Bah! Humbug! Day ... Cuties everywhere...

Wow this was a hard challenge.  I pulled out my new LOTV and then thought about my House Mouse stamps, but in the end I chose to use a clear stamp set called Critters by Penny Black.  When it comes to 'cute' Penny Black have been top of my list for many years and this set is one of my all time favourites.

Being part of the Bah! Humbug! team has meant that this year I have so many Christmas cards ready to post that it's just unbelievable.  It's also great because it will allow me to just play and make things for Christmas that I normally wouldn't have time to do.  This week I decided to make a wall hanging.  

The top part of the hanging is bauble shaped and was cut out on my Cricut machine using one of the Christmas cartridges.  The other sections were made using nestie die cuts attached to ribbon.

Each of the medallions features a different creature from the stamp set and each was coloured using Promarkers.

For a really neat finish I sandwiched the ribbon between the scalloped mirri board circle and a plain white scalloped circle.  I added glitter to each for more oomph and a couple of red gems to adorn the holly.

My project was made with the following extra challenges in mind...

• Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Don't be square
• Die Cut Dreams Christmas Club - ribbons, glitter and gems
• A Spoonful of Sugar - Sparkle and shine
• Anything goes - Christmas has come early

Have a great weekend everyone and don't forget to pop over to Bah! Humbug! to see the stunning work by my team mates and our guest designer Jenny.

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