Merry Christmas for all those who share this Season!

Keep Safe!

Sidetracked

Yes, again. I saw these in Blue Bella's blog and had a go.

Stamps:  SU Season of Joy and WSM Compliments of the Season

Paper and Card: SU Daffodil Delight; SU Whisper White; Allison Ellis design - So This is Christmas paper

Ink: SU Poppy Parade

Other: SU Sticky Strip; t-lights

T-lights in boxes with a snowflake stamped image on the top of the t-light. So cute! OK, now I know how to do this and make a cute and easy box, so back to card making.  I had  two of these card blanks given to me, so this is what I did with them. The other one is in blue and has a snowman image on it, a digi.

Stamps: WMS Nutcraker and Compliments of the Season

Paper and Card: Commercial card blank with lattice; gold card; SU Whisper White

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Other: Copic pens; bling; double sided tape, Smooch highlights; gold pen

And then there is the Amaryllis Lily - here it is yesterday morning:

Making batches of things

Like others I know I have been making batches of things for Christmas - biscuits (cookies for some), cards, tags, goody bags......here are some cards I have been making batches of 10 of....does that make grammatical sense?

These all use one of the SU sets that I didn't get much use from last year but have squirrelled some ideas away for this year. My hand began to ache towards the end of fussy cutting all the flowers and the trees! So, thirty more done.

Stamps: SU Season of Joy and Peaceful Wishes; WSM Frame It

Paper and Card: SU Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz and Poppy Parade, and various Christmas papers from the stash

Ink: SU Poppy Parade and Pear Pizzazz

Other: SU ribbon, other ribbon, bling, Martha Stewart Doily edge punch, commercial card blanks, dimentionals

Then there was this one:

This is not as easy to batch - I will have to do something else for the mount for the sentiment as my attempt at a scalloped square using the scallop edge punch is dismal. Probably just a plain mount, or a double mount as I have the main bit.

Stamps:SU Season of Joy and Peaceful Wishes

Paper and Card: SU whisper White, Night of Navy and Tempting Turquoise

Ink: SU Not Quite Navy and Tempting Turquoise (pen)

Other: Vandoros ribbon

NEWS:

Guess who won the Annabelle stamps blog Candy for November - yes, moi! Thank you so much Andrea: she tells me the parcel is on its way, and I will show you what I purchased with my winnings! 

Then there is my lily - I have been watching the buds swell for three days now, and this morning one had started to open.  I meant to get my camera and go and photograph it but got waylayed by blogland (you know how it is) and then when I did go, it had fallen off or been knocked off and I could not locate it - sang out to the DH (he doesn't think he knocked it off but he might have, accidently - he just found it there on the ground and put it in the kitchen!)  - so, here is the stalk with the second bud and then the flower that should have been attached!

Isn't it a beauty! If you know what kind of lily it is, I would be pleased to know!

ED: Deb tells me it is an Amaryllis Lily - thanks Deb. 

Let it snow....

What do you think?  Card one or card two?  I have remembered to colour in the base of his coat now, the same colour as the trim (pink). Wasn't until I was preparing the photo's that I even noticed it wasn't coloured in! I am not sure if the sentiment circle should be there or now - take it out or leave it there?

Made the ribbon rose by threading a bit of cotton through one side and pulling into a rosette, and added a pearl brad. WSM Nutcracker set for the image, nestabilities, copics and sundry pieces of Christmas paper, plus a Papermania Christmas stamp and SU Melon Mambo ink and card. A Martha Stewart edge punch added to it.  Oh, and Stickles around the edge of the image, and an embossed snowflake in gold from the discontinued SU set called The Snowflake Spot. The whole thing is following the layout (sort-of: CASED) of a card called Autumn Leaves in the October edition of Cardmaking and Papercraft, UK magazine, page 24. 

A couple of digi images for Christmas

Little Paper Shop has a sketch challenge #91 going at the moment, and I had a free digi image from them ready to colour up with the copics, so that's what happened! Delightful Challenges also allows two entries into their current challenge if you use an image from them, and they had this funny winter flamingo as a freebie this month, so again, I coloured it up with copics!

The flamingo is mounted on pink scrap card, and then on a piece of SU Whisper White which was folded into a card, and then one side had been put through the bug embossing folder with snowflakes. A scrap of ribbon tied through a button from Memory Keeper, and the WSM sentiment stamp in black completed this. 

This sketch #91 from LPS suited the image, which I had printed off and then put through a nestabilities square, and embossed.  I coloured the image with Copics, and then masked it and sponged it with blue ink lightly.  I used some glitter on the image to look like ice as well. The image called 'Katie Skating' was mounted on a scrap of Co'ordinations and then put between two pieces of Kaiser paper, on a background of pink card.  I used some paper ribbon on the bottom for the sentiment. 

Worked for four hours today - enjoyed it greatly.  

Making Christmas Cards

Yes, I have made 14 of these - very quickly, and thought I would show off a few. I found a Papermania Christmas embossing folder at a local craft shop (very cheap by comparison to the Cuttlebug ones) so of course if jumped into the basket - I then opened a magazine and there were some cards made using embossing folders and metal shim. Bingo, I thought,and got busy.  Here is some of the result!

The gold card one looks the best I think. I added some bling and mounted some.  However, after making eight, I grew tired of them.  Moved on to another few things that just leapt into my basket - some Blue Christmas embellishments from Scrapbooking Australia. Again, I got about 6 pieces for $6.  I really liked the girl and thought I would turn my hand to vintage - but even though I am old I just don't seem to get there. However, they turned our OK I guess.

Again, some scrap Christmas paper and card, a bit of ribbon and lace, some bling and stars - done. 

Then I went to another shop and found a 12 x 12 sheet from Graphic 45 called Christmas Past Frames.  It cost $4 but I got 5 cards from it. Here they are:

It took me an hour to make these, and I used scraps of Christmas paper, ribbon and lace, some doilies, and some card to mount some bits and some bling. I also used dimentionals to lift up sections, particularly in the apertures. Here are three of them in close up:

OK, I added some ink around the edges of the base card, some leaves and brads to the Santa card, and cut out the aperture and put the image inside the card for Peace.... but Peace and Tradition come from a give- away in a magazine. So, only another 120 or so to go..........no, I won't put all of them up here! Just wanted to boast a bit that's all about getting some cheap and quick cards done. 

Cheers........

While waiting for the repair man to come and fix the ice-maker on the fridge, I made a card. It is a cased card from this website - her's is in pink! It is really lovely and seemed so simple, so I had a go - I like the way mine turned out.  I used the SU stamp set - Snowflake Spots and embossed with a silver powder, and use three different inks to sponge around - my edge is a Martha Stewart punch called Stars. I used three little sparkles from Annabelle Stamps as well on my snowflakes. Here 'tis.

The card is a commercial blank and the other card is SU or Bazzil (teal)!

Circles and Swirls

 I have been playing with circles and swirls and Christmas cards - made three. The first two used the Nestablilties Circles and a Cuttlebug to cut out various circles and stamp them with a stamp set from Papermania Stamp Duos, with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The papers I used are a mixture of Basic Grey's Fruitcake; My Minds Eye - Frost signature christmas; and the script paper is from Anna Griffith. Some bling and acouple of brads, a rub on and a stamped sentiment from an old unknown stamp for the sentiments an they were done.

The third one used the paper's mentioned and the SU Baroque Swirl stamp in Versamark with gold embossing.  The paper was touched up with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distressing ink and the candles are peel-offs. I put them on Jac paper, rubbed them with fold leaf and then green tinsel to fill in the gaps and then cut them out before taking the backing off and sticking them onto the paper. Don't they look pretty. 

Very bright colour combo!

Ed:  Can you believe it - it's a DRAW!!!  Back next week!!!!!

I am listening to the AFL Grand Final on the radio, and currently the Saints are WINNING!!! YEAH......but for how long?

Anyway, to keep the excitement level down I have been card making as well. I decided to use the weekly colour challenge at Colour Throwdown, which looked quite pretty on line, but when I got the colours together (or similar in the case of River Rock) boy, are they bright!  Anyway, having chosen my colours, I then looked at the Annabelle Stamps Bling Sketch ABSCO#30 and used that to create a card.  Here it is:

I don't have a Bigshot or die to cut out a scalloped circle, so used my SU Medallion Stamp, and trimmed a sort-of scalloped circle from that; my Cuttlebug was used for the smaller circle, and the image comes from SU Touch of Nature set, as does the sentiment.  My Martha Stewart edge punch was used for the top, and the bling is really pale blue but looks slightly green in the light. Melon Mambo, Pacific Blue and some Co' ordination card that that is nearly the same as River Rock. Below is inside the card, using the rest of the sentiment.

This card is a straight case from Bleu Bella  - it looked so nice I had a go: my white embossed pattern is from WMS - Victorian Fripperie, and the flowers in the circle are from SU Simple Somethings (my very first SU stamp set). The sentiment is from SU Warm Words.

Yesterday, the tiler was here doing the floor for the new kitchen. So, I was confined to the craft room again. In the Australian Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft magazine for this month, devoted to Christmas cards, there was one article showing the use of embossed metal shim. I have the dove embossing folder, and recognised it being used in the article, so cased the ideas and created three cards for Christmas!

Come on the Saints.......we cannot stand a year with Collingwood as winners!!!!

Bits of old tat, and then something new...........

Yesterday I got a parcel from Ireland (Northern) from Waltzing Mouse..............Irish Blessings stamps and a cute little house; I am currently thinking about what I can make with them! I have lots of ideas but nothing has eventuated yet.

The last two days have been BEAUTIFUL!  John is still in the garden, weeding.  At least the weeds come out fairly well after all that rain. But no rain lately ... we have had blue skies, no wind, warm without being hot, birds singing...........and the grandgirls came for dinner last night, rejected the idea of roast chicken, opting for that first summer BBQ!  Of course, the house husband (Llo) gave in and so number 2 (Miss nearly 14) and I went shopping for meat and salad (third visit by this house to the supermarket in one day!); she made the salad, cooked the BBQ AND completed her homework on Tsunami's! Number 1 (nearly 17) studied maths for her test today - she got 3 A's for her last assignment, so things are looking up there as well!

I made some more Christmas cards last week, inbetween painting with medium.  Here they are:

I used green scrap paper on white cards from Regal Press.  I have so much scrap paper and card that I decided I better use it all up before I purchased too much more. Some arecut-offs from A3 Bazzil card, some  SU card cut-offs and some I have purchased in various packs over the last few years. I put the smaller pieces into an A3 plastic bag (one colour family per bag), and use them for mounting and layering up or to make embellishments, but the stash has got too large, so now I need to use it up!

The stamp used was Baroque Motifs and I used a packet of 5 silver and white metal stars with silver wire spiral attached. I made five cards from this packet I purchased from a stationary shop (Frenchville label I think) last year after Christmas, so they probably cost me about $2 for the packet.  The greeting was either a peeloff or rub-on or stamped with SU Many Merry Messages using Craft White ink.  Some were embossed and some were not. Snowflakes were from SU The Snowflake Spot.  The middle card used torn whisper white card and green card to mount a pressed tin christmas square - again I have had a packet of 5 of these for a couple of years and no idea where they came from.  I used an SU marker to create faux stiches in the corners and just layered up. The star cards were layered using either grey or silver card from a variety of places.

These cards are made with a diecut give-away I got on an card-making English magazine last year.  (English mags tend to be at least two months behind in the newsagents here, so I would have purchased it in February or March!) They looked very garish in the sheets (3 of them) but when I pushed out the individual pieces they were not so bad - and although you cannot see it clearly here they are covered with sparkle.  I put them onto a base card of BoBunny Holiday Cheer paper (the reverse side) - one sheet made all five cards.  The rub-offs were from American Crafts MiniMarks Christmas 2, or peel-offs, or Kaiser rub-ons. All left over from last year. So, 15 cards for very little cost - and I have reduced my stash a little. Means I can now go shopping, doesn't it?

Anyway, that's it folks. Thanks for reading this far!