March Rudolph Days!

Hello, thank you so much for visiting me!  I appreciate it so much and I love reading all the lovely comments - they make me so happy!

A Christmas card today.

Sorry about the glare and shadow - my photography skills are rubbish!  I started by making the card to cut the snowflakes from - it is watercolour card, water, three colours of Brushos and lots of Abominable Snowman Glimmer Mist.  I sprayed the card first, added the Brushos, more water, then the Glimmer Mist, more Brushos and let it dry naturally.  I ended up with four A4 sheets as before the first two coloured sheets dried, I pressed clean sheets of watercolour card onto them to pick up some of the colour.

I cut the snowflakes out using Sizzix Tim Holtz Paper Snowflakes dies, I love this set!  The spotty embossed background is made using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and I had cut the panels to make four cards and embossed the first one before I realised the embossing area was shorter than the panel! The panels were the perfect size for the card bases I had already made so I decided to use the little  un-embossed strip to stamp my sentiment - problem solved!  I glued the snowflakes to the embossed panel, the panel to the base card them added little blue stones to the snowflake centres for bling.  On two of the cards I rotated the panel and put the sentiment at the top.  Four more Christmas cards done - Yay!  These were really quick and simple to make which is fab for batch making.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

ScrappyMo's Rudolph Days Challenge - Anything Christmas.
That's Crafty - Bling it Up.
Bizzy Becs - Anything Goes.

Fabulous challenges!

Thanks again for visiting me and I hope you are having a good week.

Take care - Christine xxx

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who are celebrating today!  If it is a sad day for you, sending big hugs!  Here is the card I made for my truly fabulous Mum-in-Law!  I am posting this rather late in the day as I cannot give the card until this evening and Sue, my Mum-in-Law always reads my blog.

My last blog post here used the technique of paper piecing and I enjoyed it so much, I had to do it again!  I used the same very old paper pad - all leftover snippets and the Woodware Bubble Bloom 'Clarissa' and I was away!  I stamped the image in black Versafine on cream card and embossed with clear powder.  I used a Papermania circle punch to punch out lots of circles from scraps of the patterned paper - the punch was the perfect size to fit into the embossed circles, then glued them in with Cosmic Shimmer PVA.  I stamped and embossed the leaves on the green patterned paper, fussy cut them out and glued them on too.  The butterfly is a two part Cuttlebug die, it doesn't have a name on it, sorry,  I bought it years ago and love it!  I used my Cuttlebug to cut the two parts out and glued them together then attached them to the panel along with the extra little circles and sentiment.  The 'happy'  is part of a birthday sentiment that came free with a magazine and 'Mother's Day' is from a set called 'So Happy' by Cornish Heritage Farms.  I got it from Ebay a long while ago.  For bling and sparkle, I popped pearls on all the small circles on the flower and on the plain punched circles along with Icicle Stickles on the punched circles and the butterfly.  The corners of the main panel and the patterned paper mat are rounded with a Corner Chomper - the half inch size, and I inked the edges of the sentiment with Victorian Velvet Distress Ink.

 I was really pleased how it turned out although I wish I had made sure the sentiment was straight by using my T ruler!  Silly me!  Oops Sue, perhaps you didn't notice!  I only have one of these Bubble Bloom stamps but its so useful - you can see how I used it in a completely different way in this post here.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets - all the patterned paper is snippets and the card used for the sentiment.
Cuttlebug Mania - Mother - you must use a manual die cutting machine.  I used my Cuttlebug.
That's Crafty - Bling it Up.
Penny Black and More - Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations - Close to Nature.

All absolutely fabulous challenges!

Thank you so very much for visiting me, I really appreciate it,  I hope you have had a lovely weekend!
Take care. Christine xxx

Paper Pieced Bird!

Hello and welcome!  Thank you so much for stopping by, its lovely that you have!  Here is a cute bird card using paper piecing which I don't do very often but really enjoyed so must do it more.  All the design paper I used were left over bits from a very old 12 x 12 pad that I bought from QVC when I first started crafting.  Its huge and I still have loads left but this card is made using just leftovers.

I have had the Docrafts Bird stamp for ages too and this is the first time I have used it.  First I stamped the image in black Versafine and embossed with clear powder then stamped again on the various colours of design paper, again using Black Versafine and embossed with clear powder then cut out the body from the mint green, the wing from pink and the beak from orange.  The butterfly is die cut using Sizzix Embosslits Beautiful Wings and the flowers are Crafts Too punches - all are cut using matching scrap pieces of paper.  I used a couple of coats of Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen on the flowers, butterfly and the birds wing for sparkle - its looks sparklicious in real life but the photo doesn't pick it up, sorry.  I also added some pink pearls for added bling.  I paper pieced the paper onto the bird and added Glossy Accents to the beak and eye.  The bottom edge of the white panel is cut with two parts of the Sue Wilson Triple Gemini Die - Pictor which I was lucky enough to win some time ago.  The white panel is edged with a tiny bit of Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and I also used it around the edges of the Tim Holtz Chit Chat stickers that I added as a last detail.  The card base is a white 5 x 7 inch card covered with another piece of the mint green paper.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Pixies's Snippets Playground - use snippets -  all of my design paper is snippets!
Mrs.A's Butterfly Challenge - Butterflies plus E for edges and/or mint green - I managed both!
Penny Black and More - Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations - Close to Nature.
That's Crafty - Bling it up.- I wish all the sparkle showed in the photo!  At least you can see the pearls!

These are all absolutely awesome challenges with lots of fun and inspiration!

I hope your week has been going well - I suppose its nearly over now and we are heading for the weekend!  Thank you again for visiting me and take care!  Christine xxx

Darren's Birthday Card!

Hello!  Thank you for stopping by and visiting me - I am so grateful that you did!  It was my Husband, Darren's birthday on Sunday and this is the card I made him.

I began with a piece of watercolour card and I added a Clarity moon mask before I started inking with various colours of Distress Inks.  I think the colours were Wilted Violet, Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold, Abandoned Coral and Fired Brick.  I was going to add my usual water and Glimmer Mist to the background (I am a creature of habit) but I like it as it is so left it alone.  I removed the mask and gently inked the white area with a tiny bit of Scattered Straw Distress Ink.  The Stamp is Rendezvous by Penny Black which I stamped in black Versafine using my Misti so I could stamp several times to get a good image as I am using textured card, then embossed with clear detail powder heating from behind to make the embossing smoother.  The 'love you' is stamped again in black Versafine using Label Maker Sentiments by My Favourite things - I can't stop using this set!  A purple mat on a black card base finished it off.  I am pleased to say, Darren really liked it!  I thought he would as I know he liked he stamp - in fact he suggested I buy it.

I would like to enter the following challenges:

Penny Black and More - Anything Goes.
Stamping Sensations - Close To Nature.
Bizzy Becs - Anything Goes

Fabulous challenges!

Have a lovely day and take care! Christine xxx

The Craft Barn Have Awesome Candy!

The Craft Barn have some absolutely awesome Blog Candy up for grabs at the moment!  Here is a piccie:

Pop over to the The Craft Barn Blog and see how you could win.  I have my fingers firmly crossed! For all of us of course!  There is also lots of inspiration over there too.  Thank you Craft Barn for the chance to win!

Thank you for visiting and take care!  Christine xxx

Dragonfly Thank You!

Hello and thank you for stopping by to visit me - it makes me so happy that you did!  I have a very quick post today as I want to join in with Pixie's Snippets Playground and I have left it very near the closing date!  Luckily I have a card which is perfect that I have not blogged before - Di will recognise it I am sure!

It was simple to make but I love it!  I used a punch to punch out the little dragonflies from scraps of paper from my bits box.  They were all similar papers just different colours, I think they may have been Lili of the Valley.  I Wink of Stella'd them and glued them to my Kraft card base using a faint pencil line to assure they were straight.  It was easy to erase afterwards.  The thank you is stamped with Vintage Sepia Versafine and I think I Wink of Stella'd that too! It is a Visible Image stamp.

I am entering this into Pixie's Snippets Playground - Use Snippets

Di runs such a fun challenge - I really love to join in and the inspiration you find there is amazing! Thank you Di!

I mustn't leave it so late next time!  I seem to always be saying that with challenges!

Have a fabulous weekend whatever you will be doing and take care!  Christine xxx

Christmas Wreath with Baubles

Hello again!  I always seem to do two or three posts right at the end of the month!  I need to be more organised and do more through the month.  It all depends on how I am feeling energy wise as to what I get done - M.E.  can be such a pain!  Quick and simple Christmas card today with Cardio stamps - I love them, they are so versatile!  I must use them more often to make some cards other than wreaths - the possibilities are endless I just haven't ventured there yet!

I used stamps from four Cardio sets - Oriental Bloom, Whimsy Christmas, Elegant Baubles and Sweet Hearts.  Using all pigment inks, I began by stamping the twig to make the main structure of the wreath, added all the flowers and leaves then the baubles and hearts.  There is a lot of first, second, third and, even fourth, generation stamping to give depth.  I drew strings for the baubles using a black marker pen then used Glossy Accents on the baubles and glitter for sparkle.  The panel was glued to a red mat then a white card base and is flat for posting!  Always good!  I think I will make more of these!

I would like to enter the following challenges:

February Rudolph Days Challenge by Scrappymo - Anything Christmas.
Christmas Cards All Year Round - Use Red or Pink and add a Heart.
Bizzy Becs - Anything Goes.

I am happy to make Christmas Cards anytime and it gets me ahead for December entering Christmas Challenges nice and early!

Thank you so much for popping by - I am so happy that you have!  Will be popping around blogland over the next few days to see all the lovely makes!  Its never as much as I would like!  So sorry!

Take care!  Christine xxx