Christmas Keepsake

Thursday's sure come round quickly! It's time for me to share a card made for today's challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. It is a sketch challenge this week. I also had a little help from the colour challenge at Cupcake Inspirations and from the cue word at casology. I haven't made a Christmas card in a while either. Some of you will remember that I used to design for 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and I hope my old teamies over there won't mind me playing along this week with their challenge too.

So here it is, or rather they are. I made two cards, in truth because I messed up one and had to make the second but the first one was still good and well, you can't have too many handmade Christmas cards can you?

This one is for CC&S. I used Ornament Keepsakes, a retired stamp set from SU, but still a good one and an embossing folder with a holly leaf pattern. The sentiment is from Holiday Home and I used a die tag to cut it out. The images were stamped, die cut and recessed behind the embossed card. This is my card for Cupcake Insirations too.

Here is my second card for the other challenges. I've used the same sketch but not used the embossed layer. I changed the tag and used tape to affix the ribbon to look like the strings from the ornaments. With its lack of embellishments I think this would be a great Christmas card for a guy and that's the challenge at 52CCT.

You can see that the ornaments were popped up this time. The Casology cue is circles, and I want to thanks those ladies over there because that's what made me go rummaging through my stamp sets to find this one again!

Oh, nearly forgot, here is the sketch and the colour palette

Santa Tag Card

Another Christmas card from me, for this week's challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and it's based on a sketch, from our hostess for May, Patricia. This one's real good

I've been doing a lot of stamping lately so,Imthought of give some of my DPs an airing. I started with the striped one and matted the red Christmas lights one on top. They come from the same set so they match up pretty good.

I used peel off sentiments to mask the joins, in the shiney green they add a bit of pizazz too

  The banners are replaced by ribbon loops for a bit of interest and I found some ribbon that matched up,so well. Have a look at my ribbon box, below, and you'll see lots of bits and pieces that I've kept thinking they will come in handy one day...and today was the day!

The little Santa is stamped from a set called Tag it and it's the first time of inking for this happy chap. I always find red a difficult colour of ink to match up, there are so many different shades. This was my best effort, not perfect I know.

Finally, I stamped a greeting on the inside. Here's that ribbon box I was talking about. Look familiar? Or perhaps you are one of those super-organised people who can keep things tidy, if you are I'm well jealous of you!

Hope you have time to play along with us this week. Just think of all those Christmas cards you'll have ready if you play every week.

Triple Time with three stamp sets

It's Saturday again, that's a nice feeling! I've had such a busy week, I've been away from home for work, for the first time I think since having my children! I've really enjoyed a few nights in a lovely hotel, with colleagues, learning new and very useful skills, but I'm afraid it's put my crafting on the back burner. Just had time last evening to make my last hostess card for April for 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and, like many things when you are rushing, it took me a few goes to get it right. I've chosen to finish with a technique

This is definitely a technique I love to do. I have used heat embossing this time, and combined three stamp sets, definitely not all Christmas ones! I have kept to a two colour palette: Blackberry Bliss and Mossy Meadow

I have used the sunburst from Kinda Eclectic, and images from  Ornamental Pine and a touch of Gorgeous Grunge. There are a few gems dotted around and I've popped the ornament up on foam pads. I used more Blackberry Bliss card stock for the mats. I have offset the three layers, you can do so many layouts

It had to be quick, I was so tired after the training course, hope it doesn't show in my card!

Sam's Christmas Card

I am well into my hosting month at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and this Saturday it is a theme challenge. This is Sam, our much loved rescue cat, who joined our family five years ago as a very mature, streetwise gentleman looking for some loving care in his old age.

So he was my inspiration for today's challenge..

I have had this stamp forever and it only took a few moments to colour it ginger, using my Promarkers. I stamped the tree first, from Lovely As A Tree and added some sparkly bits with three colours of stickles

Once dry, I added my fussy cut cat and created the sentiment using you Little Furball and Ornamental Pine

Last Christmas I even found Sam his own pair of antlers

..doesn't he look happy!!

Coffee and Cream Christmas Card

Over at 52 {Christmas} Card Throw down you may remember that I'm hosting for the month of Awpril and for the colour challenge I have been a bit self indulgent! I have been trying to lose weight ove the last year and my only guilty pleasure has been coffee, skinny cappuccino to be exact, a treat every Saturday morning with my hubby after we've done the shopping. So I chose coffee and cream

Which actually turned out quite hard for me to make a Christmas card with! Sticking with the coffee idea and some inspiration from a card in last week's gallery this is what I have made

The stamps are all magazine freebies and the cream is just the base card stock. You can see I've popped up the little gingerbread man, and given him some buttons, curtesy of the cupcake builder punch.

Luckily, my DT team mates were not so short of inspiration and they have come up,with some fab cards for you to look at if you need some too. You can always ponder your design over a delicious cup of coffee!

Scrap Paper Card

As I mentioned on Thursday I am hosting a couple of challenges for which I am on the DT and this card is for 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown. A few posts ago I had a lot of fun using up some scraps of paper on a card in a paper blocking technique so I decided to see if I could design a sketch to reflect that style and, with a little help from my much more computer savvy DT friends this is what I came up with

I used some scraps from a set of Christmas papers, so ensuring they all matched was not a problem. Kraft, white and red is a favourite colour combo for me. The arrangement of the papers is perhaps the most time consuming part of making this card. Once you have done that it's up to you what embellishments or sentiment you wish to add. I chose red twine and a small glittery bird

You can see the dimension I achieved by using a square of white card stock popped up on foam pads on which to mat the paper shapes. The twine and bird add texture too.

Punch Art Cardinal

Hey! It's Saturday and it's the first day of the Easter holidays for UK schools, so I'm feeling great, lots of crafting time ahead. It's also time for a new challenge from52{Christmas} Card Throwdown. Occasionally we 'Throwdown' a technique challenge for you to follow and this week it is

I always turn to Pintrest for this kind of challenge and look for something to adapt and this time I found an idea for this little chap

I would love to see a real one, where do they live? I'm guessing in the USA since they are often on holiday cards from the States. He was made using a couple of circle die cuts, a scalloped circle and a couple of offcuts made into triangles. I am very happy that sticking him together means that I can enter this weeks challenge at Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge, it's a fun challenge blog with lots of prizes for those of us who love to create for Christmas all year round.

The background for my bird www stamped with snowflakes using the resist technique and the branch is, of course, Ornamental Pine, stamped in Mossy Meadow. I added the little ornament hanging in his beak thanks to some bakers' twine. It is stamped and embossed in silver, on red card to match the bird.

Here you can see dimensional elements on the card. The red card is also slightly textured. 

An oldie sentiment stamped in the corner. The ladies on the DT at 52 CCT have some fab ideas for this challenge, all different so hop on over and have a look.

Silent Night, Holy Night

How often does that happen, you make a card using a particular card and then get hooked and make more in the same way. For me it's meant the rediscovery of some ancient, treasured DPs that really needed to come out of their packet and be used. Today, I've used a DP for the challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown

In my head the paper was for Silent Night, but when I found it it featured the words from another carol, We Three Kings. It still fitted and my inspiration was still Silent night so I used it anyway.

I cut out the paper, die cut the row of houses in black cardstock to create the silhouette and then used gold mirri card behind some of the tiny doors and windows

The gold card adds sparkle and shimmer. Then I added some very small punched stars, also made from the mirri card, you can see them better on the photo below. I used a light shade of purple for the mat which I think really brings out the colours in the paper. The mat was layered up on foam on the card front.

Then I got carried away and continued decorating the inside of my card with more paper and more 

stars plus a sentiment from an old set, I think it's called Wonderous Gift.

I do hope you are inspired by Jane's theme. I am also entering this card in this week's challenge at Crafty Haselnuts Christmas Challenge where the theme is Christmas a Music. The Silent Night challenge is great for that one too, it's  a chance to use papers, images, stamped or digital with perhaps a leaning towards the real meaning of Christmas. Looking forward to seeing the gallery this week

Bows and Snowflakes

It's Saturday again and I'm in for a second weekend of swimming, so this is gonna be quick. The second week of challenges at  52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown means a colour challenge and this week we have a non-traditional combo of pink, blue and silver.

To make my card I first heat embos some silver snowflakes onto blue patterned paper. I added three small paper bows, made using the small bow punch. 

Some pearlised silver card for a mat and a stick on silver sentiment .....

And it's finished!

Kinda Eclectic Christmas

It's a busy old weekend for me as our County Swimming Championships gat under way and my youngest is performing in the orchestra for his school production of Disneys Beauty and The Beast (have to admit I'm a little bit excited about seeing it ...LOL) I just have time to post a card that I made for the challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown. We have a new hostess for March, Gill. She's getting us off to a cracking start with this sketch..

I set myself another challenge too, to use my new stamp set Kinda Eclectic to make a Christmas card. I just think this set is so versatile and I wanted to try it out

I was a bit stuck on my colour scheme until someone mentioned Blackberry Bliss and Kraft, I just added in some metallic gold. The label was cut out at a workshop, I have no idea what it's called, only that it is from Stampin Up. I layered it to add depth, after stamping the sunburst in Versamark and heat embossing with gold powder. This rich colour scheme would be suitable for a male friend or relative so I'm going to enter the challenge at Completely Christmas this week.

The horizontal panel is also stamped fre Kinda Eclectic and heat embossed. Finally, I added an ancient sentiment, also heat embossed (you could be forgiven for thinking that this was a technique challenge!) and a few stars fell out of a bag when I was searching for an embellishment and I thought 'they look good like that'

 My card was finished and actually I would have to say that it looks better in real life. I am obviously not a very good photographer! Hope you get chance to try your hand at creating a Christmas card for this challenge. Now, I'm off to watch some swimming!

Cars and Christmas Trees

Saturday again! And so here is this week's stash challenge from 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown.

Using markers is an interesting one for me. I love the colours and shades you get in markers, mine are Promarkers but I know there's a huge range out there. My problem is my lack of artistic talent. The rules for shading and adding highlights escape me, I can no more look at something and see where the light hits it and where the shadows fall than I can see through walls! Therefore, you talented colourers out there will always get a sincere comment from me when I say 'beautifully coloured' I am in awe of your artistic ability. May be all I need are a few lessons but until then my use of marker
S will be minimal.
After all that, here is my card, made a while ago but never blogged before

I used the set White Christmas. It's great for whimsical little cards like this one. 

You can see that the cars are popped up on foam pads. I stamped the cars and trees as one and then fussy cut them out. I think the red car also adds a pop of colour to the chilly blues and greys. I have stayed the falling snow and the trees and then add.ed a brush of colour to the cold sky. 

Hope you can see that you don't have to be a colouring whizz to use markers, I think 'colouring in' is something we never grow out of, it's fun and easy. 

Snowy scene with pearl border

It's Saturday again and this morning I have the usual Christmas card to share with you, made for 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown. Our hostess for February, Patricia, has chosen the challenge which is a stash challenge

Don't you just love this one?

I often use white/ cream pearls on Christmas cards as mistletoe berries, I think they're perfect for that. Liquid Pearls are great for those too. You can colour pearls with markers so that you can match the
colour to your project! Sequins I'm not so hot on, don't even own any, but it's a choice so I hope to see some great cards with sequins on which will encourage me to give them a try.
So whilst I knew I wanted to use pearls, I had to come up with something different this time.

I added the gold sticker sentiment to pick up the colour scheme a little and also because I always find adding a stamped sentiment to an embossed background tricky, unless you stamp before embossing. I did try silver first but the gold one just made it pop better- you know what I mean! As there is no red or green in my card I can enter it in the challenge at Completly Christmas, where anything goes this week

This is a double embossing card, Dry and heat embossing.  I used the pearls as a border. The image was stamped in Versamark and then I used white embossing powder on a dark cardstock. I have found that if you use white ink on very dark card it tends to pick up the pigment and so does not stay white when dry. 

The dry embossing was done using a Sheena Douglas embossing folder. Nothing clever here, just straight forward white cardstock and you will notice that I have used the debossed side.