Bah! Humbug! Day ... Doilies...

Hmmmmmmmmm Doilies are the theme this week at Bah! Humbug! and when a certain crafter went to the cupboard in search of traditional paper doilies she found none.  Poundland weren't their usual helpful selves either.  Not to worry after quite a bit of head scratching and a little bit of thinking outside of the box I improvised and came up with two designs which I hope fit the bill.

For my first card I used a Marianne die and nesties to create what I hoped would give a doilie look behind the mat and layered image.  

Materials used...

• LOTV angels and baby Jesus stamp coloured with Promarkers and glittered
• Nestie scalloped and plain circles (one circle cut on Cricut at 3.25 inches to get the finest of borders around the central image), Marianne scalloped circle die - oh I love these Marianne dies - just bought the rectangle one too.
• Dovecraft patterned paper 
• silver ribbon layed in stripes across patterned paper and used for bow
• tags cut using Cuttlebug tag die
• blue card and silver mirri 

Additional challenges...

• Crafty Creations - Three Little Words - mine are Love Peace and Joy on the tag.
• Kaboodles Doodles - Break out the ribbon
• Ooh La La Creations - for someone special - this is a 8.5 by 8.5 card and is intended to be for Gran to send my daughter next Christmas - oh boy am I organised or what?
• Woodware USA Challenge - Use ribbon

My second card with the main theme of Doilies was made using a real lace doilie bought as part of a very cheap set from Poundland some time ago.  I originally had the intention of using them on some vintage style birthday cards, but like so many other things just didn't get round to it.  Actually I now wish I had bought more as they are very light and work perfectly as a mat on a card.

Additional materials...

• Santa tag image and backing paper from one of vintage Christmas CDs by Joanna Sheen (not sure which one as this one was from a sheet printed out some time ago - yeah only another 6 images to use now - so pleased I no longer print the whole sheet when I want an image)
• Martha Stewart lace doilie punch
• green card and gold mirri card
• gold eyelet and cream organza ribbon
• gold corner peel offs

Challenges...

• Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club Challenge - The Gift of Love
• Charisma Cardz Challenge - mythical/fantasy - hmmmm not sure whether Santa qualifies here as my voice is one of the loudest shouting 'I believe' when 'Miracle on 34th Street' is shown each Christmas.

Have a great weekend everyone.  

Love and hugs 

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug! Day ... Buttons and Bows...

I know I say this every week, but I really can't believe how fast the weeks are flying by.  Today sees the start of our new challenge at Bah! Humbug! with the theme of buttons and bows.  I love buttons and buy plenty, but for some strange reason I just don't use them as much as I should.  Maybe I will after this challenge.

Materials used...

• Mimi from T for Transparent set by Penny Black
• small circular sentiment by LOTV
• Promarkers
• ultra fine glitter and Diamond Dust
• Swiss Dots embossing folder
• green and pink card and snowflake paper by Papermania
• snowflake die cuts using Marianne dies
• tiny green buttons by Making Memories
• gems and organza ribbon from Stash

My card was made with the following challenges in mind ...

• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - the sketch (had to leave the swirl out as it looked too fussy on the snowflake paper)
• Pollycraft - Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr Baby it's cold outside

My second card was created using my new favourite toy - Serif Craft Artist!  This time I didn't use it to scrapbook, but made a card instead. 

 

I used the sketch from Sketch and Stash and planned the card on the pages on screen.  I thought the images of buttons and the button frame complete with bow gave a different angle to our challenge.  I printed one sheet of the design with the button brads and then another sheet with the Father Christmas on which I then mat and layered  on top of the Swiss Dot embossed panels.  

I couldn't resist adding a real pompom to Santa's hat - another card that won't make it through the slot at the Post Office.  I really need to win the lottery before next Christmas so that I can actually afford to post my Christmas cards.

Hope you will pop over to Bah! Humbug! and take part in our challenge.  As it's the first challenge of the month we have a great prize up for grabs.  

Have a great weekend.  

Love and hugs.

Ann xxx

More holiday scrapping...

Warning Long Post - cup of coffee advisable!!

Oh my goodness the way things are going I might actually complete a whole album, which is totally unheard of for me!  Does anybody else have the habit of buying a beautiful scrapbook doing a couple of pages and then moving on.  Oh dear I have some terrible habits, but not for much longer because now I've gone digital scrapbooking is a breeze.

Actually I'm not completely digital and never will be as I love to add bits and I really don't think you can beat real texture on pages.  I'm using the new Craft Art Platinum by Serif and even with all the blips the programme has at the moment I still love it.

This is my very first 8" by 8" page created from scatch.  So proud of myself.  I matted it on to brown card after printing and trimming so that whatever I did on the facing page could be matched with the first page.  I also added a few real gems to highlight the starfish.

For the other page of the double page spread I wanted to use one of the photos of the hotel that I had already had printed, but I still wanted the pages to match so I printed an 8 by 8 page of the background paper to work on and added my own bits.

 

I matted the background on to the same brown card as my digi page and also used the same brown to mat the photo and as a base for the die cut text mat.  I printed the hotel name and text on to inkjet acetate and then attached this using a brad to a die cut piece of the backing paper.  I stamped the shell border on to a natural piece of coloured paper using Versefine sepia ink.

My next two pages are where I started to get really adventurous - well for a newbie anyway!  Again photos from the same holiday, but this time pool pics.

 

I don't know about anyone else, but we always seem to take loads of pics round the pool and they are all so similar really.  Anyway, I decided to just pull one favourite out of the masses and a few fun ones too. 

Both of my pages were started from scratch and as I love working with sketches so much in my card making I decided to give it a try in the digi scrapbook world.  

 

I used the fab sketch at Sketch Saturday.  I did loose some of the design elements, but the sketch gave me a good base starting point for my page.  Again I matted the piece on to blue card and added real chip board letters for my title.

The facing page was a real fun one to do.  I planned it out on one page printing the background including the fish, bubbles and seaweed.  Then I printed the circular photos on another page so that I could mat them on white (edges tinted with Distress ink) circular die cuts to add depth.  After a massive craft stash flying everywhere search I found the little 'bubbles' which I believe were in my Graphicus goodie box and added them to picture.

Fingers crossed that my scrapbook pages will be acceptable for the challenges at ...

• Stamptacular - Whatever (the shells are stamped on the border on the hotel page and while not a big part of the project I think it's fun to be able to bring stamping and scrapping together).
• CD Sunday - Love is in the Air (not sure whether I'll get away with this, but they do say your interpretation of the theme and as I love my new Craft Artist CD I reckon it counts.)

Have a fantastic evening everyone and do pop back on Friday when it will be Bah! Humbug! day again.  

Love and hugs

Ann xxx