Week 6 Christmas Card featuring Noelle Bearing Gifts

Good Afternoon to Everyone,

This little beauty didn't make it into the Alphabet Series - you may remember my struggles last year to complete the 26 cards before Christmas. So when Hazel of Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge (CHCC) challenged us to use something digital in our card this week, Noelle Bearing Gifts from Mo's Digital Pencil seemed perfect for the job, especially as she was already printed off and coloured in with Promarkers.  Here she is in close-up:

Cute or what? She now has the addition of iridescent glitter on her hat and coat - well, a girl can never have too much glitter. She's been matted and layered onto white card embossed on my Cuttlebug and a dark red card. The trees on the design paper from Docrafts - Papermania's Festive Frolic 6x6 collection -went well with her coat I thought. The embellishments came from my stash - if I remember rightly the red label was bought at WH Smith, and the red/white bakers twine from The Ribbon Girl. The back and inside got the usual decorative treatment and the greeting is recycled  - yes, still doing my bit for the planet!



Materials used:
1. Cardstock: white for base and embossing; red for matting
2. Design Paper: Papermania's Festive Frolics from Docrafts
3. Image: Digital stamp, Noelle Bearing Gifts from Mo's Digital Pencil coloured with Promarkers and blinged up with iridescent glitter.
4. Embellishments: red/white bakers twine from the Ribbon Girl; recycled greeting, red label, gift box topper from stash.

These photographs were taken at night with the assistance of my new Ottlite - a present from my DH who took pity on me when he saw I was struggling to take photographs in the poor winter light. Love this lamp - it's portable so I can take it with me wherever I go - brilliant!

Despite having the stamp all coloured up and waiting I didn't finish the card in time for Hazel's challenge this week but I've put it in as my Week 6 entry to Snowflake's Christmas Card challenge on Docrafts. 

I've still got the finishing touches to put to the wedding tag I started at the beginning of the week but hope to complete today and I did make a birthday card for my wee grandson who will be twelve the day after Valentine's Day but I won't post any photos of it until after his birthday - he sometimes takes a peek at gran's blog.

Time for a cup of tea I think.

Less is More - Challenge #1

Good Afternoon on this wet and miserable day to you all,

A second post from me today. This time it's the card I mentioned in my previous post. Now, people who know my style will agree when I say I could never be accused of doing 'clean and simple' cards but when the new "Less is More" challenge was launched I decided I had to get in on the act somehow!

So above is my first attempt at a CAS card to enter for the challenge. The theme is 'black, white and pink' - the emphasis being on the 'white'. There's definitely lots of white and a lot less black and pink. Because of the poor quality of my photography the pink looks pretty scary, in reality it is a lot more delicate.

Materials used:

• Cardstock: 3.5" x 8" white card base
• Ink pads: 2 x different shades of pink ink pads; black ink pad
• Stamps: Flourish Spray by Hero Arts and 'thanks' and the butterfly trail by Stampin' Up
• Embellishments: 3 x pink self-adhesive flat-backed pearls

I did another card, a birthday card, but I had real problems photographing both these cards so chose the clearest. Here's the birthday card.

As you can see the colours look all washed out in this blurred photo (no happy medium with my photographic efforts!). My DH has ordered an Ottilite for me and I hope it will enable me to take better results taking photographs. It should be here next week and I can't wait to try it out.

Having done this I'm off to take a trip round the WOYWWers desk - well, as many as I can manage today.

WOYWW - Week 88 + A Wedding Tag

Good Morning WOYWWers,

I can't believe we are here at another What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday again!

I stood on a chair to take this photograph this morning - thought it would show more, and it does. I can see the handle of my Purple Cow guillotine peeking out from under the worktop. Love this piece of equipment. I bought it because I was having real problems cutting straight with my trimmer and problem solved.

I'm working on a wedding tag so practically all the stuff on my desk is for this project - you can see the beginnings of it in the centre of the photograph. The Pink Petticoat image is lying on top waiting to be glued in place. I've pulled out a selection of stamps to choose from, an ink pad, bottle of Stickles, the tag template I use,  and a box of gems. Missing from this picture are the flowers, charms and fibres that will also go on the tag - there's nothing minimal about my tags : )

To the right you can just see a spiral bound notebook - I intend using this as an art journal. Well, that's the intention but I never seem to get round to actually putting anything in it so I've deliberately placed it there as a permanent thorn in my side! On top is some die cuts of a cat and lamp post I'm thinking of using on a card. And, you can just see in the background my attempt at a clean and simple card which I hope to submit to the newly launched "Less is More" challenge site where the colour requirement this week is black, white and pink.

For the curious and to give you an idea of what the wedding tag will look like, in true Blue Peter fashion, here is one I did earlier.

front

back

This one was made for DH's nephew's wedding in October last year in England - so the bridegroom in the image is wearing a suit.  The one I'm working on now is for my sister Margaret's physiotherapist and as it's for a Scottish wedding the bridegroom is wearing the kilt.   

If, for some reason, you don't know what the WOYWW thing is, it's a huge snoop fest hosted by the keeper of the desks, Julia, on her blog Stampin Ground and you can join in the fun here. It's a huge blog hop where you get to see what other bloggers worktops/desks/dining tables/cubbyholes look like on a Wednesday morning. Once again I have to apologise to those of you whose desks I didn't get too - I did try my best and got around about two-thirds of you last week but time ran out on me. I will try to do better this week. 

Edited Note: It occurred to me after receiving a number of comments that you might like to know the size of the tags. They are quite large, measuring 6.5" (16.5cm) long and 3.5" (9cm) wide, so wouldn't really make a gift tag. However, they make a great keepsake.