A winter warming cuppa

This card is for the sketch for Paperminutes 92:


Creatalicious challenge 5 for this month calls for 'something old, something new, something torn and something blue - then 'old' is BG lime rickey papers that I've had for some time now, the new is the large blue chippie tag, another one from the Poundland festive 3D decorations, the torn is the piece of paper across the bottom and the blue is the tag and some of the paper.

I've used the colours of SPCC 28: 'pumpkin pie, bordering blue, always artichoke'.

There she goes 34: 'baby it's cold outside' asks for a non-holiday winter card, with the bonus of added sparkle (the chipboard tag has quite a bit of sparkle on it) and Stampin' B 37 is 'use a beverage on a card', although I apologise that it's a chipboard tag and not stamped.

The elements required for Design dollies this week are 'buttons' and the colours for the fianl challenge of 2009 on Dollies are: 'kraft, light blue and orange'.

This is also another for Crafty Ann 4: 'any colours except red or green', Whimsy 33: 'chip off the block' and Kaboodle 20: 'sparkling winter'.

Jolly holidays

Why is it that, although I've done all my Christmas cards for this year - and I have quite a lot of Christmas stash over, ready to make cards for next year - that a couple of weeks ago when I was in Poundland and saw some 'festive 3D decorations' - chippie for cards to you and me - that I bought them - and I'm now beginning to use them on cards that will now be for next year?!

Anyway, this card uses two of those chipboard pieces for the sketch for Truly Scrumptious challenge 22:

Truly Scumptious 22 also called for the use of some vellum, so I've used a piece of white vellum with pale blue snowflakes here and there, to overlay a piece of BG figgy paper, securing at the top with two snowflake brads. The 'Jolly' and 'Holidays' chippie pieces then help stick the vellum down - and, hey presto, a quick card!

There are a fair number of Christmas, snow, winter challenges around and a few others that this card fits:

Another one for Irit Shalom designs royal challenge 2, which calls for lots of other challenges to be included:

In the cottage studio: 'let it snow' rumble
No time to stamp? 118: 'CAS snow' - to include some sparkle, which is on the chippie pieces
Crazy4challenges 15: 'snowmen and/or snowflakes'
Our creative corner: 'let it snow'
Secret crafter Saturday challenge 62: 'snow' (sorry, a bit late for this one)
Ann's creative nook 70: non-traditional Christmas colours
Another one for Sophisticat 15: 'Christmas theme' - anything goes
And another one for Simon says: 'merry Christmas'
Crafty Ann 4: 'any colours except red or green'
Another for Cafe mojo: 'wishes for the holidays!
And another for One powerful hour: 'holiday music - a holiday song' - this time: 'Let it snow!'
And also for Twisted Thursday: 'share your holiday cards
Another for Creative card crew 41: 'anything goes'
Whimsy 33: 'chip off the block'
Kraftin' Kimmie 10: 'sparkle, baby' (lots of sparkle on the chippie pieces)
And also Crafty calendar 3: 'winter with option of sparkle and bling'
Kaboodle 20: 'sparkling winter'
Pals paper arts 21: 'theme challenge - winter wonderland'
ColourQ 11: 'basic gray, bashful blue, very vanilla, whisper white'
Cupcake 71: 'a time for celebration'
Mixed media Monday: 'frosty'
My time to craft 70: 'Yuletide wishes'
Another on for C.R.A.F.T.: 'free for all' and Polka doodles 31: 'free theme'

A stocking full of toys

This is for sketch 18 on Peachy Keen:



It's also good for:

Pile it on 28: 'chip chip' (the 'toys' tag is made of chipboard) - which asks for lots of other challenges, as does:
Irit Shalom designs royal challenge 2: 'celebrate holidays',

so here are the rest:

Color dare 47: 'really green chocolate' - green galore, chocolate chip (the teddy), real red
Color throwdown 73: 'kiwi kiss, real read, always artichoke, cool Caribeean (a little blue on this card)'
Crafty creations 46: 'traditional Christmas' - red, green, gold
Divine Diva inspiration 18: 'be inspired by beautiful soaps by Mistral' (red, green, white)
Hand full of stamps 9: 'it's all about the red' (hope the digi stamp is OK)
Just us girls 12: ' a colour challenge' - raspberry, kraft (the teddy), green, red
Sparkle creations Christmas 2010 2: 'red and green'
Fiskarettes: 'red, gold and green'
Hope stamps eternal cupcake inspiration 38
Kelly Jo color chef 32: 'red, green, white or cream'
Diva coffee break designs 158: 'rich razzleberry, chocolate chip (hope the teddy counts as this), rose red, old olive'
Dottie's world: 'Christmas stocking' (the pile of presents is a Charmed download, coloured with copics)
Tuesday taggers: 'jolly old St Nick' - he is on here at the bottom right and plenty of evidence that he's been!
Stamp with fun 37: 'little presents' (hope a 'digi stamp' is OK)
Polka doodles 31: 'free theme'
365 cards 292: 'ad inspired' - picture of hanging Christmas stockings
Cards for men: 'Christmas' - this card is suitable for a little boy
Simon says: 'merry Christmas'
Theme Thursday: 'legs' (they go into stockings! and the toys have legs)
Cooking it up with Katie 7: 'use a Christmas theme, add ribbon, use any current sketch challenge'
Crafty catz 13: 'fairy tale of New York' - the night before Christmas
Dare U 2 digi 28: 'last minute Christmas cards' (the digi image is the Charmed presents download coloured with copics)
One stop craft 59: 'Christmas love'
Magical crafts 4: special Christmas or birthday' - special card for a little boy
Incy wincy 22: 'father/mother Christmas'
Pink elephant 45: 'winter and/or Christmas'
Sophisticat 15: 'Christmas theme' - anything goes
Cafe mojo: 'wishes for the holidays!!'
One powerful hour: 'holiday music' - song: 'Here comes Santa Claus' (this week the card was made within the hour)
Twisted Thursday: 'share your holiday cards'
Stamp something: 'holiday somethings' (hope it's OK that the stamp is a 'digi')
Saturday surprise: 'home for the holidays' (definitely a magical homely scene when the stocking's been hung and filled)
Lots to do 51: 'free theme'
Caardvarks: 'use a digital element' (the Charmed presents download coloured with copics)
Creative card crew 41: 'anything goes'
Creative craft 4: 'waiting for Santa'
Die cuts R us 20: 'naughty or nice' (a stocking full of toys is definitely nice - but not for naughty ones!)
C.R.A.F.T. 30: 'free for all'
Bee crafty 20: 'circles' (the three at the bottom right - and the coloured in presents are a Charmed digi download)
Susie's sassy 4: 'a touch of gold' - I used a Sakura gold metallic pen to colour the ribbon on one of the presents on the digi stamp - there's also gold foiling on the stocking
ECP 2: stocking project
Etsy inspired 67: 'kindly noted' - I chose this item:

So here is the card - I used DCWV background paper (I've had this for ages); the chipboard and the little circles are Brenda Pinnick, the ribbon across the top is a PM rub on.

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.