Catching up on Christmas

Before it all becomes a total distant memory - I thought I'd share the Christmas cards I did actually manage to make and send this year - I sent handmade cards only to the lovely ladies on my DT over at St Luke's blog - well you can't going sending shop bought to a fellow card maker now can you!

So here are the 5 cards I made and sent this year...

Mostly Magnolia stamps apart from the LOTV one on the first one and the background icy pond on the last one is from Alota stamps.  All coloured with copics with a little glitter and various DPs from my stash.

I also thought I'd share the corporate cards I made for work - a shameless CASEing of Jenny's card (I did tell her I promise!)  Here's Jenny's gorgeous creation:

This is my simplified version:

I printed the sentiment directly onto the cardstock, and used an easier to die cut tree, and omitted the shadows.  I think the shadows makes Jenny's card, but as you can see from the shot below, I needed to simplify it as I made the same card 73 times.....   Here is just one of our meeting room tables covered with them - I used both our board rooms, and the whole of Reception!  Boy is mass creation easier when you have all this space to play with!

Rolling the die cutting machine almost 300 times did get a bit tiring though......   Even so I managed to get them all done in just one day.

That's the end of Christmas - I'll be back soon with some birthdays, new year and our new challenge over at St Lukes.

Happy New Year everyone - here's to a happy, healthy and crafty 2012!!!

Stamp Man Awards 2011

The Stamp Man are having an interesting challenge at the moment - they want you to post your favourite make of 2011 - regardless of whether or not it uses their stamps.  Here's the link to the challenge if you want to play along http://thestampmanchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/12/stamp-man-3rd-annual-awards.html

For me, that was an easy thing, my favourite make of the year is a very recent one, the candle platter I made as a Christmas gift in December.  Here's the original post with lots more photos of it http://craftilicious-yorkshire.blogspot.com/2011/12/woyww.html

It's the first time I've tried candle stamping, but I loved the results so it won't be my last!

WOYWW My Holiday Makes

I made lots of Christmas presents, and didn't share them before the festivities in case anyone was snooping, and as I've not blogged much this month as I've not had time to make much else, I thought I'd share what I made here - they were on my workdesk last wednesday waiting to be wrapped but we were in London at a show so I'm sharing them this week instead  http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/2011/12/whats-on-your-workdesk-wednesday-134.html

Just about everything was made using Waltzingmouse stamps - I found them to be brilliant for gift making, particularly this years Christmas sets.

My favourite make was this candle platter.  I stamped and embossed onto tissue paper and "sunk" it into the candle using my heat gun.  I then simply glued the candles to a diamante charger and added some fake floral sprigs and potpourri shapes, also glued to the plate.  Wrapped in celophane with a big bow and tag, I think it made an excellent pressie, even if I do say so myself!

I filled jars with sweets and added some festive lables and ribbons - makes them much more gift-worthy than just a box of choccies.  I made lots of these!

 

I found these gorgeous looking bottles of bubble bath in the shops, but the labels were not as glamorous as the cap and the ribbon so I took them off and replaced them with a glitter and embossed version...

I made my own hazelnut liquer flavoured hot chocolate - added to fancy bags, more ribbons and instructional tags - simple  yet delicious and easy pressies - done!

I made individually wrapped candles - no embossing this time - but a much bigger piece of tissue to wrap the pattern all the way around the candle - a bit trickier to make it "sink" so they came out a bit wrinkly in places but I found rolling them on a heat mat whilst still warm helped.  I just added a few gems for a sparkly finish and then wrapped in cello and ribbon again (are we seeing a theme here....)

Finally I made spiced cranberry and orange liquer sauce - used the very useful Christmas lables and a bit more ribbon and hey presto - pressies finished.

Hopefully I'll have some time to do some more crafting now Christmas is over although I am back at work for a few days now :(

Just one word....

This week's Less is More challenge is actually running for 2 weeks, so we have lots of time to play over the festive period.  Now all the cooking is done, I've managed to sneak in a little make time, and here is my entry and the first of my Christmas cards for 2012!   I only sent 6 handmade ones this year, pretty poor for a card making obsessive, so I'm determined to get ahead for next year!!!!

I've gone for a super-simple design using a wonderful set of Waltzingmouse foliage stamps.  It's a 4x4 inch pearlised square base card and I've simply stamped the mistletoe in Pearlescent Thyme Momento ink, added glossy accents and a tiny bit of glitter to the berries, and stamped what I think is the perfect one-word sentiment for a Christmas card from the same set (Festive Foliage)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Lyrically LIM

I've spent the afternoon with my heat gun on full blast - I've had 15 presents to make - but while it was out I thought it would be rude to not have a sneaky little play along in this week's LIM challenge which is "music".

First I stamped a musical background and embossed it with white tinsel EP.  Masked around it and sponged a couple of shades of blue DI and spritzed to mingle (it seems to be the only way I can blend my sponging successfully!)  I removed the masks and stamped the penny black skater silhouette on top and embossed with black tinsel EP - have just noticed that I'm missing a "la" off the end of the song....

Right, time to get back to wrapping - will it all be over soon????

CASual Misty Snow

Well, the Christmas party is over so what better way to recover than with a little Saturday afternoon crafting.  I have loads of presents to make, but I'm not sure I'm awake enough yet so I'm starting gently with my favourite two weekly challenges - Less is More http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/12/one-layer-card-let-it-snow.html and CASual Fridays  http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/12/cfc31.html

Firstly I made a card for Less is More and  as it is the second week of the month it's the One Layer Week and this month the theme is "Let it Snow".  The problem is I'm not sure if I've made a backwards 2 layer card rather than a one layer one....

I started with a 4 inch hammer finished base card, die cut some snowflakes using a memory box die, and added one of my lovely new snowflake sentiments above in pearl blue.  However the die cut just didn't show up enough so I added a strip of blue paper to the inside of the card and sprinkled it with glitter.  Sorry ladies if that makes it 2 layers, but I'm hoping cos it's on the inside it still counts.....

So, I had another go, DEFINITELY one layer this time, and this time it's a double entry as I used pearl misting spray so it's also going to be my entry for this week's CASual Friday "in the mist" challenge.

This time I used a DL base card, scored some lines from the top and the bottom, but not all the way to the middle so I could leave space for my sentiment - another from my new papermania set which I embossed in pearl indigo shimmer.  I masked off the sentiment, and then the space outside the lines and embossed a snowflake outline in white detail powder.  I sponged blue and grey distress inks in the masked off area and then misted them with pearl shimmer spray to blend the colours together and give it a misty shimmer.  I finished each snowflake with a tiny indigo gem in the centre.   Here's a close up but unfortunately the pearl still doesn't show - crappy grey light in Sheffield today.

Right, time to tackle the Christmas presents as they aren't going to make themselves - unless someone has some crafting elves they can spare that is............

Less is Green!

I didn't get time to play in my favourite weekly challenge this morning as I normally do every Saturday morning (I cherish my Saturday morning LIM ritual it is my most ring fenced me time of the week!) as I've been out doing my annual Christmas shopping trip with my best friend - 10 whole hours of Christmas hell I mean fun!  However now I've stuffed the presents into corners awaiting time to wrap, I've managed a quick play......

This week the challenge is colour as it's the first Saturday of the month and they've been easy on us, as it's nice and easy and simple - anything green goes!  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/12/week-44-colour.html

I've a couple of very quick cards using some stamps that I sent to my blogging buddy Lynne and this is the first time I've made anything successful with them.  Her tree is much more exciting than mine!

For the first card I stamped the prima tree in pearlescent thyme ink onto white card and added one of my new papermania sentiments underneath.  A little green glitter and and couple of green mats - very quick card and I like it but it's not inspirational, nor particularly CAS!

For my second attempt I went with a pamermania mistletoe relief stamp in the same green ink onto a tiny 3x3 inch card which I will probably use as a gift tag.  I stamped a simple black sentiment over the top.  A little more CAS but still not very inspirational - I guess this is what you get when you try to craft when you're knackered - sorry ladies will try harder next week (although it's our works do on Friday so I may be crafting with a hangover......)

Time for some sleep now before Christmas shopping round two tomorrow.....

Night all

Tara x

A Couple of Casuals Plus Colour Q

I really annoyed myself this week - I missed the deadline for CAS-ual Friday - stupid really as we'd had 2 weeks to play and I made the card in time, just didn't get my bum in gear to post it prior to the deadline. Being in the UK, I don't even have Thanksgiving as an excuse!   I've never missed a week of this challenge since it started, so I'm posting my entry Challenge 29 along with the new one for Challenge 30 just to prove I did it :-(

I used the the fantastic colours from this week's Colour Q http://colourq.blogspot.com/2011/11/colourq-challenge-113.html  as my starting point along with the CASual Friday sketch

This is what I came up with just using one stamp set from There She Goes and a few blue gemstones and some old DCWV DP.  

I stamped the snowflakes in the 3 ink colours on white card and added gems to the centres of the larger ones, stamped the sentiment in the corner and then edged the card with Sahara Sand for definition.  I added some snowflake DP and finished with some more gems and a second sentiment (actually this one is from Waltzingmouse not There She Goes).  This one will be going to my best friend who I've been out with all day today getting the Christmas shopping done and we'll be celebrating in our traditional way (in the pub!) on Christmas Eve so she definately DOES make the season!

So, that's last week's sorted - onto this week - which is a tic-tac-toe challenge  http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/2011/12/cfc30.html

I've opted to take the diagonal line from Scallops to Aqua and this is my creation.

A plain kraft base with a simple scalloped border strip cut using a die from aqua glitter paper.  I stamped a papermania sentiment which has a snowflake pattern but it isn't showing on the photo as I used chalk ink and it's not as crisp as I'd like.  I then decorated the rest of the card with die cut snowflakes using the same aqua glitter card and a few in white for contrast.

Right - better get all the Christmas shopping put away!

Bye for now.
Craftilicious x

Let it Snow!

This month over at St Luke's we're being inspired by all things cold and frosty and are looking for cards featuring snow, snowflakes, polar bears, penguins or anything chilly really.

For my card I decided to use one of my new Kraftin Kimmie images  - don't you just love that hair do???  I stamped her onto smooth white card, coloured her with copics, mostly in blues for the extra frosty feel and then cut her out.  I stamped the sentiment which comes with her onto white card stock, and then embossed it with a snowflake folder.  I added a strip of co-ordinating snowflake paper with an orange mat for her to lean on and finished with some die cut snowflakes with frosty gem centres for added sparkle.

Do pop over to the challenge blog and have a look at the rest of the DT inspiration cards and you have until the end of December to play along for a chance to win this gorgeous set of Waltzingmouse stamps.

I am also entering my card into the following challenges:

http://crazy4challenges.blogspot.com/2011/11/crazy-4-challenges-c4c115.html  where the challenge is also Let it Snow.

punches and dies are the order of the day over at  http://sweetstampinchallengeblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/punches-dies.html and I have lots of snowflake die cuts on my card

E is for embossing at http://abc-challenge.blogspot.com/2011/12/abc-challenge-e-for.html  and I have lots of embossed snowflakes too

Anything goes is on for the month at http://cookingitupwithkatie.blogspot.com/2011/11/cooking-it-up-86-anything-goes.html 

Thanks for visiting

Another DT Birthday

Today it's another St Luke's DT Birthday - this time it's Anne's turn - hope you've had a fabulous day Anne.  Here's the card I made her, featuring another super cute Greeting Farm stamp.

Coloured with copics, matted onto black and fussy cut.  Mounted onto DP with a nestie shape for added interest.

I think Anne will be playing with her new techie gadgets so hope you're having fun with your IPAD ;-)

Blingy placecards

I have loads of prep to do today for the charity Christmas fair tomorrow - we received over 350 in the last 2 weeks!  So crafting time is limited but when I saw my two favourite challenges could be combined, and could provide some place cards that I will need for my first Chritmas dinner in a couple of weeks, I couldn't resist a quick play.

The Waltzingmouse Sketch challenge is to make 3 place cards - I needed 6 so I doubled up - and this week's Less is More challenge is to bling it up - so there is some subtle bling on them too.    These are for our Book Group Christmas dinner so I started by printing off the 6 names of the guests in red in Scriptina font.  I then stamped the gorgeous WM deer bauble in matching red ink on the same card stock and cut them out with the corresponding nestie.  There are 3 delicate snowflakes on each bauble and I chose to add my bling to the centre of each with a tiny 1mm gold gem to match the gold bauble top which is embossed over the original stamp.

I'll be round to visit the other blogs later in the week after the fair is done and dusted.

Birthday throwdown

Today is the birthday of one of my DT members over at St Luke's - the lovely Lynne so I made a card for her and now I know she's opened it, I can share it on here.  Bizzarely 3 of the 6 of us have birthdays this month so watch this space for another card on Monday!

I decided to play with this week's colours at Colorthrowdown  as I love teals and blue and brown, but I think my "red" is more dark pink than real red I must confess.  I  coloured the cute little greeting farm stamp with copics, cut her out and layered her up on some decorative papers that had the colour throwdown colours.  The sentiment is stamped and embossed in chocolate brown pearlised ink.

http://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2011/11/color-throwdown-169.html

Hope you've had a fabulous birthday Lynne!

Playing with snippets

I haven't made it into the playground with Jules and her campaign to climb our snippet mountains for a few weeks - I've been using my snippets but I've not had time to mention them in my posts.

So tonight I thought I'd have a play and instead of starting with an image and seeing what snippets I could use I thought I would put the snippets centre stage and see what I could create using a few snippets as my starting point.  I managed to come up with a couple of cards.

 For my first card I picked 3 little snippets that were about 4 cm wide and different lengths in tonal shades, cut them to size and used them to cover a 6x4 card.  I added a length of black vintage seam binding ribbon to one side, and stamped some simple floral stamps in black directly onto papers and finished with a fabric flower.  I think it turned out quite well but perhaps the ribbon is a little stark.

For my second card I started with a kraft base and a strip of white hammer left over from an A4 sheet when making another cardbase.  I then dug into my "even thinner" snippets drawer and found 4 green strips (well one was actually the bit left over when I trimmed the dotty strip for the my first card)  I stuck these into rows on the white card just large enough to cover the area of the spellbinders leaf die and cut it out of the centre so I could use the negative.  The bonus is I have a lovely stripy leaf to use on another card which has gone into my "die cuts drawer".

If you've not been to the playground before - here's the link for this week - the gates will be closing in a couple of days, but don't worry - they'll be open again for a new week on Sunday so do join in the fun!  http://jules-alwayswithaheart.blogspot.com/2011/11/jules-crafty-snippet-challenge-week-46.html

Tara x

LIM Silhouttes

This is my second post for today, so if you're looking for my Guest DT spot on Sundays with Chrissie, then please scroll down for the details of my two projects.

Today is Saturday which means Less is More's new weekly challenge which this week is Silhouttes.  I got a new inkadinkadoo set at Stamp Magic in Doncaster a few weeks ago and haven't had time to play with it yet so this was the perfect opportunity.  I decided to make 3 cards, one with each stamp from the set, and as our challenge at St Luke's Charity Card Challenge this month is Christmas, they are my "mid month reminder" for our challenge and will be going into the stash of cards for the Christmas Fair in aid of St Lukes next Sunday.   Our challenge can be found here http://stlukescharitycardschallenge.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-is-coming.html and you have until the end of the month to play along and be in with the chance of winning some Lili of the Valley stamps.

 

For the first card the image is just simply stamped in the traditional silhouette black onto some snowflake DP and layered on a thin black mat before adding to a white base card.

 
The second image is the one that drew me to the stamp set - I embossed it with silver fine detail powder on black card and added a thin silver mat.  The base card is a lovely ice-blue and I finished it with a small Merry Christmas stamp from PTI embossed in black detail glitter powder over the top of Santa.

For the final card I embossed the image directly onto the small 3 inch green base card with vintage gold powder and finished with a simple thin gold ribbon.

Catch you all later

x

Sundays with Chrissie Guest DT Spot

I am really thrilled today as I have a Guest DT spot over on Sundays with Crissy which is very exciting :-D  The challenge this month is to create a Christmas themed card or project in non-traditional Christmas colours - that is specifically to not use red or green.  I have a couple of Crissy's wonderful images that are Christmas themed and couldn't decide which to use so I decided to do both!

For my first card I printed her very jolly Santa on kraft paper and coloured him just using polychromos pencils from Faber Castel -eek no copics!  I usually use copics for skin and under colouring and finish with pencils for detail but as this was kraft paper I knew the copics wouldn't show up so had to go straight in with pencils.  I'm actually really surprised and pleased with the results - I didn't use sandsoder for blending either as it doesn't work on kraft so did any blending with dry stumps.

Once coloured I cut him out with a nestie and then used the same nestie sets to create a frame with kraft card.  I darkened the frame with a couple of shades of distress inks and added a pearl shimmer spritz for a vintage yet frosty feel.  I added some  DP from the My Minds Eye Signature Christmas stack to a 7 x 5 inch kraft base card.  The DP is mostly brown but has frosty white glitter and snowflakes so I finished the card with a snowflake cut with a large MS punch again from kraft and coloured with picket fence distress stain and some pearl smooch with a large pearl center.  The sentiment is a Craftwork Cards die cut.

As he's entirely in kraft - I'm entering him into the lovely Spotted Chick's That's Krafty Thursday challenge too.

For my second card, I used one of my favourite ever images from Crissy - Mudzie Plays Christmas Tree - I just love Mudzie and the humour of the image.  This is a very large 8 by 8 inch base card, again kraft - I have a weakness for it can you tell ;-) so I printed Mudzie quite large to match - this is the joy of digi for me over rubber - you can decide on the size to suit your project.

This time Mudzie is coloured entirely with copics and to avoid the red and green this time I took my inspiration from the Happy Holidays sentiment which is cut from a DCWV paper stack and I went with purples and teals.  I had lots of fun creating Mudzie's fur so have done a close up shot below.  Once I'd coloured him, I added stickles to the tinsel to add sparkle and texture and added glitter and glaze to the baubles, star and lights.  The candy canes I feared would be difficult without red - but I think they work well in pale teal and are just mint flavoured instead of fruit!

The teal DP is an old 12x12 sheet so I don't know who it is by but its is rich flocked velvet.  The purple sheet on top of that is from the same DCWV stack as the sentiment.  I added a little silver mirri for Christmas shimmer and to echo the lights on Mudzie I used my MS lights punch on black card and then tried to punch it through the material they make sequins from but it got stuck :-(  I really wanted that sequin look however, so I drew round one of the bulbs MANY times and cut them out by hand....  It did take ages to do but I'm glad I persevered as it does give a lot of shine and shimmer as I'd hoped it would.

I've loved Guesting over with Crissy this month and hope you've enjoyed my shares - do pop along to this post and join in the challenge with your red and green free Christmas themed projects.

Thanks for stopping by today :-)
Craftilicious
x

Peace on earth

I'm back again with another Waltzingmouse Christmas card for the Christmas Card Challenge and this time I'm tackling the April Challenge which was to include snow on your card.  I've used this weeks Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge as the basis for this card so its an entry for that too.

This is my interpretation of it - a snowflake covered background of decorative paper with some elegant black ribbon and a couple of layered buttons.  I stamped one of the gorgeous baubles from 2011 Holiday Oranments in silver onto black shrink plastic - cut it by hand and made a shrinkie-dink bauble as my dangly element.  I finished with a simple sentiment in black to match the ribbon using the Say it Loud Winter Hoilday set.

I'm really having fun making all these Christmas cards one after the other so am glad I decided to play along late in the day.

Catch you later.