Blue Christmas

I've been mainly focusing on making Christmas prezzies for friends and family lately, so I have not been making as many cards that I can blog.  I'm really pleased with the presents that I have made, but I can't blog them yet.

I have been experimenting with softer colours.  I like rich dark colours, but I am trying to branch out a bit with my style and colour choices.

Sorry about the picture.  I took it at lunch time today, but the weather is so gloomy at the mo and my camera is nothing special.  Please click on the image to get a better view.

I haven't used my Penny Black stamps in ages, so I pulled them out and had a play with one from the Holly Jolly set.  I like the cool icy colours in this card so I added 2mm gems and some ivory flat backed pearls and lots of glitter glue.

I am entering this card for the following challenges:-

Allsorts - Christmas Easel Card

Christmas stamping all year long - Jingle all the way.  I added a bell that does tinkle

Totally Papercrafts - Glitter it

Stocking filler

I'm still working my way slowly through making Christmas prezzies for family and friends and making cards.  This is another one that I made.

You may have noticed that I love using Kenny K digis.  I can't get enough of them to be honest.  Since I worked out how to do male Christmas cards, I am having a hard time stopping :-)

I started with my normal 5x7 white card blank and covered the front with Curry by 7gypsies.  I then stamped "Seasons greetings" in a couple of rows down the front.  I embossed and sanded a scrap of co-ordinations cardstock that was left over from matting the image.  The wording I printed has been edged with fired brick distress ink and then stuck on with foam pads to give them a bit if height.

I  will be entering this card for the "Get Dotty" challenge at Kenny K's Krafty Girlz and the "Halloween/Fall" challenge at Kaboodle Doodles as I feel the warm colours I have used really suit that time of the year. 

Christmas for two

Today's challenge for me was to make a monochromatic Christmas card.  I have to say that it was a toughie.  I couldn't decide which colour to use and then I saw the challenge at Paper Play Challenges.  They asked us to use black so that was that problem solved.  Just to push myself a bit further I decided to make a Christmas card for a couple.  I have seen them in the card shops, but have never made one myself.

I have to say that this card has been inspired by a number of challenges.  The monochrome theme came from Creative Inspirations and The Crafty Pad.  Distressing your edges came from Creatalicious Challenges and Embossing came from Charizma Cardz Challenges.

I have used a Teddybo digistamp and have added black gems and black ribbon.  I love all things Tim Holtz so I have used the Tim Holtz distressing tool and Black soot distress inks.  Is there anything that man can't do?

Xmas Lace

Do you ever see something in a shop or online and know exactly what you will do with it?  I had one of those moments when I saw the lace I have used on this card.

The lace is 9cm wide and so lush.  I bought it at Wild Orchid Crafts where I buy all of my flowers.  I have laced lilac ribbon through the center.  It was just begging for something to go there.  My background paper is from a HOTP paper pack that I bought at least 6 years ago.  I have so much paper and card that I sometimes forget the old gems I have stashed away.  If you click on the picture, you will be able to see the lilac flat back pearls that I have added to the lace.

I made the frame to go round my image by inking with milled lavender distress ink.  I then debossed a swirly pattern on to it using a Cuttlebug embossing folder that I had inked with Duty Concord distress ink.  I added a bit more dusty concord to finish it off.  The snowflake stamp is one that I got free with a magazine last year.  I have used clear iridescent glitter glue on the snowflake and around the edge of the frame, but for some reason it turns up green in my photo.  I have also added ivory flat back pearls to the snowflake.

I will be entering this card into the following challenges:-

Allsorts Challenge Blog - Lavender and lace

My time to craft - Punches and dies.  I have used two different dies on this one.

The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - White plus one other colour

Tri Acetate

I like tri-fold  cards and have been wondering for a while if it is possible to make one out of acetate.  The answer is YES and it wasn't as tricky as I thought it would be.

I started buy marking out my folds on a sheet of paper and then the rest was easy.  Normally when I make one of these cards i use my embossing tool to mark and score where I need to fold.  It's not as easy to do with acetate, especially when you use flittered acetate.

I have used Kanban Flittered acetate to make this card.  All of the design is made using glitter and it give your card something a little bit extra.

I will be entering this card for the "Acetate challenge" over at Totally Papercrafts and for the "Cards for all occasions" over at Craft Your Passion. 

Naughty or nice

I find making card s for men really hard.  I really have to think about them.  Can't go too crazy with flowers, don't want to over do it with the ribbon and just how much is too much on the embellishments?

Kenny K's Krafty girlz challenged us to use two or more girls on our card this week and to use die cuts.  This card instantly popped into my head.  Well if you see the Christmas images available it just made good sense.

I had the "Santa Claus is coming to town" tune going around in my head when I was looking through the digis that I have.  I have promised myself that I would make more effort to make more Christmas cards now and not leave it till the last minute panic I had last year for people I had forgotten.

This is inside the card.  ll of the working was attached using foam pads to give them a bit of height.  I have edged the different elements with peeled paint distress ink and all of the fur trim bits have been glitter glued in clear iridescent.  

I will also be entering this card for the challenges at :-

One Stop Craft Challenge - Just for men

The Crafty Pad - One for the boys

Bound in lilac love.

Yes I'm sorry.  Another binder.  If you have not been to my blog before, you may not have seen my other two binders.  I have been decorating them to store my acrylic stamps in.  This is my third.  I have gone for different looks with each of them.

I wanted to show a different side to my crafting with this one.  It is a lot more personal in a lot of ways.  I actually have a hand written message on this one, which is unusual for me as I hate my hand writing.  I have embossed the edges of the doily and along the pen design.  there are two different widths of ribbon on this tag.

I love the pen nib design along the edge of this paper, so it was important to me that it didn't get covered too much.  I couldn't resist adding the lace and ribbon though.  Lilac flat back pearls work well with so many different projects, don't you think?

There is a lot going on with this binder, feathers, gems, lace and ribbon, tags flowers and more.  This wasn't a planned project, it has been very much go with the flow.  My favorite colour is purple.  Think aubergine (eggplant) or a rich plum.  There are varying shades of it all over this project.

I will be entering this binder in the following challenges:-

Allsorts - 5 Flowers

Kaboodle Doodles - The Pretty doily

Simon Says - Anything goes

Totally Papercrafts - Autumn - I have used what I consider to be autumn wedding colours.

The ABC Challenge - Anything goes