Christmas Card Club

 Hello Everyone

I know it's been forever but I'm back blogging again and back, too, with a few cards for the Christmas Card Club. Lorraine asked for 'mainly red' this time and I can't honestly say that what I've made fits the challenge so I'm going with the alternative, 'anything goes'. 

There is some red but not nearly enough. I've used another A4 sized 'one sheet wonder' to make these four cards. 

This is what it was like before I chopped it up to create the four toppers. I might just use this photo as my blog header for Christmas this year - it's certainly festive enough. 

A shot of materials used in the making. 

The toppers, once trimmed to size, were matted on to Kraft coloured card, stamped with the greeting and adhered to white card bases. 

I hope you will pop over to see what my teammates have created for today's theme. You'll find a list of their names and links on my right sidebar - as always they are so much more creative than I will ever be.

Take care and stay safe, 

Christmas Card Club - Card 01/2020

Hello Everyone,

As I mentioned in my earlier post today, today is the first of the Christmas Card Club challenges of 2020.  GranMargaret has set the theme of 'Angels or Fairies' but, as I don't have dies or stamps that suit I am, just for today, falling back on the alternative of 'Anything Goes'.

The topper started life as a scrap of white card I'd used to stamp off on to when I was creating this Christmas themed header ...

... now history, and these cards all from this 'one-sheet wonder'.

No houses this time but I've added a few more trees and snowflakes to make the topper.

Supplies used:
- a square white card base
- patterned paper from an old Paper Cellar 6x6" stack, 'Traditional Christmas'
- a scrap of blue cardstock for layering
- a scrap of white cardstock for topper
- stamps from 'Have a Holly Jolly Christmas' (trees) and 'Forest Magic' (snowflakes and Santa's sleigh)
- ink pads; green Letterpress, blue 'Stonewashed' Adirondack, black Archival 'Jet Black' and 'Crimson Red' Versafine
- glitter glue, Stickles 'Crystal' and 'Baby Blue' 
- green gems

That's it from me for the first CCC challenge of the year. I hope you will pop over to see what my teammates have created for today's theme. You'll find a list of their names and links on my right sidebar - as always they are so much more creative than I will ever be.

Sunday Snippets - Oh Christmas Tree

Afternoon Everyone,

I hope you are all having a good day today. It's not been bad here - cold but bright - for a change. I have been busy making this scrapbook page showing our Christmas tree in all it's glory.

It's an artificial tree that comes out year after year to deck the living-room.  I've finally been able to use the huge die-cut tree from Pretty My Page - I only bought it last year so not bad going for me. Some of the embellishments are very much older, e.g. I've had the tree trim along the bottom edge for more than 20 years! Ditto the peppermint candy circles.

We have another, much smaller, tree in the hall, It's also artificial and even older than the one in pictured. There's also a couple of live trees in the garden. One is pot-grown and spends most of the year tucked away out of sight in the back garden but, at this time of the year, gets all decked up and takes pride of place by the front doorstep.

Last Christmas it did start life here at Casa Worthington covered with a generous dusting of fake snow. Now, one year later, our Scottish weather and a year's growth, there's no trace of the snow so we've decked it out with red baubles.

Now that the need for Christmas cards has eased, I've been finding more time to make scrapbook pages, like the one above, for my Christmas album. This is good - it's enjoyable, stress-busting and the memories are being preserved for years to come - what's not to like? Well, it's this. All this scrapping is creating ... scraps! Lots of them. I'm looking at the growing pile as I type. So, I've used up some in this tag.

I know it's only one little tag, but every little bit helps. A blue label from my local stationery shop, scraps of paper (Simple Stories 'Winter Wonderland' collection), a die-cut greeting (Tonic) and holly leaves (Tattered Lace), some ribbon, twine and red dew drops and I have a pretty label to put on a package.

I'm submitting the tag to Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #367

And that's me done for today. Though, I may just spend a little time to make another tag or two to use up a few more of those pesky snippets.

Take care and have a very good evening.

WOYWW - Week 549

Hello Everyone,

Wednesday, Whizzday, has a way of sneaking up on me ... I need more hours in the day and more days in the week. Especially at this time of the year! Anyway, it's What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday time and here's a shot of mine this morning.

I'm working in a guddle again. There's papers, stamp sets, embossing folders, photos and even, right at the back, a circle die set. Out of shot is my wee Sapphire die-cutting machine. Altogether too much stuff but I'm at the stage of 'who cares' ... the cards are written and posted off, the presents bought and wrapped, ready to be delivered and all is more or less under control.

I do have to confess to being just a bit behind with the '12 Days of Christmas Scraplifts' challenge. It's now the 11th and this is my Day 4 page, completed yesterday. The photos are of us both, from last year, and this year's new tree decorations - a deer for each of us.

This is Day 3's page. The winter wonderland in the photograph is the Camellia House in the grounds of Culzean Country Park. The photo was taken a few years ago. We rarely get snow here on the west coast of Scotland, and when we do it doesn't lie long, so a photo like this is a rarity and all the more beautiful for that.

And now for the book bit.

I'm on to my seasonal reading now and I started with, 'The Gift' by Cecelia Ahern. It's a magical, fable-like, tale - and it's a twist on guardian angel stories that was, for me, very reminiscent of Dicken's 'A Christmas Carol' and the film 'It's A Wonderful Life'. There was the feeling that the protagonist, Lou Suffern, was being taught a lesson about the most precious gift of all, especially at Christmas ... that is the gift of time. “Time cant be given. But it can be shared.” This wouldn't be my usual choice of reading but it drew me in and had me absorbed from beginning to end. 

Right, that's it from me for now - I'm off to have a spot of lunch and then I'll be back to check out what's on your desks today.

Take care, keep warm, and stay calm ... it's only Christmas!!!

Christmas Card Club - Card 25/2019 - Humour

Hello,

Happy Sunday to you all. We have a gale blowing a hoolie outside - and it's all down to Storm Atiyah. Happily, I don't have to go out. In fact, I plan to potter away in my craftroom until it all blows over. However, today is a bit special. It's the last Sunday of the year for the Christmas Card Club. The theme for today, chosen by Rachel, is 'humour'.

I hope this card fits the theme, though it's not so much humorous as cute, I made it for my wee great-granddaughter who is also cute. Ask her what her favourite colour is and she will always answer pink! So pink it is - with a lot of green thrown in for contrast. The papers and images are from a very old Docrafts paper pack and I've now used up every last bit of it. I've just added pink and white cardstock and pink and green dew drops. The embossing folder is very old too - I think it came with a magazine freebie.

So that's it for another year. Hubby and I sat all Friday afternoon writing out our cards and they are ready for the trip to the Post Office tomorrow - weather permitting, of course. And, I have to say we had enough cards - all thanks this year to the Christmas Card Club challenges! So, if you fancy keeping up with your Christmas card needs throughout the year, do think about joining us - we're a friendly bunch - please feel free to get in touch with any of the members - you'll find the names and links on the sidebar to the right.

Take care and stay safe too.

Rudolph Day Cards

Morning Everyone,

It's not too late to share these cards made for this month's Rudolph Day challenge hosted by our lovely Maureen at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo!

I've upcycled a couple of cards received for Christmas 2016!

To make this one all I did was trim the topper down and edge it with silver - I drew a line using a ruler and an embossing pen, added the silver powder and heat embossed it to create the edging. The background is one of my Gelli plate prints stamped with snowflakes and embossed with the same silver powder.

This card was made in much the same way but this time I stamped snowflakes on both the trimmed topper and the background and added a few pink enamel dots for embellishment.

Supplies used:
- white card bases
- the Christmas card toppers
- the Gelli plate prints
- stamps -  from 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' set and  Inkadinkado 94646 
- Versamark ink pad and American Crafts embossing pen
- Heat It Up embossing powder

That's it for Rudolph Day this month.

Take care everyone.

Christmas Card Club - Card 13/2019 - Christmas Flowers

Evening Everyone,

Apologies for the lateness of this post - I've been totally hooked on the tennis at Queens this week and couldn't drag myself away from the two finals on today. In my defence I did do some colouring whilst parked in front of the TV for this fortnight's Christmas Card Club challenge - the theme set for us by Kate, aka Culliesocks, is Christmas Flowers.

Recently, on YouTube, I've discovered a very talented cardmaker, Ruth of Artful Stampin, and I've been especially inspired by her method of making 'one sheet wonder' cards that I hadn't seen before.

So, I had a go and these four cards are the result. This was my first attempt at Ruth's method and the result is anything but perfect but I thoroughly enjoyed the process.

Supplies used:

• 1 x sheet of Neenah Solar White smooth cardstock 
• Stamps taken from a variety of sources - the poinsettia and the greenery is from the Winter Collection by Penny Black; the sprigs of holly from Scenic Stamps Woodland Cottage set; the red berries are another Penny Black stamp, Winter Berries; the snowflakes are from Santa Claus is coming to town and the greeting is from an old, but much loved, magazine freebie which might be entitled Believe in the Magic of Christmas
• Inks - Versafine Olympia Green and Crimson Red; Archival Ink Jet Black
• Versamark and Gold embossing powder for the poinsettias and sprigs of holly
• ProMarkers - a variety of reds, greens and yellows
• 2 x sheets of dark green A4  cardstock, trimmed to create 4 card bases

That's it for CCC today but I hope you will pop over to see what my teammates have created for Kate's challenge today - you'll find a list of their names and links on my right sidebar - they are always so much more creative than me.

Take care everyone and I hope the week ahead is a good one for you.

UKPC Challenge Card - June Flowers

Afternoon Everyone,

Here's the card I made for the June UKPC challenge - flowers were what was asked for this month.

This was a very quick and simple card but it's special for the topper which the lovely  Kyla, Li'l Pidge Designs, enclosed with her 10th WOYWW Anniversary ATC. Usually I'd have popped it into the box I store toppers in, then it would have been forgotten, and that would have been a great shame because it's really fab image.

The yellow flower patterned paper the topper is layered on to and the die-cut flowers were from a Craftstore card kit that came as a free gift with a recent issue of PaperCrafter Today. I did round the corners on both the topper and the patterned paper - it's something different. I then added some yellow glitter glue to the centre of the flowers and yellow enamel dots to two corners for a finishing touch. 

And that's it. As I said, really quick and simple.

The weather has changed to disappointing up this way. So chilly we've been forced to put the heating on - in June!!!

Hope it's warmer where you are. Take care and keep crafting.

Christmas Card Challenge - Card12/2019 - Reindeer

Evening Everyone,

Hope you have had a good Sunday and enjoying a bright, sunny evening like ours is here. I'm being distracted by the pigeon fly-pass that happens about this time most evenings. I know they are not universally loved in our neighbourhood but they put on a spectacular show, and they look as though they are having a lot of fun too, so I may be the only one but I  really appreciate them.

I have just managed to complete one card for today's Christmas Card Challenge. This time the theme set by Rachel, Fisher's Cards and Crafts, is reindeer.

I've tried with today's the challenge to use up as much bits of leftover stash as possible on a really simple card design of layered patterned paper (a gift recently received from Kyla, Li'l Pidge Designs - thanks Kyla) and Kraft cardstock. The background for the topper is a piece of gold spattered black cardstock found tucked away in my box of bits and bobs. It's the result of me trying out Heidi Swapp's Gold Color Shine spray ages ago.

The reindeer was cut three times out of snippets of Kraft cardstock using the Leaping Deer die from Memory Box. It's an old die but I'm not sure I've ever used it before - shame on me if I haven't because it cuts like a dream. I layered up the three deer - gives it more dimension and makes those delicate antlers a little less flimsy too.

The band at the bottom is composed of two Craft Sensation Washi tapes (from The Range) - the narrow gold one proved very difficult to photograph.

The greeting is made with a stamp from Forest Magic set, snippets of the Kraft card, backed with the gold spattered card, both punched out using a Stampin' Up oval punch.

The card front and greeting topper are decorated with pearl drops using BoBunny's Gold Pearlescent liquid.

Happily, I think this card will be very suitable for a male recipient. I don't make enough masculine themed cards which is why I can often be found making them at the last minute in December.

That's it for CCC today but I hope you will pop over to see what my teammates have created for Rachel's challenge today - you'll find a list of their names and links on my right sidebar - they are always so much more creative than me.

Take care everyone,

Christmas Card Challenge - Card 11/2019 - Christmas Lights

Hello Everyone,

I didn't forget the Christmas Card Club challenge but I just couldn't find anything in my stash, be it stamp, die or paper, that I thought fit with this week's theme of Christmas Lights chosen by Margaret. Until today when I remembered the set of Sarntangles and the stamp I used recently for something else entirely different.

Perfect! Having decided on the stamp I then looked through all the 6x6 pads I have accumulated over the years - so many I have put a stop on buying any more until they are all used up - and chose a very pretty patterned paper for the background to the stamped topper.

Materials used:

- a white A6 (10.5 x 14.8cm) card base 
- patterned paper, Kate Knight Christmas Collection paper stack 
- cardstock - scraps of white (topper & greeting) and pink (matting)
- stamps - Sarntangles 'Imagine' set (topper) & Forest Magic (greeting)
- ink - Archival Ink Jet Black pad
- markers - Blossom, Pastel Green, Rose Pink and Blender ProMarkers
- tools - Stampin' Up's oval punches for greeting; Tonic guillotine & adhesives (glue tape runner & double sided foam tape)

As the colours in the patterned paper are non-traditional I did think there might be a problem finding just the right shades of marker pens to colour in the topper but luckily the right ones were there.

That's it for CCC today but I hope you will pop over to see what my teammates have created for Margaret's challenge today - you'll find a list of their names and links on my right sidebar - they are always so much more creative than mine
Take care everyone,

Rudolph Day Card for May - Little Robin

Happy Rudolph Day

And happy Saturday to you all. It's raining here so no gardening for me today. Instead, it's been the perfect day for staying in and making this month's Rudolph Day card for Maureen's challenge over on Scraps of Life by Scrappymo.

This entire card is made from snippets and leftovers - my self-imposed challenge for this year is to use up as many scraps as possible. A few weeks ago I test stamped the  robin on a branch on to a tiny off-cut of white cardstock but then it didn't get used. Now it's been water-coloured and cut out - painstakingly, I should add - and it's made a lovely little topper for this card. The greeting was cut twice from scraps of red card and layered up to create more dimension.

That's all from me today - short and sweet.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Challenge Card - 03/2019 - Marigolds

Hello & Happy Sunday

Since my last post I've been busy. Not crafting. I wish! But it's been a whirlwind of hospital appointments, craft group afternoon and a trip south to Castle Douglas. It's exhausting so I took yesterday to recover. And today I'm fit to play again. Not that I made this card today. No, it's another  'one I made earlier' for last month's UKPC Swap - the challenge was to include the colour orange.

I like orange but I must admit it's not a colour I use often. However, when I think of orange I do inevitably think of marigolds. Easy to grow - just sprinkle a packet of seeds around and you have marigolds for life - bright and cheerful. They're also edible - nice in salads. So marigolds it had to be.Not that I have a stamp of marigolds. I did search through my stamp stash but the nearest I found were these daisies so they had to do.

Supplies used:
- cardstock - white A6 card base; orange satin finish cardstock for layering; white card from Craft Sensations Mixed Paper Block for stamping
- stamping - 2 Daisies by Rubbernecker; bee and greeting from a Rare Earth Spring stamp set from Issue 130, Papercrafter
- watercolouring - Spectrum Aqua Artist's Markers in shades of orange, yellow and green 
- embellishment - Vicki Boutin Texture Paste Iridescent Glitter

My camera struggled to catch the iridescent glitter paste but it really does add a beautifully textured shimmer to both the flowers and the bees wings. I used a small paint brush to apply it, adding extra to the flower centres for more bling.

I trust you are all having a wonderful weekend. I've been doing a bit of sorting out in here and rediscovered my Stampendous Creative Palette - I can't remember the last time I used it! Surprisingly, it's still in perfect condition so I'm planning to have a play with it this afternoon and see what I come up with. If the results are good, I'll post a few photos here later.

In the meantime, you all take care and have a fabulously crafty week.

Christmas Card Club - Cards 7/2019 - Santa

Hello Everyone,

Sunday past was the day for another Christmas Card Club challenge so, obviously, I'm late! This time the theme, chosen by Rita, RMG Creations, is Santa and, given that I'd long run out of time, I found the a bunch of toppers to make the easiest and quickest card ever!

All I had to do was adhere the gold trimmed topper, from a  Kanban 'Christmas Cuties' set, to the front of a white A6 card blank, Docrafts, and add one of the pre-made greetings with dimensional stickers.

There was enough items in the Kanban set to decorate the inside and back of the card.

To see better and more beautiful Christmas Card Club creations pop round to the other ladies' blogs ... the links to them are on the right side bar.

Thanks for dropping in - your visits are much appreciated.

Snippet Card 02/2019 - Dreamy Hearts

Hello Everyone

As you might have spotted my blog has another new header. As it has been so springlike here for the last few days I thought it time to put winter behind us and welcome the new season. And this time the daffodils featured in yesterday's post seemed just perfect. Hope you like.

The card I'm sharing today is another 'one I made earlier'  - this one for February's UKPC challenge. The theme was, appropriately for the month of February, 'heart(s)'.

It's a very simple design using one of my favourite stamps and a hearts die - another that I'd had for some time but never used. 

Supplies used:
- a 5" square white base
- grey patterned paper from Kanban Crafts 'In The Garden' 6x6 pack
- stamps - Penny Black's 'dreamy' flower; 'For You' greeting stamp from Winter Woodland stamp set
- ink - Stormy Sky TH Distress Ink pad
- die - string of hearts from The Works
- scraps of deep pink cardstock
- a few pink sequins for embellishment

I can't think why it has taken me so long to try out the string of hearts die because it is perfect for using snippets of card - so perfect I used it twice more to decorate the inside and back of the card.

I'm submitting the card to Pixie's Snippets Playground .

I hope you are having a happy, crafty day.

Scrapbook Pages 13-15 - Summer Challenge 2018

Hello Everyone

Here's the last of the layouts made for the MTS Summer Challenge. Phew! It's been a bit of a marathon but it's good to have them all posted for the record.

Once again, all the layouts have the letter 'Q' somewhere in the title.

Down by the Quayside

The photo on this layout is of the EM enjoying a wee moment to himself on a trip to a fishing village in Fife, Scotland. The coast of Fife makes a lovely holiday destination with plenty of picturesque villages to explore. I was beginning to run out of supplies by the time I got to this layout so it's very simple indeed.

Little Quackers

Ducklings! Who doesn't love them? This little brood was spotted on the edge of Lake Bala in Wales.  Again, I've used the minimum of supplies - a few scraps of patterned paper and some embellishments.

Quote of the Day

Finally, a photo taken in Sanquhar, Dumfries & Galloway, of a quote engraved into the back of a bench which reads, 'Never Injure A Friend'. One to live by. The background is smooth white card spattered with ink to create a bit of interest because, by this layout, I was scraping the bottom of the barrel for supplies.

I'd like to say that I'd found my way back into my room and am crafting up a storm but that wouldn't be true. Although the EM is recovering nicely from his operation, he still needs to be held in check ... he's too impatient and wants to run before he can walk again. He has an OP appointment for a check-up at the end of April. And, as for me, my jaw is healing well but I'm still restricted in what I can do. For example, I'm still not allowed to blow my nose and have to be careful when sneezing - and I sneeze a lot!! I have a check up appointment with the Maxillofacial surgeon soon - hopefully he will give me a clean bill of health. All perfectly timed for Spring!

Hope you are well and enjoying the weekend.

 

Scrapbook Pages 10-12 - Summer Challenge 2018

Hello Everyone

I'm back again today with three more of  the layouts made for the MTS Summer Challenge. What unites these layouts is just how much old stash I was able to use up. Not that that made much of an impact on the mountain of paper I've accrued over the years but every little bit helps.

Lacie ... Cute & Quirky

I'm very fond of this photograph of my youngest great-grandchild, Lacie. She is not only cute and quirky but feisty and just a little bit bossy too. I'm not sure now, but I think all the papers were from one of the first MTS kits from early last year.

Quite Lovely

The papers on this layout are definitely old - like very old - but still beautiful and perfect for this photo of my stunning step-niece, Kirsten. The wooden word, 'Lovely', and the camera sticker are the only new items on the layout.

A Quiet Study

I used some leftover scraps for this layout and the photograph is of my husband sitting in the quiet corner immersed in a book. The buttons on all three were from jars that are displayed on shelves in the sewing corner.

Hubby goes into hospital tomorrow so it might be a day or two but I hope to be posting the last of the layouts soon.

Thank you for looking - your visit is much appreciated.