SWEET STAMPIN - BLUE AND WHITE - ST ANDREW'S DAY

Happy 10th Anniversary to Sweet Stampin!  What a great achievement to be going for ten years.  Our challenge this week at Sweet Stampin is Blue and White with the option of adding in St Andrew's Day - St Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland.  

My card has a nod to Scotland as they love to celebrate the New Year or Hogmany so I've used this celebration for my card.  I've used a retired set from Stampin Up called Here's To Cheers and added it to a tag punch - using some silver embossing powder for the glasses.  The gorgeous background paper is from SU and I've added some sparkly blue ribbon and some silver washi tape.

LITTLE WOMEN - LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

An unusual title for my post but that is the challenge for us over at the Library Challenge with a lovely image for inspiration.

My thoughts immediately turned to an old SU stamp set called Winter Post and it is one of my all-time favourites from about 2008 I think. I think it's the first time I've used this one this year also!   I decided to do a square card for a change - I used some water colour paper for my scene.  I used Tim Holtz distress inks and oxide inks and wanted to keep the colour soft as in the picture above.  I used SU water colour pencils to colour in my skaters and added some snowflakes and gems.  The sentiment is from an old set I don't know the name.  

I layered it onto a piece of white card stock embossed with snowflakes and then added it to the grey card stock.

I'm also adding this into the following challenges:

The Holly and the Ivy - Anything Goes
Retro Rubber - Tic Tac Toe - I used the vertical middle line
Double D Challenge - what's your style? - This one is definitely vintage/nostalgia 


I'm excited that this card was chosen this week as one of the Favourites over at SplitCoast Stampers 

My card was also in the Top 5 at The Holly and the Ivy Christmas Challenge




 

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

I only really have one nice Christmas Ornament set and it's the lovely set by Sunny Studios called Holiday Style which has those lovely silver bells.  The other ornaments rarely get a look in as I love stamping those bells.  However - I spotted a few challenges which had coloured ornaments and colours as their theme so they got an outing! 

I used SU's Old Olive ink for the branches and used a brown SU marker for the stems before stamping - once stamped I added some Tim Holtz Forest Moss with a sponge dauber amongst the needles.  I used a mix of Tim Holtz colours and SU for the baubles and embossed the sentiment in silver embossing powder.  I added a touch of Spectrum Noir glitter pen in clear to the baubles to make them shine.

I'm adding this into the following challenges which inspired this card:


Colour Throwdown - #ctd571
Inspired By
Watercooler Wednesday - Any Occasion
Merry Little Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes

I'm excited that my card one top 3 at Merry Little Christmas Challenge 

 

HERE COMES SANTA

I'm playing with my new set from Visible Images today called Santa Claus which I was lucky enough to get in their Black Friday sale - with a really sizeable discount.  Well done for the smaller companies offering such great discounts.

I started off my piece with some water colour paper and stamped some snow in Versamark ink and then heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  I then added lots of water colour blues and a touch of black to represent the night sky.  

Santa was coloured in with water colour pencils and fussy cut out.  I've added stickles to his hat and fur on his coat and glossy accents to his beard and moustache.  To make the roof I used the chimney stamp upside down and repeated it and then added the chimney stack on top.  I added some liquid pearls to represent snow on the top of the roof.

I'm entering him into the following challenges:

Christmas Card Throwdown - Watercolour
Just Add Ink - Stars, Spots, Sparkle
The Paper Players - sketch
Try It On Tuesday - Christmas Carol or song

 

CLEAN AND SIMPLE CHRISTMAS TREE

The challenge over at Less is More this week is very clever - use a triangle from the shapes they've given us.  I used some stamps from Kaisercraft Winter Wonderland stamps - the word stamps are all separate stamps but  lend themselves I think to being stamped like a tree with the star at the top when you put them all together.  I used an old SU spectrum stampin pad for the colours and added Wink of Stella on top of some of the letters to give them some shine.

I'm also adding this into the challenge at Addicted to Stamps which is CAS 
and AAA Cards which is made in minutes with the option of blending


 

STAMPIN UP ONLY CHALLENGE - #SUOC237 - DIE CUTS

Our challenge at Stampin Up Only #SUOC237 this week is Die Cuts.  I've used the Stampin Up set Colourful Seasons and the matching snow flake die cuts for my card.  I started by sponging my card with Mint Macaron and Island Indigo and stamped the snowflakes in Island Indigo and Perfect Plum.  The snow flakes were cut out of white sparkly paper and rhinestones added to the centers.  I used a white gel pen to add the snow dots - the sentiment is from Merry Mistletoe.

 

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY #TSOT436

Another great sketch at Try Stampin on Tuesday #TSOT436 for you this week with the added challenge of Cosy Patterns.  

I've used some gorgeous gold striped paper from Craft Sensations and layered over it with a piece of SU designer series paper.  My background is a new stamp set from Visible Image called Christmas Backgrounds - there is a background word type stamp which you can just make out which has been stamped in Mint Macaron and I've layered over it with the larger words in Perfect Plum.  I actualy stamped this all twice and then cut out a layer with a circle framelit and edged it in gold pen and some gold rhinestones.

 

JOY OF SETS CHRISTMAS BLOG HOP 2019

We are hopping again at Joy of Sets for the last time for this year and our theme is anything Christmas.  I just got myself a copy of a lovely set from Visible Image called Christmas Backgrounds which I wanted to try. 

I started off with some Tim Holtz Distress Inks and Oxide Inks for my background - using lots of water and watercolour paper.   I then stamped the Christmas word stamp in Versamark and used red embossing powder to make it stand out. I used a tag framelit to cut it out and added some of the lovely SU satin ribbon.  The Joyful Tidings sentiment is from Tim Holtz Happy Holidays words and I layered them twice and cut the top layer out of white glitter paper.  I used a stamp from an old SU set Merry Mistletoe to add a border with some Versamark and a white jelly roll pen to add the stitching marks.

I hope you'll enjoy hopping along the blog and seeing what everyone has done for you.  I'd like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas or Holiday season or Yule from all of us at the Joy of Sets Facebook Group.  

Click on our gorgeous deer below to be taken to Rochelle's blog 

Click on the deer to be taken back to Sue's Blog 

 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS IC328

Lots of lovely Christmas images to inspire your crafting at our challenge this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments.  I've used the lovely Santa image which is a very old rubber stamp from Rubber Stampede called Santa Collage.  I embossed him in red embossing powder to make him sparkle.  I used some banner framelits to cut his image out and layered onto Real Red card stock from Stampin Up.  The little sentiment with the image of Santa and the sleigh is another old stamp from Inkadinkado.  I used a retired holly embossing folder from SU for the background and added a touch of red satin ribbon.

 

SQUARE CARDS WITH ADDED SPARKLE

A square card from me for a change - this isn't normally a size I make but I loved this paper.,which already had the deer printed on it and wanted to use it for a card.  I embossed some white Christmas trees and snowflakes from Gina K Designs Season of Joy stamp set. I added some snowflakes and rhinestones.  The sentiment is from Sunny Studios - I added Spectrum Noir glitter pen to the Deer's antlers to add to the shine.

 

SWEET STAMPIN - BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

Our challenge this week over at Sweet Stampin in Bright and Beautiful. I'm not really a brights colours kind of girl and normally go for muted tones so this was a great challenge for me.

I have this gorgeous little cute set from Clearly Besotted called Shake it Up - the little images go in the little snow globe that comes in with the set.  I was inspired by one of Kristine Werner's cards from a few years ago to use all the little image with lots of bright colours behind.  I used a stitched circle framelit to cut out all the circles and try and get them all in line.  I stamped all the images and then masked them off and coloured in all the backgrounds.  A touch of red twine just around the middle finishes off the card.  I've added some sparkles to Santa's beard and hat and given him a shiny silver buckle.  Rudolph has a red rhinestone for his nose.  

 

STAMPIN UP ONLY CHALLENGE - EMBELLISHMENTS

Our challenge for you this week at SU Only challenge is to add Embellishments - simple you would think so why did it take me ages to think of something! And then I came up with a Christmas card - what a surprise.

The set I've used is current Winter Woods but the papers are retired.  I started with some green card stock and added some of the retired DSP called Be Merry.  I used a retired embossing folder in a Holly Pattern for the white part and joined both of them with some retired Washi tape from Warmth and Cheer.  I stamped the tree in both Garden Green ink and Tranquil Tide at the edges to give it a bit of dimension.  I added some Garden Green twine and popped it up on dimensionals.  Lots of lovely red rhinestones give the tree lots of sparkle.  The sentiment is from SU Merry Patterns and cut out with a retired banner framelit.

I'm excited that this card was chosen this week as one of the Favourites over at SplitCoast Stampers 



 

TRY STAMPIN ON TUESDAY - #TSOT434

Our challenge this week at Try Stampin On Tuesday has the following sketch with the option of adding some bling to it.  Who can refuse a bit of bling when Christmas is looming?

I went with a Christmas card - any excuse to play with Christmas products - my favourite cards to make.  I used a retired SU embossing folder to emboss the holly on the card stock. I then used one of the swirly bird dies to cut out two circles in gold and Old Olive.  The holly die cut is one from my stash and I used Always Artichocke for these leaves and added some sparkling red paper for the berries. I used the same paper for the sentiment which comes from Gina K Designs.  I added some red rhinestones.

 

LET IT SNOW

I know - it's a bit early isn't it? Although I suppose in some parts of the world they have snow already - I adore making Christmas cards and am definitely in Christmas mode - besides the majority of my stash is Christmas themed so I need to make loads of cards to be able to use them all! 

Today I've used the lovely little set from Clearly Besotted called Let It Snow.  This is an old set from a few years ago but I just love this little penguin.  I started out by masking off the background and adding a light snow drift with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass.  I then used the same ink to stamp the snowflakes which are from Gina K Designs - also an old stamp set called Season of Joy. I coloured in the penguin with some SU water colour pencils and a blending pen and popped him up on dimensionals.  I added some stickles for his hat and the inside of the snowflkaes.  I layered it onto some white sparkly paper and then added a small snowflake stamp around the edge with Versamark ink.

I'm adding this into a few challenges:

Retro Rubber Challenge - Anything Goes 
Addicted To Stamps - Anything Goes
Pixies Playground Challenge





 

ANYONE FOR COFFEE?

I was inspired by the lovely image over at Inspired By Challenge on this wet and cold Friday here in the UK.  I love blankets and am actually snuggled under one as I type.  What annoys me the most about the menopause is the hot flushes and the fact that I can't curl up under blankets for long before I have to throw them off again - anyone else suffering like me?  lol!  Maybe you're not at that stage yet ....but it will come!





So for my card I used an old set by Clearly Besotted called Warm Solutions which also came with matching framelits.  I started out with some SU Soft Suede card stock and used a TCW stencil called Mini Honeycomb for the background - simply inking the same ink onto the card stock.  I inked and cut out my three mugs and stacked them as in the picture.  I used some SU Really Rust - a very old ink but one of my favourites and also some Soft Suede.  I also added some Tri Spectrum Sparkles in Smoked Quartz to the circles on the middle mug to give it a bit of sparkle.  I added the sentiment in Adirondack Espresso ink, sponged the edges and roughed them up a bit and added it to the matching card stock base.

My card won the challenge - how lovely.




 

HAND STAMPED SENTIMENTS #HSCC327

Our colour challenge for you this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments is the following:

I chose to do a Christmas card with these colours.  I used an old SU embossing folder for the holly on some Shaded Spruce card stock.  The candels are from an old SU set Merry Patterns - one of my favourites at Christmas time as I love the way these candles stamp and how the patterned images fit inside the candles.  I used Real Red and Coastal Cabana for the candles - and a touch of the red for the flames with a tiny bit of yellow at the bottom of the flame.

I thought the sentiment went really well with the idea of candles - sort of like when you blow them out for birthdays and make a wish.  This sentiment is from Kaisercraft's Wonderland stamp set and I embossed it in gold embossing powder.  A few sequins and some SU ribbon finish off the card.

 

JOY OF SETS TIC TAC TOE #JOSTTT011

Another month's challenge over at our Tic Tac Toe Challenge blog - our grid this month has been chosen by Anne Marie Maclean

I went with the top line of CAS, winter and heat emboss.  I used the gorgeous stamp set from Sunny Studio Holiday Style which has this fabulous bell stamp.  It looks as though it has been embossed but it's a three set stamp and it's all done with the magic of the inks.  I used some silver embossing powder for the branch and added some liquid pearls in pewter.  I added a touch of silver ribbon to hang the bell from - the sentiment also embossed is from this lovely set.  

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