A bling Christmas

It's time to seriously get on with making Christmas cards, so I'm glad to see that a few challenges are spurring us on!

This card is based on the sketch for challenge 18 on Allsorts:



Allsorts also called for the card to be based on a colour combo, so my choice is bright red and turquoise - not colours I would often put together, but I think it's worked.

It also covers these challenges:

Winter Wonderland 15: Frosty the snowman (sorry - a bit late for this one)
One stop craft 46: Let it snow!
Paper Cutz 9: Christmas with LOTS of bling!

Because I need to make a lot of Christmas cards, I recently bought a kit of Christmas concept cards from QVC, although I prefer not to use it in the prescribed way, but take bits and pieces and use them in my own way.

Unfortunately, because this is a scan and the light is too poor to get a flash photo, the 'bling' of the foiled card doesn't show up as it does irl. It is a much richer, brighter red foil with cold foil swirls and the surrounds of the circle and sentiments are foiled with a bright turquoise. Also, the snowflakes are glittery.



I'm adding this photo taken in daylight that shoes the mirror card a bit better:

Autumn is nearly here ...

... and there seem to be lots of challenges on this theme atm.

I've based my card on the sketch provided on Dare U 2 digistamp for challenge 21:



and the digi image I've used was downloaded from Squigly's playhouse (which is really a kids' colouring site, but, hey, I liked the image, so why not use it:



These are the challenges covered:

Whimsy stamps 19: fun fall colors
Digital Tuesday 24: clean and simple fall card
A spoonful of sugar 69: fall into autumn
Creative Belli 74: fall or Halloween

Also for day 174 on 365 cards: Just peachy - the dominant colour on your card should be peach.

And, as I used water colours (made a change from copics) I'm also linking for Lots to do challenge 37.

I used core'dination card stock - the middle piece has been torn to reveal the inner colour and plenty of inking of edges with chalk inks.

Salt: Listening to God

It's Salt challenge day today - how the weeks go by!

It was Tanis' turn to choose the topic and you can read what she wrote about Listening to God here.

Nowadays, I lead a relatively quiet life - I'm at home most of the time because of God being so poorly and needing support - apart from visits to hospital, which involve ambulance travel with plenty of traffic noise. However, it's amazing that even so, there is still quite a bit of noise in our lives, whether it be the radio, TV, computer ... or the phone ringing, to name but a few noises that are daily occurrences.

And it isn't just noise that stops us from being quiet and listening to God - it's the general 'busy-ness' of our lives, whether that's out at work etc or, like us, indoors - there always seems to be something to do.

So, it's necessary to make time to pray, not only to talk to God, but also to be quiet for long enough to reflect upon what He is saying to us, whether it's through His word, the Bible, through what others minister to us or to that 'still, small voice' that communicates to us deep within our soul.

My LO has sought to depict some of the noise distractions that are part of modern everyday life and our need to find quietness. I used a plain piece of black 12 x 12 and the light strips are BG Urban Couture Lustra. The hymn I've used is one that I find beneficial for quiet reflection.

Please click on the picture so that you can read the hymn and the journalling.



Please pop over to Salt to see the lovely crafting of the fellow members of the team and perhaps visit their individual blogs to read what they have to say about this topic. And it would be lovely to hear your response - either leave us a comment or give us a link to the crafting that this has prompted you to do.

BF Suzie's CJ

Suzie's CJ is called 'circle of darkness' - I was nearly stumped by this one because I'm not into doing things about ghosts etc, but then I thought about owls.

All the die cuts were done on my cricut, using various ColorCore Cardstock - I enjoyed doing all the distressing:

Mickey and Minnie

There's something about Mickey and Minnie that always brings a smile to the face. For the first card I used Papertake weekly sketch 23:



For the second card, I used the sketch for Mojo Monday 103:





The sentiment on the first card is actually a light pearlised copper that tones with the orange, but, unfortunately, doesn't look like it on this can.



Kelly Jo colour chef 21: red, orange, black, white (first card)
Fashionista 1: red, yellow, orange (first card)
365 day 132 picture this (inspired by the colours and the stars) (first card)
Card*a*licious 27: flowers, ribbon and the colour red (second card)
Pink Elephant 31: red, yellow, black and white (both cards)
My time to craft 77: polka dot party! (both cards)

Down by the sea ...

I love to be by the sea, but, unfortunately, haven't been able to see the sea now for quite some time - but I love to make cards that have something to do with the seaside. So it wasn't too difficult to join in this week's DCM challenge 'down by the sea'.

I've used the ATC I made for the August swap on BF - you can read about it here and here.

The colours that tend to come to mind when I think of the seaside are red, white and blue and these were featured for Cupcake challenge 56 this week. They were also the colours of the challenge for day 126 on 365, celebrating 4 July.

I used Inspirational Card Sketch 33, which is this week's challenge on there (I turned the sketch on its side):

Autumnal thoughts of harvest thanksgiving

There are a few challenges around at the moment that have a distinct autumnal feel to them - or should I say 'fall', as many of these challenges come from our friends 'across the pond'.

I remember when I was a child (oh yes, can you hear the violins playing? lol!) that harvest festivals were great occasions in church when people thankfully brought produce from the land to give thanks for God's goodness yet again. These days, harvest thanksgiving services tend to be quite different, with a token display of goods brought from the local supermarket or online with the rest of the groceries.

I found a picture of vegetables that just reminded me of those early harvest thanksgiving services and thought I'd use it on this card.

The sketch is from Clean and Simple FTL59 (and I apologise that I didn't actually use a stamp on my card):



Paper Cutz challenge 8 asked us to make something for Fall using ONE item from each letter:

A: Apples, Acorns or Autumn Leaves
B: Buttons, Brads or Bows
C: Circles, Charms or Crocheted Embellies

On my card there are apples (A), a bow (B) and a charm (C) (another card for Kaboodle challenge 13: charm)

The colours used on the card fit well with Lili of the Valley 36: green, brown and orange - also with Fashionista 1: red, yellow and orange - and on Color Throwdown: pumpkin pie, close to cocoa, ruby red

and this week's Our Creative Corner is 'Happy Fall y'all', also the treehouse challenge 14: fall.

Last, but not least, with John being ill a lot of the time in the last few months, I missed a lot of the 365 challenges - one particular one that I missed and thought I'd never think of anything appropriate was day 101 Fun with Food: veggies. So when I made this card today I remembered it and am therefore linking there.

Pink and black

A very simple card using one of my fav colour combos and the sketch on My Creative Clutter for this week:




Day 184 on 365 was Movie Monday and the prompt was Pretty in Pink.

The black paper is DCWV and the pink strip across the middle is Fancy Pants. The photo is one that was left over after I'd made the music and dance 50s cards the other day, so it seemed just right to use here. Once again, unfortunately, the scan makes the outline of the photo look black rather than silver as it is irl.

Another sketch card

This card is for the sketch on CCEE Stampers for this week:



I've used copics to colour the image - mainly R29, B05 and Y11, which are the nearest I've got to R29, BG05 and Y15 given for challenge 30 on Copic Colour.

I'm gradually doing some of the 365 cards challenges that I missed - day 154 was: planes, trains and automobiles, so I'm linking for this.

The surrounds of the sentiment and the steering wheel are silver (not black as it looks here).

Tilda is in her rightful place!

Having chosen the sketch from Just Magnolia challenge 21 yesterday and then forgotten to use a Magnolia stamp, I've made amends and done Just Magnolia challenge 22 launched today: 'embossing', incorporating the sketch from challenge 21 as well:



Two other challenges call for embossing - Paper Maniac 1 and Crafty Creations 32.

This week's Stamp Something is asking us to use our favourite embellishments - I love using flowers and blooms, so they are in evidence on this card for that challenge.

This Tilda stamp and the flowers with brads were given to me quite a while ago as part of a blog challenge prize.

I'm a bit disappointed that the scan doesn't sufficiently show the green shade of the base card and one of the layers. The two sorts of embossing were done with Cuttlebug embossing folders.

I've just realised that I haven't used any patterned paper for this card, so I'm linking it as another entry for PaperPlay challenge 34: no patterned paper.

Analemma

This is the picture given for challenge 40 today on Art Creations Friday:



I googled 'time of day' because I also wanted to link for this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge with that title - and I found this:



with an explanation here of what an analemma is and how the picture was built up.

I then used Digital Image Pro to play around with the two pictures and this is what I came up with:



Theme Thursday this week has the challenge 'Vintage women ATCs' - the proportion of this digital image are correct for this - I'm just showing it larger here, but am printing out an ATC size.

Crazy Amigo challenge this week is 'hats', so I thought this lady was appropriate for that (I might do something else with hats if I can).

Layered stamping

Challenge 103 on No time to stamp? is to overstamp a sentiment over other stamping - something that's also called for on 365 day 175: Stampin' Saturday - layered stamps.

As no patterned paper has been used for this card, I'm linking for PaperPlay challenge 34.

The background paper is BG porcelain - various shades of pink - beautiful in itself. I stamped randomly on to this using a favourite Dawn Bibby stamp that has swirls and dots - I love using this stamp for backgrounds - which is why I'm linking for this week's Stamp Something: favourite stamp. I used Versamark so that it showed, but just like a watermark effect (Alphabet challenge blog W is for ... watermark), so that I could then stamp the sentiment over it and emboss with detail silver. I'm disappointed that the scan doesn't show the silver embossing too well - hope I might be able to replace with a photo tomorrow (flash one wouldn't do any better this evening). Neither do the little pink gems in the middle of the flowers and at the ends of the swirls show up too well on the scan.

On CBC challenge CBCC103 is Versamark, so I'm showing this card there as well.

Silly me!!

I found this sketch on Just Magnolia and thought it was a good one to do and then had a look through stamps ... did a few other things ... came back to it and totally forgot that it was a Magnolia sketch and that I should have used a Magnolia stamp - I'm obviously not linking, but still felt I wanted to acknowledge the sketch that I used:



The papers used on this card are BG sugared and the stamped image is Penny Black 'tea cozy' coloured in with Copics.

It covers these challenges:

Penny Black Saturday challenge 65: hearts desire
Secret Crafter Saturday calleng 48e: hearts and flowers
Copic Creations 11: your favourite Copic colour combination
Paperminutes 79: coffee or tea
Cute Card Thursday 77: strawberry mint julep - use pink and green
Wednesday stamper: open theme
Cute Daisy May: pink and ...
Pollycraft 23: furry friends (animals)

Basic Grey 3: Inspirational Challenge

The challenge for week 3 on BG is: Inspirational Challenge, taking inspiration from this photo:



I used a variety of BG papers from wisteria, lily Kat, porcelain and urban prairie. The layers of the flower were cut with nestabilities and edged with various chalk inks:

Technology and bling

Today's challenge (day 194) on 365 is 'Imagine this: technology'.

The background paper is English Paper Company, I've added a variety of sticky ribbons, crystal tattoos and mobile die cut with dymo messages.

I used sketch 6 from Delightful Sketches (my first time there):



The card is also for the following challenges:

Pile it on 14: birthday
ABC: D is for die cuts (the mobile phone)
Our Creative Corner: 'stars and stripes forever' (the stars aren't too obvious, but they are there!)
Gingersnap Creations 22: bling (my first visit here)
Paper Blooms: B.L.I.N.G! (also my first visit here)
3 clovers 30: 'A letter or letters, but not a word' (hope the txtspk qualifies for this)
Kaboodle 13: using charms (the two shoes)
How much is too much? 114: bling, bling!

Another 365 challenge

Having made three 50s inspired cards in response to the 365 challenge for day 191, I noticed that there was a bit of black and white checkerboard background on one of the die cuts used. This reminded me of the challenge on 365 for day 179: 'checkerboard background', so here is the card I came up with, again with a 'rock and roll' feel to it:

And more memories

Two more cards that were inspired by the challenge on day 191 on 365 cards:

Memories of the 50s

Day 191 on 365 was Musical Monday, when we were asked to produce a card inspired by the song 'Chantilly lace'. Well, there isn't any lace in sight on my card. For me, it brought back memories of the 1950s, reminding me of juke boxs (anyone remember 'Juke Box Jury' with David Jacobs? - yes, I'm showing my age!)

Everything I've used is from the recent music and dance kit I got from QVC.

First crafting since Saturday

Unfortunately, John was very poorly on Sunday morning and had to stay in hospital overnight - they thing the episode is heart related, so they will be doing more tests, but at least he is back home again now.

So all thoughts of crafting were put to the back of my mind again, but this evening I thought I'd attempt something, although really I didn't feel like it, but sometimes I find that it can be good to make the effort.

So these two cards are for day 192 on 365 cards (yesterday's challenge): 'so sweet' - to include the word 'sweet' on a card.

The papers were some I acquired long ago from Poundland and the chipboard tags and other embellies have been in my 'baby bits' box for quite a time.

If you click on the pictures for a closer view you will see that the 'boy' card has 'sweet dreams' on it and 'sweetie' on the tag - and the 'girl' card also has 'sweetie' on the tag.

The colours aren't that true because I've had to resort to flash photos because the chipboard was too raised up to scan well.






This has now given me a couple of cards to help fill gaps in supplies.

Back to school notebook

It's that time of year when there are bound to be a few 'back to school' challenges, so this notebook has been made with these in mind:

365 day 178: 'back to school'
Created by hand: 'back to schooldays'
Creative Belli 73: 'apples or pencils' (back to school theme)
Cute Card Thursday 76: 'back to school'
3 Clovers 29: back to school theme - primary and secondary colours

and 2 red bananas: 'rub a dub dub' - using rub-ons - the wording down the side, the crayons, the bus and the apple are all rub ons

and, lastly, for the Fiskarettes 'back to school' competition

Everything used - paper, rub ons, stickers - was purchased from Poundland (quite a while ago):

Art Creations 39

This is the picture supplied for challenge 39 on this week's Art Creations Friday:



and this is what I've done with it: