Jingle Bells

This card is my last contribution as a member of the Design Team at Christmas Craft Creations. I have been actively participating in many Design teams, consistently now, for ten plus years or so  and  thought that I would have a complete break for a while. I thought that maybe I would have  a little more time to join in with selective challenges which get my creative juices flowing. I shall look forward to joining in with the challenges at CCC as a participant in future!

The theme this time is to use the colours Blue and Silver!

All of my cards are simple in style and this one involved merely die cutting and dry embossing.

The jingle bell dies are from Memory Box. I use an embossing tool on the back of them once cut, to give the impression of roundness and add them using dimensional pads, so as to retain some of the shape, even when mailing! The cord they are on is from a thread die, also from Memory Box which also came with a needle die, but I haven't used that half as much!

The embossing on the backdrop is from a Couture Creations EF.

The sentiment is from a fab die from Stamplorations. This was stacked and also mounted with dimensional pads.

I am looking forward to some spring weather soon, we seem to have had an inordinate amount of rain of late!

Take care and stay safe everyone!

Merry Christmas

Here is a little card made for the challenge at CAS Christmas where the theme this time is Cats and or Dogs

I don't have an abundance of Christmas Cats or dog stamps, although of course they could be put into a Christmas setting, but I actually fancied a festive one. I found a Penny Black image for Twelve Drummers drumming, where a hound was bashing away at a drum kit, ears flapping madly, but I fancied a bolder image somehow. I came across a set of Avery Elle cats and dogs which I don't actually remember using before, and decided to do a little masking in order to give this little chap a Santa hat! I popped a piece of sticky tape on the stamp over the top of the dog's head before inking, so that when stamped, I would be able to draw the hat in the gap! I coloured him with Promarkers and then cut around him before popping him on dimensional pads atop the (SIZZIX) dry embossed square.

Looking at the picture now, I realise that I intended adding some Fun Flock to the hat band and pom pom, I may do that now!

I still can't add pictures to my Blog using Chrome. Goodness knows what has happened, but at least I can use an alternative browser (Edge) to get them uploaded. I don't use Edge often as my touchpad won't scroll in that browser, and the spell check is set to US instead of UK, so all sorts of wavy lines appear on correct UK spellings . If I were more techy, I suppose I could sort it all out, but I guess as long as I have a way which works, that's all that matters.

Numbers of  Covid infections are dropping rapidly in the UK so maybe there is light ahead.

Stay safe everyone!

Christmas 24 -Cute animals

Will you be my Valentine?

Today us Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone has a lovely day!

A penguin may seem an unlikely character for a Valentine greeting, but there's a bit of a story to this one. I have a friend who asked me to make a Valentine card for his wife and he specifically requested a penguin.   It seems that last month, for her birthday, he bought a jolly looking card for her with penguins on, failing to notice that it was in fact a Christmas card!!! Needless to say his wife noticed it immediately and he was simply amused by his mistake. Now, wishing to keep the penguin theme going, he gave me this request! Funnily enough only yesterday, his wife put a memory on Facebook of seeing the penguins at Philip Island in Australia, so it was quite topical as far as that was concerned too.

This little chap is a cut file from Silhouette, with an added punched heart, and a computer generated sentiment in what I think is All Things Pink font.

I popped him onto dimensional pads for a little interest!

Addicted to CAS Hearts

Happy Little Stampers CAS Challenge 

Inkspirational  Hearts

I am SO disappointed by the result of the impeachment trial in the US... just how so many Republican senators could vote to acquit after such damning evidence is beyond my comprehension. Let's hope justice comes by some other method!

 

With Love Valentine

I have just been playing around for ages trying to upload the photo of this card, but I kept getting a message saying that the Server failed to Upload. I looked online for a remedy and it seems that there has been this issue many times before. The first one that caught my eye was to use a different browser, so as this seemed the simplest of solutions to try, I went for it and thankfully it worked. I changed from Chrome to Edge.
On to the card. This is a really cute image from Bugaboo Stamps of which I am really fond. It's simply coloured with alcohol markers.

The sentiment is from Sugar Pea Designs and the stamped lines from SU Gorgeous Grunge.

I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches

The Word Cue from CASology

The  LOVE Theme from CAS on Friday

The Hearts Challenge from Inkspirational

Craft Rocket - LOVE

 

Merry & Bright

I don't often make long skinny cards but after I saw Jo's challenge at Christmas Kickstart,  (Slimline Cards) I thought that I should remedy that!

Here is a very simple card using a gnome from SSS which I made quite some time ago and didn't get around to using, paired with a die cut sentiment, used for the first time, and of which I haven't the slightest recollection regarding its origin or where it was purchased. I do seem to forget a lot these days.

I tried first of all with white script on a red backing, but preferred the effect of the red writing on a white backdrop, but mounted on dimensional pads!

As I had my vaccination over two weeks ago, my protection from Covid should be starting to kick in, but I guess vigilance will still be necessary for quite some time to come. We should actually be in Florida at the moment, having a week's break before a week's Caribbean cruise... hey ho that's life!

Butterfly birthday

I have been messing around with the technique required at CAS Mix Up for a few days now.

I had looked through my stencils many times, cut several, both from dies and with my Silhouette Portrait and there was always something not quite right. I found this butterfly file in my Silhouette library and really wanted to use it so I tried cutting it many times in different sizes and using different materials...  (vellum, paper, card etc) but didn't really do very well. There were often bits of the design not cut properly or the material wasn't really suitable for the embossing technique. Anyway, yesterday a package of new blending brushes arrived, (the lovely, very fine bristled sort) so I adapted the technique slightly and I was really pleased with the result. 

I had a stencil cut from vellum, which was a reasonable size and a reasonable cut, so I used it with Distress Oxide Inks and a new blending brush and I was delighted with the outcome. To fulfil the embossing part of the challenge I sprinkled Holographic Embossing powder over the ink and melted with my heat tool.

The brush gave a remarkably clean finish to the inking and as it says wet for quite a while, easily took the embossing powder.

I found a Memory Box butterfly body die and cut one, twinkling it with Glamour Dust before applying.

The sentiment is from Avery Elle.

I think I need a new carrier mat for my Silhouette, I think that may be the reason for some cutting boo boos. I do spray it with repositionable glue from time to time, but I think the surface has nearly got to the point of no return!

Stay well everyone!

 

Have a lovely day

Recently I was fortunate enough to have one of my cards selected as the winner at AAA Cards. With this came an invitation to be a Guest Designer for one of their challenges, so here I am!

Somewhere along the line, I got muddled with the 'optional twist' for this challenge, so I'm afraid that this card doesn't adhere to that part of the game and is simply One Corner.

I began by making a stencil in vellum from a Sizzix die and then brushed some Twisted Citron Distress through it over one corner of the card. The tiny butterflies from All Occasion  dies, were cut from a piece of card which I had smooshed with inks with a touch of Inka Gold. The sentiment is from Sugar Pea Designs, stamped with distress ink. A few tiny gems in the centre of the butterflies and it was done.

I am really grateful to have such a super challenge available for CAS cards and to have it full of such wonderful inspiration! Many thanks to Jane and the team!

Do take care everyone, it has been a long road through the trials of Covid 19, but I think that we must remain vigilant until given the all clear by the powers that be!

Do Stay Safe!

A balanced diet!

It almost seems impossible that it is 10 Years since Mandi and I got our heads together to come up with the idea of a Blog Challenge for Clean and Simple cards. 

The thing we came up with was "Less is More". 

At that time there were very few challenges for CAS cards and lots of people seemed to like the idea but didn't know how to go about keeping a design really simple. It was rather unexpected and at the same time, innovative, that we made suggestions to challengers on ideas for improving or simplifying their makes. The main thing is that we quickly amassed thousands (literally) of followers to our blog. We also encouraged contestants to comment on fellow entrants' cards. There were only two of us on the design team and even though we commented on each individual entry, that meant that there would only be two comments from the challenge. It was the beginning of a great community where lots of people got to know one another, via their comments, It was something that made us both proud.

I am so grateful that like minded crafters were willing to step up to help and when I finally decided to step back after about 6 years of running the challenge, the legacy has been allowed to continue.

Thanks go to everyone who has worked in whatever capacity to keep it going!

I am really touched that the girls at LIM have asked me to join them as a Guest Designer for this very special Milestone Challenge!

Now onto this card!

As with the very first challenge, it's a colour challenge and this time it's 

CHOCOLATE

I used an SVG file from Silhouette which I cut out with my Portrait and coloured the various layers with alcohol pens. When I had assembled the chocolates, I gave them a couple layers of clear embossing to add shine and make the edges look more realistic. I made the sentiment on the computer using the font Dohearts. I have my Word programme set to 105% which makes the actual size on my screen to exactly A4, so I can hold things up to my screen to see if I like the placement of the words. I use Text Boxes to add the words, so that I can move them wherever I want. Not very techy but it works for me!

I popped the chocs onto dimensional pads to add a little relief. 

I hope lots of people will join in on this very special occasion, and I hope to come and visit to see your makes!

Stay safe everyone!