Green all over...

Just when all the challenges are asking for autumnal colours I have to decide to do a tree, but all in green.  Typical of me!  Last time I went to the Kanban outlet shop I managed to find this fantastic tree patterned and matching green card which I knew would be perfect to go with the Kanban stamp set I already have.

I stamped the tree with black Memento, coloured with Promarkers and then added little dots using a white Sakura glaze pen to give the tree a bit more oomph.  Gold peel offs and a frame made using nestie die cuts complete the card.

My layout came from the brilliant sketch at Sketch Saturday, which was a fab one to use.  I must admit I have deviated slightly, but I think the essence of the sketch is there.

Additional challenges...

• Pollycraft - Anything Goes
• Stamptacular - five layers and counting (have checked and there are five)
• Stamps R Us - all nature theme
• The Paper Players - Monochromatic

If you are like me and like to enter your cards for a few challenges then do visit Feline Playful where Karen (very bravely) is attempting to list as many challenges as she can.  She also has blog candy on offer to people who become followers which is doubly generous when you think how much work she it putting in to this.

Have a great week everyone.

Ann xxx

Happy Birthday Grandma...

Hmmmmmmm when checking out the challenge for my last Guest Designer spot at the Crafter's Companion Challenge I must have been half asleep as I really didn't spot the 'Christmas with a twist' element to the challenge.  Silly me just dived straight into working on the fab sketch to make a card for Laura to send her Gran, who will be 87 in a few weeks time.

As you can see the card is very pink (to suit Laura) and full of flowers (to suit Gran).  The main image is Popcorn the bear of course and is one of the large stamps so another of my 8" x 8" card blanks from QVC came in very handy.  Check out the top right corner!  Oh my - it only took me about 3 hours to do that circle and I know I'm prone to exaggerating, but this time I'm not. Honestly!  Making that special message on the circle involved using my Just Rite stamp set that I bought at the NEC last November.  Hmm took me quite a long time to get round to using it and it may be a great deal longer before it sees the light of day again!  Oh my goodness I was an only child and brought up at a time when John Bull printing sets were a really good Christmas present (saddo), but my eyes were far sharper then and maybe 3 hours didn't seem an excessive amount of time to spend creating two short sentences.

While creating my special personalised circle I discovered a few very useful things to remember when using these kind of stamps... 

•  you need incredibly good eyesight and the patience of a saint to pick the letters up

• decide at the beginning if you want something in the middle otherwise it's almost like having to start all over again.

• try not to let the one letter that is in the right place when you ink up but as soon as you start to stamp decides to move into another word annoy you

• tap the stamp very gently with the ink pad aware of the fact that some of the letters might decide to migrate to the ink pad when you are not looking

• have plenty of spare card on hand cause there is a strong likilyhood that you won't be happy until you've stamped the piece about 30 times.

• under no circumstances drop any letters on a dark carpet - I know this for a fact (guess why?)

• if one of the letters (100% guarantee on this happening) does drop out and you have to replace it - check and double check that you have replaced it the right way up as it is very annoying to attach the circle to card only to realise that the 'U' in Laura is upside down.  (again I know from experience) 

Having said all that I am pleased with the result and Laura was thrilled with the pinkness of it all.

My card is also for the challenges at...

• Stamp Something - something to celebrate (Gran's birthday) 
• Oldie but Goldie - Pink and Girly (all the stamps I've used are over 6 months old)
• The Sisterhood of Crafters - at least 3 flowers
• A Spoon Full of Sugar - Spots and stripes.

Have a great weekend everyone - I'm going to be busy taking out the letters one by one and replacing them in my printing set.  Oh really looking forward to that!

Ann xxx

Oh dear...

For the first time ever I am late with my Bah! Humbug! post.  Mind you one of the Bah! Humbuggers has been worse than me and hasn't finished her card yet.  Ooooooooooooh she's gonna get dun!!! LOL!

Our theme this week is 'Across the Miles' chosen by Max - did I mention that she hasn't finished her card yet?  Tee hee think I might have!

I originally had all sorts of thoughts in my head about what I wanted to create.  I was thinking along the lines of wherever we are in the world we need to remember the true meaning of Christmas.  These thoughts led to the 'Merry  Christmas' words in many languages panels and of course the image of Bethlehem (by Art Impressions) to represent the true meaning of Christmas.

I'm not sure whether I like the finished result or not.  Maybe it needed to be more colourful - I'm not sure!  It's not really totally what I had in mind, but to be truthful since winning the House Mouse challenge (which was amazing) things have gone rapidly down hill and I feel like I'm featuring in that advert where for every good thing there is the opposite reaction.

Anyway less moaning and on to the inside of the card...

As I have used one of the brilliant gatefold cards from the QVC square card pack I bought recently the inside of the card provided the perfect place to add an appropriate verse.  This one came from my Hallmark Card Studio CD which I only use for verses.

'Keeping in touch with the people we care about helps keep the spirit of Christmas alive in our hearts all year long'.

I typed the verse out and then mat and layered on to a Nellie Snellen die cut the same way as the image on the front of the card.

My card is also for the following challenges...

• Winter Wonderland - a male Christmas Card (think this would be okay for either really)
• Pollycraft - No designer paper
• Charisma Cardz - Christmas Crafting
• Creative Inspirations - Christmas in September

Will be back tomorrow with my last Crafter's Companion Guest Designer card and a Health Risk alert about a certain kind of stamp set.

Have a great day.

Ann xxx