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