Penguins at Craftlandia

Today I thought I would pop in to enter the current Craftlandia Challenge over on Mia's blog. It is challenge 17 and they are asking for 'penguins or nothing'. I didn't think I had anything remotely penguin like in my stash until I remembered this little guy. I actually made him a while ago but have never shared him. He is cross stitched on evenweave and his Santa hat and belly are stitched in Lana thread, which you can fluff up. I turned him into a tree decoration by backing it in red fabric and stuffing it with toy stuffing.

Each year I make my 3 grandchildren a Christmas decoration that they can add to their tree. It is often something cross stitched. 

I have been enjoying this quiet week and playing with my Christmas presents. I got a Betterpress, I expect I will share some of my makes in due course. I am particularly impressed with how amazing the plates look when used with hotfoil. Not quite what they are designed for I know, but they work brilliantly and I do love foiling things.

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

Merry Christmas

Today I am just popping is to share a few of my Christmas cards and to wish everyone a very happy Christmas, however you spend it.

This simple tree is hand drawn using real brush watercolour pens and masking.

This hotfoil plate came with my Gemini Foilpress. It worked so well that I made a number of these with different coloured bases. Hunkydory adorable scorable coated card also works really well for foiling.

I bought this stamp set from Uniko a long time ago and have finally used it. My red glow on the horizon nearly turned to mud, but not quite!

Thanks for all the inspiration, kind words and visits I have had this year. I am looking forward to a very creative 2024 (I hope).

Merry Christmas

I am sharing card one at:

Christmas Kickstarter #81 - if it is Christmasy link it up

Happy little Stampers - December Watercolour challenge

I am sharing card 2 at:

Inkspiration #305 - Word prompt celebrate. not that I would celebrate if it snowed, but many people do, especially kids.

Allsorts week 760 - cold and ice

I am sharing card three at:

NBUS #57 - second entry

52 Christmas card throwdown - Clean and simple

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

We Love Stamping December Reminder

Today is the 18th so time for a reminder for the current challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where you can showcase your stamps and your skill at using them. can you believe that Christmas is almost on us?

This month our theme is:

****Winter Flowers and Foliage****

For some reason I struggled with my reminder post tis month. This is the third card I made. I rejected the other two because I thought they weren't really wintry enough. Once I thought of snowdrops and remembered I had a stamp and matching die I was away. My previous attempts had used the same turnabout stamp as seen here, but my colours were not wintry enough. This time I tried to stick to cool greens.

I actually really enjoyed playing with the 2 turnabouts in this set (Concord & 9th, harvest wreath turnabout stamp set) and ended up making about 12 cards using different colours. 10 of them have been turned into 2 sets of notecards for Christmas presents. I might share them here one day.

I have used CP inks in the following colours: garden party, wintergreen, martini and matcha.

The snowdrop (free with a magazine ages ago) was coloured with polychromos pencils, cut with the matching die and stacked 2 or 3 times. Can't remember exactly. The sentiment is by spellbinders and is a hotfoil plate. I am quite addicted to hot foiling now.

I am quite pleased with how this turned out - third time lucky.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month they are extra special. They are from AALL and Create and include a DL floral border stamp with pack of Sharp Tongues sentiments, an A5 stamp set and a pair of Miss Dee stamps. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is ensure stamping (including digi) is the main focus on your card. It would be great if you could join in with our theme, but anythings goes is always an option if you are out of ideas. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 29th December.

I am sorry that I have been a bit absent recently. I hope I shall get a chance to catch up soon.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, wherever you are

I am also sharing this at:

Triple B December Challenge - mood board

Beautiful Blossoms #12 - Anything goes with flowers

Stamping Sensations December Challenge - My favourite colour is green

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

We Love Stamping December Challenge

Today is the first Sunday of the month so time for a new challenge over at We Love Stamping. 

This month our theme is:

**Winter Flowers and Foliage**

I would like to welcome our guest designer Mari this month

I bought this stamp and die set from Tonic Studios sale in the January this year and promptly made 4 Christmas cards. I can tell you I was very pleased with myself. Of course that was the end of my Christmas card making until relatively recently. Anyway, as our December challenge is all about winter flowers I though it was the perfect time to share them. This one was stamped onto black watercolour paper and heat embossed with Wow gold pearl embossing powder. I them painted it with my Gansai Tambi gem colour paints (a Christmas present last year).

The image was cut with its matching die and mounted on a black panel that I had debossed with the Altenew dotted scales cover die. The panel was cut with the frame die that is part of the stamp and die set (Tonic Studios stamp club 12, Christmas rose). the sentiment and matching die are part of the same set. The panel was mounted onto some cream/gold pearlescent card. The insert is also pearlescent and stamped with the main image.

I really enjoyed making this, so went on to make 3 more:

This one was stamped in black and clear heat embossed

This was stamped in a pale ink and watercoloured

This one was heat embossed in metalline greengage Wow embossing powder

Which is your favourite?

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month they are extra special. They are from AALL and Create and include a DL floral border stamp with pack of Sharp Tongues sentiments, an A5 stamp set and a pair of Miss Dee stamps. Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is ensure stamping (including digi) is the main focus on your card. It would be great if you could join in with our theme, but anythings goes is always an option if you are out of ideas. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 29th December.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

I am also sharing this at:

NBUS #57 - The stamp set is NBUS

Beautiful Blossoms #11 - Anything goes. I am sharing the pink one here

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

November Card Chain Challenge Reveal

Today is 2nd of the month so time for the Card Chain Challenge big reveal. This month 32 card makers took part and I sent my card to Daja in Germany. I decided that I wanted to use my new hot foil plate by Spellbinders called you are my home, so I just used the layout from this months options.

I have also used some gold metallic patterned paper - feeling quite pleased about that as it doesn't make an appearance on my cards very often. I took a card base of kraft card and played about with the elements until I was happy. The house, hearts and sentiments are all hot foiled and I used some gold washi tape on the edge to finish it off. I am pleased about that too as I have a whole tin full of washi tape that rarely gets used. The house was lightly coloured with water based felt pens. The card insert was foiled with the second plate of a little village with the sun shining, that is part of the same set.

I am pleased to say that it was received in good time by Daja and she liked it. There is plenty of shine to offset the dull kraft base.

I was very lucky to receive this gorgeous card from Viv in UK. Viv has been practicing her scene creation skills with Lavinia stamps and is getting pretty expert at it if you ask me. I love this.

If you would like to take part in the next card chain challenge, you have until 6th to sign up here

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

We Love Stamping November Reminder

Today is the 18th so time for a reminder for the current challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where you can showcase your stamps and your skill at using them.

This month our theme is:

**Anything Stamped or Christmas Characters**

We would love to see all sorts of Christmas Characters, from Gnomes to Robins, Santa to Angels. 

Today I have some elves. I think these are the only elf stamps that I have and they are part of the same Woodware set that I used on my first card for this challenge.

My idea for this card came from the wonderful Therese Calvird . She shared a video (click the link on her name to see) on how to use small stamps. I really liked the look of the diecut circles arranged on a card, so I started out by making 9 circles but couldn't get them to look good when I arranged them on my card. Maybe because I am using a metric A6 card and she used an imperial A2 card. Anyway, in the end I settled for the line of 4. My stamp set has a total of 18 little images which include 4 little elves.

The card below is the one I made first. I foiled the background using an Altenew bebossing plate and glued down my elves and attached the sentiment. I didn't like it - the sentiment was wrong and the line of elves seemed to be missing something, so I made another - the one you see above, except I skipped the foiling on the background. Moving the sentiment and adding the ribbon helped. I pondered how to rescue the first one and decided to try the little twine bows. As luck would have it I had the right coloured twine for each circle (really not sure how that happened!). I then added little gold embellishments and it was done. I am pleased with it now, so much better, although the sentiment is still in the wrong place. The foiling does give it an extra lift though.

You can see the shine on the picture below.

I ended up making 4 of these. Thanks for the inspiration Therese.

I was originally going to heat emboss all the little characters, but decided that was a step too far as it would have been very time consuming.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month there are three prizes, two dies from Sizzix and stamp from Craft Stash  Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is ensure that there is some stamping (including digi) on your card. It would be great if you could join in with our theme, but anythings goes is always an option if you are out of ideas. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 29th November.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Supplies:

Ink: Brusho powders; Catherine Pooler: deck the halls, glam, martini, cranberry fizz, flame; versamark

Stamps: Woodware JGS824 bubble large tops; Tonic Studios stamp club stamp and die set 12 Christmas rose

Dies: Nesting circle and scalloped edge

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

We Love Stamping November Challenge

Today is the first Sunday of the month so time for a new challenge over at We Love Stamping. The challenge where you can showcase your stamps. This month we are introducing a change. Although we love stamping, with so many new products and techniques available to crafters we want to be more inclusive of different styles. So with immediate effect, we now require at least one stamped element on entries. Of course, as seasoned stampers, we will still love seeing fully stamped entries, but from now on your entry will be welcome as long as there is at least one stamped element on your card, regardless of whether it is the focal point or not.

This month our theme is:

**Anything Stamped or Christmas Characters**

We would love to see all sorts of Christmas Characters, from Gnomes to Robins, Santa to Angels. 

I started this by taking a piece of watercolour paper and stamping and clear heat embossing the wreath. I then spritzed it with water and shook some brusho powders onto the damp paper, lots of spritzing and mopping later I was happy with the look.

The little robin was stamped and heat embossed and his red breast coloured with a red pen. I mounted him onto another larger circle that I had coloured with the same ink (Catherine Pooler icing on the cake), finishing off with a few tiny gems.  The sentiment was also stamped and heat embossed.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month there are three prizes, two dies from Sizzix and stamp from Craft Stash  Why don't you head over to the challenge blog to check it out? The prize winner is selected randomly and in addition the DT will choose one entry to join us as a guest designer for a future challenge.

I hope I have inspired you to join us this month, all you have to do is ensure stamping (including digi) is the main focus on your card. It would be great if you could join in with our theme, but anythings goes is always an option if you are out of ideas. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 29th November.

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

I am also sharing this at:

NBUS #56: the wreath and robin are NBUS

Supplies:

Ink: Brusho powders; Catherine Pooler icing on the cake; versamark

Stamps: Stamps by Chloe, leafy wreath; Woodware JGS824 bubble large tops; Tonic Studios stamp club stamp and die set 12 Christmas rose

Dies: Nesting circle and scalloped edge

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

October Card Chain Challenge Reveal

Today is 2nd of the month so time for the Card Chain Challenge big reveal. This month 34 card makers took part and I sent my card to Gundi in Germany.

This month I used the theme options of bears and friendship and got my inspiration from 2 cards I found on Pinterest. This one for the background and this one for the design. Thanks Ellen and Hideko, pinterest is so helpful when your mind is blank.

I bought these bear stamps by Sunshine & Bee designs earlier this year as I have nothing like them in my stash. This is their first outing. I also bought a set with some cute koala bears, which are yet to be used.

I started by taking a piece of bristol smooth card and blended distress inks for the background. I added some white pigment ink through a circle stencil to add interest. I then took a piece of linen textured paper and cut the aperture and used a stitched rectangle to cut the panel to size. The bear was stamped, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut. I coloured round the white edges with a black marker and cut his arm so that he could poke out of the window. The flowers are diecuts coloured with alcohol markers.

I used some scrap card to cut 2 extra panels so I could get some dimension . I didn't want too much because it had to be posted to Germany. The sentiment is part of the same stamp set. I tried stamping it on vellum first as I thought it wouldn't work very well on the textured cardstock, but that didn't work well either so I stamped it directly on the card in the end.

Unfortunately this little bear took his time to reach Gundi in the forrest because customs decided to open the envelope. Perhaps they were unable to resist the little bear and flower on the envelope! Anyway, I am glad it arrived in the end.

I was very lucky to receive this gorgeous card from Brenda in UK. You can't really see on the photo, but the sentiments and wellies are silver heat embossed and they give the whole thing a lovely shine. I also love the 'straw' under the wellies - thanks Brenda.

I am also sharing tis at NBUS #56 - the stamps are NBUS

If you would like to take part in the next card chain challenge, you have until 6th to sign up here

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