Do What You Love

Beccy's Place runs a month of Holiday Cards challenge throughout November. Most days are a prompt with the letter of the alphabet but as there are only 26 then we get a random prompt too.

The prompt for Day 30 is Do What You Love

My current obsession is Diamond Painting. I tried not to be sucked into it as I wasn't really keen on the idea of using lots of little dots of plastic to make a picture. However I was gifted a small kit and really enjoyed doing it. It is like cross stitch but builds up quicker and depending on how large your kit is can be quite portable.

This kit is from Craft Buddy and is a cool perspex tree that has LED lights inside the frame which is made of thick mountboard covered with a wood effect paper.

It is the same panel front and back, you peel off the cover sheet, stick the sparkly gems onto the colour coded adhesive dots and then peel off the protective white backing so it is clear. I took these panels on the Baltic cruise we went on late September/early October so this will always remind me of visiting Tallinn in Estonia, Helsinki in Finland, Copenhagen in Denmark, Kiel in Germany & Visby in Sweden.

I have just put together the actual tree part following the instructions in the kit. It was quite awkward as the slots were not wide enough so they had to be trimmed a little with a craft knife to get them in. 

It looks quite nice on it's own without the lights but with them on it is such a warm glow. The tree is a decent size at 21.5 cm wide by 37.5 cm tall so is a great decoration to have at Christmas time.

They do a snowflake one which was out of stock when I bought this. It is available again so I will more than likely be making a purchase. We do not buy Christmas presents but I may buy this for myself......

It has been absolutely wonderful to be able to participate in this years challenge. 

I really missed it completely last year. Crafting and cardmaking has to be on the back burner due to being so busy with 2 jobs. I feel like I lose myself when I am not able to be creative and wanted to make a big push to take part this year.

Thank you Beccy for running this challenge once again, for all your hard work, lovely comments and generosity with prizes.

Project Details -

Size - 21.5cm wide x 37.5 cm Tall

Kit - Baubles LED Light Up Tree (Craft Buddy)

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

Beccy’s Place Challenges - Month of Holiday Cards Day 30 - Do What You Love

Yellow & Gold

 

Beccy's Place runs a month of Holiday Cards challenge throughout November. Most days are a prompt with the letter of the alphabet but as there are only 26 then we get a random prompt too.

The prompt for Day 28 is Y - My card is Y for Yellow

This is another 8" card made with one of the largest diamond painting stickers and some of the small stars as accents.

I covered the base with the reverse of one of the papers from the Winter Berries pad which was a free gift from the Birthday event at Crafter's Companion Evesham store last month. Considering it still retails at £15 it was a fabulous bargain. I added a thin gold peel off border to edge the card.

The main focal image is so large I didn't want to over embellish the card so I used some of the small stars from the kit and added a die cut sentiment created with 2 different gold cards. The lower part is just a scrap of plain gold, the upper layer with the outline is a sparkly gold scrap.

Card Details -

Size - 8” Square 

Image - Christmas Wall Art Stickers (Craft Buddy)

Dies - Merry Christmas (Crafter’s Companion)

Designer Paper - Winter Berries 12” (Crafter’s Companion)

Embellishments - Gold peel off border sticker

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

Beccy’s Place Challenges - Month of Holiday Cards Day 28 - Y is for Yellow

Wreath

 

Beccy's Place runs a month of Holiday Cards challenge throughout November. Most days are a prompt with the letter of the alphabet but as there are only 26 then we get a random prompt too.

The prompt for Day 26 is W - My card is W for Wreath

We are almost at the end of November I am so blooming proud of myself as I somehow managing to stay not too far behind the challenges. Some of that is down to using pre-coloured digital images. Some of that is due to these diamond painting stickers that I have already done the sticky stuff earlier in the year. 

I have however made every single card along the way though which has been a challenge in itself when juggling 2 jobs. 

I do love making Christmas cards the best of all though and was so very sad last year when I was just too busy for so long and I didn't get to craft and enjoy the run up to Christmas. If I am being honest last Christmas wss just too much hassle for me and I was exhausted. I very nearly didn't put my tree up!

Anyhoo, back to this card. The wreath is another of the lovely diamond painting stickers. It is one if the largest as this card is 8" so it pretty much needs nothing else. I trimmed the sticker closer to the design by fussy cutting all the way round inside and outside. Even though it is a clear sticker I didn't want to see a big border around the design when added to patterned paper.

This paper has a subtle layer of green glitter embedded into the snowflakes in the background. I was tempted to put a gem in the centre of each one but reflected upon it and decided that would detract from the wreath and it was probably busy enough without it.

The sentiment in the middle has been recycled from a card and mounted onto a scrap of gold glitter card used in a previous project.

Card Details -

Size - 8” Square

Image - Christmas Wall Art Stickers (Craft Buddy)

Designer Paper - Merry Christmas Vintage Style (Craft Sensations)

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

Beccy’s Place Challenges - Month of Holiday Cards Day 26 - W is for Wreath

Christmas Robin

 Beccy's Place runs a month of Holiday Cards challenge throughout November. Most days are a prompt with the letter of the alphabet but as there are only 26 then we get a random prompt too.

The prompt for Day 25 is V - My card is V for Verde (green in Italian, Spanish & Portuguese)

I found I was clutching at straws a bit with V so I chose Verde as a lot of this card is green.

It started off with the lovely Robin, the quintessential bird we associate with Christmas in the UK. This is a really large sticker from the Diamond Painting kit. They are intended to be wall art but I trim them very close to the image and use them on cards instead. The background is the central panel which has been recycled from a shop bought card so the foiled sentiment and dots were already on there. The placement was perfect for the robin so I only had to mat this on gold and green cardstock.

The 8" scalloped edge card is decorated with alternating red and green Card Candi from Craftwork Cards which are mounted onto foam squares. 

I really like this card a lot so may give it to my hubby as I think it will be hard to part with this one.

Card Details -

Size - 8” Square

Image - Christmas Wall Art Stickers (Craft Buddy)

Embellishments - Card Kandi (Craftwork Cards)

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

Beccy’s Place Challenges - Month of Holiday Cards Day 25 - V is for Verde (green)

T is for Tree

 

Beccy's Place runs a month of Holiday Cards challenge throughout November. Most days are a prompt with the letter of the alphabet but as there are only 26 then we get a random prompt too.

The prompt for Day 22 is T - My card is T for Tree

The main element to this card is a diamond painting kit I got from TK Maxx for the princely sum of £2.20 The intention was to make a card from it at Christmas and I very nearly forgot. I had completed the actual image earlier in the year and stashed in a bag of UFO's (Unfinished Objects). I was rifling through this the other day to get something out I needed and found this.... This is my T I thought to myself!

The base card is and 8" and I trimmed the canvas close to the diamonds. I then realised that it was a bit too big and would not allow me to have a border so I carefully removed the outer line of dots and this was the perfect width for me to add a silver peel off border to it.

I used a lovely dark blue paper which has snowflake corners to cover the card and added some small peel off sentiments and tiny stars.

When mounted to the card I thought it was a shame the star wasn't 'twinkling' so I replaced the yellow dots with some gold gems and the red ones on the tree were also swapped out for a bit more bling.

IRL this is so sparkly as the light hits the dots and it bounces off in different angles. 

Breaking News - I have just bought a new Christmas Tree. Our local hardware store is closing down so I got the Christmas tree of my dreams for half price

Card Details -

Size - 8” Square

Image - Christmas Tree Diamond Painting Kit

Designer Paper - A Sparkling Winter 8” (Crafter’s Companion)

Embellishments - Peel off stickers

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

Beccy’s Place Challenges - Month of Holiday Cards Day 22 - T is for Tree

Jolly Snowman

 

Beccy's Place runs a month of Holiday Cards challenge throughout November. Most days are a prompt with the letter of the alphabet but as there are only 26 then we get a random prompt too.

The prompt for Day 21 is S - My card is S for Snowman

I have to be honest and say I am super proud of this card as there is so much 'white space'

The base of the card is covered with a gold metallic paper. The patterned paper is part of the same sheet I used to make my Noel card. I love the bokeh in the background which was a just enough pattern that complimented the diamond painting snowman. As the presents are in warm colours it was actually quite hard to marry it up to a nice paper (and I have a lot of paper to choose from)

The sentiment is a 2 part die from Crafter's Companion. I love the bold, modern design that mixes the 2 fonts together. The bottom layer is cut from a shiner, darker gold and the top layer is from the same background gold.

I saw a tip on Youtube from another crafter that when you are sticking down intricate dies you use a plain brayer to roller a thin layer of glue evenly on the die. I bought a set of 3 different sizes from Amazon and tried it for the first time on this die and OMG what an absolute game changer. No more spidery thin trails of glue in all the wrong places! It made it so much cleaner and easier to stick the 2 layers together and also onto the main card. If you have this same problem I would highly recommend you give it a go too.

If you know me well S is usually a snowflake or Snowman and this year is very special as we have had snow for the last few days. I desperately wanted to build a snowman but a girl's gotta work so no chance unfortunately.

Card Details -

Size - 6” Square

Image - Diamond Painting Sticker (Craft Buddy)

Dies - Let it Snow (Crafter’s Companion)

Designer Papers - Merry Christmas Icy (Craft Sensations)

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

Beccy’s Place Challenges - Month of Holiday Cards Day 21 - S is for Snowman

Q is for Quote

 

Beccy's Place runs a month of Holiday Cards challenge throughout November. Most days are a prompt with the letter of the alphabet but as there are only 26 then we get a random prompt too.

The prompt for Day 19 is Q - My card is Q for Quote

This is another card made using recent acquisitions. The starting point was this large quote which I recycled form an old card. It measures 6" so is a large focal point for this 8" card. 

I covered the card with one of the papers from my bargain Winterberry Collection kit from Crafter's Companion. 

I used one of the frames from the Holly Square die used on my Jingle Bells card. There are 5 frames of different sizes plus a holly cluster die. I have been very impressed with how clean the cut is from them considering how intricate they are. This frame cuts out a tiny holly leaf so I added some loose green glitter to provide a contrast with the darker green frame. I added a border pf green gel pen to match the gold mat.

Lots of red and clear gems were added for sparkle and a diamond painted poinsettia sticker in the top corner.

Card Details -

Size - 8” Square

Image - Diamond Painting Sticker (Craft Buddy)

Dies - Holly Square (Chloe’s Creative Cards)

Designer Paper - Winterberry Collection (Crafter’s Companion)

Colouring Medium - Gold Gel Pen

Embellishments - Red & clear self adhesive gems, Green loose glitter

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

Beccy’s Place Challenges - Month of Holiday Cards Day 19 - Q is for Quote

Olaf

 

Beccy's Place runs a month of Holiday Cards challenge throughout November. Most days are a prompt with the letter of the alphabet but as there are only 26 then we get a random prompt too.

The prompt for Day 17 is the letter O. Mine is O for Olaf

Do you wanna build a snowman?? Bet you are singing it on your head. 

I adore the Frozen films and the pretty snowflakes everywhere.

I have made this card for my friend to give to his granddaughter. She loves snowmen and Olaf from Frozen is her favourite. He is mine too so I had bought this diamond painting card kit from Craft Buddy a couple of years ago intending to make it into a framed picture to display at Christmas. Realistically after competing the kit it languished in a drawer so I have done the decent thing and he has been released in the wild.

The printed background is a lovely winter scene so didn't need anything else adding except to mat with metallic silver card. The base card is a thick chunky glitter to emulate a snowy scene and the sentiment was again matted with the same silver card.

I had the joy of making this diamond painting image and seeing a lots of dots come to life as Olaf. It is nice to be able to bring joy to a little girl by passing it on and knowing she will love it.

*** BREAKING NEWS..... WE WOKE UP TO SNOW!! ***

Very rare it snows in the area I live of the UK so that was lovely

Card Details -

Size - A5

Image - Olaf Diamond Painting Card Kit (Craft Buddy)

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

Beccy’s Place Challenges - Month of Holiday Cards Day 17 - O is for Olaf

K is for Kitty

 

Beccy's Place runs a month of Holiday Cards challenge throughout November. Most days are a prompt with the letter of the alphabet but as there are only 26 then we get a random prompt too.

The prompt for Day 12 is the letter K - My Card is Kitty

A work colleague is crackers about cats and has 9 so when I saw this image in the Craft Buddy diamond painting Christmas stickers kit I knew it would be perfect for his Christmas card.

The base card is covered with a sentiment paper (which looked more red in my lighting but I okay with it).  The green paper is an offcut from previous projects.

The hardest part of this whole card was finding a paper that looked 'right' to stock the image onto. Nothing with a patterned worked as it detracted from kitty too much. Plain looked too stark so after much deliberation I choose this almost wood effect paper which I then matted onto an iridescent dark brown.

The sentiment was a large one from an old shop bought card which I snipped to separate the words, matted with the green paper and some metallic gold card.

Finally I added some clusters of gems in the background in Christmas colours to decorate the paper.

Card Details -

Size - A5

Image - Christmas Stickers Diamond Painting Kit (Craft Buddy)

Designer Papers - Merry Christmas Traditional 12” (Craft Sensations), Christmas Characters12” (The Works) Golden Days 6” (Craft Sensations)

Embellishments - Self adhesive gems

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

Beccy’s Place Challenges - Month of Holiday Cards Day 12 - K is for Kitty

Jingle Bells

 

Beccy's Place runs a month of Holiday Cards challenge throughout November. Most days are a prompt with the letter of the alphabet but as there are only 26 then we get a random prompt too.

The prompt for Day 11 is the letter J - My Card is Jingle Bells

This card is an 8" square which I covered in a lovely paper from my Crafter's Companion Winterberry Collection kit which I chose specifically to co-ordinate with the Holly Square frame dies my sister bought me as part of my birthday present.

The outer die I cut in dark green and this then becomes the frame for some more of the patterned paper.

I used a smaller die from the set to cut a frame in a lighter green card. I thought I had made a big mistake with this as it blended into the paper too much and I had already stuck it down. I added the jingle bells diamond painting sticker as the centrepiece and this seemed to make it look worse as it was so pale. I have a small palette of rub on gilding waxes and very, very carefully added this to the edges of the frame being conscious of not being heavy handed with it and smudging the paper. I just kept going round and round building up the colour until it looked right. To be honest I am amazed I didn't ruin it.....

I used a gold gel pen to highlight the centre of the leaves. Red holly berries were added with some sparkly gems and I also used some of the spare diamond painting gems which were the perfect size. Gold gems were added to the berry sprigs on the centre frame. Gold and red Stickles glitter glue were also used to accent some more as I thought it had enough gems already.

As a final touch I added the sentiment recycled from a shop bought card matted onto a scrap of gold cardstock.

This is not a card I ever thought I would make but really love the traditional look. I used to hate poinsettias as younger me thought they were old fashioned but absolutely love them now..... I really have 'grown up' now!

Card Details -

Size - 8” Square

Image - Diamond Painting Sticker (Craft Buddy)

Dies - Holly Square (Chloe’s Creative Cards)

Designer Paper - Winterberry Collection (Crafter’s Companion)

Colouring Medium - Rub on gilding cream, gold gel pen

Embellishments - Red & Gold self adhesive gems, red diamond painting gems, Xmas Red & Gold Stickles Glitter Glue

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

Beccy’s Place Challenges - Month of Holiday Cards Day 11 - J is for Jingle Bells