Purple Autumn or Christmas?

This purple Christmas card follows the sketch for challenge 62 on Cutie Sunday:

'Autumn purple' is the challenge on DCM this week - I've gone for Christmas rather than autumn, which I think is OK as long as it's purple.

It was very difficult to get a photo because the background and the sentiment are foiled mirror card - in fact, the lower part of the background is much lighter than the top, which doesn't show here.





Another one for Creative Inspirations 18 and Creative Card Crew 31. This is also for Little Paper Shop - using non-traditional Christmas colours.

Birthday star

For this card I followed sketch 136 on CPS - I flipped it sideways:



Day 165 on 365 cards 'shape up' called for a star to be the prominent shape on the card.

One Stop Craft challenge 50 is 'happy birthday', so this is good for that.

The large pink star is chipboard coloured with chalk ink. The two pink stars with white spots are material, so I'm linking the card for Sukkersott 56: textile/felt with machine stitching (round the edges of the stars).

Autumn is in the air

Autumn is still a popular choice of theme for challenge blogs atm, so these two cards are for:

the new monthly Crafty Calendar challenge 1: 'autumn'
Tuesday Taggers: shades of autumn
Secret Crafter Saturday 53: autumn colours
C.R.A.F.T. 20: inspirational photo:



Color Throwdown 63: kraft, olive green, dark brown, dark yellow (I wasn't sure that the kraft was there, but I think the ribbon is the right colour):



I'm editing this because I've just found the new monthly challenge blog 'By the cute and girly' with 'autumn glory' as the first topic, so I'm linking this card there as it was made after the challenge was launched.

So here are my latest two autumn cards, made with 'the autumn wishes' papers and elements with this month's Scrapbook Magazine, plus a few other bits and pieces, including orange pearls and gems (sorry that some of them look green on here):

It's a wrap with kraft

Ages ago I bought a roll of kraft wrapping paper from Paperchase - and it's been sitting in my cupboard ever since, neglected. So when I saw that there were a couple of challenges this week asking us to use kraft, I thought I'd get it out and use it - I've also got some plain kraft sheets somewhere, but thought this was rather nice with the simple black and white pattern, with the addition of the blooms, button brads and ribbon.

The challenges it's for:

365 cards day 122: it's a wrap - using wrapping paper (don't know why I haven't done this one before)

Allsorts week 21: use the colour kraft

No time to stamp 108: krafty black



I've actually made a load more Christmas cards today - simple ones that I'll sell cheaply - using bits and pieces, some recycled - haven't had time to photo and show any - perhaps tomorrow.

You might notice that the photo of tonight's card has been taken on top of my printer - the only available space in the room!

Folding up with a touch of decoupage

The theme on DCM this week is 'folding up'. I had hoped to make a much fancier folded card as shown by Kathy on BF for their WCD mini crop, but I just haven't had time because of trying to get the necessary quantity of cards ready for next week.

So I've resorted to easy-peasy cards from a Dena kit - there is decoupage on these as well, so I'm also linking for Pile in on 18: 3 dimensional! and Charisma Cardz 39.

Whimsy challenge 22 is 'sugar and spice, frogs and snails' - the first three are particularly for boys and the next one for girls.

It was difficult to get photos of these cards as they should stand - you can't see the bits in between the concertinas, but you can get the general idea.



The birds card above is fine for Theme Thursday 'wings', as is the butterfly one below - and the butterfly one is good for Crafty Catz challenge 2: butterflies.


That's another nine cards done for next week.

Decoupage Christmas cards

Pile it on challenge 18 this week is '3 dimensional!', which is just right, because I needed to make a lot more Christmas cards and have done a batch of 18 decoupage cards.

The idea of 'Pile it on' is to see how many challenges you can incorporate for the theme.

Of course, as they are yet more Christmas cards, they are good for:

Creative Inspirations Challenge 18 'Christmas in October, Creative Card Crew 31 'It's a celebration' and Saturday Secret Crafter challenge 52 'celebration'.

Charisma Cardz challenge 39 was 'decoupage' - I actually made three of these cards before the deadline for this challenge was up, but just didn't have time to photo and blog them, so I'm still linking there.

I must apologise for the photos - the sun was streaming in (can't complain in October), bringing a shaft of light and shadows - and I haven't got time to fuss too much about the photos, as I need to get on and make more cards.

It's a pity that you can't really see the foiling on many of these cards or the glitter on some, but you can get the general idea. Even though some appear to be flat, they are all decoupaged.

These first two are to send to children, so they are right for Lili of the valley 38: a Christmas card for a child:


The one on the left here is blue and red, which is the theme this week for Paperminutes 33; the card on the right is a windows scene for Fab's Big Christmas week 38: 'Santa looking in' card:


The theme for challenge 3 on Crafty Catz is 'snowmen and snowflakes' - these figure on quite a few of these cards, but certainly on this one below on the left and also on the one below that on the right.

Santa's sleigh on this card on the left is right for Winter Wonderland 19: sleigh bells ring:

and these are two more specifically for children (Lili of the valley 38):

Hot chocolate or Coffee and Cream

When I first saw challenge 17 on Winter Wonderland: 'hot chocolate', I knew what paper I was going to use, but I just didn't get round to making the card until now. It's very simple, but quite effective. The panel behind the Christmas pudding is vellum with feint gold holly print, mounted on to a coppery gold foil card. The background reminds me of swirling hot chocolate - mmmmm.

This week's theme on Rosie-Dee for week 55 is 'coffee and cream with a cherry on top' - not exactly a cherry, but the red berries are similar and the rest of the card has the colours of coffee and cream (when I'm not thinking of hot chocolate!)




Of course, as they are Christmas cards, they are more for:

Creative Inspirations Challenge 18 'Christmas in October, Creative Card Crew 31 'It's a celebration' and Saturday Secret Crafter challenge 52 'celebration'.

What's on your workdesk Wednesday

It's that time in the week again - has it really been seven days since last Wednesday? Mind you, today has been a(nother) long day up at Guy's with John, so this is my first opportunity today to get in here and do any crafting. Having just put together three simple decoupage Christmas cards (got to build up stock as quickly as I can) I remembered that I should take a photo for WOYWW - perhaps it's just as well to take it now than later!

I've been featured

My card for last week's sketch challenge on Paper Blooms has been featured - I am so surprised. I really enjoyed making that card.

Christmas cards

Yesterday I made 100 Christmas cards - they were simple ones, using a variety of stamped images and digi images (mainly Charmed Dottie ones). Papers are a mix of DCVW, Dovecraft and Papermania. I made 5 cards for each design, because I will be selling them in packs of 5 for charity.

I'm a little late for My Time to Craft 79: snow buddies, but quite a few of these cards are good for that.

I used this sketch on the sweetest thing challenge 38 for quite a few of the cards, changing it a bit here and there - in fact it influenced the layout of many of these cards:











Some of the cards fit a few challenges this week:

Creative Inspirations Challenge 18 is 'Christmas in October', so they are all good for that. And Creative Card Crew 31 is 'It's a celebration' - so Christmas definitely is! Also the theme of this week's Saturday Secret Crafter challenge 52 is 'celebration'.

Fab's Big Christmas 40 is 'paper strips and tearing' - I haven't done the tearing, but there are plenty of paper strips on a lot of these cards.

Papertake: black, white + one other - the following three are appropriate for that (and they still follow the sketch - just turned):



Challenge 27 on Digital Tuesday today is 'music to my ears', so these carol singers seem appropriate for that (they are a Dottie download):


For this one, the kings were coloured with copics (as was the Hero Arts Santa stamp on one of the above cards), so this is good for today's Die Cuts R Us 10: get colourful:

Die Cuts R us challenge 9 award

I was picked as one of the 3 top cards for challenge 9 on Die Cuts R Us for this card.

Christmas circles

This card is for sketch 46 on Just Birthdays and Christmas:


Today's challenge on Dottie's World is 'going round in circles', so I thought the PM paper with the Christmas greetings in circles was just right - and even the little dots on the other paper are circles ... and perhaps even the dots on the cuttlebug swiss dots embossing could be classed as circles - probably pushing it a bit far! lol!

The digi image is, of course, a Charmed download.

Kaboodle 14 calls for a recipe: 1 solid cardstock (the green core'dination embossed card), 2 patterned papers (the PM ones). 3 embellishments (the ribbon, wreath and 3D sentiment) and a digi image (the Charmed Christmas tree).

As I've used a digi image, it's another one for this week's CCEE. And the use of red and green again is another one for this week's Simon Says challenge.

Rainbow lori

This is the inchie I made for the BF September swap - have received it back with the others that I showed here - thought it would be appropriate the Paperminutes 82: birds. Sorry for the grainy look to the photo - it's because of the magnification.