Nikki and serendipity

Last year (well, that's not so very long ago), I read something about the serendipity technique in an old craft magazine and I thought I might try that using some small scraps. I'm sure there's plenty of information on the Internet, but the technique basically means attaching small pieces of paper scraps to a large sheet and then cutting up the large sheet into squares or rectangles and using those to create a new project. The best results are achieved by combining colours in the same colour range, and it's also fun to stamp onto the large sheet before cutting it up (didn't do so on this project). Most of the scraps for this project are from a piece of gift wrapping paper with many hearts.

I coloured Flower for you Nikki (all cling stamps at half price until 31 Januaray) with Spectrum Noirs and attached it to the "serendipity square" that I matted onto a piece of purple CS. The ribbon and base card are  from my stash and the stamp is from the Clearly Hand-stamped set (Crafter's Companion).

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

Penny Black and more - Love and hearts

Crafter's Companion - #20 Love is in the air

Simply Create Too - #5 Love is in the air

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Secret Crafter Saturday - #170 Ribbons

Winter is approachting

According to today's weather forecast, winter is approaching in Western Europe, which means that a lot of people in the Netherlands at least will start dreaming about long hours of skating fun. I sold my skates when I moved to Crete a few years ago, but my Bugaboo snowman is all set to go.

I coloured the image with Spectrum Noir pens and added some pearls (bronze Viva pearl pen) and some glitter glue. The image was cut out with a Nellie Snellen die and inked around the edge with Aged Mahogany distress ink (Ranger). The PP is from a very old paper pad. The swirls were cut out from white CS with my Silhouette and then inked in various ways until I finally achieved a satisfying colour, lol. They now have a deep burgundy/chocolaty colour. The ribbon comes from my stash. I took several pictures, but I couldn't catch the warm burgundy velvet of the ribbon in any way. Maybe I should have tried taking a photograph in the daytime.

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

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Tuesday Morning Sketches - Sketch #130

Winter Wonderland - Swirls and pearls

Sir Stampelot - Monochromatic

Catch the Bug - Colour challenge

Secret Crafter Saturday - #170 Ribbons

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Under the tree

Woo hoo, another Christmas card in January. I'm happy to know that I'm not the only one who already started working on this year's Christmas cards, even though it's still 335 days until Christmas, lol.

I always find it hard to break into a new set of papers, esp. if I like them so much and even more so if these papers are double-sided. Which side to use? For this card I decided to work with the BasicGrey Eskimo Kisses collection, which I've had for some time but have only used on one card so far. All material for this card comes from this BG set, except for the base cardstock (from my stash), the gems (bought at Lakeland's in Edinburgh a few years ago) and some very old Kars fibre. I used foam pads to add dimension to the tree and stopper stickers and highlighted the string of pearls in the tree, the white stripes of the stopper and the strip of PP at the bottom with Sakura glaze pens (white and transparent).

The layout is based on the sketch over at Jingle Belles

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

CCAYR - Non-traditional colours

Winter Wonderland - Easel card

CCC - #8 Colouring (optional)

BasicGrey Challenges - #61 Favourite things (gems)

Papertake Weekly - Happy highlighting (tree, stopper, blue "berries")

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

New home bottle hanger

Last weekend, we received a last-minute invitation to a house-warming party. So I decided to make a quick bottle hanger for the bottle of wine we had bought.

I used a piece of red cardstock measuring 6.5 x 21.0 cm (the short side of an A4 sheet) and scored it at 6.5 cm. I applied two pieces of patterned paper (free digital download from the Crafter's Companion member site). To create the opening for the bottle, I used a small scalloped circle nestie. The pre-coloured digital image and sentiment are from a Doodle Pantry set. I rubbed the edges of the white cardstock with Antique Linen distress ink and the edges of the PP with Frayed Burlap (both Ranger).

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

Bling It On - New beginnings

Doodle Pantry - #19 Use a DP image

Craft Your Days Away - #37 Distressing

Charisma Cardz - #2 Clean and simple (maybe simple rather than clean)

Secret Crafter Saturday - #169 Food and drink (not sure if a bottle hanger qualifies)

Sentimental Sundays - #86 Die cuts

Bugaboo mini challenge

To celebrate their 2nd birthday, Bugaboo has organised a week filled with mini-challenges. Wednesday's prompt was to use bling and primary colours. This is what I whipped up last night.

I coloured the Bugaboo image with Spectrum Noir pens and added some gold glitter glue on the Christmas lights and bauble. I also added some glitter glue on the snowflakes that had previously been cut out with my Silhouette. The gold pearls were made with a Viva pearl pen. The red paper (with glitters) comes from a red, white and silver pad from a Dutch chain of chemist shops (Kruidvat). The gold ribbon is from my stash.

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

Bugaboo Wednesday mini challenge - Bling and primary colours

LCI - #52 Bows

ABC Christmas Challenge - Anything (Christmas) goes

Christmas Card Challenge - #7 Flourishes (optional)

Some Odd Girl - Bling it up

One Stitch at a Time - #96 Anything goes

Another NY bauble

Another quick New Year card using the same sentiment (TlcCreation) and bauble stamp (StichyBear Digital Store/Silvie's Stamps) of my previous post. The embossing was done with a Cuttlebug EF and the ribbons and parchment paper are from my stash.

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

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

Tuesday Morning Sketches - Sketch #126

Winter Wonderland - Red and white

Christmas Card Challenge - #5 Christmas thank you (optional)

Bling it on - New beginnings

Crafts and Me - #66 Anything goes

Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes

Cute Card Thursday - #197 Happy New Year