Non Traditional Christmas

Over at The Love! - Handmade cards, ATC’s & other Crafts group on Flickr there's a fun challenge for October. It's to make a holiday project in non traditional colours. I have to admit I usually make my Christmas cards in traditional colours, but with this challenge decided to go a bit wild (for me:)) with colours and used a lot of black which is another colour I wouldn't usually use on Christmas cards.

Stamps (Hero Arts) - Ornaments Stamp & Cut and Vintage Post (sentiment)
Die (My Favorite Things) - Pierced Rectangle Frames

I die cut the frame, adhered it with foam pads to a panel of black glitter card and again used foam pads to adhere this to my card base. Then I coloured and added Wink of Stella to baubles images my friend Linda sent me (thanks again, Linda!) and added bows made from baker's twine. I really enjoyed trying out different colours on my Christmas card so will definitely make a few more Christmas cards this year using non traditional colours.

Christmas Shaker

As it’s Monday it’s time again to set my friend Linda a Christmas card challenge. This week’s theme is to make a shaker card. I really love making shaker cards but don’t love taking photos of them! It’s hard to avoid catching lots of reflections from the acetate in photos but here goes anyway:)

I started by making a background with alcohol inks and blending solution. A mix of sequins went in between the background and front of the shaker element.

Die - Pierced Rectangle Frames (My Favorite Things) & Bristol Snowflake (Memory Box)
Gems - Snowflake Gems (Hero Arts)

I added a pretty die cut snowflake and a snowflake gem both of which Linda had sent me.

I was going to leave the card front without a sentiment but in the end added a sparkly die cut sentiment.

Die - Pierced Rectangle Frames (My Favorite Things), Fancy Cut Christmas (Hero Arts) & Bristol Snowflake (Memory Box)
Gems - Snowflake Gems (Hero Arts)

I’m afraid I didn’t get to make a card last week for Linda’s challenge or a matching tag to go with today's card but hopefully in the next few days I’ll play catch up on my card and tags. Here you can find the fun challenge Linda has set for this week.

Blog Title Christmas Challenge

It's Monday again so time to set my friend Linda a Christmas card challenge. This week's challenge is use your blog title as inspiration for your card. So Linda with Scrappin', Stampin' and Singin' you have lots of scope for some musical fun! I had to keep stamping and stitching in mind when making my card.

I started by die cutting a panel from kraft card using a die from Simon Says Stamp's Bundle of Stitched Shapes. After stitching the panel I added it to a white card base.

Stamp - Furry Christmas (Simon Says Stamp)
Dies - Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp) & Pierced Rectangle Frames (My Favorite Things)

Then I stamped the cute image and sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's Furry Christmas, coloured with Promarkers and added diamond stickles.

It's hard to see from the photos but the hat, scarf and taller dog's head have been cut again and adhered to the panel with foam pads for some extra dimension. After die cutting and adding the glittery frame I stamped and cut out another tail so it would curl out over the frame.

Here's the matching gift tag to go with my card.

Stamp - Furry Christmas (Simon Says Stamp)
Die - Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)

I'm submitting these into Simon Says Stamp's 50th Flickr Challenge.

Linda has another fun challenge lined up for me this week. You can find it here on her blog.

Kathy's 30 Day Coloring Challenge

Welcome to The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge Blog Hop. Kathy Racoosin from The Daily Marker loves to colour and she is hosting her fifth 30 DAY COLORING CHALLENGE. The premise of the challenge is to colour something everyday even if it’s for just five minutes. It doesn’t matter what you colour or what medium you use. It's such a fun challenge and a brilliant way to make sure that you take a relaxing break for yourself during the day.

Even if you can't get to colour every day you can join in at any time while the challenge is on. You will find that Kathy encourages you along the way to stretch your creativity a little bit more and to feel successful with your colouring. You will learn so much from Kathy and pick up lots of tips and techniques. More details on the challenge can be found in Kathy's blog post here and in Kathy's video here.

I first got to know Kathy through the Hero Arts group on Flickr and from the start she has amazed me with her sheer creativity and fabulous colouring skills. Today Kathy has assembled a blog hop to give your creativity a jump start. Along the hop you'll meet Hero Arts artists, friends and Hostesses.

You should have arrived here from the blog of my very talented friend Linda - can't wait to see what she has coloured and created! A full list of all the blogs on the hop can be found here on Kathy's blog. At the end of the hop you will find a fantastic GIVEAWAY from my favourite company Hero Arts - two shopping sprees of $25.00 each! Winners will be randomly picked from the blog comments of the blog hop - good luck! I have comment moderator switched on so please don't worry if your comment doesn't appear immediately.

Often when I stamp an image for a card I stamp off a few extras for the future in case I need to make a card in a hurry. I have a drawer full of these stamped images ready to go. For when I'm out and about I also keep some stamped images in one container and in another container I have images that I've fully cut out and are ready to colour along with others that have just been coloured. It makes it easy to grab some things when I have the opportunity to cut out or colour. Often when I'm sitting in my car waiting for my kids to come out of school I'll be cutting out and/or colouring. It's amazing how much you can get done when you're just waiting around!

From the time I got Hero Arts Spice Market Large Petal Background I've had great fun colouring it and have used it again and again on cards. Below is a card I posted a while ago which shows what the full image looks like on a kraft base and coloured with pencils.

Stamps - Spice Market Large Petal Background & Type (Hero Arts)

This time I wanted a brighter look so stamped part of the image on a scrap of white card and coloured with Promarkers. After cutting out the piece I adhered it to the top of the card. The sentiment was die cut three times and layered.

Stamp - Spice Market Large Petal Background (Hero Arts)
Dies - Thanks Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts)

Well after making that card it seems like I was bitten by the colouring bug and went on to stamp the image again using up more card scraps.

I went with cool blues and greens for the first card

Stamps - Spice Market Large Petal Background & It's Your Day (Hero Arts)
Die - Pierced Rectange Frames (My Favorite Things)

and then used a mix of warm colours for the second.

Stamps - Spice Market Large Petal Background & It's Your Day (Hero Arts)
Die - Pierced Rectange Frames (My Favorite Things)

I have to say I really enjoyed taking some time to lose myself completely in colouring and would encourage you to do the same and join in on Kathy's The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge if you haven't already done so.

Now it's time to pop over to the next stop on the hop where you'll be visiting the very creative Cheiron. Enjoy the rest of the hop and I'm looking forward to going hopping too!

Out of Season Quilts

I haven't posted in quite a while as a lot of my spare time over the past few months was spent making table decorations and tags for favours for a charity fund raiser which was held last month. We also had a lovely holiday in Florida in June and I enjoyed spending some of it with my friend Linda and also got to meet up with my friend Kelli who I worked with years ago when I lived in Florida. I haven't seen Kelli in 22 years but it felt like only yesterday when it came to chatting with each other. The whole family enjoyed the holiday and I have to admit a lot of crafty shopping took place:) My goodness the crafty shops were amazing, so big and so well stocked - I must have been grinning from ear to ear and didn't know where to look first! In all the excitement I forgot to take photos inside the shops but we went to JoAnn, Michaels and a wonderful shop in Lakeland called Violette's Scrapbook Store with room after room of tempting goodies. They had a fantastic room for classes and I saw some brilliant projects on display for upcoming classes. It really is a must place to visit if you are in the area, just wish I lived a bit nearer to it!

Anyway enough about shopping, now onto making! My friend Linda is an avid participant in the Merry Monday Challenges and creates a card for nearly every one of the challenges set each week throughout the year. It's such a great way of building up a stash of Christmas cards and I keep meaning to join in on the fun, but of course nearly every week time just runs away on me too quickly. The Merry Makers are taking a well earned break during July and August so in those months Linda and I are going to set weekly challenges for each other so she keeps up with making her Christmas cards and I get a start on making mine. If you would like to join in with Linda and me for either or both of the challenges set, we'd love to see your cards - just leave a link in the comments section on Linda's blog or here so we can find your card/s.

So Linda, it's challenge time and the theme I picked for this week is "A Cosy Quilt for Christmas". Not only do I absolutely love quilts but Linda gave me an amazing package of goodies in Florida and included MFT quilt dies that I absolutely love and can't stop using - thanks again, Linda!

Dies - Die-namics Diagonal Quilt Square Cover-Up (My Favorite Things) & Mini Snowflakes (Lawn Fawn)
Stamp - Very Merry Christmas (Hero Arts)

As Christmas draws closer I always seem to be in a rush to make tags as well as cards so for our weekly summer challenges I'm going to try to make a tag to match the challenge card. Lol I'll probably be doing well to make two Christmas cards each week so we'll see how it goes with the tags:)

Dies - Quilt Cuts 2 (WPlus9), Die-namics Pierced Rectangle Frames (My Favorite Things) & Mini Snowflakes (Lawn Fawn)
Stamp - Woodland Wreaths (Wplus9)

While I'm showing you a Christmas card and tag in July, why not a St Patrick's Day card in July too! This is the card I sent to Linda way back in March and never got around to blogging.

Dies - Quilt Cuts 2 (WPlus9) & Shamrock (Impression Obsession)
Stamp - Celebrate Everyday (Hero Arts)

I'm delighted to see Linda has posted her challenge, you can find it here over on her blog. It's a great one and I can't wait to get started on it!

Happy 4th of July to all those who are celebrating! We have our own celebrations going on here with our older son's birthday today:)