LESS IS MORE - 300TH CELEBRATION - BANNER'S FOR CHRISTMAS

I haven't had the time lately to join in with any challenges but this one over at Less is More caught my eye this morning.

I was having one of those Monday's when I had no mojo and couldn't settle to anything.

I took the dogs out for a walk in the country.  It is still beautiful weather here in the UK - one of the warmest October's I can remember - reminds me of warm Houston weather.  So we did a bit of Conker gathering and blew the cobwebs off and I came back and did a bit of crafting.

Some of these conkers and the leaf are actually bronze mixed in with real - can you tell which is which?
 

 Tegan (Welsh Springer red and white) and Bracken (English Springer) enjoying their walk

My card for the Challenge uses two stamp sets and a thinlet.  The mistletoe comes from Banners For Christmas - this isn't a set I've seen used an awful lot yet but I love this mistletoe stamp.  Here I've turned it right way up to represent a bunch of flowers and stamped it with Versamark and our Gold Embossing Powder.   I've used the Celebrate stamp from Here's To Cheers.  I used one of the bauble thinlets from Merry Tags to cut out the bauble shape and then stamped inside it with Versamark and embossed with our Gold Embossing Powder.

A touch of gold Baker's Twine and some Basic Rhinestones finishes off this card - which has a lot of 'white space' - okay red!

 Thanks for coming to see me - do leave a message or come and visit me at my YouTube channel to see some of my tutorials.

Happy Crafting

 

WATERCOOLER BLOG HOP - NEW CATALOGUE

Hi Crafters - Welcome to the Watercooler Blog Hop for September - I'm thrilled to be a part of this blog hop again this month.  We are focusing on all the great new products in the Winter Catalogue so here are three of my favourite projects so far.

My first one is a cute little tag box - so quick and easy to make.  I've made the box out of Crumb Cake cardstock and used some of This Christmas Suite Designer Series paper.  This is a lovely set of papers with the main colours of Garden Green and Cherry Cobbler - two of my favourites. I'm a traditional girl at heart and love Red and Green for Christmas - they are nature's colours after all for this time of year.

I've filled the little box with some tags using the Merry Tags framelit dies and the Merriest Wishes stamp set which come as a  bundle.  I love them - I can see they are going on everything this Christmas - cards, boxes, tags, even the dogs if they are not careful!!  A touch of our red twine from the Baker's Twine Trio pack finishes off the tags.  This pack comes with red, green and gold.  Yummy!

For my second project - I've been playing with the Sweet Home Stamp Set which also comes in a bundle with the Home Sweet Home Thinlet Dies.  I've switched to Hallowe'en for this project.  Although not as popular in the UK as it is in the US it is gaining in popularity as the years go by.

I do wonder though how many know the real reason for Trick or Treat at Hallowe'en?  Our ancestors believed that All Souls Night was a time when our departed loved ones would come back to visit - they used to set up the table as if their loved ones were still there and leave food out for them.  Hence the idea which developed into giving out sweets or candy at the door.  I still set the table for all my family members who are no longer with us and I have quite a few close family who have left me too early.

Anyway I have turned my little house into a Hallowe'en Ghost house.

I've used  Basic Gray for the house and Basic Black and Rich Razzleberry for the accents.  The ghosts have been made out of Very Vanilla.  I've used a touch of white gel pen on the roof and the door and a basic pearl for the door handle. 

 Don't you just love the way that ghost is peeking through the window!

     

I found these houses quite tricky to do and needed some help from a UK Demo Elizabeth Shannon to guide me through with her videos.  And then I was off and running.

My final project is also a card.  This time in Rich Razzleberry - I know not traditional red or green but so gorgeous at this time of year.

This set is Christmas Magic -a set of 8 rubber stamps - with three sentiments.  I love a stamp set I can colour in at this time of year and the traditional images in this set are right up my street. Reminds me of that lovely film Polar Express - I've told the story on my blog previously about the magical evening when we lived in Houston Texas in 2004 and went to the cinema Christmas Eve to see this film with the children.  When we came out there was snow -in Texas!!!!! We couldn't believe it and it was so magical after watching the film.

There is also a lovely tree stamp in this set and I've used Versamark to stamp it onto the background - hope it shows up well. 

 I hope you like my projects and are inspired by them to use some of these sets.  If you are in the UK you can purchase from me by clicking on my Online Shopping button above.

For your next batch of inspiration - click on the forward button to be taken to the fabulous Penny

 or if you are hopping backwards pop to see Martha

 or click on the Home button to go back to the beginning

 HAPPY CRAFTING