Final Christmas 2016 creation ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week was a good one and you are surrounded by those that you love, whether they be family or friends, and have a wonderful Christmas season. I am hoping that when I publish this post it will mean that we are with my family giving our wee niece a lovely cuddle lol! I have my final 2016 Christmas creation to share with you today and here it is …

A final gift bag

Apologies for the photographs - I didn't have time to check them

I do love this bauble stamp!

A final look

This bag was created because I thought it would be a great way to use up snippets and I wanted to experiment a little with my Spectrum Aqua pens. It turns out that if you are quick, really quick, you can stamp once onto vellum, then again and then a final third time and that’s why my baubles are ombre in look. I also made sure I had my detail embossing powder to hand as I learnt that if you stamp onto vellum it stays wet long enough for you to stamp more than once and to add embossing powder: chuffed! This year I’ve learnt that I need to finish my Christmas cards as I make them and I need to create more Christmas tags and Christmas gift bags too. I had to spend most of yesterday adding inserts and there’s other things I’d rather be doing lol!

I will be checking my email between now and the New Year but I may be missing from blogging until January 1^st when I have a blog post ready and waiting to go. So if I don’t have time to visit you all I wish you the happiest and bestest of Christmasses!!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment. I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Penny Black bauble stamp

Miscellaneous Tools:

Heat tool

Supplies

Card Paper:

Sheena Douglass white stamping card

Brown Kraft bag

Snippets: glitter card; vellum; patterned paper

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Aqua pen set: Nature

Clear detail embossing powder

Embellishments:

Robins courtesy of Miss Pixie

Ribbon courtesy of the lovely Carol

Bling mesh, brads & skinny ribbon my old stash

The Ribbon Girl: 10mm jingle bells

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape

Final family Christmas card ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well. Thankfully I had finished all the cards last weekend but it’s taken me a while to get them photographed and blogged. I still have wedding invites to finish though, grr, keep your fingers crossed for me my lovelies. Anyways here is this years final family Christmas card …

Another large, 20cm square, card

Thankfully it's being hand delivered!

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

 CountryView Crafts Challenge Christmas

CraftyCardmakers Challenge Christmas

Die Cut Divas Challenge Layers or Layer It

Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge #86 Part One Cards & Anything But Cards

Pixie’s Snippets Playground Challenge #260/261 

TheRibbon Girl Challenge December Any Image Challenge

UnstampaBelles Challenge Flickering Lights & Happy Faces

This year, unusually, I made my Mister’s Christmas card first because there have been several years where he has gone without a card because I run out of time and I was determined that wasn’t going to happen this year. Now this card was a last minute make when I realised that I had, erm, forgotten someone from my list. She is now only seven months old and we know she won’t remember her first Christmas but I just had to create a Christmas card for our Niece. Because my arms and shoulders are hurting and because I really wanted to enter a couple of challenges in particular I chose to: print an image; use the rest of the Christmas and foliage die cuts; and to bust a couple of card snippets. Result lots of little itty bitty die cutting and a card that I think our little one will like when she is a little older: there is something so cute about mice decorating a Christmas tree lol!

I am hoping to catch up with all my lovely friends once we are at my brothers, so apologies for not visiting anyone much for the last few weeks. I really will breathe a sign of relief once we get to their home and once the invites are complete too. That will also mean that I get more time to visit as well creative play too, yes I am taking some supplies with me as we know we have Boxing Day to ourselves and me and mine can kick back and relax and to relax I need to journal or colour lol! Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment. I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Computer and printer

Pussy Cat Dreams image

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature Contemporary Christmas: Merry Christmas

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature Together Forever: Graceful Swirl

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature Floral Delight: Pretty Petals; In Bloom

Tim Holtz Thinlits Sizzix die set: Mini Holiday Greens die set

Winnie & Walter: Happy cutaway die

Miscellaneous Tools:

Paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

Sheena Douglass white stamping card

300 gsm card

Craftwork Cards patterned paper (old)

Snippets: Kraft card; purple pearl card; Sheena Douglass white card coloured with AquaTints & Pebeo Dyna Iridescent acrylic paint

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Essentials

Dyna Iridescent Green Blue and Blue Green

Embellishments:

The Ribbon Girl: 10mm Jingle Bells; Ruby Red Liquid Pearls; Platinum Stickles Glitter Glue

Ebay wooden Christmas embellishments

Twine from my stash courtesy of a lovely friend

Adhesives/Mediums:

Cosmic Shimmer Texture paste; Pinflair Dimensional glue; Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape; fun foam

Sixth family Christmas card and a big Oops ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well. The title of today’s post is Oops, lol, and that’s because I really shouldn’t keep white acrylic paint and glitter near to where I am creating. Suffering from Fibromyalgia means that sometimes my arms and hands twitch or even worse spasm, spasms are often really painful, and I just couldn’t bear to bin this card as it has taken much practice and many attempts to create an aurora sky like this ...

Another big one, the last thankfully lol!

Good to post

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

A Vintage Journey Challenge Winter Magic

Country View Crafts Challenge Christmas

Crafty Boots Challenge Winter Wonderland

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge Christmas optional twist of non traditional: my sky

Die Cut Divas Challenge Layers or Layer It

Dies R Us Challenge #63 Snow 

Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge #86 Part One Cards & Anything But Cards

Scrapy Land Challenge #56 Let it Snow: Crafters Companion & Sizzix dies

Another attempt at creating a Northern Lights skies using my Distress re-inkers and Clarity stamps. Once again I created the sky by adding a layer of clean water to the white stamping card so the inks move freely. I added neat ink, I had put it in my palette, I just dropped the neat ink onto the wet card and used my paintbrush to move that ink. Once I had the colour and look I wanted I heat set them for a long time. I wanted to stop the ink from bleeding because I was going to stamp the larch trees and the reindeer and I wanted some snow on that bottom third as well as some texture paste and sparkles.

That was when I had an Oops, with a capital ‘o’. I knocked over an open pot of white acrylic paint. I was heartbroken as I think this sky is my best attempt at those Northern Lights, grrr, anyways I decided not to waste that sky so I brushed the white paint around the trees and reindeer which meant I’d created a snow scene. I left that to dry before adding texture paste and some glitter, and the glitter was the next oops moment, it’s a wee bit more sparkly than I meant it to be.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment. I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn xx

Tools

Stamp:

Claritystamp Ltd: tree stamp (cabin in the woods set); large larch tree (larch trees & deer set)

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Tim Holtz Thinlits Sizzix die set: Mini Holiday Greens

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature Contemporary Christmas: Merry Christmas

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; heat tool; paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

Sheena Douglass white stamping card

300 gsm card

Snippets: Spectrum AquaTints coloured card for die cutting some of the berry branches

Snippets: Pebeo Dyna Iridescent acrylic paint coloured snippets for die cutting the sentiment and top fir

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Tim Holtz Distress Re-Inker: Mowed Lawn; Peeled Paint; Dusty Concord; Red Barn

Spectrum Aqua pens: Nature set for stamping the trees and reindeer

Pebeo: white acrylic paint; Dyna Iridescent Green Blue and Blue Green

Ranger Liquid Pearls: Ruby Red

Embellishments:

Christmas Tree; Glitter; Jingle Bell; Twine; all from my stash

Cosmic Shimmer: Glitter Jewels Clips

Adhesives/Mediums:

Cosmic Shimmer Texture Paste; Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape

Fifth family Christmas card ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend was good and your week has started well. I’ve been playing with several of my older stamps and here is the end result …

Another large card, 20cm square

I had to keep this one flat too as it has to go in the mail

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

 Addicted-to-Stamps Challenge #138 snowflakes with a stamp

Christmas at Sweet Stampin’ Challenge Inspired by Carol/Song: Silent Night

Claritystamp Challenge Carol Singing & Christmas Joy:

I was inspired by my favourite Christmas Carol which is Silent Night

Country View Crafts Challenge Christmas

Craft Stamper Magazine Challenge Christmas

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge Christmas optional twist of non traditional: my sky

Sweet Stampin’ Challenge Christmas Tree: you can just see them under the snow!

The Ribbon Girl Challenge December Any Image Challenge

I really, really wanted to create an aurora night sky with a snow scene and there is plenty of both of them on this card lol! I used my Spectrum Noir AquaTints to try and create the look of an aurora sky. It’s not quite how I envisaged it but the one thing I have learnt is that my Christmas cards don’t always have to be perfect but they do have to be finished and posted.

I started out wetting the top two thirds of the card and then added lines of AquaTints. Luckily I had started to create this last thing so I left it to dry overnight. The next day I used my Spectrum Aqua pens to colour the fir tree stamps before stamping them in position. I used a damp paintbrush to drag the colour inwards. I did the same with the larch tree and deer stamps. It was at this point that I decided I wanted the trees and the foreground to be covered in snow. I grabbed my white acrylic paint and carefully painted around the trees and deer and left it to dry. The next step was that I wanted some shimmer and shine on the snow so I grabbed my Cosmic Shimmer Texture Paste and applied that here and there, not all over lol! I also added a little of the Cosmic Shimmer glitter chips too – they sparkle so beautifully I could not resist. Because this card has to go in the post I kept the embellishments minimal again and didn’t layer up with any fun foam.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment. I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Claritystamp Ltd: larch tree & deer set; tree stamp (cabin in the woods set)

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature Contemporary Christmas: Merry Christmas

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature Together Forever: Graceful Swirl

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; heat tool; paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion Sheena Douglass white stamping card

300 gsm card

Pearl and printed background card from my stash

Snippets: white card coloured with Pebeo Dyna Iridescent acrylic paint for die cutting

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: bright & beautiful; primary; grunge

Spectrum Noir Aqua pens: Nature

Pebeo: white acrylic paint; Dyna Iridescent Green Blue and Blue Green

Embellishments:

Cosmic Shimmer: Glitter Jewels Chips

Christmas Tree & Resin Bubble from my stash

Twine from a friend

Adhesives/Mediums:

Cosmic Shimmer Texture Paste; Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape

Fourth Family Christmas Card ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your weekend is going well.  I grabbed some of my older stamps to create another family Christmas card, and this one has to go in the post, and here it is …

An A5 winter scene

It's not going to be expensive to post either

The Kraft card was perfect for the background and scene

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

A Vintage Journey Challenge Winter Magic

Choux Choux Paperart Challenge Visions of Sugarplums

Country View Crafts Challenge Christmas

Craft Stamper Magazine Challenge Snow & Ice

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge Christmas optional twist of non traditional: my sky

Scrapy Land Challenge #55 Anything Goes: I used a Crafter’s Companion die

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge Let it Snow

Southern Ridge Trading Chipboard Challenge Christmas

The Ribbon Girl Challenge December Card Challenge

I wanted to create a card with a snowy winter and not a black night sky and I wanted to add a chipboard house too. I have no idea why but that was what popped into my head when I realised I needed to create a card that wasn’t going to cost a bomb to post. I painted the scene using my Distress re-inkers before stamping the pine trees in the background and the large Larch tree in the foreground. I left the sky to thoroughly dry before I painted the grass/field. Once that was done I painted my chipboard house and fence with acrylic paints. Because there is a gap where the window and door are I realised I needed to back the house so I used a snippet of white card that coloured using my Distress ink pads tapped onto a tile to paint with.

Once everything had dried I attached the house to the scene and then got a bit heavy handed with the Cosmic Shimmer texture paste I purchased before Christmas time last year as I wanted to add snow to a couple of my scenes (note to self is that once that it is opened I need to use it up). I applied the paste to the trees at the back, the larch trees and the roof then I added it to the front of the scene and added Cosmic Shimmer glitter jewel chips (got them from Country View Crafts and I love them) to make that snow look thicker and whiter – very very sparkly that is!

The sentiment was die cut from snippets and the Kraft card is a reject from the wedding invites. The background paper on this card is the last of my Making Cards magazine papers: singing Hallelujah right now because I finally those papers up! Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment. I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Claritystamp Ltd: tree stamp (cabin in the woods set); large larch tree (larch trees & deer set)

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature Contemporary Christmas: Merry Christmas

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; heat tool; paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion: Kraft card; Sheena Douglass white stamping card

300 gsm card

Snippets: white card for backing the chipboard house; Pebeo Dyna Iridescent acrylic paint coloured snippets for die cutting the sentiment

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Tim Holtz Distress Re-Inker: Broken China; Peeled Paint; Dusty Concord; Red Barn

Pebeo: white acrylic paint; Dyna Iridescent Green Blue and Blue Green

Adirondack IPs: espresso; meadow

Embellishments:

Christmas Tree & Twine from my stash

Cosmic Shimmer: Glitter Jewels Chips

Adhesives/Mediums:

Cosmic Shimmer Texture Paste; Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape

Third family Christmas card ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week was a good one and you have a fabulous weekend planned. I’ve been playing with a stencil, lots of lovely die cuts and a printed topper and here is the end result …

A large card for family, it's 20cm square

We're delivering this one so depth isn't an issue

All the yummy details

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Choux Choux Paperart Challenge Visions of Sugarplums

Country View Crafts Challenge Christmas

Penny Black Saturday Challenge Winter or Christmas

Scrapy Land Challenge #55 Anything Goes: I used Crafters Companion & Sizzix dies
Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge Let it Snow

Spectrum Noir December Facebook Challenge Anything Goes

The Ribbon Girl Challenge December Card Challenge

UnstampaBelles Challenge Flickering Lights & Happy Faces

I wanted to create a really special Christmas card for my brother and his partner Bethan this year as they are hosting Christmas. I really hope they like this as I had a lot of fun creating it and hope to make more like this in future. It has been a long time since I last created cards with printed toppers. This is going to be hand delivered so I knew I could add lots of depth, detail and more embellishments than I would if I had to post it lol! I also got to play a lot with one of the die sets that my lovely hubby let me purchase because they were a Black Friday deal, lol, I have a small pie of new stash to play with after the wedding invites are finished.

I attached the stencil to the card and used my Spectrum Aqua pens to outline the mistletoe and I went back with a damp brush to drag the colour out. I did the same to the mistletoe berries but I used my gold AquaTints to colour them. I printed the topper and attached that to a snippet of red pearl card and I distressed the edges. I also added Cosmic Shimmer Texture Paste to parts of the topper to give it a lovely snowy look. As that wasn’t quite bright or sparkly enough I added some more texture paste and glitter jewel chips were added to that before leaving it to dry. Then I used loads of differently coloured snippets as well as other card snippets to die cut multiple times. I used my Liquid Pearls to make the die cut berry branch berries red. I added Stickles here and there as well as some other bits and bobs and put the card together.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment. I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stencil:

Penny Black Mistletoe stencil

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature Contemporary Christmas: Merry Christmas

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature Together Forever: Graceful Swirl

Crafters Companion Sara Davies Signature Floral Delight: Pretty Petals; In Bloom

Tim Holtz Thinlits Sizzix die set: Mini Holiday Greens die set

Winnie & Walter: Happy cutaway die

Miscellaneous Tools:

Tim Holtz Distressing tool; heat tool; paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

Sheena Douglass white stamping card

300 gsm card

Snippets: red pearl card; Sheena Douglass white card coloured with AquaTints or Pebeo Dyna Iridescent acrylic paint

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Aqua pens: Nature set

Spectrum Noir AquaTints: Essentials

Dyna Iridescent Green Blue and Blue Green

Embellishments:

The Ribbon Girl: 10mm Jingle Bells; Ruby Red Liquid Pearls; Platinum Stickles Glitter Glue; mini pine cones; bark heart

Live & Love Crafts: white sisal

Tree is very old stash

Twine from my stash courtesy of a lovely friend

Adhesives/Mediums:

Cosmic Shimmer Texture paste; Pinflair Dimensional glue; Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape; fun foam

New stencil, an older stamp set ...

Hello my lovely friends and visitors, I hope your week is going well. I’ve been playing with my Spectrum Aqua pens, Colorista and Derwent pencils again, this time with a stencil lol, and here is the end result …

 

I have a few more Christmas cards to finish but it was nice to take a break

A final look

Created for me and especially for these Challenges

Simon Says Stamps Blog Work It Wednesday November 
Simply Papercraft Challenge  #42 Anything Goes

That’s Crafty Challenge Flower Power

The Pencil Case Challenge #34 Anything Goes

We Love 2 Create Challenge #25 Anything Mixed Media Goes

I was a little naughty over the weekend playing with a new stencil when I was supposed to be working on Christmas and DT cards, oh well I do get a bit desperate to play with new stuff when I shouldn’t be lol! I used my lovely Spectrum Aqua pens to draw the layout of the tulip heads before I added the stems and leaves. I applied several layers of watercolour drying the card thoroughly in between each layer. Once dry I went back in and added some more shadow and definition to the leaves and stems. Then I stamped the sentiment and I felt it needed a little more so I grabbed a purchased die cut flower and then I die cut a rolled flower and added that and I was happy lol!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and comment. I really do appreciate it and I hope you get some time to do what you love to do soon ttfn Karen x

Tools

Stamp:

Simon Says Stamp: BE sentiment set

Stencil:

Simon Says Stamp: Bouquet of Flowers stencil

Die Cutting Machine & Dies:

Cuttlebug die cutting machine

Marianne LR0163 Chinese Rose set

Miscellaneous Tools:

MISTI; heat tool; paintbrushes; water pot; paint palette

Supplies

Card Paper:

Crafters Companion: Kraft card; Sheena Douglass white stamping card

Snippet: for die cutting

EP Ink/Paint/Pen Colours:

Spectrum Aqua pens: Nature & Primary

Embellishments:

Craftwork Cards die cut flower

Adhesives/Mediums:

Collall all purpose glue; double sided tape; Washi tape