Buttons and Bows

The November card challenge on the Scrapology blog is to use Buttons and Bows on your card.

I used a digi-image from DigiStamp Boutique for my card and coloured it with Promarkers -

I used adhesive ribbon down one side and the stamped sentiment is by Kaiser Craft.  The lovely Christmas bakers twine is from The Ribbon Girl.  The image was cut using a Deckle Rectangle die by Spellbinders.

There is still time to take part in the challenge as the closing date is 15th December.

Winter Wedding Anniversary

Another card for this month's Penny Black Saturday Challenge which is Cute Christmas.  I have used a lovely stamp of dancing snow people and made it into an anniversary card for a couple who celebrate their anniversary just before Christmas.

I think the snow couple are just perfect for a December wedding anniversary!!  The stamped sentiment is by Stamps Away and the printed sentiment is from Pink Petticoat.  I used a Martha Stewart punch for the snowflakes using silver vellum.  The lovely ribbon was rescued from a box of chocolates, I wish I could tie lovely neat bows like that.  The white cardstock mat was embossed using the snow flurry embossing folder by Cuttlebug.

Ribbon Girl Colour Challenge

The colour challenge this month on The Ribbon Girl blog is to use lavender hues.  I made a couple of Christmas cards.

The hedgehog is a Penny Black stamp and the sentiment is from Personal Impressions.  I coloured the image with Promarkers and added Crystal and Lace Stickles.  The ribbon is from an old QVC Christmas themed kit.

I made a second card using the same colour scheme -

Fang-tastic Birthday

The challenge this month at Penny Black and More is Any Die Will Do.

I made this card for my niece's birthday using Spellbinder dies for the mat and a Cheery Lynn die for the foliage.

I used Penny Black 'Feline Count', I think this must be my most used Penny Black stamp. The sentiment was computer generated and punched with a SU frame punch.  The flowers were punched with an EK Success punch and embellished with red dew drops.

Trio of tags

This is my final project for Jennifer's Jumbles Frosty Festivities event

I was inspired by this post on gift tags to make a set of special gift tags.  We are on a cruise this year for Christmas with my parents and are planning on just taking a small gift for each person to open on the big day, so I want a special tag to go on my gifts.

I cut a tag using a Sizzix die and covered them with scraps of Stampin' Up paper.  I used circle punches to make a mat for the glittered alphabet monogram and then added die cuts which were a magazine freebie last year.  I tied a red ribbon bow on each candy cane and threaded a loop of bakers twine through the back and then tied the candy cane to the tag using the twine. 

The tags in close up -

Once I had started making the tags and had figured out how to attach the candy canes, they came together quite quickly.  I do have some candy canes left (I did succumb and eat a couple three) so if I get time I might make some more.

Glitter and Shimmer

And another project completed for Jennifer's Jumbles Frosty Festivities - this one was for her challenge to add glitter or shimmer.

I always like to add a bit of glitter to my Christmas cards but I made an extra effort to make these two cards extra glittery and shimmery!!

I used some Penny Black stickers which I mounted onto cardstock and then glittered with Stardust and Icicle Stickles.

I also added extra Stardust Stickles to the patterned paper and mounted my sentiments (PI and Penny Black) onto glitter cardstock.

Then I added metallic ribbon and gemstones to each card to finish off.

I just wish that I had a glitter setting on my camera so that you could see just how glittery and sparkly these cards are in the flesh!!

Prettige Kerstdagen Toegewenst

I am still working on stuff from Jennifer's Jumbles Frosty Festivities weekend

I took inspiration from  this post to make some cards with the greeting in a different language.  I have a lot of friends in The Netherlands so thought it might be nice to send some cards with a Dutch greeting on.

I used one of my favourite stamps from the Penny Black T for transparent set 'Christmas Friends'.  I am also entering this card into Penny Black Saturday Challenge November challenge - Cute Christmas.

The greeting was computer generated and punched out with a SU oval punch, the stamped sentiment is from Hobby Art Ltd.

The images were coloured with Promarkers and glittered with Icicle Stickles

Colour combo

One of the inspirational posts over the weekend was to use the colour combination of pale blue, purple, gold and silver.  I really wasn't sure that this was going to work for me, I have used pale blue and silver together and purple and gold but never all four colours together.

For me I found that making the purple and gold the most predominant colours and then adding in the pale blue and silver as accents worked best.

I used a lovely Penny Black snowflake wreath stamp and stamped it in Versafine Imperial Purple.  I then filled the snowflakes with small purple, pale blue and silver gemstones or Waterfall (pale blue) and Silver Stickles.

I then used Spellbinder nestability dies to mat and layer onto brushed gold cardstock.  The purple papers used are from Craft Creations and the sentiments are both by Personal Impressions.

I then finished off each card by adding more blue, silver and purple gemstones to the corners.

I would definitely try this colour combo' again perhaps make pale blue and silver the main colours and accent with gold and purple.

Boxing Day

Whilst going round on the blog hop yesterday, I decided to take inspiration from Sarah's layout to make the last page for my Journal Your Christmas 2011.

I used Webster's Pages 'Sweet Season' as I had used this for all the other pages for JYC, and a couple of photos from Boxing Day.

The hexagons were punched with a Creative Memories punch and the little cupcakes in circles are stickers raised up with Pinflair gel.  The title is AC Thickers.  I then added some pink and lilac adhesive gemstones.  Thank you Sarah for the inspiration.

Christmas decorations

I was inspired by this post on making winter themed jewellery to make some quick and easy Christmas decorations using patterned paper.

We will be away over the festive period this year so aren't going to bother lugging all the tree and decorations down out of the loft, but I do want to put up a bit of tinsel and other decoration bits.  I tend to keep anything handmade in my wardrobe as I worry that with the loft being so cold they might not survive up there.  I don't have many handmade decorations so it was nice to make a few more that could be hung from the mantelpiece or on the unit doors.

I found some Christmas shaped frames that are supposed to be used for cross stitch - they have sat in my cross stitch stash for many years and the likelihood of me actually filling them with a cross stitched piece is virtually nil, so this seemed to be a good moment to fill them with Christmas paper instead.

I used Graphic 45 'Christmas Emporium' papers and lovely Christmas Bakers Twine from The Ribbon Girl.

This is also my Monthly Make for November

Snowmobile

I was inspired by this layout by Jennifer to scraplift it - I used the smaller size of 8 1/2 by 11 as I only had tiny photographs.  I was actually going to do a layout documenting my hatred and fear of snow but I couldn't be bothered to print any photographs but found these small photos I had left over from our trip to Canada in 2000.  This trip was just before I started having to use a wheelchair on a regular basis for going out so I am so glad that we did seize the opportunity to go then as a lot of what we did would not have been easy if we had taken a chair with us. 

A highlight of the trip was going out onto the Athabasca Glacier in a giant snowmobile and you were actually allowed to get out and walk about on it.  I totally wimped out of this as I am so scared of falling over and breaking something but our lovely driver Kelsey managed to coax me to the bottom of the steps for a photograph so that I could say that I had actually stood on the glacier.

My scraplift was perfect for one of today's challenges to overlap papers.

I haven't a clue what the papers are - they are leftovers from an Advent box that I made several years ago.  The alphabet is a Brenda Pinnick chipboard one and the snowflakes were made using a Martha Stewart punch and silver vellum.

I added some lace from The Ribbon Girl to my layers along the edge of the photographs and alternated the stripey paper with Bazill cardstock that had been punched with a Martha Stewart snowflake punch.

Ho Ho Ho

I've been spending the weekend taking part in Jennifer's Jumbles Frosty Festivities Weekend

For the next few days I will be posting lots of festive stuff inspired by the weekend.

First up is a card inspired by this and it is also being entered into this month's Penny Black Saturday Challenge which is Cute Christmas.

This is my newest Penny Black stamp and even though I have loads of Christmas stamps I just could not resist this cheeky hedgie - isn't he cute LOL!!!

I stamped the Hedgie twice and after cutting out, raised him up using Pinflair gel

I used Promarkers to colour the image and a little Icicle stickles for glittering.  The Ho Ho Ho sentiment is Kanban and the Cool Yule is by PI.

Windmolen

This week I have helped my friend Ali from Bricabracadocio by doing a sample layout for her weekly challenge on UKScrappers.

The criteria was -

• a colour scheme that is unusual for you to use
• delve into those scraps bags and use up some scraps
• do something "arty"! (whatever that terms means for you)

The first two parts were pretty easy - I really don't like orange and brown, they are colours I normally avoid in clothes and home decor and also in my crafting.  I had plenty of scraps in my scrap bag too!!  The tricky part was doing the arty bit - then I remembered a layout by Ifa Zainon in Scrap 365 where she had drawn her own embellishments.  So that was going to be my arty element - drawing my own windmill to embellish the layout and I also went on to use a hand-drawn title too.

The chevron paper is AC Amy Tangerine, the rest is all scraps and the clouds are cut from a scrap of Cosmo Cricket and outlined with a marker pen.  The photographs are from our trip earlier this year to the Netherlands and some more lovely windmills at the Open Air Museum at Arnhem. 

Christmas Friends

Oops - been a bit blogged out since taking part in Blogtoberfest so it is taking me a little while to get back in the swing of regular blogging.  I'm also a bit crafted out too after my cardmaking marathon to get my stock levels back up ready for my open house fundraiser.

I thought I would share with you some of the Christmas cards that I made -

All the stamps are Penny Black and have been coloured using Promarkers.  The papers are a mixture of Craft Creations, Brenda Pinnick and magazine freebies.

October - My Month in Numbers

Flying in very late with my numbers for October - you can find out about My Month in Numbers on Julie's blog if you would like to join in.

October was all about getting ready for the all day fundraiser that I did on Friday, having sold so much of my cards and jewellery at the coffee morning that I did at my parent's sheltered housing complex.  We raised £195 for Children with Cancer Fund.

So to replenish my stock I made 66 Christmas cards, 10 stretchy bracelets, 5 memory wire bracelets, 10 pairs of earrings,6 post it note pads, 20 other cards and stitched & stuffed 2 knitted teddy bears.  I will let you know how much I raised when I do November's numbers.

Scrapbooking had to take a back seat during October but I still managed 1 double page layout at my monthly class and 3 layouts at my crop.

There are now only 122 days to the Marillion convention next March in The Netherlands.

A welcome break in the middle of my craft-fest was a weekend convention in Leamington Spa for Fish (ex-lead singer of Marillion).  It was a great weekend - 2 acoustic sets, 2 evening gigs, 2 great support bands, 1 film screening and many hours spent in the company of great friends.

I managed to keep up with Blogtoberfest and do a daily blog post for 31 days!!

And now it is onwards and upwards with November, lets see what numbers this next month brings!!