TRADITIONAL COLOURED CHRISTMAS

Hi fellow crafters ... hope you are all well today

I've another Christmas card to share with you and

if I think back to last year by the time December came along

I was well ready to move on to the next season of cards!

The problem is there's so many adorable Christmas products out there

we've just got to keep making them! HoHoHo! 

Anyway enough of that cheesy Christmas stuff here's my card ...

Card Recipe:

Gold 'crackled' cardstock: The Papermill Shop

Circle Baubles using Uniko Studio: Background Builders circles

with a wiggly bit of gold foil card for the top

Sentiment: Clearly Besotted Little Puddings stamp set,

which is heat embossed in gold onto vellum

Banners: Sizzix Framelits

Gems, nailheads and gold metallic 'twine' from my stash 

... Apologies this twine is so springy just noticed the bows 

must have moved as I took the picture ... Grrrr!

Challenges I'd like to link to:

Addicted to Stamps: Photo inspiration

CAS on Sunday: Use 'twine' or 'ribbon'

Pixies Snippet Challenge

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge: Ornaments

  

Ok that's all from me today.

Thanks for stopping by my blog

and see you all soon

NEWSPAPER TO THE READY

Happy Saturday all and I'm so pleased you've stopped by.

It's time for another challenge at Less is More

and it's recipe week - so please use some NEWSPRINT on your cards

Here's my offerings

Having picked up an old and yellowing book in the charity shop,

then carried out the sinful act of tearing a page out and die cutting

with 2 Clearly Besotted Standalone Butterfly dies!!!

These were aged even more with a sponge daubing of Memento brown ink

Aside from the heart-shaped button and twine from my stash it's a

Clearly Besotted collection of additional stamps:

Fancy Flourishes, Building Blocks & Simply Quilled

Another Christmas opportunity ... whoopie!

This time my newsprint is in the form of printed vellum

with a Christmas song - I picked this up years ago from 

The Papermill Shop before it became an 'online' only store.

I've heat embossed, in WOW Sparkling Silver EP, an image from the

 newly released Clearly Besotted - Joy to the World set

then re-embossed with cranberry EP for the berries & ribbon.

The sentiment is from the same set and it's mounted on 

die-cut panels from Mama Elephant Index Card set, 

with the rear one being silver vellum ...

... as the current theme at Addicted to CAS is vellum  

I'm heading across there to link up my card to the challenge.

... also over at Addicted to Stamps the theme is

'Holiday' so I'll be heading there too with this card

Thanks for all the fabulous 'mini creature' cards;

some were terrifying and some utterly adorable and cute!

So let's see what you make of this week's challenge.

Have a fun and crafty weekend.

                                                             

SHOWERED WITH FLOWERS

Back again with 2 flowery cards and why did I never use this little stamp before???

My first card is a joint challenge entry to Dynamic Duos and this month's Uniko Challenge where there's a sketch to follow:

                                    


This is the second card I made today with this stamp set but I just love the colour scheme so showing this one first. I'm lucky to have all 3 Flower Power and Background stamp sets from Uniko Studio but I've never used this mini trio stamp and I think it's worked just perfect as a shower of flowers.

I've used the Flower Power 2 set for the image at the base of the card and teamed it up with a birthday sentiment from Clearly Besotted.  The papers are from the Papermill Direct and I've added some glossy accents, little black dots to the small flowers and a black gem from my stash to the large flower.


    


Ok so I did make this card first and it's to enter the challenge over at CAS - colours and sketches where there's a sketch to follow.  I pulled out my new Flower Power stamp sets from Uniko and set to work using the background set for the left panel and set number 1 for the base.  I've added a Happy Birthday sentiment from Clearly Besotted, some twine, silver pearls, and nail heads from my stash.

The top blue panel is from the Papermill Direct but it's been in my stash for years and I only had a little snippet of it but I quite like the effect against the stamped panels.

Ok that's all for me today. Looking forward to catching up on your blogs after tea.

PRODUCTIVE CRAFTY DAY FOR A CHANGE!

Happy Tuesday all

Wow can't believe how crafty, busy I've been today - AND I've even had the opportunity to crack open some of my new stash that Santa brought me so lovvvvving it!

So I've a couple of cards to enter challenges so here goes and first up is a card to share at Pixies Snippet Playground plus the new challenge over at Card Concept where the theme is 'Use Texture' and I'd say I've used another freestyle collage style

I've used texture on the background using a lattice embossing folder from Darice and a woodgrain effect behind the owl plus lots of snippety bits to make the branch (using Clearly Besotted - Paired Up dies), leaves (Marianne Creatables dies) and birthday banners (MFT die-namics sentiment strips).

Card Recipe:

Image: Cross-eyed owl - is either from my Crafty American Auntie or a blop-hop I won recently
Papers: Papermill Direct
Sentiment: Clearly Besotted - Geometric Style 1

Ok back in a minute with another make...

WARNING ... SHADES REQUIRED!

Happy Monday

I've been working today and a busy evening ahead too so very swiftly posting these 2 creations which I started yesterday and have just finished off.

First up is a combo challenge for me to Sketch Saturday and CAS-ual Fridays where the theme is 'Colour Block' hence the need for shades!

                           

Items used:
Geometric Style I Stamp set from Clearly Besotted
Sentiment also from this set plus Honeycomb
Candy Dots are from Stampin' Up
Papers are from The Papermill Shop
X-Cut Corner Punch


 


Next up is, fingers crossed, just in the nick of time to enter the Color Throwdown and Seize the Sketch Challenges. (Whoops ... having nipped over to Seize the Sketch I've missed the boat! Oh well I love the sketch so glad I could make use of it!)

It's also a commission for a man who is music mad and plays the accordion but in the absence of anything accordion-like in my stash I've used a music script die from Dies to Die for and some wooden notes from my stash

                          

Other Items used:
In the Frame Stamp & Die set from Clearly Besotted
Stars from Memory Box
Mosaic Embossing Folder from Cuttlebug
X-Cut Corner Punch

   

Sorry short and sweet. Hope you're having a good day and catch you again soon.

DESIGNER LEAVES

I've been working from home today as I'm still coughing and spluttering so rather than spread my germs at the office I kept myself to myself. No time for crafting though so I've just finished off a card I started yesterday which is to enter the Less is More Challenge where the theme is 'use DP in a CAS way' and the Paper Players Challenge where the theme is 'Leaves.'

Not sure if my card is entirely CAS because I can't help myself with a bit of bling! On the plus side my DP does have a beautiful leaf design so hoping it'll slot in nicely with the Paper Players.

And as it's made up of plenty of odds and sods of papers I'm heading down to Pixies Playground for a turn on the swings and to show my card to my friends there too. In fact I've had this paper for so long I'm surprised it's not gone yellow! It's one of those buys where it ends up in your basket at the checkout and you've no idea how it landed there!!!! Then when you get it home you can't stop touching and admiring it to the point that it's simply toooooo gorgeous to part with even a little snippet on a card!

Anyway the day has come to 'cut' into it! My card is going to my friend's mum who has been in hospital for 3 weeks so hoping she'll love it.



Card Recipe:

Butterflies: Stamps & Dies from Clearly Besotted
Papers: The Paper Mill Shop & Pink Petticoat
Sentiment: Sorry unknown FREEBIE
Sparkling brad from Stampin Up and gems from my stash


Right off to catch up on some TV and chill time and may tootle around your blogs too.

BUTTON TREE

So here's my last one for today and it's the weekend so got to be Less is More! For once I've loads of tree images and I thought I'd combine this one with the ColourQ challenge for this week; just hope Chrissie and Jen will allow the pink space instead of white!

Also managed to make this a trio challenge as I've used the sketch from Sketch Saturday but turned it and used an A6 rather than Square card.

I have almost finished another festive 'tree' card which I'll hopefully post tomorrow. Hope you are all well and catch you soon.

    


Card Recipe:

Image: Pink Petticoat
Papers: Clearly Digi Stamps (no longer trading) & The Paper Mill Shop
Sentiment: Clearly Besotted
Buttons from my stash (leaf-shaped ones from my Crafty American Auntie)

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT

Late again but as they say better late than never eh and can someone tell me what happened to September?!!!

I'm so busy crafting at the moment as I am helping at a School fund-raising event a week on Friday and was asked if I'd have a card stall. What a fabulous idea but heavens will I have enough to sell??? Arrrrgh! Every time I look at my stash I think of another occasion that's missing! So burning the candle at both ends at the moment so please bear with me if I'm missing your posts.

Anyway I had a little time to make my entry for Less is More which is a sketch challenge this week and I couldn't wait to have an excuse to use my 'Rocket' stamp and die set from Clearly Besotted. Then I noticed ColourQ having just released their challenge for the week had colours as I intended to use so here goes. Apologies if the red looks slightly pink in the photos but I can assure you it's called ladybird red!

Card Recipe:

Image & Sentiment: Rocket stamps and die from Clearly Besotted
Papers/Cardstock: The Papermill Shop
Cuttlebug stars embossing folder
Framelits Circle & Pennant Dies
Glossy accents to highlight parts of my rocket and flame

     

PICKING THE BUTTERFLIES AGAIN!

Hey Happy Tuesday,

Really quick post from me today as I'm off out for a meal with the girls shortly and need to get myself showered, changed and a bit glammed! LOL

So this is my entry to the Dynamic Duos and Paper Players Challenges - and why do I keep going for butterflies? Sorry can't help it ... they are just too adorable! I have even tried a technique which I've not used for goodness knows how many years ... wet embossing! I had all the stuff in my stash but sort of fell out with stamping a few years ago. Thankfully I'm re-acquainting myself with it and loving it!

Hope to get chance to look at your creative makes later on.

Card Recipe:

Image: Butterfly Stamp from Hobby Craft
Papers: Pink Petticoat & The Papermill Shop
Sentiment: It's a free download and I can't remember where from (sorry)
Candy dots: Stampin Up
Lattice Embossing folder - a fantastic prize from Pixies Snippets Playground
Martha Stewart Butterfly punch

     

ANOTHER LEAFY ONE!

It's that time of year I guess and although we don't tend to celebrate Fall here in the UK the seasons colours are beautiful and worth celebrating. This card however is a bit of a different take on the standard Autumnal shades but that's to tie in with the ColourQ challenge which I've teamed up with Seize The Sketch.

Card Recipe:

Image: Die Cut leaf (hopefully acceptable as Calypso Coral) a gift from my Crafy American Auntie
along with the Embossing Folder which is Cricut Cuttlebug: Birds and Swirls
Papers: Paper Mill Shop
Sentiment: Uniko Studio
Button, Twine and Gems from my stash

      

PRETTY LITTLE ARROWS

Crikey I'm late tonight!

BUT I have been a busy little bee in my Crafty Cupboard today as I was MIA yesterday. I took my parents to Preston hospital as my Dad had a LONG appointment. On the plus side the appointment was in two bits so we could leave for a few hours so we had a lunch and shop session at a superb garden centre then even got to do a little shopping in Hobbycraft after the appointment.

So back to my post for today and it's a combined challenge for CASology (which is a new one for me but I've noticed lots of my bloggy pals play along at this one so thought I'd have a go). The theme this week is Arrows and I hadn't had chance to play with my Uniko Studio Accent Essentials Arrow set so this challenge was the perfect opportunity.

CAS Colours and Sketches have a colour challenge this week so I've used that pallet too as it's pretty yummy.

Card Recipe:

Image: Uniko Studio: Accent Essentials - Arrows
Papers: TK Maxx & The Paper Mill Shop
Sentiment: Uniko Studio: Flower Power
Buttons & Gems from my stash

    

DID I SAY I LOVE BUTTERFLIES?

I think I mentioned last week that I was addicted to butterflies ... well it's becoming an obsession! LOL. I'm finding myself looking for opportunities to add a butterfly! What's all that about???

Anyway this is my first of two entries for the CAS(E) This Sketch Challenge. So armed with my Clearly Besotted and Uniko Studio stamp sets I went for the 'traditional' sketch look in line with the 'sketch'.

But then I decided to do a fun card so check out my next post for that one ...



Card Recipe:

Image: Butterfly Addition Stamp Set from Clearly Besotted & Natural Treasures 1 from Uniko Studio
Sentiment: Clearly Besotted
Card Stock: The Papermill Shop
Pearls from my stash and glittery brad from Stampin' Up