CCT Time to Sparkle

This week on Cute Card Thursday it's Time to Sparkle! I have added lots of Stardust Stickles to my card, but as usual it's hard to get it showing up in my pictures.  The image is Feeding Robins by Lili of the Valley and I've coloured with my Copics.  I've added white gel pen to the snow and created extra little triple flakes on the background .. .. here's the card.

After I coloured the image I couldn't find pretty papers to match, so I've just embossed a piece of pearl paper with the CB snowflake folder and added the pretty satin ribbon that in real life is a match for the little lad's jacket and wellies.  For embellishments I've cut various shapes with Marianne Design dies and finished off with the Stardust Stickles and little pearls in the centres of the flowers.

These are the Marianne dies I used:
corners - LR0143
mini poinsettias - LR0142
fern fronds (twigs) - LR0245
pine fronds - LR0227

The Created with Love challenge blog have an anything goes theme this time, the Cutie Pies are playing bingo and I have a diagonal line with flowers, ribbon and glitter.

I have the last bit of grouting to do on the kitchen floor after waiting overnight for the last tiles to 'go off' - I must say it's looking good and makes the area look twice as big!  Our electrician neighbour is away this week so we will have to wait for him to come back and connect up the under-floor heating then it will be a luxury to stand and make breakfast in bare feet!

Vintage Christmas Card

I'm calling this a vintage Christmas card, but it's actually a hanging decoration that I could write a message on the back and send to a friend .. .. and I just think of it as vintage in style because of the colour scheme of soft brown and ivory and the style of the stamp.

I've been drawn to the Viva Decor My Paper World sheets of silicone stamps as a way of challenging myself to stamp in a new style without spending a fortune.  Cuddly Buddly has the best collection and I have a wish list for more!  Most of the images don't need colouring so in theory should make for quicker creations, unfortunately the stamping was rather stressful.  This image isn't a particularly good one with dimples in the silicone on the bird bodies, then there was the issue of ink and paper.  Some while ago I saw a post on Splitcoast Stampers that recommended using chalk ink with this type of stamp and I must say it was the best giving me a clear edged image, although I had to do some careful inking and pressing to get a good enough impression of the birds due to the dimples.  I used Versamagic chalk ink in gingerbread to stamp the birds, then Sahara sand to ink around the edges and also to highlight the embossed areas on my die cuts.

Here's a closer view.  I've added the pearls with my ivory Wacco pearl maker pen, and the ivory organza ribbon for the double bow and hanging loop.  Other than that everything else is just card and ink to create the layers I've fixed together with 3d foam tape.  My die cuts are by Marianne Design and the main pieces were designed by Petra van Dam:

Petra's Squares - LR0234
Petra's Large Ovals - LR0240
Holly sprays - LR0244

There's an anything goes challenge at the Die Cuttin' Divas blog so I will enter my festive decoration with them.  Crafty Creations would like to see something made by yourself so I can enter my Christmas decoration with them too.

Well, it will soon be lunch time and as Jason has laid most of the kitchen floor tiles for me, it's now my turn to get down and get dirty with the grout!  I wonder if there's a crafty use for left over grout .. .. ..?

Wee Berry

At last I have a card to share with you!  It's been 4 weeks since I last posted, and although work has been slow here on the DIY front, things have been happening.  I've given up waiting for the work to be finished and moved the dining table back into the living area so I can at least have a work space .. .. but I have to keep going backwards and forwards to my stash in cupboards and boxes all over the house!

This card was started ages ago with some of the Nitwit magazine freebie papers and I added the faux white blanket stitches with a white marker.  I even added the die cut mittens and the gingham bow, but what I had planned just wasn't working so it got put away .. .. until today.  I had managed to get the cute Wee Berry printed off some time back, although the printer is definitely on the blink as I can see areas of missing lines (don't look too closely) and the image came out bigger than usual for me.  Any how, I coloured her in then got to fussy cutting her out with the idea of using her on this card .. .. I had to carefully move one of the mittens and cut it to fit on top of the other one to free up some space, and unfortunately the red paper tore a little but with some glue and the text to hide it you'd never know!  To anchor Wee Berry I stood her in front of the die cut trees then finished things off with the snowflakes and the pearls created with my Wacco pearl pen.

The die cuts are all made with Marianne dies, here's the list:
mittens - CR1255
snowflakes - CR1256
trees - LR0136

Now I'm not too sure what challenges are running at the moment, but a quick check down my reading list and I saw that the Christmas Stamping All Year Long challenge was to use everyday patterned papers (nothing linked to Christmas) on your creation - well my papers fit with that theme.  The Winter Wonderland theme is for checks - my gingham ribbon and the red patterned paper has a large check pattern, even the blue paper is sort of checked!  I am sure there are others but my list has frozen up again .. .. hopefully on 7th November the engineer will connect us up to faster broadband! Fingers crossed my steam driven pc will cope with it otherwise I'm going to have to save my pennies for a new pc as well as a new printer - Yikes!