O Tannenbaum

The challenge at  Christmas Kickstart has a rather special guest this time... the wonderful Darnell!

She was the creator of the Twofer Challenge an in her honour the challenge is to make two cards with the same Christmas tree image.

Here I used an oldie but goodie from Stampin' Up Th one on the left was simply gold heat embossed with a sentiment of Penny Black stamps, the one on te right was stamped with Versamark, and clear embossed then coloured with Copic markers and a few trails of Clear Star Gelly Roll marker added. The sentiment here was computer generated as I couldn't remember if I had a stamp with these words. The two frames are from Alexandra Renke dies.

This is also for the challenge at Merry Little Christmas

              MLCCB #13 - August Anything Christmas Goes

Circles

The Challenge at Just us Girls this time is Circles

I used a die by Alexandra Renke for the focal point,  cut from kraft card and gently shaded with a little Distress Ink around the edges. The sentiment is part of stamp from Altenew... I masked off the last couple of words (to you) as it was too long for the card. I had a bit of a struggle to make the die extend far enough to encompass the words, but managed on about the third or fourth attempt.

I thought that the hessian and the rough string complemented the kraft card quite well. I added a few random dark brown pearls (more circles) for a little interest.

Happy Little Stampers 

Anything Goes with Dies

HELP PLEASE!

I have recently bought a Magnetic Platform for my Big Shot Plus die cutting machine, but find that particularly small dies, like the one used to cut the sentiment on this card, don't stay where they are placed on the platform but jig around as though the magnets are pushing them rather than attracting them. Has anyone else come across this phenomenon? I have written to Sizzix but not received any response to date. I'm not sure if this happens with all Sizzix Plus platforms or whether mine has a problem!!!

Any comments would be appreciated!

Shimmer

Here is another card for the challenge at CAS Stencil.

I had tried unsuccessfully to unblock many of my shimmer sprays (which have not been in use for quite some time) and so finally simply decanted a little into another mister to use on this card. It's Cosmic Shimmer Sunlight Mist. I bought the stencil following a retreat in Swindon with Happy Little Stampers, where Kathy, one of the attendees had just bought it from a local craft store, needless to say I had to purchase one too! I loved it then and love it still. It's from The Crafter's Workshop!

 The diecut flower is from Pink Fresh.

The panel on this card is a save from a bit of a booboo. I was stamping a sentiment for another card and dropped my inkpad onto it. As this is quite thick card I decided to use the other side for this card. Recently I have been using some Hemp cardstock from Paper Mill Direct. The reverse side is not textured, so I decided to emboss it with a plate from Papertrey Ink. After doing it I think I actually prefer the reverse side of this embossing but it was done and so that's that.. I'll remember next time... perhaps!

Several people have emailed recently asking about the card I have been using of late.... if you can't get a textured card in your part of the world, you can always stamp your card and then emboss a texture onto it afterwards, as I have done here. I quite like the dark chocolate cardstock which I used for the card base and die cut, against the subtle gold shimmer!

More die cuts

A quick card for a couple of challenges.

Simple die cut dog and cat and a stamped  sentiment from Altenew, all popped onto a raised panel. 

Make it Monday - Friendship

AAA Cards Make it in Minutes

This one is for the challenge at The Male Room where they are having a celebration to commemorate 6 Years... quite an achievement! Congratulations girls definitely worth raising a glass or two!

Bit of a die cutting bonanza today!