Three of a kind

A friend asked me for a card for one of her chums and this stamp from Art Impressions came to mind. She actually thought it was perfect for her friend. It was coloured with alcohol markers in colours chosen by the sender and the sentiment was added via the computer. A little cutting out and mounting on dimensional pads and it was done.

This image reminds me of spending time with two of my dear  friends. We went to the Christmas Market in Winchester a little time ago and I spotted a stall which sold Raclette cheese. The girls immediately requested that we had some for our New Year's Eve Meal this year. It's an occasion that we have celebrated together for about 17 years.  One brings the first course, one brings the dessert and I provide the bit in the middle! Four couples around the table (Phil's brother and his wife come too) is a recipe for lots of fun! Great food, plenteous drinks and silly games make for a most enjoyable time!

I hope you all have fun this New Year too!

AAA Cards

Joyful

There's still time to play along with the challenge at TIME OUT where I am Guest Designer.

The challenge is to be JOYFUL!

Well I must say that there are many Penny Black Stamps which give me joy and I hope that  this one together with the sentiment from Paper Smooches will bring a smile to someone's face!

Actually I have a smile on my face today as I am off on a cruise aboard Queen Victoria to the Canaries. Our friends will be coming to take us to the terminal in Southampton just before noon!

 We are celebrating our 45th Wedding anniversary on the 15th and as we went to the Canaries for our honeymoon it seemed like a good place to go!

To get back to the card... the image was coloured with alcohol markers and gently twinkled in a few strategic places with a clear Wink of Stella pen! The Christmas duck was put behind an aperture on the front panel which was cut with SSS dies.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

Naughty or Nice

I have long admired this super set of MFT Santas and could resist no longer, so this year quite a few have found their way onto my cards.

Here he is simplicity itself... an image, a sentiment and that's it!

I'm submitting it to a couple of challenges My Favourite Things sketch

Muse ..Anything.  Addicted to Stamps and More ... Anything Goes

Just a few more days and we'll be off on our cruise! 

Joy

I was lucky enough to be chosen as the winner at Time Out Challenge and offered a Guest Spot for one of their challenges... and here I am!

The challenge this time is to be Joyful!

For my card, I inked a piece of glossy photographic paper in various shades of green using alcohol inks  and let it dry. It leaves a beautifully shiny finish with great depth of colour. I used uncoloured glossy photographic paper for the berries and the sentiment. I added a little colour to the tips and stems of the berries using an alcohol marker.

The die set is from Crafter's Companion. I came across some dies from this set at a crafty day in Amesbury and my friend Julia offered to let me borrow hers, but in the end I caved and bought a set for myself. Because of the vibrancy of the greens on the glossy paper, it looks quite dramatic against the black backdrop.

Don't you just hate it when dies go AWOL!

I bought a set with lots of family names... mum, dad, brother, sister etc and used some of them once and thereafter the Dad went walkabout! It could have fallen in the trash I guess, but both me and my husband went through the bins but to no avail.  It could be anywhere... these things often hide in plain sight!

Hey HO!

Let it Snow

The December Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers is Anything Goes with the optional twist of using SNOW as a theme!

Here I used some Artemio stamps, clear embossed using Versamark ink and then coloured with Distress inks using sponge daubers. After inking I buffed up the embossing with a paper towel to remove any excess ink from it. The die-cut sentiment is from CUTplorations.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

It's practically time for our Anniversary cruise and I'm really looking forward to it! Warmer climes here we come!

Letterpress Emboss

For the Emboss Challenge at Happy Little Stampers this time I decided to use my dies to emboss with... but with  twist... I inked the backs of the snowflake dies, then used them to impress the colour into the card. I then cut the snowflakes from card, twinkled them with Glamour Dust and added them over the matching impressions. A few gems and a sentiment from CUTplorations and the card was just about finished!

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!

All White

My husband is the Chairman of our choir... the Portsmouth Choral Union. Each Christmas he likes to send Christmas greetings to the President and Vice-Presidents of the society and since his office began I have made the cards for these rather special people. 

This is my design for this year.

The challenge at AAA cards calls for mostly white... so apart from the message inside it is mostly white.

I'm nit sure of the origin of the snowflake die, it was a gift and I am delighted with it. However it is rather delicate and without the embossed image to follow I think it would have been quite difficult to arrange accurately on the card.

I have just had a try out of my Christmas nail colour... it's very red and very twinkly... maybe I'll get used to it!

Black & White Christmas

Here is a card using the sketch from CASe this Sketch

It's a really simple make using a Free stamp from a Magazine, a strip each of Washi tape and black card and a circular mount for the image.

I stamped the image in Versafine Black Onyx and then clear embossed it to give some shine. The dies used for the circles were Framelits and Spellbinders.

It's also for the CAS challenges at Addicted to Stamps and More

 & CAS on Friday Use Washi Tape

Reveal Wheel

The challenge at the Male Room this time is to have a moving part.

For my card I decided to make a Lawn Fawn Reveal Wheel type card. 

This one is for my Grandson. 

The penguin is from Poppy Stamps, the word Christmas was masked from a stamp from HLS and the rest is all Lawn Fawn.

The die which cuts the front panel of the card is designed for an American card size, so in order for it to fit on a half sheet of A4, tent fold card base, I elongated the front panel by using the die to cut part way from each end, aligning all the piercing marks. Cutting the second panel for the base layer to exactly the same dimensions is a little more tricky but using the waste from the first cut, made it a little easier. The piercing marks also help a lot.

I used four different sentiments for the speech bubble window, here is another of them!

These are really fun cards to make and I'm sure they are just as much fun for the recipient!

Twofer

Darnell's Twofer Challenge this time is for a wreath!

Here I used a die from Memory Box I believe, for a Christmas card and a card which might be suitable for a Wedding, Engagement or an Anniversary!

Here are the cards individually

The Noel on this one is from Sizzix, the leaves from Crafter's Companion and the bow from MFT. To make the depth of colour of the greens for the leaves I used some glossy photographic paper and daubed it with alcohol inks. When dry, the colours are rich and vibrant and after die-cutting look fab!

The silver base for this card was the cover from a menu at a meal we attended! The dove die was a freebie from a magazine, the Congrats is from Hero Arts, and I'm not really sure of the origin of the tiny leaf sprig.

This next one is for the challenge at AAA Cards where the theme is On the Move

For this one I used some old Stampin UP stamps, tree dies and sentiment from a Magazine freebie and the embossing folder from Sheena Douglass!

This is also for the challenge at The Card Concept where there is this inspiration photo!

   

Having done a count of my Christmas card makes, I realised that I'm still a few short, so I'l be turning my hand to a few swift makes in the very near future!

HO HO HO

I'm still busy trying to get enough Christmas cards made before my holiday. Here is another for the challenge at CAS Christmas, where the theme this time is Santa.

This is from a very old wood mounted stamp from Studio G. I stamped him (Santa) in Versafine Onyx Black ink and clear embossed the image.  Then I simply coloured him with alcohol markers adding a little clear Wink of Stella in places.

I made an opening in the front panel of the card for him to peep through with a Framelit die, extending the height of the rectangle just a tad to frame the image equally on all sides. As Ho's usually come in threes I decided to add another... die cut this time, in a font hopefully echoing a little that in the stamp.

This is also for the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More - Holiday!

Cards in Envy - Santa Baby

I'm now off to do some Christmas shopping! 

Presents

I was lucky enough to be chosen as the winner of a recent challenge at Addicted to CAS and was offered a Guest Designer Spot.... and so here I am!

Their theme this time is presents!

This stamp from Stampendous, epitomises the reason why we give presents at Christmas time, to remember the gifts given by the Three Wise Men to Jesus at his birth.

This is simply stamped onto deep blue card and embossed with gold embossing powder. The panel was cut out with an MFT stitched square die, elongated slighted to fit the card front.

My Anniversary cruise will be here before I know it and so I think I need to get into Christmas mode PDQ!

On the 8th Day of Christmas

Kylie from Happy Little Stampers is having a play along 12 Days of Christmas, so it would be great if you  could join in the fun!

There will be a card each day from the bunch of lovelies above, so do check them out for a little Christmas inspiration.

Today is day 68 and I have chosen tp make a card using HLS Christmas stamps. I love this sentiment, I think the font of the word Christmas is terrific!

For a bit of fun I made a rather prosaic card depicting day 8 using a Penny Black  

I love Penny Black creature images, they are the cutest! Sorry for the terrible picture, I seem to be getting worse at photography!

I hope your pile of Christmas cards is increasing at a satisfactory rate... I 'm really trying hard this year! 

More Klimt

Here is another card made from the Chocolate Baroque set of Klimt bauble stamps.

This time I have used the largest of the three circular stamps, but once more I have not used the co-ordinating hanger stamp to make it into a bauble. Instead I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, adding a sentiment from Lili of the Valley

            

It's a second submission to the challenge at The Male Room

Inspired

I spotted on the Male Room's Blog today that the challenge is to be inspired by a famous artist.

A set of stamps came to my mind from Chocolate Baroque. This could in fact be made into a bauble as it has a little stamp to make the hanger but I though I would simply leave it as a circle.

The artist is Gustav Klimt. I remember seeing so much of the effect of his work in Vienna... from scarves to coasters and jewellery. All fabulous!

Here I simply used one stamp... which had to be embossed in gold, and paired it with an embossing folder from Cuttlebug, to emulate the swirls in the design.

The sentiment is from Woodware.

I die cut the circle and raised it onto dimensional pads so that a hint of the gold beneath it peeks through at various angles.

I enjoyed making this one, thanks for the inspiration Male Room!

Close to your heart

The challenge at CAS Mix up is to use Embossing folders.

Here is a card made from a die from MFT and an embossing folder from Craft Concepts.

The die set has a separate panel for the bra cup and so I looked through my EFs for a pattern which would give the appearance of lace! This one has swirls which exactly match the contour of the die cut when placed strategically in  the folder. I decided to add a little colour to the image by inking the flat side inside the folder with Archival Brilliance Pigment ink, before running through my Big Shot.

I layered the main part of the bra to give a little strength before popping it onto dimensional pads.

The sentiment was 'stamped' onto the card using the computer as I didn't have this wording in my stash and it is kinda specific... and so true!!

This is also for Clean and Simple on Friday... "Make a card to brighten someone's day!"

Ho Ho Ho

I love this old Santa from Hampton Art Stamps, he's coloured with alcohol pens and popped onto dimensional pads on his snowdrift. The background was dry embossed with a Sheena Douglass EF. The HO HO HO die is available from Aliexpress.com.

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED

 It is also for the CAS Christmas Challenge

Fantasy

Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge for November is Fantasy 

My card is really simple, the Unicorn is from Jane's Doodles, coloured with alcohol pens and popped onto dimensional pads.

The sentiment is partly computer generated and partly die-cut.

I make my computer sentiments in Word and if I set the view to 105% on my machine, the size correlates to the exact measurements of an A4 sheet.

I draw a box the size of the card front in order to get the position of the words just where I want them, I then write the words in  text boxes which can be moved anywhere on the page. 

I hold up the cut out sentiment and image against the screen.... (all very technical) and adjust the printed words to where I think they look good. I then make sure that all all the text box lines are removed and print!

Hey Presto!

The font for the sentiment is My Own Topher and the 'Magical' die is from Cutplorations. Sadly I dropped the dot from the i, I'll pop it on when either a) I find it, or b) I've cut another!

Our winner for this challenge will receive a $20 coupon to spend at the shop! Check out all the details HERE.

IF YOU USE STAMPS BY HAPPY LITTLE STAMPERS AND YOU ARE OUR RANDOM WINNER, YOUR PRIZE WILL BE DOUBLED!