CCM #179 Christmas With a Twist

It’s time for our final challenge of 2017 at Crafty Cardmakers. I cannot believe the year has gone by so quickly, but Christmas is once again nearly upon us, and as usual I am totally unprepared! Anyhow, our challenge is Christmas with a Twist, the twist being something non traditional, quirky, unusual, not necessarily thought of as Christmas.

I have used a couple of twists in my card. Firstly the colour scheme is not necessarily one used for Christmas, secondly the image is a bit out there, a Stampotique stamp by Daniel Torrente called Tangled Enthusiasm, which brings me to thirdly I went for a play on the word twist, as this quirky little fella is all ‘twisted’ up in the Christmas lights.

I stamped my image and then masked him off with Eclipse tape whilst I inked over the background with DIs. I then coloured him to tone in with the background inking with my Copics. The lights actually looked quite effective in reality, not showing up so well in a photograph sadly, but all twinkly like lights would be, because I glittered the bulbs in lots of different coloured glitters. The presents were coloured and cut out separately to give the impression of some dimension but without actually creating any……. have to fool Royal Mail somehow and not have to pay them extra to post my cards!

The sentiment was stamped from a Dylusions stamp, Christmas Words, which I stamped and then cut out to fill the top of the card more.

I am entering this into:-
Addicted to Stamps - #137 Christmas
Allsorts - #393 Christmas Lights
Country View Crafts - Dec: Christmas
Crafty Calendar - Dec: Christmas Time
Crafty Catz - #350 Christmas in Non Traditional Colours
Creative Corner - Christmas Time
Crimbo Crackers - #121 Non Traditional Christmas Colours
Kitty Bee Aloha Friday - #86 Christmas
Pattie’s Creations - #129 Anything goes related to Winter or Christmas
Pink & Main -  #16 Not so Traditional Holiday Cards
QKR Stampede - #221 Non Traditional Christmas Colours
Sparkles Monthly Challenge - #86 Christmas Is Coming

DV #146 Christmas

Our final challenge of the year at Dream Valley today is Christmas. We are sponsored by both Robyn’s Fetish and by All Dressed Up. The team were given lots of lovely stamps to choose from and I chose this Robyn’s Fetish image called Home For the Holidays.

I printed him and then stamped around the edge with the outside edge of a Chloe Endean stamp which makes a gorgeous border, which I embossed with Jingle Wow powder. I coloured him with my copic pens and then matted it onto some lovely paper from Crafters Companion. The snowflakes at the top are also from Crafters as are the gorgeous little Christmas tree diecuts which were on today’s door in their fabulous Advent Calendar which was a gift to their Platinum Members! Thanks you CC. Some adorable little dies are appearing day by day, and today’s was perfect to finish off my card.

| am entering this into:-

A Gem of a Challenge - #183 Snowmen/Women
Addicted to Stamps - #137 Christmas
Alphabet Challenge - T For Trees
Come and Get It - Christmas
Crafty Calender - Dec: Christmas Time
Crafty Friends - #46 Merry Christmas
Creative With Stamps - #9 Christmas
Dies R Us - #62 Christmas
Fussy and Fancy - #178 Christmas in Tones or Pastels
Paper Creator’s Crafts - #54 Christmas
Paru’s Cardmaking - Dec: Christmas
Robyn’s Fetish - #345 Square or Rectangle
Sparkle’s Monthly - #86 Christmas is Coming
Sweet Stampers - #1 Christmas
The Crafter’s Cafe - #162 Christmas
Winter Wonderland - Frame It or Night Scene

DV #145 Winter Animals

Our challenge at Dream Valley today is Winter Animals.

I went for a slightly obvious ‘Winter’ animal with a gorgeous Deer stamp from Chocolate Baroque. I stamped it in Archival Watering Can, and embossed with clear powder. I then inked around it with Broken China, Picked Rapsberry and Squeezed Lemonade DIs, using stencil brushes from Clarity.

When that was all done I put the whole thing through a lovely freebie embossing folder that came with a magazine last year.

I picked out the large snowflakes, small snowflakes and dots, on the embossed areas and glittered them. The oval I also glittered but with a glitter that has a sort of tinsel flake in it.

Then I matted onto rainbow mirri card, and onto a scalloped card blank.

I am entering this into:-

Cardz4Galz - #35 Contemporary Christmas
Challenge Up Your Life - #54 Santa’s Helpers (The Reindeer pulls the sleigh)
C.R.A.F.T. - #390 Christmas
Crafty Hazlenut’s Christmas Challenge - #308 Cute or AG Christmas
Cute Card Thursday - #452 Christmas/Holidays
Daring Cardmakers - A Musical Christmas (It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas)
Fashionable Stamping - #117 ‘Tis the Season, Autumn or Winter
Fresh Brewed - Nov: Pastels or Friendship
Imagine That - #10 Christmas Is Coming
Inkspirational - #122 Chill
Sasayaki Glitter Challenge - Nov: Christmas
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Christmas Critters

Sparkle Creations Christmas Card Challenges - #49 Christmas

CCM 176 Explosion of Colour

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is an Explosion of Colour.

For my explosion I started off with a Carabelle Studio stamp called Stitched Mixed Media Background and stamped it twice and embossed in silver detail powder. I forgot to take a picture before step three so I am including a pic after I cut the petals!

I then just coloured randomly with three shades of Primary Elements from Luminarte mixed with bind and resist powder and water, so a sort of watercolour wash. I have to say at this stage I nearly threw it away as it looked too jumbled and dark and quite frankly a mess!

However I persevered and cut petals from the ‘mess’ with a mylar template. I cut more than I needed for choice, and edged each petal with a sparkly, but clear based, glitter glue. I formed the petals into a flower, using 12 of the petals I had made, against an embossed floral background I had already made from Crafters Companion. All are matted onto a couple of layers of plain white card and turquoise mirri to match the main colour of the flower. I created my own border with a complementary colour stabilo fine liner, and a gorgeous sparkly gem with a large silver pearl centre from Chloe’s Creative Cards to finish off the flower.

I was rather pleased with the end result, it definitely looked better than the ‘mess’ I cut it all out from!

I am entering this into:-

Brown Sugar - #222 Birthday
CAS on Sunday - #95 Flowers
Colour Crazy Craft Challenge - #25 Anything Goes
Crafting With Friends - #30 Anything Goes
Cute Card Thursday - #449 Lace and/or Pearls
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - #44 Anything Goes
Morgan’s Artworld - #22 Embossing Wet or Dry
Polkadoodles - #42 Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft - #39 Anything Goes
Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers - W is for Watercolour

DV #143 One For the Girls

Our challenge today at Dream Valley is One for the Girls. We are sponsored by Live and Love Crafts.

My card was for a friend’s birthday. I love this cute Mayz Art image of a girl with her scooter, which I coloured with copics. The lovely fan border edge is a punch from Martha Stewart. With all the gorgeous dies these days we tend to forget our old faithful punches! The border is overlaid with  a blue ribbon and also with a paper doily self adhesive ribbon. The mat behind her is from Marianne, and the flowers are from my stash.

Sorry for the poor quality of the pic, I somehow saved it at a very small size and as the original has long since gone to the recipient I can’t take another pic.

I am entering this into:-

Brown Sugar - #221 Anything Goes
Cardz for Galz - #33 Use At Least One Die
Crafting With An Attitude - #20 Anything Goes
Crafty Catz - #343 Anything Goes with an Embossing Twist (die cut mat)
Crafty Girls Creations - #28 Anything Goes
Julia Spiri - #25 Anything Goes with a Tic Tac Toe Twist, Diagnonal L-R Flowers, Image, Blue
Little Miss Muffet - #149 Anything Goes
Perfectly Created Chaos - #4 Anything Goes
Simply Papercraft - #39 Anything Goes
Southern Girls - Team Trace Punches and Dies

CCM 174 Birthdays

We have a lovely easy challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers, Birthdays!

My birthday card was created with a stencil I created myself by diecutting a Go Kreate die into mylar. First I stamped the Katzelkraft Cat and then masked it up before brushing various DIs through to create a sort of landscape. The little border at the bottom was added later and coloured with Stabilo Fine Point pens, as the detail on it was very small and much easier to colour with a really fine point than a copic or even a pencil.

The birds in the trees stamps is called Corbeaux Silhouette also from Katzelkraft. I misfired the edge and had to finish it off with a sharpie marker!

Die cut is from Britannia dies, all matted onto a 7” scalloped square card. The cat is actually coloured a very pale lilac but sadly it’s so pale it looks as if it’s not coloured at all.

I am entering this into:-

AAA - #74 Masking
Classic Design Team Open Challenge - #07 Anything Goes
Colour Crazy - #23 Anything Goes Craft Colouring
Crafting With Friends - #28 Anything Goes
Crafty Catz - #340 Birds of a Feather
Creative With Stamps - #7 Sentiment
Cute Card Thursday - #445 CAS
Ellibelles Creative Moments - Creatures and Critters Linky Party 8
Freshly Brewed Challenge - #21 Animals
Kitty Bee Aloha Friday - #81 Birthday
Robyn’s Fetish - #336 Square Cards
Seize The Birthday - Soft and Simple
Southern Girls - Pretty In Pastels

DV #141 Embossing Wet or Dry

Our challenge today at Dream Valley is embossing. You can use wet embossing or dry. We are sponsored by the fabulous Live and Love Crafts.

I chose wet embossing. My stamps are mostly from Paper Artsy, the flowers and butterflies are the new Kay Carley set EKC03 and the words are from JOFY 11. I stamped with versafine and embossed with clear detail powder, and then watercoloured using my lovely new Prima Watercolour Confections! I used Tropicals, Classics and also Decadent Pies. They are fabulous paints, just the merest touch of water brings them to live and the pigments seem really rich. I have no idea about their lightfast properties, or indeed what colours they actually are as Prima have not bothered to put this on the packaging, nor on their website. They come in a funky little tin with two fold out mixing palettes, and even a thumb ring to hold them with if you were using them outside.

I also made a border with Leonie Pujol’s lovely border stamps, and then added glitter glue to lots of the accents on the flowers and butterflies. It’s matted onto some pink mirri.

I am entering this into:-

A Bit More Time To Craft - #28 Anything Goes
A Gem of a Challenge - #178 Female Birthday
Crafting from the Heart - #129 Anything Goes
Crafting With Friends - #28 Anything Goes
Crafty Awesomeness - Sept: Anything Goes
Ellibelle’s Creative Moments - Creatures and Critters Linky Party 7
Get Creative - #48 Must Include Embossing
Incy Wincy Designs - Things That Fly
Make My Monday - #31 No Patterned Paper
QKR Stampede - #210 Embossing
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Powder Power