YULE HAVE FUN!

Excuse the pun in my title but I couldn't resist it - another Christmas card from me today - well Yule card to be exact.  This one is inspired by the Paper Players who have a sketch for us to follow:

 I've used an embossing folder for the holly as a background - the papers are from the new SU designer series papers.  The Yule stamp is a very old one and I'm not sure where I got it from - the Christmas Tree is a Cherry Pie one and I love that it says Happy Christmas in lots of languages.

 Another card to add to my growing Christmas Card Stash!


 HAPPY CRAFTING

 

CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER

I have a lot of friends who groan when I mention Christmas this early but really us crafters have to get ahead of the game - it's no use waiting until December to start making our cards is it?  So I am going to challenge myself to make some Christmas cards for some Challenge blogs over the next few weeks, that way I should have a good amount of Christmas cards in all different styles.

The challenge over at CAS Colours and Sketches this week is a Sketch -

 I often find Sketches challenging as I tend to follow them to the letter and really need to use them as guidelines rather than rules - you know the phrase out of Pirates of the Caribbean lol!

 My card uses a very old Cherry Pie Art stamp with all the Merry Christmas's written in different languages - it has been my go to stamp for Christmas for manyyears.  I masked it and stamped two trees full of glitter behind it - I'm not sure where the other tree stamp came from.  The sentiment is also one of my favourites as Meet Me In St Louis with Judy Garland when she sings that song is one of my favourite Christmas Movies.


I'm also including this in Watercooler Wednesday's Challenge this week which is all about Christmas .

All about the Boo!

It's no surprise there are a lot of Hallowe'en challenges around at the moment. As You See It Challenge is also using the theme and they have said Scary or cute Boo!  Not sure I do scary so cute Boo it is!

Hand Stamped Sentiments have given us a great image to work with also on this theme 

 

 This is an old Stampin' Up Set from 2003 I think which was called Bitty Boos.  I've kept it all these years because it's just such a fun set  - here I've used some SU inks of Lemon Lime Twist and Tangerine Tango.  I think my favourite little image is the cat!


 

RETRO RUBBER

I was so pleased to find this Challenge Blog - Retro Rubber - especially as I am returning to some of my old beloved stamps that I haven't used in quite a long while. 


Their Challenge this week is a sketch challenge -  I found this quite daunting at first until I saw the inspiration from their Design Team and decided to think a little outside the box.



 


 I have gone to my Cherry Pie Art Stamps here for this card.  These stamps have to be from about 2004/5 and could be even older.  The name of this set is Mix Collage #3 and I have also used the music stamp from a set called Renaissance.

 I've used three Tim Holtz Distress Inks on the Very Vanilla paper - Antique Linen, Spiced Marmalade and Aged Mahogany.  It is layered on to Early Espresso Cardstock from SU and some jewels added onto the stars.


 

FEATHERS

A clean and simple card from me today for the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge this this week is a colour challenge.  I must admit Flirty Flamingo is not one of my favourite colours and I only have it in a marker pen which does limit me somewhat.

 


I really love the Feather Together stamp set from Stampin' Up! and its one I'm going to be keeping in my stash.  I think the choice of sentiments too are so varied and useful so it was my go to set for this challenge.

There are a selection of five feathers in the set for five set stamping (!) but as this is a Clean and Simple challenge I chose to keep it simple and only stamp one of the feathers - they were stamped in Lemon Lime Twist and Night of Navy with the wording inked in the Flirty Flamingo.  A Night of Navy Enamel heart just finishes off the card which has been layered with Very Vanilla, Night of Navy and Lemon Lime Twist.





 

BOO!

I've been getting out my Cherry Pie Art stamps again and making a Hallowe'en type card - all about the Orange shades in this card. 

 I've used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade and SU inks Tangerine Tango, Pumpkin Pie and Early Espresso.  There is one retired SU stamp used here which is the Boo word.

 I'm adding this card into the following challenges:

That's Crafty - Get Your Spook On
Tuesday Taggers - It's Hallowe'en Time
Deep Ocean Challenge - Hallowe'en




 

LET'S SPARKLE

Ha - its a bit like buses you wait a week or more and then two posts come along at once.  One of my favourite old Stampin Up sets is one called Winter Post from 2008 I think and I just love using these skaters on Christmas Cards.  

We are lucky to live near Winchester and every year near Winchester Cathedral there is an Ice Rink along with a Christmas market.  We did go skating a few years ago but to be honest the thought of falling over now and breaking something just puts me off going.  The atmosphere though to go and watch is just lovely and wrapped up warm with a cup of hot mulled wine watching peopel skate is a lovely start to the Christmas season for me.

The challenge over at Sweet Stampin' this week is Sparkle and Shine with the added pressure of trying to capture that sparkle in your photograph.  I'm not quite sure I've done that here though - there is some Dazzling Diamonds underneath the skaters to represent the ice and some Wink of Stella on their clothes.  The snowflakes have a diamond in their centres and there are a few diamonds on the left hand side.  The little brad in the Winter tag also has a diamond.

 Here's a close up of the skaters - I think we can just see that shimmer and shine?

I'm also entering this card into a new Challenge blog I've found called The Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge - I adore making Christmas cards so this could be a new favourite Blog!!   Their challenge this week is Anything Goes



 HAPPY CRAFTING 

 

WHAT A WEEK

So this week has been a week of sorting out my craft room - getting rid of some things and finding old friends that had been put in the back of the cupboard.  It's a little bit like Christmas come early as my favourite Tim Holtz and Cherry Pie Art Stamps make an appearance.  

My card was inspired by some long walks I have taken lately with my dogs.  I adore trees - they make me feel safe and secure and here are some pictures of two of my favourites.

Copper Beech

This beautiful copper beech lives in my front garden.  This is looking up into the tree - at the moment it still has its green leaves and hasn't yet started to turn them that gorgeous copper colour yet as we have not had a frost.
 

The Yew is one of my favourite trees and I am very lucky to have some very old Yew trees at a nearby Iron Age Hillfort.  A place for reflection and planning.  The Yew lives a very long time and it is very feasible that these trees were here during the Iron Age.  The oldest known Yew is The Fortingall Yew in Perthshire which is said to be over 9,000 years old!

So as you can see my card was very much inspired by my wanderings this week.  I've mixed all three stamp companies in this card and the sentiment pretty much sums up where I am at the moment.  I'm walking a different path altogether with many new adventures on the horizon.

The challenge over at Time Out challenges this week has given us an image to be inspired from.  I'm using the sticks from their image to tie in with my card.

 Thank you for stopping by.


 HAPPY CRAFTING

 

WATERCOOLER WEDNESDAY WWC139

Good morning all - its a gorgeous day here in Hampshire, England. The sun is shining and the leaves are turning.  The dogs are happy playing in the leaves and everything sounds rosy doesn't it?  

 Well the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed a slight difference to my blog and that is the omission of anything to do with Stampin' Up!  I have resigned as a Demonstrator for all sorts of reasons, none of which need to be stated here.  Suffice to say I am now free to use other stamps on my blog.  My blog has been going for over 10 years, before SU and will continue after SU.  It has become my online diary and when I look back over the years it is suprising how much has changed within blog land and even in the fashion of crafting.

My entry for the Watercooler Wednesday challenge this month is not a card - but it is something that's dear to my heart at the moment.  We all lose our mojo in life and especially in crafting.  I have made this door handle and as you can see it has two sides - one says I'm on the ball and everything in the craft room is just fabulous - the other side shows that mojo has truly left the building.

 

 The stamped image is from a Cherry Pie Art Stamp set.  I have loved these stamps for many years and, although sometimes my crafting supplies get thinned out - these never go anywhere.  And they will be making some much needed appearances in the future posts.

As I emerge from the world of SU I need to reacquaint myself with great stamps and would love any suggestions you may have.

 HAPPY CRAFTING

 

MERRY LITTLE LABELS - BOXES #CHRISTMASPUNCH

I've been busy making lots of little boxes lately using the Merry Little Labels set and the matching punch.  #christmaspunch.  


The boxes are very simple to make and I've done a quick tutorial to show you how easy they are.  They can be left open at the top or closed as in the Christmas example below. 

 This example uses Crumb Cake as the base and stamped with leaves from Colourful Season and Jar of Love. The jar was cut out of the front using the Jar of Love Framelits and then stamped over it with the jar image.  The lid was added on an embellishment.  Clear Acetate has been put behind the jar and then you can fill it with all sorts of goodies - I've added some of our Sequin Assortment.

The leaf has been made with the Seasonal Layers Thinlets.  The tag has used the cut out of the jar and I've stamped one of the sentiments from Merry Little Labels on it and added some Linen Thread to the top.

 This is a slightly different example using Old Olive as the cardstock.  The leaf has been cut into the front.  I've used the same leaves from Colourful Seasons to stamp on the cardstock with Versamark.  A brad attached the label which has been punched out with the new matching punch - #christmaspunch.

 This is a Christmas version using Night of Navy and Silver Embossing Powder.  I've used the snowflakes from Colourful Seasons and a touch of Metallic Edge Ribbon in silver.  The Let It Snow is a perfect accompaniment and looks so lovely embossed in silver.

I'm adding my boxes into the following challenges:

SU Only challenge - which is asking us to use our favourite punches or dies  



The Paper Players this week is Autumn Floral 

Global Design Project theme this week is Grateful -