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

Another card ... finally

This weekend I finally found some time to craft and make another card. After my holidays, I needed some time to get going again. After a wonderful week in Scotland, with unbelievably warm and sunny weather(25+ degrees and lots of nasty midges) and a couple of days with some friends in the Netherlands I spent another week with my youngest sister in the Netherlands, where it was cold and wet. After that I came back to Crete, where I was welcomed by the summer heat. And it was really hot. So now I'm slowly getting used again to the noises that accompany the summer heat here, such as the noise of the mobile AC unit in my home office (when temperatures in my office rise to over 26 degrees), the cicadas with their deafening sounds outside and the fan in the bedroom at night.
But hey, I'd rather have this weather than the dreadful weather most people are having in Western Europe.

The cute little image on my card, Josie's Mistletoe, is one of the Sweet November Stamps fairwees designed by Amy Young. I fell in love with her as soon as I laid eyes on her at Amy's blog. The great thing is that I won both the stamp and the Echo Park papers plus lots of other goodies, including Amy's wonderful card. Thanks again Amy! I'm so happy I finally got round to using these supplies.

The layout is based on this week's sketch over at Tuesday Morning Sketches. I love working with sketches, especially if they are pretty straightforward such as the TMS ones. Even more so if I can use them to make Christmas cards and use cute images such as this one. I also love my Viva pearl pens.

The image was coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I got the ribbon from John Lewis in Edinburgh, and the sentiment is from Wild Rose Studio.

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

Tuesday Morning Sketches - #152 Sketch

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - Anything goes

Sir Stampelot - What's your crafty passion?

Crafter's companion - #26 Ho Ho Ho Christmas

Secret Crafter Saturday - #192 Christmas

The Ribbon Girl - Girlie card