Peace on Earth

Hello, 

Wouldn't it be great if there was Peace on Earth? Has there ever been a time when there was no war anywhere ? I very much doubt it but it needn't stop us wishing.

My card today was very quick and easy to make and uses the dove stamp and die from an MFT set. I used the reindeer from the set here, there is also a Christmas tree but I think my favourite is the dove.

The starry dove was stamped and heat embossed on cream pearlescent card so it has a lovely sheen to it. I am afraid my picture is not good, I had to use my light box and it is too bright. Anyway the dove was mounted on the same pearlescent card and then a textured white card base to add interest to this simple design.

I am sharing it at:

Christmas Kickstart #44 - Peace on Earth

AAA Cards, clean and simple #180 - made in minutes plus optional twist Christmas.

Stamplorations December CAS Challenge

Merry Christmas

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Hilary 

xx

Red and White for Christmas

Hello, 

Today I am sharing a Christmas card that I actually made last year but haven't posted. Do you find that when you look back on things you like them better than when you made them? That happens to me a lot.  I came across this card and decided I really like it so I have no idea why it hasn't been shared before. I have just had a look back on my blog and see that I only posted one Christmas card last year, I suspect I ran out of time. This year I seem to be done earlier, but that is because everything has had to be posted.

Here it is:

This is the only Christmas embossing folder that I have (might have to do something about that) and it also featured in the card I made for the last squash it challenge. The bauble die is by Crafters Companion and the sentiment is Uniko.

I am sharing it at:

Let's Squash it #3 - use any embossing folder and dies or fussy cutting

Christmas Card Throwdown - pick a previous 2020 challenge. April - red and white

Allsorts - Got to be Christmas

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

Hilary 

xx

A special card for a special birthday

Today I am sharing my card over at Loll's special birthday linky that she has set up to help celebrate Susan's birthday. Susan of the card makers garret was 70 a few days ago. I don't know Susan terribly well but she is a designer on Loll's CAS Christmas Challenge. I have now been on one of Loll's design teams for a year and am slowly getting to know the other designers. I have to confess that I find doing Christmas cards out of season quite hard, so I don't tend to look very closely at the CAS Christmas Challenge. However, now we are in the Christmas season so it is time to pay a bit more attention to this wonderful challenge and the lovely designers who make it special.

So here is a card to help celebrate Susan's special birthday.

I made the background sometime ago with a MFT background stamp, gold heat embossing and brushos. I turned it into a card when I acquired this frame die by Pinkfresh Studios, it is cut from gold pearlescent card. It is finished with a gold heat embossed sentiment on vellum.

I think the card has a very luxurious feel to it which is very suitable for a special birthday. In fact this card was sent to the wonderful Carol (Crafty Stamper) a couple of months ago. I hope it is not too cheeky to share it here for Susan's birthday.

Happy belated birthday Susan.

 Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

 

xx

CCC November Reveal

Today is the 2nd of December so time for the Card Chain Challenge November reveal. With so many people are taking part these days it is making the reveal post very special. I urge you to go take a look as you won't be disappointed.

I included as many of the options as I could for this card and I think I did pretty well in the end.

I have taken a little bit of artistic licence with the colours so silver has become grey. I used distress oxides a blending brush and a piece of paper to make the background. I have seen so many people use the technique to such good effect recently that I just had to have a go myself. After that I used a die cut star as a stencil in the centre of the aperture using the pink (which I think was worn lipstick). 

I cut the aperture from the front panel and embossed it with an Alternew cover plate die. Thanks to Michele (one l) for turning me on to these embossing cover plates and the joy of grey.

The reindeer is my animal with hooves that I die cut from glitter card and stacked. The sentiment is from Uniko and I added an extra star for good measure.

This was sent to Renate in The Netherlands I hope she liked it.

The theme options included animals with hooves, stars and friendship. The technique options included an aperture card and glitter.

My card from Marianne in Greece is still in the post so I am unable to share it with you today.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

 Hilary 

xx

Lots of Trees

Just a quick post today to share a Christmas card because I think it matches the theme at Allsorts this week. They are looking for Christmas flowers wreaths and trees.

The sky was blended with distress inks, the trees were stamped with Momento London fog, Catherine Pooler eucalyptus and daydream inks.

After cutting out the circle window I embossed the front panel with the Altenew dotted swirls embossing cover die.

The sentiment was heat embossed in silver. both the sentiment and tree stamp were a free gift with Simply Cards & Papercraft mag.

That's it. A little different for me I think.

I am way behind with my Christmas making but somehow I keep finding something else to do!

 Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

 Hilary 

xx

A Special Thank you

Hello, 

Today I have something that I have been meaning to share for a while and have finally found the time to do it today. I am not entering any challenges, but I want to say thank you to a very special crafter who you all know well. I am talking about Darnell of djkardkreations.

Here is the reason why - on June 3rd 2019 Darnell published a post that used the Altenew mega-succulent stamp and I left her  a comment saying how I loved that stamp and it had been on my wish list for a while. Quite an innocent comment I thought, so imagine how surprised I was when a couple of weeks later, not 1, but 3 envelopes arrived in the post each containing 2 stamped and heat embossed impressions of the stamp. She would have sent me the actual stamp if the postage hadn't been extortionate. Anyway, I vowed to use them and share the result with her.

It has only taken me 18months but I have now turned them all into cards, which I share with you today. I am sure you know what it is like, they sat on  my desk for a while, then they got put away and then they would come out again and finally, they got converted into cards.

Here goes:

This one was water coloured with my zig clean colour real brush pens and then sent back to Darnell for her birthday in July last year.

This one was a spur of the moment idea after I saw someone (can't remember who) use this dotting technique. I used alcohol markers.

My final 4 blanks were made into a set of note cards that will be a Christmas present this year.

I used brusho paints to colour them. Here they are before mounting.

And here they are after mounting:

Thanks Darnell, you're a star. I am so grateful that I have found this wonderful community as it has helped keep me sane this year. Thank you all for your part in that.

And finally here are a couple of picture of one of my succulent arrangements taken in the summer when they were in full flower.

 Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

xx

For a child

Hello, 

Popping in quickly to share this birthday card.

This is an unusual card for me as I don't often make scenes, but I did enjoy this. The stamp set was free with a magazine. The card base is a deep plum colour and not quite as dark as it looks in the photos.

 

I am sharing this at:

AAA Birthday #19 - for a child

Seize the Birthday - Anything goes

 Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

 Hilary 

xx

Christmas Reindeer

Hello, 

Today I am sharing 2 Christmas cards that I am entering in this months Twofer Challenge. I am so pleased to see that the 2 cards this month can be for the same occasion as long as the design is different, as it means I have 2 cards ready. The prompt this month is stars and my stamp is by My Favourite Things. If you look closely you will see that the reindeer is made up of lots of stars. This set also includes a Christmas tree and a dove in the same style.

Card 1

The starry reindeer was stamped  and heat embossed in gold onto some cream card and cut with the co-ordniating die. This was mounted on a panel that was stamped (Catherine Pooler peppermint stick background) and heat embossed onto white card and that panel was mounted on a cream die cut panel that was mounted on a textured white card base. The sentiment is from the same stamp set as the reindeer.

Card 2

My light grey panel was embossed with a Darice snowflake embossing folder and the reindeer stamped and heat embossed in silver along with the sentiment. I finished it off by heat embossing the edges with silver and mounting it on a blue card base. I used a grey alcohol marker to give the reindeer a bit more definition.  The blue insert was stamped with the reindeer in Brilliance silver ink (that paper is white on the inside).

You can see the embossing better here:

These are two pretty simple cards but easy to replicate as I tend to make multiples of my Christmas designs.

I am also sharing card 2 at:

Let's squash it #2 - use a Christmas themed embossing folder and stamps

Christmas Kickstart #42 - embossing folder and a stamp

Casology week 378 - Stag

 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

 Hilary 

xx

CAS MixUp Reminder

It's time for a reminder for this months challenge over at CAS Mix Up where our host is Bonnie and the theme is off the edge. It is a watercolour month so do make sure that watercolours have prominence on your card.

I have two cards to share today.

I started by taking some watercolour paper and doing a light yellow wash. Once that was dry I spritzed with some Altenew warm sunshine metallic shimmer ink spray. I do struggle to spray this evenly but decided that it doesn't really matter. The flower stamps are by Clarity Stamp, I painted them with my Gansai Tambi watercolours and coloured the centres with a gelli roll sparkle pen. I finished it off with a bold sentiment heat embossed in a chocolate pearl embossing powder.

I used the rest of the watercoloured panel for my second card but this time I painted the leaf type shapes down the edge of the card  and then added the die cut leaf (inlaid into a circle of card) to the corner.  The sentiment (by Altenew) is heat embossed in gold.

I used the die cut as a stencil to decorate the envelope and the insert.

You know what it is like when you make some cards but don't really like them much, well that's how I feel about these. Kind of meh....

That's just the way it goes sometimes.

Anyway I hope that doesn't stop you from having a go, I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today, I really appreciate it. 

xx