I'm (not) Dreaming of a White Christmas

Hello!

How's it going in your world? 
At the end of last week we had a few days over in Southwold.  The flat has now had the best part of two letting years, but we've obviously had a lot of very careful guests staying there as there were only a couple of small maintenance jobs to do!  So apart from those and sorting out what supplies we needed to stock up for our lovely Housekeeper we were able to enjoy being by the seaside.  We reckon that "the sun always shines in Southwold" and although we did have one very rainy day, the sun came out for the rest of the time - how lucky was that for a November when half the country was being deluged and flood warnings were all over the place?
Walks along the pier and prom were enjoyed!

Over at the Daring Cardmakers the 'Have a Very Crafty Christmas' season of challenges continues and this week it's a 'Just Cards' challenge 
Christmas Songs and Carols
choose any Christmas Song or Carol as the inspiration for making your card. If you want to add a twist by making it a non-Christmas card then go for it! We’d love to see how you manage that! 

Visit the Daring Cardmakers blog to see what our designers have made

I wanted to use Bing Crosby's  "White Christmas" as the song for my card. The plan was to incorporate the eclipse idea and use some lovely sheet music paper from a digital collection I bought with this challenge in mind.  However that didn't quite work as I'd hoped, so I started over with a simplified plan. 
And then, even worse, I discovered that the 'A' from my much used and much loved Spellbinders alphabet set has gone missing.  I could cry! 😭😭😭

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Using a sheet of Bazzill Diamond White card, and unable to find the letter 'A' die, I resorted to cutting the CHRISTMAS letters out using my Silhouette Cameo.  Admittedly, cutting them all again 4 times in red card was a lot quicker on the Silhouette than it would have been with dies!

I cut down the white layer to fit the large card blank I'd made and glued it in place.  Once the letters were all layered up I added those in the gaps left.

Next I cut lots of Christmas trees using an old Sue Wilson set of dies and white glitter card.  I also cut them in plain white card several times so that I could layer them up and get lots of definition.

I arranged them on the card, keeping 4 back for the front layer.  These were then matted onto bits of chipboard before I added them to the card.

I added punched stars in a silvery white glitter card.

To pull it all together I added more red highlights with some shiny snowflakes and a piece of red eyelash fibre I found while I was looking for something else. 

I hope you'll pop over to see the fab cards the DT have made this week, and of course it would be wonderful to have you join in with the Daring Cardmakers this week

Sunny Southwold 

  

  Thanks for looking in today, please leave a message - I'll be sure to return the favour if your do 😊

Happy Crafting!

Soft Focus

Hello

Okay, it's time to give myself a good shake and stop feeling sorry for myself!  I can't do anything about the horrible Autumn Glooms and I've wallowed long enough - time to put it out of my mind and focus on something else.  Christmas is coming and all the glittery, shiny stuff it brings should help, shouldn't it?

First job is to catch up on blogging some things I've made over the last month or so, starting with a birthday card I made a few weeks back.  I had such a fun time making this one!

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I used a gorgeous Digital Download paper from OhLaChic set by Fox Digitals' LoveJunkJournals, via Etsy. I adore the soft colours and subtle designs.
I knew I wanted to make an eclipse card, and with the vintage mannequin design in the corner, and other collage style elements this paper makes a perfect backdrop.

I resized it to fit my card before printing onto textured Bazzill white card, then die cut the 'HAPPY' letters before adhering the paper to my card.
Next I die cut the letters 3 more times from plain blue-grey card and added the top layer of the patterned paper letters. These were then glued into their spaces on the card.

The flowers are made from matching pink, blue and grey cardstock, with stamens added to some.
Gold card was used to die cut some swirls, the body for the butterfly and the 'Birthday' word

The flowers were arranged in the corners with the leafy swirls tucked beneath

The butterfly was die cut from a second printout piece of the same paper.and layered over the butterfly that is on the paper design

To finish and pull the whole thing together I wrapped gold twine around the top of the card and tied a double bow 

I really love making cards like this, especially when the design on the paper and all the 'smudgy' colours make such a fabulously inspiring backdrop for adding all the extra bits and pieces.  
And of course, I love making little paper flowers and adding swirly elements to show them off.

Anyway, that's my lot for today, thanks for visiting, leave a comment and I'll pop over to visit your blog asap! In fact I'm off now to do some blog-hopping 
which I've also neglected recently.

Happy Crafting!

  

Baubles and Bows Gift Bag

 

Hello!

Even though I've still not come to terms with the short days and long dark evenings, I am trying to be more positive and having a bit of fun by doing lots of Christmas crafting.  In fact, I think I may be doing ok with Christmas card making for once and there's enough for them to graduate to being kept in a box, instead of a wobbly pile.

Over at the Daring Cardmakers we're into the second week of
 our seasonal calendar;

Have a Very Crafty Christmas

its a mix of card challenges and others where you can share any kind of crafting project on our given themes, so tags, bags, boxes or anything else you make.

This week is an 'Anything Goes' challenge and the theme is 

Baubles and Bows

So, feel free to share any kind of craft project, but it must feature 
Baubles and Bows, please

See what the DT have been busy with this week HERE

As I needed to get one Christmas gift ready really early, I thought this challenge would be perfect for making and decorating a gift bag to put it in.

I used digital downloads to print all the papers I've used for this.  The bag is a variation on a simp[le to make design I've used countless times.  I changed it a bit by creating a flap-over closure, which made the perfect place to add the giant paper bow, with a couple of silver baubles hanging down from the tie holes.

 

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I chose the wreath, the greenery and the snowflakes to use on my card.

I started by resizing and printing some digital designs from 'Karamila' (via Etsy), onto sheets of A4 Bazzill white card.  I printed on both sides of the sheets for the bow.
For the bow I used a large die set by Simply Made Crafts.  The shape of the bow wasn't what \I wanted for this project so I altered it so that the large loops sat more on top of each other.
 I used a very old Spellbinders die set to cut the Baubles from silver card and attached silver thread between the layers so that I could tie them on later.

The dies to cut the twirly pieces and the snowflakes on the bauble are also in the Bow making die set.

I do love making gift bags like this, they are so simple to put together and adapt to the size and shape you need.

 This one is about 15cmsH, 12cmsW and 4cms deep

I hope you'll pop over to see the fab things the DT have made this week, and of course it would be wonderful to have you join in with the Daring Cardmakers this week

Thanks for looking in today
Happy Crafting!

Snowflake Wreath

Hello!

Still struggling with my Autumnal woes, but give it a week or two and the tilt towards Christmas will help things along a bit!

Over at the Daring Cardmakers the countdown starts this week, and we have a lovely new Guest Designer to add to the fun.

We always start our seasonal calendar with the first challenge in November and this year its a mix of card challenges and others where you can share any kind of crafting project on our given themes, so tags, bags, boxes or anything else you make. We're calling it:
Have a Very Crafty Christmas

This week though, we're sticking to cards and as it's the first day of a new month it's an 

Elemental Inspiration Challenge  

For November we have this lovely, Wintry mood board for you to play with.

Remember, you just need to pick a minimum 3 elements  from the picture to use when making your card.  If you choose to use the colour palette, then that would count as one of your elements.

 Visit the Daring Cardmakers blog to see what our designers have made

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I chose the wreath, the greenery and the snowflakes to use on my card.
 

I started by resizing and printing a digital design from 'Romantic Letters' via Etsy onto the lower part of a piece of A4 card - so that when I trimmed it down and folded it the patterned section would be in the right place!

For the wreath I used 2 nesting circle dies to cut the shape.  I cut the shape twice and glued them together and also added small pieces of chipboard to the back to add some dimension

Next I chose several bough and 'greenery' dies and vut them in a variety of greens, plus a few in gold and white to cover the base of the wreath.

I chose a few of my snowflake dies and cut them in white, gold and turquoise-blue and glued them in place.

To finish I cut a few holly leaves and berries, and made the 'Joy' sentiment, adding a red and white twine bow to complete the card.

Lots of die cutting and sticking involved with this one!

I hope you'll pop over to see the fab cards the DT have made this week, and of course it would be wonderful to have you join in with the Daring Cardmakers this week

Thanks for looking in today
Happy Crafting!

Happy Haunting!

Hello!

An apology to start with today as I've been such a bad blogger, and blog-hopper lately. It's down to October-itis; that feeling of impending doom I get at this time every year.  I just find the shortening days and the whole dreariness of it so depressing.  My shoulders sag, I don't want to go anywhere or even see anyone - really I just want to hibernate, and I know I'm not the onw who dinfs this time of the year a challenge.

 Anyway, forgive me for being a miserable old bat, I'll get over it, eventually! I'll just keep my head down and hope that a bit of craft-therapy will help

Here's this week's challenge to the Daring Cardmakers
 
Halloween Inspired
It's Shabneez here this time, and as there are only a
few days left to Halloween I would love to see
your spooky creations.
If you don't have anything suitable in
your stash then how about using Halloween
inspired colours on your creations?

Click HERE to visit the blog and see what our Designers came up with.

Halloween isn't my favourite time - I'm the sort who closes the blinds, turns the lights down and doesn't answer the doorbell  Bah humbug!

but anyway, I thought I'd have a go at making a pumpkin shaped card, and came up with this

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I used orange card and a large oval die to make the card base. then cut 5 smaller orange ovals with a bit of extra inking added to make the top section. 

I inked some plain white card in the green and natural shades to use for the stalk and vines. The stalk was hand cut, and the vines die cut using a die from
Spellbinders

The sentiment was pc generated and then hand cut and inked.  I made a couple of extra tiny pumpkins from yellow and cream card for extra detail 

Just of fun, I had a look through my dies folders to see what else could be adapted to the Halloween theme, and spotted the 'Chill' ice cream set by
Spellbinders
I thought the scoops of ice cream shapes would make cute little ghosties, especially with the addition of googly eyes! 
I tied some raffia around the top and added a little tag to finish

I hope you'll pop over to see the fab cards the DT have made this week, and of course it would be wonderful to have you join in with the Daring Cardmakers this week

Thanks for looking in today

Happy Crafting!

Black Christmas

Hello!

Just a quick post today as I'm not  feeling well this week.  I did manage a couple of cards for Svenja's challenge, to the Daring Cardmakers this week though I'm not at all happy with the first one and I think it will be heading for the bin.

With days getting shorter and Hallowe'en coming closer I thought it might be a nice idea to really focus on the dark (and maybe the colourful against it). It's Svenja here and I'd like to take you

back to black

with me. So make a card that features the colour black as the main colour or as a distinctive central element. Sounds too sad for you? Just take a look at the Design Team's happy and fun makes!

Click HERE to visit the blog and see all the lovely cards made by our Designers

The first card I made turned out much more complicated and a bit of a trial ro get toi work, which is probably why I dislike it so much!

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Base card is inked up to create the background.
The snowman building die was cut a couple of times so that I could layer it up with some thick card between to give some dimension.
Once in position I die cut the Circle apertures in black and
 white athen matted over the top.
I added tiny white circles for snow and silver stars to the background, and die cut the sentiment in red for a splash of colour

Lots of inking and die cutting and faffing about with foam tape etc for this and definitely not worth the time and effort.  You win some and you lose some, eh?

Ny contrast, the second idea went together in about 10 minutes start to finish, and is much more the simple and striking kind of card I like to make at Christmas time

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White card blank
Scalloped square die cut in black
Cute Scribbled Square with Joy sentiment is cut in silver glitter card using a Memory Box die 
The Silver glitter stars are cut using various dies and punches

I'm going to jus this idea using other colours and other Christmassy focus elements as I really love how simple it is and how cute it looks when finished.

I hope you'll pop over to see the fab cards the DT have made this week, and of course it would be wonderful to have you join in with the Daring Cardmakers this week

Thanks for looking in today

Happy Crafting!