Conditional Christmas

It's Sunday again! Can you believe it? Where on earth did that week go? Been a mixed bag weather wise but summer is definitely drawing to a close, seems it was here for a precious short time. I noticed my herb garden is starting to look yellow, that's a sure sign of autumn approaching. So, many months of cold weather awaits us. One thing to look forward to of course is Christmas, right bang in the middle of it all and just when we are starting to get fed up with the cold - it really couldn't come at a better time :-) I've been quite bad at making cards in good time so this year I decided to start early, which is why I took the chance to make another for this weeks Dottie's World challenge.

It was my turn to set our weekly challenge and I decided that it might be quite challenging to make a Christmas card without a hint of red or green. Apart from the colour restriction the only stipulation was that I wanted to see at least one of the fabulous Charmed Downloads on there somewhere. Here is my card - I didn't finish until late afternoon and the light was terrible, but I guess I have to start getting used to that:



I had fun with this one, creating two different sides on the front with colours and main paper uniting the two.

I cut a paper doily in half and coloured each half in different shapes of lilac/purple. A Lilac Prima Poinsettia adorn the centre, along with K&Co sentiment and 3D snowflake. I used Martha Stewart chunky shards of glitter to decorate the snowflake on the paper. The blue die-cut paper is a sheet from the K&Co Swell Noel Mat pad inked with blue distress ink. There's a Metal Evergreen snowflake brad in the corner and three metal Christmas tree charms. Finally I added a little white lace and some pearls.

OK, I hear you say, didn't you forget something? Didn't you neglect to include THE MOST IMPORTANT THING? Well no; I didn't say it had to be on the front of the card, did I? :-) Take a look inside my card:

Yep, I decided that I wold adorn the inside of my card too. K&Co paper again - Nestabilities cut circle - chunky purple shards for the corners - and...

...two gorgeous creatures from our Charming Christmas bundle. I merged the two images and coloured them with Copic markers. The silver is Stickles and I used Polar White Flowersoft for the white trim. Aren't they adorable? And you just know that Scruff is quite willing to share that turkey ♥

Have a great Sunday. I hope you will join us on Dottie's World x

Easter Card - The Chocolate Egg House!

Wouldn't you like to live in a house like this? Or at least go visit and swipe an egg or two!! This is a big card, standing at 25cm tall, made for my Monday Mojo spot on Dottie's World. The house, base of roof, door and garden path was made from American Traditional plain cardstock (available at Charmed Cards & Crafts).

The roof was covered in eggs cut on my Silhouette and painted with Copic markers. A strip of Felt Fusion Easter Eggs sits at the bottom of the roof.

I used two of the Charmed Cards & Crafts digi Stamps, namely Easter Holly 3-in-1 from the Holly and Madison bundle, and Henry Hare from the Animal Magic bundle. The grass, chicks and vine was cut on my Silhouette in white cardstock and coloured in with copics, as was the two main images. A Karen Foster rub-on was used for the sentiment.

Holly was attached to the card using foam pads to slightly elevate her.


Thanks for looking. Have a lovely day xxx

Sunday Challenge - Shaped Card

Time for another challenge on Dottie's World. This time Louise set the challenge and this is what she wanted:

I want you to make a shaped card this week - any shape other than squares or rectangles please! Oh and don't forget your Charmed download!

Well I'm in an Easter-card making type of mood and created two such cards today (OK I'm writing this Saturday), one for Sunday's challenge and one for my Monday Mojo spot on Dottie's World tomorrow - both are shaped cards so both comply equally.

The shape I chose for today is an Easter egg, nice and simply sure, but I have to confess I spent quite some time on this one.

The shaped egg was cut on my Silhouette and I formed the card itself around it.

The inside is decorated with K&Co paper.

My Charmed digi stamp is Henry Hare from the Animal Magic collection. I think he looks cute in yellow and green LOL

Easter Basket with eggs again cut on the Silhouette.

Pop over to Dottie's World and check out the gorgeous shaped creations from the other DT members.

Thanks for looking. Have a lovely Sunday (don't forget to put your clocks forward!!).

xxx

Twice, or even THRICE as nice!

The lovely Adele set the challenge on Dotties World today and she wanted to see two or more of the Charmed downloads.

I used three of our "digi stamps":

• Room with a View (Front) from the Back to Front bundle
• Holly in the Garden from the Holly & Madison bundle
• Scruff from the Animal Magic bundle

My mojo was sadly lacking and I spent ages either thinking about what to do or faffing about doing it!! Pop over to Dottie's World and see what the other DT members came up with.

TFL and have a lovely Sunday xxx

Sunday Challenge - Fabric

Good morning everyone! Well not good morning as it's 20:20 on a Saturday evening as I write this, I always schedule the Dottie's World's Sunday challenge DT post so that I don't sit there bleary eyes and write on a Sunday morn. So for all intents and purposes GOOD MORNING!!! Hope you slept well, I sure did!! LOL

On to the challenge! This week the lovely Nicola set the challenge; Nicola simply wanted to see some sort of fabric on our projects, it could be anything, even a bit of ribbon. I used some gorgeous totally lush fabric brads from the K&Co Ancestry collection for my compulsory element and some Prima lace ribbon for good measure.

Now this image is from the new collection "Holly & Madison around the World" which is COMING SOON! It features Holly in England but is not yet available. Just thought I'd tease you a little ;-) Holly's adorable sidekick here is Scruff from the Animal collection. Actually, come back tomorrow and I'll tease you a little more with my Monday Mojo card and yet another new image.

The patterned paper is K&Co Lotus Tea Rose and I cut out three of the flowers from the paper for the top.

The plain paper is Basic Grey

Fabric Brads are K&Co Ancestry

Lace Ribbon is Prima

Everything I used is of course available in my shop: Charmed Cards & Crafts.

The images are coloured in with Copics, and these are the colours I used:

Why not pop over to Dottie's World's and join the challenge? The DT will all pop over and check out your blog :-)

Thanks for coming to visit xx

Flowers and more Flowers

That is what Lou wanted for the Sunday challenge on Dotties World today - along with at least one of the Charmed downloads of course. I decided to veer away from the cards for this week and decorate a paper mache frame.

I painted the frame in a cream acrylic paint.

The picture is meant to refer to the magic of chilhood and "make-believe". The "Hi" and "Believe" are not menat to read together (as one of my girls seemed to think). Henry Hare is saying hi to the girls and the "Believe" refers to the fact that they believe in him. This is a land where cats are blue and walk about proudly bearing bejwelled crowns after all! Henry Hare are carrying flowers and flowers also grow at the base of the picture. Both Henry Hare and Puss are from the Animal Magic Collection available at Charmed Cards & Crafts, as are the love birds sitting on the frame.

The pictures of the girls are from different years but I thought they both suited the theme.

I used We R Memory Keppers paper for the frame. The wording in the large yellow flower reads "Let the magic within last forever.......Believe........" A large Dovecraft Funky brads adorn the centre.

I covered a few plain chipboard pieces in Blazing Orange Liquid Beadz.


The branch is a plain Basic Grey Infuse chipboard piece covered in Cracklepaint.

I also used K&Co Margo Self-adhesive pearls and some Glitter blossoms from the new Lotus range.



Other items used are K&Co Wild Saffron Felt Flowers and butterflies, plus Dovecraft and Basic Grey brads.

TFL

Karen xx

Fur or Feathers

Nicola's Challenge today on Dottie's World is "Fur or Feathers". I didn't hesitate for a minute before asking my friend Ozzina Ostrich, from the Animal Magic Download collection to pose on my card - and she agreed! Isn't that great?


I gave her a back-drop of three coordinating Basic Grey Eva papers

(and I do believe she posed for Basic Grey too! Just look at the paper at the bottom!!). The papers are distressed and inked and decorated with some BG brads. This is a large card, A5 in size, and Ozzina stands 16cm tall - and that excludes the feather son her head. The feathers are pink Marabou, just perfect for this challenge.

I made the "Gizza Kiss" sentiment, it seemed to me that on this card Ozzina looked as though she was holding out her wings for an embrace, so this was fitting. I am giving this sentiment circle away tomorrow so pop back and get it.

TFL

Karen xx

Ellie The Elephant

I am slowly working my way through the new Animal Download collection and this time I'm showcasing Ellie Elephant, isn't she a pretty creature? And very clever too, just look how she can jump through hoops! This is my card for the Monday Mojo spot over on Dottie's World.

I am also giving away the word sentiment so if you want it then just drop me a line. Click this link to the Charmed site and write your details in the online form. Usual restrictions apply, personal use only etc etc.

TFL
Karen xxx

Donald Donkey and Pusskins

I do so love this new Animal collection and just had to have another play this evening with these adorable characters. This time I chose Donald Donkey and Pusskins as a totally dynamic duo. I added Santa hats on them both as I wanted to use some of our new Dream Street Christmas papers. It's night and as you know I don't have a daylight lamp, but here is at least one photo to give you some idea. I shall update the post with a full frontal when I take it (of the card.......!)

It's at an angle here and you can see how I have layered the images to give depth. I tore strips from the paper, scrunched and inked it and added it as border to the top. The card itself has been distressed with Tim Holtz Paper Distresser. I am into torn edges and of course have that here also ;o) There's some hand-sewing there also with Lasting Impressions thread.

Edited to add another piccie - still evening and using flash with no daylight, but I'm not sure when I will have time to take another. As you can see on this one I have added a few satin stars and a little glimmer dust on the santa hats.

.......and here are a few daylight pics

TFL
Karen xx

Henry Hare

Let me properly introduce the new download Animal Magic collection now available to buy. The collection comprises 10 adorable characters.

Unfortunately I left Henry Hare of the main image but here he is in all his glory.

How could I leave him out? This large A5 card is made from scraps and is definitely one of the most economical cards I have ever made!

TFL xx

Black & White with a Splash of Colour

That was the challenge for today on Dottie's World. I really loved this one, not only was it a great challenge but I had the chance to play with our new download collection - Animal Magic! This card uses my favourite character from this collection: Scruff! isn't he darling? I love the hand-drawn look, indeed this collection is the first of the "Back to the Drawing Board" collections by Louise Brigden.

Unfortunately the light was not with me and despite taking pictures for two hours I just couldn't get a good one (must buy a daylight lamp!!). Here are a selection of photo's:

Appropriately for Scruff I "scruffed up" the card. Edges have been distressed with Tim Holtz's Paper Distresser and inks have been used liberally (white on the black Bazzill cardstock and black on the white). My "Splash of colour" is the red on Scruff's nose and collar plus three large red Basic Grey Brads.

Products used:

• Scruff from the new Animal Magic collection
• White and Black Bazzill
• White and Black Inks
• Red Basic Grey Brads (From the Cupcake collections)
• Natural Paper Cord
  

Tools:

• Nestabilites Dies
• Fiskars Treading Water Border Punch
• Floral Screen Cuttlebug Embossing Folder
• Tim Holtz Paper Distresser
  

Everything is of course available from Charmed Cards & Crafts

Karen xx