Glorious Poinsettia

Afternoon peeps.

After a few days of bright frosty and cold days, the temps have risen but with it has come the dark and damp! Mind you that's just how I feel at the mo. I started with a snuffle and tickly cough over a week ago but today I feel no better, still getting my Christmas cards ready to post has diverted me and kept me busy. Yesterday I ventured out to post my overseas cards, I should have known that it was too good to be true not to be on a last minute rush. After 15 minutes of queuing in our post office, I got near to the front when their system crashed, so no post for my overseas friends and relations just yet,  I'll try again in the week!

Anyway I realised that I hadn't shared this card using the glorious poinsettia from Uniko, I just love it.

Embossed with gold EP a simple watercolour wash with my Zigs, is all that is required I think for this OLC. A few gold sprigs of foliage and sentiment complete, great for the post too!

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Masking, Heat embossing and Watercolour

edited 3/12 Thanks for the reminder Loll.

HLS Stockport

Hi peeps.

Just stopping by to share a card I made at the latest Happy Little Stampers retreat in Stockport, England, earlier this month.

It was so good to meet up with old blog friends and meet new ones. We even had one older lady who just Googled craft in Manchester and joined us for a little crafting fun on the back of the result. She knew no one but was quite happy to sit and chat and learn some new techniques from out leader Kylie! She said she would never do anything unless she went out of her way to meet new people, what a fabulous attitude she had. Anyway if you get the chance to join a HLS retreat soon you wont be on your own, and wherever it is based you'll have a fab time, we all did!

One of the projects we made was a light up card using Chibitronics LED lights. They are so easy to use once you get your head around where the lights need to be.

This is the second one I made using just one little light.

You can see from the left inset pic that to light up the card you press the middle of the greeting. It shows up really well in the dark as you can see from the right hand inset.

Kylie has done a YouTube demo here, so if you are interested just pop over there for all the boring circuit details!

My snowflake die was from Sweet Dixie and the sentiment is from Uniko.

Now three of the ladies from Less is More were at the retreat and although we didn't know their latest challenge is very appropriate! You kept that secret very well indeed ladies!

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The electricity goes round the circuit to light the bulb!

Snow People

Morning all.

Busy week in the craftroom but just one more card to share before the weekend.

It's time for a new challenge over at the Alphabet Challenge Blog. We've almost got to the end of the alphabet so it's -

S for SNOW PEOPLE

For this challenge I knew exactly the stamp to choose, my LOTV Snow Family.

Something a litle diffeent with 2 scalloped circles as a card base, you have to remember to get a least 2 of the scallops at the bottom to act as the base so it stands upright, before glueing them together!

On another circle, I stamped my family, baring in mind what I said above, then coloured with Copics and fussy cut the top part away. The sentiment, MFT and Uniko were added and then put to one side.

Two more circles of card one white, one black, were cut using graduated dies to leave the white and black edge. On the white one I added some DI in Faded Jeans and stamped some tiny snowflakes in Stormy Sky DI over the top. After edging my card with more Faded jeans I added the layered background and the family up on pads. Some dots of Versamark and white EP complete the snowy group.

For more inspiration check out the rest of the girls here.

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     Christmas                                 Christmas is Coming

     

                                                         AG Christmas

Good Friends

Morning all.
It's time for a brand new challenge at Cardz4Galz.
This time Amy has chosen the theme of-

CUPCAKES

Here's my card for your inspiration.

Apologies for the poor photo but light has been hard to find these last few days!

I used the layout at Sketch Saturday and the colours at Color Throwdown.

Instead of putting the bear image in the oval, I put him where the heart is on the sketch and stamped the greeting in the aperture.

My strip of DP, from the bits box, is red with orange spots and the background panel is embossed with a free EF which I popped up over a white base card.

The cupcake carrying bear is from a Forever Friends set from DoCrafts, coloured with Copics and fussy cut. The sentiment is a free one from a mag many many years ago!

That's about it from me for the moment but for more inspiration check out the rest of the girls here.

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Bear Hugs

Vintage CASe

Hi and welcome.

The weather has warmed up a little here, temps in the teens 'C but with the warm front has come wind and rain and overcast, dark days. I've had to have the lights on in my craft room all morning and trying to take photos is a little problematic, so please excuse the quality of images!

I've been having a great time watercolouring these last few days and after seeing a video by Sandy Allnock about vintage watercolour flowers, I thought I'd have a play as the OH was out playing last night!

My starting point were the autumnal colours over at Altenew and their Painted Flowers stamp set.

To start, I smooshed some Antique Linen DI in the top left corner, then planned where the blooms should be. I used a layout from this card and the end result is so different despite the same stamps and layout. Although the colours are quite bold the watercolour technique gives a soft effect.

I stamped the solid part of the stamp in Mustard Seed DI, then washed some water over it to blend out the edges of the ink, then added the next layer in Rusty Hinge DI, blending as I went, followed by peeled paint for the large leaves. The outline stamp was added with Vintage Photo DI and the rest of the spray was filled in with small stamps from the set in Vintage Photo DI. I left them uncoloured except for the tiny buds which I coloured with the Mustard Seed and a tiny spot of Rusty Hinge. A few coppery orange sequins were added along with a die cut thanks cut from gold linen effect card and a sentiment from the Extra Special set in brown.

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