraps box the middle foiled paper was part of a paper kit that came as a Let's Make Cards kits years and years old. The strip with writing on has been recycled from a Christmas card as was the sentiment which has been cut into a banner shape and matted onto gold card.

I really hoped I was going to be able to complete all of Beccy's challenges but may have to admit defeat. I am suffering with a cold and chest infection and it is wiping me out. I am quite far behind so I will definitely complete them all but maybe not before the end of November.

Card Details -

Size - A5
Image - Marleen's Christmas Stocking (Imagine That Digistamp)
Colouring Medium - Promarkers, gel pens
Embellishments - Star Gems, Stickles Glitter Glue


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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Wednesday, 25 November 2020

Ellie with Kittens & Paw Prints

 


Over at the Outlawz Challenge there is a monthly Progressive Freebie Challenge. 
If you have taken part in the previous month you get a new image to play with.

This month we got the super cute Ellie with Kittens to play with from The Paper Nest Dolls. I have coloured the image with Promarkers and added some white gel pen to the eyes. I used a Fiskars Shapecutter template to cut out the oval and used an inkpad to distress the edges.



Pinksy Doodles has just released a cool SVG that I thought would work really well as a sentiment. Paw Prints is available from the Etsy store for only £1.49 for the SVG cut file. I printed it out onto white card, cut with a Nesting Oval Tracks Cookie Cutter die and then mounted onto a scrap of brown card.


The layout of the card is sketch 484 at Try Stamping on Tuesday.  When I saw this image I knew I wanted to use my new stencil aptly named Pawprints from Newton's Nook Designs. I used a sheet of A4 linen texture card for the base and stencilled directly onto the bottom of the card using 2 shades of brown Distress Inks.


Following the sketch I used a brown spotty paper for the top section of the card and some plain gross grain ribbon. I inked all around the edge of the card and finished off with a bow I made from some spotty organza ribbon.

Card Details -

Size - A5
Digital Image – Ellie With Kittens (The Paper Nest Dolls)
Digital Sentiment – Paw Prints SVG (Pinksy Doodles)
Dies – Nesting Oval Tracks (Quickcutz Cookie Cutter)
Stencils – Pawprints (Newton’s Nook Designs), Oval Shapecutter (Fiskars)
Colouring Medium – Promarkers, White gel pen, Distress Inks
Embellishments – Ribbon & Bow


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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Tuesday, 24 November 2020

Scraps & Recycling

 


For Day 18 at Beccy's Place Month Long Holiday Cards Challenge the prompt is to use scraps.

One thing that I love to do is make use of shop bought Christmas cards that have been given to us and also to a couple of friends who save their cards for me. They can be a source of some lovely sparkly bits, super sentiments, sometimes some lovely papers and patterned cards and some fabulous foiled frames. This whole card has been made by pulling together scraps that have been recycled. You can see what I used below.


I used a sheet of gold A4 card as the base and then added the poinsettia patterned card which I edged with a gold paint pen. Quote often these sorts of printed card have a white core so the gold pen adds a bit of sparkle and neatens those white edges.

I used the latest sketch 396 from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.


The sentiment has been framed with the silver star frame. I then mounted this onto the gold frame which was trimmed to fit to the same shape.

The poinsettia was the centrepiece of a card but one of the yellow gems had come off it. I added a small one from my stash and also a larger one to go in the centre. This has been mounted onto some thin foam squares. Finally I added the fabric leaves as I realised I had missed those when I was putting the bits and pieces together. 

As this card is nice and flat it will be a good one to go in the post. Your recipient would never guess that it is all made of scraps from old cards as there are so many foiled elements that make it look more expensive. I love making new from old, rescuing what would go on the scrapheap and thus helping the environment.

Card Details -

Size - A5
Colouring Medium - Gold Paint pen
Embellishments - Gems & Fabric leaves


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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Monday, 23 November 2020

Ornaments

 


For Day 17 at Beccy's Place Month Long Holiday Cards Challenge the prompt is the letter O. 
I have chosen Ornaments.

This card has been made using Ornaments which was a recent free image set from Jan's Digi Stamps. It is still available and comes in both coloured and black & white. 

I have coloured it using Promarkers. I was most inspired by the swirly one as I have red glass baubles with glitter just like it. They were the very first baubles I bought when we had our first Christmas together 30 years ago. Many of my ornaments I have made myself including the cutest cross stitched 3D gingerbread house, sequinned Christmas puddings and the angel that tops the tree (her hair has fallen out now but she has a sparkly halo so it's all good)

Many have been individually bought and have a lot of sentimental value. I have glass droplets from Macy's in New York. They were wrapped well as they survived travelling to Las Vegas (wedding venue) and then Los Angeles (honeymoon). There is a mirrored present/gift from Harrods, a really sparkly jingle bell from Liberty in London, a spun glass tree from York, a tiny snow globe from Bath and the list goes on. I know where each came from and cherish the memories from each one.

When the image was coloured I used a glue pen to trace the fine lines and added gold glitter to the swirly one and silver to the other. I would not normally make a card with both gold and silver on but it's Christmas so anything goes as far as I am concerned.

The base of the card has been covered with green snowflake paper as I felt it would compliment both red and purple. It is from a Traditional Christmas 12x12" pad from The Works. I have used it a fair bit already this Christmas as it has some really nice designs.

The die is Victorian Frame by Crafter's Companion. You get 3 dies in the set so you have the solid background, then the very intricate pattern and a central panel so you can cut out the frame or use it for layering. It's a decent size die. I print many in one go to fit an A4 sheet so I don't waste the paper but that does mean my sizing can be off sometimes. Quite often I make my images fairly large as I mostly make A5 cards then when it comes to matting my dies don't fit..... 

I used some rub on chalks to knock back the background as the white seemed a little too stark and then added some holographic peel off stickers around the edge of the image.

I wrapped the ribbon round some purple card which made it easier to attach. This looks wonky in the photo but I measured everything to make sure it would line up. I think it is the angle that the card was to get the best lighting for the glitter to show that is the problem. 

As a final touch I found a purple sentiment and mounted onto a scrap of glittery gold cardstock.

Thankyou to Jan's Digi Stamps for a lovely image ☺

Card Details -

Size – A5
Dies – Victorian Frame (Crafter’s Companion)
Paper – Traditional Christmas (The Works)
Colouring Medium - Promarkers
Embellishments – Ribbon, Glitter, Peel off stickers


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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Sunday, 22 November 2020

Bike Racer


Today is the birthday of a very special friend who is mad keen on biking. He has recently had an electric bike which he absolutely loves.

I found this digistamp in my collection Bike Racer from Digi Darla which looks the same style as the one our friend has. Unfortunately they have now been retired but it doesn't stop me from using the images if they suit the occasion. 

I used the latest sketch from Cheerful Sketches for the layout and decided to use the colour scheme of black, silver and white throughout.
 

The image has been coloured with Promarkers in mainly greys. This is one of those times when I am glad they have so many greys to choose from!

The card base is an 8" square. Throughout the project all the cards and papers used have come from my scraps. I have used a mixture of metallic, hologram and glitter paper. This use of different textures really helped with the die cut sentiment which is from Crafter's Companion. They are a decent size and really make a statement especially on larger cards.

Card Details -

Size – 8” x 8”
Digital Image – Bike Racer (Digi Darla Retired)
Dies – Just For You (Crafter’s Companion)
Paper – The Glitter Stack (DCWV)
Colouring Medium - Promarkers


I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)



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Saturday, 21 November 2020

Noel


For Day 16 at Beccy's Place Month Long Holiday Cards Challenge the prompt is the letter N. 
I have chosen Noel.

Inspired by a card that the lovely Donna made I followed the tutorial on Beccy's Place blog for a Building Block Card.  

I used a sheet of A4 Card for the base and divided it into 3 along the width. The dimensions were slightly different to Beccy's but it is very easy to follow her very clear instructions and adapt it to scale up or down once you have the basic principle.

I cut 4 pieces from another sheet of card, scored them as instructed and attached to the inside of the card. I delved into my scraps and the star paper is actually the inside of a Christmas card. The front section is a piece of card recycled from another card. The snowflake on the front is the 'waste' snowflake that was cut from my Snowflake Window card


Both the sentiment on the front and the NOEL letters have also been recycled from other Christmas cards. The only new elements are the metallic snowflakes, the snowflake stickers and the self adhesive gems. 

This card looks so intricate but is actually very easy to make. Thank you for the inspiration Donna & Beccy. It was nice to try something different.

Card Details -

Size - DL / Slimline
Die - Frosted Window (Crafter's Companion)
Embellishments - Peel off stickers, self adhesive gems, metallic hologram snowflake

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)




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Thursday, 19 November 2020

Christmas Pooch


For Day 15 at Beccy's Place Month Long Holiday Cards Challenge the prompt is the letter M. 
I have chosen Mistletoe.

This card was made using this cute little sausage dog image Christmas Pooch from All Dressed Up. I had used it previously to make a digital card for DT work at 12 Months of Christmas earlier in the year. It is coloured with Promarkers.

I have used Sketch 483 from Try Stamping On Tuesdays for the layout. The card base is a sheet of A4 gold card. The mistletoe paper os from the Christmas Cheer pad by K&Company which was a bargain purchase many years ago from the QVC clearance shop in Shrewsbury. It had been opened and returned with some other accessories. Nothing wrong with it or missing and I got a kit that was sold for over £40 for less than £10. The paper pad on its own was worth much more than that. I used to get some amazing bargains from there when QVC did more good crafty ranges a few years ago.


The image has been matted in gold too. The gold strip has been recycled from a shop bought Christmas card. There often are fabulous foiled elements like patterned strips and sentiments that can be cut out from these cards and used in projects like this. I like to think I am helping to save these precious gems from a life of misery and despair in a rubbish pile somewhere.....

There is an option on this challenge to use brads, buttons or eyelets and I found four matching fancy gold star brads so used them. The 'any shape' element is made using some fabric mistletoe leaves that were on a beaded floral stick from The Range. The beads have been recycled from Christmas crackers. You quite often get fancy beads and ribbons/bows from those and everyone knows to save them for me 😀. These had wire on them so I poked a hole through the paper and used the wire to safely secure the mistletoe stalk adding a little red line tape to the leaves. When I am using brads I add them to the paper before adhering to the card base. This makes all loose metal ends be hidden and really secures them to the card.
 

The inside of the card has been decorated using the last offcuts of the sheet of paper. I have used the Treading Water punch from Fiskars and added some holographic peel of stickers. The sentiment is from Ginger's House. There are so many freebies on this blog.  The blog has not been updated since 2017 but there are hundreds of sentiments on there. If you have not visited I would strongly recommend that you take a look at how many really high quality free sentiments are on there.

Card Details -

Size – A5
Digital Image – Christmas Pooch (All Dressed Up)
Digital Sentiment – Ginger’s House
Paper – Christmas Cheer (K&Company)
Punch – Treading Water (Fiskars)
Colouring Medium - Promarkers
Embellishments – Brads, fabric leaves, beads, peel off stickers

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges (in Alphabetical Order)

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