Sunday Snippets & The Last of the Christmas Cards for 2018

Hello Everyone,

Well, that's Christmas 2018 over and done with and I hope that it was a good one for you. We enjoyed a quiet day together, cooking a very tasty lunch, exchanging presents, messaging/telephoning distant family and friends, and watching TV. A perfect day and, after the EM's most recent hospital episode, one for which I'm eternally grateful.

Needless to say there's been nothing done in the craft space for several days, but I do have a few last minute cards to share - the last for this year. Because it doesn't matter how organised I think I am, or how carefully I put together the list of cards to be made, there's always a few short. I try! Every year I try!

Anyway, here they are.

This is a real snippet make - definitely one for Pixie's Snippet Playground Challenge 342. The topper was made from a scrap of gold card embossed with a folder from the Winter Botanicals set by Sizzix and decorated with tiny green gems. It's backed on to a snippet of bright green card to create an insert for the dark green pre-cut card base. Gold sequins decorate two corners.

The next two were made from decoupage kits bought many moons ago - several years ago actually - from Docrafts Henbury Lane Poinsettia Collection Pack. 

It's amazing how much there is in one of these packs - and it's not finished yet! The gorgeous poinsettia patterned paper in the background was one I'd been treasuring but I finally let go. Well, it was just too perfect with those delightful toppers.

One of the reasons - goodness, the only reason - why I was making cards up to the last minute this year is because I left it too late to start! But all should be well for Christmas 2019 because I intend making at least one card a week from the first week in January. Not exactly a resolution, I don't make resolutions, more a challenge! I've done it in years past. I can do it again!

That's it for now. I'm off to give my desk a bit of a tidy up before starting on the next project.

Take care everyone and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

I Spy Mince Pie

Good Afternoon Folks

It's a lovely day and the garden is calling to me, but before I go I thought I'd share these two little cards with you.

Still using up rediscovered stash, this time the mince pie toppers which are a bit of fun at Christmas. Not everyone in the family likes mince pies but we always have a tin to hand for those that do :)

How the card was made and the materials used:

• The idea for this card began with the discovery of the toppers which I'd already decoupaged sometime ago during a session spent watching TV ... can't watch TV without having something in my hands to work on ... and the matching sentiment - all from Papermania's Henbury Lane Poinsettia kit. The only addition was inking round the edges using Tim Holtz Brushed Corduroy distress ink to give them a bit of a vintage look.
• Next, yet another stash discovery for the card bases ... two white cards (4"x6" size) that I'd already prepared, a very long time ago, by covering the front with some lovely vintage style paper from the snippet pile. I wish I could tell you the paper details but the branding strip has disappeared. 
• A rootle around the snippets unearthed some scraps of Papermania Textured card in just the right shade of red for the two poinsettias made using Spellbinders' Layered Poinsettia ... these have got to be my most used Christmas die set.  For this card, I just cut the two smallest flower shapes, shaped them gently to add a bit more dimension, and glued them together. The final touch is a green pearl added to the centre of each flower.
• Next, two satin ribbon bows were made in a shade of red to match the poinsettias.
• Once all the preparation was done all that had to be done was to adhere the topper to the centre, the ribbon and sentiment above that and the poinsettia in the bottom right corner. The finishing touch was more green pearls on the two opposite corners. 

I'm submitting these cards to the following challenges:

CHNC Challenge 250 ...  for the vintage/shabby chic theme

CHNC challenge extra for October 2015 - always anything goes as long as the theme is Christmas

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper October 2015 Challenge - anything goes as long as the card is

Pixie's Snippet Playground  ... the third time this week ... I haven't done that in simply ages :)

The sun is shining and the garden is still drawing me outside for a bit of fresh air. The plan is to bring the pots of geraniums and dahlias to overwinter in the greenhouse before the first frost does irreparable damage. Yes, winter is on the way!

Hope you have a great day.

Happy Crafting,

Rudolph Day for September - Seasonal Scrolls

Afternoon Folks

Just scraping in at the last minute with my makes for Rudolph Day over at ScrappyMo's.

Now that I'm bringing stash back into my beautifully made over craft room I'm discovering all sorts of forgotten treasures. For example, this sheet of decoupage toppers which, if memory serves me well - and it often doesn't now that I'm getting on a bit!, was won from one of our lovely blogging chums, I just can't remember who and when. Anyhow, having found it again I decided best make it up for this month's Rudolph day. There was enough toppers to make two cards - both with the same sepia image but one just a bit more colourful than the other.

This is the one that has some added colour in it ... hints of grey, green and a red door. The cream base card came with the sheet. I've added some sparkle with glitter glue.

Spot the difference - all sepia tones. For some reason the two toppers came with only one card base so I've used a Kraft card base from stock for this one.

Materials used:

• Seasonal Scrolls topper sheet and cream card base set from Just Inklined
• 6" square shaped Kraft card base
• Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink pad - for inking the edges
• Crystal Stickles for the sparkle

I'm also submitting these cards to  Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for September  where it's always anything goes as long as it's for Christmas.

Edit Note: Oops, too late for CHNCC Extra!!!
Right! Back to finding a suitable home for all my stash :)

Happy Crafting,

Vintage Rose Card plus Craft Room Makeover Update

Good Morning Crafters,

I hope you are all well and enjoying your week so far. There's been no time for crafting Chez Worthington ... if I could get to my craft desk it would be great ... so the card I have to share is a little one made a couple of months ago that I didn't get around to sharing a the time.

Made so long ago I've forgotten most of the details so there will be some frantic checking going on now. The decoupaged vintage rose from Docrafts came free with a magazine. The green background is embossed with an old folder that has a leafy design on it, Cindy Lou from Cuttlebug. The leaf is from Tattered Lace's Lavish Bloom Leaves die set - cut from snippets of green card.

And now, the reason for the panic!

Sad isn't it. Just about everything has gone and all that's left, for now, is this computer, the printers and a very empty desk. We've both been stripping ... wallpaper, that is ... and today it's washing the paintwork down with sugar soap and filling in various holes with plaster that's on the to do list for himself. That awful pink shiny heart paper has gone - yippee! I'm tackling the sewing table which is also going to undergo a makeover.

Better go and get on with it :)

Sunday Snippets

Afternoon Everyone,

Just taking a much needed break from clearing the craft room to share a trio of cards made for Pixie's Snippets Playground today.

All three were made from a Milton & Co Christmas paper stack. Even the little decoupaged toppers were made by fussy cutting the images from sheets in the paper stack. The sentiment is from a Lawn Fawn stamp set, Winter Fox. The circles were all cut from snippets of card - the colours picked out to match the papers.

Materials used:

• Black 5" square base cards
• Milton & Co Christmas paper stack
• Lawn Fawn Winter Fox stamp set 
• Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad
• Black, pink and green cardstock snippets and Spellbinders circle die set
• Stickles - Crystal and Yellow
• Glassy Accents for Milton's eyes and nose

That's three more cards to add to the box ... I'm not exactly caught up yet but I'm working on it. Got to go, tons to do but hope to pop in to the playground later to see what you've all been up to.

Peony Bouquet Card - Old Fashioned Decoupage for Sunday Snippets

Evening All,

Oh dear, the weekend's nearly over ... I hope it's been wonderful for you. I'm back with card #2 of the three I need to make before the 16th. This time it's one with floral decoupage that was cut from this Anna Griffin paper.

I've had 4 sheets of this gorgeous paper for several years. There's no name on the back for this design and even after a lengthy online search I'm none the wiser. When paper's that old, it's not even on Ms Griffin's website, it is time to put it to good use.

So, I fussy cut out the central bouquet on one sheet, and then cut out individual flower heads on another to create the decoupage. 

To make the background I started with a pre-made die-cut card base (from Creative Crafting World) and using an ink duster, I inked the front with Tim Holtz Stormy Sky distress ink. I then stamped randomly with two stamps, a small leaf stamp (from the much used IndigoBlu stamp set that came free with a magazine) in Brushed Corduroy, and Hero Arts 'Flowers Are Poetry' stamp in Stormy Sky. The next step was to stencil butterflies in Weathered Wood over the front using a Prima Elementals stencil. That done I then decided to edge the card with gilding flakes, Sunshine from Crafty Notions. This was prompted by watching Sarah, on UStream, edging the front of the lovely 80th Birthday Wishes Book she made yesterday - it reminded me that I had gilding flakes tucked away and not being used!

Once all that was done, I attached the decoupaged spray to the front. The greeting was made by stamping the greeting with Crafty Notions craft adhesive on to a snippet of white card and finishing with gilding flakes. The matting for the greeting is another snippet of white card and covered with gilding flakes. Both the greeting and the matting were created using Stampin' Up punches. 

 

I'm submitting this card to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 142 ... it's only two teeny-weeny snippets but every little bit helps keep the snippet mountain in check :)

Only one more card to do, the most important one of the three ... it's the EM's birthday ... and I still haven't a clue what I'm going to make yet! 

Better go and think about it :)

Wishing you a lovely evening whatever you are doing.

Happy Crafting,

On the 12th day ...

Evening Everyone..

A quick post today, sigh ... they are all quick posts right now as I seem to be so busy making up for lost time. Busy with housework, that is! Anyway, I hope this finds you all well and that you've had a lovely day.

I did manage to find time to make this card yesterday evening. Made especially for Hazel's challenge - that's CHNC challenge 170  - where the challenge is to use circles. As luck would have it, one of the things I was able to do whilst poorly was to sit on the sofa with a lap tray and make up some decoupaged toppers from an old Docrafts collection, Henbury Lane Poinsettia, including this circular one with round baubles on it.

Tried to get a shot that would let you see the dimension of the decoupage but this is the best I can find on file. The pink/black colour combination was based on the colour of the smaller bauble on the topper together with a sheet of the Henbury Lane patterned paper I printed off from the computer eons ago.


The inside and back are decorated with scraps of the patterned paper and, for writing on, a square of white card inside.

Materials:

• base: a black square card 
• paper: the sheet of Docrafts Papermania Henbury Lane Poinsettia patterned paper
• topper: the decoupaged topper from the Papermania Henbury Lane Poinsettia collection - I've edged it using a glue pen and fine black glitter
• ribbon: wide black/pink saddle stitch grosgrain ribbon; Anita's narrow fuchsia glitter satin ribbon; 
• embellishments: black dew drops
• snippet: white linen finish card from Papermill Direct 

Other challenges I'm submitting this card to:

CHNC challenge extra for April 2014
and
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 118

Right, I'm off to watch Pointless before getting supper ready.
I wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Happy crafting,

Decoupaged Father Christmas

Morning Folks,

A drab and dreary Monday in this part of the world today ... hope it's better where you are.

Just a quick share for you today ... and apologies yet again for the poor quality of the photographs. The new lamp is on it's way!!!

This is one of the many surprising discoveries made whilst packing up the craft room ... I'd quite forgotten that I had this page of decoupage stashed away. I'm not much into decoupage ... all that cutting! And, much to my shame, I don't have any details for him - could be from the same set as the patterned papers, Vintage Christmas by Hot Of The Press.

It's not too apparent in the photos but all the white 'furry' areas on the image are covered in Rock Candy Distress Stickles - all except his beard, of course :) And the satin bow is quite a bit darker, and exact match to the burgundy red in the papers, than it looks in the photos.

I've added an insert created from white printer paper, stamped with a greeting and stamped with a bow coloured with a burgundy ProMarker. Scraps of the paper was layered to decorate the back.

Materials used:

• square Kraft card base
• the decoupaged Father Christmas
• patterned papers Vintage Christmas from Hot of The Press
• white printer paper
• bow stamp from a free Christmas set from Docrafts and Christmas Greeting from Christmas Blessings, Katy Sue Designs
• Memento Tuxedo black ink pad and Burgundy ProMarker
• burgundy satin ribbon from Papermania Spot & Stripes Festive Collection
• green card candy

This card was, in fact, made a week or so ago and, I have to confess, my box of cards waiting to be posted is looking sadly depleted :(  I still have some stash, held back from the packing, and my craft table, but that will be dismantled on Wednesday so I may have to resort to crafting on the floor ... don't know if my knees can take it!!!

Friday is moving day so I will be without Internet for a while, certainly over the weekend, that is until Sky gets me up and running again. I'm hoping to schedule some posts over that period and hopefully all will return to normal sometime early next week but, there again, in the words of our noble Bard, Robbie Burns -

... foresight may be vain:

the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley

On that sad note I'll go and get on with some cleaning :( 

In the meantime, I hope you are all having a good Monday.

Happy Crafting,

White Christmas in June

Evening All

I hope you have all had a good day today with plenty to smile about, just like the one we've had here. The sun was shining for most of the day and I was able to get out into the garden for a spot of gentle weeding - lovely!

After all that enforced rest, my crafting muscles seem to be out of condition, either that or Mr Mojo has gone walkabout. Whatever, I sat at my desk and couldn't work up any enthusiasm for finishing the scrap page that has been there forever. So it's been pushed to the side and I challenged myself to use up a few snippets that were lying around instead.

The embossed layer is the front of a card I messed up last week - check out this post here for the whole sorrowful tale. Anyway, it's been trimmed down and matted on to a scrap of black cardstock. The poinsettia was inked up with markers and stamped twice onto white card. The first impression was trimmed down and matted on to what was left of the same black card. The second was cut out and decoupaged on to the first and a tiny dot of yellow glitter glue was added as a final touch to the centre of the flower.

Inside has been stamped with a greeting in red and the poinsettia has been stamped in the lower right corner. And it seemed a shame not to stamp the back too, so I did :)

Materials used:

• 4" square white card base
• Cuttlebug All-In-One embossing folder, Twinkle
• snippets of smooth black and white cardstock
• stamps - from a set that came free with a magazine last year 
• markers - Memento dual markers - Lady Bug, Cantaloupe, Dandelion, Bamboo Leaves; Ranger Tim Holtz distress marker - Peeled Paint
• Stickles, Yellow

My plan was to make this for Hazel's weekly challenge, CHNC 126, but needless to say, I missed the deadline. Hopefully, I'll do better next week.

However, I'm not too late to pop over to Pixie's Crafty Snippet Playground - Week 74, for the third and therefore final time this week.

Hopefully, that's Mr Mojo sorted out and tomorrow I'll get some more crafting done although it does depend on the weather. Apparently there's a high over the UK which bodes well for more sunshine and less showers - yippee! Another opportunity to top up my store of Vitamin E :)

I hope you all have a very enjoyable and sunshiny weekend.

Happy Crafting,

Forever Friends Card - for the Tuesday Morning Sketches Challenge

Afternoon All

As I used the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches #199, I think it's only right that I submit this card to the challenge.

Some of you will recognise it as the partly done card that was languishing on my desk Wednesday morning - the one I was agonising over and wondering if it would suit my 13 year old granddaughter. Well, lacking any better ideas, I've finished it and sent it anyway. Here's the sketch the layout is based on.

Instead of making it a portrait card, I've gone for landscape but otherwise I've followed the sketch pretty much as is. Some time ago I won a prize on one of the Docrafts challenges for this scrap layout of my visit to the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston - coincidentally another sketch challenge - which included this Forever Friends topper, paper and greeting in a Kraft Notes Collection kit.

Ready made decoupage is not something I do a lot of, but it is quick and easy and the papers included in the kit are lovely. The cute teddy, once put together, was adhered to a white oval die cut topper. As usual, I traced around the die onto kraft card to create the mat for the topper and added faux stitching around the edge with a brown ProMarker. More faux stitching was added to the plaid paper. The banners are made from some pretty leftovers from a scrapping session - the colours just happened to go well with the plaid.

The dotty pink heart in the greeting has Anita's gloss added to it and so has the teddy's nose and eyes - not that that shows up in any of the photographs.

Another of the greetings from the kit has been added to the inside of the card.

Materials:

• the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches 
• smooth white and kraft cardstock - PaperMill Direct
• Docrafts Forever Friends Kraft Notes kit which includes the decoupage topper, patterned paper and greeting topper
• X-cut oval shaped die
• snippets of American Crafts Dear Lizzy patterned paper (for the banners)
• Tim Holtz Vintage Photo ink pad - used to ink most of the edges
• ProMarker, Burnt Sienna - for faux stitching
• ribbon - pink/white polka dot organza, rose pink metallic cord from MeiFlower, metal 'made for you' charm from stash 
• Anita's gloss finish

I'm also submitting this card to Pixies Crafty Snippets Playground - Week 74 - where the only challenge from Di is that we use up our snippets, and that we behave ourselves in the playground :)

It's been a day of mixed weather here, this morning it was overcast and quite chilly - I know this because we went down to the big car boot sale and market at the racecourse and I had my hands in my pockets all the time just trying to keep them warm - but then the clouds disappeared this afternoon and the sun came out to play and it has been lovely ever since. Considering it usually rains for a bank holiday, this one is turning out to be a record breaker!

And what did we buy at the market - plants of course! A very pretty red million bells petunia for one of the two ornamental birdcages we have - in the other is a striking yellow and white striped one bought last weekend - and a tray of sweet alyssum to spot around the garden.

My plan for now is to make a start on a scrap page I've been intending to work on for quite a while now ... and I'm hoping to complete it too. Well, as I say, that's the plan ... as my daughter is fond of saying, we'll see :)

Hope your weekend is going as well as ours and that the weather has held up for you too.

Happy crafting,

Christmas Alphabet - Y for You and Z for Zero Temperatures

Evening Everyone,

Well, here they are, the last two cards in the Alphabet series. First up is Y for You.

This is for my sweetie. The digital stamp is another of those I coloured in with ProMarkers (sorry, once again I can't remember the colours) whilst on holiday in Wales. I really had no plans for it at the time, however, when I saw this paper, from Memory Box (in the pack included in the recently won blog candy from Jude) I remembered the image ... and it has all come together perfectly to make this card ... serendipitously, you might say :

My rediscovered B-C-E layering template has been pressed into service again to mat the image using a scrap of brown card and some of the co-ordinating paper. The same paper together with a second co-ordinating paper have been cut into strips and scalloped with a border punch to form the trims.

And that is about it - some glitter, gems, card candy and an embossed greeting finish the card off.

The trim is repeated inside and on the back just to finish it off.

Materials Used:

• Cardstock: Stampin' Up 12"x12" card, Whisper White, trimmed to make a 6" square card base; Neenah Solar Smooth white card for stamped topper; Papermania textured card, brown for matting
• Design Paper: Memory Cox 6x6 paper collection, Mistletoe
• Stamps: Digi Stamp Boutique, Henry & Zoe Xmas Kiss; Docrafts Penelope & Percy Christmas Greetings
• Tools: B-C-E Layering Template, Baby Nesties Square; X-cut scalloped border punch
• Sundries: ProMarkers; VersaMark; Sheena Wow EP, Burgundy Red Regular; Iridescent Glitter; Card candy, Vintage Berries red, Anita's tiny gems, red

The only snippet used in this card was the brown card in the matting, I wonder if  this qualifies for the snippet challenge? It does prove that even when I'm creating yet more leftovers I'm still trying to make something of a dent in the snippet mountain.  I'll let the lady herself decide by submitting it to:

Jules Crafty Snippet Challenge - Week 46

Last, but perhaps not least, here's the Z for Zero Temperatures card.

This shaped card was printed from Joanna Sheen's CD-ROM, Jane Shasky, From the Heart of the Garden, onto Neenah Solar smooth white card.

The front is decoupaged and embellished with Polar White Flower Soft, iridescent glitter, snowflakes punched from holographic mirri card, and Anita's gloss for the holly berries.

Although the finished card is A6 in size from the top of the red cardinal to the bottom, the inside is actually about half the size. To reduce the insert to fit I imported it into a graphic programme and re-sized it to fit the inside, then printed it onto copy paper.

The instructions on the CD-ROM do not include decorating the back but when the card was completed I was not happy with it. The back of the 'fence' was just white card and and, to my mind, did not look good so what to do? Well, what I did was to capture the front of the card using the snap tool in Adobe and import it into the graphic programme too. Once there, I was able to re-size and flip the image, then cut out and adhere it to the top half. If I were to make this card again, I would do this bit first before attaching it to the front ... having left it to the last, I had to nudge the bottom edge of the 'fence' down below the back - very fiddly!

The bottom half of back is simply decorated with part of an insert cut to size.
It might have taken twice as long to make as anticipated but it's a cute wee card and I love red cardinals ... I wish they came to live in this country during the winter as, with their vivid red colour, they are a pleasure to watch. However, I'm not sure what our very own little robin redbreasts would take kindly to such stiff competition in the colour department :)

So that's it - the Alphabet Series is complete for 2011 and, added to the one/two a week I've been making since Week 1 this year, I now have a sizeable stash of cards ready to send/hand out to family and friends - yeah!! I'm so pleased to have finished early this year because I can now concentrate on making some handmade gifts - there's 5 weeks left in which to do this ... hopefully, I'll be able to complete a few nice projects in that time.

In the meantime, the weekend is almost done, Russell has been voted off Strictly and we are left with the real contenders, and the lights were switched on in Ayr tonight ... and I missed it :(  I hope you have all had a wonderful weekend, and if you haven't, I hope tomorrow is a better day for you.

Take care everyone and happy crafting,