Baubles and Brights

 

    Hello!

I'm late with my DCM card this week.  For one reason and another its been a bit of a frantic week, but despite plans having to be thrown out of the window Christmas comes and sometimes we just have to roll with the the changes. 

I hope all is well with you and your Christmas is full of love, peace and joy

And now for my last Daring Cardmakers card pf the year!

We're now at the final challenge of our 

 "Have Yourself a Crafty Little Christmas"

 series for 2021

wk 7:  Baubles, Boxes and Bows

Three things beginning with B - you can choose one of them or all three to feature when you make your project this week!
Maybe make a bauble to put in a box and decorate with a bow!
Remember it doesn't have to be Christmas themed, and it can be a card or anything else you're inspired to get crafty and make.

We'll leave this challenge open until we return on 7th January 2022 after our Christmas break, but before we go we'd like to thank you for joining in with us all year, and to wish you a 

Very Happy and Peaceful Christmas

I didn't have very long to get my card done this week, but I did need to make a card to fit alongside a gift in a quite small box, so I was able to join those two tasks together and make this

 

 The background rectangles were stencilled with bright coloured inks using a stencil made by cutting the shape I needed from a piece of acetate

The gold 'joy' frame is an old Memory Box one that I haven't used yet this year so it was good to give it an airing!

 

 The baubles are the smallest ones from a couple of different sets. I cut them iun different finishes of gold card and added a punched snowflake to one and some tiny stars to the other.

Now I cut this panel down to fit my card and before gluing down I added the gold thread hangers/

To finish, I added a few tiny stars punched from different kinds of gold card

 

 

Thank you so much for coming by, please don't go without leaving a little message, I do love to hear from you.  

Or maybe I really am just talking to myself

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

 

Have a Wonderful Christmas

Loopy Tree Trio

Hi there

I thought I'd share a quick post featuring more of the loopy trees I used for this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge.  

I got on a bit of a roll using some of the trees I'd cut a few days back and also some of the cards I'd already done the backgrounds on.

I hope you like them!

 

Washi tape, glitter card, silver thread, home-made decal sentiment

Washi tape, glitter card, gold thread, home-made white on black printed sentiment

Inked stripes, glitter card and soft sheen silver card, silver thread, home-made decal sentiment

Thank you so much for coming by, please don't go without leaving a little message, I do love to hear from you.  

Or maybe I really am just talking to myself

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe,

 

Time to Trim Those Trees

 

   Hello!

hope all is well with you and your Christmas preparations are going well too.

For the Daring Cardmakers

 

"Have Yourself a Crafty Little Christmas"

 

Challenge this week, our theme is

Trim the Tree

We'd love to see some trees on this week's projects, please!
Christmas Trees or Wonderful Winter Landscapes. One tree
or a whole forest.  Oaks, Pines, Palms .....
Remember it doesn't have to be Christmas themed, and can be a
card or anything else you're inspired to get crafty and make 

 

I've made a bit of a forest this week but my trees aren't all on the same card. I'll share a couple of them today and save more for another day, so please pop back to see them.

 

Card 1

 

 

 

The background is stencilled with both Snow and Indian Gold embellishing mousse - I like the soft variation of colour I get using the two shades.  The stencil is home-made - just a rough squarish shape cut out from a piece of acetate.  I save the plastic packaging from die sets to make these simple hand-cut stencils - its good to get another 'life' out of this kind of stuff, isn't it?

 

The trees are die cut from black glitter card and from soft sheen gold card.

'JOY' is one of my home0made sentiments and its finished off with a multi loop gold thread bow.

To complete the card I added a few black and fold gems from a sheet I found at the back of a drawer when I was looking for something else! 😂

Card 2

I've used the same die (I cut loads of these in different colours so there are more cards to be made!)

These were cut in a variety of aqua shades and different card finishes and glued them down in a 'dancing trees' kind of arrangement. Next I used some of the cut out waste bits to fill in a few of the loops - not sure if I this this or not though.

I've been on a bit of a mission to use some of the lovely Washi tape I find it hard to resist buying, so I've used some to add the borders here - plus a few narrow strips of card if I didn't have a suitable match.

 

The sentiment is a home-made decal sticker and again I added a thread loopy bow, this time in silver.  To complete there are punched stars in various sizes

 

I hope you like them!

Thank you so much for coming by, please don't go without leaving a little message, I do love to hear from you.  

Or maybe I really am just talking to myself

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe,

 

Twisted Treat Box - December Elemental Challenge

 

    Hello!

We had our Covid booster jabs this week and have both felt a bit grotty for a few days since.  Much better now, but I really fell behind with things on my to-do list, so I'm going to make this really short in an effort to get some more ticks on that list!

This week's  Daring Cardmakers challenge

 

"Have Yourself a Crafty Little Christmas"

 

wk 5: December Elemental Challenge

 

Our December mood board is all about the excitement of getting ready for Christmas.  The house needs decorating and the gifts need wrapping so there's holly and stars, wrapping paper and twine, baubles and candy canes... and loads more goodies to choose from. 

 Just pick any 3 elements or more from from the picture below (the colour palette counts as one) to use when you make your project

Remember it doesn't have to be Christmas themed, and it can be a card or anything else you're inspired to get crafty and make!

See what the rest of our clever team made HERE 

 

From the mood-board I chose the colour theme, the printed page, Twine, Greenery and a few other bits and pieces!  I made a little treat box and tiny gift card to attach to it.

 

 

Info

kraft card to make the box

White card to print with 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' wording

Various die cut leaves and boughs in green and gold

Due cut stars and snowflakes in white card, plus a few gold stars and red dots

The box is held closed with red satin ribbon and the gift card attached with red and white Bakers' Twine

These treat boxes are so incredibly east to make - even though they look a bit complicated: just make a tube (like a kitchen roll inner)

Squeeze the gap at one end together and glue - hold together with clips while it dries. 

 Squeeze the open end together, but in the opposite direction so you get a kind of triangular shape

Don't glue this end, but pinch firmly and add clips as before until you're ready to fill it with goodies.

Punch holes through both layers of the open end so you can add ribbon and tie it closed

 Great for hanging on the tree, using as decorations, adding to a place setting at the table...  Not that I ever get around to doing any of those things, of course!

 Thank you so much for coming by, please don't go without leaving a little message, I do love to hear from you.  

Or maybe I really am just talking to myself

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe,

 

Easel card in Silver, Aqua & a dash of red

  

                                                        Hello!

I've spent a lot of this week plodding on making my Christmas cards.  I wouldn't say it going brilliantly, but the pile has been growing and when it began to teeter I moved it into a box.  It was then that I counted them and found that I was less than halfway there.  Ho hum.

On the positive side, I have updated my '2020 Gifting' list yo one for 2021 and actually ordered up a few things, so soon I'll be able to fill the spaces next to the names on the list!

I like to use the Daring Cardmakers Christmas challenges to get a few of the special cards done and this week's was perfect for that.

 

"Have Yourself a Crafty Little Christmas"

 

wk 3: Silver, Aqua & a Dash

We've a colour theme this time!  

Use Silver and Aqua/turquoise shades and add a pop of any other colour you fancy

Remember it doesn't have to be Christmas themed, and it can be a card or anything else you're inspired to get crafty and make!

See what the rest of our clever team made HERE 

 

 

 I was tempted by this snowflake easel card die set by Card-making Magic and as there were snowflake dies  in the set to feed my addiction I didn't resist the urge to buy it! To be honest, easel cards aren't so difficult to make, but this one is a shape that would have taxed my limited maths skills to make myself, not to mention some tricky cutting to get the snowflake shaped 'easel', it wasn't a hard sell!

I chose red to use as my extra colour pop.

 

Info

White card to make the base card and for other layers and details. For the carious snowflakes and details I used white Bazzill Bling, different shades and finishes of turquoise and silver cardstock, including glitter card, plus a few scraps of shiny and glittered red card.

Not all the snowflakes are in this dies set, I used several dies from my collection to fill out my design. The 2 rectangular shapes and the sentiment are in the set though, which is handy.

To finish the card I added a few red gems

The lovely thing about an easel card is it folds relatively flat to send in an envelope.

Thank you so much for coming by, please don't go without leaving a little message, I do love to hear from you.  

Or maybe I really am just talking to myself

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe,

 

 

Jolly Holly-Days!

 

   Hello!

How are you?  If you are a cardmaker, how is your Christmas card stack coming along?  In my case its all going rather slowly and I've yet to buy a single Christmas present - so not good!

For the Daring Cardmakers

 

"Have Yourself a Crafty Little Christmas"

 

Challenge this week, our theme is

Jolly Holly-Days!

We'd simply like to see some holly or other Winter greenery on your 

projects this time
We'd love you to share anything you make so, not just cards but boxes, bags, tags, labels and decorations.  Whatever you make we want to see!

 And of course, remember, your makes don't even have to be Christmassy!

 Info

I resized and printed off some lovely digi papers onto white Bazzill card and made a little pillow box using an Xcut die that I've had for ages and comes out most years! For the tag I used another of the designs resized smaller so the words would fit onto the tag.

Using some green card I cut a load of holly leaves and also a bought of much smaller leaves.  These were all glittered with Glamour Dust and I think I overdid it.  oops! The berries were cut from different kinds of red card using a small circle punch.

To finish I added a gold thread bow and used more of the tiny holly leaves to decorate the tag

Thank you so much for coming by, please don't go without leaving a little message, I do love to hear from you.  

Or maybe I really am just talking to myself

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe,

 

November Elemental Challenge

 

   Hello!

It doesn't seem five minutes since I was moaning about the cold and whinging about having the 'January Blues' and here we are back to long dark nights and chilly weather..  Actually, I don't mind the cold so much, you can always light the fire or put another layer of clothes on - and there are all those cute socks and fluffy slippers to make you smile and keep your toes toasty.  Its that bit when the clocks go back and suddenly its dark before 5pm and the nights are interminably long - and you know you won't be cooking dinner in natural light again till sometime around March.

This week's  Daring Cardmakers challenge

As it's the first Friday of a whole new month this week its time for the

 

November Elemental Challenge

 

Our November mood board is full of textures and warm colours just right to bring a cosy glow to your craft projects this week

As usual, you simply need to pick any 3 elements or more from the picture below (the colour palette counts as one) to use when you make your card

Check out the ideas from our wonderful design team HERE

This week also sees the start of

"Have Yourself a Crafty Little Christmas"

From now till the big day arrives, we invite you to share anything you make on the themes we give - so, not just cards but boxes, bags, tags, labels and decorations.  Whatever you make we want to see your creativity

And of course, your makes don't even have to be Christmassy - we'd love you to use our themes in whatever way you like 

 

From the mood-board I chose the rectangle shapes, the trees and the greenery when I made my card

 Info

Starting with a white square card and some Stamperia Glitter Paste I stencilled a background of stars and snowflakes using a Memory Box stencil.

I resized and printed off some lovely digi papers from Busy May Studios (via Etsy) onto white Bazzill card, then cut out the trees.  I also cut the trees using plain black card and glued the 2 layers together for some dimension.  I adhered three black rectangles onto the card and arranged my trees on top. 

The sentiment is one of my printed ones and works well I think as a small extra rectangle.  I added a silver thread loopy bow, die cut pine branch, a couple of tiny holly leaves, plus some red glitter card 'berries' and I was done.

  

Thank you so much for coming by, please don't go without leaving a little message, I do love to hear from you.  

Or maybe I really am just talking to myself

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe,

 

The call of the Wine...

 Hello!

Another catch-up post today, this time a wine themed card made for one of our lovely neighbours' special day.  You'll know if you read my blog regularly that our street has been just the best and most supportive place to have lived through the pandemic in. 

Any excuse for a street mingle has been grabbed with both hands and Anthony's 50th was no exception.

Anthiony is a great favourite - possibly because hardly a week goes by without him bringing fresh-from-the-kitchen treats out with him for our regular Sunday lunchtime street meet 🤣😋😋

Info

To start with I inked up some card with various wine coloured shades till ai got a nice depth and a bit of colour variation tp ise for the grapes.I repeated this using some green inks ready to cut the leaves and vines.

The die set is by Spellbinders it was quite dear, but I bought it using my discout when I was on the Spellbloggers team 😉.  What a good buy!  I've used it loads - there's a wine glass and a hunk of cheese in the set aswell. The 'straight' bottles are from a newset (might be Lawn Fawn), the numerals and small letters are Sizzix (I think)

I made up the various elements, adding extra grapes and leaves  to give some dimension, making labels from scraps of coloured card and touches of gold for the foiled bits on the wine bottles.  I did make a glass of wine too, but decided to leave that off as I couldn't work out where it would look best!

 

 

I glued a strip of black and white printed card down the side of the card (I love the contrast) then moved the various pieces around until I was happy to stick them down. To finish I added the gold numerals and made the name banner to go across the corner

 

  That's it for this time, Thank You so much for coming by, please don't go without leaving a little message as I do love to know what you think.

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe, 

 

Orange, Purple and Black with Stars

   Hello!

Have you had a good week? I hope so.

Finally, after taking just a couple of days to travel from Prague to the UK then sitting in a Customs shed in Dartford since the start of the month OH's new work tech (laptop, keyboard, screens, wires etc) was released and deli vered this week. In the meantime, as HM Customs don't give any info as to when or even if they will release goods, his new company arranged to have another laptop delivered from a UK supplier just so he could start to get on with stuff.  Don't ask me, its about processor speed and such like. 

Thank you sooo much to all those who voted FOR Brexit and have made life difficult in so many ways

Obviously everything arrived on the same day, the separate laptop arriving about an hour after the enormous box with the whole kit in it.

So that's about as exciting as its been around here this week

This week's  Daring Cardmakers challenge

It's Dawn here this time and as this weekend will be full of Ghoulies and Ghosties and Four-legged Beasties, I thought we could make 

Halloween Inspired

our starting point. So you could make a traditional kind of Halloween card, but it doesn't have to be ghosts and witches, instead, you could choose to use  Halloween colours (black, purple and orange) or Autumn things like pumpkins and apples, or creatures connected to the season such black cats, cute owls, or a starry sky.

 

Check out the ideas from our wonderful design team HERE

Not being a great fan of Halloween stuff I chose to go with Dawn's suggestion to use the colour scheme, plus the starry sky and add a card to my meagre pile of Christmas Cards.  I'm so behind with making them and you know what they say; Every Little Helps!...

 Info

Starting with a white square card. I used washi tape to mask a rectangular shape, then filled it in with orange, purple and black inks/

After removing the tape I added stencilled stars using a Memory Box stencil and some silver glitter paste (Stamperia).  This time I stencilled out of the rectangle, so that some of the stars are on the white area of the card.

The row of tiny houses and the silver trees are die cuts. I added tiny bits of black and gold paper behind the doors and windows

To finish I added a white on black Christmas sentiment and a loopy bow topped with an punched star

 

Thank you so much for coming by, please don't go without leaving a little message, I do love to hear from you.  

Or maybe I really am just talking to myself

 

 Happy Crafting, Stay Safe,