Snowy House Jar

I wanted to play along again with Hero Arts' Deck the Halls Challenge and Simon Says Stamp's Bling It On Challenge and used an empty jam jar and some stamps to make a holder for a night light candle.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Snowy House & Christmas Reindeer

I started by making snowdrifts which encircle the jar and added shimmer with a layer of diamond stickles. After stamping and cutting out the house I cut out the windows and added a vellum backing so that the candle light would shine through. I coloured the vellum with a yellow maker so that there would be a warm coloured glow from the windows when the candle is lit.

After colouring the rest of the house I added lots more stickles and nestled it in the snowdrifts. The trees were stamped on patterned paper and some gems were added.

My camera doesn't seem to like taking photos in the dark but this is what the jar looks like when the light is dimmer.

At the moment I have an unscented candle in the jar but will use pine and cinnamon scented night lights in it too.

Happy Christmas!

Well Christmas Eve has arrived and we're all very excited around here!

Today I just had one final Christmas card to make for this year.



Stamps (Hero Arts) - Snowy House & Christmas Reindeer

I'll be sad to see my Christmas stamps going away for a while again, but considering I had to resort to sending some shop bought cards, maybe I shouldn't put them away for too long!



Now I’m off to do a bit of last minute wrapping and some food prep for tomorrow. I hope you have a very Happy Christmas and wish you good health, happiness and lots of inky fun in 2014!

Treat Container in Holiday Cards & More

I absolutely love Christmas, so was delighted when I received Holiday Cards & More in the post today. I've spent ages (and ages!) admiring all the wonderful projects in the magazine and am looking forward to going through the magazine again and again. Cards, home décor, gift wrap and tags - they're all in there.

I was so excited to see a project I had made in the magazine. The cute Snowy House stamp by Hero Arts is one I've used over and over again for cards and tags but this time I enlarged the image to 200% to make a little treat container.

Stamp (Hero Arts) - Snowy House

Paper Crafts has provided lots of downloadable patterns and templates here for projects in Holiday Cards & More, including the little box I made for the inside of the treat container.

A Gift Card Hidden in the Snow

The current Hero Arts challenge includes a pocket card category, so I thought I’d make a little card for a gift token I’m giving at Christmas.


Stamps (Hero Arts) – Snowy House, Magical Background, Friendly Flags and Very Merry Christmas.

For the front of the card I applied tumbled glass distress ink to white card and using the same ink, stamped it with the magical background. The ground was embossed with snowflakes and some stickles added for a bit of sparkle. I coloured the house with a ProMarker and watercolour pencil, layer it and added stickles for yet more sparkle – lol went a bit sparkle mad on this card! I loved the way Kelly Rasmussen used one of the flags from the Friendly Flag set for Christmas trees on this gorgeous pocket card. So I decided to use a flag with a scallop pattern for my tree here. I layered the tree to add some dimension and added some pink gems and a star to finish. The sentiment is embossed in white.


The inside of the card was made in the same way as the outside, except instead of sticking down the snowdrifts I just attached them to the card on three sides using machine stitching.


My little fella is hoping for it to be as snowy here as on the card on Christmas Eve\Day to make it easier for Santa to get here. Although we've had flurries of snow and a cold snap over the last little while, it's supposed to get warmer during the week. Do you think you will have snow in your neck of the woods for Santa next week??

Hero Arts 90 Minute Scramble

A little while ago Tami was looking for volunteers to host some 90 Minute Scramble Challenges on the Hero Arts Flickr group. Virginia hosted the first one, Karen the second and now I’m having a go today. It started at 3.00pm GMT and will finish at 4.30 GMT (4.00pm-5.30pm here in Ireland) – see here if you’d like to join in. Barb is hosting the next one on the 6th of November – more details are here.

The challenges are great fun and you really have to work quickly to make, photograph and upload a card within the 90 minute deadline. It’s a lot easier to do when you’re setting the challenge though! I thought it might be fun to go for a using something unexpected challenge (adding something that wasn’t bought specifically for card making) and ended up using washing powder on my card! There are flecks of pink, blue and green in the powder so that’s how I came up with the colour combination.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Starry Night, Snowy House & Holiday Dolls.

To start with I stamped the Starry Night (thanks Sue I love this stamp so much!) image in pale blue for the background. Then I coloured the house with ProMarkers, popped the dormer part for dimension and added diamond stickles to the snow. I stuck washing powder on the ground with glossy accents and added some diamond stickles for more sparkle. Because I was sticking to the 90 minute allocation, my “snow” hadn’t fully dried before I took the photo but sure I suppose it makes it a bit more realistic! The card itself was embossed with the Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder. I don’t know how long it will last, but there is a lovely scent off the card because of the washing powder.

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for the challenge. Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Edited - I'm just adding a link to all the brilliant cards that everyone came up using unexpected items. As usual the ladies in the Hero Arts Flick group amazed me with their creativity! You can find all the fantastic ideas here.

Snowed in for Christmas

The current challenge at The Play Date Cafe is to use green, white and melon on a card.



I didn’t think I had anything in a melon colour in my stash but this morning I came across pp which I think fits the bill.


Stamps (Hero Arts) - Snowy House & Holiday Dolls

I love my new Snowy House stamp so much and couldn’t wait to ink it up! Parts of the house are coloured with watercolour pencils and I paper pieced the rest (chimneys, roof, door, wreath and melon coloured part of dormer). I added diamond stickles to the snow on the house. The house itself is on pop dots as is the dormer window section. For the background I white embossed the snowflakes on white card and lightly applied some broken china distress ink.



I wanted to give some texture and depth to the snow on the ground so I layered some silk over a piece of wadding (batting) and machine stitched some meandering lines to form snowdrifts or what I hope look a bit like snowdrifts!



Because of all the sparkle (hard to catch in a photo!) with the stickles snow and silk, I'm also submitted the card into My Partner in Crafting Crime Challenge #13 (Shine on you Crazy Diamond).