CCT Fairies and Angels

Here is my card for this week's Cute Card Thursday challenge - Fairies and Angels.  Our sponsor is Di's Digi Stamps, please stop by the blog to read all about it and see what the DT have made.

Apologies for my short and sweet post this week - I finally got an appointment with a dentist yesterday and had 2 teeth pulled, it should have been 3 but I have 'unusual roots' and after 45 mins of pushing, pulling, twisting, grinding, drilling etc .. .. only 2 came out.  I'm being referred to the hospital for the 3rd under GA as they will have to chip some bone!  My roots look like mini saw blades or thorny rose bushes - they were gripping in there for dear life!

So, I am in pain and late with my posting as I forgot to do it before I left.  My fairy is an old LOTV stamp I've coloured with my Copics and lots of glitter.  Here's the card:

I had a change from Christmas.  This is a 5" square grey base, oddments of Nitwits papers from my stash, die cut mats, and die cut flowers and border, and butterflies die cut from sparkly glitter card.  Sorry for no details, but I am sure if you are a regular visitor you will recognise the MD dies I used.

Thanks for stopping by, I'm going to try and get some sleep now .. .. ..

Christmas left-overs

When I read that the new Jingle Bells challenge theme was for Holiday left-overs, I knew I could join in!  Resisting the overwhelming desire for a cold turkey sandwich .. .. I got down and dirty at the bottom of the craft cupboard and came up with a box of old Christmas card/paper ... the make is eluding me, the brain has trouble remembering things these days - but if it comes to me I'll add it in.

The dark green card is very thick, and pre-moving here so at least 5 years old, and just the one A4 sheet and a few bits, enough to make a couple of card bases though. The pretty patterned oddments were too nice to throw away, but pieced together made this card.  I've roughed up the edges, added a small length of hessian down the left side and the waste from the Marrakesh trellis die on the plain pale green oddment on the right side together with sparkly gems.  At the bottom there's a knot of the hessian strands that got pulled out and the smallest oddment of check ribbon tied in a knot.  A stamped text finished the card .. .. not bad for scraps!

This is the second card:

I had a larger square of patterned paper left over to go on the front so again roughed up the edges then stuck down the green organza and pink sparkle ribbon around it.  The Marrakesh trellis I put down the side, after roughing it up a bit too, and sprinkled a few sparkly mini snowflakes and the Winter text die cut twice, the bottom one in an oddment of the dark green base card and the top in the sparkle card. I'd got some really tiny dark AB crystals in a craft sale back in the summer, so added them to the centres of the snowflakes.  The vellum poinsettia I already had made up in my bit box from last year but hadn't used .. .. until now. It's a thick vellum so just the two layers made up the flower with those sparkly red thingies in the middle.  Here's a close up:

I've added the die cut spiky leaf spray in green cut from Coredinations card so I could take an emery board to the embossed areas, the same for the dark red leaves.  Then the holly leaves I cut from sparkle card.  They are all Marianne Design dies, here's the list:

Poinsettia die
spiky green leaf die
dark red leaf die
holly leaves die
Marrakesh trellis die
mini snowflakes die

I'm quite pleased how these two turned out, and I even added thin strips of card down the sides of the insert on the square card, just to make it a bit special.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look.  Here in North Cornwall today we are being buffeted by a cold north wind, unusual for us.  The night was particularly stormy and kept Izzy awake .. .. I've put off walking with him so far today but we are going to have to brave the elements soon I think - at least it seems to have stopped raining!  Wherever you are, stay safe, warm and dry.

Winter Wonderland

Well, the weather man says we could end up with snow here in the UK tonight .. .. but I doubt here in Cornwall it will be this beautiful!

This scenery stamp is by Studio Light, and although not the set I was after, it is still pretty for more traditional cards.  It didn't need much colouring with my Copic pens before adding a good sprinkling of Stardust Stickles to frost things up.

Here is the card:

I'm still trying out the shabby chic style .. .. so I've cut out every layer with my decal scissors, added lace and kept things muted.  In my Christmas bit box I had the little deer die cut hiding in a corner and the ribbon already tied in a bow.  So all I needed to do was add a few die cut pine cones and twigs to finish decorating.  The text is cut from a bigger stamp - another new item in my stash!

These are the Marianne Design goodies I've used 

with links to Buddly Crafts, in case you want to go shipping!

Nordic Winter paper pack

Winter Wonderland stamp

little deer die in this set

pine cones and twigs in this set

The Winter Wonderland blog are doing a 1 + 2 + 3 challenge looking for 1 image, 2 patterned papers and 3 different kinds of embellishment.  I have the one image, and 2 papers one behind the other, and my 3 kinds of embellishment are die cuts, lace and ribbon.

Crafty Catz are looking for shades of blue in their next challenge, so I can enter with them too.

Thank you for stopping by and hopefully I'll see you again soon.

Let there be Light!

This week at Cute Card Thursday our theme is 'Let there be Light' and our sponsor is Whimsy Stamps, please stop by the blog to read about the prize and see what the rest of the DT have made.

I have been frosting more empty jars with the Mother of Pearl Viva Decor Matt Glass paint - love this stuff!  This time I've decorated a small coffee jar and the lid, and also a little jam jar.  Now, I did take pictures with little T-lights lit up inside the jars but the camera just couldn't decide what to focus on and the pictures were all fuzzy and a bit dark.  So, please use your imagination, and believe me these are very pretty all lit up.  Behind the jars you can see a work in progress - I'm decorating a large NOEL mdf sign, so far it's had various coats of paint and ended up with blue chalk paint and then glittery dots added - more of that to follow in a few weeks once I've finished decorating it.  For now, here's some close ups of my jars:

This is the little jam jar.  After frosting I've added pretty lace and pearl bead string around the top.  Then I've created flowers from Mulberry paper and ink with Marianne Design dies, and also cut out mini leaves from pearl card.  It's a pretty little thing and I'm looking forward to having it all lit up over the Festive Holidays.

And here is the small coffee jar and lid. This time I've added some pretty ribbon around the middle of the jar - it's some I got years ago at Exeter craft fair and has a wire edge and lots of sparkle with a poinsettia design on it. I should have taken a picture .. .. sorry.

The floral decoration on both the jar front and lid is made from layers of vellum that's cut and embossed, then I've added Stardust Stickles around the edges of the flower petals and along the edge and veins of the oak leaves.  To finish I added the sparkly gems to the centres of the flowers and tied a shimmery white organza ribbon around the edge of the lid.  I am thinking of making this jar up into a gift with either a selection of small candles and a pretty box of matches - or maybe some sachets of hot chocolate and cookies .. .. will have to see.  Or, I could make another jar and do both!

The Marianne Design dies I've used on my jars were:

mini leaves CR1336

little flowers COL1323

poinsettias LR0122

oak leaves LR0373

The Frilly and Funky challenge would like to see an 'altered state' meaning alter something - so my old jam and coffee jars turned into something else fit the theme perfectly!

Thank you for stopping by - and see you again soon!

Christmas in the Country

I have been admiring the Studio Light Christmas papers and accessories at Buddly Crafts and have treated myself to a stamp set and a page of pop out winter country images, unfortunately I was too late to get the stamp set I really wanted .. .. ah well!  I love the picture of the red squirrel in the snow so created this card around him.

Also, I've just started an album in Pinterest called Rustic Country Christmas so I can pin and get ideas .. .. I guess I'm moving away from cute for a while!

For my card I cut a square base from old chocolate card - gotta use up the stash of card and envies. I've used pieces of paper from the Marianne Design Nordic Winter stack and cut them out with my old decal edge scissors, also used them to cut a mat for my image.  I've inked the edges with brown chalk ink before sticking down.  Across the bottom I stuck a length of jute ribbon before adding my squirrel picture on 3d foam tape.  I had an oddment of Marrakesh die cut trellis in my bit box so put that across the top to lighten things as I didn't want to go dark vintage .. ..

To decorate I added glitter to the pine cones that pop out of the sheet with the squirrel picture, then various Marianne Design die cut leaves, twigs, and a pretty flower made with pink Mulberry paper and the mini poinsettia set, and a bit of string. I've dusted Stardust Stickles over everything, including the picture.

And finally, some mini snowflakes cut from sparkle card to lighten things up.

These are the Marianne dies I used:

mini poinsettia LR0142

mini snowflakes CR1335

mini leaves CR1336

larger sprays of leaves from set CR1245

twigs from set LR0286

The Incy Wincy blog theme is critters, so I can join in with my squirrel card. And the ABC Christmas theme is 'wild thing' so I can join in with them too.

Marianne Design Divas Die challenge

 Our next challenge on the Marianne Design Divas blog is an easy peasy one .. .. just use at least 2 MD dies, and at least three MD goodies overall, but really, as many as you can!  Well you know how I love my dies so this was a fun card to make!

Our sponsors for this challenge are Buddly Crafts and Marianne Design, I've linked the MD products available from the Buddly Craft shop, just in case you want to go shopping!

Here's a peek at the top corner embellishment with several dies on show .. .. so best share the card with you:

I cut a base from kraft card to fit one of my spare envelopes - I seem to have acquired quite a pile of them!  Next is a layer of ivory card with distressed and inked edges, I've inked throughout with Sahara Sand Versamagic chalk ink. Then I've added a layer of patterned paper from the Wintertime 6x6 paper pack with added Platinum Stickles for some festive sparkle.  Next I added a border with the new triangle border die, I'm liking this one with the embossed areas and cut out sections - expect to see it quite a lot!  For the focal point I've die cut the new pretty ribbon doily and threaded ivory satin ribbon through it, also the rosette that comes with the set is up in the top left corner under the little snowflake.  The picture is from a Mattie's Cutting Sheet but I can't see it in the Buddly shop, and I've had it for a year so maybe it's been discontinued now.

And then to the twiddly bits I like to add! I already mentioned the rosette, and the snowflake in the middle is from the stocking die set, then I've added in a pine cone, twigs and pine needle sprays.  In the top right corner I've added the little jingle bells and a star together with a knot of ribbon.  Finally last of all at the bottom of the card are the die cut deer.  Here's the list of MD goodies I used:

Marianne Design products:

Wintertime 6x6 Paper pack

Mattie's Cutting Sheet Winter

Dies:

Pine needle leaves LR0227

Pine cone and twigs LR0286

Triangle border die LR0385

Ribbon doily and rosette CR1350

Tiny's Deer CR1289

Snowflake from stocking die set CR1256

Jingle bells and star COL1363

The Everbody Art challenge is for shades of brown, so I can enter my card with them. I've been following the Scrap and Craft blog for a while now as I love the shabby chic style but struggle with it .. .. I'm going to be brave and enter my card into their November theme of shabby chic or vintage - I'm somewhere between the two with this card perhaps.

It's still extremely breezy here in North Cornwall, but I have braved it with Izzy for a quick walk this morning after we both stayed home yesterday.  Izzy wasn't too impressed and half way along decided to head home .. .. so here I am!  Thank you for stopping by, and hope you will be back soon.

Bit Box Bottle Tag

This is a bit box bottle tag - say that fast a few times! The weather is awful here today, along with the news from Paris.  I have been trying to come up with a card but it hasn't happened.  Instead, I've turned out the Christmas Bit Box, and when putting the silver card away from my last bottle tag, I found a small piece of 'polished stone' card I must have made at least 5 years ago! It's a dark gold colour and does have a shimmer, but it's not showing up even under my cooker hood lights.

I also had the waste card from cutting out a tree .. .. an idea was born!  The Marianne Design challenge is to make bottle tags, I already entered once .. .. not sure if I can again, will see, I have used all MD die cuts for my creation - here's a close up:

To make the base tag I had a scrap of kraft card then lined it up to the corner of the Elegant Square die LR0310, ran the top through to cut it then embossed it and inked the raised areas. It's hard to see as I've covered up most with the embellishment but it worked really well so I will do that again.  Plus, it meant I could thread the dark red ribbon through the die cut area and tie it around the bottle - BIG pat on the back for me for that idea!

The embellishment is bits and pieces from my bit box made up of MD die cuts I hadn't got to use on other things - I so like using up left-overs.  Here's the list of the different Marianne Design dies that got used:

tree die waste from cutting out LR0136
mini poinsettia LR0142
snowflake behind poinsettia from CR1225
holly leaves from set COL1363
swirl from set LR0112
banner and text from COL1325

Other than that, I added a gem to the centre of the flower, a snippet of lace along the bottom and the little sparkly buds - and pored a glass of the wine!

The Allsorts blog theme is for 'other than a card' so I can share my bit box bottle tag with them.

Thanks for dropping by - and hopefully I'll see you here again soon.

Bottle Tag

The new challenge on the Marianne Design blog is make a bottle tag - as it happens I have a couple to make for this Christmas so thought I'd best make a start .. .. here's #1.

I've used the MD bottle tag die to cut my base then covered the label part with dotty paper.  Sorry it looks a bit grey in the picture, it's hard to get silver cardstock to look silver .. .. and the weather has been so dismal I had to take the picture under the cooker hood lights!

I got the motorbike die a while back as my eldest has just taken to riding one, although I have no idea what kind so couldn't tweak the die too much.  I did cut it in silver then again in black so I could cut out the wheels and seat to stick over the silver.  I've added a circle to one side with a Dutch landscape picture and decorated with the mini snowflakes cut from silver card - and it happens that one of the tiny flakes is perfect for the spokes of the bike wheel!

On the other side I cut the Christmas text die out of both silver and black then layered and stuck behind the label so you just see the top half of the greeting. I added a few die cut mini bolts cut from the new planks of wood die set to finish off.  Here's the bigger picture:

My son's favourite black rum.

Now my younger son likes the golden spiced rum and no motor bikes .. .. I will have to see what I can come up with for his bottle.

These are the Marianne Design products I used for this bottle tag:

paper from Victorian Vintage pack
Dutch picture from a Mattie's Cutting sheet

bottle tag die LR0367
motorbike die LR0287
Christmas greeting CR1327
mini snowflakes CR1335
little bolts from set CR1348

Thanks for stopping by, and see you again soon!

late note:  reviewing my blog listings I see that the Crafting Musketeers challenge theme is for anything but square, so I can enter my tag with them!

CCT animals or birds

Our next challenge at Cute Card Thursday is for animals or birds on your creations.  Our sponsor is All Dressed Up! please stop by the CCT blog to read all about it and see what the rest of the DT have made.

I have inked up one of my cute LOTV stamps and coloured with Copics, then added fluffy snow and white pearl flakes.  It's a relatively CAS card for me as I didn't want to cover up the pretty Marianne Design paper.  And I was using up bits and pieces and yet another UFO!
Here's the card:

A small square card base, then I cut and matted my paper onto ivory card adding the faux stitching around the edges.  I've stuck down the image and greeting flat so the card should, hopefully, go through the narrow slot at the PO.  For decoration I simply made a couple of little poinsettia flowers from Mulberry paper and cut the holly sprays from the ivory card to complement the holly spray on the patterned paper.

Just a few Marianne Design goodies on this card:

patterned paper from Christmas Time pack

holly branches LR0244

mini poinsettias LR0142

That's it!  Fab 'n' Funky are looking for CAS cards so I can enter with them - I hope this is CAS enough .. .. ..

The ABC Christmas theme is 'Wild Thing' - I'm hoping wild robins will count.

Thank you for stopping by, and see you again soon!

Cute Christmas Card

I have a cute little Christmas card to share with you today - this stamp is one of the new Marianne Design Cats and Dogs designs called Candlelight.  I received it as a gift from Marianne Design (thank you so much!) for my part in promoting the MD products.  I must say it is a pleasure to work with good quality and design craft goodies.

To the card!  I've stamped the image and coloured with my Copics then added Stickles to the snow.  I also used my new Viva Decor Ice White pearl pen as my old Wacco white one is almost out .. .. mmmm - I'm getting used to it and the pearls, although pretty and definitely more pearly, took longer to dry then I thought and I accidentally smudged a couple when moving things about on my desk.  Thankfully mini snowflakes came to the rescue!

Here's the card:

I got a pack of 5" grey cards with envelopes in the Buddly Crafts 50% off sale - could do with more but the grey's all gone. And I am determined to make a dent in my MD paper stash before I dare order any new .. .. so the papers on this card are all from the 6"x6" Wintertime pack. I've added the embossed faux stitching around the edge and inked it with Versamagic Aspen Mist chalk ink.  I cut a mat for the image with MD die CR1201 and a text banner from COL1325, then finished off with mini snowflakes CR1335 and the snowflake from set LR0327 cut from sparkle card.

That's it! a fairly flat card for posting or the doggy charity.  The challenge at Papertake Weekly is for Christmas Critters so perfect to enter! And at the Christmas Card Challenge blog it's anything goes so I can join in with them too.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek, and I hope to see you again soon.

Merry and Bright!

It is far from being Merry and Bright today here in North Cornwall, it's blowing a gale and poor Izzy is looking at me in disgust because I wont take him for a walk!  Instead I've been finishing off a few more of my UFO projects.  I have so many Marianne Design paper packs and I must use them .. .. with some of the papers I have no idea what I'll do as they are bright and busy and not to my taste - this one though is pretty!  It's from the Christmas Time pack and has the split design printed on the sheet. Here you can see the top half with a subtle snowflake design.

I decided to use my Snoesjes Freezing Cold stamp for the image, but after colouring with my Copics I fussy cut her out and added glitter for snow then gently moulded the image to fix down the middle with 3d foam tape.

Here is the card:

Now you can see the stripes on the bottom half of the paper, and I had picked out the green to mat with a green card from my stash.  I've gone around the edge of the paper with the faux stitching I create with die LR0161 , it's easier to see on the top half I think. Along the design join I added a pretty ivory die cut border layer LR0385 and a sliver of border left from another MD project.  To finish I've cut the mini snowflakes from the ivory card, mini leaves from the green, and mini flowers from red Mulberry paper.

The text is stamped from the new Merry and Bright MD stamp set, I just cut out the bit I wanted and layered up with a green mat.

I've added white translucent Viva Decor dots here and there across the bottom and on the border, and to the centres of the snowflakes and flowers, and I found a couple of odd red gems to finish things off.  Mum has a friend who is registered blind so I thought the bright colours, the cut out image and the dots I've added might help her 'see' the card.

The theme on Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge is bright or sparkly colours - I've got the bright red and green on my card and added sparkly snow.

Well it's time for lunch and I do believe the sun is trying to shine so Izzy might just get that walk after all .. .. thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again soon!

A Winter Card

This card is another of my UFOs - unfinished objects.  I had the base design covered in paper from this time last year .. .. but then didn't know what to do with it!

Finally, I've put a little something together with a pretty Marianne Design robin picture and some die cuts.

The Crafty Catz blog theme is for Winter so I can enter with them.

Here's the card:

It's a small square with a diagonal cut across the front and the cut piece glued inside to create a pocket.  I've decorated with die cut holly and ivy sprays along with Platinum Stickles around the image and for the berries.  The edges of the papers were already inked with Walnut DI so I used the same for the embossed areas and edges on the die cuts, and a little edging to the lace mat for my image.

The Marianne Design things I used are:

Paper from Eline's Winter House A4 pack (I don't think it's available this year)

Robin picture from Mattie's Winter sheet

Circle lace mat CR1201

Ivy corner dies CR1253

Banner die COL1324 with text from COL1325

Decorative tag inside LR0154

And this is what the inside looks like with the tag tucked into the pocket.  I've stamped a greeting near the bottom of the tag, hidden in the picture, and there is a stamped greeting on the paper too - both from Eline's Christmas stamp set from last year.

Unfortunately, although I have been able to use up some of my UFOs, I've also been creating a few more today!  Mr Mojo has gone AWOL so it's taking me ages faffing about and getting nowhere other than to make a mess on the table.  Ah well, tomorrow is another day.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope to be back again soon with another UFO card to share with you!

Food and Drink at CCT

This week our theme on the Cute Card Thursday blog is food and drink - both or just one or the other. Our sponsor for this challenge is Nikki at Bunny Zoe's crafts, please stop by the CCT blog to read all about it and see what the rest of the DT have created.

Well, I've gone for food, cake to be precise and made by the LOTV cute little mice.

I've coloured my stamped image with Copic pens and added touches of sparkle to the icing sugar with Stickles.  Here's the card:

The base was already in my started to make box .. .. .. a piece of pretty Nitwits paper I had inked the edges and stuck onto a plain white base, and that's as far as I'd got.  So that was the determining colour for my image and after rummaging in the bit box I found a couple other small pieces of Nitwits that matched so inked and layered them up too.  I also had an off cut of a pretty Marianne Design oval doily so popped that in behind the image that I cut out with the MD fancy square.  It was looking a bit plain, so I decided to add some faux stitching with a fine marker pen, then rummaged about and found ribbon to match so stuck that down, tied a bow and added the row of flat backed pearl string.

To get flowers to match I simply die cut them from white card then coloured with the darkest pink Copic marker I'd used in the image, and added the stitching.  To finish off I die cut and inked leaves and a swirl from the beige paper design and dusted areas with more Stickles - not showing up in the picture but quite sparkly in real life and the ribbon has a soft sparkle too.

Marianne Dies I used:

little bit of oval doily CR1204

square to cut image from LR0310

flowers in set LR0112

leaves in set LR0117

swirl in set LR0116

The challenge on the Sweet Stampin' blog is to use dies and/or punches along with some stamping, so I can enter my card with them.  On the Alphabet Challenge blog the theme is 'S' for sweet treats, oh yeh, cake! And at Incy Wincy blog it's anything goes so I'll enter with them too.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you will come back again soon.

Too Much Snow!

I have just finished making four Christmas cards with my festive Don and Daisy stamps and papers from the Scandinavian Winter pack.  Three of the cards I'm holding back for my CCT DT makes, but this little Don shoveling snow didn't fit any of the upcoming themes so he's here today!

As the papers are shades of red and blue, that determined the Copic colours I used to colour my stamped Don image, then I added some sparkle snow on the ground and trees, and pearl pen for the falling flakes.

Here's the card:

As I got the paper pack a year ago (or was it two), I'm using up bits and pieces.  The blue layer is actually from a different pack but the oddment matched so I tucked it in.  It's a simple card, and the papers are quite busy so no need for tons of embellishments.  I've matted the image with a couple of different die cut layers, the blue one from LR0141 and the red from CR1248 .  I added a text stamped cut up from the new Eline's handlettering Christmas set, then finished with die cut fronds and flowers.  The flowers I cut from red Marianne Design mulberry paper then spritzed lightly with water and scrunched them up.  When dry I gently teased them out a little and stuck them down.  The centres are made with a Viva Decor pen that is transparent white - a bit odd really but it kind of gives an opaque look rather than being completely clear.

I can enter the Fab 'n' Funky challenge as they want you to use dies and/or punches - you know how I love my MD dies!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you'll come back soon!

Little Mice BirthdayCard

I have a little mice birthday card to share with you, it's relatively CAS, at least for me, and one from my UFO box (Unfinished Objects).

The image is the cute flower shop mice stamp from LOTV, coloured with my Copics then soft chalk ink around the edges along with a direct to image stamped text.  Here's the card:

It's another one of those where I'd got a piece of pretty paper stuck down already then changed my mind about what I was going to do, plus the paper didn't reach the bottom of the card anyway!  I fixed that with a piece of MD lace and a die cut border along with a length of pearl trim, this time round peals where I dabbed each with tacky glue and had to press down for a while to get them to stick!  The border die is the one I use to create the faux stitching around the edge of my images and layers, so gets used a lot!

A simple little square birthday card for the charity box, and hopefully will fit through the narrow slot at the PO too.  I have more mice to share with you later in the week .. .. watch this space!

Over on the ABC Challenge blog it's the letter 'U' for unlimited - so anything goes! I'll enter my card with them.

Thank you for stopping by, and hope to see you again soon!