Bah! Humbug! Challenge 15 - Christmas Stockings

This week's challenge over at Humbug Hall is Christmas Stockings.  I'm afraid that I'm siding with Max on this one - sorry Ann!!!  lol

I have used an image from a stamp set by Debbi Moore Designs and thought it would be something my DH would be delighted to see in his stocking this year.......... She's been coloured with Promarkers and I've added Stickles to her "furry" bits - hmm, that sounds a bit rude!!!  I used nesties labels to die cut the image and mat.  The backing paper and border of stockings is from the Papermania Classic Christmas pad.  The sentiment is computer generated and die cut using Fancy Labels 2 which is a lovely set.  I've added some gems to finish off.

Thanks for stopping by.

St Luke's Charity Challenge - Say it with Flowers

This is the first challenge from a brand new blog called St Luke's Charity Cards.  St Luke's is a hospice which cares for people aged 18 and above throughout Sheffield who have incurable illnesses. Their aim is always to control the patients symptoms, alleviate pain, and give them the best possible quality of life – all free of charge. It costs £6 million per annum to keep St Luke's open, and government funding, via NHS trusts only provides one third of the funds required, which means the Hospice has to raise a staggering £4 million each year to provide this vital end-of-life care.

They have been very kind with their first challenge which is "Say it with Flowers".  I have been making sample cards for our club night tonight and have used used my Stampin Up One of a Kind stamp set.  On a blank piece of white card I have stamped the flowers and then decoupaged them.  I also stamped single flowers to make the background.  I have used backing paper from my stash and also for the piece representing the ground.  In the top corners I have used my Martha Stewart deep corner punch - Wild Flowers.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set which says "for you" (unfortunately it isn't clear in the photo) cut out using the SU oval and scalloped oval punches and set upon a nestie die cut.  I then added some Stickles glue to the centre of the flowers and added stems using Promarkers.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 12

This week's challenge over at Bah! Humbug! is Christmas Trees.

Rather than going down the traditional route I decided to use my Penny Black Fantasy Tree which was stamped and gold embossed.  I then decided to create a pyramage using a set of nesties that I bought which were exclusive to Create & Craft.  Instead of using all the dies in the normal way I thought I would alternate each die at a 45 degree angle so they all fit inside each other but created a different look.  I also cut the largest shape from a piece of gold mirri and laid this down on my square card blank first so that the gold would glint through the layers.  I then used silicone glue to pyramage all the layers.  I then used various Stickles glue to add colour making it look as though there were Christmas lights throughout the tree.  I then added some ribbon and gems.  The sentiment is computer generated and matted using my Stampin Up oval and scalloped oval punches.

Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Lace

Over at Die Cut Dreams the challenge this week is Christmas Lace.  Strangely enough one of our projects at this week's craft club was lace glittering so I decided to use this method as well as some ordinary lace on my card.


I started off by taking a piece of card and, using red liner tape (as it's so strong), covered the width on the card that co-ordinates with the width of lace you will be using.  When you have your tape in place put down your lace over it and make sure it is very smooth.  You can use a little roller which is normally used for seams on wallpaper when you're decorating...........  Pour over your first choice of glitter (mine was red) and rub into the glue.  When all is covered remove the actual lace and you are left with the "negative" pattern.  Using another colour of glitter (in this case gold) pour it over the strip and it will adhere to the glue.  When I had finished I cut it to size for my square card blank.  I added gold mirri and red card and put a strip of lace over the join.  I have used a Lili of the Valley image and made a red frame using nesties.  I had a small piece of glittered lace left so used my EK Success photo corner punch to give me corners for the frame.  The sentiment has been stamped and embossed with red glitter e/p and matted.  Some red roses, Stickles and gems finished the card.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bah! Humbug! Holly and Fairies

Well folks - here we go again.......... only just taken the Christmas cards down and Bah! Humbug! has started up their challenges again!

The first one is Holly and Fairies and whilst I was clearing my table (!!!) I found this card that I had started last year and the white card had already been die cut using a Nellie Snellen frame die and mounted onto red card - so I thought that was a good place to start.  I decoupaged all the layers of the die cut up using Pinflair glue gel and then stamped this image of a Christmas fairy praying from Lili of the Valley which I coloured in with Promarkers.  The wings are made from Angelina Fibres although it doesn't show up very well in the photo.  I used Stickles on the holly berries in her hair and used glue gel to add her to the top of the decoupaged die cuts.  I then stamped a corner holly leaf image at each corner and added more Stickles to the berries.  It's a very simple card but hopefully will ease me into crafting for next Christmas!!  lol

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy New Year to Everyone

Happy New Year to everyone.  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and got lots of crafting presents!

One major present I had this year was the new Joy A4 die cutting machine.  Now I will agree with everyone that it's not the prettiest looking piece of equipment but it actually looks better in real life.  What I am so impressed with is that you can put an A4 sheet through to cut an aperture in the front of an A5 card............ you can emboss the entire front of your card and one bonus is that when you put your nesties through the machine it not only cuts but actually embosses at the same time!  I couldn't actually believe that but it's great and certainly that saves an awful lot of time.

I had to have a play with it when we got back from spending Christmas with my sister Val and the rest of the family.  I took an A5 card and placed a Go Kreate XL Frilly Labels die over the top to create a shaped card.  I had some left over backing paper and toppers from one of the cards I made from my Ooh La La Shoes in Bloom CD so thought I would utilise these to make a birthday card for a friend.  I used the smaller Go Kreate die to shape the backing paper and then used nesties labels to cut out the main image and it's mat.  A piece of ribbon, some flowers, a touch of Stickles and a SU sentiment completed the card.

Thanks for stopping by.

A Christmas Carol

This week's challenge over at Die Cut Dreams is "A Christmas Carol".

The main image is Gilly singing from Prairie Fairy Designs and coloured in with ProMarkers with added Stickles and Diamond Glaze on her glasses.  I've mounted her onto a nestie which, in turn, is mounted on a doily and again a nestie.  The music background is from Printable Heaven and was a free download.  Both the ticket and sentiment are from Sentiments4You.  I've used a border punched with a Martha Stewart punch with a strip of ribbon down the centre.  The fern is a punch from L-Em.com and the flowers were in my stash.

We woke this morning to about 2" of snow but it has been snowing again and we now have about 4" - this is a photo showing what it was like first thing this morning........... they have said that the South West will bear the brunt of the snow so goodness knows what's going to happen!!!  lol

Thanks for looking.

Pearls & Pins

Die Cut Dreams challenge this week is Pearls and Pins. 

I have used a square white card blank and folded back the front half and taking some cardstock from the DCWV Luxury Stack covered both sides of the card.  The image is another one from Lilli of the Valley which has been die cut with nesties and mounted on silver mirri and pink card.  I have added some Prima flowers held together with brads and topped with a pearl, some ribbon and a flower from my stash on the right hand side with some pearl pins.  The DCWV card has been punched using a Martha Stewart corner punch.  The sentiment is a peel off matted onto card using my SU punches.  A small amount of Stickles was added to the main image.

Thanks for looking.

Elf challenge

The challenge this week over at Die Cut Dreams is ELF............ not sure how common it is to have an elf stamp etc but I hunted around and found this cute image of an elf holding a present (mind you he doesn't look at all pleased to be giving it away........ lol).  It's from Little Scraps of Heaven Designs and it's a paper piecing design. 

I covered a 6" square card blank with paper from Papermania Silent Night and then got to work with my new nesties............... these are beautiful and the set I've used here is the Beaded Ovals.  I think you will be able to see from the photo that you can actually use an embossing tool and emboss the design from the back of the die which gives an additional element to them.  I have threaded some red ribbon through the main oval - all the papers used are from the Silent Night collection.  I have used a Martha Stewart punch for the central border, added some red lace, gems and photo corners which were cut with my EK Success punch.  The sentiment is computer generated - a bit cheesy but gave me a giggle!!  I added some cotton wool on the elf's hat and Stickles and ribbon on the parcel.  The final touch was some Diamond Glaze on his boots and eyes.

Thanks for stopping by.

Winter Wonderland

Thjis week's challenge over at Bah Humbug is "Winter Wonderland".  I immediately thought of an unmounted rubber stamp that I've had for ages (and so can't remember where it comes from.......... senior moment!!) that shows a house set in some trees with the sentiment "Winter Wonderland" underneath the image.  Unfortunately this stamp is more of a photo stamp and so doesn't lend itself to being embossed.

So in the end I hunted out my Creative Expressions build a scene Village stamp set and stamped it onto brown cardstock with Versamark and then embossed with Ranger Stream embossing powder.  I masked off the rest of my unmounted rubber stamp so I could stamp the sentiment only.  Again I used Versamark and the Stream embossing powder on brown cardstock.  Both images were matted and layered onto light and darker cardstock and the sentiment added to the top of the village scene.  I took a DL card and a piece of patterned paper from My Mind's Eye Christmas Glitter Book.  The edge of the patterned paper was punched using a MS deep edger and then stuck using d/s tape to the main card with a piece of matching cardstock underneath the punched edge.  I found a matching piece of ribbon and some gems and added Mint Ice Stickles to the main image.

Thanks for dropping by.

Bah Humbug Through the Window Challenge

The challenge this week over at Bah Humbug is "Through the Window".  Ahha I thought, now where are those die cut window sheets I bought ages ago............... hmmmmm can't find them at the moment so will have to improvise.

I have used the large stamp from the Creative Expressions Create-a-scene village set and stamped and clear embossed using black ink on white card.  I then cut this down into four equal pieces and mounted it onto black card leaving a gap inbetween each piece and so creating a "faux" window scene.  I have then mounted this onto a piece of white card which has gone through my Big Shot in a Crafts Too embossing folder to which I added a piece of ribbon.  This was mounted onto a piece of silver holographic card leaving a narrow margin and then onto a black A5 card blank.  I added some Stickles glitter glue to create a snowy scene.  The sentiment is from a Stampin Up set and was punched out using a SU square scalloped punch.

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.

Heartfelt stamps and nesties blossom dies

I have just bought a new stamp set by Heartfelt which match up with the Nesties blossoms dies.  If you go over to YouTube you can see Peggy demonstrating them brilliantly.  Haylie-Jo of CropStop in the States is selling these new stamps but she is great and I got mine within 5 days of ordering them from her.  Each set is approximately £10 and they come premounted and cut which is brilliant.

First of all I took an A5 card blank and covered with some Graphicus paper.  I then took a piece of SU card and edged the top with a Martha Stewart punch.  The bottom of this piece was stamped with the SU Pocket Silhouettes set.  I stamped the roses onto pink SU card and then cut them out with my Nesties blossoms dies.  I also cut out some leaves again using Nesties together with some fern leaves which were punched.  The roses had some Ice Stickles rubbed over them and then placed on the card using silicone.  The butterfly was placed on a piece of the backing paper and cut out and I added a ribbon bow and some pearls.  The sentiment is a SU stamp which was cut out using my SU scalloped square punch.

Thanks for looking.

Funky Divas

I recently bought this set of Kerry Jo Funky Divas from Debbi Moore Crafts.  I had seen some stamps from the set ages ago but it had been out of stock for a few months until I managed to get my hands on it.

For this card I used an A6 green pearlescent cardstock which I ran through my Big Shot in a Crafts Too Swiss Dots 5x5" embossing folder.  I stamped the image onto watercolour paper using black StazOn and coloured using watercolour pencils and a water brush.  The umbrella was covered using Stickles as were the raindrops.  The puddles had Diamond Glaze added to give the effect of water.  There is a central border that was punched using a Martha Stewart border punch and covered with gold organza ribbon with a bow at the top.  The main image was cut out and matted using my Nesties labels dies and a paper flower was added to the top.  The sentiment is computer generated and matted and layered using the SU oval and scalloped oval punches.

Thanks for looking.

Susie & Vikki's Sketch Plan

Well, better late than never......... it's been a really busy few days and this is the first chance I have had to join in Susie & Vikki's Sketch Plan.

I started off with an 8" square card blank and covered the front with a piece of SU purple card and then layered gold glittered card and the purple until I had four layers.  I then took a piece of Hunkydory gold foiled card in a matching shade of purple, cut it to size and then put it through the Big Shot with a Nellies die which cut the ornate centre out.  I then cut the remaining card into four equal pieces and attached them to the front of the card.
The piece that was originally cut out was then placed in the centre of the card using foam pads.  I then stamped and gold embossed the Christmas tree image (Creative Expressions set) and used the smaller Nellies die to cut it out.  This was also placed on the card using foam pads.  I then used some Stickles adding to the dots around the main image and also to create "faux" gems on each corner of the card.  I coloured some gold peel offs using ProMarkers and put the phrase "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" around the centre panel.  As the Hunkydory card is so ornate I thought less is more and left it as is.

Thanks for looking.

Acetate and snowflakes

This weeks challenge over at Bah Humbug is using acetate and over at Susie & Vikki's it is snowflakes.

So, to get two for the price of one I have combined both in this card. I started with an A5 card blank and printed out some snowflake paper from my Artylicious "Season's Greetings" CD and then printed out the Snowflake wording design from my Peerless Designs "12 Days of Christmas" CD onto acetate. I placed the acetate on the top half of the card using brads. I then stamped the "Let it Snow" greeting (Creative Expressions stamp set) and embossed it with purple powder. This was matted onto a piece of the snowflake paper and purple mirri card and placed bottom left of the card. I then stamped the matching circle design and again embossed it with purple powder. I cut this out with my circle nesties and again this was matted onto snowflake paper and mirri card. I tied some ribbon around the card and placed the circle design using foam pads. Some purple pearl gems and Stickles added the finishing touches.

Thanks for looking.

New babies card

My brilliant friends Barbara and Pete have just become first time grandparents - TWICE - within the space of a couple of weeks with their daughter and daughter-in-law giving birth to baby boys. It doesn't seem that long ago that Barbara and I started (age 5) at our primary school.................. scary eh?

This card was made using an image from My Craft Studio Enchanted Romance CD which was cut out using my nesties labels die and inked around the edge. It was mounted onto blue mirri, white card and a patterned paper made by tiling the main image. All these were put through my Big Shot using Swiss Dots embossing folder. Stickles glue and some gems were added to the main image with a collection of flowers at the bottom left of the card and two brads made using a miniature photo of each of the babies and inserting them into a Papermania brad making kit.

Thanks for looking.

Decoupage

I normally don't do much decoupage as I have problems with my hands so usually go for the die cut ones. However there was a free download over on Cuddly Buddly which I couldn't refuse as it was really cute and pretty easy to cut out. The other one is from a Joanna Sheen CD which I printed out ages ago and hadn't got round to making up.

This is the free Birthday Teddies download from Cuddly Buddly which is excellent quality and very easy to cut out. I've mounted it on a piece of card from my stash and then layered onto a piece of mirri which I die cut with my nesties scalloped squares. It's a square white base card (6"x6") with a piece of matching backing paper. All finished off with some border and corner peel offs and some Stickles.
This one is from a Joanna Sheen CD which I layered up using silicone glue. The base card is a square white card and I used the same backing paper and peel offs to finish the card. Also used a little bit of Stickles.

Thanks for looking.

Bah Humbug Challenge - Peel Offs

As I hadn't joined in with the Bah Humbug challenges for the last couple of weeks I was determined to have a go at their latest challenge - peel offs. As they say "love them or hate them" - well I must admit to having quite a few boxes of peel offs but apart from using corners and borders the rest tend to just sit there.

So I got out my Christmas peel off box and rifled through to see what I could use for this challenge. Well I found not one peel off, but three and I couldn't choose between them - so to make up for missing some of their challenges I actually have made three cards; which means my Christmas card box is getting fuller!! lol

This first one uses the waste (negative) from a three kings peel off. I used a low tack sellotape over the negative image and rubbed over it with a bone folder. I then lifted the image carefully and placed it down on some silver mirri card (sorry, this doesn't show up well in the photo). This was then matted onto a piece of black mirri. I hunted through my Christmas paper box and found a left over scrap of text paper and guess what - it is the text of the carol "We Three Kings" - pretty appropriate I thought. This was matted onto silver and black mirri. The main card is an A6 black textured card and finished off with some gems and a ribbon bow.


For my next card I used a bauble peel off and layed it over some Graphicus patterned paper and then cut it out. This was matted onto red and gold mirri. The main A6 card front was covered in the same paper. I used three peel off stars and greeting and finished off with a red ribbon and a smaller bauble peel off. Finally I put some red Stickles on the bauble.

My last offering is using a candle and tag peel off. I placed these onto acetate and sprayed the back with Crafters Companion Stick & Stay and then added metallic flakes. The candle image is matted onto some green card with an edging of Copper Krylon pen. I had some lovely embossed gold text card which I used on the front of the A6 card; tied a green ribbon across and added the peel off tag with a bow. I laid the waste of a holly leaf in the top right hand corner and more waste (holly berries I think) at the bottom right hand corner.

Hope you enjoy looking at my three cards made up entirely from peel offs.

Bah Humbug!!!! Stitching challenge

I've been playing about trying to complete the Bah Humbug!!! latest challenge which is stitching. I took a base A5 card and cut a piece of SU green card to use as a mat. I then cut a piece of card from My Mind's Eye Christmas Glitter Book. I used a zigzag stitch in red thread to mount one on top of the other, sewed a snowflake design all the way round the card and stitched circles around some of the holly berries.

I cut a piece of pewter to size and put it through my Big Shot with a Dreamweaver's stencil - as the pewter is so soft it really embossed it very well. I zigzagged around the pewter in red thread and mounted this on the main card using silicone glue. Finally I put some Stickles in the centre of the holly berries and also on the snowflake and used a Copic pen to highlight the N, E and L. I had a small piece of pewter left over which I had trimmed from the main piece and couldn't resist winding it round a skewer to curl it and add it to the top left corner.

Thanks for looking.