A Few Christmas Trees

Today I have a couple of Christmas cards to share. I bought this embossing folder on the spur of the moment after seeing it feature on several cards recently. I was ordering birthday presents for my husband from Amazon when I found myself having a little search for embossing folders. Low and behold it came up, so it just had to make it into my shopping cart! I have made several cards with it so far and will share two with you today.

Card 1

A really good thing about this folder for me is that it is A6 so it fits my card fronts perfectly. I often find they are larger or square or something which means they have to be cut down or they are not quite tall enough. Anyway that was a bonus for me.

I kept this one simple and just coloured one type of tree with a green sparkle pen. The greeting was stamped on vellum and a tiny die cut Christmas tree was added for interest. I am not sure if you can see it, but I added a tiny star gem to the top of the die cut tree as a little finishing touch.

I am sharing this one at:

Christmas Kickstarter #68 - Trees Trees Trees

Card 2

I kept this one simple by using just a strip of embossing and adding it to a coloured cardbase. The sentiment is cut from pearlescent paper, so it has a shine to it. I have glued tiny gems into the holes in the die cut tree. These little trees on both cards have been cut from snippets from my left over bits folder.

Sorry about my bad pictures, I am hoping to get the hang of taking them in the lower light sometime soon!

I am sharing this card at:

Let's squash it #26 - Make a Christmas card

here's a bonus card on the same lines:

Supplies:

Embossing Folder: Sizzix 3D textured impressions 665254

Die: Christmas tree Docrafts; Sentiment Creative Expressions

Stamp: Free with magazine

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 November so time for a new challenge over at we love stamping where the theme is:

** Christmas **

That should be easy as we are all going to be extra busy making Christmas cards this month.  Our wonderful guest designer this month is Pia from Norway. I hope you have time to pay her a visit.

I started by making my background with chalk pastels (I decided I really ought to use them more) and after making a mask for the moon I blended different colours until I was happy. Then I stamped and heat embossed the image onto white card and fussy cut it out, leaving a white 'apron' under the trees. I die cut the background panel and the lower edge of the tree pieces so it would line up along the edge. The edge was glued down and I used foam pads under the trees to lift them off the background and give some dimension. I added loads of stickles to give some sparkle and the illusion of snow. Apologies for the slightly out of focus picture above.

I took this photo to try and capture the shine, not just from the stickles but also from the heat embossed trees. Don't you just love those trees? I do anyway. The sentiment was cut 3 times and stacked, I coloured the white card with an alcohol marker.

Don't forget there is always a prize to be won and this month the prize is the complete At Home with Santa range that will be split between 2 winners. 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 follow the prompt and ensure stamping is the main focus on your card. The challenge will close at noon (UK time) on Wednesday 30th November

I am looking forward to seeing you in the gallery.

Finally, I just thought I would share a couple of pictures from my morning walk yesterday (Sat 5th Nov). Most mornings I walk along the river into town and sometimes I am moved to take a photo. Today it was really still and quiet and the tide was in, so lots of lovely reflections. About an hour later it was completely overcast and raining! I would miss it so much if I couldn't walk, so every day I am grateful. It keeps me fit too.

River Deben looking east towards the river mouth.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bristol Board; White stamping card; Adorable Scorable coated card

Ink: Versafine Clare, green oasis

Other: Chalk Pastels; Stickles; Clear embossing powder

Stamps:  Chocolate Baroque Christmas Tree Tangle

Dies: Sentiment Creative Expressions; Stitched rectangle Create a Smile

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

October CCC 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 Joanne in California. 

I have been struggling for inspiration recently so I just used the friendship theme from the different options this month. I had this flower spray which I had stamped, heat embossed, fussy cut and coloured, sitting on my desk, so I decided to try and turn it into a card. I also had the frame on my desk, it was a gift in a previous CCC card that I received. I am sorry I can't remember who gave it to me, but I am pleased to have used it.

I placed a piece of vellum behind the frame and stamped and white heat embossed the sentiment and the leaves, before attaching the elements to my card.

I am not terribly happy with this one, I think it is missing something, but as it had a long way to travel I just stopped fretting and sent it on it's way. It took it’s time and finally arrived with Joanne on 31st October.

I was very lucky to receive this gorgeous card from Jo in UK:

I love the texture on this one, thanks Jo.

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. 

Hearts Galore

Today I am joining Mia who is hosting the Friendly Challenge #154 where the theme is hearts. I made this card for my eldest granddaughters 10th birthday and am sharing it here as it is full of hearts, so I thought it fitted the theme perfectly. 

I made the shaker element by cutting the balloon frame several times and stacking them. the little white hearts were stamped and heat embossed on pink card to form the back of the shaker which is filled with sequins and little tiny hearts.

I finished things off with a little piece of gold string around the balloon. In retrospect I wish I hadn't cut the heart flower stalks so short, but never mind.

So sorry about my fuzzy pictures, I am really not sure what has happened to my photos recently!

Do head over to Mia's blog to see a link to all the heart creations. Thanks Mia for taking on the hosting this time. I think it is the first time I have taken part.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Pink heavy weight card for the base; 225gsm white card for the diecut; gold mirror card

Dies: Coverplate by Sunny Studios; Balloon frame by Sizzex; heart flowers by Positively Papercraft; happy birthday by Altenew

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

Guest Designer Allsorts

Today I am joining the team at Allsorts to help them celebrate their 700th challenge. That is some achievement so the theme this week is:

** Let's Celebrate **

I bought this stamp from my local craft store recently as I thought it would be good for male. In addition  it was my husbands birthday the other day and I was stumped. This stamp came to my rescue, it is also also suitably celebratory for this challenge I think.

I stamped it is black and clear heat embossed the image so it has a lovely shine to it. I used a gold gel pen to add gold highlights and coloured the other elements with metallic pens. I finished by colouring the background with a watercolour pen.

I didn't think it needed a separate sentiment. I cut the panel with a stitched rectangle die, mounted it on gold mirror card and then onto a black cardbase.

I hope you find time to join in the celebrations at Allsorts

I am also sharing this at:

NBUS Challenge 43

Seize the birthday #250 - Anything goes

Supplies:

cardstock: Watercolour paper; gold mirror card; black cardblank

Ink: Versafine onyx black; gold gel pen; Slicci by Pentel metallic pens

Stamps: Birthday Medley from Sentimentally Yours by Phill Martin

Dies: Stitched rectangle A6 dies by Create a Smile

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