LOVE TO CRAFT CHALLENGE - JANUARY 2025

I'm delighted to be on the design team for Love to Craft Challenge for January 2025.  What a great way to start the year.  In case you haven't played with us before we are an Anything Goes challenge and not just cards and we are also every other month so plenty of time for you to join in. 

As with my previous post - please bear with me as I'm still in Christmas mode and wanted to share this Santa card made with Tim Holtz products.  This is just the quintessential Father Christmas in my mind and Tim Holtz has captured him just perfectly.   I let the stamp have pride of place with some gentle background stamping of foliage behind him and the lovely smattering of stars above.  The Santa was coloured with Tim Holtz Distress Inks. 

THE MALE ROOM CHALLENGE - #194 - JANUARY 2024 CAS

Happy New Year everyone and welcome back to our first challenge for 2025 at The Male Room.  Apologies for me still being in Christmas mode - I've been ill for nearly all of December and haven't been able to blog or add any projects so I'm still in a kind of Christmas mood hence my choice of card. 

This is about as CAS as it gets for me as it's not a genre I'm comfortable with as I tend to much prefer throwing everything at my projects.

I let the lovely Christmas Tree from Tim Holtz Watercolour Trees be the star of the show with some gentle background stamping and shading.  The sentiment is one of my favourite Christmas sayings.

ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE - #483 BIRTHDAYS

It's our birthday challenge this week at Addicted to Stamps and More and I've used a little stamp from Bipasha BK from Aall and Create.

The background was made with the gel press and I added various word stamps stamped off to just give a background.  I added washi tape to the sides and made the actual bird stamp into a tag to fit on the card.  

This is our last challenge before Christmas so I wish you all a very happy and peaceful season. 

CREATIVE ARTISTE MIXED MEDIA

Welcome back to Creative Artiste Mixed Media and our final challenge for this year.  

My husband had cut out a few slices of wood and wondered if I could do anything with them.  Oh yes!!! I've turned them into some tree decorations using Tim Holtz goodies. These are just a few of the ones I've made and I'm showing you both sides of the one decoration. All products are Tim Holtz apart from the gold which is Pebeo Gilding Wax. I love how they turned out and they are becoming quite addictive. 

Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful Festive Season and look forward to seeing your creations next year. 

THE MALE ROOM CHALLENGE #193 - ANYTHING GOES

Didn't that year go quick! - They seem to fly by the older we get.  Here's our December challenge for you at The Male Room and to make it easier on you at this busy festive season we have the theme of Anything Goes.

I still went with a winter theme for mine and turned to the lovely new stamps by Alison Bomber at Paperartsy for my wintery card and tags.  This card is actually for my older brother who is a bit of a grinch when it comes to Christmas so I thought a winter card would suit him just perfectly, especially with the lovely Christmas Carol of In The Bleak Midwinter added to it. 

My backgrounds were made with the gel press and I added lots of Alison's stamps.  I even found an old stamp of the queen on a very old envelope which went with Alisons stamping.  As a nod to Alison I added a piece of dried grasses to one of the tags. 

Thank you for being with us all year and I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Festive season.  See you next year.

INSPIRATION STATION #68

Welcome back to Inspiration Station and our final challenge for the year and I hope you are inspired by our lovely image. 

I actually found the little gingerbread die in my stash and didn't even know I had him - so that was a great find.

I used a stamp by Creative Expressions for the background - colouring it with different coloured inks and then spritzing it to give a watercolour effect when stamped.  The burlap is a new find and is actually adhesive and I'm loving using it.  The mug stamps are some very old favourite ones from Gina K called Season of Joy.  The little candy cane is a wooden embellishment from my stash.  The greenery is from Tim Holtz.

Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful Festive Season and looking forward to seeing you all again playing with us next year. 

PEARLY SPARKLES - #102 - CHRISTMAS

Welcome back to our last challenge of the year at Sparkles and it just had to be Christmas.  

I created a wreath with some stamps from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs and added some cut out poinsettia flowers to add a bit more interest.  There is some background word stamping on the far side of the card.  The little robin is also from Tracy and I drew my own little branch.  I added lots of sparkle with Stickles glitter and liquid pearls and also used the pearls for the snow on the branch.  

Wishing you all a very happy Festive season and see you all next year.

ADDICTED TO STAMPS AND MORE #482 - CHRISTMAS

I'm sure lots of us are in Christmas card mode and it's my favourite time of the year to create.  We are in Christmas mode on Addicted to Stamps and More this week and I look forward to seeing all your lovely creations. 

I was lucky enough to be gifted a set of Indigoblu stamps by a friend who is on their DT and I loved this reindeer.  I started off the card by using an old stamp by Stampin Up called Drybrush and I used Antique Linen and Iced Spruce for the colours.  I then stamped the reindeer in Versafine Clair Pinecone and used Distress Oxide inks to colour him in.  The baubles were coloured with Metallic Brush Markers.  A touch of sparkle round the edge of the card finished it off.  The sentiment is from Tim Holtz. 

I'm adding this into the following

Peace on Earth - Christmas Reindeer 

The Paper Players - Be a Deer 

DAY OF THE MONTH CHALLENGE #69 GUEST DESIGNER

I'm delighted to be Guest Designer over at Day of the Month Card Club challenge blog for the above challenge.

Now this really got me thinking as I really don't have any suitable stamps - however I remembered I do have the Tim Holtz Fresh Baked dies from years ago which haven't been used in a long time.  I decided to go with the biscuit one which felt more fitting for the theme. 

I started by using a set of Tim Holtz stamps called Tiny Text Christmas and I used the whole set of individual stamps to create the background.  I then added some Adhesive Burlap paper which I found in a local craft shop.  What a find that was!  I die cut the cookie and inked the edges and added the snowflake in white to look like icing.  I cut out a variety of  Tim Holtz Holiday Greens Thinlets in cardstock and old book papers and inked with Distress Inks. 

I added some extra pretty berry paper top and bottom.  The sentiments are from Tim Holtz Ideaology for a few years ago.  The little candy stick is from my stash and I coloured it red and white.  The sentiment stickers are from a TH Ideaology sticker book.

I'm adding this into the following challenges - 

Double Trouble - layers 

 A cut above - 

Crafty Calendar - AG 

We love stamping - AG 

Paper Funday - AG 

Daisy Chain Challenge - Christmas 

The holly and Ivy  - AG 

We love 2 create - AG Mixed Media 

Peace on Earth - 

THE MALE ROOM - KINETIC CARDS

We hope you have fun with our challenge this month at The Male Room which is to make your cards move - however you like.  I've gone for a type of side slider card where you can see the panels move in and out of the card.  I had great fun playing with Tim Holtz Professor stamps and lots of lovely grunginess.  The inks are Unchartered Mariner and Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo.  I used some of the Watercolour Pencils to give more of a vivid intensity to the Unchartered Mariner.

I'm  not normally a lover of trying to make cards move but I did enjoy making this one.  

I'm adding this into the following:

Creative Fingers - AG 

Word Art Wednesday - AG 

Stamping Sensations - AG 

We love 2 create - Mixed Media 

Inkspirational - Layer it 

INSPIRATION STATION - MOODBOARD

How cosy does this image look from Inspiration Station this month? We are also joining Double Trouble so pop over there to see their brief.

I turned to my trusty stamp set from Sunny Studio called Mug Hugz to create the mugs in my card.  I first used the gel press to create my background and added some leaves from a stencil by Visible Image. The burlap behind the mugs is a new find and I love it as it's adhesive and makes adding texture with material so easy.  I used some die cuts leaves to add further interest.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

Double Trouble - layers 

A cut above - die cuts and warming - my leaves are die cut and my drinks are warming 

Crafty Calendar - AG 

Cardz4guyz - Autumn 

Shopping our Stash - hot drinks 

Stamping Sensations 

CHRISTMAS REDS

One of my recent purchases was the Doodle Greetings 2 set CMS286 by Tim Holtz. It has one of my favourite Christmas sayings of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas as my favourite Christmas film is Meet Me In St Louis when Judy Garland sings that song.  I watch it every year! 

As the sentiments are so big I wanted them to take centre stage so did a selection of red cards with each of the sayings embossed in different colours.  The darker reds are the same red cardstock which have been inked up with some black ink.  It's very effective.

I'm adding these into the following challenges:

Colourful Options - Red 

Creative Fingers - AG 

The Outlawz Challenge - Christmas 

Krafty Chicks - AG 

Simon Says Stamp Wed - AG 

The holly and the Ivy - AG 

CREATIVE ARTISTE MIXED MEDIA

Welcome back to another month's challenge here at Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge.  We love seeing all your mixed media and the huge variety that the concept of Mixed Media envelopes. 

This month I've been channelling my inner artist - and it is so inner it's hard to find.  I find it amazing that I now make art - my older brother was the artist in the family and it was never something I ever thought I would do yet here I am.  This is a painting I have made with a few Lavinia stamps.  The inspiration came from a youtube artist Lisa Taggart and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

From a Mixed Media point of view I've used a variety of colouring tools to create this including ink for the stamps, watercolour inks for the backgrounde, soft pastel sticks, and oil pastels for creating the heathers and the trees. 

I'm adding this into the following challenge

We love 2 create - 

Stamping Sensations - Magical 

Ally's Angels - AG 

Crafters Cafe - AG Magical 

Hearts Quest Fantasy

PEARLY SPARKLES - ANGELS

Welcome back to Pearly Sparkles Challenge and our theme of Angels.  Not something I thought I had in my stash and then I remember a very old Tim Holtz stamp set I have which had this lovely angel and the three wise men in it.   All stamps used here are Tim Holtz. 

I inked my background with distress Oxide Ink in Chipped Sapphire and Fossilized Amber.  I stamped a music stamp from the same set gently in the background.  When all the ink was dry I used Versafine for the Angel and then used gold embossing powder to make it shine.  The Special Delivery stamps are also Tim Holtz as is the sentiment which was embossed in white powder.  I added some stars also in white embossing.

I'm adding this into the following challenges:

IncyWincy - AG handmade Christmas background 

12 months of Christmas AG

Merry Little Christmas - AG 

The Holly and the Ivy - AG