Christmas Card Club - Card 22/2019 - Penguins or Polar Bears

Evening Everyone,

It's been quite a while since I last posted. I wish I could say I'd been doing something really exciting - touring the Highlands or climbing Ben Nevis, for example - but sadly not. Instead, I can only blame life - it just got in the way.  And it's been difficult to find time to make cards but I did squeeze in a few hours today, so here's what I've managed to make for the Christmas Card Club challenge. Today the theme, chosen by Shaz, is 'penguins or polar bears'. As you can see I opted for penguins.

The penguin chick is too cute and looks disappointed to be offered holly leaves instead of fish, don't you think?

Supplies used:

- a white A6 card base

- cardstock: white for embossed layer and penguin; black for layering and penguin; grey for baby penguin chick; red for greeting

- embellishments: tiny black and white pearls from Craft for Occasions

Tools used:

- die-cutting machine 

- die sets: Docrafts' Spiro Circles, 'Snowflake Penguins' from Apple Blossom and 'Modern Merry Christmas' - a Mini Moments from Tonic Studios

- embossing folder: 'Congrats' set from American Crafts

After watching the first episode of 'Seven Worlds, One Planet' on TV last night, I have renewed respect for these brave creatures so was delighted to bring out this cute penguin die set today.

There's only three more challenges for the Christmas Card Club left in this year and I'm pleased to say I have, by now, built up quite a stock of cards. It's been well worth participating in the challenge along with the others this 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 me.

Birthday Card - Loads of Fun

Hello Everyone,

Another scheduled post for you today. I'm still in the Highlands visiting lots of Scottish Castles so not around for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. Instead I'm sharing a card made for my little great-grandson who celebrates his second birthday this week.

I found the topper while I was sorting through some scrapbooking stickers and thought it would be just perfect for a little boy who is loads of fun to be with.

Supplies used and how I made the card:

- a pre-made white card base measuring 7" x 5" - landscape orientation
- dark brown cardstock for base layer. It's a piece recycled from a studio photo mount... similar to these pictured here: 

The photo is now in an album so it seemed a shame to waste a such a lovely source of free card.
- a piece of Kraft card I'd already embossed using the Hessian Textures Artist Collection folder (Crafter's Companion) cut to fit the brown card leaving a small margin on three sides only.
- the sticker from BoBunny, matted on to a snippet of yellow textured cardstock (Papermania). I trimmed the yellow card to just a tiny bit larger than the sticker to create the mat. 
- I found the letters already cut and ready in a bag that dates from a year or two ago - so long I don't remember cutting them. I think the die used was this one:

There's no maker's name on it - the only hint as to the font is the word 'Rome' in tiny print top left corner.
- the number two is from this big bag of fun foam numbers from Go Create Essentials (The Works). 

I think I have enough numbers to make cards for my great-grandchildren for many years to come.

Hope you are still having a wonderful week in my absence.

Embossed Birthday Card

Evening,

I have this little card to share with you today.

It was made by dipping into that box of embossed scrap - part of the sort out operation I've been working on for weeks, see it in this previous post.

Supplies used:

• a pre-made white card base, measuring 5¾" x 4¼" - landscape orientation.
• cardstock - rose pink Coordinations card and aubergine Textured Cardstock from Papermania. 
• embossing folder -  Folksy Circle (Sizzix). 
• Happy Birthday die - from China  
• aubergine satin ribbon to tie around the top of the card.

Just a quick post this evening. I'm still busy preparing for the holiday - just a few more sleeps and we'll be on our way.

Take care,

Rudolph Day Cards - April

Hi Everyone,

It's Operation Craft Room Sort Out here, hence the absence of posts recently. It's surprising just how much time it is taking me to sort through all the shelves and drawers. I think I could be some time. Anyway, I decided to take a break today and make a few cards for this month's Rudolph Day Challenge over at ScrappyMo's where anything goes as long as it's Christmas themed.

Here are the cards I made.

I had a good rummage through the scrap box to make the first two cards and the topper on the second is one of many pieces of scrap card I embossed recently. The toppers on the last two are recycled from cards received last Christmas that I thought far to nice to throw away.

I'm submitting the second card to Pixie's Snippet's Playground - snippets of paper patterned paper and green cardstock used.

Well, that's my day off over and it will be back to Operation Sort Out tomorrow. Sigh. I'll be back ... eventually!

Have a great week.

What's On Your Workdesk - Wednesday 410

Good Morning!

It's Wednesday and that means I'm joining our WOYWW Head Desker Julia over at the Stamping Ground and, like so many of our fellow deskers, showing what's on my workdesk this morning.

A wider view this week. There's not been much change in the last seven days. The embossing/die-cutting machine is smaller. Off to the left side, out of shot, is the basket of leftover card scraps and centre back is the new box of embossed scraps - last week's job done! That box is three pieces lighter now that I've made a few cards - as can be seen on yesterday's post. I know, it's obvious, all I've accomplished so far is to shift a mountain of cardstock to another, albeit embossed and therefore a more usable mountain ... anyway, that's what I'm telling myself. There's still an awful lot of scraps left in the basket which explains the contents of the other box at the back. Part of my die collection - mainly small ones that will go through the Sapphire. Those scraps are now being turned into die-cut embellishments. Well, that's the grand plan but examination of the wee black basket shows I've not made much headway. I'm far too easily distracted! The stamps, enamel dots and card blanks were used in the making of the aforementioned cards. Far back left are boxes of scrap supplies and far right are the trays of disgrace, the dumping ground for all sorts of bits and bobs - I will clear them out one day, just not today!

Here's a close up showing my total dedication to the task. I now have well-developed upper right arm muscles!

The leftover scraps of card. Wish I'd taken a before shot but I think you can assess just how big the stash mountain was from these two photos.

So that's my desk today. Will it have changed much next week? I'm making no promises - it's Easter and I could be distracted. It certainly won't change much today because I'm going to be desk hopping and commenting as much as possible. I did try last week but Blogger was having a tantrum and not letting me leave comments!!! Happily, it seems to have sorted itself out now -  of course toes and fingers are crossed as I type this.

Have a happy day and a wonderful holiday weekend,

Snippet Cards - Tulips

Hi Everyone,

I hope you've had a lovely Tuesday. After a warm and sunny weekend it has turned very chilly here in Ayrshire. I think the wind must be coming directly from the North Pole! Hopefully it's temporary but it has put a stop to the gardening for now. Still, it has given me time to catch up on the much neglected housework, and when I'd done as much of that as I could bear I beat a retreat to the craft room to finish of the dry embossing project I've been working on since last Wednesday.

Instead of having a basket of cardstock scraps I now have a box of embossed scraps all waiting to be used on cards and/or scrapbook pages.

I created the following three cards all featuring toppers made with a lovely tulip design,

Supplies used:

• card base - A6 white card from The Range
• cardstock - smooth blue, textured cream and satin finish pink, all from my stash of scraps 
• embossing folder - Darice Spring Tulips
• stamps -  Sincere Sentiments which came free with an issue of Cardmaking & Papercraft. 
• inks - Memento Danube Blue, Versacolor 54 Brown, Stazon Jet Black. 
• enamel dots - blue,from Docrafts Denim Blue, cream from Simple Stories The Story of Us, pink from Echo Park Petticoats & Pinstripes.

As can be seen, the design is pretty simple. Just a white card base, the embossed panel, a stamped greeting and enamel dots for embellishment, but that's three more cards tucked away to be used when needed.

I think the tulips are perfect for this time of the year, just when my garden is full of them.

It's late so I'll wish you a very goodnight and a happy day tomorrow.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - WOYWW Week 409

Hi Everyone,

Late again for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday over at Julia's Stamping Ground! Our Internet was iffy earlier, it kept going off and on - such a pain! We also needed to switch everything off while an electrician fitted a new alarm - not such a pain. He did a really neat job. All this meant I had to find something else to do - i.e. apart from housework - and I did.

Embossing with the Grand Calibur. Repetitive but fun. This job has been on my to-do list for way too long so I decided this morning was the perfect opportunity to get out the basket of card scraps, my stash of underused embossing folders and the equally underused GC. It's not riveting stuff but that box of embossed cardstock should come in very useful for cardmaking. I think I might move on to die-cutting next.

I've made a wee bit of progress on the embroidery project. That's triple blanket stitch I'm working on at the moment.

And that is all I have to report this week.

Hope you've had a very happy WOYWW and here's to a great crafty week ahead.