Wiebelkaart!

Hello again! I am back after my festive break with the family and running late for my DT card for this week's anything goes challenge on Cute Card Thursday.  Our sponsor for this challenge is Heather's Hobbie Heaven with a $10 gift certificate for our winner. 

I started working on this creation in odd moments over the past few days as my entry to the Marianne Design Challenge for a wiebelkaart .. ... My translator wasn't too sure about that word, but after looking at the fabulous examples from the design team I sussed that it was some kind of semi circle card .. .. remember the Weebles - they wobbled but didn't fall down .. .. the boys had them for Christmas 30 years or so ago!  I kept it simple, although some of the examples are far more complicated with different cuts and layers, I drew around a plate to get my circle then simply folded it in half and covered the front with MD paper and a lace trim.  I got to use some of my new dies, Christmas pressies from the boys and Mum, along with some of the old favourites. These are the Marianne Design products I've used on this card:

patterned paper - Eline's Warm Winter Wishes bloc PB7039
stamp - Snoejes HM9439
large flower - LR0105
centre of large flower, small flowers and tiny leaves - CR1210
skeleton leaves - LR0156
butterflies - LR0158
hearts - LR0159
pretty scallop background and text layers - LR0180

I've stamped the image with brown Momento then coloured with Copics, mostly E40s as I didn't want any one particular part of the card to outshine another.  To finish things off I've made the ivory pearls with the Wacco pearl maker pen although I got them a little too close together on the butterflies and some have joined up, but I think it works ok as they look like the abdomen. The text is by LOTV, again stamped with brown Momento and I've bent the petals on the large main flower to give a little extra dimension, the flowers are cut from Coredinations card and it's a bit thick for bending but just about works ok.

I have a lot of catching up to do, but I have to share what I've just seen on the Anja Design blog .. .. if you love the detailed lace/trellis dies that Anja has designed for Marianne, then you are going to adore her new dies coming out soon - just go and drool over the fabulous samples and see if you agree with me .. .. that little sunshade is so cute!

The Fussy and Fancy Friday challenge is to show your furry friends so as my card has a little dog in the image I can enter with them.

I'm not sure if I will get around to blogging again for a day or two as my granddaughter is still with us and I'm not getting much free time.  Plus my style is leaning towards more detailed cards with pretty diecut layers and I find it takes me longer to put something together - so you may not see so many creations from me in the next year but hopefully I can make them worth seeing once I finally get around to blogging!

Here's to us then, Have a Very Happy New Year - and a fabulous, fun and crafty 2013.

Vintage Merry Christmas

The eagle eyed amoungst you might recognise this creation from my desk a couple of week's back .. .. I'd almost forgotten about it!  It's a pocket card, well not a actually a card in the sense that it opens and stands up but, I might fix it to a tent fold card base and use it for next year - once I get back to my craft stash again that is.  After taking off half the front of what was a kraft square card for something else, I was left with a short flap so used a pretty Marianne lace edge die on it and inked the embossed areas with Walnut DI to make them stand out.  I took a piece of Marianne paper and cut the scallp to fit under the lace edge then used the plain 'knitted' print on the back flap before sticking the edges down to create the pocket.

The tag is more of the Marianne knitted paper and cut out label from the pack.  I stamped the Marianne little border and text with brown Momento then added my diecut embellishments and the pearls to finish things off.

The Marianne dies I used are:

Anja's lace - LR0201
mini poinsettia - LR0142
swirl - LR0116

The Holly Jolly Christmas challenge is for vintage creations and the Fab 'n' Funky challenge is to add a little ribbon or lace - I just have the pretty lace loop on my Christmas tag but hopefully it's enough. The girls over at Fussy and Fancy Friday are looking for tags or banners, so I'll link up with them too.

Christmas Dinner

This week on Cute Card Thursday our theme is to eat, drink and be merry! and our sponsor is Whimsy Stamps.

I coloured up this cute LOTV image with my Copics and then got stuck with finding papers to match so kept to a predominately white look with just a little blue in the background paper and mat. Fingers crossed my turkey turns out looking that lovely golden colour!

A relatively simple card with the pretty white mat cut from Marianne die LR0234 then embellished with the holly sprigs LR0244 and mini poinsettia flowers LR0142 plus the pretty AB gems.

Creative Inspirations have an anything goes theme running, and the Papertake Weekly challenge is for your pick of the year - and I've picked the anything goes theme again!  Stampavie and More have a Christmas theme and so do the Stamptacular Sunday challenge.

And an additional exciting piece of news - I've been asked to join the Stampavie and More challenge blog team!  It used to be called Stamping with Sarah Kay, and I love my older SK stamps so must get them inky again next year, although now the blog is open for any stamped image.  The weather has turned nasty here, again, so I am just holding my breath for the electricity to last .. .. better press the publish button quick!

WOYWW - Merry Christmas!

Well it has been busy and eventful here and I've not got much crafting done. As you can see the table and sideboard have been cleared and my stash is neatly put away, so not much to show to Julia at the Stamping Ground and the WOYWW girls. I even sorted out my SU! cardstock into the appropriate colour collections so I would know which red is what red, if you get me! The tree is up and decorated, I went for a £25 artificial one from Tesco and just used my clear and gold decorations on it, plus a couple of new clear and white ones as that was going to be my colour scheme - maybe in a year or two I will have collected enough. My sister paid us a flying visit yesterday and thankfully we had electric so I could cook lunch. We have had 2 power failures since Friday last - the problem is the water getting into an underground cable joint and now we have to wait for it to go 'pop' - a technical term I'm told! They have replaced the big fuses in the sub-station twice, and next time they may do something to make it go 'pop'. Strange as it may seam I am hoping we get lots of rain today so it goes again and can be fixed before Christmas .. .. the last thing I want is for it to 'pop' half way through cooking the turkey!
 

I wanted to enter a card in the Marianne Design Challenge again, but with a theme of red, white and green I was struggling as all my Marianne papers are vintage/muted in style.  The challenge ends in just a bit so I must rush to finish this post and get linked up.  On Saturday we went to Truro and called in at Hobby Craft where they have a small selection of Marianne dies.  This scallop rectangle set LR0111 has been on my wish list for a while and when I saw it on the stand it kinda jumped in to my basket!  I've used the flowers and swirls from the set and it's twin LR0112 to create my card, along with a stamp from the Stampfairy set of greetings - simple but hopefully effective.  There's a candy offer on the blog too, so why not stop by.

I'll come back to link up with some other challenges once I get a chance to catch up and go down my blog list .. ..

Die Cuttin Divas challenge theme is Holiday Spirit so I can enter with them

Totally Papercrafts Sketch

This week on Totally Papercrafts Lisa has designed a sketch for the challenge, and our sponsor is the Digi Stamp Boutique.  This is our last challenge before the Festive Holiday begins in earnest and we take a little break, so here's wishing you all a Happy Christmas.

My card is looking rather washed out as I had to take it under my daylight lamp.  The papers are all from an old Papermania Christmas pad and I've matted with green and ivory card.  The text is a Serendipity Cling stamp inked up with Sahara Sand Versamagic chalk ink, and perhaps I should have gone a little darker but I was keeping to the same ink that I've used to distress the edges of my layers and to colour the embossed areas on my circle die cut.  Anyway, it's a simple little card, a little strip of cotton lace across the join and then the various Marianne die cuts, finally finishing off with the cream pearls made with the Wacco pearlmaker pen.

The Marianne dies I used for this card:
flowers and skeleton leaves - LR0156
stamens from - LR0122
Anya's skeleton leaves - LR0228
spiky spray - LR0192
circle - LR0112

The Cupcake Craft challenge is for a Merry Christmas, while the Anything Goes challenge blog are looking for traditional Christmas colours - I've gone for the traditional red and the green combi!

We are having internet problems again - last night nothing at all and this morning I keep getting the 'no connection to the internet' message.  I'm not sure if it is the weather (howling and torrential rain again) or, perhaps hopefully they are working on the promised upgrade .. .. ..  If you have left me a comment I will try to reciprocate, but please be patient - eventually I'll get back to you!

Simply Charming

The theme this week on Cute Card Thursday is 'Simply Charming' - to add a charm to your creation.  Our sponsor for this challenge is Katherina from Whiff of Joy who is offering the winner a choice of stamp from her collection.

As I wasn't able to do much detailed colouring on Tuesday when I was putting this card together, it's primarily a mix of paper and diecuts.  The one little extra is the little stamped deer from Eline's winter stamp set that I fussy cut out yesterday to add in the bottom corner.  The red background paper is from Eline's winter huis pretty paper bloc and I've matted with ivory and green card, added a length of red lace and green gross grain ribbon, then cut a circle out of an old Papermania Xmas pad that had the greeting and fixed to the doily circle die cut. The little holly sprig charm I've had for years so that's finally come in useful! and to embellish I've used what is probably my favourite Marianne die - the mini poinsettias, with a close runner up being the holly sprig.

Here's the list of Marianne dies:
mini poinsettia - LR0142
holly sprig - LR0244
snowflake - CR1225
round doily - LR0168

It just so happens that Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge this week is 'deer, deer' so I hope that my one little fawn will be enough to let me join in.  The Christmas Card challenge is to use diecuts, and the ABC Christmas challenge are on to Y - for your favourite die .. .. the mini poinsettias of course!  And the Divas by Design challenge is for red on your creation this week - so here's mine.

WOYWW - a mess!

I am trying to get tidied up and cleared away so the table can be used over Christmas for eating meals .. .. but hey ho!  I've missed Julia's What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday for a few weeks but as I've nothing else to share with you today I thought I'd snap the mess.  There's a couple of cards on top of the Copics that you'll see in detail over the next couple of days.  And a couple of coloured images there in front that just didn't want to work for me .. .. and a SK over the back that I coloured ages ago and still haven't done anything with.  I really am a messy crafter!

Unfortunately, one of the reasons I've not been blogging the past couple of days is because I had a bit of an allergic reaction to mushrooms that caused my eyes to swell, even my eyeballs!  I've had it before but never could pin down the cause, and thankfully never so bad.  However, Monday night we had quite a few mushrooms that needed using up so there was a pile on my plate, and before I'd finished my meal my eyes were itching and swelling shut.  Thankfully we had anti-histamine in the house so one of those calmed the itch, but my eyes were just about swollen shut and yesterday morning they were still quite sore, so I wasn't able to do much crafting.  Today I've been playing catch up and getting nowhere fast.  The two coloured images were meant to be for my DT cards this week but I just couldn't get them to look right so they will have to be turned into something else.

Now I had better try and catch up with my DT commenting and see what's going on with other WOYWW desks - back tomorrow with my CCT card.

Ice Skating Don

We had no internet access again yesterday and it's a little bit iffy today, fingers crossed I don't loose you before I can press the publish button!  This is another Marianne card with the skates die that I recently won and the freebie Skating Don stamp from the Papercrafts Essential magazine.  In addition I've used papers from Eline's Scandinavian Winter paper bloc and diecut the snowflakes from scraps of blue card.  Then I've stamped the little red snowflakes that came on the Eline's Owls clear set of stamps across the cream paper layer and finished off with the little red gems. This card is a lot less fussy than some I've made recently but hopefully still works ok.  The Marianne dies on this card then are the skates LR0247, and snowflakes LR0123 amd CR1227.

I don't tend to do much on the inside of my cards, a little stamped text and maybe a stamped image that doesn't need colouring in.  This time I had a tiny scrap of the paper left after I trimmed for the card so rather than bin it, I stuck it inside under the text that originally I'd planned for the front, but it didn't look right, and finally added the stamped snowflakes along the bottom edge.

The Winter Wonderland blog have a red and blue colour theme so I can enter with them this week, and the My Time To Craft blog as well as the Fab 'n' Funky blog both have a non traditional Christmas colours theme, hopefully red and blue is on the mark for them.  And I just saw on Squirrel's blog that By The Cute and Girly also have a red, white and blue colour challenge for December!  Then there's also the Marianne Design Divas challenge that's still got a few more days left to run with the theme of a card for a gentleman, and seeing as you can enter more than once this will be my second go with them.

It's a miserable day here in Cornwall, and I thought we were supposed to be having a break from all this 'weather' .. .. I need to get a couple of DT cards made for the run up to Christmas then I'll have to start thinking about clearing the table and tidying up the dining area before my guests arrive for the holiday - I'm cooking for 10 this year .. .. that's a lot of veggies to peel and a big turkey to go in the oven!  Sometime this week I'll have to start thinking about a tree .. .. not sure if a real one or go buy a fake one .. .. I do like the real ones but they are getting so expensive and the fake ones are getting better looking and cheaper each year - decisions, decisions!

One for the boys!

This week on the Totally Paper Crafts blog our theme is "one for the boys" and the sponsor for this challenge is Simon Says Stamps.

I've made a simple card for DH with one of my old High Hopes stamps, Santa Fishing, and coloured with Copics before cutting out to fit my frame and inking the edges.

Here it is, a slightly different picture to the one on the TPC blog as I've now added a sprinkling of glitter to his hat and the fish.  The festive patterned paper is from a very old Papermania pack matted with Cherry Cobbler card from SU!  I diecut the Marianne frame (LR0234) and Mistletoe sprays (LR0189) from the same kraft card as my base and inked the embossed areas and the edges with Walnut DI.  I've added the berries with my Wacco cream pearl maker pen, a little text, a button tied with string and a tiny heart finish things off.

The One Stop Craft theme is Christmas for the boys, and Everybody Art also have a Christmas theme and for the first challenge on the new Christmas at Sweet Stampin' blog they are just looking for Christmas creations, then over on the High Hopes challenge it's an anything goes theme so I'd like to enter all of their challenges with my card.

Red and Green

This week's theme on Cute Card Thursday is "Red and Green", and you don't have to make a Christmas card, but I expect most of us will!  Our sponsor for this challenge is Love To Stamp, the home of Little Darlings Rubber stamps.

For my DT card I've inked up my LOTV trimming the tree stamp and coloured with my Copics keeping to as many red and green tones as I could .. .. but the dog had to be something else!  Little touches of sparkle on the Santa hat and baubles then the faux embossed stitches around the edge before inking with Walnut DI for a vintage touch.

 

My paper is from Eline's winter huis pretty paper bloc from Marianne, backed with Cherry Cobbler card from SU! and again I've inked all the edges.  To embellish I cut Marianne's mini poinsettias (LR0142) and holly branches (LR0244) from Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive cardstock then finished with Burgundy Stickles and a little burgundy and green ribbon tied in a bow.

 

I'd like to enter these challenges with my red and green card: The Fussy and Fancy Friday challenge is for Christmas, and Addicted to Stamps also have a Christmas Time theme, then there's an anything goes theme at Papertake Weekly.  Over at Lili's Little Fairies today the theme is to punch it, or die cut, using at least 3 different dies/punches.  Hopefully I can get away with my entry as the poinsettia's are created with 3 different dies (2 different sizes of petals plus the stamen die) and the holly boughs are made with 2 different dies as well so that's 5 dies total.

Tea for Two

I'm back!  My weekends are busy with family just now, it's the only time I get to see DH, so crafting takes a back seat.  I did manage to finish this card in odd moments, although I'm not too sure about the greeting .. .. it's just fixed with little 3d foam pads so I could with a bit of luck and care replace it with something else.  Anyway, having won the 2nd prize on the Marianne Design Challenge blog last month, I thought I'd enter again this month.  My translation read to create a card that wasn't square or rectangular, so I came up with this circular design.  I cut the base card with a very old Sizzix die then added the pretty Marianne circles and embellishments cut from Eline's Scandinavian Winter paper pack and scraps of red and soft blue card.  The stamped image is called Daisiy's Birthday and I've coloured with my Copics before fussy cutting out and 3d fixing to the inner blue circle.  I've inked the embossed layers on the outer circle with chalk ink, and finished off with blue pearls.

The Marianne products I used on this card are:
Eline's Scandinavian Winter paper bloc - PB7040
Daisy's Birthday stamp - DDS3308
Eline's Scandinavian woven hearts die - CR1228
Flower and stamens - LR0112
Double Frame Circles LR0141
Butterfly - LR0158
Leaf sprays - LR0192
Text from clear stamp sheet - SF1118

The Stampavie and More challenge is anything but square so I'm entering with them too.