Crafty Cardmakers #80 Christmas Photo Inspiration

Our challenge this time at Crafty Cardmakers is ‘surprise’ a Christmas themed one! We have a photo inspiration challenge for you hosted by Fiona with this gorgeous picture

You can take your inspiration from any part of it, colour, content, theme, even the dog!

I chose the colour and came up with this

This is my first outing with Pan Pastels. Everyone has been raving about them and I usually rush right in and buy everything in sight and then find that quite frankly I am too ham fisted to use the item and it ends up on ebay, a bargain for someone and an expensive mistake for me.This time, however, I decided to err on the side of caution. I knew we had this challenge coming up so I bought just one pastel in the pure colour range, turquoise. I loved how easily it went onto the card, as I coloured the background card with the pastel before embossing it with a Crafters Companion 8” embossing folder. After I had embossed it I went over the raised areas with the same colour (well I only had the one, lol) and it darkened up the areas that were raised.

Next I stamped with versamark onto a separate piece of car IndigoBlu’s Baroque Christmas tree and dusted over with the pastel again. It sticks to the versamark a treat and I was really pleased with the result. A set of these have now made their way onto my birthday present list!!! I loved the way it glided onto the card, both smoothly and over embossed areas and again how well it covered the versamark ink without leaving too much residue on the un-inked areas of the card. A much better result, for me that is, than using Inks as I always seem to be so heavy handed with the cut and dry foam or the blending tool, and too light with ink dusters.

The gems were from my stash as are the little diecut gift and the holographic silver card I used for matting. Sentiment was free with a Magazine stamp set.

We are sponsored by Di’s Digi Downloads with a $10 voucher and also by Crop Stop with a $15 voucher for their store. Please see the Crafty Cardmakers blog for more details.

I am entering this into the following:-

By The Cute and Girly – Nov - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Chalk-Ah-Lot – #23 Anything Goes

Hiding In My Craft Room – #73 Christmas

Ladybug Crafts – #3 Monochrome/Tonal

Little Claire’s Designs – 27 Christmas

Live & Love Crafts – #5 Christmas

Pan Pastel UK – #46 Frosty and Bright

Paper Creator’s Crafts – #1 All About Christmas

Sparkles Monthly Challenge – #38 Christmas Is Coming

The Outlawz PAM – Anything Goes

Lexi’s Creations #79 Christmas

Today at Lexi’s Creations we want to see your Christmas cards, which is a great challenge for me as I have yet to finish all my cards and this spurred me on to create one more.
We are sponsored by My Heart Pieces.

I have used another Make It Crafty Christmas Elf, this one is called Duffy, and like the last one I have coloured him with a combination of prisma pencils and copies for skin and hair. The papers are Basic Grey from their Jovial pad, and the poinsettia and the balls on the ends of Scruffy’s hat are from my stash. The corner is from Memory Box.

I am entering Scruffy into the following:-
Allsorts Challenge – #182 Bring on The Bling
Eclectic Ellapu – #7 Celebration with Sparkle
Hiding In My Craft Room – #73 Christmas
Designs by Lisa Somerville – Countdown to Christmas (bloghop see below)
Little Claire’s Designs – 27 Christmas
Paper Creator’s Crafts – #1 All About Christmas
Polka Doodles – #47 Any Die Will Do
Sparkles Monthly Challenge – #38 Christmas Is Coming
Stampin’ For The Weekend – #22 Use Some Texture
The Outlawz PAM – Anything Goes

Dream Valley 46 Non Traditional Christmas

This fortnight at Dream Valley we would like to see your take on a non traditional Christmas, and a chance for you to catch up with any unmade Christmas cards! We have on offer a secret goody bag for the winner!

I used one of Make It Crafty’s Christmas Elf Tinkles, and I coloured her with a combination of copics for skin and hair and prisma pencils for the rest of her. The papers are all from Bearly Mine and they are from their Christmas Sparkle and Christmas Swirls collections. The snowflake borders and corner are Memory Box dies and the other snowflakes are x-cut punches.

I am entering this into:-

Addicted to Stamps – #44 Christmastime

Allsorts Challenge – #182 Bring on The Bling

Christmas Stampin All Year Long – #37 To Die For

Colour Me Creative Classroom – Non Traditional Christmas Colours

Eclectic Ellapu – #7 Celebration with Sparkle

Hiding In My Craft Room – #73 Christmas

Little Claire’s Designs – 27 Christmas

Paper Creator’s Crafts – #1 All About Christmas

Christmas Stampin All Year Long – #37 To Die For

Sparkles Christmas Challenge – #22 Contemporary Colour Combo

ABC B is for Butterfly

Over at ABC today our challenge t0 you is B for Butterfly.

We are sponsored by Bunny Zoe with 1 £10 gift certificate for her store.

My papers are from Basic Grey’s Sugared, at least I think that was the pad. I am afraid I pulled them out a long time ago and didn’t think to label them on the back but I know they are BG because of the quality of the paper, which is actually more like cardstock.

The mats were some crinkly pink paper I had in my stash. I didn’t have enough to do all the mats so I gutted the large 8x8 piece to make the smaller  mat and then did the same again to make the mat behind the image! No wonder I have a paper mountain if I make one sheet cover three things!

The butterfly image is a Kanban stamp, and I stamped it again and cut out the butterflies to add to the top and give some dimension. The ribbon and pearls were from my stash, although the pearls were white and I coloured them with my copics, but also the ribbon was white coloured with distress inks. The flowers I used a versamark pen on the edges of the petals and the centre of the flowers so I could emboss with the same sparkly pink WOW powder that I embossed the image with.

I am entering this into the following:-

Catered Crop – Arsenic and Old Lace Recipe Swap

Creative Crafts – Bingo (Lace, Stamps, Pastels)

Fairy Tale Challenge – #54 Embossing

Fussy and Fancy – #75 Pearls and Flowers

Glitter n Sparkle – #6 Things With Wings

Hanna and Friends - #158 Sketch

Hot Shot Crafts – #13 Butterflies

Penny Black – Nov Any Die Will Do

Scrapbook Stamp Society – Add a Little Lace

The Corrosive Challenge – #162 Flutter By

The Ribbon Girl – Add Sparkle

CCM 79 More than one Punch And/Or Die Cut

Our challenge at Crafty Cardmakers today is for you to use more than one punch and/or die cut. You can use one of each, or two of one or any combination you can think of, provided there is a minimum of two on your creation.

We are sponsored once again by the fabulous Hobby Art with two gorgeous sheets of stamps and by Milk, Coffee Stamps with a prize of 5 digi’s from their store.  Please check out the Crafty Cardmakers challenge blog for more details.

I have created my card with a lovely digital stamp from Make It Crafty called ‘Alyssa Elven Princess’. I have coloured her with a combination of copics, promarkers and prisma pencils. After she was finished I cut her out with Labels 8 from Spellbinders and then used Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink to colour in around her to tone in with the colours in my backing papers which are all from Basic Grey’s Lauderdale pad. I cut a mat from the same pad using Decorative Labels 8. The border is a EK Success border punch and the flowers are EK Success Retro Flower punch in large and medium.

The main backing paper was stitched in place with my cute new John Lewis mini sewing machine. My Daughter said it looked and felt like a toy one cos it was so lightweight and a funky purple colour, but it does the job my Toyota refuses to do on card.

Alyssa’s wings were painted with a zig glue pen and then I added Glamour Dust. I love glamour dust because pretty much any colour can be covered with it and you can still see the colour underneath but have a gorgeous glittery finish, without adding colour.

I am entering this into the following:-

Charisma Cardz – #44 Feeling Blue

Digistamps4Joy – #54 Bingo – No Orange, No Ribbon, 2 Flowers and 4 Patt Papers, No Apples, No Buttons

Flutterby Wednesday – #213 Anything with Fairy or Butterfly

Happy Campers – #4 Bright Colours

Little Red Wagon – #158 Colouring

Stampin’ For the Weekend – #21 All Stitched Up

Stamp N Doodle – Use a Digi

The Outlawz Twisted Thursday - Something with Wings and Glitter

The Paper Shelter – #89 Faires and Elves

The Ribbon Girl – Add Sparkle

Lexi’s Creations #78 Thanks/Thanksgiving

This fortnight over at Lexi’s Creations we would like to see your Thanks/Thanksgiving Creations.

We are sponsored once again by Fairy Dust Crafts 

Check out this fabulous craft store there is such a lot there, including Lexi’s own images,  and the prices are amazing!!!

For full details of the challenge and to see some absolutely beautiful inspirational creations from our design team call across to Lexi's Creations Challenge Blog.

For my card I wanted to show just how versatile the digital images that FDC supply us with can be. I took one of their images called ‘Wired Heart’ and loaded it into my graphics package. I constructed my own sentiment using various different fonts and used the heart as a substitue for the word ‘heart’ in my sentiment. I then used a colour picker to pick some colours from my backing paper, which was from Bearly Mine’s Patchwork Party pack, and used those colours to digitally colour in the heart to match.

Whilst I was digitally playing with colours, I couldn’t find a matching plain paper to mat and layer with so I also used one of the predominant colours in the Patchwork paper to colour a solid plain sheet of paper to tone. The diecut is a Joycrafts one, the pins from my stash and the corners are a Memory Box die, macarena corner. The paper lace was white and I shaded it pink with a Colour Box pink inkpad. The two little flowers are made from Martha Stewart paper clay and then I just dusted over them with the same pink ink I used to colour my white adhesive paper lace.

I am entering this into the following:-

Card Mania Challenges – #7 Embossing

Charisma Cardz – #44 Feeling Blue

Digistamps4Joy – #54 Bingo – No Twine,No Angel,Heart,No Gems,No Green

Everybody Art – Embossing

Fairy Tale Challenge – #54 Embossing

PanPastel UK – #44 Make an Embellishment (my paperclay flowers)

Scrap Creations – Do It Digi

Simply Create – Linky Party #10

Stamp N Doodle – Use a Digi

Top Tip Tuesday – #89 We’re All Heart

Dream Valley 45 – Anything Goes

Over at Dream Valley today our challenge is an nice easy one, Anything Goes, we are sponsored by Joanna Sheen with a £10 for her fabulous online store.

When I saw we had an ‘Anything Goes’ challenge coming up at Dream Valley and it was due to be published on Remembrance Sunday then I knew I had to make this card, not only in remembrance but as a thank you to all our fallen heroes who paid the ultimate price. The poppies are one of Sheena Douglass’s beautiful stamps, and I coloured them with Festive Berries and Evergreen Bough Distress Inks. The poem was written by my Daughter when she was only 14. They had just covered WW1 in history and it clearly affected her deeply as she came home and wrote two poems which, to my mind, beautifully sum up the horror, sadness and losses of war. I have to admit to being proud that she has such a sensitive soul. Please respect her and do not copy the poem.

My Father was unable to fight in WWII due to having had an horrible accident with fire a couple of years before, but he was one of the many people who worked the land, working for the Surrey WarAg to keep our people fed, and my Grandfather, again too old to fight was stationed in London as a Fireman. His eyes would glaze over on Remembrance Sunday and I know he was reliving the horrors that he had witnessed during The Blitz. My Mum used to tell me how they would look out of their bedroom windows in their Surrey home and could see the sky bright red as London burned following a bombing raid.

Last year I was absolutely horrified when our local Poundland store forbade their members of staff to wear a poppy! They said it was unfair on the many religions that frequented the store. Utter poppycock, the remembrance poppy transcends religion, it’s a symbol of sacrifice and remembrance, not of any specific religious belief . When I look around me today I sometimes wonder why these brave men and women gave their everything as we seem to become less and less caring and respectful of our fellow human beings, but I am grateful for the many sacrifices these men and women have made.

I shall also be remembering today the people who are no longer here, but who have had an influence on my life.

I am entering this into the following:-

Amusing Challenges – Thank You

Card Crafters Circle – #48 We Remember

Card Makin’ Mamas – Thanksgiving/Thank You

Crafts and Me – #108 Reds

Crafty Sentiments – Poppies

Critter Sketch Challenge – #140 Veteran’s Day/Remembrance

Daisy Doodles – Remembrance/Veteran’s Day

Delicious Doodles – #10 Remembering

My Sheri Crafts – Give Thanks

Paper Pretties – PWC231 Thank You

Party Time Tuesday – PTT93 Thank You

Poodles Parlour – Thank You

Scrappy Frogs – Give Thanks

Sentimental Sundays – 128 Thanks/Thanksgiving

Sparkle and Glitter The Rick St. Dennis Challenge – #3 Remember

That Craft Place – Red for Remembrance

The House That Stamps Built – DCC117 Anything that Gives Thanks

The Outlawz (PAM) – Thankful

The Paper Girls – #19 Thank You

Wags N Whispers – #92 Be Thankful

ABC A for Appreciation

At ABC today we would like to see your creations along the Appreciation theme, so that could be a thank you card, thanksgiving, or

We are sponsored by Stamp Fairy who are giving away a $10 gift certificate for their store and also by In2Stamps with a 10 Euro certificate for their store.

I used Stamp Fairy’s Molly Love. She did come with two hearts just about the envelope on the right hand side as you look at her, but the beauty of digi stamps is that you can remove things without masking etc. So I just erased the hearts before I printed it, as I didn’t want them for this design.

She is coloured with copics and prisma pencils. The background, Core’dinations paper, was put through a Marianne cut and emboss folder, and the embossing sanded back. The image was cut out with a Marianne Craftables Doily die. The flowers and brads were from my stash, and the thank you sentiment was created using a Lifestyle Crafts Clip-It die.

I am entering Molly into the following:-

365 Cards – Day 243 A Certain Sentiment – Thank you

Can you Digi It – Give Thanks

Dutch Dare – #189 Thankful

Hiding in My Craftroom – #69 Thankful

House of Gilli – #44 Emboss It

Ladybug Crafts – #3 Monochrome/Tonal

Paper Play Challenges – ‘12#44 Thanks a Bunch

Robyn’s Fetish – #131 Use and Embossing Folder

Sassy Studio Designs – #149 Thanks

Victorine Stamps – #46 Bingo – Right hand side Embossing, Colouring, Brads