May Rudolph Day's Challenge

Yay!  More Christmas cards done!  I made a couple of these but I think I will do more in different colour ways as its a pretty quick and simple design - good for batch making!

The sentiment is by Visible Image and I love, love, love it!  I just had to add the cute little fairy from Cardio clear set Secret Garden.   They are both stamped in black Versafine.  The little fairy is hovering slightly above the 'S' but on the other card I made, I got the placement spot on but I blogged this one as I like the colours better.  The wreath is stamped using Cardio Whimsical Christmas set of stamps and various pigment inks.  I drew a circle, in pencil, around the sentiment using a coffee tin - this was my guide for the stamping.  I stamped several times with each inking to give different shades and dimension. When dry, I erased the pencil circle and added some golden rod Stickles for a touch of sparkle.

I have a few sets of these little stamp sets and should use them more - they are so easy to use and very versatile.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Scrappymo's Scraps of Life - Rudolph's Days challenge - Anything Goes as long as its Christmas
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes

Both these are cool blogs - worth a visit, definitely!

Thank you so much for visiting me, I really appreciate it! Take care. Christine

Fabric Flower Card

Hello and thank you for popping by and thank you also to those who have visited my husband at Stritch Manzello's Record Room, he really appreciates it!

My card today is the first one I have used fabric on and I am loving the way the flowers look!  I might make some brooches too!

The card base is Kraft card and I used off white watercolour card for the background cause I liked the texture and colour.  I added splatters of watercolour paint in pink and brown to the background.  I can't remember what colours as they were from some I had used ages ago and had left on a white tile and just reactivated.  The stems are stamped with a faux stitching stamp from Fabulous Fabrics by InkyDoodles and I used my Misti tool so I could stamp them a couple of times to get a perfect image on the textured card.  I used Vintage Sepia Versafine and embossed with clear powder.  I did the same for the words from PaperArtsy Jofy 09 then inked and embossed round the edges of the words and the watercolour panel.  The flowers were cut out of various oddments of fabric using Sizzix Flower Layers and Leaves Bigz die then I sewed the wooden buttons on through the fabric layers with pink thread.  I thought the words looked cool as the leaves and then finished with the fab wooden butterfly with a little pink bead added to the body.  As an extra finishing touch, I drew faux stitches around the edge with Tea Dye Distress Marker. The flowers were adhered to the card with glue dots - I didn't have a clue what glue to use with the fabric but these seemed to work fine!

I would like to enter the following challenges:

A Vintage Journey - Sew Special
Creative Carte Blanche - Wood, A Word, Something Wild (My butterfly and flowers are wild)
Allsorts Challenge Blog - In the Pink
Bizzy Becs Store - Anything Goes

These are all fab challenge blogs, worth popping along to!

Thank you so much for visiting me, I really appreciate it! I haven't been commenting as much as I would like, so sorry!  Will try and get round in the next few days. Take care and have a fabulous Sunday!  Christine xxx

Seahorses and Stritch Manzello's Record Room!

Hello and welcome!  Thank you so much for visiting me.  Today I have an underwater card for you which I cannot take all the credit for!  The gorgeously coloured and textured  seahorses and star fish were sent to me by my wonderful friend Anne.  Anne, very kindly, sent me some blanks too but I wanted to use the ones she coloured first!

Oops, excuse the corner of the box in shot that I use to take my photos in!  I used a left over piece of a Brusho background I had previously made for the sea and just added all the elements!  I love the colours of the seahorses and starfish against the background.  The little shells and the moss (from Anna Marie Designs and I think looks like seaweed) were glued on with Pinflair glue gel and the sentiment is from Sheena Douglass and is embossed with white detail powder onto snippets of purple card.  The bubbles are stamped using a very old stamp and I managed to get some ink spots on the background so decided to add the lovely turquoise Stickles to cover it up and add sparkle around the seahorses.  The pretty stones came from Anne too and I edged the panel with Distress Ink.

I do feel like I cheated rather with this card as the impressive bits were not done by me!  Thank you so much Anne!

I would like to enter this into Pixies Snippets Playground 229 this week as I used Brusho background snippet and snippets of card for the sentiment.

On a separate matter not connected to crafting at all - some of you already know my husband, Darren, is also stuck at home long term ill.  Part of his illness is that all sound causes him extreme pain.  This is particularly awful for him as he is a record collector and music is a huge part of his life and, of course, now that's pretty much been taken away from him.  So, to stop him going bonkers and to give him something to do that involves music, he has started a blog talking about different albums he has and linking to various sources so people can have a listen to his favourite tracks.  His taste is extremely varied and he has already posted some awesome stuff!  So for any of you who might be interested (or know anyone who might be interested), here is the link to Stritch Manzello's Record Room.  Thank you!

Thank you so much for visiting me and have a fabulous week.  Take care! Christine