Trimming the Tree...

...yep, more Christmas stuff as we head into September.

The folk over at "Winter Wonderland" want to see a card showing the tree being dressed or already done and the folk over at "CHNC" (Challenge 35) want to see some decoupage or pyrimage - at least 3 layers.

Well here I've got both...
My base card is 8x8 smooth white CS (290 weight). As a background I've used the new Papermania 5x7 Bauble Tree embossing folder mounted on some embossed gold CS. I've then added some decoupage from the new Papermania range 'At Christmas Time' - this has also been mounted on embossed gold CS.
This shot shows the layers of the decoupage - four in total. It also shows the embossing of the tree folder.
I thought this was a lovely cosy winter's scene of a roaring fire and a beautifully decorated tree & fireplace.
I love this embossing folder - the 'idea' of a Christmas tree is totally created by baubles and decorations. The embossing is also very clear (even my grotty photography had no problem picking up the image LOL). I embossed it on the same white card as I used for the card blank and just highlighted some of the raised areas with a Stardust gel pen.
I'm sure you can see from this pic that the light catches the pen strokes beautifully and gives a sparkly feeling.

The sentiment came from the decoupage pack and I mounted it on the embossed gold CS so that everything matched. The final touch was some of the crystal ribbon in gold wrapped & knotted around the spine of the card.

That's it folks - why not hop over to the challenge sites to see what other folk have come up with..............................

Die-cuts & Punches...

...is challenge #28 over at "The Paper Shelter".

As I was lucky enough to win their challenge #27, I now have a lovely new digi image to play with - so I did...
My card is a 6x6 card blank in smooth white CS. The background PP is from a Papermania paper stack and I actually used the 'hole' created by my Marianne die rather than the die-cut itself. Two of the edges are decorated with Martha Stewart 'Punch around the page' hearts. I also used the deep edge lattice hearts by Martha Stewart to punch out the white border at the bottom of the card. The sentiment is one of Lynne Salmon's digi ones from 'Sentiments4you' which I printed and then cut out using my straight circle x-Cut thin dies.
The image has been coloured using Copic pens. I also edged the sentiment using the pens.
The image has been mounted on 3D foam and attached over the lattice heart border. The sentiment is attached using a double layer of 3D foam to make it stand up a bit more.

The image was lovely to colour, although I did panic a bit as I had coloured about half of the skin areas with my E000 only for it to start running out (looks like I'll have to use different skin shades until they get some more in at Pinnacle Crafts).

Why not hop over to the challenge site and see what other folk have created........

Molly Bloom...

...makes her first appearance.

I have to admit, I've had this stamp about a month and I had stamped and partially coloured this little miss but hadn't done anything with her.

The "Paperlane Challenge" has monthly challenges using the Molly Bloom images so I thought I'd give it a go and have just about scraped in for "TPLC 02" - Shades of Sunshine.
I haven't gone mad with embellishments on this card as I thought it would make a good invite for a Bar-B-Q.
The background PP is from my Costco pack (300 sheets of 12x12). I have used the reverse of the PP to matt the image. The ribbons across the card are yellow & orange - sunshine colours and I've edged the 'sentiment' strips with orange too.

The image is coloured using Copic pens.

Quite a simple card compared to my normal 'blooms galore' - hope you like it..........................

Time to...

,,,recycle.

Challenge #12 over at "TOMIC" wants to see some recycling going on - and we have to show the item 'before' it has been altered.
This is what I started with...a small coffee jar - suitably de-labeled and cleaned.

You might want to grab a drink at this point as there are a few more photos than usual.
After a bit of colouring, cutting & sticking I ended up with a little decorated sweetie gift jar.
After wrapping some pretty blue PP around the jar, I attached Patch Tilda and a spray of assorted flowers and ribbon...
...and the lid got a bit of the same treatment.
Quite a lot of flowers here for a small jar.
The lid had the same pretty PP wrapped around the edge of the lid after having been punched out using the Martha Stewart Doily Trim.
You can just see in this photo the background PP and the amount of blooms used.

Why not pop over to the site and see what other 'altered' bits & pieces have been produced..........................

Pink, Green & Coffee...

...is the colour scheme set for the current challenge (#96) over at "Die Cut Dreams".

I had been thinking about a couple of ideas and then I picked up my copy of the latest issue of Creative Cardmaking today. The freebie papers inside were from two of the Nitwit ranges - the 'So Berry Precious' was just right.
The card is a 6x6 smooth white CS blank. Dark brown bazzill was matted onto the card blank and then a matt of Nitwit PP was attached to that. A small strip of bazzill was attached across the card to look like ribbon.
I fell in love with this cute little image and the colours were just right.
A selection of pink & green blooms were applied to the lower right-hand corner. Blooms are from a variety of sources - Papermania, Anita's, WOC, and Prima.

So there you have it...Pink, Green and in my case...black coffee....................

Layers...

...lots of Layers.

The challenge (#57) over at "KKKG" was quite straight forward - use layers.
The base card is a sheet of A4 smooth white CS folded in half. Some paisley PP (Costco - 300 sheet pack) was attached towards the lefthand side. Some Martha Stewart punched Doily trim was applied in two shades of red CS (PayPer Box) - a matt of black and silver DCWV was layered over the top and then some more doily trim before attaching the image.
The image was coloured using Copic pens and this time I decided to colour the hair black - not a colour choice I use very often.
The silver glitter on the matting certainly adds some bling.
More layering...

So there you go - a card with a Kenny K image and lots of layers.

Why not take a look at what the DT came up with........................

Fit for a Princess...

...I hope you agree.

Challenge #29 at "Totally Tilda" says that a 'princess' Tilda must be used or the word princess, or a crown. Also as Lynne Salmon is sponsoring the challenge - one of her sentiments should be used.

Well, I don't have any princess Tilda's so I've used a Birthday Tilda instead. The word princess appears inside the card along with a crown and Lynne's "Special" sentiment is on the front.
This is the card closed...
...and this is the card standing as an easel.
The inside sentiment acts as the 'stopper' for the easel and you can see here is the word princess and the crown.
The PPs used are from the KaiserKraft Magical range - don't you think that is a perfect castle for a little princess.
Tilda has been coloured with Copic pens in colours that match the PPs.
As you can see, there are some blooms but they have been kept to a minimum and there are a few heart-shaped gems to add a bit of bling. Hope this is in keeping with the requirements of the challenge.....................

A Christmas Birthday...

...or Anything Goes.

That's the challenge that was set over at "Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge" (CHNC) for their Week 34.

Having a birthday at or near Christmas can be difficult as there is often a temptation by friends/family to combine the two events - so not fair if this means only getting one gift. With this in mind, I wanted a birthday card that reflected the time of year without being too Christmassy. This is what I came up with...
The PPs are from a HOTP paper stack 'Forever Christmas Cards' which isn't in-your-face-Christmas but does use the traditional colours. The sentiment is printed from the PC (Olde English Font).
On this occasion I decided to decorate the inside of the card with some of the same PPs - Most of the cards I make don't have anything inside until I come to use them and then I will normally print an insert for the inside containing an appropriate sentiment or decoration.
The stamped image is one of the new Nellie Snellen Christmas stamps "Present Bear" which I have coloured with Copic pens. The image is then mounted onto a foam snowflake (one from a box of 30 I got for £1 in the clearance section of WHS - Bargain!).

I haven't added any additional embellies on this card as I think the snowflake should stay as the main focus. Hope you like it.............................

An Unusual Sentiment...

...gosh this was hard.

I tried thinking on lots of 'plays' on words that I could use for the Week 120 challenge over at "Just Magnolia and hAnglar &sTanglar" but nothing seemed to work with the stamps that I had.

I finally decided on this...
Apart from my Ponytail Tilda, everything on this card comes from the new KaiserKraft range 'Chapter One' - the mix of greens & black really work well together.
The sentiment is actually a quote that was cut from one of the PPs and the embellishment are chipboard shapes from the range that I've added a few pearls to.
This little Tilda looks quite thoughtful so I thought she was perfect to go with this sentiment. As the background PP is quite 'busy' I have kept the range of colours the same when colouring the image with my Copics so that everything blends. There are some lovely paper roses in this range but I decided not to use them as I thought it could make things look too fussy.

Do hop on over to the challenge site to see what the DT and other folk have come up with........................

Christmas card for a man...

...or boy is what the folks at "Winter Wonderland" asked for.

I decided to go for a vintage looking image as I wanted a male card that wasn't cute or comical. I know this wooden stamp of a traditional Santa was part of a DoCrafts Christmas promotion but I'm not sure if it was last year or the year before.
The base card is Kraft CS and I've kept things fairly simple both colourwise and as far as embellishments go. Some simple matting and a piece of Christmas red crystal ribbon.
You can see that I kept to a fairly limited colour selection for the image too. I tried to use my Copics to create a more vintagy (is that a word?) look without making any of the colours too bold.

Hope you like.....................

Up, Up and Away...

...with Smookie and his balloon.

The lovely folk over at "Creative Craft World" asked for a card for a child this week so I thought Smookie would be perfect.
I decided to keep the embellishments on this fairly simple and luckily had some card candy with stars on that reflected the pattern on the balloon - they also picked out the colours in the image.
Smookie's wings have been given a bit of bling with some stickles and the image is mounted onto a layer of embossed gold card. Smookie is actually coloured with a mix of Copics & Promarkers.
I think this little character by Nellie Snellen is super and did you notice he has a little friend sitting on his balloon.

This challenge closes on Thursday so you still have some time if you would like to join in.........................

Things that move...

...that's this weeks theme at "Less is More".

Yep, week 29's theme has plenty of scope. However, I had just been flicking through a copy of Craft Stamper and I noticed the freebie stamp on the front was a butterfly - so that was it.
The base card is a 5x5 inch ivory square blank and I've used my Ranger Distress ink pads again (frayed burlap, antique linen, old paper) as I wanted to create the effect of the butterflies disappearing up the card.
Can you see what I mean?
I just had to add a bit of bling to the wings to finish it off. I thought this would make a sweet little notelet/invite to use to ask a friend to pop round for a coffee................

Fancy a...

...cuppa?
Challenge #27 over at "The Pater Shelter" is a recipe...3 Designer papers, 2 Images, 1 Embellishment.
The papers used on this card are; dots - DoCrafts, Patterned - Hunkydory, Pearlised - Crafters Companion. The embellishment is some crystal ribbon.
The images on this card are digi ones that I received free from CDAC (Crafters Digital Arts Center) as part of their Progressive Challenges . This challenge is broken down into sections and if you meet the requirements of the challenge you receive more free images. There is still time to sign-up so why don't you hop over and take a look..........................

Please let me introduce you to ...

...Nigel.
Nigel is helping Helen over at "It's All Fiddle Fart" to pick her daily winners. Helen is celebrating her 2 year Blog-aversary by having a draw each day this week. Each draw is being conducted using Helen's 'teapot of fortune' and her able assistant Nigel.

I have to send Nigel a big hug as today (Monday) he picked my name out of the teapot...lucky me...yipee!!!...................

Isn't this a...

...lovely scene.
Clean washing flapping in the breeze (image found on Google).

Today has seen no crafting what so ever but for the first time in ages I managed to get all my washing done and 'line dried' - I can't remember the last time I was able to do this (problem of working full time).

Knowing I would be at Mum's all day, I took my washing with me to bung in her machine. I have to say, I didn't hold out any hopes of being able to peg it out as the sky wasn't looking too friendly first thing this morning. However, the weather proved me wrong and Mum's sun-trap of a garden had just enough of a breeze crossing it for me to peg out her washing & mine and get it all dry. No airer full of damp washing for me this week or need to use the tumble drier - result!

This is one of the bug-bears of working full time - you can never be sure the weather will be good all day so I won't peg stuff out only to have it rained on before I get home from work. One thing you can normally be sure of is that if the weather is going to be good I'll be stuck at work unable to take advantage of it - but not today...yipee.

The smell of fresh line-dried washing is one of those smells that has got to be a favourite with many folk otherwise why would some of the big scented candle makers try to reproduce it.

So, no crafting today folks but a lovely pile of fresh smelling 'dry' washing........................

Monochromatic in...

...shades of brown.

The "TOMIC" challenge wanted something monochromatic so this is my submission...
Everything is in shades of brown from stone to very dark brown and cream through to rust.
My image is the Ponytail Tilda that I was lucky enough to win recently - isn't she sweet.
The sentiment is a digi from Lynne Salmon at 'Sentiments4You'.

I have only used a few flowers on this but have blinged it up a bit with some pearls - so still keeping with the shades of brown theme.

I do like using shades of brown as it reminds me of chocolate and coffee, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......................