Another red and purple Christmas card

The friend who asked me to make the previous card, asked me to also make this one, supplying me with the photo.

Yet again, I thought that I'd go with the purple and red theme, using the same background purple matt foil card and music vellum that I used for the previous card, this time using a giant purple snowflake instead of the chipboard swirl and some more of the poinsettias courteous of one of the BF secret santas.

This is good for these challenges:

365 cards day 235: 'Wacky color Wednesday' - red, purple, brown (the wall behind the group and the background of the sentiment)
Saturday spotlight 10: 'Christmas flowers'
Sketchy colors (Norway) 1: 'color: purple/lilac'
Allsorts 30: purple
Kaboodle 19: 'snowflakes'
Sophisticat 13: 'snowflakes and sparkle'
Design Dollies elements challenge: 'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow - snowflakes'
Creatalicious 4:'include snowflakes and lots of sparkle'
2 red bananas: 'Christmas/winter card'
Pollycraft: 29 'Ria's wonderful Christmas time'
Creative card crew 39: 'Christmas'
Spoon full of sugar 80: 'non-traditional Christmas colours' (I know that red is traditional, but purple isn't)
All that scraps: 'anything Christmas'
Stampavie and more 72: 'Christmas'
Crafty Calendar 3: 'winter sparkle'
My time to craft 68: 'winter pals!'




Don't forget: My blog candy closes at midnight tonight. If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Christmas flowers and flourish

I was asked by a friend to make this card, using a photo that she gave me, which I scanned. As these carol singers were dressed in deep purple - and a red hat - I decided to use that colour scheme - I know that it's unusual for Christmas, but it just seemed to go with the photo.

The background is a matt satin finish foil, such a beautiful rich purple, a bit of a pity to cover it with the music vellum, but that seemed to fit the theme of the card. For the red colour, I used two of the poinsettias that I received with one of my BF secret santa packages (read about it here). The flourish with snowflakes is a chipboard piece from Tando Creative (feast your eyes on the wonderful items on their blog), which was included in the Bubbly Funk October kit. It started off as naked chipboard - I coloured it with a purple Copic, Sakura metallic silver on the outer parts of the snowflakes and Sakura white glaze pen for the inner parts of the snowflakes. I then topped it all with glossy accents (as usual, you can see from the bottom picture that I was a little impatient for the GA to dry because you can just see a cloudy bit. I added the little sparkly snowflake with the silver gem (also part of the October kit) and added a few other silver gems, including the centres of the snowflakes.

This fits a few challenges:

Pile it on 26: flowers and flourishes
365 cards day 272: 'crossing the line' - let elements hang over the edge on at least tree sides
Saturday spotlight 10: 'Christmas flowers'
Sketchy colors (Norway) 1: 'color: purple/lilac'
Allsorts 30: purple
Kaboodle 19: 'snowflakes'
Sophisticat 13: 'snowflakes and sparkle'
Design Dollies elements challenge: 'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow - snowflakes'
Creatalicious 4:'include snowflakes and lots of sparkle'
2 red bananas: 'Christmas/winter card'
Pollycraft: 29 'Ria's wonderful Christmas time'
Creative card crew 39: 'Christmas'
Spoon full of sugar 80: 'non-traditional Christmas colours' (I know that red is traditional, but purple isn't)
All that scraps: 'anything Christmas'
Stampavie and more 72: 'Christmas'
Crafty Calendar 3: 'winter sparkle'
My time to craft 68: 'winter pals!'
Artful inkables: 'chipboard'
Creative Belli 79: 'chipboard'






Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Red, green and gold

'Traditional colours of red, green and gold' is the theme on Stampin' for the weekend 27: 'Christmas time, misletoe and wine', so this card is good for that - the surrounds of the sentiment and picture are gold, although not easy to see here, as are some the parts of the picture. Papers are BG.

It's also another for Color throwdown 71: 'olive, red, brown/cream, pink', also for Tellen's place 3: 'pink and red' (both are in the picture - not a very usual combination).

This is also good for Alphabet 'H is for house'.


Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Noel

This is a very simple card - the Noel is actually silver, which is good for Crafty Catz 11 colour challenge: 'green, red and silver'.

This is another one for Corrosive 40: 'green and red ... let's get ready for Christmas' and Cupcake 68: 'red and green', also for Incy wincy 20: 'red and green'. Challenge 2 on Tellen's place is also 'red and green'.



Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Indigo blue Christmas card and tag set

This is a card and tag set for the following challenges:

Creative inspirations 37: 'Chrisstmas card and tag set'
No time to stamp 116: 'tag it pretty'
Secret Crafter Saturday 61: 'matching set' - card and tag to match
ABC: 'I is for indigo'
Paper Play 44: 'Christmas without red or green'
Tuesday taggers: 'a Christmas carol' - Hark the herald angels sing - particularly the phrase 'light and life to all he brings' - and could have been for the previous week's challenge: 'festival of light'
Spoon full of sugar 80: 'non traditional Christmas colours'
Fab's big Christmas 48: 'free magazine papers' (yes, more of these!)





Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Santa is wishing you a merry Christmas

This card is for the sketch on Basic Grey week 9:



It's also for:

Allsorts 29: 'buttons'
Saturday Spotlight 9: 'hats on'
Creative craft 4: 'waiting for Santa'
Wednesday stamper: 'Santa Claus'
Color dare 45: 'kraft, dusty durango, very vanilla'
Easy Breezy Kewl 12: 'kraft, tangerine tango, kiwi kiss, close to cocoa'
Sweet stampin' 2: 'it's a colour combo - usse minimum of 3: chocolate chip, real red, old olive, very vanilla'
Colour throwdown 71: 'olive, red, brown/cream'
La-la land 15: 'buttons, buttons, buttons!'
Cards for men: 'Christmas' - this is a new challenge blog just started (I think this would be very appropriate as a 'male' card for man or boy
Paper cutz 20: 'digital or hand stamped Christmas image'
All that scraps: 'anything Christmas'

Although the papers don't look very Christmasy, they are, in fact, all BG Figgy Pudding.

I just love that labrador stamp - it reminds me so much of John's former guide dog, Josey - some of my visitors might remember her - she is well and enjoying life with her new family.



Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Sweet and sassy 16

A friend asked me to make a card for her to give to a 16 year old. Once before I made a card with a feather and she particularly liked it, so I made this one using a bright pink feather.

I thought I would make an easel card (my second one so far) - they seem to be one of the 'in' things atm, although I also see on the blogs that 'step' and 'side step' cards are 'in' as well!

Anyway, back to this card - which I must say made a change from making Christmas cards - the front papers are DCWV and the ones for the base and inner 'triangle' are BG euphoria.

I made the card to meet the requirements of the commission, but it so happens that it meets these challenges:

Project Tuesday: 'easel card'
Ildi Co 6: 'black and bright'
Pink elephant 43: 'colour me wonderful' - use your favourite colouring medium - copics to colour the girl stamped image
Gingham Girl's word of the week 15: 'fulgent' - dazzlingly bright
Little red wagon 5: 'heavy metal' - the charm shoes are metal
Quixotic 5: 'be charming' - the metal charm shoes, used as a 'stopper' for the front of the card
Simon says: 'so charming'
Cute card Thursday 89: 'swirly girly' - it's definitely 'girly' and there are black PM sparkly swirls
Tellen's place 1: 'embellishments' - late for this, only just found it
Frosted designs: 'scallop' - around the sentiment
Stamp something: 'glitzy somethings' - the shoes are very glitzy and there's a stamped image (the girl)
Kraftin' Kimmie 8: 'touchy feely' - completely different textures of the feather and the metal charm shoes
The crafty pad 48: 'a triangle' - at lease one triangle or that shape card - you can see the triangle when the card is side view

Edit: Jane asked what the image is - it's a download from Charmed Cards & Crafts: 'girls about town' set.





Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Sunday postcard 'let it snow'

This is for Sunday postcard art: 'let it snow'



Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

A quick and simple card

This was a quick card to make - the centre piece is cut with a nestie using my cuttlebug. The red and green papers were free with a magazine. I'm linking for the following challenges:

No time to stamp 115: 'mass production' - create a card that is easy to mass produce (in fact, if you look at other posts on here - and some still to come in the next day or two - there are other cards that have the same kind of format)
365 cards 228: 'same but different' - 'Your challenge is to use at least 2 papers that have the same pattern but are different in color.'
Fab's big Christmas 48: 'free papers theme' (the green and red papers were free with a magazine - you'll be thinking that I buy a lot of magazines!)
Secret crafter Saturday 60: 'Christmas trees'
Corrosive 40: 'green and red ... let's get ready for Christmas'
Rosie-Dee 59: 'red, green and a bit of bling!' (choir boys round the tree is glittered)
Cupcake 68: 'red and green'
Incy wincy 20: 'red and green'
Tuesday taggers: 'a Christmas carol' - these choristers are singing a carol - perhaps 'O come, all ye faithful'
Play date cafe 07: 'green, white and red'

Why is it that the sentiment looks very different to the red of the paper, but irl they look much the same?



Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Clean and simple blue

This card is for Clean and simple FTL70:


This is also good for:

Fun with shapes and more 31: 'monochrome blue' - this has to include something cut: the chipboard in the middle and the die cut snowman
Paperminutes 90: 'snowmen'
Another Chirper 'Christmas gifts'
Another Stampin' sisters in Christ 15: ' a card with a gift placed on it somewhere'
Creative Belli 79: 'chipboard' - the rectangles in the middle on which the snowman stands
Artful inkables: 'use chipboard' (as above)
Gingersnap color challenge 31: 'monochromatic'
Whimsy 30: 'monochromatic'
Paper cutz 19: 'anything goes'

The background paper is (I think) English paper company, the chipboard rectangles with snowflakes are Brenda Pinnick, the blue silver foiled card is Kanban (a lot more shiny and foiled irl).




Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

White Christmas

The new challenge will be up tomorrow for Daring Cardmakers, so, yet again, this is almost late - every week I think I'll do it sooner! The dare is 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas' - Jozza said: 'I want to see Christmas cards that are mainly white with just a hint of colouring on your embellishments or stamped image.'

I've used sketch 144 on CPS card sketches:

I used a white card base, some white vellum with light blue snowflakes here and there and some white card embossed with cuttlebug swiss dots and cut with a nestie.

I think one of the hardest parts of this challenge is getting a picture of the card to put on here - no chance of a photo in artificial light, so this is a scan, but it's so hard to show the layers of white.

365 cards 256 was: 'simply put' - 'One piece of patterned paper, One embellishment, and One sentiment - that's it.' - the white vellum piece of paper was cut to get the two squares. The embellishment is the added snowflakes.

For Frosted designs: 'same shape different size' there are two different sized squares of the snowflake vellum.

It's also good for:

Kaboodle 19: 'snowflakes'
Sophisticat 13: 'snowfalkes and sparkle' (and, yes, there is sparkle on the large snowflake embellishments)
Design dollies element challenge: 'let it snow, let it snow, let it snow' (snowflakes)
Tuesday taggers: 'Christmas carol' - 'See amid the winter snow ...'
Stampavie and more: 'Christmas'
Paperplay 44: 'Christmas without red or green'
Stamp, scrap and doodle 17: 'Christmas'
2 red bananas: 'Christmas/winter card'
Sparkle creations 52: 'any Christmas card'
Fab's big Christmas 48: 'use free papers from magazine' (the vellum was with an old Making Cards magazine)
Gingersnap 33 chestnut theme: 'winter wonderland'
Paper cutz 19: 'anything goes'
Creative card crew 39: 'Christmas'
Hope eternal cupcake 35 (an photo is given that is mainly white)
Crafty Calendar 3 'winter' with option of sparkle and bling (on the added snowflakes)
Creatalicious 4: ' snowflakes and sparkle/glitter'
Cuttlebug be inspired 59: 'glitter' - the circle was embossed with cuttlebug swiss dots and there is glitter on the added snowflakes
All that scraps: 'anything Christmas'


Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Salt: thoughts for Advent

It was my turn this week to post a mid-challenge thought on Salt - you can read what I wrote here.

Christmas angel

Challenge 10 on Crafty catz this week is 'angel and fairies', so this card has an angel on it and Flutter by Wednesday 86 is 'any creation with a butterfly, fairy or angel'.

I think I'm a bit late for this one, but am linking for Tanda Teaser 125: 'musical Christmas' (there's music on the background of the sentiment, but no stamping, I'm afraid).

Day 276 on 365 was: 'you're an angel' so this is just right for that.

PaperPlay 44 calls for 'Christmas without red or green' (I admit there's a tiny bit of green on here, but I hope this card still qualifies), another one too for Spoon full of sugar 80: 'non-traditional Christmas colours. And another for Creative card crew 39: 'Christmas'.

The background paper is BG wassail and the picture is from some Dovecraft paper. The surrounds and 'Christmas Wishes' look black, but irl they are silver.



Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! As I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Black and dufex bright

This card is for

Crafty Ann 2 'black and white and one other colour'

The picture is a dufex one so it is much brighter irl and changes a bit dependent on the light shining on it, so it is right also for Ildi Co 6: 'black and bright'.

This is also another one for Creative card crew 39: 'Christmas'.



Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Another blog award

Tracy kindly gave me this award:

Now the rules of this award are to thank the person for the award and pass it on to at least 7 people who deserve it and then list 10 honest things about myself ...

Oh gosh, this is hard (I did a list of five things the other day for another ward - and that was hard enough) - anyway here goes:

1. I can't swim
2. I can't ride a bike (I've never tried!)
3. I won a school prize for a competition about cycling, even though I couldn't ride a bike (it was naming all the parts on a bike)
4. One of the Manfred Man group lived in the street where my nan lived, so we used to play out in the street along with other children
5. I sang a solo in the Royal Albert Hall
6. I don't like mince pies
7. I love Marmite sandwiches with salad cream
8. I love watching Casualty and Holby (you'd think I'd had enough of hospitals, wouldn't you?!)
9. I wear contact lenses, but now have to use reading glasses as well
10. I can't believe I'm 62

I know that I'm supposed to pass this on to 7 others - and there are many more than 7 who I think deserve this - please feel free to take this award if you are a regular to my blog and I visit yours - all my friends on BF and CBC, for instance, and many more besides.

Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

Christmas gifts

These cards are for C.R.A.F.T. 27: 'Christmas gifts'; 'a gift placed somewhere on your card' is challenge 15 on Stampin' sisters in Christ and 'Christmas gifts' is the subject of the current Chirper challenge.

The first card is also good for Kelly Jo color chef 31: 'aqua, red and white', There she goes 31 colour challenge: 'red, green, blue plus neutrals' (all on this card) and Spoon full of sugar 80: 'non-traditional Christmas colours'.

This second card meets the criteria on Color throwdown 71: 'olive, red, brown/cream (which I didn't use), pink' (we could use three of them - so mine is olive, red and pink). Secret crafter Saturday 60 is 'Christmas trees' - plenty on this card! The papers used for this second card came with a magazine, so it's just right for Fab's 48: 'use magazine free papers'.

This third card is also good for 'red and green' on 365 cards day 275: 'tis the season', Corrosive 40: 'green and red ... let's get ready for Christmas', Colour Create 32: 'green, red and white, optional extra: Christmas', Incy wincy 20: 'red and green' and Cupcake 68: 'red and green'. Rosie-Dee 59 is 'red, green and a bit of bling!' - there's glitter and foiling on the gifts, but hard to see on the scan. This is also another one for The treehouse 25 'Christmas colours - old olive, real red, white and black'.


All of these cards are good for 2 red bananas: 'Christmas/winter card', Stamp, scrap & doodle 17: 'Christmas', Sparkle creations 52: 'any Christmas card', Pollycraft 29: 'Ria's wonderful Christmas time', Whimsy 29: 'Christms', Creative card crew 39: 'Christmas' and another one for Charisma cardz 47: 'anything Christmas'.

The papers used for the first and third card are Basic Grey.

Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I've just noticed that I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

WOYWW today

It's Wednesday again - and that means it's time to take a photo and show on WOYWW. If you've not joined in yet, why not do so - and go and have a nose at everyone's workspace.

My workspace lacks any crafting goodies today - I've been writing Christmas cards - hence the piles over to the right - have done just over 200 so far. On the left of the picture you'll see the two secret Santa presents that I've received - you can read about it further down on my blog.

To the extrene left is a box that contains more Christmas cards to be written ... and then I need to get on and make some more!! I haven't done much crafting in the last few days - trying to get all the cards written - but definitely need to get on - I've got some commissioned cards that need to be done first and then more Christmas cards for us - I'm glad of all the challenges around that are asking for Christmas cards because they spur me on - it's good to have a few sketches to save my brain thinking too much!



Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it! I've just noticed that I now have 100 followers, so I'll be adding something more to the blog candy.

My winning streak has continued!

Amazed this morning to discover that I've won the monthly prize on Quixotic Challenges for their first draw - you can read about it here. I emailed to claim my prize and have found out that I've won a gift certificate for £20 to spend in their shop - how cool is that?! I've had a little peep and think I might get flowers etc because I do so love them.

Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it!

Another bubbly surprise!

For the second day running, I was so taken aback when the post came this morning - I received another package from a BF secret santa:



I decided it would be rude not to open at least one of the presents today, so this is what was in the one I opened:



Whoever you are, secret santa - thank you so much - you have brought tears to my eyes.

And I've just opened the present that said 'first' from yesterday's BF SS and this is what's in it:



I've just made a coffee and am going to enjoy the two together. It's years since I had a chocolate coin (I'm glad the cholesterol police don't read my blog, 'cause I'm not supposed to have milk choc, but this is very special, so I'm going to savour every bit of it!)

Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it!

BF November inchies received

These are the fab 'fireworks' inchies I received from the swap on BF forum - thanks, girls, and thanks, Leigh, for once again hosting:



The 'animal' inchie at the bottom is an addition to the October swap.

Don't forget: If you go to the top of my blog you will find the post about my celebration candy - you've got to be in it to win it!

Super surprise from Santa!!

A Secret Santa swap is taking place on BF forum atm - when it was time to sign up for it (and likewise for one on CBC) I decided this year not to take part because things are still quite difficult with John making a slow recovery and I just didn't know whether I'd be able to get everything together for the deadline - and I wouldn't have wanted to let other people down.

So I was really amazed this morning when the postie came and bought me a package, containing these goodies:



with a card which read:

Dear Hazel, though you deserved a little treat for being a "good girl". from a BF Secret Santa x

Whoever you are, SS, thank you so much - you've made my day. We've been up to Guy's again today and postie came just before we went, so I was able to undo and drool then!

As you can see, I've already opened the 'now' present - some rubber stamps - not sure how long I have to keep the others, but think I should also be opening the one that says 'first' - lol!