Here come's Santa Claus...

Well Messy Rabbit in Santa suit which is near enough as long as it's craft stuff in those parcels! Wonder why he's delivering presents in a room where the calender says it's only half way through December? I'm got a degree in worrying about tiny details like this!!

Materials used:

• Messy Rabbit Santa by Joanna Sheen
• bedroom room backing paper is from backing paper pad also by Joanna Sheen
• silver mirri card and blue pearlescent
• Fiskars Shapeboss to emboss holly border on card
• rub on white Christmas sentiment
• tag cut using Spellbinder tag die
  
• gem and ribbon from stash

Challenges:

• Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps - Merry Christmas - Happy Winter
• Pile it on - rub ons
• Everybody's Art - Christmas
• Papertake Weekly - Christmas Crackers

and of course Allsorts Challenge Blog (and I have so enjoyed entering cards for this - ends Saturday - what am I going to do?) - Christmas Songs or Carols. Today's song is 'Here comes Santa Claus'.

Have a great weekend everyone - see you on Monday for the Pink Elephant Challenge.

Ann xxx

Stunning lady...

I don't usually like large A4 cards, but when I saw this glamourous lady A3 decoupage sheet at the Kanban outlet shop I just couldn't leave her behind. You can't tell in this photo, unfortunately, but she is decoupaged and both her dress and the tree in the background are embellished with gems and I added some Sakura Stardust to her skirt which is subtle but in real life looks really glitzy.

Due to the size of the card the sentiment was a bit of a problem. Sometimes, and maybe you do this too, I make the whole card and then can neither think where best to put the sentiment or what would fit best. On this occasion all the peel offs I had were just too tiny! Thank goodness for Keith at Wath market - what would I do without him? Not only did he have the right size (or the best fit I could have got), but it was in a box where all the peel offs were 5 sheets for a pound! Don't you just love it when that happens?

Materials used:

• Kanban A3 decoupage sheet
• gold sparkly card, red and black card
• gold border and sentiment peel offs
• gems from stash

Challenges:

• Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge - Winter ladies (check out the beautiful ones Fab has on display that have been created by Vince)
• Everybody's Art - Christmas
• Papertake Weekly - Christmas Crackers
• My Time to Craft - Very Vintage
• Winter Wonderland - Christmas with no stamps or papers
• Crafty Ann's Challenge - Black white and one other colour (sorry I didn't enter last time Ann, but I'm here now!)

and last but not least (I really can't resist entering this one yet again - just so much fun)....

Allsorts Challenge Blog - a Christmas song or Christmas Carol - I think with this glam lady my song has to be 'Mistletoe and Wine' by Cliff Richard which is I remember rightly has a romantic feel to it and this lady certainly looks like she's heading to a romantic 'mistletoe and wine' night out.

And lastly but really importantly Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends. Yeah - hope each and everyone of you has a fabulous day.

Messy Rabbit's Christmas Pudding...

This is one of my favourite of the Messy Rabbit Christmas stamps - having said that I have a new favourite each time I use one from the set.

Materials used:

• Messy Rabbit Pudding Stamp set by Joanna Sheen
• sentiment stamp (not sure who by - sorry!)
• holly patterned mirri card, silver and green mirri card by Kanban
• tags cut using Sizzix die
• holly punch
• ribbon and border peel off from stash

Challenges:

• Everybody's Art - Christmas
• Papertake Weekly - Christmas Crackers
• Creative Card Crew - Favourite Things (Messy Rabbit rubber stamps - well any stamps actually)
• Kraftin' Kimmie - Happy Christmas
• Allsorts Challenge Blog - Christmas Song - 'Feed the world' - click on link to hear song!

and last but not least the Daring Cardmakers challenge which is ...

Put 3 things on your card that begin with the first letter of your name.

Now I would not have dared to do this, but after commenting on Irene's blog yesterday about pushing my luck and entering the challenge with...

A ribbon, A patterned paper and AN image

Lythan commented on Irene's blog ' And as for Ann... go on push your luck!' so I did!!!

I do hope I don't get banned from the DCM challenge as it's one of my favourites.

Oh and before I forget YORK was just brilliant and even better news we have booked a holiday flat and will be going for a whole week's holiday next year with muskateer number 3 - Max - yeah - watch out York here we come.

Ann xxx

Silly me!...

Has anyone else bought things from QVC and then wondered why on earth did I buy that? I've done it loads in the past and thought I was cured, but no the Daisy and Dandelion TSV got me the other week so I thought I better make an effort and use something out of it.

This cute elephant is from a sheet of die cut decoupage that was included in the kit. Hmm - not very impressed at all. I thought it was okay at first, but when I had built it all up with silicone glue I just wasn't happy with all the 'extra' white bits that shouldn't have been there.

Tip of the day coming up - Do not try to trim white bits off decoupage while silicone glue is still wet. It's not easy and ends up a disaster. Good job there were two sheets of the elephant as first ended up in bin and on number two I did my own cutting.

The sketch I've used for this card is the new challenge sketch at Cutie Sunday. Another of my favourite sketch blogs.

Additional materials:

• Die Cut Decoupage and rub on sentiment from Daisy and Dandelion QVC kit
• holly paper by Dovecraft
• green card and gold mirri card
• gold peel off letter, tag and organza ribbon from stash

Additional challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp - Animal Antics
• Pile it on - Rub ons (the 'with love at Christmas' is a rub on)
• Allsorts Challenge - a Christmas song - this one is 'Have a holly jolly Christmas'

click here to listen to Burl Ives singing the song - ah I love that guy!

Have a good day everybody - I know I will as today is a very special one. I'm meeting my good friend, Irene , in York. Oh wow we are going to have a whale of a time.

Monday means Pink Elephants...

or at least one Pink Elephant anyway and this week Ella has a recipe for us ...

Plaid - Brads and NO Ribbon (oh my not using ribbon was a real toughie!)

Our sponsors this week are Wild Flower Kids Rubber Stamps and the design team were lucky enough to work with fantastic images from the 'Tis the Season' digi image range.

For my first card I used the digi Christmas Tree and the oh so cute Elf Lilly. The 'Merry Christmas' wording is from the sentiment set which is part of the range too.

The sketch is this week's challenge at Friday Sketchers - I'm addicted to sketches at the moment and I loved this one.

Additional materials:

• Black and red card
• red metallic brads
• plaid black and white card
• gold snowflake
• Promarkers
• White flowersoft to create fluff on Lilly's coat and hat

Additional challenges:

• Fun with shapes - Gifts as part of image
• Allsorts challenge - A Christmas Song Title - mine is 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas'

To hear Bing Crosby singing and get in the mood click here or if you're more of a Johny Matthis fan click here.

My second card has a much softer feel to it possibly due to the colour lilac and the layers of checked vellum layed over checked card and also over plain white card.

This time my sketch was from Crazy 4 Challenges and is a very clean unclustered sketch which I feel shows the cute snowman digi from Wild Flower Kids off so well.


Materials used:

• Snowman digi and sentiment digi from Wild Flower Kids
  
• gingham vellum
  
• gingham card
• white and lilac card
• Sakura Stardust Pens for colouring
• ultrafine glitter and white square brads

Additional challenges:

• Creatalicious Challenges - snow and lots of sparkle
• Creative Inspirations - Sparkle
• Dare you to digi - glitter
• Kraftin'Kimmie Stamps - Happy Christmas
• Allsorts Challenge - a Christmas Song Title - mine is 'Frosty the Snowman'

Check out the original song and cartoon here!!

Gosh all those links I'm shattered. Have a fantastic day everyone and I hope you'll get chance to join in with us at The Pink Elephant this week. Remember it's plaid (or checked if you want to cheat a little like me) and brads BUT no ribbon - sigh!!