Alternative Christmas colours...

Hello boys and girls!

The bonus of having some time off is that I'm not rushing around quite as much as usual - still plenty to do though!  But, it means I have had time to blog the cards that I have made.  Do you find that you manage to scrape together enough time to make a card, but the time to take the photographs, edit them, upload them and attempt to write something witty in a post is just a feat to far?!  That's where I'm at!

Enough yabbering - the card!

I made this card for the STAMPlorations bi-weekly sketch #21 - they're now on sketch #22...maybe I'll catch up at some point?!!  The card does, however, still qualify for the STAMPlorations monthly challenge - I had an inkling that I would miss the sketch deadline so I made sure it was OK for both challenges!!  ;)  The monthly challenge is Stamps & Embossing' - it was like it was made for me!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE embossing!  ;)

Here's the card...

I wish I had noticed before...but I seem to have taken this photograph at a funny angle which makes the grey panel look awfully askew - I promise you it isn't!  I wouldn't be able to sleep if it was even slightly out, trust me on that one - I am Queen OCD when it comes to stuff like that!

Anyway, glossing over that - here's my card.  I am loving the combination of pink, silver, sparkle and grey for a Christmas card...I never thought I'd say that.  I think this may be a theme for this year...?  Don't quote me on it though!  The snowflakes are stamped in a combination of WOW! Metallic Silver Super Fine and WOW! Sparkling Snow which is a white embossing powder with a really fine and beautiful glitter in - it's subtle and gorgeous!  I was proud that I was able to use my STAMPlorations 'Celebrate' stamp for something other than a birthday card...let's face it, Christmas is a time for celebration!

There is a smidgen of dry embossing too - I don't know how well you can see it in the photograph but I used my scoreboard to emboss some lines along the bottom of the grey panel.  I only very recently acquired my scoreboard, I will have to take some time to explore the line embossing possibilities!  Wow, I sound really exciting don't I!!?  Ha ha!  :)

Thanks for stopping by, I'm hoping to get a few more posts underway over the next week ;)

I have also just remembered that this card would also qualify for STAMPloration's 'Anything Goes' challenge - whoop whoop!  In it goes :)

Supplies

Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White Super Smooth, Dark Grey, Raspberry Pink

Stamps: STAMPlorations - Celebrate; DoCrafts - Bellissima Christmas

Ink:        Versamark

Other:    WOW! - Metallic Silver Super Fine, Sparkling Snow, Fluorescent Tickled Pink e/p

Christmas Muse...

Morning!

I am here today with my interpretation of the GORGEOUS card over at Muse, by the lovely Karen!  Her card is so beautiful...it's really feminine without a drop of pink in sight!  ;)

First up, here's my card...

This card just kinda came into being!  Now, I realise that sounds a little bit silly, but it's true.  I knew I wanted to CASE the blue/purple panel from Karen's card, but I didn't want it to look like an exact replica which would've been an easy trap to fall into because where do you go from a card that great?!  :)  I had a piece of vellum floating around on my desk and I was having a bit of a tidy (situation normal!  My desk should be super clean the amount of time I spend clearing it!) Anyway, I was looking at the vellum and wondering whether you'd be able to see colours through it if I blended a background?  Luckily it worked and here we are!  I am trying to get a wriggle on with my Christmas cards so that was the obvious direction for this card.  I embossed the snowflakes in silver, white and silver pearl to emulate the colours Karen used for her Dandelions.  

I also used some NBUS on this card!  Yesterday I received a parcel, a very small parcel I might add, in the post.  Where I live there are two art shops, that is all.  They're not very big shops, more like little family run places and I love them, but they don't stock a great deal and so sometimes I have to resort to online shopping.  Ok, so it's not that much of a chore (!) but I do prefer to keep the small high streets shops in business - it's my little contribution to social, local and economical sustainability :)  Anyway, I had to order some double sided tape from an online shop and I noticed this cute little stamp set out of the corner of my eye. (ok, I was looking!) It's Bo Bunny's Sentiment Stamps and it's perfect!  It has a sentiment for every occasion in one little set!  It just jumped into my basket and ended up in my parcel!  He he!  :)  I even waited for my delivery to arrive before I finished this card because I wanted to use this Christmas sentiment!  So this NBUS is seriously new!!  :)

Without further ado, here is Karen's lovely Muse card...

...see, told you it was purdy!!  :)



Thank you for stopping by guys ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White; Vellum
Stamps:  Wild Rose Studios - Snowflakes; Bo Bunny - Sentiment Stamps
Ink:         Versamark - Champagne Dazzle
Other:     WOW! - Ebony, Silver Super Fine, Bright White Opaque, Silver Pearl e/p; rhinestones

Retro Friday!...

Hi guys!

Are you all looking forward to your weekend?  I am hoping to get some time at my desk to have a go at all the fabulous challenges I love, we'll see how that goes hey?!  I'm sure my DOH will have many plans for us which will invariably involve hard work - he's on a plastering mission at the moment (we are STILL renovating our house!) and I have a horrible feeling I'm going to get roped in to being a joey of sorts.  Part of me hopes that he'll want a rest for at least one day this weekend because he's had a particularly hard week at work this week :)  That makes me sound very lazy, which I absolutely am not, it just gets a bit much sometimes :)  We have a kitchen to fit next week for a client so I don't want to be pooped!

Anyway, that's not why you're here - it's a card blog!!  I made this card a few days ago but haven't had a chance to post it and therefore have missed the Festive Friday deadline!  Doh!  (That one is the actual 'Simpson' sound, not my darling other half!)  Luckily, I made this card using the sketch at Retro Sketches this week - which is particularly awesome!  I will almost definitely be using this sketch over and over again - it's wonderful :)

So, here's my card...

I decided to be brave and make a card with NO SENTIMENT!  There is no stamping whatsoever on this card, which feels kinda strange, but I figured it was quite obvious that it was a Christmas card...wouldn't you say?!  If not, then I'm doing something very wrong!  ;)  The panel underneath the navy is a matt silver card which I actually LOVE!  The colour doesn't show up well on my monitor, it looks fine on my camera so maybe I just have a rubbish screen!  The snowflake has sparkles on, just to jazz it up a bit as it is a super CAS card, even for me!

I am cutting the Retro Sketches deadline a bit fine...what's new huh?!  Here's the sketch that you have only hours left to use!!...

...and the Festive Friday inspiration that I used but failed to join in on in time!...

The new challenge at Festive Friday is to create a holiday project (that's Christmas in England!) that includes a star - I think that should be pretty do-able - I'll try and actually make the deadline this time, it would help wouldn't it!!

That's all for now!  Thank you for stopping by ;)

Supplies
Card:     Paper Mill Direct - White, Navy; Create & Craft Mirror Card - Matt Silver
Stamps: NONE!
Ink:        NONE!
Other:    Spellbinders - Create-A-Flake 3; Cuttlebug - Swiss Dots e/f; Glitz It Sparkles; pearls

Let It Snow...

Hello there!

How is everyone this morning?!  Good I hope :)  

I am going to get into the swing of things early this year and posting regularly is right up there on my to-do list.  Over the past few years I either seemed to have a lot of time or no time at all - this was due in part to work and other boring life commitments, but also to falling out of the habit of photographing and actually posting about the cards I made.  This year I am determined that it will be different and I am planning (with all the good intentions that January brings!) to make a considerably stepped up effort to come here more often!  I hope you don't get bored of seeing me so often!

Anyway, that's my little waffle over - on to the more interesting part, hopefully!  :)

Here's a little card I made for two challenges - WOW! Embossing Challenge where the theme is Ice & Snow and CASology where the cue word is 'Winter'.

I don't know if it shows up very well in this photograph, but the snowflakes are fabulously sparkly!  As is usual, this card looks better in real life but I hope you can get the general gist of it?!

Thanks for dropping in :)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White
Stamps: Papermania - Let It Snow
Ink:        VersaColor - Lapis Lazuli
Other:    WOW! embossing powder - White Pearl; Spellbinders - Create A Flake 3; Swiss Dots ef; glitter 
             glue; rhinestones and pearls