Happy New Year and CHNC blog candy

This week, everybody will have another chance at winning some blogaversary candy over at Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge. Hazel also pointed me to the StitchyBear Digital Store where I found the digital paper and stamps that I used for the two cards below. The sentiment was part of the December freebies from TlcCreate.

I first printed the digital paper on a sheet of A4 and then printed the sentiment in the top left and bottom right corners before cutting the paper to size. The baubles were also printed in two goes. First I printed the two red circles I created in Word and using one of the available filling effects and then I printed the bauble stamps on top of this. The silver "crowns" were printed on white cardstock and then coloured with a silver gel pen. The sticker chains and red ribbon are from my stash.

I'd like to enter these cards into the following challenges:

CHNC - #53 Celebration candy continued

One Stitch at a Time - Choccy's Christmas Challenge...Use an SBDS image

CCAYR - Anything goes

Crafter's Companion - New beginnings

Aud Sentiments - Anything goes

Squiggle Stamps - Let's celebrate!

Top Tip Tuesday - #66 Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Charisma Cardz - Anything goes

Cute Card Thursday - #197 Happy New Year

Noel and CHNC blogaversary

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge is celebrating its first blogaversary. Well done, Hazel! This card is for you! To celebrate this milestone and to celebrate the fact that she has been able to attract several sponsors for next year, Hazel is offering some blog candy.

I kept this card very simple, because the image speaks for itself. I coloured the Bugaboo digital stamp with Derwent Coloursoft pencils, added some glitter glue on the bow, ornament and stocking and put it onto some gold cardstock. To finish it off, I framed the image with a gold sticker border.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

CHNC - #52 Happy Christmas!
Less is More - Just one word (sentiment)

CCAYR - Anything goes

Derwent - Kerst/Christmas

Paper Sundaes - Celebrate (to celebrate challenge #100)

Poinsettias

Merry Christmas!

I had a nice and quiet Christmas with my husband and our cats,
so I even managed to finish another Christmas card.

TIP:
If you cut out the poinsettia using parchment paper instead of plain cardstock, this will give the flower a "lighter" appearance. I also pinched the tops of the smallest die-cut together to give it a more natural look.

The layout is based on this week's sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches.

Materials used:

Papers - MD (Eline's Vintage, christmas red & green)

Image - Bugaboo

Colouring - Derwent CS pencils

Poinsettias - MD creatables (2 sets)

Pearls - Viva pearl pen

Sentiment - Cuddly Buddly

Scalloped circle - Nestability

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches - Sketch #125

Marianne's Design Divas - #6 It's Christmas

Sir Stampalot - Bingo (punch, flowers, pearls)

Bee Crafty - #57 It's Christmas (use digi)

Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Christmas

Derwents - Kerst/Christmas



Cream, black and gold

Now that Christmas is almost here, I only have time to make some quick last-minute cards. And I keep surprising myself, for it appears that quicker is sometimes yielding better results. I'm quite pleased with how today's card turned out. I hope you all agree.

Materials used:

Patterned paper - MD (eline's old-fashioned Christmas)

Bauble die cut - MD creatable

Holographic gold cardstock - from stash

Black pearls - Viva Perlen-pen

Border - Silhouette design

Sentiment - TlcCreations December freebie

Ribbon and star sticker - from stash

Distress ink on borders and sentiment - Ranger Antique linen

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Marianne Design Divas - Sparkle and shine

Aud Sentiments - Winter Holiday sentiment

Simon Says Stamp - Christmas photo inspiration

Fabulous Friday - Glitter
CCAYR - Anything goes
ABC Christmas Challenge - Yippee, it's almost Christmas
Crafty Catz - Anything goes
Cute Card Thursday - Anything goes
Paper Sundaes - Anything Christmas
Christmas Card Challenge - #2 Doodling (optional)

Recycling...

For today's card, I've been recycling the images of an old Christmas card to make a quick Christmas card, since I still have a few to make. I cut them out and glued them onto a strip of green from the same card. I placed this on two overlapping card layers (a birthday present from an unknown brand) that I cut to size and dabbed with some distress ink (Scattered straw). The pearls are done with a Viva Perlen-pen.

For the layout I used this week's sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches – Sketch #123

CCAYR – Anything goes

Bunny Zoe's Craft – Anything Christmas with pearls

Bling it on – Christmas

Papertake Weekly – Anything goes

Cute Card Thursday – #194 Anything goes
ABC Christmas Challenge – Y for YIPPEE! (Anything Christmas)
Paper Sundaes – #99 Anything Christmas

CAS Christmas wreath

Today, I'm showing you a clean and simple card.

The sentiment is a free TlcCreations digi that was made available through the Aud Sentiments challenge blog. I printed it on a piece of white Papicolour cardstock. The wreath was cut out from the same white cardstock with the Silhouette cutter and then coloured randomly with Spectrum Noir pens in different shades of green.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Aud Sentiments – Use any winter holiday sentiment

LIM – Colour: green

Simply Create Too – #1 All about Christmas (2nd entry)

Simon Says Stamp – Anything goes

Dutch Card Lovers – Photo inspiration (wreath)

WOW Magnum and Lily

This week's Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT challenge seemed like a perfect opportunity to ink up another Magnum stamp from Ladybug Crafts Ink that has been waiting for this moment for a couple of months.

I coloured the image (Sledding Magnum and Lily) with Spectrum Noir pens and added some glitter glue on the hats and snow (not really showing on this picture). At least the glitters on the snowflake frame, which was cut out with my Silhouette is clearly visible, lol. The round sentiment is Cuddly Buddly digi. The background was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Ladybug Crafts Ink – White on white

CCAYL – Anything goes

Bah Humbug – #47 Cute Christmas critters

Bling it on – Christmas

The Ribbon Girl – Jingling all the way to Christmas

ABC Challenge – E for Embossing

Simply Create Too – #1 All about Christmas

Ooh La La – Lots of sparkle

Simon Says Stamp – Anything goes

Delightful Challenges – Let it snow

Totally Papercrafts – Let it snow (+ sparkle & glitz)

Meljen's Designs – Inspired by a Holiday song
(Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas)

Sweet Stampin' – Snow...

Catch the Bug – Anything goes

Christmas Card Challenges – One-layer card (optional)

A purr-fect birthday

We had another birthday party today and our friend told me last week he was expecting a hand-made card from me, lol. So there was no escape. I had to make a masculine birthday card, something I find very difficult, but I think I pulled it off this time. The cat and sentiment are from the Add-on Magnum set from Ladybug Crafts Ink and the fish is from a separate Add-ons set. I bought these stamps a couple of months ago so it was about time I inked them up.

The layout is based on this week's sketch over at Sketch n Stash.

I coloured the image with Spectrum Noir pens and matted it on a scalloped nestie of metallic cardstock that I have had for ages. The papers are from a huge stash that I bought several years ago (probably DCWV) and that I have finally started using. The eyelets and string are also from some very old stash. The buttons are from a large bag of buttons I bought last year.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Sketch n Stash – Sketch 75

Penny Black and More – All creatures great and small

Craft Your Days Away – #34 Buttons or bows

Tuesday Throwdown – #75 Lots of circles (2nd entry)

Meljen's Designs – Twine or string

Frosted Design Fabulous Friday – Metal (scalloped circle and eyelets)

Dutch Dare – #140 Recipe (image, pp, layers, buttons)
Some Odd Girl – Coloured cardstock, 2 PPs, buttons, punch/die cut (2nd entry)
Sweet Stampin' – Punches and dies

Dancing Matilda

For this card I used Ballet Matilda from the DigiStamp Boutique. This seemed the obvious choice for a birthday girl who did quite a bit of ballet dancing when she was even younger than she is today, lol. I coloured the image with Spectrum Noir pens and added a Papermania gem to the flower in her hair. IRL this is a very sparkly gem in vibrant turquoise green, a perfect match with the leaves on the PP, but unfortunatly this does not show in the picture.

The birthday sentiment in the punched circle is actually from a Raindrop Echo Design freebie that also includes an image in the middle, but I masked that part by drawing a circle over it in Word. I know how to make these circle sentiments myself, but this was much quicker, lol. The "lace" at the bottom came from a huge sheet that was wrapped around the roses my husband gave me for my birthday. I used my SN alcohol markers to change the colour from grass green to turquoise green to match the PP and applied some double-sided tape to be able to create the pleats. I also used a few circles cut from the same material as a background for my buttons.

Other materials used:

PP - First Edition, Spring Fling

Scalloped circle - Nestability

Number stickers

Papicolour cardstock

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Some Odd Girl - 2 pp + coloured cs + buttons + punch/die cut

Sweet Stampin' - Birthday (they're celebrating their 2nd birthday)

Tuesday Throwdown - #75 Lots of circles

Ooh La La - Bingo (buttons, die cut, lace; hope my "lace" qualifies)

Alphabet Challenge Blog - V for Vibrant

Warm winter wishes

I grew up at a time when hand-knitted clothes were very common, and if the garment didn't fit anymore, the wool would be recycled. As far as I can remember, the thread would be hauled through a bowl of water to straighten it somewhat and then rolled into new balls. My mother was an expert at rolling them, I have never quite mastered this skill.

When I saw this week's sketch over at Mojo Monday and the DT creations, I knew I wanted to use a real woolen scarf on my card. After going through my stash of wool, that's been stored away for years and years, I found these pale blues and greens, probably the result of many washings. They matched perfectly with the BasigGrey green and blue papers from the Eskimo Kisses collection.

Materials used:

Image - Angels Landing digi,

coloured with Spectrum Noir pens

Sentiment - Doodle Pantry digi

Papers - BasicGrey Eskimo Kisses

Brads - BasicGrey Marjolaine

Wool - from my stash ;-)

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Mojo Monday - Sketch 214

Stampalot Challenge - November: Blue and green

BasicGrey - Mix 'n match (Eskimo Kisses & Marjolaine)

Charisma Cardz - #44 Cutesy

Paper Sundaes - #94 Rectangle card

Cuddly Buddly - #20 Double trouble (2 characters)

Adorn D. Yard, the cutest snowgirl around

This cute little snowgirl is called Adorn D. Yard. I thought she was the perfect image for a glittery card. I downloaded this Sweet November Stamps digital image (also available in rubber) yesterday so I could use it on this card.

Most of the other materials on this card are pretty new. The papers are from two Dutch paper pads (Art Talent from Evora – Kruidvat?) that my sister sent to me for my birthday. She certainly knows I love my blues and reds, lol. The sentiment is a Sweet November rubber stamp that was part of some candy that I won recently over at Amy's blog. The image and the snowflakes (cut with my Silhouette) were coloured with Spectrum Noir pens. The cardstock is Papicolor, and the ribbons, star gems and glitter glues (white on the snowflakes and gold on the string of popcorn) are from my stash. The image was cut out with a brand-new Nellie Snellen multi frames die.

The layout is based on this week's sketch over at Sketch 'n Stash:

TIP:

If you are using any type of markers, you can also use them to colour your embellishments, like I did with my snowflakes. That way you can create a perfect match with your coloured image. It also means you can create a stash of white embellishments (esp. if you're cutting them with a Silhouette machine or similar) that you can adapt if and when needed.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Winter Wonderland – Make your card sparkle
CSAYL – Use your favourite sketch
CHNC – #45 Bright colours and/or sparkles
Christmas Card Challenges – {optional sketch}
Crafter's Companion – Let it snow
Colour Create – Turquoise, deep pink and ivory
Pink Gem Designs – #83 Cold and frosty (2nd entry)
Sketch 'n Stash – Sketch 74
Papertake Weekly – Christmas card
Top Tip Tuesday – #59 Anything Christmas
Tuesday Throwdown – #74 Favourite colour combination
Catch the Bug – Anything goes (2nd entry)
Delightful Challenges – Snowflakes
SNSDC – Christmas/holiday theme (+ use digi)

Purple flowers

Over at Mojo Monday they had a great sketch this week, so I decided to play along. It's a fairly simple card, really, but I quite like how it turned out. The green touches of the leaves and flower heart totally liven up the purple, which might have become a bit dull otherwise.

The DPs and the white flower and leaves are from a digital set that I donwloaded from the Crafter's Companion website (member's section). The doily, flower die (purple flowers) and stamp are Marianne Design. The pearls were made with my Viva perlen-pen and the doily, nestie and purple flowers were inked with Ranger distress inks (Milled lavender and Dusty concord).

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Mojo Monday – Sketch 213

Marianne Design Divas – Dying to die cut (+ any MD product)

Simon Says Stamp – Button(s)

Paperplay – Button up

Catch the Bug – Anything goes

Crafty Catz – Anything goes

Penguin Post

Last week I discovered this cute little image (one of many free digital stamps) over at Cuddly Buddly, and I thought this would be a great image to practise some more with my Spectrum Noir pens. For the hat and snow, I added some glitter glue.

For the layout, I used this week's sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches.

Materials used:

Backing paper – Ikea wrapping paper

Lace – Marianne Design

Embossing folder – ProvoCraft

Die – Nellie Snellen multiframe

Image – Cuddly Buddly (Penguin Post),

coloured with Spectrum Noir pens

Pearls – Viva Perlen-pen

Sentiment – StudioLight

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches – Sketch 117 (+ use pink)

Cuddly Buddly – #18 White on white

Jingle Belles – Not a creature was stirring

Bah! Humbug! – Die cuts

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge – Sth. shiny and/or snowflakes

Christmas Card Challenge – optional theme: Liquid applique

Simon Says Stamp – Anything goes

Meljen's Designs – Christmas

Bee Crafty – #55 Use bling (+ digi)

Charisma Cardz – Anything goes

Pink Gem Designs – Cold & frosty

Totally Papercrafts – Glitter it!

More birthday tweets

This week I made another birthday card with a freebie from Doodle Pantry, but this time I coloured the image with my new Spectrum Noir pens.

The DPs are from the Bird Song collection from First Edition, the sentiment stamp is BasicGrey, the flower and leaves were on the digital papers I downloaded from the Crafter's Companion member site, and the ribbon is from my stash. The flower heart was made with a Viva Perlen-pen. I cut out the shapes with some nesties and inked the edges with distress ink. The flowers on the DP are high gloss and sparkling in real life, but I was unable to catch this with my camera.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Crafter's Companion – #17 Pink and green

Totally Papercrafts – #89 Layer upon layer

Crafty Catz – #104 Happy birthday

Paper Sundaes – 2/4: black/sparkle/flowers/distress

Simon Says Stamp – Anything goes

Charisma Cardz – Anything goes

Let it snow

This week there are several challenges with a prompt for either snow or a Christmas song, so I'm giving them lots of softly falling snowflakes. I actually wanted to use some felt snowflakes, but I only had a small snowflake die. So instead of using felt snowflakes, I created a felt background for the snowflakes. The circles were cut out of some white felt-like material I got from the local book-slash-craft shop. To create some colour contrast, and to tie it in with the background paper, which was a freebie digital paper from the Crafter's Companion member site, I used my Spectrum Noir pen to colour the felt.

The layout is based on this week's sketch over at Dutch Card Lovers.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Dutch Card Lovers – Sketch 113

Jingle Belles – SOFTLY falling snow

CCAYR – Use Halloween colours

Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge – Something shiny and/or snowflakes

Sparkles Christmas Challenge – Christmas songs (Let it snow)

Ooh La La – Let it snow

Totally Gorjuss – Pastel Christmas

Green and pink layers

Some time ago, I downloaded some digital papers from the member download site at Crafters Companion. This month's prompt for the challenge over at CC is 'Pink and Green', so I thought this might be a good time to put these papers, including the flowers, ribbon and topper to good use to make a fairly quick birthday card. I printed the papers I wanted, cut them to size, matted them on some fresh green cardstock and put everything on a white base card. To add some dimension, I used 3D kit and I finished the card off with my cream perlen-pen.

The layout is based on this week's sketch from Sketch N Stash.

I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafters Companion – #17 Pink & green

Whimsie Doodles – Think pink (cancer awareness or pink as the main colour)

Top Tip Tuesday – #56 Layer it

Totally Papercrafts – #89 Layer upon layer

Birthday tweets

This card is for a special friend who deserves a lot of cheerful wishes on her birthday. The image is a freebie that I donwloaded from Doodle Pantry. Isn't it cute?

I coloured the image with Derwent Coloursoft pencils. The papers are from my stash (probably DCWV).  The sentiment was computer-generated and pasted onto a nestie. I got the gorgeous lace from Ladybug Crafts Ink and the flowers and brads are from my stash.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches – Sketch (+ use pink)

Crafter's Companion – Pink and green

Tuesday Throwdown – Think pink

More small Christmas cards with sparkles

Here are two more small Christmas cards measuring 9.5 x 9.5 cm. For these two, I used purple colours.

I'd like to enter these cards into the following challenges:

CSAYL – Purple passion

Fab's big Christmas Card Challenge – Something shiny and/or snowflake

CCAYR – Haloween colours + punch (start at the top of the tree)
Christmas Card Challenge – Optional theme: inpiration photo (Christmas tree)

Bling it On – No PP

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge – Anything goes + sparkles
Wild Rose Studio – Christmas card + Festive Frolics Blog Hop
You have until Monday (17th October) 9 AM UK time to join in the fun
to celebrate the release of the new WRS Christmas images

Small Christmas cards in orange with sparkles

I'm working on a larger set of small cards, the first of which I want to show you here. The cards measure only 9.5 x 9.5 cm and were inspired by last week's challenge over at ABC Christmas Challenge.

Materials used:

Will add details asap

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Winter Wonderland – Use autumn colours on your Christmas card

CCAYR – Use Halloween colours + punch (star at the top of the tree)

Fab's Big Christmas Challenge – Something shiny and/or snowflake
Christmas Card Challenge – Optional theme: inpirational photo (Christmas tree)

Craft Your Days Away – Tag it!

Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT – Tag it!

Sentimental Sundays – Anything goes (+ sentiment)

Delightful Challenges – Colours of Fall
For Your Inspiration – Inspiration photo (layout, tree shape, orange)
Crafts and Me – Orange

Box and easel card

My husband and I have just returned from a lovely BBQ birthday party. Shortly before we left home, the sky turned grey and it started raining. Fortunately, our frieds have a large outside area, including a sheltered part, so we could all sit comfortably under a roof. It does seem that the Greek summer has come to an end, although the temperatures are still very nice.

Our friend turned 50, so I was put to the task by some other friends to create a card and a small box to put our silver present in.

For the card, I used this week's sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches. I decided to venture on an easel card, my first ever. I used the a nestability to cut out my circles. The sentiments are freebies I downloaded a long time ago from Scrappedlives (Enjoy) and MMDesigns (circle sentiment). The paper is from a large stack of scrap paper (probably DCWV) I bought several years ago. The flowers with the gems were a birthday present from a friend last year.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches – Sketch 114 (+ use pink)

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge – Anything goes + sparkles

Sentimental Sundays – Anything goes

For the box I used a template created by Ellis Hendriks that I found in a Dutch hobby magazine early this year (Hobbyjournaal no. 72). The original box can be viewed at the creator's blog at Ellis in Scrapland. The box and card were both made with the same scrap paper. The leaves and flowers were made using a Marianne Design die, the ribbon comes from my stash and the flower heart/knob on the lid is actually a magnet from a set I bought at a DIY shop in Heraklion. The flower and the punched tag were both inked with dusty concord distress ink and stamped with stamps from the Clearly hand stamped set from Crafter's Companion.

I'd like to enter this box into the following challenges:

Marianne Design Divas – Bloom and grow (use flowers and any MD product)

Anything goes – Die cuts and/or punches

Craft your days away – Tag it!

Simply create – Older than 6 months

Simon Says Stamp – Sparkle and bling

Papertake weekly – Anything goes
Delightful Challenges – Make it dimensional

Love birds

Today, I want to show you the third card for a wedding anniversary that I made recently.

The birds and the heart are a Silhouette design that I cut out of white cardstock. I inked the heart with distress ink (aged mahogany) and then sprinkled it with clear frost embossing powder and heat-embossed it. The background and the embossing on the wings were made with two different Provocraft embossing folders. Before running the EF through the Cuttlebug, I applied distress ink on the inside of the EF (antique linen for the background and aged mahogany for the wings). After running my background through the machine, I cleaned the EF and then applied just a little mahogany on the inside of the folder (making sure to keep the cardstock in place in the other half of the EF!) and then gently pressed the folder together by hand.

I inked the birds themselves with antique linen and the eyes with aged mahogany. The card measures 13.5 x 13.5 cm and was made from dark aubergine cardstock from my stash.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Papertake Weekly – Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp – Anything goes

Charisma Cardz – Love

Crafty Catz – Things with wings

Simply Create – Older than 6 months

Catch the Bug – Anything goes

ABC Challenge – A = Anything goes

Cuttlebug Christmas tree

Here's a quick and easy card made with the Provocraft Christmas tree embossing folder. After running the light beige cardstock and the EF through the machine, I dabbed some gold and red Versamark ink on the embossed image, glued the cardstock onto a red 13.5 x 13.5 cm card and finished it with red ribbon from my stash.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

CCAYR – anything used on card must be over 1 year old (5th entry)

Bling it On – no patterned paper

Anything goes – anything goes

Simon Says Stamp – anything goes (they are hoping to get 1000 entries this week!)

Simply Create – older than 6 months

Catch the Bug – anything goes

Paper Sundaes – anything goes

Christmas Card Challenges – optional theme: handmade flowers

CAS birthday/flower card

This must be one of the quickest cards I have ever made. I cut out the leaves and flower with an MD die and MD papers. For the background I used the same paper that I used for the leaves. All I had to do to finish the card was to add a rose from my stash and stamp the StudioLight birthday sentiment in black Versamark ink.

With this large piece of patterned paper, I may be pushing things a bit as regards "white space" but since the card as a whole is definitely CAS, I'm entering this card into this week's challenge at Less is More. One more card towards the goal of 1000 entries!

I would also like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Ooh La La – Punches/dies

Marianne Design Divas – Bloom and grow (use flowers + any MD)
Simon Says Stamp – Dies and/or punches

More Christmas trees ... in oil pastel

After having cut out two Christmas trees with my Silhouette, I was left with a very useful template. I thought I could use this to create another quick Christmas card for the LIM challenge, using distress ink. However, I also intended to enter the card into this month's challenge at CCAYR, but in that case I couldn't use anything on my card that was less than 1 year old. So I got my oil pastels out from a drawer and used that instead. Because the holes of the template were so small, I had to use my little pinky to rub the colour in. After applying a light green colour, I added some shades with a dark green colour. The ribbon (Kars) comes from my stash (first time I'm using it, though) and so are the star embellishments that I bought at a craft fair about 3 years ago.

Again, the quality of the lighting/picture is not great. Maybe I'll try to upload a better picture tomorrow.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

LIM – Anything CAS goes (#3)

CCAYR – Anything used on card must be over 1 year old (#4)

Bah!Humbug! – Rudolph/Reindeer

Crafter's Companion – Christmas Wishes (#2)

Christmas Card Challenge – Sketch (optional)

LIM #33 – aiming for 1000 entries – 2nd entry

I'm showing my second card again in a separate post, so that I can enter it separately into the LIM challenge so it will count towards the 1000 entries that Chrissie and Mandi are aiming for this week.

LIM #33 – aiming for 1000 entries – 1st & 2nd entry

Over at Less is More, Chrissie and Mandi are aiming for 1000 entries this week with the theme "Anything CAS goes". With only 2 more hours before the deadline, I'm not sure they (and we) are going to achieve this, but I'm trying to increase the # of entries a little further.

I made two almost similar cards, using a Silhouette design as my basis. I've hoarded quite a few designs last year, when I had an unlimited subscription, so it's about time I started using some. For the first card I printed the sentiment in green, but I decided that gold would look better. So I made another one, this time using gold embossing powder. As you can see on the picture the card has not fully flattened out yet after heat-embossing the sentiment, lol.

The Christmas tree was cut out using very dark moss green cardstock, that I pasted onto a cream square cards (I used the same card base for both cards!). The lighting was not very good and I was in a hurry, so the pictures are not great. The gold ribbon comes from my stash. The sentiment is from a CardDeco Stampies set.

I'm entering these cards into the following challenges:

LIM – Anything CAS goes (entry #1 and #2)

CCAYR – Anything used on the Christmas card must be over 1 year old

Crafter's Companion – Christmas Wishes

So happy together (2)

For my second anniversary card I used the same Karen's Doodles image that I used for my previous card, again coloured with my new Spectrum Noir pens. For the background, I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I inked the inside of the embossing folder with Antique Lnen distress ink before placing my white cardstock and running it through the machine. I then wiped the embossing folder clean, dabbed some Faded Jeans distress ink on the EF and pressed it together again by hand.

For the layout, I used this week's sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches – sketch 110

Ooh La La – Anniversary (2nd entry)

Karen's Doodles Intl – Anything goes (plus KD image)

Crafty Catz – Ribbons

Charisma Cardz – Inspired by a song (So happy together)

Secret Crafter Saturday – Inspired by a song (So happy together)

Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT – Anything goes

Papertake Weekly – Anything goes

So happy together (1)

My husband has three female colleagues who are all celebrating their wedding anniversary either today or tomorrow, so I was put to the task to create a few appropriate cards. I didn't have any appropriate stamp for the occasion (honestly, since I haven't been stamping for that long) so I had to do some shopping (terrible task, I know lol) and found this lovely Karen's Doodles' stamp. I printed it out a few images in different sizes and started colouring them last weekend with my new Spectrum Noir pens. I had seen some amazing colouring over at linda's rainbow crafting cabin using only 2 colours from the Essential collection (99 and 109) and thought this might be an excellent way to start practising the use of my new markers. Incidentally, she also has a few great tutorials on using these SN pens. I added a touch of light pink (have to look up the number) for the female giraffe and of course some pink and wine red for the ribbon. I'm quite pleased with the result, esp. since this is the first time I used any type of alcohol-based markers. So far I have only used a few sticker markers on my cards. At least this has given me the confidence to try some other colours as well. Hopefully, I'll have some play time this weekend.

For the first anniversary card, I used this week's sketch from the Totally Gorjuss blog and used it to create a CAS card on some cream cardstock.

Materials used:

Cream cardstock

Image – Karen's Doodles

Lace/ribbon – from my stash

Frame - brownish metallic cardstock (does not really show in the picture)

Sentiment – Studio Light (didn't have any Happy Anversary stamp,

so I'll be adding that to my shopping list, lol)

Ink – Walnut stain distress ink

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Totally Gorjuss – Sketch

Ooh La La – Anniversary

Sir Stampelot – It's a frame up

Catch the Bug – Anything goes

Colour Create – Pink, brown and white/cream

CASEing a fellow Belle

This week's prompt at Jingle Belles was to CASE (copy and selectively edit) any card posted at Jingle Belles this year. I had a good look around, esp. since I did not enter the challenge scene until later this year and I saw several gorgeous creations I would love to COPY ... ehm ... CASE. Funny thing is that projects usually turn out differently from those of others, because you tend to use different papers, colours, shapes and so on.
In the end, I decided to CASE the card that Lisa of Recklinghausen Musings made for JB challenge no. 15, The Ghost of Christmas Present. I did not realise until just know that the basic ingredient was "white as a ghost", but at least I got the other parts of the recipe (a present, a bow or knot and a touch ... well, maybe a trifle more ... of traditional Christmas colours. Here's Lisa's card:

I love the simplicity of this card, the thing that makes you think "Wish I had thought of this first".
Well, below is my version.

I decided to combine the ingredients of a few challenges, by recycling a ribbon that originally came wrapped around a present. It's that paper-type ribbon with a metal layer on top. The stars have also been recycled, since I cut them off a long string of silver-coloured stars and beads that were designed to be draped over the Christmas tree. I still have 2.65 metres left, so I can still use it in the tree if I should wish to do so, lol. For the box, I dabbed some Versamark silver ink on the inside of a Cuttlebug folder and then placed my cardstock and ran the lot through the machine. Before taping the box on my card, I ran the card through the printer to print the sentiment that I found some years ago in Arthur's clipart collection. As a finishing touch I coloured the holly leaf of the sentiment with a green sticker marker and I could not resist adding a tiny red pearl with my Viva Perlen-pen.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Jingle Belles – CASE any other Jingle Belles card

Less is More – Colour: Metallic

ABC Christmas Challenge – R for Recycle + Ribbon/Rhinestones

Fabulous Friday – Flourishes

CCAYR – Anything used on the card must be over 1 year old