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