Sparkles

Welcome to Thursday here on my little bit of Blogland.  It's time for a new challenge over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog and this week our challenge theme is 'Sparkles' with our prize sponsored by Heather's Hobby Heaven.

For my DT card I decided to use one of my newly acquired stamps to create a Christmas card - well, there's not many weeks left until the 'Big' day, and my stock of cards is woefully inadequate !

Sadly you will have to take my word for it that my card has lots of sparkle on it, as usual it is soooo difficult to capture the sparkle in a photograph.

The stamp is from Stampendous and was on my shopping list for the vacation after I'd seen it in a magazine - I just love this image.

I stamped the image first on to a piece of kraft coloured cardstock, then stamped again on white card.  After cutting out the central oval element stamped in white I used my Promarkers to colour the picture.  Whilst cutting out the central oval I carefully fussy cut around the holly sprig in top left.

Using dark brown cardstock and a piece of paper from a Graphic 45 paperstack I layered the whole thing up, finishing with the coloured oval stamped on white.  I then added Stickles all over the snowy areas and dusted over the wet Stickles with Glamour Dust for added sparkle.  Finally I added more Stickles around the edge of central oval, used a red Waco Pearlmaker Pen over the holly berries and Glossy Accents on the leaves.

I hope you've enjoyed today's project, do pop over to the CCT blog to check out all the amazing creations from the rest of the DT. 

Candy Cane Wishes

Happy Wednesday everyone, hope you're having a great day.  At least it's dry in my little bit of Cornwall at the moment, although quite breezy and a tad chilly.  This morning I ordered some Christmas gifts online and it's got me into the festive mood, just as well really as I have to 'get a wiggle on' if I'm not going to end up in a made frenzy of cardmaking in order to get all my Christmas cards made in time.

Today the project I'm sharing with you is the last of the ATCs I created whilst crafting with my pal Kathy and using her stash.  Given my mood today and as it's a Christmas themed ATC, I thought I'd post it up today.

I first created a background using Distress Inks - I used Barn Door and Festive Berries, applied with a brush.  I then overstamped with the same DIs using a couple of Kathy's stamps (not sure of the manufacturer of the 'sequin waste' stamp but I'm sure Kathy will enlighten me when she reads this !). 

Finally adding the fab Candy Cane image from a set of Christmas stamps from Inkadinkado - which both Kathy and I bought a couple of years ago - stamped using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  The sentiment is from another set of stamps in Kathy's stash. 

I then stamped a sweet little banner in the same DI using a stamp from a great set by Penny Black, in the top left corner.  I stamped this again on another scrap of card, cut it out and attached over the first impression using foam pads. 

As a finishing touch I added Plantinum Stickles on the stripes on the candy cane and on the small banner, with a little Glossy Accents over the bauble on the banner.  Unfortunately in the pic the pattern on the bauble is lost under the GA but can be seen IRL.

A while ago I used to make quite a few ATCs but in recent times haven't made any.  I have been busy making a set of five to send off for a swap and I thoroughly enjoyed working on this smaller area so may get back into making a few more.  I'm sure there must be lots of ATC challenges in Blogland that I could enter, a little online research is called for I think - unless any of my lovely readers can point me in the right direction !

That's it from me today, hope you enjoyed your visit.  I'll be sharing my DT card for the new Cute Card Thursday Challenge with you tomorrow, but for now......Keep on Crafting....

I 'Mustache' you to have a Fabulous Birthday

Yesterday was the 60th birthday of a friend and the project I'm sharing with you today is the birthday card I made for him.

 

 

I first created a background using Distress Inks, I then stamped a number of different images using the same DI's to make a subtly patterned background.  Finally  stamping the telephone image from a set of stamps by Recollections (brand name of stamps from Michaels Craft Stores in the USA) using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. 

 

The free stamps with the latest Craft Stamper Magazine are these fabby spectacles and mustache which were perfect for my design stamped using the Tuxedo Black ink.  I cut the numbers from a scrap of black cardstock using a set of Memory Box dies.

 

I matted the image layer over some pieces of SU! cardstock in Crumbcake and Black.

 

Here's a pic of the inside of the card, I carried the design through from the front and created a sentiment using the mustache image and letters cut from black card using Memory Box alphabet dies.  The cute little froggy cocktail image is a stamp from Sparkle and Sprinkle, I also stamped him on the outside of the envelope.

 



I hope our pal liked his card, he's on vacation in Florida as part of his birthday celebrations so I'm sure he's had a great day.

More Spooky Stuff - Halloween Star book

Hi there Bloggers, I've not posted on here very much lately, for which I apologise to those of you who swing by here regularly and have been disappointed not to see some new projects.

The main reason for my absence in Blogland is that I've been away in Florida on a wonderful vacation.  My pal Kathy and her hubby arrived at their Florida home during the second half of our time over there and we managed to fit in a fair bit of craft shopping and (probably a little too many) delicious meals out with them.  Their home is just about 20 minutes drive from where we were staying, so nice and handy.  I did manage a little crafting whilst I was away, some of which was done on Kathy's 'table of craftiness'.  We also managed to take in a 'Halloween Star Book' workshop at Violette's in Lakeland.  It was fun - fast and furious some of the time too !

Thanks to Kathy, here are a few pix of us all working hard

Pages under construction

 



 

Individual finished pages

 



... and the finished book as a star

 



 

front and back covers, seen when the book is closed

 



I'll do my best to have something posted on here for you to check out most days now that I'm home, I've a few creations waiting in the wings which I haven't shared with you so far.  Watch this space.....

Spooktactular !

Well, with a post heading like that, you just KNOW I have a Halloween themed project to share with you today don't you ?  Ha Ha !

The new challenge starting over on the Cute Card Thursday Blog has 'Spooktacular' as it's theme and our prize sponsor for this challenge is Bugaboo Stamps.

With my DT card I've managed to use up some more magazine freebie papers - I don't tend to buy much stash in the Halloween theme as we don't really celebrate it and generally I make just one card to send to my Grandsons.

I dug out my Reflections (Michaels Stores) set of little monster stamps, stamped and coloured these images using my ProMarkers before fussy cutting them all out.  I stamped the sentiments and cut them out by hand.

The central orange panel was embossed with a pumpkin embossing folder before being distressed using Black Soot DI.  The length of 'hairy' twine was in my ribbon stash and I thought it was a perfect finishing touch. 

Graffiti

Hi there Blogging friends, I've just an ATC to share with you today as I'm still away from my own stash and sharing a table of craftiness with my pal Kathy and using her stash.

For my ATC I used a couple of stamps from kaiser craft and Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Vintage Photo to create the background with Black Soot DI to distress the edges.  The 'scientific' image is from a set of stamps by Stampendous and the Graffiti stamp is from a Hero Arts stamp set.

That's it, for today folks, hope you enjoyed your visit.

The Neutral Zone

Happy Thursday Bloggers, hope you're having a great day.

As it's Thursday, a new challenge is starting over on the Cute Card Thursday blog today.  This week our theme is 'Neutral Zone' and our prize is sponsored by Whiff of Joy Stamps.

At first I wasn't at all sure what I was going to design for this theme, but whilst doing a little stash clearing/tidying I came across some rather nice magazine freebie papers and toppers.  I can't remember which mag they were from, but thought they would be perfect for my project with their lovely neutral and soft colours.

 

 

I needed to get a birthday card made for my Son and these designs and colours lend themselves well to a masculine card. 

 

I layered up a couple of the papers in different colour ways with some scraps of SU! cardstock in different shades of brown (I know there is Early Expresso and Crumbcake in there, but as I'm away from my stash as I write this, I'm not exactly sure what the mid shade is called - do enlighten me if you know the name !) I attached the lovely tree topper over a layer of this mid shade card.  Then I diecut a couple of circles from more scraps of the cardstock and used slightly smaller nesties to cut out the matching topper/sentiment.

 

Another card created which has used up some of my huge stash of nice papers, which is a great result.  The design was a little outside of my usual cardmaking style as I generally prefer to stamp and colour images to use with patterned papers and rarely do I use ready printed toppers, but I'm very pleased with how the finished card turned out and hope my Son likes it too. 

 

Do hop over to the CCT blog to check out the amazing creations from the rest of the DT this week. 

Flutter by Butterfly

Hi there Bloggers, not much from my on here lately, but I'm away from home and my stash so very little crafting going on apart from some knitting and a little sewing (I'll share pix of these projects at a later date.

My lovely crafting pal Kathy has allowed me a small corner of her table of craftiness to play on so I've managed a couple of cards in the past couple of days.

Here's one of them

I used last weeks sketch from the Simply Less is More challenge blog, a white paper doily, coloured with distress inks and a Martha Stewart silicone mould and air dry clay to create the butterfly embellie.  The sentiment is a stamp from Kathy's stash and is by Hero Arts.  A Kraft base card and the design was complete.

Thanks for visiting to check out today's project.  Have a great day.

I'm dreaming of a pink and blue Christmas

Hello folks, missed me ?  I'm currently away from home and my stash and for the most part have very little Internet connection.  I have, however managed to acquire a little craft stash and got a couple of cards made.

Using the limited stash at my disposal, I've made an entry for this week's challenge over on the Simply Less is More Blog which this week is a sketch.

The image is one of the stamps in a set by Hampton Arts, as is the sentiment.  I stamped and coloured the image using alcohol inks before fussy cutting out.  I used a doilley as the circular element of the sketch, stamping all over randomly with some Brilliance Orchid ink and using two of the snowflake stamps from the set. 

Thanks for dropping by to check out today's project, hope you enjoyed your visit.