Christmas Alphabet - A for Angel

Hi Folks,

It's that time of the year again ... 26 days of thrills and spills as I endeavour to keep up with the challenge, hosted by Ginny (aka AsIdoRos) on the Craft Talk Forum on Docrafts, and produce a card a day using the alphabet for inspiration.

This was another super quick card make. It wouldn't have been had I not realised that the one I started to make on Saturday was wrong ... why, because I'd stamped up and coloured in a fairy ... that's F for Fairy ... not A for Angel! Soooo, when I got home from our Sunday trip out, made a fuss of Bonnie to make up for neglecting her all day, watched Downton Abbey (of course) and looked at the challenge again, I realised my mistake :( And what do you do when your running out of time ... yep, you dash to your stash :)  And, with very little deliberation indeed, you take a white A4 sheet of cardstock, fold it to form an A5 card, and then grab what's left of one of last year's DP packs, in this case Docrafts' Papermania's Silent Night A5 paper pack, and a fabulous topper from Crafty Individuals, Miniatures 'Merry Christmas', depicting an angel ... what a life-saver this pad is turning out to be!

Take four co-ordinating sheets of paper, one patterned with gold-foiling, a couple of edge punches, some beautiful ecru lace, a fabulous flower, one of my handmade stickpins, a favourite sentiment stamp and some gold embossing powder and there you have it - a pretty card made in double quick time.

Once again, as is my habit now, I've used the strips of leftover paper to decorate the inside and the back.

Materials used:

• Cardstock - 1 sheet of A4 white folded for A5 base
• DP - Papermania, A Silent Night A5 paper pack
• Topper - Crafty Individuals, Miniatures 'Merry Christmas'
• Stamping: Clarity Stamp, Christmas Wonder (No.50), VersaMark Ink Pad, Heat It Up Gold Embossing Powder
• Embellishments: Marianne Vintage Lace, ecru; Flower: BoBunny Precious Petals; Bead Stickpin - handmade

This is the second card I've made in super fast time recently ... it's only taken me about two years to get to this stage in my crafting development ... usually I deliberate and cogitate over every creation ... and I'm well chuffed with myself for doing it. That doesn't mean I will always create projects at speed ... I really do like taking my time and thinking carefully about what I'm doing ... but it does mean I know I can when  the need arises, like now, when I need to be making the B is for ... card  :)

Happy crafting to you all,

Santa's Coming ...

... Santa's Coming ... no nothing to do with a certain popular drink firm, not even red and white, but blue and white this time. This is a going to be a quick post tonight.

Edited photo - no glare from flash

A quick card in fact. I haven't had much time so I riffled through my scraps, stash and bits and pieces and came up with this card. Apologies for the glare on the photo ... photographing at night is not conducive to good quality pics, especially if the image is stamped onto Claritystamp card which has a shiny finish to it. I'll post a better one tomorrow when I get the chance. I experimented and kept the colouring, with ProMarkers, to a few shades of blue and some fairly neutral colours - and I think it has worked well. Had I had more time I think I could have made a better job but it does prove that I can make a card in super quick time when needed :)

Materials used: White cardstock for base and embossed trim; Claritystamp white A6  matt-coated Postcards; Paper Cellar, Traditional Christmas DP; Crafty Individuals Stamp, CI-327; Promarkers for colouring - Pastel Blue, Powder Blue, Denim Blue; Ivory, Pastel Beige, Sandstone; Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Black Soot, Stormy Sky; Memento Tuxedo Black; Punched white snowflakes, blue seam binding and blue card candy embellishments.

I said it was going to be quick - hoping I'm still in time to submit it to the following:

CHNC - Week 41 Challenge - House or Home theme. Whew! Skidding in by the seat of my pants again, Hazel :)

Jules Crafty Snippet Challenge - Week 40 - plenty of snippets went into this card, the embossed trim, for example, and the snowflakes are made from the smallest of snippets; even the image had been stamped onto a leftover piece of card so I'm sure it must qualify.

Edit Note: Since posting I've added an insert and decorated the back of the card - it felt unfinished somehow. And, I've taken some marginally better shots - no glare from flash! Here's the insert and the back.

Happy Crafting,

Monday Card Class - Snowy Scene Card and a Small Treat Box

Evening All,

Another post ... just trying to catch up on all the projects I've been making recently.

We had two very nice projects to make again this Monday.

All materials are supplied by Stampin' Up demonstrator, Evelyn. Not sure what the embossing folder is called but I do know that the colour of the card base and reindeer is Cherry Cobbler, the embossed mat is Whisper White and the trees are stamped in Old Olive ink.

To make: the embossed mat was adhered to the base, then a piece of card was torn to form a hilly appearance and then glued to the bottom edge of the embossed card and glitter glue was applied to the torn edges. The two sizes of trees were stamped on to white card three times, then cut out and glued together to form the tree shape, which was then, in it's turn, glued to the card. A thin strip of brown card was cut to make the tree trunks. The reindeer was punched out and stuck to the card too. A gem was adhered to the top of each tree and on to the reindeer's nose ... it must be Rudolph :)  A greeting was stamped was the final addition to the card.

Once again the materials were supplied by Evelyn, and the card was already die-cut for me ... making it very easy to construct. The colour of the card is Baja Blue with Whisper White for the trim and labels. Once folded the box came together quite easily and I can see it being just the thing for a lot of occasions - Christmas, weddings, birthdays, etc. It's big enough to put a couple of chocolates in, or one of the over-sized Quality Street chocs, some Hershey's Kisses or those gorgeous peanut flavoured chocs ... forget the name but I tasted them when I was at college in the States, or even a little piece of jewellery perhaps - the possibilities are endless :)

I'm really enjoying attending this class from 10am to 12pm each Monday morning so if there is anyone out there, living in Ayr area, who would like to join in the fun I'm sure Evelyn would be delighted - you can contact her through her blog - see link above. Come along and join in the fun.

And to finish off, had to show you this lovely prize I won in Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge last week.

Aren't these great - love Core'dinations card so I am going to have fun making projects with these. It's very generous of Hazel to offer this prize and I am very lucky to have had my name drawn. So, many thanks to you Hazel, I couldn't be more delighted.

A short post this time because it's past time I was in my bed - and I'd better hurry before Bonnie starts nagging like she did when I was putting together my WOYWW post in the wee small hours ... she was not amused at me being up so late!

Happy Crafting to you all,