BF December inchies received

These are the lovely inchies I received today from the group on BF, organised again by Leigh - thanks, Leigh:



And they are even better irl!

Prize for Irit Shalom's Royal Challenge 1

I took part in Irit Shalom's Royal Challenge 1 and won the prize. I received a package this morning, containing all these stamps:



What a fantastic prize - thank you so much.

Package received from a dear crafting friend

I was overwhelmed this morning to receive these goodies (togetther with a beautiful Christmas card - the first one in the post below) from Gez:



Thank you so much, Gez, for thinking of me and sending these when you have so much to deal with yourself at this time.

More Christmas cards from crafting friends

We had quite a few lovely Christmas cards in the post today, include these super ones from crafting friends:

WOYWW a day late

I know it's a day late, but I thought I'd show my photos for WOYWW - so here is my workspace (or part of it) in all its glory:





Think I need a bit of a tidy up before I start to craft again.

Christmas tree

I haven't got any crafting to show, so thought I put a couple of pictures of our tree - it's only a small one bcause we haven't got room for a big one, but it's just right for us - going for the same gold/copper co-ordinating as last year.

Secret Santa presents

When I received my secret Santa presents from two very kind Bubblies, I was told that I could open them whenever, so I figured that it might be a good idea to open them because there might be things that could be used for Christmas crafting - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

So this shows the remainder of the goodies from Secret Santa 1:

And these were from Secret Santa 2:



I think some of this might get used soon - I seem to be making Christmas cards now for next year.

New Year card

I don't often make New Year cards, but I know I'll need one, so challenge 29 on C.R.A.F.T. has helped me to get on and make it.

Cricut cardz 6 also called for a New Year card, using any colours and any cartridge - so I cut the Happy New Year phrase using the wild card cartridge.

I've used paper from the Forever Friends Christmas Glow pad (I know it's Christmas paper, but it seems fine for New Year too), so I'm linking this for the current Forever friends challenge: 'anything goes'.

It's also appropriate for:

Res-Q 27: 'card emergency' - a quick one layer card
Tellen's place 5: 'use a black base'
Corrosive 42: 'walking in a winter wonderland' - hope this qualifies because it's not a Christmas card, but I think this teddy is definitely in a winter wonderland
Mixed media Monday: 'just hanging out'
Artful Inkables think ink Tuesday: 'clean and simple'
Just buggin 15': 'happy holidays' - I hope that New Year counts and, of course, I used the cricut to cut the Happy New Year
Tanda teaser 128: 'it's cool to be square'
Flourishes
Stamp something: 'winter wonderland somethings'
Our creative corner: 'the holidays are here'
Sunflowers and dragonflies 21: 'baby it's cold outside'
Hope stamps eternal cupcake inspiration 37: this was the picture given:



The stamp is Maya Road 'remember calendar', with a bit of pink colouring with a copic.

Eskimo kisses Christmas card

This card is for the sketch for challenge 3 on Fab 'n' funky:
It uses the colours given for Colour throwdown 72:
I used BG eskimo kisses papers, a piece of glittery ribbon (there was an option for the Fab 'n' funky challenge to include glitter) and some Dovecraft brads.

I'm also linking for Creative card crew 41: 'anything goes'.

This is the picture given for inspiration on Whimsical Wednesday - the Diedrich dare 14, which ties in with the colours I've used:



I turned the sketch on its side:

Cards from crafting friends

I thought I'd show these gorgeous Christmas cards received from crafting friends:








Aren't they lovely?

Swap Christmas cards

I took part in Christmas card swaps on a couple of crafting forums and received these beautifully crafted cards:

From Kath on Bumbleberries:



From Wendy (Robbyn) on Bubbly Funk:



Aren't they lovely.

And I've had quite a few other delightful cards from crafting friends - I'll show them soon (I think it's nice to put them on here for others to see and also so that I will be able to look back on them on here long after Christmas has gone).

A krafty touch of pink and teal

This card is for challenge 157 sketch on Diva coffee break design:


and also for color dare 46: 'Rich Razzleberry, Kraft, Taken with Teal'.

The background is actually wrapping paper (and I've used the matching tag). Everything else is taken from the PM 'touch of pink' and 'touch of teal' kits.



It covers the following challenges as well:

Keryn Campbell colour challenge 26: 'close to cocoa, blush blossom and taken with teal' (I've been meaning to do this one for sooooo long!)
Quixotic 6: 'seeing stars'
Magical crafts 4: 'special Birthday'
Cupcake 70: '5 x 5 birthday card'
Die cut dreams 27: 'glitter me silly'
Try it out Tuesday 48: 'bling it out!!'
Tuesday morning 24: 'recipe: '1 tag, 1hidden message, lots of glitter' - this photo shows the hidden message under the tag:

In the cottage studio prize

The prize for Rumble 18 on In the cottage studio arrived this morning



I look forward to using these lovely stamps.

BF Christmas inchies

The topic for the December inchies swap on BF, hosted again by Leigh - thank you, Leigh - is Christmas.

I've used a very light blue silvery reflective card that has silver foiling within it. I stamped an angel on each inchie - from the Hero Arts 'joys of Christmas' stamp set - and heat embossed with silver detail. I then added a few gems and a little crystal ice stickles on the angels' wings.

It was so difficult to try and get a photo of these because of the reflective card. The first picture is a scan, the second a photo and the third a close up photo of one of the inchies.



The current challenge on Inchy by inch is 'Christmas carol', so these are perfect for 'Hark, the herald angels sing'. And Kraftin' Kimmie 10 this week is asking for 'sparkle, baby!'

This week on Stampin' sisters in Christ, the verse for challenge 17 is Matthew 6:19-20 and the challenge is ' to get out your crafting *treasures* and use on your cards or other projects this week, in other words BLING IT UP.' This seems appropriate, as it's using crafting bling to swap with others.

Obviously atm, 'Christmas' is the theme of many challenges, so I'm also linking for:

Sophisticat 15: 'Christmas - anything goes'
One stop craft 59: 'Christmas love'
Sunday stamper: 'Christmas' - and the previous week was 'angels'
Pink elephant 45: 'winter and/or Christmas'
Flutter by Wednesday 87: 'winter - with a butterfly, fairy or angel'

BF December ATCs

The subject for the ATC swap on BF for December, hosted again by Ali - thanks, Ali - is 'sparkle/glitter'.

I used some turquoisy green foiled card which had silver swirls on it and overlaid this with foiled vellum. In the scan you can't see that Seasons greetings is foiled slightly differently - it just doesn't show up - but you can see it a bit in the photo (although there's glare from the flash).

The glittery piece of ribbon says 'Christmas wishes'.



I'm linking these for Pink elephant 45: 'winter and/or Christmas', Sophisticat 15: 'Christmas theme - anything goes' and Incy wincy 22: 'father/mother Christmas'.

And Kraftin' Kimmie 10 this week is asking for 'sparkle, baby!'

This week on Stampin' sisters in Christ, the verse for challenge 17 is Matthew 6:19-20 and the challenge is ' to get out your crafting *treasures* and use on your cards or other projects this week, in other words BLING IT UP.' This seems appropriate, as it's using crafting bling to swap with others.

BF Christmas twinchies

Nicky has kindly hosted a twinchies swap on BF with the theme of Christmas, using traditional colours.

I decided I would use some stripey red and white Brenda Pinnick card, topped with vellum on which I printed out Happy Christmas over and over agaain. I then used brads at two corners rather than stick the vellum down - oh dear! - I then applied gold stickles around the edges and left last night to dry. This morning I found that the vellum had curled up so much on the non-bradded corners that they looked awful. So I then decided to take the brads out and run the vellum through my xyron - that didn't work very well because the vellum was so curled it didn't feed properly into the xyron - in the end I used my ATG tape gun to apply some sticky and it isn't showing through the vellum, so that rescued it.

Phew!! It would have been much quicker, I think, to have started again this morning, but I need to get these in the post today and the stickles wouldn't have been dry. If I'd started again I would have stuck the vellum firmly before applying the stickles.

So I'm sorry, BF girls, but these aren't very good at all, but I did try - honestly!


I'm also linking for these challenges:

My Grafico 29 'green and red but not a Christmas card' - this one is a bit cheeky because mine is still Christmas, but it isn't a card!
Everybody art 69: 'red/green'
Charisma cardz 49: 'red, green and a choice of either white or silver'
One powerful hour: 'red and green' - it should have been within the hour, but ... read above!
Alphabet: 'G is for green and gold'
Fiskarettes: 'red, gold and green'
Die cut dreams 27: 'glitter me silly'

Also, I came across this song and thought I would share it (you can read about it here):

Happy, Happy Christmas

Written By: Emilie Poulsson
Music By: J.H. Chapek
Adapted By: Terry Kluytmans
Copyright © 1998 KIDiddles.com

"Happy, happy Christmas!"
Let our voices chime,
Long ago was Jesus born
At this blessed time.

"Happy, happy Christmas!"
That's what we will sing
As our little Christmas gifts
To our friends we bring.

"Happy, happy Christmas!"
That's our wish for you,
Peace on earth, good will to all,
And Happy New Year, too!

so this is just right for today (day 289) on 365 cards: 'musical Monday' - choose a Christmas song

Blue and green Christmas

I found a challenge blog that I was unfamiliar with - Encourage Joy (what a lovely name!) - and this is the challenge for this week:

My Ejoy Variety Challenge for you this week is to take time to think about and make genuine and meaninful encouragements to those around you. You could comment on people's creative works. You can let your children know how special they are. Notice something great about your spouse and encourage them. Everyone needs to be loved. Each person may have a different way which love is expressed more meaninfully to them. It could be:
- encouraging words
- spending time with them
- doing something for them
- giving gifts
- touch
This week and throughout this season I hope you will ENCOURAGE JOY!

They then go on to say: '{If you want a card-making challenge you can see my posts for Ejoy challenges from previous weeks and complete one of those} ', so I've chosen the sketch for the previous challenge (14), which also needed to include a ribbon and one other embellishment (I chose buttons):This is also good for:
Sweet stampin' 4: colour combo - use a minimum of three of the given colours - I've chosen 'bashful blue, old olive and brilliant blue'
Sketchy colors 3: 'green/blue'
Dutch dare 66: 'picture inspiration - colours: green, blue, white'
Crafty pad : 'simply a Christmas card'
Sunday stamper 83: 'Christmas'
Cupcake 69: 'sing a Christmas carol' - 'While shepherds watched ...'
Penny's challenges: 'Christmas stars'
Cooking it up with Katie 7: 'Use a Christmas theme, Add Ribbon , Use any current sketch challenge
Crafty Ann 3: texture (the ribbon and buttons)
Hand full of stamps 8: 'something green'

Papers are BG eskimo kisses and the stamped image is PB 'shepherds' coloured with copics, the stars are coloured with Sakura metallic silver.

More vintage holly

This is for challenge 49 on Crafty Pad:

Again I've used the colours required for Copic colour 43 (well, near enough!) - I used the Personal impressions stamp again.

It's hard to see here, but the holly on the left is silver.

This is good too for:

Alphabet 'I is for ink' (copics)
Paper Maniac Inspiration: 'bling' with the option of using pearls - there are 6 on this card.
Theme Thursday: 'vintage'
Charisma cardz 49: 'red, green an a choice of either white or silver' (white and silver here)
Creative card crew 40: 'gold or silver'

Papers are again Brenda Pinnick and Dovecraft ribbon across the bottom.

Vintage holly

This card is for the sketch challenge on Just us girls week 10:

This week's Copic colour challenge 43 calls for us to use BV23 greyish lavender, R59 cardinal and YG63 pea green. I lighted coloured the greyish lavender over light grey card - it doesn't really show too much. The red and green used for the holly are the nearest other colours I have. The stamped image is Personal impressions.

This card has everything called for in Peachy Keen 17 recipe:

• polka dot(s)
• a border
• stripe(s)
• stamped image(s)

As copics are alcohol ink pens, this is good for Alphabet 'I is for ink'.

The challenge this week on Paper Maniac Inspiration is 'bling' with the option of using pearls - there are 6 on this card. And the colours are right for Cupcake Inspiration 36.

The script and stamp/postmark on the stamped image gives a vintage feel to the card, which is good for this week's Theme Thursday.

Golden window

Today's challenge 117 on No time to stamp is ' alter a purchased card'.

The 'window' of this card was rescued from one that was received a couple of years ago - I put the bauble background behind it and mounted on to gold foil card before mounting on to the pearlised card base.

It's also for:

Creative card crew 40: 'gold or silver' (gold surrounds and snowflakes etc)
Colour create 33: 'lilac or purple with aqua, black and white'
Little red wagon 6: 'inspiration from a photo' (the colours are different, but I was inspired by the baubles)
Tanda teaser 127: 'nice and narrow'

Here comes Santa

This is for Sketch Saturday 80:

It's also for:

Dutch dare 66: 'a colour inspiration' (I picked up on the green and white)
Something completely different: 'red and green snowmen' (sorry, playing catch-up with this one)
Sparkle creations Christmas 2010 1: 'Santa' (he really is in that sleigh across the sky!! lol!)
Crafty creations 45: 'Christmas for my pet' (the dog in the picture is waiting for Santa to come)
Creative card crew 40: 'gold or silver' (silver layer, sentiment and gem on snowflake)
3 clovers 43: 'blue, white, silver holiday card' (I know there's green, but for 3 clovers I'm concentrating on the central picture)
If the shoe fits Fashionista Friday 14: 'let it snow'
Paper cutz 21: 'snowman or snowflake' (both on here)
Cute daisy may: 'twinkle, twinkle' - stars, glitter or anything that twinkles - glitter on the picture and plenty of sparkle on the snowflake
Ooh-la-la 42: 'child's card' (this would be suitable)

Papers are Forever Friends Christmas Glow.