Monochrome Christmas Village...

Just a quick card today as guess what? I am busy getting ready for Christmas!!! Surprise - surprise!

I love the Christmas Village cuttlebug folder and have found it works very well with some of my smaller stamps. I have wanted to try this Santa and his sleigh stamp by Rubbadubbadoo for some time and the challenge of 'monochromatic' at http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com/ seemed to be the ideal opportunity.

Sorry that the photo is a little blurred - I did my best considering the lighting conditions.

Contemporary Christmas...

Hope this is contemporary enough for the challenge at http://www.mytimetocraftchallenge.blogspot.com/ where crafters are being asked to design a 'contemporary' Christmas card.

I already had this image coloured and didn't want to waste him so quickly put this card together. A happy accident came about when the gap between the two striped paper triangles was toooooooooo white and to change it I decided to put ribbon but as a change and because there was nothing to fasten it to I added red star shaped eyelets and threaded the ribbon through. Then I tied in huge bow at front. I like the effect and it's certainly something I might do in the future - perhaps even planned!!!

If anyone is wondering why on earth I am still blogging and entering challenges so near to Christmas - the reason is that it keeps my sanity - well almost!!!

White, white, white...

Yeah I found another cuttlebug challenge site!!! There I was looking at some cards on a friend's blog and I found she had created a card for the Cuttle Bug Spot at http://thecuttlebugspot.blogspot.com/ so off I went to investigate. Their challenge this week is use WHITE!! This is not as easy as it sounds although the sentiment can be in black and as the team designer's have used some black ribbon on their cards so have I.

My design uses the Happy Birthday embossing folder at the top of my card and Swiss Dots for the bottom half. I will always be grateful to my friend Irene for the tuition she gave me on how to do this double embossing easily. Thank you once again Irene - it is so easy once you know how!
The sentiment 'Party Girl' is from a set by Studio G.
The gem stones from the word happy are going to be removed (carefully) - I just don't think they belong - keep reminding me of two eyes and I really don't think the card needs them.

New Award...

I was delighted to receive the above award from my great friend Irene at http://alloccasionscards.blogspot.com/.

The rules for the award are...

Link the award back to the person who gave it to you.

Nominate 5 blogging friends and leave a message on their blog to let them know they have been given an award.

Write down 5 things on your blog that you are addicted to.

Five things I am addicted are:

1. Paper Craft and Rubber Stamping.

2. Entering Challenges

3. Blogging

4. Buying stash for crafts

5. Ebay

My 5 nominees are:

1. Beryl at http://bikshome.blogspot.com/

2. Elaine at http://elainesden.blogspot.com/

3. Wendy at http://craftblog.craftybutterfly.co.uk/

4. Ann at http://craftblogspiritofcreativity.blogspot.com/

5. Jude at http://crafts-international.blogspot.com/

Please do visit these amazing blogs where you will find some really great art work and inspiration for your own cards.

Small art...

Well today had to be small art as like everyone else I was certainly small on the amount of time available. A trip to Argos to buy Christmas lights ended up being a major shopping spree and I returned home with all manor of things that I never knew I needed. Why did I buy a laughing Santa? Is hysteria setting in?

Anyway I have loads of presents to wrap so my small art for the challenge at http://artygirlzchallengeblog.blogspot.com/ is a gift tag made using a Wizard tag die and my new Cuttlebug tree embossing and cutting die and folder. The tree with the holes has gold gems added but they are not showing up very well.

Ah well only another - phew too many to think of - presents to wrap now!! Hmm have a feeling they may not all get handmade gem embossed tags on them. LOL!!

Feeling under the weather...

Not me fortunately, but eversince seeing the challenge of 'underneath' at http://abc-challenge.blogspot.com/ I was thinking along the lines of under an umbrella. I don't know why really, but I ended up with this card to keep in my box for the next time a friend needs cheering up.

The stamps are from a clear set by My Favourite Things and I absolutely love them. The whole sheet of stamps has the most perfect sayings for making cards like this and lots of accessories.

I stamped the central image and the boots on to pink paper and then paper pieced them on to the main stamping. The rest of the image was coloured using Derwent Inktense and Lyra Aqua Colours.

I was thrilled to find just the right colour of pink ribbon in my stash for the bows and as the challenge at http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com/ is bows this week my card fits the criteria for that challenge too.

Oh Christmas Tree...

I can't seem to stop working on a Christmas theme! This card was made using the fantastic sketch this week at http://fridaysketchersblog.blogspot.com/. As soon as I saw this I loved the rounded corners on each piece in the layout. I think this is a sketch I will be using again and again.

The papers used are from the English Paper Company and being on the red, green and gold theme are perfect for the challenge at http://stampchallenges.blogspot.com/.

To bring the colour scheme together more I chalked the card my Christmas tree image is stamped on and paper pieced the trees with the same green paper used for matting and layering. As the challenge at http://tandastamps.blogspot.com/ is 'oh Christmas Tree' I think my small Anita's Christmas stamp fits this theme well.

In the original sketch there is a flower at the top left corner. A flower would not have worked with my design, but I was really pleased to remember my holly leaf punch that I bought recently and as one of the papers has holly leaves on I think this works well. It also means I can enter this card for the challenge at http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/ where this week the challenge is to use punchies.

Yeah a quadruple whammy!!!

I finished the card off with gems to decorate the tree. Found I only had 3 of the red, but actually the mix of colours is growing on me.

Cuttlebug Christmas tree...

The challenge at http://cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/ this week was to make a Christmas/Holiday item that was not a card. I had already bought a green metal Christmas tree from a local charity shop that I wanted to set about altering so this challenge was an ideal opportunity to make a start.

The original tree had an awful green glittery star on the top that kept shedding glitter everywhere. The ornaments on the tree were quite nice ones that gave the impression they were made out of fimo, but I wanted to change it all to something different.



I began by cutting out the baubles. I would have liked to have used the cuttlebug bauble die and embosing folder, but mine hasn't arrived yet so I used a Sizzix die to create the bauble and then embossed it using the swiss dots folder. I made 16 of these in both pearlescent cream and gold double sided card and then attached them to the tree with gold thread. I then added a cream organza bow to each one.

The green star at the top just had to be disguised so I made my own star topper by cutting out stars in both the cream and the gold card and then embossing both using the swiss dots folder to match the baubles. The completed star was then attached to a circular diecut with a gold star brad.

I think it looks pretty good on my new desk - did I mention my new desk? LOL!

Not for those of a nervous disposition...

It's my daughter's boyfriend's birthday today and guess who left making a card till this morning? Good job the challenge at http://www.daringcardmakers.blogspot.com/ is 'ten minute card' - well actually it's 'ten minute Christmas card', but hey they might let me off for not reading the instructions properly!!!

Over the last month or so Lee, daughter's boyfriend, has been obcessed with a dreadful scary game called Resident Evil and as our Wii machine is downstairs I have been exposed to seeing more zombies than is good for anyone's health. Lee's card just had to have at least one zombie on it!!

This was a really quick to make card. I found the image using google - added a greeting to it and printed it out on photo paper. Then a little bit of matt and layering on to suitable matching card stock and the job was done. Not sure whether it was under or over 10 minutes, but it was pretty close.

Now to wrap his pressie - heh heh - I have been teasing him that I don't know what to buy and would he like a rubber stamp?

Guess who is going to wrap one of mine up for him to open - his face will be a picture!!!