Oh my goodness what an honour!

I'm over the moon having just seen that I've been featured in the Friday Follower's Gallery at Ikki's Cuttlebug Cupboard.  I've followed this blog and learnt so much from her it's means a lot that she has picked out two of my cards for her gallery.

Made my day.

Bah! Humbug! and Here comes Santa Claus...

Oh my goodness I can't believe that's it's only 183 sleeps to Christmas!!  Good job that thanks to Bah! Humbug! and the other Christmas Card Challenges I enter this coming Christmas will be a breeze as far as cards go.  I've even started making the gift tags.  Oh my halo is shining so brightly these days -LOL -  if I could just work up a little enthusiasm for the ironing I might even be up for a medal.

This week our theme at Bah! Humbug! is Father Christmas and for my creations I've used a clear stamp by Little Claire.  I think this stamp is such a cutie and I'm sure I will be using it a great deal this year.

My card is an A5 piece of card folded in half lengthways to create a very tall thin card.  As you can see I've used the Swiss Dots folder to create my background.  Santa's eyebrows and fur hat trim have been glittered and I also added a tiny pom pom to his hat.  The sentiments are peel offs.

On the matching tag I've used white flowersoft and glitter to give texture and again a real pompom for the top of his hat.  The sentiment was computer generated.  I used gold peel offs to complete the look of the tag.

In addition to Bah!Humbug! my tag and card were also made with the following challenges in mind...

• Aud Sentiments - any sentiment but must have the word 'love' in it.  On the tiny tag on my card the sentiment is 'With Love'.
• ABC Challenge - extra dimension - my image is raised on foam pads and the pompom and flowersoft also give extra dimension
• My Time to Craft - Yuletide in June

Hope to see you at Bah! Humbug! this week.  Have a fun day everyone.

Something a little bit different...

I bought the amazing forest brass stencil by Dreamweaver some time ago and the first time I tried it with embossing paste I loved the result, but wasn't quite sure how to colour it or use the finished piece on a card.  Having found it in one of my drawers during the mass sort out session (alongside quite a few other unused, but still loved items) I decided to get into action instead of being such a wimp.  The following is a quick write up of the method I used to create the tree scene...

1. Taped stencil to black card.
2. Applied white embossing paste to whole area as evenly and smoothly as possible.
3. Carefully unpeeled the tape and lifted off the stencil to be washed.
4. Allowed paste to dry completely and then lay stencil back on top.
5. Attached a card circular mask where I wanted the moon to be.  
6. Using a stencil brush applied Distress Inks to the create the background.  (Denim and Pine)
7. Removed the moon mask.
8. Trimmed and sprayed with Crafter's Companion Silver Glitter Spray (also used on embossed panel on card and the punched border).

I'm am totally obsessed with the Crafter's Companion Spray.  It is just gorgeous.  Once you start using it the temptation to spray everything is just way tooooooooooo much.  I haven't got shares in the company or being paid in anyway to say that - honestly this is really magical stuff.

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

• Friday Sketchers - a great sketch for a large focal image - thank you guys
• Crafty Ann's - Embossing (paste counts too I'm sure)
• One Stop Craft Challenge - One for the boys (think my card could be either really, but it's certainly not girlie)
• A Spoonful of Sugar - Best Wishes
• Crafty Creations - add some shine (think my favourite spray will count here)

Have a fantastic day everyone.  Oooooooooooooooh less than a week to my birthday now - not that I'm excited or anything - LOL.