Merry Happy Crimbo

Post 100. WOW

I hope you all have a very merry festive period.

Morning!

Good morning to you all.

Woke up in a really good mood this morning and got a card made before the rest of the house woke up.

I'm trying to use up as much of my Christmas stuff as possible, because I know that next year I will have to buy some of the yummy new stuff that is out. The stamp I have used is from Penny blacks "Jolly Folly" and has been really underused.

The charm and snowflakes were originally silver coloured, but with a bit of magic (other wise known as a Krylon pen) I got them to match. I'm getting better with the stripes now, so hopefully there wont be too much left over at the end of the season.

The sketch that I used for this challenge came from Sketch Saturday. I will also be entering this card for PBSCs Christmas charms challenge and Stamp Somethings Holiday somethings challenge.

Hope you all have a good day.

Hugs

Naomi

Inspired by Mel

Can I just start by saying that this card was totally inspired by a very talented lady called Melissa. You can see her blog here. I have been making making cards using acetate for quite a while, putting all of the design on the top layer. I had never thought of doing the layering using the acetate itself.

The sketch that I used came from this weeks challenge over at A spoonful of Sugar and the colour scheme is inspired by this weeks challenge over at JUGS.

Rather than using a ribbon I have used a line of gems to replace part of the sketch. I have also replaced the buttons on the sketch with Snowman shaped gems. The snowman stamp came from Penny Blacks Jolly Folly stamp set. I have added glitter glue for sparkle and dimension on the snowman. I find the hardest thing about using acetate is getting it to photograph right.

I always take photos of the cards that I make in case I get stuck for ideas. Then I can revisit stuff that I have done in the past.

I'm off to make another card. I love crafting holidays.

Take care ;0)

Mini Holiday

I've given myself a mini one day holiday from everything except relaxing and card making. So having grinned myself silly over the fact that I am doing no house work and that I don't have to go out in all of that ice, I started in on all of the cards that I need to make for family.

This is my first effort for the day.

I had to use one of my ink pads to hold the card closed in order to get a good picture.

Word of advice...... if you are going to cut through five layers of paper and card, be prepared to have a go with a sharp craft knife to get your aperture to pop out cleanly. I think I have now worked out the limits of my nesties.

I got the stamp free with a magazine and he has had quite a few outings all ready. I inked the edges with Tim Holtzs Aged Mahogany distress ink as the white was glaring at me a bit.

The sketch for this card came from this weeks challenge over at MAWTT. They also wanted us to include a bear in the design. I also noticed that the aperture fits the bill for the challenge over at Cute Card Thursday

Tree of love

I'm still making Christmas cards to give to family and friends. This one is for my aunt.

My mojo has taken a vacation to warmer climes without letting me know, so I have been blog hopping for inspiration. On my travels I came across a blog called Whiff of Joy Tutorials and Inspiration There are so many great ideas to look at on there.

The pink text paper came from a HOTP paper pack that I bought years and years ago. The chocolate shiny paper was bought around the same time. The chocolate ribbon I bought earlier this year on a ribbon buying binge and the snowflake (originally silver, but coloured with a Krylon pen) is an Anitas dimention sticker which I bought in September. I have added dots of glitter glue all over the image to represent snow.

I am going to enter this card for Ohh La La Creations Pink and brown challenge, The Pink Elephants winter challenge, 2 Red Bananas Tree challenge and CRAFT Challenges Free for all challenge.

I really hope she likes it. Took me ages as it was my first time doing this type of card. The ones I have seen made by other people are gorgeous.

Fancy in Blue

This is my first attempt at an easel card. I keep seeing them on peoples blogs, but never had the guts to give it a go. So glad that I did. They are quite easy to make. I used an ordinary card blank, scored an extra fold and added acetate.

I wasn't sure how best to photograph it, so my apologies for putting so many pictures up.

I used whispers brush marker and Sakura Gelly roll pens to colour the image and the mirri board and glitter paper have been in my stash for so long that I don't know where they came from. I've gone a bit overboard on the sparkle, but hey.... every girl has to have some glitz in her life. :0)

I'm entering this card for the "3 snowflakes challenge" over at Dotties World

Let it snow let it snow let it snow

The kids are happy and occupied, most of the housework is done and Mama needed some play time. So I did the obvious and reached for my cardstock.

I really did think that I would be sick of making Christmas cards by now, but there is so much inspiration out there, in the form of other people blogs and challenge design teams, that I just need to keep making them.

This card ended up completely different from what I had planned when I sat down to make it. The newest item on the card is the stamped image as I only bought the stamps a couple of months ago. The charms I bought back in September (I think). And the ribbon, card and glitter paper are from my old stash from years ago. (I stopped paper crafting for a few years, but couldn't bear the thought of not doing it again and kept a mini stash.)

I've had a look at this weeks challenges and would like to enter this card for:

A spoonful of Sugar Who challenged us to make a monochrome card

Creative Inspirations Who asked for non traditional Christmas colours

InStyle Stamps Who wanted us to do something inspired by snowflakes

Papertake Weekly who said "Red and Green must not be seen"

Saturday Crafter who set a snow theme

Simon Says who said "Let it snow"

Stamp Something who wanted a winter wonderland

I think that is the most challenges that I have ever entered one card for.... phew

Have a good evening. I'm off to play some more.

Simon says..... use charms

And so I did. I love charms on paper crafting projects, so it is really no hardship to use them when asked in a challenge.

I took two pictures so that you could see the card open and closed. This is my last card for today and it is for the Simon Says challenge.

Have a good week everyone. Hopefully it wont take me till next weekend to get crafting again.

Starry Starry Night

When I saw this weeks challenge over at Dotties World I knew exactly which papers I was going to reach for. I have had the starry paper for a little while, but this is the first time it has made it onto a card.



The sketch is my interpretation of this weeks sketch at The Crafty Pad and I think that this one will also fit the "Swirly Girly" challenge over at Cute Card Thursday and "the Glitzy somethings" challenge over at Stamp Something.



I'm surprised that I haven't gotten fed up of making Christmas cards after having started them in June, but there is so much out there to play with and I don't think that I bought even half of what I liked.


I'm off to see if I can get one more card in before I start the ironing.


Hope you all had a good weekend.

Small sweets

I love the image I have used on this card. I think it is so versatile and sweet.

I tend to stay away from stripey paper as I am always scared that the card will look to cluttered. The image I have used is not too complex, so I think I got away with it. I love Gorjuss girl stamps and this one has probably had the most use out of all of the ones that I own.

I made this card in response to the challenge over at Totally Gorjuss

A few of my favourite things

Hi everyone. I've been itching to do some crafting for a whole week now and haven't had the time. I can't tell you how good it feels to finally have some play time.

I've made a number of cards over the last few months for the festive season, but I have only just started making for friends that I work with. This one is only the fourth, so I still have quite a few to make.







I used as many of my favourite things as I could on this card. My favourite colour is purple (you might of noticed from some of my earlier cards lol) I love working with gems, charms and ribbon (I actually have trouble completing a card without some ribbon on it somewhere). I also played with my favourite colour distress ink - Dusty Concord. The only things missing were vellum, nesties and acetate, but I couldn't figure out how to fit them into the design.



The design of this card came from this weeks challenge at Papertake Weekly and I will also be entering this card for the following challenges:


A Spoon full of sugar who asked for a Christmas card with no red or green
Allsorts who asked us to use purple (that was easy)
Paperplay who also asked for a Christmas card with no red or green
And Penny Black who asked us for a girly Christmas card. I have used a Christmas tree stamp from their Jolly Follies collection.

Here is to a day of more crafting. I'm off in search of coffee now.

Hugs

Naomi

Dotty Fairy

I've had a long busy day, but I had to play with paper before bed.

SFOS challenged us to make a card that was brown with either pink or blue as the second colour. As you can see..... I chose pink. I've embossed some metallic brown car that I have had for years. (I was clearing out when I found it again and ended up playing instead). the pink dotty paper is from my scrap box and the ribbon, gems where part of a naughty buy a month or so ago.

The actual design of the card has come from MAWTT who gave us a lovely sketch to work with.

Fairy clear its Xmas

I have a busy day today, but I couldn't resist fitting in a quick card.

I had a quick play with some acetate, printed velum and some bits in my scrap box. I've also added a charm. (Can't seem to leave them alone at the moment). I think I used most of my favourite things on this card. Not bad for a 30 minute make.

Being a bit of a challenge addict, this card is for:

Papertake weekly who challenged us to make a Christmas card

Pollycraft who who challenged us to make something with a Christmas theme and

SCSC who challenged us to use Christmas trees as part of our design.

Spicey one

You might want to get your sunglasses before you look at this make.



Inspired by the colours in this weeks JUGs and the calendar required for SCSC challenge this week. I came up with this.






The funny thing is, I had just made a card last night using the same set of distress inks that I used today. (I do have more, promise.) The colours that JUGs asked us to use were so similar, I just had to use them again. I have used several layers of ink on this one to make the colours more rich and intense. I wasn't sure about the orange textured card that I backed it onto to start off with, but the more I looked at it, the more it seemed to fit.

The flower is made from Tim Holtz Grunge paper and was coloured with Fired brick distress ink and then stamped with a dotty stamp that I bought a while ago. Again I have used fired brick, spiced marmalade and broken china on white card which I have embossed using Cuttlebug folders.

I actually made the flower several weeks ago when I was experimenting with grunge paper, but could never figure out what to put it on. It has held it's shape really well.

All inked up

Sometimes a card just happens. I was playing with my embossing folders and distress inks and this card.........happened. I really like this combination of colours. They are nice and bright and not at all Christmassy. It feels as though all I have made for a while is Christmas cards lol. (I started back in June.)

The colours that I have used are Broken china, Fired Brick and Spiced marmalade. The image is "Madison with attitude" from Charmed Cards and Crafts.

Cute Cards Thursday challenged us to make a project with teenagers in mind and I hope this fits the bill.

Manga Xmas

The Sugar Bowl gave us a gorgeous sketch to work with. I've been commissioned to make a couple of Christmas cards for teenagers and the ideas I got from this sketch was perfect.

I have used Manga Girl #2 and coloured her black and red to match the rest of the card. She is matted on black textured card which is matted on silver mirri board. I used white glitter for her hair instead of colouring it in. It's a pity I couldn't get the lighting right to show the sparkle.

Light snow

MAWTT gave us a sketch to work with this week. It is nice and simple in design and will definitely get used again by me in the future with a few adjustments.

I got the stickers as part of a Docrafts pack and could never figure out what to do with them. As soon as I saw this weeks sketch I knew just what to reach for. I have backed the stickers onto silver mirri board and then used textured black card stock mounted onto red textured card stock to finish it off. I think the red board really brings out the colour of the robin.

All that glitters

Play time is fun time. This card was fun to make as I got to play with charms and glitter glue.

The charm on the far left is a stocking. I couldn't get a good picture of it. I have glitter glued all of the snowflakes on the front of the card and the ribbon is white velvet.

I made this card in response to BBCC who wanted us to make something for Christmas with lots of glitter and snowflakes. CCT also wanted us Glittery.

I've made quite a few cards with apertures and I have already thought of a few more that I would like to make.

Pennies for a man

One of my biggest challenges is making cards for males. This week PBSC asked us to make a Christmas card for a man. I pulled out lots of paper (and there is a LOT of paper), but ended up back at my current Christmas fave for traditional cards (Daisy and Dandelion).

I have edged the white card with Broken China by Tim Holtz and the red textured card stock is from Core'dinations (scarlet). I have also used some ribbed cream writing paper which is quite lush in RL. The gold paper that I used for the snowflakes is from my scrap box.

The actual sketch for this card came from Stamp something

Happy birthday to me!!

Actually, my birthday was in October. I promised myself a camera for my present to myself this year and I only got round to buying it yesterday. Up until now, I have been using the camera that I bought for my son a few years ago. (I really must buy him a new one).






I call this one Birthday Bath :-). Just us Girls asked us to make a birthday card that included dry embossing. I'm never one to leave my embossing folders gathering dust, so I made this. Purple is my favourite colour, so I started with a purple card blank and the rest just happened.

I have started playing with jump rings and have used three to attach my teddy bear charm. The ribbon is white velvet and the papers are from my scrap box. I have used a silver rose charm for the centre of my flower.



Just us Girls is still a young blog challenge site. They are only on week seven. It's always good to get in on the ground floor (so to speak) of a blog and watch it grow.

You light up my life

I just received some new Penny Black stamps in the post and really didn't need an excuse to use them. The theme over at PBSC is song lyrics. Mine is you light up my life by Westlife.

I have gold leafed the lamp post using a krylon pen and all of the snow has been done in white glitter and I couldn't resist adding some gold gems for some extra bling. Unfortunately the top panel is not quite straight, but I still think it works.

The actual design of the card came from this weeks sketch over at Papertake Weekly Challenge. Its a lovely design and very versatile.

Elfin Pink

I've had a number of commission cards to make over the last few weeks and I have been using the challenges as inspiration.

As well as my ever present glitter glue, all of the papers that I used came from Papermania's "Naughty and Nice Christmas" and the elf decoupage is a Toread from Readdy Crafts. I made this card using the sketch from this weeks challenge over at Friday Sketchers.

Lacie Blue

The Sugar Bowl gave us a lovely sketch to work from this week. We had to use a Sugar Nellie stamp and lace.

The purple and blue background papers where created by using distress inks on white card and then embossing. I have also used some black ribbon for the detailing at the top of the card along with a couple of gems. The stamp is called "Just a girl" and is one of my current favourites.

Sorry the picture is so blurry.

Sweet n Fuzzy

I'm a member of a craft forum where we share ideas and info. (See here for more details). One of the ladies came up with the fantastic idea of doing altered chocolate. Basically you alter the appearance of the wrapper.

This week Corrosive challenged us to make anything that was "not a card". I had a light bulb moment and this is my first attempt at altered chocolate. When I had finished I realised that I could also use this for the challenge over at Stamp Something who challenged us to make something with a "Sweet and Fuzzy" theme.

I'm not sure who this will go to yet, but it will make an excellent stocking filler.

Penny Black Snow

This has got to be the scariest card I have ever attempted. Why I hear you ask. Because it's all white!! PBSC challenged us to make an "All white" item this week. We could use colour in our image but the rest had to be white on white. I love monochromatic cards, but how many shades of white are there lol.


I loved this challenge as it really made me think out side of the box.




The picture on the left doesn't show the features very well I am afraid. The snow flakes where done with a punch using glitter board and I added a clear gem to the centers. I have edged both the edge of the aperture and the die cut with a thick coating of holographic glitter glue. I'm having fun playing with acetate at the moment, so it will probably turn up in a few more projects over the next few weeks.

Sweet n Simple

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. Moving along with the times set us a sketch to follow with the instruction to use a background paper with text on it.

Choosing the paper was easy. This is from Papermanias "Naughty and Nice Christmas" paper pack.

The image is from a free stamp that I got with a crafting magazine.

I think that this one is Simple and sweet!

Thinking of you

A friend of mine at work is going through a tough time at the moment. I wanted to make her something that I hope will make her smile. Bizzy Becs has a challenge running at the moment where you have to use scraps that you have left over from other projects.

The pyramage is one that I put together several months ago, so the colours for the card are inspired from that. I have embossed a piece of white card and coloured it using Dusty concord distress ink. The card blank is a soft mint colour.

I like the card so much that I decided that It would be perfect for Sue.

Black and Orange

I don't make Halloween cards, but I have been asked to make a goth style card for a friends granddaughter and the "orange plus one colour" theme over at SCSC inspired me to make this card.

The actual design of the card was inspired by the sketch for this weeks challenge over at Sketch Saturday

The background black and orange paper was created using makeup sponges and ink dabbed onto white card. I did the same with the sentiment plaque (which is edged in black). I have used an orange card blank, which is unusual in the fact that I usually only use white card blanks to work with.

I have used 2mm black ribbon to create the four "lines" and black lace for a slightly scalloped edge.

As much as the colours I have used are very Halloweeny, this is a birthday card. I hope she likes it.

Xmas Glimmer

I've just had a few days off of work so I finally got a chance to do some crafting. I have a number of Christmas cards to make for orders, but I couldn't resist having a go at Domi's challenge sketch over at Simon Says.

I had a parcel delivered today which contained some lovely pyramage sheets and I couldn't wait to play with them. The shape of this one was perfect for Domi's sketch. I have added holographic glitter glue to the wings and the white die cut was done using, what I call, glitter board. The snow flakes are Anitas dimensions and the paper is Papermania "Naughty and nice Christmas". I have had everything else for ages and couldn't start to tell you where they came from.

Golden Glittery Xmas

At last.... some crafting. I haven't had much time to craft lately so it was really nice to make something pretty. This may sound silly, but this is the first time that I have used glitter glue and I am really pleased with the result.




I'm not entirely sure why I haven't bought any before, but I'm glad that I did. I used a bit of the clear holographic on the edges of the little decoupage boy and gold to edge the chocolate flower.

I haven't taken part in many challenges lately, so I made this card in response to Stamp something who challenged us to use the colour brown, SCSC who challenged us to use autumn colours and Sketch Saturday who provided us with a wonderful sketch to work with. I rotated the sketch for this card and I have used a lot of texture. The card is richer in colour than you can see in this photo, but ho hum.... we do what we can.

Have a good weekend.

Naomi

Forum Fun

Back in February I joined a forum called Crafts by Carolyn. I was looking for a way to improve on my crafting skills, find new inspiration and to be able to ask for crafting advice when I need it. I was lucky I found all of this and more. Everyone is very supportive and we have a good laugh. There are challenges and competitions, a review section and a place where you can just go and chat.

The forum covers a wide range of hand crafts including ATC, sewing, jewelery making and beading. I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone their for their help with my projects over the past eight months as we look forward to the forum growing.

This first card was made for challenge recipe challenge 104

This card inspired me to make the next one

If you would like to take a look at CBC for your self.... click HERE

Dotty 'bout yellow

I love striking colours on a card so I was really happy to make this one for the Cute card Thursday challenge, which was to use the colours "Black and Yellow". Paperplay Challenge asked us to make something spotty and the rest was easy.

The yellow that I used is actually really vibrant and the charm says "Made with love". I'm into manga stamps at the moment so they will be showing up for a while yet on my cards I think.

Got an idea for another card, so bye for now.

Naomi

Lemon Sugar

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks due to real life commitments, but it's really good to be crafting again.

The sketch for this card came from this weeks Friday Sketchers challenge. The colour scheme came from this weeks PBSC challenge which was to use Chocolate, lemon and pink. I chose an animal in response to the SCSC challenge called Animal Antics. I set myself the additional challenge of not using any patterned paper, but I couldn't resist doing a bit of embossing.

Now that I am in the swing of crafting again, I'm off to make some more cards. Have a good weekend.

Pink Ice

Stamp something asked us to make something using our favourite stamp and either die cuts or punches. They asked us on Friday and I only just came to a decision about which stamp to use. In the end I opted for one of my new manga style digi stamps.

I have used two different shaped nesties on this one. and all of them have been edges with sakura stardust pens for a glittery effect. Her wings have also been done with the same pens using an aqua brush for a touch of translucence.

I hope that no one does a challenge asking me to use my favourite nestie or I really will be stuck!!