Anything goes @ Charisma

Well this is it - the last Christmas card I've made for this year - it's for a family member - I always leave the family till last - why is that I wonder? Really should be top of the list not last ;o)

The theme at Charisma this week is Anything Goes and I might have done something other than another Christmas card if I wasn't totally running out of time and behind with EVERYTHING!!!

The fab image is from Dilly Bean Stamps and I have, of course, used my Promarkers to colour it, the music patterned paper is from Bo Bunny and the other was a plain white piece of cardstock which I coloured with Black Soot distress ink then stamped some random spots and snowflakes on in white ink. The paper ribbon came from Tesco and I finished the design off with a little tag sentiment with doodling round the edge to tie in with the image.

So that's it from me until after the holidays - wishing all visitors to my blog the best Christmas ever!

Entering my card for the following challenges:
Bearly Mine - Anything Goes
Paper Take Weekly - Last Christmas card of the year
Partytime Tuesdays - Use Ribbon (does paper ribbon count?)
Stamp-N-Doodle - Christmas
Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Christmas
Creative Stamp Friends - Christmas 
Critter Sketch - Let it snow 
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
The Crazy Challenge - Christmas

A few thankyous

If there's ever a time of year when you need a thank you card or two it has to be Christmas time so I have made more than one for today's Christmas Blog Hop at Crafty Creations where our theme is Giving Thanks, you should have arrived here from Rudlis' blog - if not you might want to go back to start from the beginning with the lovely and very talented Claire who has a great prize for one lucky crafter! There are also some other lovely prizes from a variety of sponsors - well worth joining in with the challenge which will run for two weeks this time.

I based my three quick thank you cards on the same basic layout and used stamps and die cuts from Stampin Up, Martha Stewart and Nestabilities.

To enjoy the rest of the team's projects pop on over to the next stop on the hop Donna, and to be in with a chance of winning your choice of three digi stamps from Cardmadfairy's Creations don't forget to leave a comment before you go!

A little batch

I had to very quickly make a batch of cards for my colleagues at the library - no idea why I left it to the night before I needed them but I did! I had 8 to make so wanted an image which didn't need too much colouring so chose this fab giveaway image from Dilly Bean stamps - go check them out here, I also bought a couple of other fun images which I plan to use for cards for my 2 sons (which I will try not to leave till Christmas Eve!)

I didn't want all 8 cards to be exactly the same so I chose 4 different backing papers and coloured each image differently.

Entering the following challenges:

Dilly Beans - Snow family

Card Makin' Mamas - Christmas
Inkspirations - Christmas creations
Jingle Belles - Christmas
Raise The Bar - Christmas
Stampin For The Weekend - Christmas   
4 Crafty Chicks - Christmas Card
AiFactory - Christmas 
Art Impressions Stamps Challenge - Buttons
Crafty Ribbons - Traditional colours for Christmas
Meljens Designs - No RECTANGLE cards!
  

Gift set

There is a new challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers and this week's theme is Use it 3 times.

I decided to make a gift, card and envelope for the challenge, I stamped my image twice onto shrink plastic and coloured it with Promarkers then used a Nestability die to cut them into circles before shrinking them and making a pair of earrings. I then made the card, cutting an aperture and frame again with the nesties and stamping just the centre part of my image onto the green backing paper. I also die cut the fab glittery border at the bottom using a new die from Memory box. 

Finally I made an envelope to contain the gift card, stamping the image onto white cardstock and again colouring with Promarkers and cutting out a red scalloped piece of cardstock to frame the image. I then ran a piece of Kraft paper through my ribbler to finish off the design. I used stamps by Papermania and paper from Stampin Up.

 

Challenges I'm entering:

Addicted to Stamps - Snowflakes

Dream Valley Challenges - Christmas 

Let's Ink It Up - Christmas project

Stamptacular Sunday - Christmas glitz

The Squirrel & the Fox - Christmas 

2 Sisters - Christmas 

Creations by Gill M - Red & Green

Just Some Lines - Hand made gifts

One Stop Craft - Traditional Christmas Colours

Card Makin' Mamas - Christmas

Fairy Tale - Gift / Gift Packaging

Crafty Bloggers Network - Christmas Gift

A tag for Christmas

The new challenge today at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days is Tags, there are such a lot of gorgeous tags around at the moment by the likes of the extremely popular Tim Holtz, I couldn't help but be inspired to try something artistic myself using the Cardmadfairy Spiral Star image. I really enjoyed making this and hope I have time to do a few more before Christmas :o)

Entering this for the following: 
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Winged things
Paper Crafting Journey - Christmas   
Southern Girls - Ribbon ???
Simon Says Stamp - Photo inspiration
Die Cuttin' Divas - Tags, tags & more tags!
Digi Makeover Challenge - Cut out your digi image
The Shabby Tea Room - Photo Inspiration "The Magic of Christmas"
Little Red Wagon - Vintage Christmas

For the tree

The theme of this week's new challenge at Charisma Cardz was chosen by me - and it's Anything but a card, so as I am taking Christy Tomlinson's online workshop called the 12 Artsy Ornaments of Christmas at the moment, I have used my first project from the workshop for today's challenge. This ornament is based on a design by Alisa Burke, the heart shapes were cut by hand out of a couple of book pages and the flowers are water coloured straight onto the pages then, once dried, doodled on with a black permanent marker. For my ones I also added some detail with a metallic Sakura pen and stuck on some sequins, before sewing the two halves together with a little toy stuffing between them. I also finished my decorations off with a coating of Mod Podge to make them a little more durable.

Our regular sponsor Bunny Zoes are offering a £10 Voucher to their online store so why not check out some of their gorgeous NEW ARRIVALS!!


ABC Christmas Challenge - Anything goes
Creative Belli - Winter/Christmas
Decorate to Celebrate - Christmas party
Freshly Brewed - Christmas
Inky Impressions - Ribbon
City Crafter Challenge - Home For The Holidays
Creative Craft Challenges - Faux Or Real Stitching
Heart Song Inspirations - Christmas and /or Red, Green, White 
Come and Get It Challenges - Anything Christmas
Creations by Gill M - Recycling (the book pages)
My Sheri Crafts  - Decorate for Christmas

Add a sentiment

Sooo chilly here this morning, the snow we've had over the past couple of days has more or less gone but there is a strong wind so the wind chill factor is definitely making me shiver and I've not even left the house yet!

We want to see Christmas cards with sentiments for this week's challenge at Crafty Creations.

The team were fortunate enough to be given images from our sponsors LOTV - mine is called Christmas Puppy - and I tried to colour it to match my backing papers although I was struggling a little, I couldn't get quite the right pinks or browns but I did my best with the Promarkers I have :o) The ribbon has been in my stash for a very long time and I was happy to see how well it worked with the papers.

These are the challenges I'm entering:
Creative Card Crew - Tis The Season
Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - Snowflakes & Sparkle
Crafty Sentiments - Snowflakes
Passion For Promarkers Challenge - Celebrations
Sweet Stamps - Christmas Bling
Ooh La La Creations - Lots of Sparkle
Paper Creations Ink - "Bling It Up!"
The Pink Elephant - Snowflakes and Sparkles
Whoopsi Daisy  - Snowflakes

Special Delivery

Another Nellie Snellen stamped image to share today - isn't it cute? I coloured it with Promarkers and watercolour pencils and used PaperArtsy papers, the sentiment is from Inkadinkadoo. Finished off with die cut boughs, mini pearls and tartan buttons. Sorry for the short post - masses to do before work at 1pm!

Challenges entered:
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Anything Christmas with Pearls
Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes PLUS Glitter
Crafty Bloggers Network - Shades of Winter
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - Something Sweet 
Heart Song Inspirations - Banner and/or Buttons
Kaboodle Doodles - Christmas colours
Make it Monday - always Anything Goes
Addicted to Stamps - Christmas card
Card Cupids - Winter
Dream Valley Challenges - Sparkle
 

Cold & Frosty

Cold & Frosty is the December theme at Crafty Calendar and I was lucky enough to be one of the Mo Manning fans who managed to grab this freebie image Snow Day before the time limit so what better image to use for a cold and frosty challenge :o)

I used Promarkers and Tria Markers to colour the little cutie and used some of Woodware's fluffy snow product (can't remember the actual name) for the fur trim. Some gorgeous Christmas papers from Kars,

a snowflake Christmas tree decoration (with the loop snipped off) and a sentiment from Stampin Up finished off the card while keeping the focus mainly on the image.

I'm entering the card for the following:

By the Cute & Girly - Let it Snow 

Christmas Cards All Year Round - Anything Goes 

Creatalicious Challenges - Christmas and make sure it SPARKLES

Joanna Sheen Challenge - Christmas Wishes 

CCEE Stampers - Snowflakes and Bling 

Delightful Challenges - Let It Snow 

Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Lots of Sparkle

Sassy Studio Designs - Christmas with some sparkle or bling
Digistamps 4 Joy - Christmas, no animals
My Mum's Craft shop - Keeping warm

Rocking it up

Today's card is another of the boy cards I was recently working on, I now have a nice little stash of them for craft fairs :o) The image is a Sugar Nellie stamp which I coloured with Promarkers with a touch of the new metalliccolours to finish it off, I also stamped some dots around the edges of the cardstock to tie in with the colours. The sentiment is one of my own digi stamps and I've had the ribbon in my ribbon box for a while.

 

Challenges entered:
Cooking It Up With Katie - Anything goes 
Divas by Design - Anything goes
Fab 'n' Funky - Anything goes
Paper Shelter Challenge - Anything goes
Ruby's Rainbow - Music
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Creative Craft Challenges - Free for all week
Lexi's Creations - One for the lads
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
 

Waiting for Santa

 

Our challenge at Crafty Creations is a picture inspiration one this time:

The picture made me think of a window rather than a mirror so I used an image from Mo's Digital Pencil called Jack Waiting and added the falling snow in the window as I thought he'd be waiting for Santa :o) I used My Mind's Eye papers (again!), coloured the image with Promarkers and added a digital sentiment which came from Crafty Sentiments, a bit of red grosgrain ribbon and a glittered snowflake to add some balance. What will the image inspire for you?

Challenges entered:

365 Cards - Winter Theme

City Crafter Challenge - Santa Claus Is Coming  
Everybody-Art-Challenge - Santa Claus 
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations - Christmas
Craft Your Passion - Tis the Season...  
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - Christmas 
Hooked on Crafts - Winter Wonderland
My Craft Spot - Christmas through the Window
Paper Creations Ink - Christmas
Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Distressing
Squigglefly - Winter Wonderland
The Crazy Challenge - Stars and/or Snowflakes

Baubles!

The challenge this week at Crafty Cardmakers is to use heat embossing on your project - something I've not done for a little while so it was a nice change for me! For my dt card I started by covering my cardstock with My Mind's Eye Jolly Holly designer paper then I die cut the bauble shapes from 3 different patterned papers and inked them with a Versamark (clear) embossing pad and added ultra thick embossing powder and heated it, repeating the process 3 times until I had a good thick covering. I then inked up some flourish stamps with gold ink and while the embossing powder was still in a liquid state stamped the flourishes, waiting until it cooled a little before removing the stamp. I added ribbon and threads and a stamped greeting to complete the card.

 

Entering it for the following:

Addicted to Stamps - Christmas card 

Gingerloft - Winter or Christmas

Sparkles Forum - Vintage Christmas  

Stamptacular Sunday - Anything Christmas

2 Sisters - Holiday

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Vintage and/or Distressed

Hiding in my Craft Room - Holiday

My Sheri Crafts  - Decorate for Christmas

Fairy Tale - Christmas

Patties Creations - Christmas

Poodles Parlour - Christmas

Simply Create Too - All About Christmas

Stampin With The Dragon - Anything Goes for Christmas

Totally Papercrafts - Christmas

Winter Wonderland

Our new challenge over at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days is Winter Wonderland, I have used my Sweet Snowbaby digi stamp available from Cardmadfairy's Creations  (where I'm having a Buy one, Get one Free offer this weekend), along with the gorgeous Christmas papers from Kars, some die cut swirls and punched snowflakes and a sentiment which was part of a set free with Homemade magazine. We are sponsored this time by Meljens and some of the team have been using a couple of their gorgeous new images - go and check them out over at the challenge blog and enter the challenge for your chance to win some!

House That Stamps Built - Christmas card+snowflake

I Love Promarkers - Anything goes
Little Red Wagon - Christmas
Scrapbook Sisters - Christmas
Whimsical Wednesdays - Texture
Digistamps 4 Joy -  Color tic tac toe (red hot, natural neutral, cool blue)
Creative Craft Challenges - Free for all week 
Digital Tuesday - Sparkle & shine
Oldie But Goodie Challenge - Let it snow
Passion For Promarkers Challenge - Swirls & sparkles 
4 Crafty Chicks - Snowflakes
 

Snowflakes

Our new challenge this week at Charisma Cardz is about Snowflakes - fortunately the only ones we've seen so far have been on cards, let's hope that continues to be the case for the next few weeks!! 

I have used one of my new Nellie Snellen stamps on today's card, so pretty! I coloured it with Promarkers and distress inks then added a liberal sprinkling of two different glitters - one for the snow and another for the fur on her hat. The snowflakes are punched and die cut from glitter card and the papers I have used are by My Mind's Eye.

Entering these challenges:
Everybody-Art-Challenge - Christmas card
Ladybug Crafts Ink TLT Challenge - Winter blues
Paper Take Weekly - Christmas crackers!
Partytime Tuesdays - Snow us what you’ve got
Passion For Promarkers Challenge - Swirls & sparkles
Shopping Our Stash - Christmas or winter related
Forever Friends - Christmas is coming
Kaboodle Doodles - “Baby it’s cold outside”
Paper Creations Ink - Christmas 
Pollycraft - Christmas fun
Whoopsi Daisy  - Anything goes at Christmas

Be thankful

Our American teamie Jaime has chosen the theme this week at Crafty Creations and it is about being thankful because tomorrow is Thanksgiving day in the US. We all need to thank somebody sometime so it's great to have a stock of Thank You cards around. I have used a Teddy Bea digi stamp and coloured it with Promarkers, Basic Grey papers, flowers from Wild Orchid and a sentiment from Stampin Up.

 

Entering the following challenges:

Die Cut Dreams - "Thank You" with circles 

Heart Song Inspirations - Circle shaped or "Thank You" card
Hooked on Crafts - Punches and /or diecuts  
The Cutie Pie Challenge - Bears
The Pink Elephant - Giving thanks
Victorine Originals - Thanksgiving, thank you 
Addicted to Stamps - Pearls and lace  
Corrosive Challenges - Give thanks 
Creative Inspirations Paint - Thanks
Catch The Bug - Give thanks/Thanksgiving
My Sheri Crafts - Be thankful
Card Makin' Mamas - Thankful   

Ok so this is the last!

Of the boy cards at least - off to do something much more feminine now!! My elder son Owen has a birthday this week but is away on holiday in Egypt (yikes!!) at the moment and I need to make a card for him - was thinking of this one but as he sold his PS3 and games to partly fund the holiday I don't think this particular card will be suitable! The image is a fab Mo Manning one - just great for teen boys and I coloured it with my Letraset Tria markers for a change, I love the brush tip and will be investing in some of the new Flexmarkers as soon as I can afford some :o) The papers are Basic Grey again - they do masculine so well, and I've distressed the edges and doodled some faux stitching then added some embellishments - the cog shapes are die-cut,  finishing it off with a sentiment from Studio G.

 

Entering the following challenges:

Cupcake Craft - Teenage Boys

Make it Monday - always Anything Goes

Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Stitching

Dream Valley Challenges - Stitching 

Pile It On - Anything with a "P" (playing) 

Stamptacular Sunday - Boy/Man 

The Hybrid Chick Card Caravan - Birthday Card

Bloggers Challenge -  for the boys

Fabulous Friday - die cuts

Fun with Shapes & More - use something three times (brads)

and another one...

...for the boys! I'm trying to top up my supply of boy cards so there will be a few more to come over the next week or two - this one I put together very quickly before starting work this morning - I had already coloured the Dustin Pike image and decided which papers to use so it didn't take too long to finish. The papers are Basic Grey - a mix from 2 6x6 pads - Lime Rickey and ...Oh dear I've forgotten the name of the other - will fill in the blank later!! ...., the sentiment is from My Sentiments Exactly.

Entering it for the following:
Crafty Purple Frog - Use Orange
Bearly Mine - One for the boys
Paperminutes - Children's Birthday
Tuesday Throwdown - Lot's Of Circles 
Paper Sundaes - Digital Images
The Hybrid Chick Card Caravan - Birthday Card 
Basic Grey - Basic Grey Mix and Match

It's a boy thing

One of my customers at last Saturday's craft fair pointed out - quite rightly- that the vast majority of my cards were girly ones so I'm on a drive to create some more cards suitable for boys and men. This is the first one I've managed this week - working too many overtime hours at the library, have to take them when I get them!
I have used a Kenny K image along with Basic Grey backing papers, Papermania cardstock, some punched circles, recycled buttons and some metallic fibres. The sentiment is from

Entering the following:
CCEE Stampers - 2 Diecuts or 2 Punches  
Sarah Hurley Challenges - Buttons  
Shelly's Images - Anything goes
Alota Rubber Stamps - Dots 
Bearly Mine - One for the boys
Paperminutes - Children's Birthday
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - Anything goes with a Digi  
Squigglefly - Happy Birthday

More recycling

I've another project with the theme of recycling to share today, the new challenge at Crafty Creations asks for recycled elements on your project and for mine I have used wrapping paper from a birthday present my husband gave me as the backing paper, a raffia bow from an old project I was given by a friend and a fancy button from a charity shop. The digi image I have used is one of my teamie Deena's and is available from her Etsy shop, I coloured it with Promarkers and added some dimensional paint which puffs up with heat from a heat gun. I used distess ink on the cardstock and to stamp in the background and finished it off with a spritz of Glimmer Mist.

Challenges entered:
Cards For Men - Christmas Card
Critter Sketch - Monochrome
Daisy Doodles Creative Challenge - Anything goes with a Digi
House of Gilli - Monochromatic
Make it Monday - always Anything Goes
My Partner in Crafting Crime - Use Any Freebie
(or use something that you got for free, won, or is recycled from your home)
Dream Valley Challenges - Stitching 
Pile It On - Traditional Christmas
Creations by Gill M - Men's Monochrome
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps - Make it Masculine
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas Traditions

Thanks

With Thanksgiving fast approaching in the USA there are a great deal of challenges around this month with Thank you as the theme so I looked up a few of them and made a card to join in! I used a Sugar Nellie stamp - Coffee Time and coloured the image with Promarkers, to work with the gorgeous backing from Crate Paper Restoration Collection - love it! I added some fab lace which I bought as part of a mixed bag on Ebay and a ribbon which has been kicking around for a while and just seemed to fit nicely, then finished things off with some die cut pennants, a sentiment from Stampin Up and some brads and pearls from my stash.

Joining in with these challenges:
Make it Monday - Always anything goes
Paper Pretties - Giving thanks
Victorine Originals - Thanksgiving, thank you
Addicted to Stamps - Pearls and lace
Corrosive Challenges - Give thanks
Gingerloft - Lace, fabric or felt 
Sentimental Sundays - Thanksgiving/ thank you
Di's Digis Designs - Ribbons and bows
My Sheri Crafts - Be thankful
One Stop Craft - Ribbons and lace
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - Thank you
Card Makin' Mamas - Thankful
 

A box to die for :o)

It's time for a new challenge at Crafty Cardmakers and this time the theme is Recycle.
So I decided to recycle an old presentation box which I found lying about behind the scenes at the library, I thought it might  make a good storage box for my thin dies such as Nesties and Marianne's Creatables. Many of them are on magnetic sheets which fit perfectly into the box - and best of all there is plenty of room for more!!

I covered the box with K&Co papers and distressed the edges with my emery board, added faux stitching to the panel on top then used die cut chipboard letters as well as a die cut bird and flourish to decorate.

Entering it for the following challenges:
Dream Valley Challenges - Stitching   
2 Sisters - Anything Goes 
Inspire Me Fridays - Always anything goes   
Crafty Ribbons - Anything BUT a Card 
Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Punches and Dies 
Hanna & Friends - Pimp Something
Stampavie and More - Anything Goes 
Hooked on Crafts - Punches and /or Diecuts

Texture

Our new challenge at Cardmadfairy's Digi Days has Texture as the theme for the next fortnight - we want to see any kind of texture on your project - embossing, fabric, mesh (like mine :o), ribbon - anything which adds a bit of texture is fine! 

I have used my Skating Josie image for this card which is available as a digi stamp on my other blog Cardmadfairy's Creations but I also have this one (and a few select others) available as a clear polymer stamp - just let me know if you are interested and I'll tell you how to buy :o)

We are also looking for a new design team member so if you would be interested in joining our happy gang just pop DT after your name when you enter your project for this week's challenge.

Entering my card for the following challenges:
ABC Christmas Challenge - Winter Sports
Crafting for all Seasons - Texture
Divas by Design - Metal
Inky Impressions - Glitter
Anything Goes Challenge - Stitches Real or Faux
Partytime Tuesdays - Bling It On
Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Christmas Goes
Incy Wincy Designs - Stitching
Ooh La La Creations - Stitching
Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Winter
Crimbo Crackers - Make It Sparkle 
Delightful Challenges - Snowflakes