Hey Bro!

Hello Friends 

It's a rather dull and gloomy day here today. While we were out this morning the 'damp’ in the air felt decidedly like the sort that could easily turn to snow.  We will have none of that behaviour, thank you!

I'm up on the Bubbly Funk Through the Letterbox.blog today using the December craft box.  This box is called 'Seeing Stars' and is full of glitz, sparkle and shine, but I wanted to make something that isn't for Christmas.

My brother's birthday is in the middle of December - if you have December birthdays to send cards for, you'll know what a pain it is to find them.  At least that's not such a problem since I started making cards - but it doesn't stop me moaning about it, of course.  

The December box has a starry theme, and stars are a really good stand-by for male cards, aren't they?

I love the gold glitter alphabet sheets in this new box.  They are  sticky-backed, but flat (not chipboard), so they are great for cards that you need to send in the post and don't want to pay the hefty 'fat letter' rate on.  I'll probably hand deliver this one, so I added some bits of cardboard under the letters to add extra dimension.

I chose card in dark red and dark blue for a masculine feel - I really love how these colours work together, and it was a joy to step away from the Christmas crafting for a while.

The December's 'Seeing Stars' craft box from Bubbly Funk Through the Letterbox is now ready to pre-order at  December Through the Letterbox box,  Here's a picture of the contents

That's all for this time

Happy Crafting

Little Christmas Icons

Hello, how are you?

Here we are barrelling relentlessly towards Christmas.  There's no stopping it, no matter how hard we wish for more time....

Friday December the 1st today and a new Daring Cardmakers Challenge - and as its the first Friday of the month it's an

Elemental Inspiration Photo Challenge

to give the starting point. you need to do to join in is to choose at least 3 elements from the picture to use on your card.

There are lots of lovely possibilities, such as the tree, hearts, stars, the textures and patterns of the blanket, floor and bricks, Nordic style elements.... etc

From the photo I chose to use the stocking, the gift and the tree.  I was going to make miniature gift bags as in the photo, but then remembered the lovely Christmas minis die from Cuttlebug.  Its pretty old, but comes out again most years.  I tried to use the crisp Nordic style too, and also added a few stars, including red glittery ones like the one on the top of the tree in the picture.

Info{

White card blank

Red, White and Gold card cut into 3cm and 2.5cm squares and arranged fairly randomly in a grid pattern

Gold, White, Red and Green card for the die cuts

Scraps of Glitter card for the punched stars

Red, Gold and Green gems to decorate the trees

Cuttlebug Christmas mini icons die

Tonic border punch for stars

That's all for today, I hope you'll pop across to the Daring Cardmakers blog to see how the rest of the team have used the picture - and of course, we'd love you to join in.

Thank you for looking, Have a great weekend

Tree in Winter - Spellblogger post for Spellbinders

Hello! 

I'm back with another Spellblogging post for Spellbinders
I'm really l;ate this week because I've been having computer 'issues'!  Hopefully all sorted now thanks to my lovely, patient OH!
 So this card has been waiting a while as I couldn't actually get onto my blog at all for a few days

Spellbinders recently released a lovely range consisting of a beautiful bare-branch tree, and a series of  'toppers' to add to it.  So far I've only got the tree and the Winter decorative set, but I shall have to have the others too, I think.
The Winter topper is especially fabulous as not only do you get the snowfall to pop over the branches, but there's a sweet little deer, and 5 gorgeous snowflakes (and I LOVE snowflake dies!).

Info
White card blank plus extra for inked panel
Dark blue card for backing piece
White, black and gold card
Background was created with several colours of Distress Inks, and a light dusting of Glamour Dust was added
Basic tree shape was cut in black and white cardstock.
The snowy topper is made with three layers of white card, glued and dipped in Glamour Dust glitter (it really sparkles!)
The deer was cut in gold and  black card, Snowflakes in gold and white
I added a few red pearl beads to add a pop of bright colour

As it happened, I got a bit carried away with these new snowflake dies, and ended up cutting a whole load of them.  We won't dwell on the fact that at one point one of the dies pinged off the cutting mat and hid itself for a good hour. I tidied all the things on my desk, then the boxes of stash on the floor nearby before finally upending the bin and going through all the inky, gungy, scrappy mess in there bit by tiny bit.  And yes that's where it had landed.  At least it was found.
I made a whole batch of snowflakes tree cards, so I thought I'd sahre a quick pic of a few of them

Here are the Spellbinders die sets used this time

Four Seasons Tree 
 Four Seasons by Lene Lok 
Shapeabilities Etched Dies

Winter Canopy and Elements 
Four Seasons by Lene Lok 
Shapeabilities Etched Dies

I also used:

Platinum Die Cutting and Embossing Machine

 That's it for this time, I love these beautiful die sets, and I'm sure to be getting my hands on the others in the series soon too!

  Thank you for visiting, if you click on This Link  you'll find yourself at the Spellbinders store where you will be tempted by lots of lovely dies, stamps and much much more!

Happy Crafting

A Single Snowflake

Hello

A very quick post from me today.  PC 'issues' yesterday mean I'm way behind on all sorts of things.  Thank goodness for the Resident Tech Help Desk!

I have a card using the November LO from the Sketch File to share today

I love this snowflake die, but it's a big one so doesn't seem to get used as much as it probably should - anyway, it works perfectly for this LO so I may just run off a few more variations on this one to help boost the Christmas card count which has rather stalled atm!

Info:

I used Imagination Crafts wonderful Sparkle Medium to make a glittery edge for the card blank

On a separate piece of card I stencilled the turquoise stars, then moved the

stencil a bit and added more of the Silver Sparkle Medium.  This starry stencil is by Crafters Workshop

The lovely snowflake die is by Sweet Dixie

The sentiment is one of my own stickers - made using decal paper from Crafty Computer Paper

The sentiment was adhered to a length of ribbon from Bubbly Funk Through the Letterbox's November craft box

Here's the sketch:

 The finished card is super-sparkly!

That's it for today, thank you for visiting, I really appreciate you coming by.  I promise to get down to some serious blog-hopping as I've really missed seeing what all my crafty friends have been making - it's so inspiring to see  everyone's creativity, isn't it?

Anyway, must get on!

Happy Crafting

Two Christmas Icons!

 Hello there,

Sunny and chilly here today.  

I was just checking the calendar and realised that this week's Daring Cardmakers' challenge is the last one in November, so we are definitely creeping closer and closer to December and you know what that means!

Today I've a couple of cards to share.  The first for the DCM challenge:

 

Trim the Tree

You don't just need to think 'Christmas Trees' for this, we'd love 

to see all sorts of trees.  
Could be just one or two or perhaps a whole forest of them!

Click HERE to see what the team have created.

Info

Square aperture cut into main card blank.

A piece of inked and glittered card was adhered to the inside of the card behind the aperture

Apertures cut into another piece of white card and a slightly larger piece of pearlescent deep aqua card to fit over the top

2 lengths of ribbon adhered along the lower border

The tree is cut with a Memory Box die.  There are 3 layers of white card glued together, the top layer was covered with PVA clue and a thick layer of Glamour dust was added.

For the corner elements I used carious holly, pine sprig and snowflake dies, topping those with white and red poinsettias made using the smallest of the four dies in the Layered Poinsettia Shapeabilities  Etched Dies set 

To finish: Red beads to decorate the tree, Tiny yellow gems for flower centres. Gold Leaf trim this stuff is a bit garish for my taste so I inked over it with a Sharpie pen to reduce the brightness a bit, Tiny red glitter dots for holly berries, 2 punched gold stars and a couple of gold teeny snowflakes tucked in too

I've used this Layered Poinsettia Die such a lot this year - it's definitely been the best of buys! 

So on to card 2
 The Man in Red
I blogged this one yesterday on the Bubbly Funk Through the Latterbox Inspiration blog, but I'm pleased with it, so its getting a show here too!

From the November Letterbox Box I used:

Vellum Quotation

A bell

A snowflake charm

A snowflake eyelet

From my stash I added: die cut Santa, stars and snowflakes, red and silver glitter card,  red ribbon, silver cord

Believe it or not for such a CAS card, this took a whole day to do.  Sometimes it's a lot harder to keep it Clean and Simple that just bunging it all on, isn't it?

Anyway, that's quite enough for this time - I have crafting to do!

Thank you so much for popping by - lease leave me a comment, I always love to hear what you think.

Snowflakes and Snowmen

Hello!

It's a rather grey and murky day here 😞.  Seems already dark and its not 2.30 yet.

Anyway, the Christmas crafting goes on ....and on!

Today I've some snowmen cards for Bubbly Funk Through the Letterbox and another card using the November LO from The Sketch File.

This is the one for The Sketch File, I wanted to make use of a lot of gold and white snowflakes I'd cut out when I made the box I shared here last time, and I thought they would look fab against a black background

.  

Info:

Black card blank

Various other card pieces in gild and white

Stamped sentiment 

narrow red satin ribbon

Lots of different snowflake dies and punches

This Sketch:

The Sketch File Blog November 2017

For the Snowmen card I used just a length of ribbon from the Bubbly Funk Through the Letterbox November box - when I saw it, it reminded my of an old Quickutz die.  I love the way these boxes work with my existing stash an encourage me to use it!

Info

White card blank

Blue and Silver card

White glitter card and other scraps to decorate

Dies: Snowman, small snowflakes. Sentiment, Plain and Scalloped squares

Ribbon from Bubbly Funk Through the Letterbox November box

Well, that's it for this time - got to get on, more things to be cut, inked and glued!

Thank you for coming by, hope you'll visit again soon/ Leave me a message and I'll be sure to return your call 😉

Shop at:  Bubbly Funk Through the Letterbox 
Be Inspired: Bubbly Blog

Snowflake Box - Spellblogger post for Spellbinders

Hello! 

I'm back with another Spellblogging post for Spellbinders
and I've another box to share with you this time

I just could not resist making another box with Becca Feeken's
Vintage Elegance Gift Box die set

I just love this die set, it makes such a useful size box.  It goes together so perfectly and then the only thing you have to worry about is how to decorate it!
 I made this one using Gold White and Red, which are the colours I'm planning to use for our tree and other décor this Christmas.
 

I absolutely love snowflake dies - I just can't get enough of them.  Every year I tell myself 'enough is enough' and then I espy some new ones and my resolution fails.
This box is decorated with two new Spellbinders die sets; Snowflake Snippets and Create a Flake 6 (I'll give the details below). 
 I cut the largest and smallest of the Snippets dies twice each and glued then one on top if the other, then matted them onto gold foil card squares to partially cover the top of the box.
I cut loads of each of the Create a Flake lots of times - some I've used on the box lid and front, others I'll be using on other project.  You might as well cut a lot out while you're at it, eh?

I've used lots of different gold and white card.  There's glitter and foil and sheen, and lots of lovely layers.  A gold organza double bow and some red gems in different sizes to add a splash of colour.

 Materials
Patterned pearlised white card 350gsm
 Gold Glitter card
White Glitter card
Gold foil card
Gold organza ribbon
Red gems

Here's a run-down of the Spellbinders die sets used this time

  Vintage Elegance Gift Box 
from Amazing Paper Grace by Becca Feeken 
Shapeabilities  Etched Dies

Snowflake Snippets Holiday 2017 

Shapeabilities Etched Dies

Create a Flake 6 

 Shapeabilities Etched Dies

I also used:

Platinum Die Cutting and Embossing Machine

That's it for this time
  Thank you for visiting, if you click on This Link  you'll find yourself at the Spellbinders store where you will be tempted by lots of lovely dies, stamps and much much more!

Happy Crafting