Favourite Cards of 2012

Inspired by Michelle Short - as I often am, but usually in a different way - I've decided to choose my favourite cards of 2012.  Wishing you a happy & peaceful New Year!

Meet Me Under the Mistletoe . . . .

. . .  no, not you - my husband!  This was his card this year & it pretty much turned out exactly how I wanted it to, albeit a little too girlieI think maybe because I overdid the glitter.  The sentiment was printed, the mistletoe was a freebie from Silhouette cut on my Craft Robo Lite with Glamour Dust on the tips.  The backing card was plain white linen cardstock coloured with Promarkers, the ribbon was also coloured to match. The berries were punched holes (using an ordinary hole punch) covered in Glamour Dust - a touch too much, I think I should have stopped at just the tips of the mistletoe but we live & learn.

Cardstock: Green - Coredinations

Cutting file: Free from Silhouette download store

Glitter: Glamour Dust Crystal

The True Meaning of Christmas

Wishing everyone the peace, joy & love of the season.

Stamps: Hobbycraft & unknown.

Inks: Distress Stormy Sky, Tea Dye & Linen.

Electric Guitar Christmas

This card proved to be a real labour of love!  It's for our 13 year old son, who spends much of his free time playing his electric guitar.  Although I knew exactly how I wanted the main image to turn out, actually achieving it took many hours!
First I downloaded a free electric guitar clipart graphic; I traced the outline of it in the Silhouette Studio software then chose a font which I thought would be suitable (Troutkings BTN, in case you're interested).  I imported the graphic into Craft Artist 2 Professional, then  roughly stretched each letter to fit, exported it back out as a png then reimported that into Studio!
Still with me? So far so good, but then came the tricky part!  I spent a while editing each letter to remove any bits which went outside the guitar outline and several hours using Silhouette Studio to delete points, also moving & stretching letters.  As I'd never done this before it was a huge learning process for me & although I realise there's still room for improvement, I decided in the end it was good enough so then came the moment of truth: cutting it on my Craft Robo Lite.
Amazingly, it cut first time!  I did have to finish off a couple of bits with my craft knife but I think that's because I need a new blade for my Robo. I cut a mat in contrasting card and spent ages deciding how the finished card should look.  In the end I kept it relatively simple, partly because I was running out of time and partly because I really wanted the guitar to stand out after all my efforts!
I'm quite pleased with the finished result, hope you like it.

Guitar greeting designed & copyright Helen Jones.

Cardstock & papers: We R Memory Keepers Teen Angst

Brads: We R Memory Keepers (part of Crop-a-Dile starter set)

Hemp cord: Manufacturer unknown.

Digistamp Boutique Cards

When I saw these penguin digital stamps on the Digistamp Boutique website I just had to have them, they're so cute.  I also downloaded some backing papers which would work for other occasions, too.  I coloured the images with Promarkers & combined 2 of them in Craft Artist Professional for one of the cards.  I added some hand drawn lines around some images, and some Glamour Dust (which seems to be a common theme on all my Christmas cards this year even though I don't normally do glitter!) and they were done.

Cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus 300gsm

Coloured card: Green - Bazzill Peapod, Red - White card coloured with Ruby Promarker

Digital stamps & backing paper: Digistamp Boutique

Stamps: Paula Pascual PPCSA6001 Christmas Messages

Promarkers: Ruby, Leaf Green, Honeycomb

Glitter: Crystal Glamour Dust

Polar Bear Christmas

I've been suffering from a severe lack of mojo just lately!  Less than 2 weeks to Christmas Day & I still wasn't inspired to make any cards.  These days I only make a few for close family, life really is too short to make handmade cards for everyone on our list.  Last night I decided it was time I gave myself a kick up the backside & just got on with it, and this is the first I completed although I now have a few others almost done.  I also decided that, given the fact that my mojo has deserted me, I would keep it simple although I think this one is maybe a bit TOO simple - what do you think?

Cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus 300gsm

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Woodware FRCL075 Polar Bears coloured with 

Promarkers Denim Blue, Powder Blue & Cool Grey 1,

Paula Pascual PPCSA6001 Christmas Messages

Glitter: Crystal Glamour Dust

Origami Advent Calendar

I recently discovered that trying to find an advent calendar suitable for a 13 year old boy isn't easy, especially when you only start looking for one at the beginning of December;-)  The offer of a Power Rangers one was met with a resounding "NO!", and my local Asda only had Peppa Pig left (tempting, just to wind him up, but I resisted).
So, what to do?  Whilst still in Asda I decided to try to make my own so I bought some cheap but still yummy chocolates, then I had to come up with something to put them in.  As ever, Google came up trumps as there are lots of people who've done the same.  Some are very beautiful, with small individual boxes in a larger presentation box but that would have taken me so long I might have just about had them finished by Christmas 2013!  Then this one sparked an idea and I wondered if I could make some simple origami bags to put the chocolates in.
I found the solution here.  I printed some freebie Christmas paper, cut it into 12cm x 12cm squares & followed the instructions. This was the finished result.

I dug out some rarely used peeloffs for the numbers, and luckily I found some pre-tied red ribbons which were surplus to requirements when putting up last year's Christmas decorations. Then I raided the garage for a piece of dowelling & threaded the little bags on.  The dowelling groaned under the weight and I rather belatedly realised I didn't have a clue where to put it, so for now it's hung over the mirror in the hall.  The total time taken was just 2 and a half hours although if I'd had to tie the ribbons it would have taken longer. I just hope he likes it, although I'm sure he'll enjoy the chocolates!  Excuse the pictures (and the decorating!)

Updated 5th December - I got a kiss, a big hug, a "love you" and a "Cool - love it!"  Result:-)