CAS Christmas

It's time again to set a Christmas card challenge for my friend Linda and this week it's going to be a CAS Christmas card. I have to say CAS cards are definitely a challenge for me but I thought I'd give it a go anyway this week. I see Linda has already posted a challenge for me here on her blog - can't wait to make a start on something!

After die cutting a window and stamping a sentiment on a panel of white card, I added a little elf peeking out of the window. I adhered an embossed circle to the card base before attaching the panel with foam pads. To finish I applied stickles to the trim and bobble on the elf's hat. It was such a quick and easy card to make especially as I had the elf image already coloured with Promarkers and ready to go on a card.

Stamps - Santa's Elves Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts) & Woodland Wreaths (WPlus9)
Die - Nestabilities Circles (Spellbinders)
Embossing folder - Cuttlebug Lace Tree (Provo Craft)

For my matching tag I used another elf image from the same Hero Arts set and sandwiched baker's twine between the embossed circle and a backing circle.

Stamp - Santa's Elves Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts)
Die - Nestabilities Circles (Spellbinders)
Embossing folder - Cuttlebug Lace Tree (Provo Craft)

If you'd like to join in on Linda's challenge and/or mine we'd love you to add a link to your card on either of our blogs.

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!

Linda's Christmas Tree Challenge

The other day my friend Linda set a challenge to make a Christmas card with a tree on it. You'll find the challenge and Linda's gorgeous Christmas card with a tree here on her blog.

To start I embossed a panel of kraft card and after adhering it to the card base added baker's twine borders - just love using red and white baker's twine on Christmas cards! I wanted to use Lawn Fawn's super cute Trim the Tree set so after a little stamping, colouring and cutting had a decorated tree to add to the card. I've added stickles to the star and Glossy Accents to the lights but, unfortunately, with the overcast conditions here didn't manage to pick up the sparkle and shine in my photo.

Stamp set - Trim the Tree (Lawn Fawn)
Embossing Folder - Snowflakes (Cuttlebug)

While I had my supplies out I also made a matching gift tag.

Stamp set - Trim the Tree (Lawn Fawn)

I'm happy to have added two cards and tags to my stash for Christmas and since Linda and I are going to set each other Christmas card challenges each week in July and August I should have a nice little pile of cards and tags by September.

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:)

Scrappy Happy Weekend

Over the weekend I continued with the plan to use up more of my card and fabric scraps to make some more cards. I got a bit carried away and made the following four cards plus blocks to go on future cards.

I forgot to take photos of my scraps before I started and I've completely used up some of the patterned paper scraps but I had a little bundle like this put together at the start of the weekend with fabric, card and even envelopes from bills.

My favourite die from WPlus9's Quilt Cuts 2 set is the star die and I used it and the inlaid die cut technique for all of my cards. For the first two cards I used some rainbow coloured fabric which I had left over from a quilt I made years ago.

Dies - Quilt Cuts 2 (WPlus9), Scalloped Squares (Spellbinders), Tags & Bookplates (Docrafts)
Stamp - Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts)

Die - Quilt Cuts 2 (WPlus9)
Stamp - It's Your Day (Hero Arts)

I love greens and blues so I have loads of scraps in these colours left over from other projects. In my stash of plain card scraps I have lots of kraft and white so used a combination of patterned and plain scraps to make the following cards.

Dies - Quilt Cuts 2 (WPlus9), Scalloped Squares (Spellbinders) and Thanks Stamp & Cut (Hero Arts)

Dies - Quilt Cuts 2 (WPlus9), Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp) and Tags & Bookplates (Docrafts)
Stamp - Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts)

Whenever I can I like to use recycled materials on my cards and now, thanks to the blue and white patterned insides of envelopes which came with bills, I have some blocks lined up for another card. At least there's some upside to bills;)

Love Quilt Block

My piles of scraps, both card and fabric, are getting out of hand so I'm going to make a few sets of quilt cards to try to make at least a little dent in these scrap piles. It will be fun sorting through the scraps and picking out the card/fabric that will go together.

For this card I die cut the quilt block from some scraps of patterned and black card. Then using a piece of label as an adhesive backer I inlaid the die cut pieces to make the mini quilt block.

Dies - Quilt Cuts 2 (WPlus9) and Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp)
Embossing folder - Quilted (Tim Holtz)

The block was framed with a die cut scalloped square and I added a wood button to finish the block. The block was mounted on an embossed background which my friend Linda sent me - thanks again, Linda:)

This in turn was layered on kraft card which had been die cut using a die from Simon Says Stamp's Bundle of Stitched Shapes.

I'm submitting this card into the Die Cut Diva's Love Marriage and Anniversaries Challenge.

A Couple of Valentines

For the past number of weeks a few things have completely taken up my time and kept me away from card making but I'm happy to be finally back in the swing of things again to make a Valentine for my hubby. I ended up making two Valentine cards as I thought the first one might be too girly for him. The little glimpse below probably says it all really:)

I had some pretty wedding table sprinkles in my stash and thought they, along with some beads and pearls, would make a nice background for a couple of lovely die cuts my friend Linda sent me - thanks again Linda:) So the card came together fairly quickly once the glue I used for the sprinkles and beads had dried. This month's challenge over at Hero Arts is Fabulous Flowers so since there are flowers on the heart die and flowers in the sprinkles I'm submitting this card into the challenge.

Dies (Hero Arts) - Floral Heart Stamp & Cut by Lia and My Monthy Hero January Kit Add On

After making the card above I thought I'd try to make a more masculine looking Valentine using a favourite Hero Arts die and the inlaid die cutting technique.

Dies - Renaissance Heart (Hero Arts), Bundle of Stitched Shapes (Simon Says Stamp) & Alphabet (Docrafts)

Even though I was going for a masculine look I couldn't resist using glitter card in the heart to represent the sparkle hubby brings to my life - sorry for the soppiness but I think I can get away with it this week:)

I'm submitting the cards into A Blog Named Hero's is A Bit of Sparkle Challenge and the Die Cut Diva's Love, Marriage and Anniversaries Challenge.