Winter joy fold card

For today's card I've tried a new card technique, namely creating a Joy fold card. I've been meaning to create one for a long time, but this week's challenge over at Tuesday Morning sketches was just the incentive I needed.

This also seemed like the perfect opportunity to use my new Penny Black stamp (polar mimi). I stamped the image with Memento Rich Cocao on a piece of Neenah solar white cardstock and coloured it with Spectrum Noirs and matted in onto a piece of core'dinations cardstock. The papers are from an old Marianne Design paper pad. The blue and silver cord with the silver ball and blue felt/silver snowflake came from a 3 m Christmas decoration string. I finished the card off with 9 small pearls from my stash and some glitter glue on the rest of the printed snowflakes, the spots on the scarf and the snowflakes of the PP (not showing up in the picture I'm afraid).

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

Tuesday Morning Sketches - #178 Anything goes (challenge yourself)

Marianne Design Divas - It's Christmas (use MD product)

ABC Christmas Challenge - Z for Zoo animals

Penny Black and More - It's your choice

Penny Black Saturday Challenge - Glitter and sparkle (use PB image/large sent.)

Spectrum Noir Challenge - Winter blues (use SNs)

Top Tip Tuesday - #92 Anything Christmas

Papertake Weekly - #77 Pick of the year (All creatures great & small)

Crafts and Me - Winter Wonderland

Do You Stack Up - #104 Turquoise
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Frosted Designs - On the 9th day of Christmas (use 9 pearls)
CHNC - #105 Anything (Christmas) goes
LCI - Anything goes at Christmas

On the 8th day of Christmas...

There's still a few 2012 Christmas cards I'd like to show you. Below is the first of three cards I made with one of Paulette's gorgeous images that were part of the TLC Winter Club.

Frosted Designs are having a 12 days of Christmas challenge. For the 8th day of Christmas, they ask us to use 8 brands/products on our projects.

Materials used:

1. Red cardstock - Papicolor

2. Gold paper and Neenah white cardstock - Crafter's Companion

3. PP - Kaiserkraft After Five Collection

4. Digital image - Tlc Creations

5. Distressed edges - Ranger's distress ink Antique linen 

6. Die - Lifestyle Crafts Nesting frame 3

7. Pearls - Viva pearl pen

8. Gold colouring on sentiment - Gold gel pen

Challenges:

Frosted Designs - On the 8th day of Christmas...

CHNC - #105 Anything Christmas goes
Sentimental Sundays - #134 Focus on the sentiment
Sweet Stampin' - Seeing double (deer, pearls, frame die cut)
Top Tip Tuesday - #92 Anything Christmas goes
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Charisma Cardz - #51 Anything goes
Cute Card Thursday - #249 Anything goes
Aud Sentiments - #70 Use any sentiment
Great Impression Stamps - December: Anything goes

Sugar and spice...

My holiday break has just started, so I'm hoping I'll be able to finally post some of the (quick) Christmas cards I've been creating recently. Here's the first one.

I loaded my new digital background stamp (Hero Arts - Holiday Jumble) into Word and placed the digital sentiment image (one of last year's freebies from Paulette's blog - she also has a number of freebies hidden in her store right now) on top and printed this on a piece of Bazzill kraft cardstock. I had already cut out the gingerbread men (an old freebie created by Beccy) last year, so all I had to do now was to mount the gingerbread men with foam tape onto my card together with some baker's twine (part of some blog candy I won). I rubbed the edges of the cream card blanc with an ink pad (Aged mahogany distress ink - Ranger's).

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

Jingle Belles - Anything (Holiday) goes

CHNC - #103 Christmas birthday/Anything Christmas goes

Aud Sentiments - #70 Use any sentiment

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Christmassy

Cute Card Thursday - #248 Eat, drink & be merry

Paperplay - #51/52 Out with the old, in with the new

Do You Stack Up - #103 Anything goes

One Stitch at a Time - Use a digi

Blue Christmas...

The closer we get to Christmas, the more ideas I get for Christmas cards, but time seems to be slipping away so fast...

For today's card I used some of my new supplies that arrived in the post this week. I had taken advantage of some online Black Friday sales and it really felt like Christmas (or rather, St. Nicholas Day) to me when all the parcels arrived in a time span of 2 days, although my orders had been placed in various parts of the world and on different days.

Anyhow, here's my card:

And here's the sketch I used:

I absolutely love the papers of my new Signature Christmas 6x6 paper pad by My Mind's Eye. Can you believe I  picked this up for only $4 in the sale? I stamped the sentiment (from Christmas in the Air stamp set by Verve Stamps) in Memento Rich Cocao ink and cut out the label with my new Lifestyle Crafts die (nesting freame 3). I traced around the inside of the die with a Promarker pen in a matching colour. The scalloped border was made with a Spellbinder's die and the ribbon was cut with a new Die'sire die (Lace Border 7). The lace border is actually 4 rows wide, but I cut the strip of paper to size before die cutting. The poinsettia die is by Marianne Design and I got the lush felt from Ladybug Crafts Ink. I finished the card off with a pearlescent button from my friend's big old button box and a few Kaisercraft pearls.

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

Mojo Monday - Sketch 270

Charisma Cardz - #48 Christmas!

Paperplay - #49 Christmas is coming

Fussy and Fancy - #77 I love Christmas (2nd entry)

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - #23 Button or bow

Top Tip Tuesday - #91 Christmas

Aud Sentiments - #69 Anything goes + holiday sentiment

Dutch Dare - #Non-traditional Christmas colours

Oh Christmas tree

Today's card was created with a freebie digital image that I downloaded from Paulette's blog at Create with TLC. I thought it was a perfect image for a CAS design.

I started out with the following sketch but in retrospect I think I've taken some creative liberties here, but at least I have another Christmas card done LOL.

I printed the image twice and then cut out the tree from one of the printed images. The pattern on the tree was created with a Sizzix embossing folder that I inked on the inside with distress ink. The trunk was coloured with Flexmarkers. I added Aleene's true snow on the lines below the tree to add a snowy effect.

Materials used:

Digital image - TLC Creations freebie

Embossing folder - Sizzix

Ink - Ranger's disstress ink

Colouring - Flexmarkers

Snow - Aleene's true snow

Ribbon - from stash

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

Papertake Weekly - #74 Any PTW sketch (#34)

Allsorts challenge - #183 Advent

Stamping Sensations - Treemendous

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Jingle Belles - Anything Holiday goes

Fussy and Fancy - #77 I love Christmas

Joy to the World

It's hard to believe that Christmas is only a little over a month away. We're still experiencing extremely mild weather over here, which means we still have not turned on the central heating. The nights are getting colder, though, and on rainy days it can be a little chilly inside, so my husband is now lighting a fire in the living room to keep us warm and cosy tonight. Maybe I'll even manage to create some more Christmas cards.

Below is the card I created this week. Most of the materials are relatively new and are being used for the first time (PPs, stamps). The pearls and lace are from my old(er) stash.

The layout is based on the following sketch.

Materials used:

Kraft cardstock
Circle die - Lifestycrafts

PP - Marianne Design, Warm Winter Wishes

Lace - Marianne Design

Snowflake wreath - Verve, Christmas in the Air set

stamped in clear distress ink (Ranger) and heat embossed with

Twinkle embossing powder (white, Crafter's Companion)

Sentiment - Verve, Glad Tidings set, 

stamped in red Versamark ink and heat embossed with

Frosted Crystal embossing powder (Ranger)

Pearls - Kaisercraft

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

Sketch N Stash - #100 Use any SNS sketch

Catch the Bug - Bingo, middle row: Glitter, starts with T? (Twinkle ep), emboss
Christmas Card Challenges - #51 Double embossing (theme always optional)
CHNC - #99 Use sth. over 6 months old (lace, pearls)
Holly Jolly Christmas - Inspired by a carol (Joy to the world)
Paper Creator's Craft - #1 All about Christmas
Crafty Catz - #159 Let's have sparkle
Polka Doodles - #46 Square card with round element
Great Impressions - Holidays

Pink and purple penguins

Because I've been unable to craft for a while, I'm now trying to make up for lost time and make some quick cards. The image for this card comes from an A4 sheet of precoloured images by Digistamp Boutique. Who would be able to resist this cute couple?

I printed the entire A4 sheet (more quick cards to follow LOL), cut it to size for the die-cut panel (Die-sire Grace frame) and used a corner punch to round the corners. The background is from the Humphrey's Corner CD by Crafter's Companion, printed directly onto the Neenah Classic Crest card that I used for my base card.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Jingle Belles - Holiday creatures
Tuesday Morning Sketches - Anything pink for Theresa's virtual birthday party
ABC Christmas Challenge - V for Vibrant colours
The Perfect Sentiment - PSC54: Think pink for Christmas
Ooh La La - #117 C.....Christmas
LCI - I need a P (pink, purple, penguin, pretty cute LOL)
One Stitch at a Time - #137 Make 1 for Christmas

Another quick birthday card

This is another quick birthday card I created with an image and background paper from the Humphrey's Corner CD from Crafter's Companion.

I printed the paper and image on Neenah card and printed the balloons again in order to cut them out and adhere them with foam tape for some added dimension. I added some Glossy Accents to the light spots on the balloons and on the hat. The frame was cut out from Coredinations cardstock with my new Die-sire Grace frame. I really like this frame but had not realised it would be so big when I bought it, considering that I normally make A6-sized cards (like this one). Like before, my sentiment was computer-generated and hand-cut. The blue rhinestone is from my stash.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafter's Companion - October Birthday challenge

Simon Says Stamp - Get in shape (no square cards)
Charisma Cardz - #42 Don't be square
Fussy and Fancy - #74 Anything goes

Birthday celebration at Crafter's Companion

Crafter's Companion have been celebrating their birthday this month, which is why this month's challenge is all about making birthday cards.

This seemed like a good moment to create a few quick birthday cards using the Humprey's Corner CD. Both the image and the papers for this card are from the CD and were printed on Neenah Classic Crest card.

The mat and card base (Coredinations) were cut with Lifestyle Crafts dies. The sentiment is computer generated and cut out by hand. The pearls were made with a Viva pearl pen.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Crafter's Companion - October Birthday challenge

Simon Says Stamp - Get in shape (no square cards)
Charisma Cardz - #42 Don't be square
Fussy and Fancy - #74 Anything goes

World Card Making Day

I created this Christmas card today, after being inpired by a card I saw at a new website called Card Annex. I had recently bought some paper tape, but this turned out to be a bit small to serve as a background for a card. So I had a look at my paper scraps instead and found a collection of Marianne Design strips and worked from there. What you see in front of the card are the mini scraps that were left after finishing the card.

I adhered the paper strips to a square 13.5 x 13.5 cm cream card blanc from my stash, concealing part of the top and bottom strips behind the next strip because they were a bit too wide. I figured that layering them was safer than trying to cut them LOL. After stamping the label (MD) with Memento Rich Cocoa on another piece of the same cardstock, I stamped the Christmas sentiment (from the same MD set). The poinsetta (also MD) was die cut from red felt. The pearlescent buttons are some old pillow buttons from my friend's big button box (I sorted out the buttons when I was visiting and brought a large selection home with me!). The twine came from some blog candy I won. I have just remembered that I had actually intended to add some pearls to the left corner of the top strip but I forgot, because I was in a hurry to link the card up to some WCMD challenges and events. I may still add them later LOL.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

WCMD challenge at the Simon Says blog

Marianne's Design Divas - Stamp something

Alphabet Challenge - #74 R for recycle, upcycle

Papertake Weekly - #79 Anything goes (celebrate)

Crafts and Me - #104 My sentiments exactly

Delightful Challenges - Winter holiday

Sparkles Christmas Challenge - #21 Traditional
Sentimental Sundays - #123 Anything goes

Snowflake ornament

 When I found this snowflake ornament in a local shop last year, I knew I wanted to use it on a card. This week's Jingle Belles prompt of Dashing through the snow was exactly the incentive that I needed.

The layout was inspired by this week's sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches:

I've created the card in such away that the recipient can take off the ornament and really use it as an ornament. After adhering the embossed paper and the gold-print paper (both from a specialty paper pack that I have had for years) I cut out the shape with a Lifestyle Crafts die. I adhered the PP with the Christmas texts (from an old paper pad of an unknown brand) on the inside of the card. To strengthen the front side of the card, I adhered a thin mica sheet behind the aperture and I must say that I'm very pleased with the result.
Below are a few more pictures. The first one shows the closed card with the ornament removed and the second one shows the card in a slightly opened position.

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

Tuesday Morning Sketches - Sketch #166

Jingle Belles - Dashing through the snow

Simon Says Stamp - Glimmer and sparkle

Papertake Weekly - Anything goes (optional theme: celebrate/ PTW turned 5)
Holly Jolly Christmas - Glitter and bling
Christmas Card Challenges - #44 Chipboard (theme always optional)

I'm also linking my card up at 52 Card Pickup week 40.

Brown and orange Christmas wishes for ewe

When I started with today's image and papers a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to use a sketch I had seen but was unable to finish the card in time for the relevant challenge. When I went back to the image and papers, I could not for the life of me remember which sketch I had had in mind, so I simply selected another recent sketch that worked for me and finally finished my brown and orange Christmas card. After last week's success with my inking adventure, I thought I would try a little inking, distressing and tearing this week. Although I found the distressing and tearing quite scary I think those distressed edges are exactly what this card needed to finish it off. When I showed the card to my husband, he immediately pointed at one of the teared bits, but quickly noticed it was apprarently intentional LOL. In fact, he liked the card a lot. Hope you also like what you see.

Below is a close-up of the coloured image:

 



And here's the sketch I used:

Materials used:
Core'dinations cardstock
PPs from a Vintage paper pad from a Dutch bargain store (Action)
Ranger's Vintage Photo distress ink
Ranger's paper distressing tool
Cuddly Buddly digital image
Spectrum Noir pens (also used them to colour the stars)
Viva Decor pearl pen
Gold glitter glue
Marianne Design die
Cuttlebug snowflakes die (stars)

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

Crafty Catz - #150 Brown and orange

Cute Card Thursday - #234 Christmas in September

Bearly Mine - #52 Anything goes

Sketch Saturday - Sketch #225

Simply Create Too - #22 Anything goes

Crafty Ann's - (Sketch and/or) autumn colours

Aud Sentiments - #63 Something funny, hunny!

Crafter's Companion - #28 Gold

Spectrum Noir - Holiday card using Spectrum Noirs as the colouring medium

Benny Zoe's Craft - #28 Distressing

Squiggle Stamps - Punches and dies

Distressing adventure

For this card I've been experimenting with some Tim Holz techniques that seem so easy when you watch him doing it on video but turns out quite a challenge when you try to do it at home. But at least I had a lot of fun doing it, and I discovered that I probably need a different type of paper (thicker and more resistant to water-based inks and the extra water from the mini mister). I'm even wondering if my card will last until Christmas or if the images will have faded by then LOL. I guess it's all part of the learning curve.

 

Materials used:

Text stamp and Christmas card stamp by Viva Decor

Ranger distress inks - Aged Mahogany, Forest Moss and Pumice Stone

Memento ink - Rich Cocao

Ribbon and lace from my stash

MD poinsettia die and pine leave die

Recycled pillow case button from my friend's big button box

(I'm actually using the back side of the button

because they have these beautiful distressed colours)

Felt and button twine (Ladybug Crafts Ink)

 

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

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Read all about it!
(10-year anniversary including a blog hop)

Jingle Belles - Going Postal

Simon Says Stamp - Put a stamp on it!

Sir Stampelot - Vintage inspiration photo

ABC Christmas Challenge - R for Recycling

Penny Black & More - Early Christmas Makes

 

Let it snow

Although temperatures are still very summery here in Greece, the meteorological autumn in this part of the world started on the 1st of September. Christmas will be here before you know it. So maybe it's time you all got started on your Christmas cards for this year, if you haven't started already. I know I have, and I love how my stash of Christmas cards is growing week by week, LOL.

The layout for this card was inspired by an older Papertake Weekly sketch (no. 61).

Materials used:

Digital image by Meljen's Designs

PPs by Marianne Design

Spectrum Noir alcohol markers

Computer-generated sentiment

Lifestyle Crafts circle dies

Snowflakes - Silhouette (top two) and Cuttlebug die (bottom one)

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

Papertake Weekly - #74 Use your favourite PTW sketch

Aud Sentiments - #62 Christmas is coming

Crafty Ann's - #73 Monochromatic turquoise/aqua

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Catch the Bug - Anything goes

Meljen's Designs - #125 Anything goes

Christmas Card Challenges - #40 Three of something

(3 PPs, 3 snowflakes, 3-word sentiment)

Make It Monday - #105 Anything goes

Peace on earth

Wouldn't it be great if we could all live together peacefully just like the cute couple on this CuddlyBuddly digital image that is so aptly named Peace on Earth?

I took inspiration from this older sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches:

Materials used:

Red cardstock of an unknown brand

Echo Park papers (blog win)

Cuddly Buddly digital stamp, Peace on Earth

Spectrum Noir alcohol markers (Crafter's Companion)

Lifestyle Crafts dies

Glossy accents

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

Winter Wonderland - Red and green

Crafter's Companion - #27 Best friends

A Gem of a Challenge - #53 Animals/teddies

Christmas Card Challenges - #39 Sketch (theme always optional)

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Charisma Cardz - #34 No embellishments

CHNC - #87 For a couple

One Stitch at a Time - #128 Use a digi

Make It Monday - #105 Anything goes

Vintage Santa

Since I've already missed a couple of challenges over at Tuesday Morning Sketches, I was determined to enter one this week. Fortunately, we had 4 sketches to choose from, including the sketch I used for today's card. Having also missed several Jingle Belles challenges because I left things until the last minute, I decided to enter a card early for a change LOL. I couldn't make up my mind which bingo chart row to take, so I worked around the corner, taking the first row horizonal (santa, stamping, bling) as well as the first row vertical (santa, lace - nobody said it had to be real lace - and embossing).

And these were the sketches to choose from:

The card came together fairly quickly (unlike most of my cards LOL).  I used a digital image from Create with TLC (one of the many December 2011 freebies Paulette offered) and embellished the printed string of beads and crystals with my Sakura gel roller and rhinestones from a Dutch bargain store (Action). The background was made by adhering a strip of blue parchment on a piece of off-white cardstock (Papicolor "anjerwit") and running this through the Cuttlebug in a Sizzix folder that I had inked on the inside with Antique linen distress ink. The Christmas sentiment is from the Verve stamp set Glad Tidings and was stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa. The pearls in the top right corner are from Kaisercraft.

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

Cute Card Thursday - #231 Bling it up

Craft Your Days Away - #52 Anything goes [Farewell challenge]

Crafty Ann's - #72 Christmas in August

Dutch Dare - #179 Bling it on

Make It Monday - #105 Anything goes



Birthday cupcakes

Last week I received my very first Verve stamps from the Verve store, just in time to join the fun of the anniversary festivities. For this card I used the great sketch from the Anni-VERVE-sary 2012 Challenges Day 3 at Splitcoaststampers.

The image comes from the Birthday Bash set. I stamped the image with Memento rich cocoa and coloured it with Derwent coloursoft pencils. The circle and scallopped circle mat were cut with a Lifestyle Crafts die. The papers are from my new BasicGrey 6x6 pb&j paper pad. Don't you love the fresh colours of this PP? I inked all the edges with Antique Linen distress ink and finished the card off with a few buttons from my stash and a ribbon from Artemio.

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

BasicGrey - #75 Anything goes

Bunny Zoe's Craft - #27 Summer

CYDA - #52 Anything goes [farewell challenge]

The Crafty Pad - #184 To die for [use dies/punches]

Craft Your Passion - #124 The power of three [use 3 of something - cupcakes & buttons]

Thank you for visiting. I would love it if you left a comment.

Fairy birthday wishes

When I first started making cards, I bought loads and loads of decoupage sheets, especially when there was a sale, and I've had this cut out and glued up sweet flower fairy (don't remember the brand) for I don't know how long, waiting to be used on a card. Well, that time finally arrived after I saw last week's sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to play along before the deadline, but I really love how this card turned out.

Here's the sketch I've used:

Materials used:

Cardstock - Papicolor

PPs - 2 different Vintage paper pads from the (Dutch) Action store (nameless brand)

Image - Flower fairy decoupage sheet (don't remember the make)

Inks - Brushed corduroy (Ranger's) for the edges, Rich Cocao (Memento) for the sentiment

Sentiment - Sweet November, A Little Bit of Magic Sentiment stamp set

Button - came in a surprise goodie bag with my delivery from Verve stamps yesterday

Button twine - Ladybug Crafts Ink

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

Sir Stampelot - Take flight

ABC Challenge - V for Vanish

Totally Gorjuss - #145 String's the thing

Craft Your Days Away - #52 Anything goes (Farewell challenge)

Charisma Cardz - #32 Monochrome

Mojo Monday sketch 253

This week's sketch over at Mojo Monday seemed like a good opportunity to use one of the new paper pads I bought during the summer sale. For this card I used papers from the Cubierta Miniatura mini deck by Cosmo Cricket.

And here's the sketch I've used:

The flower and butterfly were fussy-cut from one of the flower papers and then adhered with foam pads for dimension. I also used foam pads for the sentiment strip. The sentiment stamp is by Studio Light and the ribbon is from my stash. I added some Glossy Accents to the flowers for some added interest.

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

Mojo Monday - Sketch #253

Top Tip Tuesday - #82 Focus on the ribbon

Simply Create Too - #19 Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp - Bingo: die cut - free- glitter

Charisma Cardz - #31 Flowers & fauna

Crafty Catz - #145 Anything goes

Craft Your Passion - #122 Anything goes

Papertake Weekly - #71 Anything goes

Santa Baby

This fortnight the lovely Jingle Belles want to see inhabitants of the Norh Pole featured on our cards. Of course that includes Santa himself.

I still had this Santa sticker from the BasicGrey Eskimo kisses paper pack, so this seemed the right time to pull it out of my stash to create the following card.

I took inspiration from the following sketch:

Materials used:

Papers and Santa - BasisGrey Eskimo Kisses

Sentiment stamp - Your sentiments exactly

Ink - Aged Mahogany distress ink (Ranger's)

Scalloped circle die - Spellbinder's nestability

Button twine - Ladybug Crafts Ink, coloured with a Spectrum Noir marker

Ranger's Glossy accents for the pom pom on Santa's hat and to make the eyes pop

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

Jingle Belles - Santa Baby

Deconstructed Sketch - Sketch #63

Christmas Card Challenges - #36 Use sth. new (optional; my Glossy accents are new)

BasicGrey - #74 Bright and bold

PaperPlay - #31 Layer it up

Craft Your Passion - #122 Anything goes 

Hippo Hippo Hurray

This card was made at the request of a friend who needed a card for her brother's birthday, preferably with a hippo on it. So I did some browsing and found a cute hippo freebie digi with sentiment at Stitch and Hootch. I coloured the image with Spectrum Noirs and paired it up with some old PP from my DCWV stash. The border was made with my new Spellbinders die and the circles were cut with Lifestyle Crafts dies. The text for the sentiment came with the image, but I typed it in Word to create the sentiment and the numbers in the same font. I inked the edge of the inner circle with Stormy Sky distress ink (Ranger's) and added some Glossy accents to the hat, balloon and eyes.

The inspiration for the design came from this week's Sketch Saturday sketch:

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

Sketch Saturday - Sketch 218

One Stitch at a Time - #124 Use a digi

PaperPlay - #31 Layer it up

Delightful Challenges - Birthdays

Simply Create Too - #19 Anything goes

Make it Monday - #100 Anything goes

Two tiny fairies

Boy, did I set myself a challenge with this card. I decided to paper piece my brand new Sweet November fairy images for the challenge at the ATS blog. The images are part of the Little Bit of Magic stamp set consisting of nine totally cute but tiny fairies, so it took quite some fiddling to cut the paper-pieced dresses and attach them onto the coloured images. But hey, don't they look cute?

And here's a close-up of the little beauties:

I coloured the images with Spectrum Noirs. The sentiment comes from the matching Little Bit of Magic sentiment set, stamped in Memento Rich Cocao and then die cut with a Spellbinders Nestability. The layout is based on that of a card I saw in the June issue of Crafts Beautiful.

Other materials used:

Backing papers - Wild Rose Studio

Paper-pieced dresses - Vintage paper pad from the Dutch Action shop

Ribbon - from my stash

Distress ink - Tattered Rose by Ranger's

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

All That Scraps - Paper piecing

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Crafts and Me - #94 Anything goes
The Crafty Pad - #181 Things with wings

Noel in red

The Jingle Belles are challenging us to make a Christmas card this fortnight that uses either the colour red OR green, but not both. Since red is one of my favourite colours and green is not, red seemed the obvious choice for this one.

Tuesday Morning Sketches were having another fab sketch this week, so I used this as the base for my layout.

I stamped the Noel sentiment (My Sentiments Exactly) in red and white Versamark on kraft cardstock (Bazzil)  and heat-embossed with two layers of Frosted Crystal (Ranger's). I used an embroidery template to punch the holes for my hand-stitched border. After stitching the border I used the same holes at the bottom end to stitch on the pompon trim (Ladybug Crafts Ink). I matted my topper on some red cardstock and then onto some older PP (MD, Eline's Vintage christmas red & blue), which I inked with Frayed burlap distress ink (Ranger's), and then matted on a red A6 card. The poinesttia was die cut (MD) from red felt and finished with a button from my friend's button box (see my earlier post).

Challenges:

Jingle Belles - Red OR green but not both

TMS - Sketch #155

CHNC - #82 Monochrome

CCAYR - Christmas flower/holly

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long - #20 Use any sketch

Marianne's Design Divas - Anything goes (use MD product)

Crafter's Companion - #26 Ho ho ho Christmas

LCI - #64 Christmas in July

Craft Your Passion - #119 Kraft paper with ribbon/lace

Simple Santa with a bow

Bugaboo is having a Christmas in July party this week. This card is for Friday's prompt: wrap it up with a bow. I got the image of the Simple Santa as a freebie. I coloured the image with Spectrum Noirs and glitter glue. The circle dies are Lifestyle Crafts and the embossing folder is by Crafts Too.

Challenges:

CHNC - Twinkle twinkle little start
Catch the Bug - Wrap it up
Crafter's Companions - Ho ho ho Christmas
Crafts and Me - R'nB ribbon and a bow
PaperPlay - #29 Christmas in July
Delightful Challenges - Christmas in July



Embossing resist

For this card, I used two stamps. The snowflake background is from a Hero Arts stamp, while the sentiment is by Inca Stamp. I masked the sentiment and frame to create the snowflake background on my top layer, which I then heat-embossed and then I only stamped the sentiment and frame in black. I also masked the small snowflakes that were part of the sentiment stamp (inside the frame). I used the same background stamp on my second layer. The tricky part was aligning and centering the two layers. I almost succeeded LOL. I sponged the layers with Milled lavender and Dusty concord distress inks. The card base was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The ribbon is from my stash.

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

Winter Wonderland - Sentiment as focal point

Christmas Card Challenges - #33 Embossing resist

Crafter's Companion - Ho Ho Ho Christmas

Paperplay - #29 Christmas in July

Delighful Challenges - Christmas in July

ABC Challenge - T for Two (2 stamps and 2 embossing techniques)

Frosted Designs Fab Friday - Stamping

Birthday fishes

Today's card is for a birthday boy who enjoys fishing and is very fond of cats, so this Meljen's Designs image is just perfect. Besides, the also features 'things with wings' in the form of ladybirds and butterflies, be they ever so tiny, which fits the bill of last week's sketch challenge over at Tuesday Morning Sketches.

Here's the sketch I used:

I coloured the image with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, the papers are from my large stash of DCWV papers, and the buttons ... well, that's a long story ... I spent a few days with a friend in the Netherlands recently (in addition to spending time with her and some other friends in Scotland) and she had this big box, filled to the brim with all kinds of (mostly) used buttons that came from her mother and grandmother. I spent an evening sorting them out, while she was looking at all the treasures I was uncovering (instead of working on her embroidery as she was planning to) LOL. At the end of the evening, most buttons had been sorted out and were neatly stored in plastic zipper bags. Some of these buttons (about 400 grams!) ended up in my suitcase to be used on my cards and some will be reused on newly knitted garments for my friend's granddaughter or on my friend's artwork LOL. The buttons I used on this card probably came from a military uniform that belonged to my friend's grandfather.

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

Tuesday Morning Sketches - Sketch #154 (+ things with wings)

Top Tip Tuesday - #80 One for the men

Ooh La La - #109 Whiskers

Charisma Cardz - #27 Recycle

Meljen's Designs - #118 Happy birthday

Secret Crafter Saturday - #194 Food and drink