Christmas Card Club - Cards 02/2020

Hello Everyone,

It was my turn to choose a theme for today's Christmas Card Club challenge - a difficult task but after much inner debate, not to mention more than a little help from Margaret, I opted for 'holly and/or ivy'.

And because my goal for this week is to concentrate on stash busting all the supplies for today's cards are not new - check out my post for Wednesday to see the boxes I'm working from.  I managed to make four altogether, two with holly and two with ivy.

The bottom panel on this one is a leftover piece from a masterboard I created autumn last year using lots of paint, leaf stamps, ink, stencils and texture past. The matting for the holly sprays and greeting was cut from scraps of glitter card. I had to cheat and use two snippets, butted up together, for the greeting.

The topper for this one is the last scrap from another masterboard, created way back in 2018. The background is made up of sponged inks. It was overstamped with two of my favourite Penny Black stamps , Winter Bough and Winter Berries in shades of green and gold. The die-cut holly spray was made from snippets of green and red cardstock.

The background piece, if I remember correctly, was made using a technique that involved embossing wax paper which was then ironed on to a white card base to create a resist for ink. The backgrounds on the next two cards were created in the same way.

The backgrounds were almost pretty enough to leave as is but, of course, the challenge called for some ivy so I stamped up some narrow scraps of white cardstock with trails of ivy. For the blue one I used a stamp from the Have a Holly Jolly Christmas set - the same one used for the green card above - and Memento Danube Blue ink. And I used my very first stamp - bought in 1995 - for the red one. This time I embossed the ivy trails with gold powder. In truth, there's not a lot of difference between the two stamped images - I just have a special fondness for the old wood-mounted one. The edges of  the panel are embossed in gold too. The ivy trails on both cards are decorated with tiny gems.

That's it from me for today's CCC challenge. This brings my total for this year to five already - not bad!

I'm also submitting one of these cards to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #369 - I'm not sure which one yet as I've used a bunch of snippets in the making of them.

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.

Christmas Eve Snippet Card

Hello and Happy Christmas Eve Everyone,

I hope you've finished with all the festive preparations and ready to have a fabulous Christmas Eve, stress-free if possible, and a wonderful day tomorrow. I've only just found a few minutes to take the weight of my feet after prepping the Brussels sprouts - one of my most unfavourite vegetables - and share this card with you and Di over at Pixie's Snippet Playground.

I dipped into my boxes of bits and bobs to make this card. The base was made from a scrap of smooth white card left over from layering photos for a scrapbook page. Many months ago, could even be more than a year, I had an embossing session using all the scraps of card I had accumulated - created quite a stack in fact - and that's where I found this gold topper. The folder is from the Winter Botanicals set by Sizzix. The black matting layer was from packaging and the patterned background is one of the many prints I've made when experimenting with my Gelli Plate. I don't remember what went into creating the colour of the paint - most probably various shades of brown/orange inks mixed into white acrylic paint - but I can tell you the stencil was 'Fretwork' from That Special Touch.

I am now feeling quite virtuous from having used up so many scraps and snippets. Hopefully, Father Christmas will think I've been good, 'for goodness sake'.

I'm also submitting this card to Hazel's CHNC Challenge #469.

That's me for this evening. Have a wonderful Christmas everyone.

November's Rudolph Day - Special Delivery

Hello Everyone,

As I missed last month's Rudolph Day, over on A Scraps of Life, I was determined not to miss this month's too, especially because it's the last one for the year.

Once again the topper has been recycled from a card received on a previous Christmas ... could have been last year, could have been several Christmases ago. I've teamed it up with a leftover scrap of patterned paper and a piece of white embossed card - Hero Arts 'Dots'. It's a simple design with just a few dew drops and a bow of red and white twine to embellish it - perfect for a little child, I think.

I'm also submitting this card to Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #465 where anything goes as long as it's Christmas.

That's it for Rudolph Day 2019. Looking forward to starting all over again in 2020.

Take care everyone,

Hello Autumn - UKPC September Swap Card

Morning Everyone,

I hope you are enjoying today and maybe finding time to craft. The card I'm sharing this time was made for this month's swap for the Facebook group, UKPC, The theme was green and white - a favourite combination.

The 'inchie' tiles were made from an autumn inspired masterboard I created using a combination of leaf stamps and various green inks, as can be seen in this photo.

How the masterboard was made:

First, I found, in the bits and bobs box of course, this Gelli plate print piece, made using Vicki Boutin's 'Juicy Pear' green and Maggie Holmes 'Sunny Days' aqua acrylic paints ...

... and decided it would make a good base for stenciling and stamping on, using just about every green ink in my stash, to create a masterboard. First, I stenciled here and there with a Heidi Swapp trellis stencil, then a combination of leaves - from Folio Variostempel's Leaves set - in various greens was stamped over the entire surface of the print. To finish, texture was added with a Vicki Boutin stencil and Ranger's Opaque Matte Paste.

Other supplies used:
- dark green cardstock for card base and 'inchie' layering
- white embossed card for topper base - another piece found in my bits and bobs box embossed with an old but favourite trellis folder from Crafts-Too
- a 1½" square Woodware punch used to make the 'inchie' tiles
- dies: butterfly from 'Butterfly Dance' by Tattered Lace, dragonfly a mini die from Cut & Make from The Range.
- stamps: greeting from Hunkydory's 'Autumn Harvest'
- inks: various greens from Ink It Up!, Letterpress, Ranger's Distress Ink, Versafine, Papermania, ColorBox, We R Memory Keepers
- embellishment: yellow Stickles 

As everything used on this card has been in my stash for quite some time, I'm submitting it to Shopping Our Stash's Challenge #405 - Dream the Embossible Dream

And also to C.R.A.F.T. Challenge 528 - Autumn/Weather

Many thanks for visiting here today and any comments are much appreciated - especially as I know that, like me, you're likely to be very busy.

Sunday Snippet Card - Joy, Peace, Love

Evening Everyone,

I hope you have had a lovely Sunday and a great weekend. The weather has cheered up over the last few days and yesterday was so lovely we had a trip out - probably one of the last before winter sets in. No sun today but it's been nice enough for me to get into the garden for a bit of pottering early on, then it got a bit chilly so I came indoors, and to my desk to make this card.

I don't like to throw out anything - indeed, snippets leftover from making scrap pages is what got me into cardmaking in the first place - so it's no surprise that the background for this card was made with the texture paste leftover from another project.

Supplies used:
- white A6 card blank
- scrap of black cardstock, Dusty Attic's 'Starry Night' stencil and the leftover opaque texture past which had been lightly tinted with yellow ink, for base of topper
- white vellum trimmed and shaped into the band that's wrapped around the black base
- Penny Black's 'Wonder Collection' stamp set, VersaMark ink pad and gold embossing powder for the sentiment
- green and red card snippets, QuicKutz 'Holly & Berry' die set and 'Xmas Red' Stickles to create the holly embellishment. 

I'm submitting this card to the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #360 - anything goes as long as there's snippets used

Hazel's CHNC challenge 454 - anything goes as long as it's Christmas themed

Merry little Christmas 14: anything Christmas goes

Sparkles Christmas 104: winter wishes

Crimbo crackers 192: anything goes

Winter wonderland September: use your favourite embellishments - die-cut holly & berries & Stickles

That's my card for today. Thanks for popping in.  Hope you have a lovely evening and a great week to come. 

Rudolph Day Challenge - August 2019 - Using Leftover Scraps

Hello Everyone,

I've been so busy making scrapbook pages for the MTS summer challenge that I almost missed Maureen's Rudolph Day Challenge for August. And I don't like to miss it - it's the best excuse to add to my little, but growing, pile of Christmas cards - so today had me delving into the box of scraps, leftovers and snippets and this is the card I made.

Not the best photo but I hope you can see that the sentiment is embossed in gold powder.

Here's a close-up which is a lot clearer. The stamp set is made up of the large 'It's Christmastime' with several smaller stamps that can be combined to create a variety of greetings - all very usable.

These scraps have been around for a year or two. I can't remember how I got the mottled finished on the red scrap. It looks as though I might have splattered it with a bleach/water solution to get that effect.

The painty scraps, die-cut to make the poinsettias, are the trimmings from a larger mixed media piece that was used for another card at some time.

I used:
Crafter's Companion 'It's Christmastime' stamp set
VersaMark ink pad
Red and Gold embossing powders
Spellbinders Poinsettia die set
Gold adhesive pearls

I'm also submitting this card to Hazel's CHNC challenge 452

Have a great Tuesday evening.

Christmas Card Club - Card 17/2019 - Patterned Papers

Hello and happy Sunday to you all.

It's another Christmas Card Club Challenge Sunday and it's the turn of  Margaret (aka: Granmargaret) to set the theme - to use two or more patterned papers on our cards. 

It's a while since I used any patterned paper at all, let alone two or more, but I'm always up for a challenge so here's what I came up with.

I had this very nice pack of 6x6 papers, 'Winter Wonder' that I'd picked up, fairly recently, at The Works that I liked very much but hardly used. The paper is a lovely thickness, 200gsm, the small patterns are perfect for card-making and I like the colour mix of teal, red, cream and white - it's different. It would have been great for our last theme of non-traditional colours had I thought of it at the time! 

- the base is a 5½" square, made from cream cardstock. I used three different papers for the topper, one for the base, one for the poinsettias and there's another, a narrow strip, that's just peaking out from under the flowers. 

- I used a very old set of Spellbinder dies to cut out the poinsettias, there's four layers altogether for each flower. All the edges of the papers were inked with a teal ink pad. 

- To make the greeting, I stamped and embossed the word 'Joy' from Die'sire's Sentimentals stamp set, on a scrap of cream cardstock using crimson red Heat It Up! embossing powder before cutting it out using yet another old Spellbinder die set - I think they are from the Shapeabilities range. 

 - the turquoise mat was cut using the largest die in the set and, again, I was able to use up a scrap of card. These small die sets are ideal for using up leftover scraps of card and paper. 

- I found three enamel dots in just the right shade of red for the flower centres and also a set of cream coloured ones for the corners. 

And because there's a couple of snippets/scraps been used I'm submitting this to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #359. I've not had anything to share in the playground for some time but, happily, today I have. 

That's it for CCC today but I hope you will pop over to see what my teammates have created for Margaret'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 me.

Christmas Card Club - Card 15/2019 - Trees

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and that the sun is smiling for you.

It's time for another Christmas Card Club Challenge and today's theme, chosen by Christine, is 'Trees'. The following cards were made using stuff out of a box of bits and bobs, most of which are the results of trying out new goodies in a moment of enthusiasm and then doing nothing more with them. Result - I'm feeling quite virtuous today.

For this card, it's the background that was found in the box. It's just a piece of white cardstock spattered with Heidi Swapp's Gold Color Shine - lovely stuff. I've over stamped, and embossed with gold powder, trees from the Winter Wonderland stamp set that was magazine gift - I've forgotten which and when. Before I added the topper to the card front I created an embossed gold edging all the way around the front - I didn't have any gold cardstock so had to think of another way to give the topper a gold background. 

These two cards used up two embossed panels found in the box.

Pale amber gems decorate the tree - sadly the camera had difficulty picking them up against the gold. 

The two shades of pink gems show up better on this topper. The embossing folder used was another magazine gift - a years old Creativity magazine. I don't believe it's still in existence. The papers used on both cards, some of which were just scraps, are from Docrafts Papermania 'A Silent Night' paper pack, c 2009.  I'd like to say that I've now used up the entire paper pack but it's not so. But then, sadly, that is true of the my stash of paper packs once so enthusiastically collected - so much paper, so little time!

I'm submitting the last card to Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #357 - Di's challenge is always for any subject as long as snippets are used. 

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 mine.

Christmas Card Club - Card 10/2019 - Children at Christmas

Morning Everyone

It was Kate's turn to pick the theme for the Christmas card club this fortnight and she picked Children at Christmas. After yet another rummage through old stash I discovered a pack of unused Cute Squares from Lili of the Valley. The images in the set are of very pretty little 'Christmas Girls' - the one I've used for this challenge is my favourite and, as there was three copies left, I've used them all and made three cards - all slightly different.

For this version I've used a Gelli plate print background, trimmed and edged with red (Fired Brick) distress ink. The image and dark green cardstock mat were cut with dyes from a stitched square set from The Works. The poinsettia and the greeting were made from leftover scraps of the background and green cardstock using Spellbinders Poinsettia set and Tonic Studios Mini Moments Modern Merry Christmas.

The robin patterned paper for the background in this version is from 'Festive Frolics' by Papermania (more old stash) trimmed and matted on to a layer of dark green cardstock. The image is also matted onto the green card, as is the red ribbon which provides the greeting. The holly leaves were cut with a Tattered Lace mini die - I've used a red glass gem for embellishment.

And finally this version is made almost entirely from snippets of patterned paper and cardstock - the exceptions are the image and the Kraft card base. The patterned papers are scraps from a Holly Hobby patterned paper pack - a magazine freebie - and the star patterned  ribbon was just long enough to adhere to the card and have a bit left for the bow. The greeting is another Tattered Lace mini die. I cut it three times from snippets of red card and glued them together to give the greeting more dimension. 

I'm submitting the last card to Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #352 - Di's challenge is always for any subject as long as snippets are used so I hope she will forgive that it's yet another Christmas card. 

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 mine. 

Hope the weather has been kind to you and you're enjoying your weekend.

Christmas Card Club - Card 9/2019 - Cosy Cute Christmas

Hello Everyone

Another fortnight gone and it's another Christmas Card Club Sunday - this time the them is Cosy Cute Christmas chosen by Zoe. Just for a change I've somehow found time to make several cards - this only because a rummage through neglected stash led to the discovery of a fairly old Hunkydory card kit, Festive Wonder, just waiting for me to delve into. The result: these four pretty cards.

All papers and toppers came with the kit. To decorate them I've dipped into my collection of card candy, dew drops and adhesive gems.

I'm also submitting these to the following challenges:

April Rudolph Day Challenge 

CHNC Challenge 435

These are just a small selection of the cards that can be made from the kit. There's still a lot of toppers and papers left yet and I expect I'll get around to using them up one day - just not today.

I hope you've had a wonderful weekend wherever you are - and hopefully with plenty of time for crafting.

Christmas Card Club - Card 8/2019 - Christmas Scene

Happy Sunday Everyone,

My, but these fortnights come round so quickly, do they not, and it's time for another Christmas Card Club Challenge. This week the theme, Winter/Christmas Scene, has been chosen by our lovely, and very talented cardmaker, Shaz, Silverwolf Cards,

Because I've been so involved in the MTS Cyber Crop this weekend, I didn't even think about this challenge until this morning! So it had to be another quick and easy one ... this is fast becoming my default setting ... and luckily I remembered this Christmas Scene die set - a freebie with a magazine a year or so ago.

Supplies used:
- a white 5½" square card base from Docraft's Papermania
- scraps of aqua and white cardstock
- green glitter card from Dear Lizzy's New Day Mixed Media Pad
- the Christmas Scene die set

To make the card, all I did was use the three parts of the die set to cut each layer, the scalloped piece in the aqua card, the green glitter layer with the stitch effect die and the topper in white card. I used my Cuttlebug die-cutting machine to cut it all out and though I had no problem with the two background layers the topper wasn't so easy. The first attempt was with fairly thick cardstock didn't cut well at all, despite passing it through the machine several times, so I tried with thinner card with more success. Something to bear in mind next time I use this die set.

I'm also submitting this card to the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippet Playground - Challenge #350 - two very nice snippets of cardstock were used in the making of my card.

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge - CHNC #433 - where anything goes as long as it's Christmas themed.

Right, I better get back to the cyber crop challenges now though I hope to pop over to see all the other CCC cards at some point today or, if I'm being realistic, tomorrow. For you to see them sooner just click on the links listed on the sidebar on the right.

Enjoy what's left of Sunday everyone.

MTS Cyber Crop Weekend - Pages 3 & 4

Back again with two more pages made today.

For the Love of the Beautiful Game

This photo is of my grandson playing football on a very unseasonably cold, miserable, day in July 2015, hence the title. I pulled out several punches and a set of circle dies to create all those circles. Supplies used are mostly from Mind the Scrap's kit for March - patterned papers are from Dear Lizzy, Maggie Holmes and Paige Evans; embellishments Amy Tangerine and alphas from American Crafts Marquee thickers and Kesi'art Script stickers - the orange letters are from old stash.

Sock Knitting

I don't usually do this but I posed for this photo earlier on today so that I could make a layout to record my sock knitting. Again the supplies used are mostly from the March kit with a few from older kits included. Patterned papers - Jen Hadfield and Dear Lizzy; die-cut embellishments from Amy Tangerine and stickers from Maggie Holmes; alphabet thickers are American Craft Charming and The Works black puffy stickers.

I can't pretend I'm making good progress - in fact, I'm way behind - but as the EM says 'it's not the winning that counts, it's the taking part'. It's fun and at the end of the weekend I will have a few more scrapbook layouts for the albums.

I'm off to bed now. Hoping to be up early, wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to create a few more pages.

I wish you all a super Sunday whatever you're doing..

MTS Cyber Crop Weekend - Pages 1 & 2

Hello Everyone,

I'm participating in the Mind The Scrap Cyber Crop all weekend so thought I'd try to post as many of the layouts I complete as possible throughout. Here's the first two.

Lovely Day.

The photos of us with two friends were taken in the tea rooms on a visit to the art gallery at Rozelle Park here in Ayr. Supplies used are patterned papers from Echo Park, Petticoats & Pinstripes - Tiny Teapots - and Simple Stories So Fancy; white and blue cardstock; enamel dots in three shades of pink from stash. The background stencilling was created with a Heidi Swapp  stencil #312291 and teal blue Letterpress ink.

Believe in the Most Magical Things

These photos were taken on two different occasions but they are both of Scotland's mythical water horses, the Kelpies. Keeping with the mythical theme I've used unicorn embellishments - the unicorn is the national animal of Scotland. It is both a symbol of purity and innocence and masculinity and power. Supplies used are patterned papers from Vicki Boutin Field Notes, Daydreamer, and Crate Paper's Hooray, Sprinkles and Birthday; embellishments are mainly from Shimelle's sticker sheet with Washi tape from craft Sensations and green enamel dots from stash.

There will eventually be more but I'm already way behind so we'll just see how I get on.

In the meantime, I hope you are all having a great weekend. As ever, many thanks for visiting.

Rudolph Day Card - February 2019

Hello Everyone

Happily I've managed to make my first Rudolph Day card this year - I was so sad to miss Maureen's challenge over at Scraps of Life last month.

The design was prompted by the plaid patterned paper that was leftover from an earlier project.

Supplies used:

• a white 5" square card base
• scraps of patterned paper from Those Characters from Cleveland (2012)
• leftover scraps of red and white card
• paper backed hessian from a mixed media pad - American Craft's Dear Lizzy 'New Day' collection (2018)
• the felt Scottie Dog embellishment from The Works
• greeting stamp from Sweet Sentiments set - a freebie with Issue 9 of Love Cardmaking (2019)
• ink - Memento's Rhubarb Stalk Dew Drop pad
• embellishments - red/white twine and white enamel dots

As well as submitting it to ScrappyMo's Rudolph Day challenge, I'm submitting the card to the following two challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge 346

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge  - CHNC 426

I was reminded of the felt Scottie dog embellishments by an item in the TV news yesterday stating that Scottie dogs are becoming an endangered breed. 

Seems they are considered old-fashioned so there isn't the demand for them that there once was. Such a shame. Perhaps being in the news will help save our Scottie dogs. I do hope so. 

Christmas Card Club - Card 1/2019 - Snowflakes

Hello Everyone,

This post should have gone up yesterday but I came down with the dreaded lurgy in the wee small hours of Saturday and was in no fit state to do anything all weekend. Happily, today is better and I'm feeling up to posting again. So, to celebrate I'm here with the first CCC card of 2019 with the theme of snowflakes set by Christine.

Nothing makes me happier than to use up stash that seems to have been around for years. Like this card which is made up entirely from old stash.

Supplies used:

• a 5" square card base made from smooth white card trimmed to measure 10" x 5" and folded in half
• snowflake patterned paper from the Kate Knight Christmas collection paper stack cut to leave an edge margin of an eighth of an inch. The paper pack was a freebie from Quick Cards Made Easy in 2010 - 8 years and there's still a few sheets left! 
• two white die cut snowflakes, bought ready-cut in the years before I acquired my first die-cutting machine ... now that is a long time ago!
• distress ink, Peacock Feathers, used to edge paper and greeting
• VersaMark Watermark Pen, Stampendous Crystal Transparent embossing powder and teal coloured glitter - all used to add the glitter finish to the snowflakes. This was a messy business but well worth it as the effect is a glittery loveliness that unfortunately doesn't show up well in the photograph. 
• one brad with aqua gem used to clip the two snowflakes together before adhering to the card front.
• the greeting made from a snippet of smooth white card, the greeting stamp from Penny Black's Wonder Collection set, the distress ink and an oval punch from Stampin' Up 

I would like to submit this card to the following challenges too:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #343

CHNC challenge 419 - optional theme upcycle or use something old

The ladies in our Christmas Card Club will have published their first card of the year yesterday. We make a Christmas card every two weeks and post it on our own blogs - see the list of links on the sidebar to the right.

Thanks for looking in.

Scrapbook Pages

Hi Everyone,

As some of you may know I'm participating in a scrapping challenge at the moment. It's helped me to up my output of scrap pages considerably. This is not only good, but also something of a miracle because I'm the slowest scrapper ever! 

For the challenge this week we have, again, five requirements, one of which is to use black and white with just one other colour in each layout and another is to have a one word title.

Here's the pages that I've made so far.

Lovely!

The photos are of my husband's great niece's wedding in 2006. The bridesmaids were in pink so I chose that as the other colour. It was a particularly lovely and happy wedding. The toastmaster, who is the actor Mark Charnock's father (Marlon in Emmerdale) was brilliant and made everything go like a well-oiled machine.

Boston

Memories of a trip to Boston with my mother in 1996. She loved the market hall in the centre of the city. Mum had never been out of the UK until then so it was a great big adventure for her. These photos capture that memory for me.

Minnies

Much more up-to-date this time. Two photos taken a couple of years ago. Both my great-niece and great-granddaughter are fans of Minnie Mouse and take every opportunity to dress up like her. Not that I blame them - who wouldn't want to be dressed from head to toe in Minnies and polka dots! I was a huge fan too when I was a wee girl but I don't remember ever dressing up as Minnie.

The Spotty Cafe

Was unable to stick to a one-word title for this page - it just had to be The Spotty Cafe. We spotted (pardon the pun) this cafe whilst out driving on holiday in Yorkshire. It's an amazing sight and we just had to stop. it's really the Bank View Cafe in Langsett but of course it's now more commonly known as The Spotty Cafe. In 2014 the owners repainted it to celebrate the Tour de France passing it's door.

I'm sure some of you wonder why I find it so important to scrap my photos rather than just leave them in photo albums or leave them stored on my computer never to be printed. Well, I couldn't put it better than Laura Alberts has in this article here. 

Right, I better get back to scrapping - there's a challenge to be done.

Have a wonderful day.