Challenge Me a Christmas Card with Michelle Lupton

Hi guys

I'm honoured to share that the super talented and lovely Michelle Lupton has invited me to join her again this year for her 'Challenge Me a Christmas Card' series.

She asked me to choose any style, theme, technique or product for us both to use on a Christmas card.  I chose Inlaid Die Cuts.

I love this technique.  Not only does it look great, it often leaves you with excess to do a twofer!  That's exactly what happened with mine...

I wanted to go with non-traditional colours as I was using a modern style Christmas tree die.  I began but die cutting two pierced squares, one from white glitter cardstock and the other from rose gold mirri cardstock.  I die cut the tree from each and then inlaid the positive part of the die in the opposite panel, and the negative bitty bits back into the gaps of each original panel, adhering on the back with some paper covered with dry adhesive.  The panels were then mounted on 3D foam onto larger square die cut panels and adhered to the card bases, and a very simple sentiment stamped below in black ink on each card.

I would love to know which version you prefer.  I think I'm leaning towards the glittered panel with the mirri inlay, that may be because mirri card is so difficult to photograph! lol


Materials used:

• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax; Clearly Besotted - Christmas Tree Die
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Tiny Type
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black
• Cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

Just Us Girls - Challenge #509 - Trend Week - Frame It
Happy Little Stampers - October Anything Goes with Dies Challenge
Happy Little Stampers - October Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes (option: twinkle)
Always Fun - Challenge #131 - Dies or Punches
Dream Valley - Challenge #211 - Clean and Simple




Please do pop over to Michelle's blog which you can find here, to see what she created with the same technique.

Thanks again, Michelle, for inviting me to join you and your friends for this fantastic card series :)

Happy Little Stampers October 2019 CAS Challenge

Good evening, guys

As it's the beginning of another month we have fresh challenges starting over at Happy Little Stampers.  Right now the new CAS challenge is starting so here's the cue card for this month's challenge...

I decided to go with a cute Christmas card, it's always great to get another Christmas card made (of course I'm way behind with my festive makes AGAIN this year!)...

I chose this adorable stamp called 'Sledging Buddies' for my adventure theme.  I stamped the image in grey ink and added minimal colour with coloured pencils.  The scene was then die cut using a pierced square die and popped up on the card base using fun foam.  The sentiment was stamped alongside in black and I finished by adding some shimmer to the snow with a shimmer pen and some fine glitter to the penguin's hat.  It's not Christmas without a bit of sparkle!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Lili of the Valley - Sledging Buddies; Happy Little Stampers - Christmas Joy
• Ink: Memento - London Fog; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Die: MFT Die-namics - Pierced Square Stax
• Coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos
• Accents: Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen - Clear; Cosmic Shimmer Diamond Frost - Frosty Dawn

Challenge entries:

Crafty Cardmakers - Challenge #242 - Add a Critter
Try it on Tuesday - Animal Magic
Addicted to CAS - Challenge #169 - Creature





Thanks so much for visiting today.  Please do check out the main blog post, my teamies have some great examples to inspire you using the adventure theme.  And as with all the HLS challenges, the linky will be open until the end of the month.

Less is More Challenge #403

Hi there

Apologies for the lack of posts lately, I have been crafting away behind the scenes but haven't been able to share those makes yet.  Lots to come over the next few days though so stay tuned :)

Back to the purpose of today's post, and of course it's new challenge day over at Less is More.  And as August has an extra Satuday we have a Lucky Dip challenge for you this time.  Here is the cue card...

Funky Fossil Designs continues as our sponsor for this challenge so please do play along for a chance to win our monthly prize!

I only have one card to share with you this time but I'm excited to say...I have my first 2019 Christmas card in the bag! 

Here it is...

This was very simple to make.  I started with a stitched circle die cut and heat embossed the sentiment in copper.  This was then popped up on fun foam.  I then die cut the pine needles from green cardstock, the bells from silver mirri card and the bow from gold mirri card, and layered and adhered these in a cluster.

Materials used:

• Stamp: Happy Little Stampers - Mixed Christmas Sentiments
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Copper
• Dies: MFT Die-namics - Double Stitched Circles; Clearly Besotted - Tag Along Die Collection (bow); Marianne Design Creatables - Petra's Larix Larch; Xcut - Jingle Bells
• Cardstock from stash

I really appreciate your visits, thanks so much for stopping by.  Please do pop over to the main Less is More challenge post for more inspiration from my teamies and to see how they've incorporated metallics into their CAS creations.  And the challenge, as always, is open for a fortnight so there's plenty of time to link up in our gallery.  Hope to see you there :)

All I Want for Christmas is Ewe

Hi guys

Back with my final Christmas card make of 2018.

This is the card I made for my chap, I'm loving the little scenes you can make with Clearly Besotted stamps.  The Scene It sets were recent purchases so I wanted to ink one up for this card.

On a panel of white cardstock I stamped the trees, then stamped and cut out a mask so I could blend the sky.  Next I stamped the bow, then masked it before stamping the sheep.  Finally I stamped the sentiment.  All that was left to do was add a little colour to the trees and sheep, which I did using coloured pencils.  I finished by adding a small amount of shimmer to the trees but the camera hasn't picked this up.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Scene It Again, Kiss Me Quick
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass
• Coloured with Faber Castell Polychromos
• Accents: Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen - Clear

Challenge entries:

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - New (new stamp set)

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Challenge #418 - Anything Goes Christmas/New Year

My Time To Craft - Something New (new stamp set)

Alphabet Challenges - 'T' is for Trees

Fab 'n' Funky - Challenge #420 - Cute Christmas

Happy Little Stampers - December Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes (snow)

That's all of my cards shared for this year.  I'll be back on 2 January with my card for the next Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge.

All that's left to say is a huge THANK YOU for all your support and wonderful comments, I absolutely love the crafting community.  I wish you all a wonderful New Year celebration, whatever you're doing, and all the best for a fabulous 2019 xx

Googly Rudolph!

Hiya

Back again with a super clean and simple make.  I did make a few of these but due to the raised embellies I didn't post any, just hand delivered a few.

I stamped the antlers/ears in brown ink and the sentiment in black.  Then simply adhered the googly eyes and a red sequin for his nose.  Easy peasy!

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - In Print, Tiny Type
• Ink: Versa Color - Pinecone; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Accents: Googly eyes from stash; Doodlebug - red sequins

Challenge entries:

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Challenge #418 - Anything Goes Christmas/New Year
Fab 'n' Funky - Challenge #420 - Cute Christmas
AAA Cards - CAS Game #130 - Three of Something (three embellishments)




I really appreciate your visits, I have one more Christmas card to share which I'll be back with very soon.

Festive Stag

Hi guys

I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas.

I'm back sharing the last of my Christmas cards today.  This one was made at the same time I made the festive foliage cards, here. 

I began by embossing the card base with a stitched rectangle die.  As the card base is textured it didn't really work but I went with it anyway :)

I die cut the stag from dark brown cardstock, the die has some embossed detail as well as just an outline so I think it worked well with the textured base.  Over the base of the stag I adhered some foliage which was leftover from making the previous batch of cards.  I then stamped, embossed in clear and die cut the bow from deep red cardstock.  Then under this I tucked in the sentiment flag which was embossed in gold on paler green cardstock.

The gloss from the embossing, and the texture can be seen more clearly in the next photo...

Materials used:

• Dies: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles; Xcut - Woodland Stag Wreath; Marianne Creatables - Petra's Larix Larch; Clearly Besotted - Joy to the World
• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Joy to the World, Flag It
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Clear Gloss, Metallic Gold Rich
• Cardstock from stash

Challenge entries:

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - Challenge #418 - Anything Goes Christmas/New Year

Happy Little Stampers - December Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Thanks so much for visiting, I hope to be back shortly with another make.

Merry Mouse

Hi guys

Sharing another Christmas make with you today.

These stamps are from two Clearly Besotted sets I had yet to ink up, and they work brilliantly together.

I began by stamping and masking the mouse image on Strathmore Bristol cardstock, then stamped the fireplace before watercolouring with my Zig markers.  To add a little interest to the card base I stamped and heat embossed the outline snowflakes with a pearl embossing powder.  The panel was die cut with a stitched rectangle and mounted on fun foam.  To finish I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in white on a strip of black cardstock.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Clearly Besotted - Cosy Christmas, Merry Mouse; Docrafts - Snowflakes
• Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black; VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Opaque Bright White, White Pearl
• Coloured with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles

Challenge entries:

Cards in Envy - Hang Your Stocking with Care Card Challenge

Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas / Last Minute Christmas Cards

It's work for me tomorrow but hopefully I'll have time for another post before the big day.

Christmas Card Multiples - Cosy Knits

Happy Sunday!

I'm back today with more of my Christmas card multiples.  Yes, I was very far behind this year so had to do a lot of mass production!

For these I used up some old coloured card blanks from my stash and reproduced the same design in different colourways.  I made about 18 of these in total.

For each of these I began by stamping and embossing the sentiment in the centre.  The red and green were embossed in gold, and the blue was embossed in silver.  I then stamped the stitched images in co-ordinating ink for a tone on tone effect.

I then topped the trees with accents.  On the blue design I added some glazed silver gems, and on the red and green versions I added a dab of glue and some gold glitter.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Concord & 9th - Cozy Christmas; Clearly Besotted - Christmas Calligraphy
• Ink: VersaMark; Altenew - Velvet, Evergreen, Desert Night
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich, Metallic Silver
• Accents: Silver gems from stash; Nuvo Pure Sheen Glitter - Light Gold

Thanks so much for popping by, I'll be back with more later!

Challenge Me a Christmas Card with Michelle Lupton

Hi there

I'm thrilled to have been asked by Michelle Lupton to join her in her Challenge Me a Christmas Card series. 

Michelle has asked lots of friends in blogland to challenge her to make a card using, for example, a specific theme, technique or product, etc., and for each of us to also share a card.  Michelle has had some big names from the crafting community joining her this month, so to be asked to take part is an absolute honour!

The theme I chose for Michelle was 'Christmas Night Sky'.  My card is below and you can click here to see what Michelle created.  I'm now off to have a look myself!

Here is my card...

I created the sky on the top half of my card base by blending Distress Inks.  I then stamped the sleigh and reindeer image in black.  Next I die cut the main white panel using a landscape die with a large expanse of white for the snow in the foreground.  I then stamped the bunny and the sentiment in black before adhering the panel flat to the base.  I added a further three die cut trees which were adhered on glue dots for a little dimension.  To finish I added some twinkle to the snowy trees using a shimmer pen.  The shimmer can be seen more clearly in the image below...

Materials used:

• Ink: Distress Ink - Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire, Black Soot; Versafine - Onyx Black
• Stamps: Card-io - Christmas Scenery 2; Uniko - Most Wonderful
• Dies: Memory Box - Quiet Cabin Landscape; Craft Emotions - Pine Trees
• Accents: Spectrum Noir Shimmer Pen - Clear

Challenge entries:

Fab 'n' Funky - Challenge #420 - Cute Christmas

Happy Little Stampers - December Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Happy Little Stampers - December Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes (Snow)

Stamping Sensations - December Challenge - Winter Sparkle

Thanks so much for joining me today, and a huge thank you to Michelle for inviting me to join in the fun :) x

Cosy Christmas for my Bestie

Hi guys

Today I'm sharing the Christmas card I made for my best friend.

I absolutely loved this 'Winter Wear' stamp set from Concord & 9th when it was released and managed to get my hands on it.  The sentiment I used was taken from a different set, as the Winter Wear set had 'cosy' spelt the American way of 'cozy'. 

I die cut a white cardstock panel with a stitched rectangle die and used the stamps in the set to build up the two characters...that's me on the right with the 'up do' and specs, and my bestie on the left with the longer hair :D  I coloured the images with ProMarkers and stamped the sentiment below in the same black ink.  I added shimmer to the hat and Glossy Accents to the glasses which the camera has picked up in the photo below...

The panel was then adhered using fun foam.

Materials used:

• Stamps: Concord & 9th - Winter Wear; Clearly Besotted - Cosy Christmas
• Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black
• Die: Create a Smile - Cool Cuts Double Stitched Rectangles
• Coloured with ProMarkers
• Accents: Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen - Clear; Ranger - Glossy Accents

Challenge entry:

Sweet Stampin' - Anything Christmas/Last Minute Christmas cards

I'll be back tomorrow sharing more of this year's Christmas makes.

Christmas Card Multiples - Festive Foliage

Hi guys

Here are more of my Christmas card multiples.

For these I used some linen textured card bases I've had in my stash for years.

These were time consuming due to all the die cutting but once done the cards were really quick to put together.  The only stamping was the sentiment which was embossed in gold and die cut with the co-ordinating die.  The rest of the die cuts were cut from coloured and metallic cardstock, layered up and adhered with liquid glue.

Materials used:

• Dies: Clearly Besotted - Tag Along Die Collection (bow); Britannia Dies - Fern Strip; Marianne Creatables - Petra's Larix Larch; Xcut - Woodland Stag Wreath
• Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Christmas Calligraphy (and co-ordinating die)
• Ink: VersaMark
• Embossing Powder: Wow! - Metallic Gold Rich

Challenge entry:

Happy Little Stampers - December Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

I'll have more of my Christmas makes to share this weekend, thanks for stopping by.