ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE #522 - CHRISTMAS

Christmas in July here at ATSM - hopefully if you join in all year you will have made a great start on your Christmas cards.  I'm using one of my all time favourite  sets here.  I just adore the shine you get on those bells just from the way the stamps are cut.

The stamp set is an old one from Sunny Studio called Holiday Style.  It comes with these gorgeous branches too - which I've inked in Versafine Shady Lane and then I went over the stems with a marker pen.  The baubles are a three stamp set to create the shine and it can be a bit tricky to line them up but when you get them they shine perfectly.  I've added some extra red and white twine to them to have them hanging from the branches and added some red enamel dots. The sentiment is a simple one from the same set. 

I'm adding this into the following:

Little Red Wagon - Christmas in July 

Unicorn - No Design Paper 

Make My Monday - Christmas in July 

Peace on Earth - Christmas 

Avenue613 - Holiday

Dragonfly Dreams - Christmas Sparkle 

Inkspirational - Christmas in July 

PEARLY SPARKLES #121 - CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Welcome back to Pearly Sparkles and we are celebrating Christmas in July.  That's right get out those Christmas supplies ignore the heat possibly and get your Christmas tunes on in the background!

I've used some of Tracy Evans Boutique Designs for my card.  Her bauble stencil and the lovely poinsettia stamp.  I white embossed it onto Kraft card and used Primacolor pencils to colour it in.  The Bauble stencil was created with a white pencil.  I added an extra Tracy robin just because! 

LOVE TO CRAFT - #90 - ANYTHING GOES

Welcome back to another challenge from Love to Craft- I hope you all had a peaceful Christmas.  Staying with the Christmas theme just for one more time I'm sharing a card I created using the wonderful stamps from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs.  

I adore how this card turned out and loved the muted colours I ended up using.  The poinsettia stamp was inked onto some vellum paper and then white embossed.  I stamped it twice and then cut out the middle piece of the poinsettia and added some clear gems.  The sentiment is from Tim Holtz. 

ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE #507 - CHRISTMAS

Welcome back to another Christmas challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More - hopefully if you've been playing with us through the year you have already got a good stack of Christmas cards ready for the season.  

I used a few different stamps on my card - the sentiment was a gift from a friend so I'm not sure where it came from but I thought it deserved an inking.  I used Tim Holtz Iced Spruce Distress Oxide for my pale background - just adding a few drops of water to soften it.  

The layered foliage stamps are Tim Holtz clear stamps called Watercolour and I used the water colour spritz technique which gives a soft image.  The poinsettias are by Tracy Evans and I stamped and cut them out and added them with some dimensionals to give some height. A few drops of Festive Berries splatter finished off the card with a touch of sparkle on the poinsettias from Spectrum Noir sparkle pen.

THE MALE ROOM - #205 - CHRISTMAS COLOURS (RED AND GREEN)

Welcome back to another challenge at the Male Room - we hope you will find time in this busy month to be able to play along with us.  Our challenge this month is quite simple - Christmas Colours - Red and Green. 

I've kept my card really simple which is so unlike me lol!  I recently won this gorgeous stencil from Polkadoodles Challenge blog and it's just perfect for making quick fabulous looking cards.  Made by Polkadoodles it's called Winter Wishes Stencil.

I inked it first in Iced Spruce - one of my favourite greens especially at this time of year - although it doesn't show up very green in the picture.  I added an extra colour of Festive Berries for the mug.  The sentiment is from Tim Holtz Ideaology and the added pearls are also Tim's.  I do like a Tim Holtz Christmas!  I added some Spectrum Noir sparkle pen on the cocoa mug.  A simple quick card which can easily be put together if you need extra cards.  Now where did I put that long envelope? 

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Peaceful Christmas however you may or may not celebrate it and thank you for playing along with us during the past year.  See you next year.

I'm adding this to the following:

Christmas Kickstart - anything Christmas 

Everybody Art - top line - green, red, christmas 

Colourful options - mugs, colours, 

PEARLY SPARKLES - #114 SILVER BELLS

And so here we are at December 1st and Christmas not far behind us.  I always think once December kicks in the 25th rushes up at us at breakneck speed.  Our challenge this month at Pearly Sparkles is Silver Bells or include something silver.

My card uses two old stamps by Tim Holtz.  The silver bells are from a very old set and I've silver embossed them at the top of the card.  The background was made with some ink smooshing of Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap with a touch of Chipped Sapphire around the edges.  The gorgeous Christmas tree stamps was also embossed - I stamped it in Versafine Twilight and clear embossed it.   I added some extra musical stamping from another old Tim stamp.  Do you get the idea that I quite like Tim Holtz's products for Christmas!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Peaceful Christmas however you may or may not celebrate it and thank you for playing along with us during the past year.  See you next year.

GUEST DESIGNER - RUDOLPH DAYS CHALLENGE

I'm delighted to be a Guest Designer over at Rudolph Days Challenge Blog.  I do enjoy making Christmas cards and always seem to start too early and make far too many!  

This one came about just as a sort of play about with a new stamp I'd bought by Alison Bomber for Paper Artsy.  I love her little mini Christmas stamps and decided I needed the holly one.  I stamped it in a few places on some water colour card stock and then filled in the gaps with a very old holly stamp I have from Tim Holtz which is my favourite.  I stamped that one in the water colour technique to give a softer image.  The sentiment is from one of Tim's Christmas Ideaology books.  I used some of the holly from Tim's Evergreen Mini die cuts behind the sentiment.  I added some Glossy Accents to make the holly leaves shine more.  I coloured in the berries with Festive Berries Watercolour Pencils. 

I added some washi tape from my stash to both sides of the card - mainly because the piece of cardstock I had been playing with was quite a narrow piece but I think it does the job perfectly.

I'm adding this into the following 

We Love Stamping - berries 

Peace on Earth - AG 

Mix it up - AG 

Outlawz Festive - AG 

MOVING ALONG WITH THE TIMES - WINTER WONDERLAND

Welcome back to another challenge at Moving Along with the Times where our theme is Winter Wonderland. 

My little scene includes stamps from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs with the trees and the background words and the hare and the toadstools from Lavinia Stamps.

I simply used torn photocopy paper to create my snowbanks and then stamped the trees in various colours and heights.  The sentiment is an old one from my stash - I added some glitter to the snow with a Spectrum Noir sparkle pen and then splattered over some white ink for snow. 

I'm entering this into the following:

We Love Stamping - Christmas 

Stamping Sensations - Christmas 

Peace on Earth - wintery scene 

Girlz Creative Christmas 

Carlin's Cards - White Christmas 

Merry Little Christmas - AG 

ROBINS AND MICE OR BOBBY AND PIPSPELL

I'm loving playing with some new stamps from Lavinia - and why I hadn't spotted this gorgeous robin stamp Bobby before now I'll never know.  

I used some watercolour paper to create this scene - masked off to circles just with some paper and used Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Stormy Weather, Chipped Sapphire, and Dusty Concord to create my sky.  I added the Tree Branch from Lavinia and some branch leaves in Iced Spruce and Brilliance White ink.  I stamped the robin on the branch and coloured him in with Prismacolor pencils. 

I used some Pastels to add some colour to the mouse.  The lanterns were coloured in with Mont Martre glitter pens. I added the gorgeous Winter Magic stamp in Versafine Twilight and added some star stamps in the white ink.

I'm adding this to the following:

Inspire Create - Christmas 

Peace on Earth - Christmas mood board - trees 

Rudolph Days - Christmas 

Alphabet - N is for night 

Creative Moments - things with wings 

Outlawz Festive - Christmas 

OH CHRISTMAS TREE

I'm playing with another Tim Holtz stamp set Watercolor Trees - inspired by the sketch at Sunday Stamps.

I used Peeled Paint Distress Oxide for the middle tree for its base and spritzed the stamp with water to give a watery effect.  I used Twisted Citron for the other two trees.  For the layering I  used Versafine Shady Lane and Tulip Red for the decorations.  I used Versafine Portobello for the pots and left them without colouring them.  I added the sentiment twice as per the carol to fit in with Sweet Stampin Challenge.  A touch of Wow metallic silver sparkle along the edge finished off the card. 

I had to be firm with myself to leave this card somewhat CAS and not fill in all that background!! 

I'm adding this into the following

Sunday Stamps - Sketch 

Peace on Earth - mood board - christmas trees 

Allsorts - Traditional Christmas Colours 

Inspired by Song - Christmas Carol 

THE HOLLY AND IVY #192

Welcome back to another Holly & Ivy Christmas challenge.  If you've been playing along with us all year you will have made a great start to your Christmas cards.

I had been playing with some water colouring and I didn't want to waste the inks I had remaining so mopped them up onto a piece of cardstock.  I then decided to add some extra interest with a snowflake stencil and some Distress Spritz in Broken China.  Eek it made it very bright and as you may know I don't always do bright colours. 

I toned it down with a touch of Antique Linen and then decided to embrace the bold colours with a sparkling snowflake.  This is a Tim Holtz die.  The sentiment is an old one from my stash.  I added some extra sparkle and quite liked how this turned out in the end. 

THE HOLLY AND IVY CHALLENGE - #191

Welcome back to another Anything Goes challenge at Holly & Ivy.  My card today uses stamps by Alison Bomber.  I love the few little Christmas stamps she brought out last year one of which is the Winter's Tale.  It always has me singing that song by David Essex!  I kept the background simple so as not to take away from the lovely image of the Star Anise - mulled wine is one of my favourite drinks once the winter sets in.

I did some simple stamping of Alison's grasses from another of her sets and the background was created from one of my gel press play times using Distress Inks.

The sentiment is from one of Tracy Evan's Boutique Designs sets. 

I'm adding this into the following:

Simon Says Stamp - Music - the song Winter's Tale - bet you can't stop humming it now!

Girlz Creative Christmas - AG

The paper players - Food 

Inspire Create - Christmas 

Stamping Sensations  - AG 

JingleBells - no papers used 

Outlawz Festive - Christmas 

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Stamps only 

Peace on Earth - soft blue tones 

THE HOLLY AND IVY #187

I'm back from a fabulous holiday in Greece where we celebrated my niece's wedding.  What a fabulous time and I must admit I'm having a hard time getting back into crafting.  What better way than to create a Christmas card in June - especially as the weather has turned again here in Wales and it's cold and wet.  

Once again I've turned to the lovely stamps by Tracy Evans Boutique Designs - I just love this mistletoe stamp and as my daughter adores penguins this will be tucked away for her until Christmas.  

In order to get the penguins to look at each other one was stamped onto some acetate and then stamped onto the cardstock to reverse the image.

I'm adding this into the following

Christmas Kickstart - Christmas Critters 

GirlzCreativeChallenge - Baubles - the penguins in the bauble 

Peace on Earth - AG 

We love stamping - nature 

The Outlawz Challenge Festive Friday - Christmas 

HOLLY & IVY CHALLENGE #186

Welcome back to another challenge here at The Holly & Ivy and as usual it's Anything Goes.

This card took a while for me for it to come together - I knew I wanted to use the robin from Indigoblu but I couldn't find something for him to sit on.  I finally found my old set of stamps from Tim Holtz called Winter Watercolor which had some gorgeous foliage and this card was born.

The background had previously been created on one of my gel press play times with Peacock Feathers making an appearance so I decided to use it for htis card.  I stamped a mixture of all the foliage from the Tim Holtz Set for the background.  The bird was stamped and cut out with a stitched die and then extra foliage added.  I added touches of red with a Prismacolour Pencil  and used these too to colour the bird.

I added some touches of white to the foliage and added extra musical background stamps.  A simple greeting from Tim Holtz for the sentiment and some doodling around the edges and a touch of Spectrum Noir sparkle pen finished off the card.  I love how it turned out in the end. 

I'm adding this into the following :

Simon Says Stamp Wed - Fur Feathers 

Colouring with Pencils 

Peace on Earth

Lets craft and create - AG 

Polkadoodle - AG 

Outlawz Festive Friday - Christmas 

Krafty Chicks - Christmas 

THE HOLLY AND THE IVY CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE #182

Welcome back to another Christmas challenge at The Holly & Ivy.  We are actually having gorgeous unseasonal weather here in Wales and it seems strange creating Christmas cards.  It's a great habit to get into though to make them all year round so you don't get rushed nearer the big day and challenges like ours are the perfect motivation.  As usual we are Anything Goes and here's my card for this week. 

I've used some of the gorgeous stamps by Tracy Evans Boutique Designs to create my wreath. The inks are all Versafine Clair.  I then used one of Tracy's stencils to create the baubles in the middle and embossed them in gold embossing powder. I added some touches of white to the baubles to give them dimension.  The little bird is also from Tracy and the sentiments are from Tim Holtz.

THE HOLLY AND IVY CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE -

Welcome back to another challenge at the Holly and Ivy Christmas Challenge. As always the challenges are Anything Goes.  I've chosen one of the lovely stamp sets by Tim Holtz for my card called Watercolor Trees.  I stamped the tree image in the centre - added a soft colour wash around it and then added lots of stars with another Tim Holtz Stamp.  The sentiment is also from the same set.  It's one of my favourite Christmas sayings as I love the song by Judy Garland from Meet Me In St Louis. 

I'm adding this into the following:

52 Weeks to Christmas 

CRAFT - Christmas 

Time Out - Favourite Movie - as mentioned mine is Meet Me In St Louis 

Creative Inspiration AG 

Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday - AG 

Rudolph Days Challenge - AG