Flowers and Fairies!

Hello, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas - now we are heading for New Year!

Quite a clean and simple card from me today.  The main image is from a fantastic clear stamp set from Penny Black called Botanical Garden - I actually bought it with a gift token I won from a previous Penny Black challenge, thank you Penny Black!  The fairies are from Inkylicious and the sentiment is from a clear set called Hope Blooms from Stamplorations.  All the stamping is done in black Versafine and I embossed just the flowers with detail clear powder.  The flowers are coloured with a couple of different purple Promarkers then I used Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen on them and the fairy wings.  The little stones are from my stash.

This is a quick post as I am a bit near the finish line for one of the challenges I want to enter!

I would like to enter the following:

Butterfly Challenges - all kinds of Fairies, Gnomes, Elves and Pixies.   I only just made it in time!
Penny Black and More - Black and White Plus One.
Stamping Sensations - Floral Fancies.

These are all awesome challenges - you need to have a look!

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

A Very Special Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas to all my lovely, lovely visitors!  I am saying it with a very special card which was made by my Daughter Sarah and my two Granddaughters - Freya aged three and Millie aged one.

I just love it!  Freya and Millie's cute footprints with the googly eyes and pom pom red noses - such a fabulous idea and a wonderful keepsake!  The best Rudolphs ever!

Here are my gorgeous granddaughters putting out food for Santa and the reindeer ready for their arrival.

Ooh I love them to bits!  They look so cute in their Christmas jumpers!

Have an absolutely wonderful Christmas Day!  Lots of yummy food, drink and fun!
Take care. Lots of festive love! Christine xxx

Snow, Snow, Snow!

I was very lucky recently to have won a challenge at IndigoBlu and as well as winning some awesome stamps, I was asked to be Guest Designer.  What an honour! Thank you very much IndigoBlu! Very daunting though to have my card shown amongst such a talented design team, scary indeed!  Here is my effort.

The main image is the absolutely beautiful Bare Forest 1, which is one of the fabulous stamps I won. Firstly, I made the inky background using Sheena's stamping card.  I put Broken China, Mermaid Lagoon, Wilted Violet and Shaded Lilac Distress inks on my craft mat.  Spritzed with water then pressed the card in it and wriggled it around a bit.  I dabbed it with kitchen roll then dried with my heat gun then dropped some droplets of water over it, let work for a second, then dabbed with kitchen roll and dried with my heat gun.  Then a quick spritz with Abominable Snowman Glimmer Mist for shimmer and another dry with my heat gun and it was done.  I swiped over with an anti-static bag before stamping the image in Versamark and embossing with white detail powder then trimmed to the size I wanted.  I added dries white glue along the bottom and glue pen on the trees then poured Glamour Dust over the glue for sparkle then set aside to dry.  I also dotted dries white glue over my purple card base and added Glamour Dust to that too and left to dry.  Using the same inked card, I cut the snowflakes using Tim Holtz Mini Paper Snowflakes dies and the sentiment which is from Stamplorations - I used my Big shot.  I also cut the sentiment in a white card to layer just behind to look like snow. Glamour Dust was added to all the die cuts too.  When everything was good and dry, I popped the main image up on foam tape for dimension and then glued the snowflakes and sentiment on flat adding pearls for a bit of bling.

I was pleased how this turned out and I have two Christmas cards ready for next year!  Yay!

Thank you again to IndigoBlu  - this is a fabulous challenge, so please join in!  Its fun and you might win some awesome stamps like I did and be Guest Designer!

I would like to enter the following Challenges:

A Vintage Journey - Winter Magic.
Cuttlebug Mania - A Christmas Card in any colour except red or green.
Bizzy Becs - Anything Goes

These are all  fabulous challenges!

Thank you for visiting me, I hope you are ready for Christmas!  Its nearly here!
Take care! Christine xxx

Miss You!

My husband was very recently in hospital in London having some treatment for five days and because of the distance, I couldn't visit!  I missed him so much so made him a card to tell him so. Unfortunately, it disappeared somewhere on route and never arrived! So all he got was a photo!

The background is from my snippets box and is a brayered piece that I did on gloss card a few years ago.  I used a multi coloured die ink.  I can't remember what it was called.  The tree is Memory Box Twiggy Tree and the stars are from a Mama Elephant die.  The sentiment is from a Stamplorations clear stamp set called Frames and Flowers and I added the little white heart stone from my stash.  I matted it on black to bring out the colours and used the green card base.  It didn't match but I thought it went with all the colours nicely.  I was gutted Darren didn't received it, never mind, the thought was there!  I was very glad when I went up to London to travel back with him and he was home again!  He was very glad too!  Unfortunately the treatment didn't help the pain he is in anyway!  Back to see the consultant in London tomorrow to see what's next!

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixies Snippets Playground - use Snippets - everything apart from the card base is a snippet!
Bizzy Becs - Anything Goes

Thank you so much for visiting.  I appreciate it so very much!  Take care. Christine xxx

My Husbands Christmas Card!

The quickest post ever today as I am just about to miss the deadline for Pixie's Snippets Playground and I didn't manage to join in last week so I don't want to miss this week!

Here is the Christmas card I made my husband - its very similar to one I blogged a couple of weeks ago but he really liked that one so I went with the same basic design with a few tweaks!

My hand cut Christmas Trees are from snippets of, very old, leftover Christmas paper.  The snow hill is torn from a scrap of white card and edged with dries white glue and glitter.  The heart is a wooden one from my stash and I painted it green to match the trees then added Stickles for sparkle and the little gem.  The starry banners are Tinsel Ropes by Memory Box and are cut from scraps.  The sentiment is from a lovely clear set from Casual Fridays called Must Love Snowflakes and I added lots of stones and snow with a white gel pen.

I am entering this into Pixies Snippets Playground - use snippets.
I am also entering into Creative Carte Blance - Song Lyrics - I just got an 'ear worm' of Maria Carey singing her Christmas song "All I want for Christmas is You" and realised it fits the challenge! Now I don't like Maria Carey songs much but I do like Christmas songs so that's ok!

Thank you so much for visiting.  I really appreciate it.
Have a lovely weekend. Take care Christine xxx

Emboss Resist Christmas Card

Hello, its the weekend again and December already! -  the time goes so quickly.  A Christmas card today.

This is a bit smaller than A6 as the main image is small.  I started out with a small piece of leftover gloss card that I had embossed with Versamark ink and clear powder.  The stamp I had used was Cover A Card, Tree Line, and I had not embossed it properly when I did it a while ago.  So, I had cut away the outside pieces that went wrong and popped this in my bits box.  I pulled it out, inked it with Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet and Chipped Sapphire Distress inks then wiped the excess off the embossing.  I love the more delicate and smooth effect it has on gloss card!  I wasn't sure what to do with it then I remembered my fabulous, unused, Crafts Too Embossing Folder - perfect!  I embossed it through my Big Shot then glued it onto a purple card base I made.  I carefully used a one inch punch to make the squares which I kept in line to give the effect I wanted.  I glued three squares in a line in the central panel of the embossed piece.  I added Cosmic Shimmer Diamond Sprinkles with a Quickie Glue Pen for lots of sparkle.  The original piece that I had was big enough to give me six squares so I have two cards, Yay!

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Less is More - Emboss Resist Technique
Pixies Snippets Playground - use snippets - my stamped images were snippets and the pieces of card I used for the embossing were leftovers too!

Thank you so much for visiting me - its really appreciated!  Have a fabulous weekend.
Take care. Christine xxx