I ♥ Promarkers Challenge #43 - Christmas Trees

Welcome to Wednesday and another new challenge over on the I ♥ Promarkers blog for this week.  The theme for Challenge #43 is Christmas Trees and our prize is a £10 gift voucher from Joanna Sheen. 

Now, I know you may be wondering why I used this image for my DT card - it's not an obvious choice for a Christmas Tree theme, but I really wanted to demonstrate a different/alternative way to approach a theme. 

It's tempting to take a theme or a sketch quite literally and there's nothing wrong with that at all!  Just sometimes it's good to stretch yourself a little and use your imagination to find an alternative approach.

I sooo.... love this Penny Black image and she is after all carrying a Christmas Tree shaped cake on the plate.  I also think her dress looks very tree-like, don't you?  I did also use the "Oh Christmas Tree" sentiment from Lili of the Valley to tie in to the theme.  So, do you think I succeeded in my approach?  I'd love to hear what you think.

The lovely background paper is from the 'A Silent Night' pack by Papermania, many of the sheets have some metallic elements and all are very elegant which was perfect for this PB image. The image was coloured, of course, with Promarkers with touches of Spica Glitter pen added and Platinum Stickles applied around the edge of the image layer.  The organza ribbon and red gems were in my stash and I heat embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder before cutting it out with a plain circle nestie.

I do hope that you'll submit an entry for the challenge this week, I can't wait to pop by your blogs to see your projects.  Good Luck !
hugs
wynneth
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Happy Hop Day !

Happy Tuesday to you and I hope it's a great one ! It's a busy time of year for most of us so I do appreciate you taking the time to join us for our weekly Queen Kat Design hops.  My DT projects are showcased on the QKD Whimsical Ink Sorority blog, but I also like to share them on my own blog for my Followers.  I do hope you enjoy today's card.

This week I'm giving you an early peek of one of the new QKD stamps being released for December, I know it's still November, but the new month is just a couple of days away, so what the heck!!!  Just don't tell Queen Kat, I might just be in BIG trouble !!So, I've sneaked in this  project using the 'uber cool' Miss Taurus - isn't she a stunner?

There's a sketch for us this week and I've twisted it half a turn clockwise and replaced the ribbon and bow with a strip of punched lace and a layered up flower.

I felt this new girl just called out for woodland/organic shades and I had this lovely card in two shades of green in my stash and I used a sheet of pale golden cream pearl as my base card.

I coloured the image with Copics and added loads of Spica Glitter pen all over her wings, horns and the flowers - it's just soooo... difficult to photograph shimmery images to catch the sparkle, but you may just be able to see a little of it if you look carefully. In reality it is very shimmery !

I used a Martha Stewart deep border punch to create a strip of pretty floral lace and added some faux pearls in the centres of the flowers with a Waco Pearl pen. The ornate corner was cut using a Marianne Designs die and I also added Spica Glitter pen to the swirls on the corner. The flower was created by layering up die cuts, with Platinum Stickles in the centre. I also added the same Stickles around the edges of each layer - I love the Platinum as it gives a very much more subtle effect than gold.

That's all from me today folks, so til next time - Happy Crafting !
hugs
wynneth
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A Christmas Collection

Just a quick post today, thought I'd give you a little peak at my table from last Saturday's Craft Fair at a local village, plus a few of the cards etc I made for the event. 

That's it from me tonight, the card I'm sharing with you tomorrow features a new stamp just about to be released for December. 

Stay warm and safe during this cold weather!
hugs
wynneth
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Gold & Black Candle

Hope you're enjoying a lovely relaxed Sunday and not snowed in or iced up too badly!  I think the priority for most of us today is to keep warm. 

The weekly sketchie challenge over on Craftbubble's Craft Mad & Loving It group is to use only one colour plus black on our projects and to follow this week's sketch (created by my great crafting pal Kathy) for the layout. 

For my entry I decided to use the elegant and rich combination of black and gold.  My base card has a delicate swirly pattern in pale gold on it and the lovely rich gold card was in my stash.

I stamped this fabulous Penny Black candle image on to black cardstock with Versamark ink and then heat embossed it with sparkly gold embossing powder.  Using a set of deckle edge nesties I cut out the image layer and a larger layer from the gold card.  I moved a couple of the sketch elements around a little to balance my image and added the 'merry christmas' sentiment created with a Cuddly Buddly stamp.  The flowers were created with Nellie Snellen punch & emboss sets in two sizes, layered up and a faux gold pearl added to the centres using a Waco Pearlmaker pen - Simples!

I like the finished card so much I shall probably make a couple more.

Thanks so much for visiting today and I hope you've enjoyed today's card. 

Keep on Crafting !
hugs
wynneth
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Cuddly Buddly - 2nd challenge using free digi papers

Cuddly Buddly have their second challenge up and running this week and they are giving away free digi papers for you to use.  They are quite pretty and as soon as I saw them I just wanted to use them to make this little Christmas tree decoration.  There's also a prize of £20 to spend in their online store for the winner.

I used a set of spellbinders nesties to cut the bauble shapes out using silver card for the base layer and two of the free CB papers in this pastel blue for the other layers.   It's hanging from a mug tree in the picture above as I need to get up into the loft to get at my mini Christmas tree!   It's just a bit too early to put the decorations up in the house I think, even for me - I do like to wait until it's actually December before I start !

I punched a large snowflake from white card using a Martha Stewart punch and added a flower made with a Nellie Snellen punch & emboss set to it before adding it to the front of the bauble.  The ornament is double sided and I added the same embellishments to the other side.  The blue gems are from my stash and I added a loop of white thread as a hanger before gluing both sides together



Thanks for dropping by, if you've left me a comment - thank you so much!  I love to get feedback from visitors, it's always great to find out what someone else thinks of your work.

hugs

wynneth

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Take some Distress Inks, Post-its and.................

How are your Christmas preparations coming along?  Are you one of those highly organised people who have already bought, wrapped and labelled all the presents, made and written all the cards, have a Christmas cake and puddings maturing nicely in a cupboard ready for the Big Day?  Or are you more like me, still struggling to get far too many things done in a woefully short timeframe in order to have everything ready in time? 

I know these are two extremes but I do have friends and acquaintances who fall into the first category and I'm very much in awe of them and their organisation as well as a little envious of their calm and ordered approach to this busy time of year!

Me? I'm still plodding on with making my Christmas cards and, although I have bought some pressies, there are still quite a few to track down - needless to say, none of them are wrapped yet, Ho Hum !

Today's card is a nice and simple one on which I used the fabulous 'post-it' technique which my crafting buddy Kathy uses to awesome effect and which was demonstrated in Craft Stamper Magazine a couple of months ago. 

I masked off a base card with post-it sheets leaving a shape exposed which I then coloured using Distress Inks.  Once the DI's were dry I over stamped this lovely Candy Cane image by Inkadinkado with black ink over the coloured area.  I added some Platinum Stickles to parts of the cane as highlights, the flowers were punched using Nellie Snellen punch & emboss sets in two sizes, from red and white card and layered up.  The flower centres were created using a Waco Pearlmaker pen in red - I've only just found them in the Cuddly Buddly online store and I'm loving them.

This is such a quick and easy technique and a great way to get a large number of cards made quickly if you are short of time, I think they are rather elegant too - what do you think?

That's it from me today folks, hope to see you again soon, til then - Happy Crafting !
hugs
wynneth
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I ♥ Promarkers Challenge #42 - Anything Goes (with a bit of sparkle if you wish)

There's a new challenge up on the I ♥ Promarkers Challenge Blog today.  This week the theme is 'Anything Goes' with the option of adding sparkle if you wish.  Our sponsor for this week is Digi Doodle Shop.

For my DT card I chose this really cute Snowman and Friends image from DDS.  I decided to stick to a mostly white on white colour scheme, I do so love white on white it just makes the few coloured parts of the image pop right off the page.

The corners were created using Marianne Designs dies and I added Glamour Dust over Glossy Accents to his hat trims and to sparkle up the snow a bit.  A little Stardust Stickles added around the edges of the image layer and some small clear gems in the corners and I called this card finished.  Nice and simple but effective I think.

I do hope you'll submit an entry for the challenge this week, myself and the other DT members love visiting your blogs to see your creations.

That's all from me today folks, til I see you again - Happy Crafting !
hugs
wynneth
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Hopping with Happy Cupcake

As it's tuesday, there's a blog hop going on with Queen Kat Designs.  My DT project is showcased today over on the Whimisical Ink Sorority Blog as part of the Hop but I also like to share my projects on here for my regular readers.  If you'd like to do the Hop just start here and follow the links.

We have a lovely picture  to inspire us this week, lots of gorgeous Autumnal colours and these were the inspiration I took for my project.

I decided to use the lovely Happy Cupcake November release stamp, she's such a darling girl with her sweet and happy smile and, with all the foliage in the background, just perfect for this challenge.

Rather than a card this week, I opted to create a triangular gift box, this size would hold quite a few candies or a small gift such as a piece of jewellery, a silk scarf or maybe a few tealights. There is a tutorial on Split Coast Stampers for the box and they really are very simple to make - believe me!  It was my great crafting pal Lauren who reminded me of these lovely boxes recently - thanks Sweetie! I began by cutting a sheet of craft card to size before stamping a lovely branch and a leaf using brown ink, to create patterned base card from which to construct the box.

I coloured the Happy Cupcake image with Copics, adding touches of Spica Glitter pen and Glossy Accents. Using a plain circle and a scalloped circle nestabilities dies I cut out the image and the layer underneath the image. The flowers were made using a Nellie Snellen Punch & Emboss set (I'm so loving this new 'toy' of mine!) punched from pearl card and adding some punched leaves coloured with a green Copic pen.  This side view shows in more detail how the box is contructed. The green and brown ribbons which hold the box together were from my stash and I added small gold half beads to the centres of the flowers.

I hope you've enjoyed today's project so til I see you next time - Happy Crafting !
hugs
wynneth
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Cuddly Buddly Cosy Christmas Challenge

Cuddly Buddly are launching their very first challenge on their blog and we are asked to create a 'Cosy Christmas' project which must have Cuddly Buddly products used on it.  There is a prize of £20 to spend in their store, so well worth submitting an entry.

For my entry, I've used this adorable 'Toby Tumble Pulling the Sledge' image, I just love this little sweetie !

I coloured him with Promarkers and Copics and cut out the image layer with a Beaded Circles nestabilities die.  Inked with Bundled Sage Distress Ink whilst the die was still in place.  I added Glamour Dust over Glossy Accents on the bobble of his hat.  The background papers are from the Toby Tumbles Christmas Papers set of digi downloads.  Flowers were created using two sizes of Nellie Snellen Punch & Emboss punches, with Waco Pearl Maker pen in Crystal added to the centres.  For the snowflake edging I used a Martha Stewart border punch and the ribbon was from my stash.  The sentiment was in my box of ready stamped sentiments waiting to be coloured.

I now have my fingers crossed that mine will be lucky number entry that wins the prize!

See you again soon I hope, til then - Happy Crafting !
hugs
wynneth
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Just Cute Bears & Friends Challenge #40 - A Winter Birthday

Happy Sunday morning to you dear Reader, I hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend and not getting too tired or stressed with your Christmas preparations.  Don't you think that Christmas has started early this year?  Maybe it's just that I'm not getting myself organised efficiently enough, but I still have lots of cards to get made and presents to buy, there are also quite a few Autumn and Winter birthdays amongst my family and friends. 

This week's challenge on Just Cute Bears and Friends is to create a Winter birthday card, so this was perfectly timed for me to create my DT card for my daughter's birthday next month. 

I thought I'd use some crisp icy colours for this card as it is to be a Winter birthday card and decided to use this adorable 'Thomas and Champagne' stamp from Lili of the Valley, isn't he just the cutest little chap?  I coloured the image with Copics and added Glossy Accents to the glasses of champers and Thomas' cute pink nose.  The fancy corners were diecut from aqua card using a Marianne die set, the image was cut with a nestabilities circle die and added over a layer cut from more of the aqua card using a slightly larger scalloped circle nestie.  The flowers were punched out with two sizes of Nellie's Choice punch & emboss sets and pale blue gems added to the centres.  The sentiment is from the newly released set from Lili of the Valley and I added blue Stickles around the edge of the circular sentiment layer and the image layer.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing today's card and that you will play along with us and submit an entry for the JCB&F Challenge #40 - just follow the link to the challenge blog and upload your entry.  Myself and the rest of the DT love to visit your blogs to see your crafty creations and leave you a comment.

That's all from me today, so 'til I see you next time - Happy Crafting!
hugs
wynneth
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