Teddy with Robin

Morning all.

Have you made all your Christmas cards yet? I think I'm on the home stretch but if you aren't, perhaps we can give you some inspiration with the new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz.

This week we would like to see your projects that contain -

SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH 'T'

Trees, sprang immediately to mind but I'd made one of those a couple of weeks back so this time I dug out my LOTV stamp, Teddy with Robin. Here is my card.

Isn't he just the cutest, and he begins with a T!

The background DP is from NitWits edged in Festive Berries DI and some strips of ribbon from Lidl. You can get some interesting crafty items there if you have a rummage in the baskets and the price is always good.

I used the layout at Sketch Saturday and hand wrote the sentiment, because I've lost the tiny sentiment stamp from my Woodware set :( . That's the problem when you don't have stamps out for a goodly period, you don't realise until it's too late, probably sucked up the hoover!

Anyway, Teddy was coloured with Copics and the snow was added with some white Cosmic Shimmer glue and Sprinkled Sugar Stickles. I made a background for the sentiment disc by using a snowflake from my stash and another coloured green and cut up to look like evergreen foliage!

So for more 'T' inspiration pop along to the Cardz4Guyz blog and have a go!

I'd like to join in over at -

      

Anything Christmas

Anything Goes Cute and Christmasy

25 Days of Tags, plus one!

Good morning all.

As many of you know the fabulous Tracey McNeely has been hosting her 25 Days of Christmas Tags event again this year. Now I know that 25 days are up but due to a mix up in communication STAMPlorations was missed off the sponsor's list so Tracey added on an extra day for us!

Here is my tag using Vignette Christmas Block and Holiday Sketches: Christmas Candles

To start, I die cut my tag from a set of Sizzix thinlets tag dies and the tiny reinforcer from my Marianne tag die set. I didn't want to use the tag from there as it has a distressed edge to it.

After stamping the small snowflakes on my tag  and embossing them in white EP, I inked it with a mixture of Blueprint Sketch and Salty Ocean DI, creating a halo effect around the candles. These I stamped and embossed with gold EP, then washed in some DI in Pine Needles, Festive Berries and Old Paper, with just a touch of Mustard Seed for the flames and flowers. I fussy cut the candles and mounted then at the bottom of the tag. The sentiment from Christmas Candles was stamped and embossed in gold and a butcher's twine string attached to complete.

There are prizes! You can win at 25 Days: Here are the details, from Tracey:

Prizes will be drawn from the comments on the posts each day, the posts of any or all of my guests and through participation in this link up! The rules for participating are simple, you MUST create a Christmas tag inspired by a tag you see during the event and you MUST state in your post the day and the tag you were inspired by.  

To keep it fair for everyone, only one comment per post please. You may however create as many tags as you would like as long as you follow the rules. The more you hop along and comment and the more you participate the more chances you have of winning! This year I will keep the link up open until one week after the event is over to give you time to finish up. The linky will close December 2, 2016 at 12:00 am (EST)! Prizes will be announced on December 9th here on my blog.

I'm also joining in over at -

I took inspiration from the dark blue tag and contrasting snowflakes and the rustic string cord.

#61 TAGS

From our home to yours

Morning all.

We've got a brand new challenge over at Cardz4Galz. This week our theme is -

SNOWMAN /MEN

Yep it's snowmen time again. So if your card is pretty unisex you could share it over at Cardz4Guyz too. Here is my card.

I love this LOTV Snowman family, such a cute image. 

To make the base card I cut two scalloped circles in white, scored one about an inch from the top then glued that to the other to form a top fold card. I cut 2 circles, one in white and a slightly bigger one in black, stamping some stars from a mag freebie on the white one after inking it with Broken China DI.

The snow family was stamped on a part die cut panel (make sure you keep the image square to the base) then fussy cut after colouring them with Copics, adding a little Sprinkled Sugar Stickles to the snow. I also added a little of the same around the edge of the inked panel. Before gluing the family to the base card I stamped the sentiment, from Uniko's large poinsettia stamp set.

I'd like to join in over at -

        

X is for Criss Cross

No DSP

CAS Vintage

I'm back!

Sorry for the late post for this week's challenge over at ATSM but we were disconnected when BT fitted a new line to our neighbours! At least they came just over 24hrs after the fault was reported, shame they disconnected us in the first place! However our land line we have just discovered, is still in fault!

It has shown me how much we have come to rely on our internet connection, the phone you can just about cope with.

Anyway as the young technician has just left I better get on and finish this post!

Over at ATSM our challenge is

ANYTHING GOES

 Here is my card for your inspiration.

A simple vintage style card, LOTV image stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa on Kraft then coloured with Copics and white pencil crayon. Final panel mounted on cream base card.

This week's sponsor is

DRS Designs - a family owned company since 1950 - boasts hundreds of original rubber stamp designs. All images are available fully mounted, completely unmounted or mounted on cling cushion and are proudly hand crafted in the USA.

Our rubber stamp collection includes a wide assortment of images including sentiments for all occasions, easy background designs and fun technique stamps such as our stained glass and plaid designs.

The DRS Designs website features a huge card sample gallery, online demos and tips, a secure shopping area and more. Be sure to visit our daily blog with posts from our fantastic design team for inspiration and ideas.

Prize: $10.00 gift certificate

For more info and inspiration please check out the rest of the DT here

I'd like to join in over at -

Vintage

Brrr, Toasty Greetings

Morning all.

I looked at the calendar for something the other day and realised that November is running away with me, it's almost over and I haven't finished my Christmas cards, despite making them through out the year! Mind you I did take some to the craft shop to sell so perhaps I took too many!

Anyway as there is a new challenge over at Cardz4Guyz I can add another to the stash and so could you if you like our theme this week -

SNOWMAN

Here's my card/ 

I used the colours and sketch from MFT for this, using one of the snowmen from their Toasty Greetings set. I stamped, coloured him with Copics then added some Fun Flock around his coat and hat for some extra interest. On the background panel, I stamped some tiny snowflakes and embossed them in white EP before inking it with Hickory Smoke DI. To finish I added a die cut strip with a sentiment from the same set.

That's about it from me but for more SNOWMEN inspired inspiration please check out the rest of the DT here.

I'd like to join in over at -

          

No DSP

Joy, Joy, Joy

Morning all.

What a foul day it is out there. The tail end of Storm Angus might not have hit us with it's full force but the tail has wagged!

So, I've been in my craft room tidying up after a crafty Sunday. As well as some DT cards I made this tag.

The lovely Loll (Stamping with Loll) is again hosting her 12 Tags of Christmas as is Tracey McNeely at 25 Tags of Christmas, so I thought I would join in. We all need tags at this time of year!

To start I cut 2 tags using my Poppy Stamps Stitched Main Street tag dies, one in white one in vellum. Using the inspiration from the tags at Muse, vellum overlay and embossed snowflakes (Lindsey), silver embossed word and soft blue colouring (Stephanie) and the fab word hanger at Fusion. I set about making my tag.

On the larger of the two tags I stamped some snowflakes and embossed them with white EP, then inked the white tag with Tumble glass DI. On the vellum overlay, I added die cut JOYs in white, holographic silver and then heat embossed on one white one with two layers of silver EP, which reminded me of the sketch over at CAS(e) the Sketch!

To attach the two tags together I first assembled a few bits of ribbon from the Christmas box and then threaded a length of silver cord through the back and through the punched holes in the tags, voila.

I'd like to link up over at -

 

            

                                Use vellum on your tag

HLS - New release blog hop

Welcome to an exciting post to announce the launch of some fab stamp sets over at  Happy Little Stampers! 

We have 6 new sets to introduce to you and we think you are going to love them. 

Here is my card using the balloons from the Simply Said set, plus the Happy Birthday from last  years Everyday Sentiments.

Once I'd decided on the layout on a scrap of paper, I stamped the balloons in an appropriate colour of Memento ink, masking where necessary, then coloured each balloon with Copics. I must admit I wiped most of the ink off the balloon tail so that I could go in later to add a longer one with a black fine liner.

I stamped the Happy Birthday from Everyday Sentiments in Versafine Onyx Black and then cut the 'to you' off the 'to you both' before stamping underneath. When I want to use the stamp as is, it will fit back together again, so no worries! The finished panel was diecut with a MFT stitched rectangle before being mounted flat on a A6 white base card. :)

Here is a closer look at each of the individual sets -

     

       

    

Aren't they fab?

Some of the HLS team have made some more samples so why not visit their blogs for details

By joining us throughout our blog hop and leaving us a friendly word or two, you have the chance to win a $50 gift certificate to the HLS shop!  All you have to do is work your way through the hop list below and comment on each of the blogs. A random winner will be drawn from all those that comment. Make sure you visit ALL of them because that's the only way be assured you are in the draw. You have 1 week (until the 28th of November 12pm AEST) to complete the hop.

Ready for some more inspiration? Here we go!

Happy Little Stampers

Kylie Purtell

Michelle Dees

Anita Bowden

Linda Walmsley

                           Julie Beech   (you are here) 

Jane Taylor

Laurie Schmidt

Valentyna Komisarenko

Carol Steedman

Susan Renshaw

Stephanie Lanzalotto

Amy Seigler

Neha Parab

I'd like to join in over at -

       

Another Christmas card for the stash

Morning all.

As November speeds along it's time to get those Christmas cards made and sent, we wouldn't have you resorting to buying them, now would we?

So over at Fantasy Stampers there's your chance to make a card for your stash by entering our latest challenge of -

VINTAGE CHRISTMAS

OK, may not be your thing, a bit like me, but I did a bit of googling for inspiration and came up with this.

As we are a traditional stamping challenge I was struggling to find vintage style stamps in my stash but I saw these MB candles in a 'vintage' style card and thought I could do something with my Stampendous Christmas background stamp. The colours over at Merry Monday suggested a vintage theme also, more 50's than Victorian but hey, 50's is vintage!

After stamping my panel with the background stamp I distressed the edges and inked it with Hickory Smoke DI then glued it flat to a white base card. I cut an oval of the same card and distressed the edges then inked it with a mixture of Barn Door and festive Berries DI and a spritz of water for more dimension, a bit of distressed muslin was added to the back of the panel before the die cut candles complete with added bling was glued on top.

OK, that's it from me but for more inspiration please check out the rest of the team here.

I'd like to join in over at -

     

Christmas Bauble

Afternoon peeps.

November is whizzing by and I haven't thought about Christmas pressies but I have been busy making Christmas cards, I've used this reminder of the November Sketch/ Theme challenge over at STAMPlorations to make another for the stash.

What do you think?

This month our theme is-

or like me you could use our sketch like I did.

I did take quite a liberty with the sketch but I still have the oval and the strong vertical!

The technique I used, I found on You Tube here. It's at the end of the video so stick with it!

To start, I die cut an oval from painter's masking tape and placed it on a panel of Mixed Media paper.

I then stamped the evergreen bough from Christmas Bell Medley with Evergreen Bough DI into an area I'd first wet with plain old water. This gives a really soft background for the darker over stamping with Pine Needles DI. Where the paper was still wet the ink bleeds, so you get even more depth, the dryer areas give a sharper impression.  A few splashes of watery DI were added to the background at this point. Removing the oval mask, I placed a negative mask and stamped a pattern from the Mixed Media Grunge set in Memento Love Bug, then washed in some more of the same colour after first removing the mask. 

On a separate strip of card I repeated the stamp then wash to make my matching strip. I used a fine liner to draw in the hanger and string and stamped the greeting, also from Christmas Bell Medley.

For more incredible inspiration, please check out the main blog where you will also find all the Ts and Cs.

I'd like to join in over at -

      
                                                       My choice is watercolour



Christmas Greetings