Christmas Catch-up

I didn't get chance to blog most of my Christmas cards before the big day, and as I've treated us (well, me!) to a new laptop in the sales & have been having trouble setting some of my crafty programs on it, I'm a little bit behind with my posting.

So, without further ado, here's the card I made for my husband for Christmas, based on punched hearts which, although you can't see it in the photos, I've added a little touch of sparkle to with my Wink of Stella clear pen:

Cardstock: Xerox Colotech Plus, Bazzill Basics

New toy!

I've had a Craft Robo Lite for a few years & although it still works well it has its limitations, such as the lack of print & cut, which I knew about before I bought it but it was all I could afford at the time. So after much deliberation I bought myself a second-hand Sizzix Eclips. It came with a few cartridges which I thought I'd never use but one came in really useful for my son's card to my father-in-law for Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the Eclips is to use and also by how well it cut Bazzill cardstock for the letters:

The trees were stamped & hand cut, then coloured with Promarkers & Cosmic Shimmers red watercolour paint (not pink as it appears in the photo above), including all the tiny dots!

Cardstock: The Range Linen 300gsm, Bazzill Basics

Stamps: Kirsty Wiseman Oh Christmas Tree PICSA6226

Kitten Christmas

My goddaughter recently became the proud owner of a cute kitten called Lulu from the Blue Cross rescue centre.  So it seemed fitting to try out the new Inkylicious kitten stamps I'd bought from the NEC back in November for the Christmas card to her family, although I decided to use them with some bauble stamps rather than the butterflies in the set. I also decided to have a try at an ombre background.

Details from card insert:

Stamps: Inkylicous & free from DoCrafts

Inks: Adirondack Sunset Orange, Versafine Onyx Black

Snowflakes

This card combines several challenges into one. This week at Less is More the challenge is to use a metallic element & one other colour; at CASology the theme is snowflake; and I really liked the current sketch at Sketch Saturday, although I haven't stuck to it exactly.

The ribbon has been languishing in my stash for several years now and as it fitted the first two challenges perfectly (it has a metallic edge, is pale blue although that's not easy to see in the pictures & is decorated with  metallic snowflakes) I decided it was about time I used it! The snowflake is a Cuttlebug die, embossed with a matching embossing folder, coloured with Pastel Blue Promarker & then glittered using my new Clear Wink of Stella brush which got its first outing.

Ribbon: Wyevale Garden Centre

Snowflake die: Provocraft

Greeting: from stash

Heavy Metal Happy Birthday

Another masculine card, this one done in a bit of a rush because my mojo went AWOL again and I was running out of time. Rather than taking part in an online challenge, I decided to challenge myself to use a particular set of stamps which I've had for a while but haven't used much.

The embossing folder is one I bought in a sale a while ago, too, but hadn't used. The embossing is really deep: 

Stamps: Inkadinkado Rockstar, greeting stamp unknown

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Memento Gray Flannel

Cuttlebug Retro Circles embossing folder

Cardstock: Anna Marie Designs, Papermania

Brads: Dawn Bibby Designs

End of an Era

Tomorrow night my son leaves his Scout troop to move up to Explorers. He's had a fantastic time over the last few years, not least because his troop have a brilliant team of leaders who give up a huge amount of their free time & energy for the children. They've helped make him the young man he now is, so it seemed fitting to make a card to say "thank you".

I cut the Scout logo out on my Craft Robo Lite in the normal Scout purple colour, and his Scout troop's colours are green & blue which is why the colours are a bit more clashing than I would normally choose!

I'm entering this into this week's challenge at Seize the Sketch.

Stamps: Inkylicious, Inspired by Stamping

Inks: Memento Paris Dusk, Yinks Leaf Green

Mr & Mrs

Second post in 2 days - wonders will never cease, I haven't done this much crafting in ages! And another entry for the Less is More challenge this week, to use designer paper in a CAS way. Not quite as CAS as my first entry but I hope it still qualifies.

The top part of the centre section is embossed with Couture Creations Tied Together embossing folder, embellished with small pearls from my stash. 

The greeting by Inkwell Stamps is stamped with Brilliance Lightning Black so that it has a touch of gold to match the paper. The ribbon came from a box of Thorntons Chocolates (oh, the sacrifices I make for my crafting!).

Cardstock: Anna Marie Designs

Paper: Craft House

Stamp: Inkwell Stamps

Ribbon: Thorntons!

Kusadama Flowers

I love taking part in challenges when I get the chance. This week over at Less is More the challenge is to use designer paper in a CAS way - a perfect opportunity to make kusadama flowers, something I've wanted to try for ages. I needed a thank you card for my sister, who was my son's sponsor at his confirmation last night and I know she'll love them. The papers are by K & Company.

The greeting & stems were created in Craft Artist 2 Professional, and I coloured the text to match the paper.

As you can see, they certainly don't lie flat so this presented another opportunity - this time, to use my new metric Scor-Pal, which I've wanted for ages & treated myself to at the NEC the other week. I adapted a box design which I found on the web and created a custom made box to present the card in.

Papers: K-ology Addison, code 628052

Confirmation Word Cloud

Our son was confirmed tonight; I wanted his card to be modern & unique, and tried to make a word cloud of my own in the shape of a metal cross I intended to use. Despite hours of experimentation I couldn't get it to look right. Then I found Wordle. A lot of experimentation later and I eventually settled on this:

Black Forest

No, not the gateau! It's the title of one of my new Inkylicious stamps that I bought over the weekend at the NEC. I also bought some new Adirondacks so some of those are in evidence for the first time on this card.

I also bought a couple of mountain/valley masks so I had a play with those, too. I was trying out some new card and it showed up brush marks when I used my Inkylicious brushes - this isn't normally a problem so I switched to using a brayer which was better, and the sky looked better than it appears in the photos.

Cardstock: Anna Marie Designs

Stamps: All Inkylicious except greeting: Imagination Crafts

Inks: Adirondack Mountain Rose, Sunshine Yellow, Terra Cotta,

Memento Tuxedo Black

Sketch Saturday #284

I needed a quick card for a friend & this week's sketch at Sketch Saturday appealed to me. Not for the first time, though, I realised I'm woefully short of masculine stamps, so I dug out one of a car which I've used quite a few times & coloured it with Promarkers to match the backing paper, which was in a pack I was given free from the Create & Craft stand at the NEC at the weekend. It doesn't show up too well, but I added some matching twine as it looked a little bit bare. Not one of my best efforts but it will have to do!

CAS(E) this Sketch #51

This was a quick card, inspired by the current challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch. I'm also going to enter it into the One Layer challenge at Addicted to CAS.

The main image is by Martha Stewart & is a two-step stamp. I didn't get them lined up perfectly but the overall effect was ok so I stuck with it:

Ink: Memento Teal Zeal & Nautical Blue

Stamps: Martha Stewart M331054 Flower Glossary, Hero Arts CL045 Borders

Free greeting stamp 

Silver Wedding - Sketch Saturday #282

I needed a silver wedding anniversary card & decided to play along with Sketch Saturday's current sketch; it didn't take me long to come up with the basic idea but seemed to take forever to work out how to finish it off. I'm still not completely happy with it but it's close enough so I decided to quit while I was ahead!

The numbers were cut on my Craft Robo Lite for my own silver wedding anniversary card to my husband. I used an Inkylicious script stamp with second generation ink for the right hand side, and the greeting stamp was from Inspired by Stamping.

The heart is a Meiflower ribbon buckle but I snapped the central bar off to make it work as a flat embellishment. An arty collage of shots:

Ink: Versacolor Silver

Stamps: Inkylicious, Inspired by Stamping Fancy Sentiments

Bling: MeiFlower

Mirri card from stash

Transparent

Very quick post from me this morning! When I get the time I love to take part in the challenges over at Addicted to CAS. The theme of the current challenge is "Transparent" and this is my take on it, the glass vase I hope meets the challenge criteria.

I bought some new Aquamarkers recently so this was another test of my watercolouring skills.

Stamps: Lucy Cromwell for Papermania

Michael Powell Watercolour

This card made use of a stamp which I've had for a while but hadn't yet seen ink. I spent a happy hour watercolouring then a frustrating two hours trying to decide how to present the finished image! I quickly decided on a triptych format for the main image but then my mind went blank.

I tried lots of different options, none of which worked, until my lovely husband suggested the coloured base card which turned out to be the answer.

I kept it simple, using a freebie stamp from a magazine & a plain greeting. 

Cardstock: Lidl & Coredinations

Stamps: Docrafts Michael Powell The Harbourside MPL907209

Greeting stamp unknown

Inks: Memento Teal Zeal & Morocco

Bowled Over

Cards for my nephews' birthdays all tend to revolve around cricket, and this one is no exception. I don't have very many cricket stamps, though, so I decided it was time I became more inventive with the ones I have got.

The main image was a test of my new Woodware stamp positioner to stamp 4 times without re-inking the stamp in between, therefore using the second, third & fourth generation ink.

The background was created using a mix of background stamps & masks with several generations of ink. It turned out more grungy than I'd intended but I was still quite happy with it.

Cardstock: Coredinations

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Woodware FRCL069, Kaisercraft, Inspired by Stamping.

FTL263

Two posts in one day! Maybe my missing mojo is finally returning  . . . . anyway, we have a new addition to our family and this card is to congratulate the new Mummy & Daddy. I saw the sketch at Clean & Simple Stamping & immediately knew what I was going to do, which is rare for me.

The picture isn't particularly good as it's a grey, miserable day here so getting decent shots was tricky but I did take some arty closeups combined into one photo:

Cardstock: The Range Linen 300gsm, pearl from stash

Ink: Memento Summer Sky

Embellishments: unknown

Stamps: Inkadinkado 97605 Baby Boy, Kirsty Wiseman Alpha Inline PICSA6274, Docrafts freebie.

Swinging 60!

My sister-in-law turned 60 the other week. Despite looking 10 years younger than her age, she absolutely hates anybody reminding her how old she is so of course I couldn't resist putting huge, shiny numbers on the card!

The numbers started out as covered chipboard which I painted with Imagination Crafts Silkies. The colour happened to be a perfect match for the We R Memory Keepers papers I chose.

The brads were another happy accident. I don't know the make of them but they were also a perfect match.

Cardstock: The Range Linen 300gsm

Papers: We R Memory Keepers Bloom & Grow

Paint: Imagination Crafts Silkies in Tuscan Satin

Ink: Memento Love Letter

Stamp: Woodware FRCL134