Bah Humbug Paper Tearing Challenge

This week's challenge over at Bah Humbug is paper tearing - scary eh?  Normally we sit and stroke all our lovely papers and it just seems wrong to tear them!!!  lol

I chose two papers from My Mind's Eye Christmas Glitter stack.  The largest piece was torn towards me so I had a good white core and then inked and attached to an A5 white card blank.  For my focal point I have used my new LOTV Christmas angel.  She is stamped onto white watercolour paper with StazOn ink and I have used Letraset AquaMarkers to colour her in.  I have used Angelina fibres for her wings and then stamped her holly crown again and decoupaged that onto the image.  It was then die cut and matted using my Nesties labels dies.  The sentiment is from a Stampin Up set and was also die cut and matted with the Nesties labels dies.  The snowflake is from another SU set and stamped and embossed in silver.  I cut it out using a SU scalloped circle punch and put a brad through the centre.  My angel's dress had a coating of Stickles and I then added some matching ribbon.

Thanks for looking.

Retirement card

I suddenly remembered I had to make a retirement card and realised that I still had some bits and pieces left over from making the Thank You card yesterday.  I'm not saying I'm stingy LOL............ but it's a shame not to use them up.

The person I've made the card for is passionate about the garden so again I've used Stampin Up stamps for the main image which is stamped onto cream pearlescent card.  It's then layered onto mauve card edged with a MS punch and then onto the same cream card which has been put through my Big Shot with one of the new Papermania embossing folders and then layered onto green card.  The background paper is from Elusive Images and I made a border using silver mirri, mauve card and the background paper.  All of this was edged using the same MS punch.  A matching ribbon and paper flower & brad were added.  The sentiment is computer generated.

Thanks for looking.

Thank you for a wonderful weekend

At the weekend we went up to Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to celebrate the 100th birthday of Tony's aunt.  We had an absolutely wonderful time and it was great catching up with relatives old and new.

Although a lot of the family had a hand in it the main organiser was Terry, Gladys' eldest son, who did an fantastic job making sure everyone had a memorable time.

I have just made this thank you card to send to Terry and his wife Janet.  I have used Stampin Up stamps for the main image and sentiment.  The cream mat was put through my Big Shot with the Crafts Too Swiss Dots 5"x5" embossing folder and I used a Martha Stewart deep edge punch on the lilac mat.  A ribbon and some pearls finished off the card.

All the ladies were presented with a wonderful lilac and cream flower arrangement plus there was a lovely box of Thorntons chocolates in every room.

Here is a picture of Gladys cutting her cake.  I think she looks nearer to 80 than 100 years old.  She's fantastic!


Thanks for looking.

Die Cut Dreams "Sweet Christmas Wishes"

The challenge over at Die Cut Dreams this week is "Sweet Christmas Wishes".  I have just bought some of the LOTV Christmas stamps but also had a sheet of die cuts of this lovely kneeling Angel.

I used two of the medium die cuts and used my circle Nesties to cut them out and then mounted on blue mirri which was cut out using my scalloped circle Nesties.  I did the same with the small image.  The background paper is from an Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD.  The border across the centre is punched out using my MS snowflake border punch which was then mounted on the blue mirri; I then added the spotted ribbon and bow.  I felt the card was a bit too dark so added another border on which I used a MS deep edge punch - this was slipped under the main border.  I then added some paper flowers and leaves that I punched out using a Nellies punch and embosser set.  The sentiment is from Circa Stamps and it was embossed using blue glitter powder and then matted onto blue mirri.  I then went to town with some Stickles and added some blue gems.

Thanks for looking.

Bah Humbug Christmas Scene Challenge

The challenge over at Bah Humbug this week is Christmas Scenes.  For this card I have used the village stamp from Creative Expressions Create-a-scene set.  I stamped onto cream pearlescent card with SU Chocolate Chip ink and then used a water brush to drag in some of the colour.  When it was dry I used a Quickie Glue pen and Glamour Dust to the roofs, trees and bridge etc but I am not sure that this photo shows the glitter up that well.  I die cut some photo corners from a Sizzix die and then matted and layered onto matching co-ordinating cardstock.  For the punched border I used a Martha Stewart snowflake embossing die.  The sentiment is from a Papermania Silent Night set stamped onto the cream pearlescent card and clear embossed and I used my SU oval and scalloped oval punches to matt and layer.

Thanks for looking.

Ribbon Flowers for a 100th Birthday

Ages ago, and I can't exactly remember how long, my friends and I went to a craft show and were all tempted by a stand making ribbon flowers and bows.  We all ended up buying the DVD and metres of florists ribbon.  I must admit I did watch the DVD but since then everything has been gathering dust until today.

At the weekend we are going to a 100th birthday party and I really wanted something nice to go on top of our present.  Hmmm, then I remembered the ribbons and DVD so I hunted round and managed to find everything I needed and for a first attempt at the roses and large flower (difficult to see in the photo) I was quite pleased with the outcome.  I just hope Gladys likes it.

Her birthday is actually today so I do hope she's received her card from the Queen!!!

Thanks for looking.

Die Cut Dreams "Santa" Challenge

This week's challenge over at Die Cut Dreams is Santa.  As I had just picked up a Papermania decoupage and pyramage kit (Silent Night) I thought I would make good use of it.

I actually managed to get three cards out of this kit so am entering them all into the challenge as I couldn't decide between them!!  The top one is an easel card and I layered the Santa decoupage on some pearlised card and then added Glamour Dust for some "bling".  I put some ribbon and a bow in the left hand top corner and used a Martha Steward corner punch.  The sentiment is from the kit mounted onto some mirri card as is the "stopper" for the easel card.

The next card was actually included in the kit so I just decoupaged the main image, added Glamour Dust, the greeting and a small bow.

The third card is made up from a square card blank with a strip of holy paper from the Papermania Silent Night pack.  I added a ribbon from my stash down the edge of the paper and then layered up the pyramage on the white card.  The sentiment was included in the kit and then I added some red Stickles as faux gems and to add some dimension to the holly berries.  I had a small piece of the holly paper left over so punched out shapes to make a flower with and added a red brad.

Thanks for looking.

Christmas Stocking...........

This weeks challenge over at Bah Humbug is Christmas Stockings which may or may not be a coincidence as for my spot prize I received some Christmas die cuts (with Christmas stockings included) and some huge gems plus a lovely handmade card - whose a lucky girl then?  lol

I just had to use some of my spot prize for this card.  I started off with an A5 red card which I put through my Big Shot in a Papermania embossing folder so the left hand side of the card got embossed.  I added a piece of My Mind's Eye card to the right hand side and added some red and white ribbon.  I embossed some gold mirri using the same embossing folder and used a Martha Steward corner punch.  A piece of red foiled holly card was put across the middle of the mirri card and three of the Christmas stockings added using foam pads.  I tied three ribbons to top the stockings.  The sentiment is from a Papermania clear stamp set (Silent Night) and to finish off I used some of the smaller gems that I received in my spot prize.

Thanks again to Irene, Ann and Max over at Bah Humbug for all these great challenges and for my goodie parcle.

Suspended Flower card and Shaker card

We had our monthly club meeting this week and so Anne, Jan and I have been busy making samples to show the girls.  We did two projects; the first one was a shaker card and the second a suspended flower card.

For the shaker card I cut out a frame using my nesties scalloped circles.  I covered a square card with some floral paper from my stash and then added the base of my shaker.  The waste from cutting the frame I used as the backing and then stamped the ballerina image from Debbi Moore's Funky Divas stamp set and coloured using ProMarkers.  I attached this to the backing and added some seed beads for the "shaker" element.  Acetate was added to the back of the frame and attached using shaker tape.  The sentiment is from a Stampin Up set stamped onto a punched oval and scalloped oval using SU punches.  I then added a ribbon and some stickles around the frame.

The second card is a suspended flower card.  I started off with a square white card and I cut a section out of the front of the card.  This was replaced with acetate.  I put the card and acetate through my Big Shot using the Crafts Too daisy embossing folder.  I then placed the flowers (Little Claire) over the edge of the card and acetate which has the effect that the flowers are floating.  A ribbon and sentiment finished the card off.

Thanks for looking.

Die Cut Dreams "Beary" Christmas challenge

This week over at Die Cut Dreams their challenge is "beary" Christmas.  I have been wanting to use this digistamp from Prairie Fairy Designs for a while and it just fits this challenge beautifully.

The image was printed out onto super smooth card, coloured with ProMarkers and then I added some Diamond Sparkles for a bit of "bling".  Image was edged with silver ink and matted onto navy card which was again edged.  The DL card is covered with navy and silver embossed holly card from my stash.  An organza ribbon bow and peel off sentiment added to finish it off.

Thanks for looking.

Die Cut Dreams Christmas Wreath challenge

The Die Cut Dreams Christmas Challenge this week is Christmas Wreaths which left me with a bit of a problem as I don't have any rubber stamps with a wreath image. 

I was hunting through my stash and came across a wreath that I saved from an old Christmas card from last year.  It was a bit minimilist so I mounted it on some gold card which I cut around the edge to leave a border.  As it was a large wreath I took an 8" square card blank and covered it with a sheet of red  paper from the Papermania "A Christmas Carol" paper stack.  I placed the wreath centrally on the card and added some red Stickles to the holly berries around it.  The sentiment (Papermania "A Silent Night" stamp set) was stamped using a Kaleidoscope inkpad and clear embossed and then cut out and placed diagonally.  Some holly corner peel-offs completed the card.

Thanks for looking.

Bah Humbug Less is More Challenge

Over at Bah Humbug this week the challenge is "less is more" - not an easy one for those of us who love using ribbon, gems etc!!!  lol

For this very simple card I ran a piece of black mirri card through my Big Shot in a Cuttlebug embossing folder and using a Quickie glue pen added Glamour Dust to the stars, smoke and the rooftops.  This was then matted onto a piece of silver mirri and then onto the base card which is an A5 black ribbed card.  The sentiment is a peel-off matted and layered using my SU punches and I then added a simple peel-off in each corner.  Very quick and easy!

Thanks for looking.

Retirement card

A friend of mine who is in the same free machine embroidery group has just retired so I thought it would be nice to make a card for her which could be signed by all the group.

I used my Flippin Women set for the main image of a lady relaxing in a bath full of bubbles whilst drinking a glass full of bubbles!!!  lol  I started off with an A5 oval aperture card and cut out the back oval as well.  I covered the front of the card with some paper from my stash and then inserted a piece of acetate between the two layers.  I stamped the image with Memento ink and coloured with ProMarkers.  For the bubbles I used a bottle of Snow Writer which goes on white but dries with an irridescent bubbly effect.  I added some Diamond Glaze to the bottle of champagne and her glass and "dribbled" some down the bath to look like condensation.  I added a large pearl earring and then attached both images to the front and back of the acetate.  I used my large Penny Black Zoophabet set to stamp her name onto shrink plastic; coloured with ProMarkers and cut out each letter which was then shrunk.  I cut out a frame using nesties and used my ProMarker airgun to colour the card and then cut it to size.  I then stuck the alphabet letters onto this piece of frame and attached it over the top of the oval aperture.  Finally I stamped and embossed the three sentiments and layered using my SU punches and then added a ribbon and some gems.

Hope she likes it.

Stampin Up Workshop at Newbury

Hi Everyone

Just a quick post today - my friend Jan and I were out all day yesterday at the craft fair at Newbury Race Course and signed up to a Stampin Up workshop whilst we were there - at £5 it was a bargain and a chance to sit down for an hour!!!

Hayley from SU took the workshop and she was great - friendly and lots of fun - plus she had everything ready for us.  We made two cards and a gift bag which wasn't bad in one hour.

Thanks for looking.

Arctic Christmas

Hi everyone - this week's challenge over at Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club is Arctic Christmas.

After a little thought I realised it had to be something featuring Polar Bears although I think some of the cards featured have penguins on them - but penguins live in the Antarctic; if they lived in the Arctic with the polar bears there wouldn't be any left!!!!  lol

So for this card I am back on my recycling bent.  I had kept this lovely image of a polar bear and two cubs from last year and couldn't resist using it.  I started off cutting it to size and then punching the corners with a Martha Stewart corner punch.  This was then matted onto red mirri and white card which had their corners rounded.  I then took an 8" square card blank and covered the front with some red foiled holly card and used the matching Martha Steward edger punch at the bottom.  On the right hand side I cut two slits and threaded my red ribbon through and then tied some red and white ribbon in a knot.  There was also a smaller image which was again mounted on red mirri and white card with rounded corners and this was attached using a silver brad.  I then used my Stampin Up word window punch to lay the computer generated sentiment behind.

Thanks for looking.

Bah Humbug Father Christmas Challenge

This week's challenge from Bah Humbug is Father Christmas.

This had to be a traditional card for me and I chose to use my Hampton Art's Santa Claus stamp as I think it typifies the way we think of him.  I used London Fog Memento ink to stamp the image and then used ProMarkers to colour his face and hat.  I then used silver Glamour Dust to outline his hat and beard and some Stickles on the red part of his hat and the holly berries.  I added some Diamond Glaze to his glasses to make them stand out.  The image was cut out using a Nesties labels die and mounted onto a red embossed card.  The backing paper was from my stash and I ran it through my Big Shot in a Crafts Too folder.  The sentiment is one of my favourites from Hero Arts which was matted and layered onto red and gold mirri card.  The addition of a red ribbon and knot were the finishing touches.

Thanks for looking.