Sunday Stampers and more christmas cards

The Sunday Stampers theme this week is Black.... so I wanted to join in with my christmas card making and thought of how to make a black christmas card, it's not a very festive colour after all is it?

So I got my perfect pearls out cause gold is christmassy. And that's what I've come up with. I had to add some white in to give it a bit of contrast, I hope that's ok. I let Hels be the judge if it's worthy of the Sunday Stampers this week.





I also experimented with the same card design and made it up in a krafty coloured, distressed look. I do like them both actually.

And here is some more christmas cards...... yes, lots of christmas cards!!!

You can see I recently got the Wendy Vecchi christmas set and I am loving the tiny type background wishing you a merry christmas. It goes with everything!

Sanded and distressed christmas trees.....

Over on the Simon says stamps and show blog this weeks challenge is sading and distressing. And yes, Ihave made yet another christmas card!


I wanted to try out the new Tim Holtz embossing folder and stuck it in my bigshot with some core'dinations whitewash, Then afterwards sanded the embossed trees. It didn't quite stand out enough so I went over with some forest moss distress ink and I totally love the outcome. The stamped words are from my new darkroom door reindeer set. I liked this card so much I really wanna be able to offer it to buy so I must be able to produce lots of them. Yet I can't find the whitewash card in just green single sheets anywhere (any ideas?).





I made the card again just using green card and inking it, no sanding this time.
I lime this card too but in comparison the one with the whitewash card is much nicer.
This one on the right is less messy cause there is no sanding involved, it's therefore also quicker to make.

Maybe the trick is to not show anyone the top card and just offer this one to people. They will never know the other one was prettier.


Don't forget to check back on Friday, I will be adding some Maya Road to my candy. So sign up if you're not already! Check it out here.

CAS Christmas card .... Wee Memories Challenge

If you don't know what CAS means (I didn't before this challenge) it stands for Clean and Simple.
As I am still making christmas cards (and will be til the end of the year I guess) I was really keen to use my new Darkroom Door stamps and came up with the card on the right. I would say it is most certainly simple. It was so quick to make, unbelievable. I am worried it is too simple, but I just like it. It says everything it needs to say, clean lines, it's definitely a favourite of mine.
It is for the Wee Memories challenge and I shall pop over there now to enter it.
Laters!

I am adding more candy to my currently running candy later in the week, so spread the word if you haven't already and join in for a chance of winning!

I have Wendy Vecchi Art Parts, OMG ..... and the Stamp Man blog hop.....

Bit of a double post here. I have managed to get my grubby, inky hands on some Wendy Vecchi Art Parts..... and my boyfriend actually thought I've gone nut when I told him he will have to sleep in the spare room tonight cause I'll be cuddling up to my shiny new art parts. Men, they just don't understand!!!
Can't wait to get making with them, maybe tomorrow as it is craft day for me, but already have a fair few things planned so they may have to stay in their bags a little longer!!

Also, there is a fab blog hop happening over on The Stamp Man Challenge Blog, check it out. Some fab work to see during the hop and if you join in their Altered Challenge you can win cool prizes.

Grungy altered clock......

This clock started life as an Ikea mirror. I just took the mirror tile out, filled it with a square of foam board and then covered it with card. I took some inspiration from Wendy Vecchi and inked up 12 pieces of card with distress inks and used an array of background stamps on them. It's a bit like cutting a cake into 12 pieces, only here my 12 yummy pieces are inky bits of card.

Then each number is a flower and so is the centre. I wasn't too sure about the whole thing being square and I still think clocks should be round, but I wanted to finish it nevertheless. So I added some greenery round the edges, which makes it look real odd. But it's a piece of art and it's my art and I learnt from it and therefore it's worthy of hanging on my newly painted living room wall. From now on all my clocks will be round.

I am entering this into a few challenges.... the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge where we are getting grungy this week. Then there is the Stamp Man Challenge where we are altering things this week. And last but never least, the Artistic Stamper Challenge where this month the theme is rainbows.

SOS Challenge...... 30th Birthday Card.....

I rustled up this card the other day for the Wee Memories Challenge where the theme is SOS ... that's Scallops, Orange and String. I managed to incorporate all three of them. I think it's one of those layouts I'll be doing again and again.

Not long til christmas.... and another challenge entry....

This whole christmas card making has really got me into christmas mood, I wanna go and buy all the presents now!!! And I'm even baking some xmas biccies too. Help!!!

Here is some more xmas cards I made. Some better than others, but I enjoyed making all of them and as long as I learnt something or tried a new technique or layout everyone's a winner!

Below is the card I probably like the least, I like the idea behind it, the Maya Road frames and the almost Wendy Vecchi style but something went wrong in the making. Nevertheless, I'll show it to you here, it is for the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge where this week's challenge is using a grid in your design.

Another Christmas card....... CPS Card Sketches entry....

I think from now until christmas there will be nothing but christmas cards showing on my blog. Seems that way at the moment. So I am really enjoying card sketches of any kind at the moment, I need a little inspiration for different layouts for my christmas cards. So I'm joining in with CPS this week. I rotated the original sketch and made the background the main focal point, with just a small snetiment. With such a great background stamp though, that's all you need.

My first ABC Challenge entry......

Every week I find myself browsing the many challenge blogs and making notes of them so on mondays I'm ready to get making and joining in the fun challenges. Somehow I've never been able to come up with anything for the ABC challenge but this week D is for Distressing and that's right up my street. And to join in with my current mass-production of xmas cards and came up with this little card on the left.

The card is also joining in on the Stampman Challenge where the current theme is Distress.

I had them little reindeer for ages, my sister sent them to me. I only had 2 left though, so now she's on a mission to find some more, they are really nice and fluffy soft. Let's hope she finds some more.

Also, I have noticed that currogated kraft card is a little tricky to get hold of. I bought some on ebay before but none there now. And only found one online shop that sells it. Anyone know where I can get some?!

So anyway, as for the challenge entry, I distressed the red base card with ink and added a square of corrugated card, also distressed with ink and I really bent the edges and corners. The scallop circle are also coloured with distress ink. There you go. Another xmas card added to the pile.

Some awesome giveaways.....

In honour of Stephens 1st blogaversary he's is giving away this awesome lot of stuff when he reaches 100 followers. So go check it out HERE.

Congrats Stephen!!

And there is some more amazing stash to be had on the Scrap with Stacy blog. She is treating one lucky person to this package of yummy Tim Holtz goodies.

This will be open til 31st October.

Rusty Challenge Time.....

It is time for some more challenges. I've been working on this frame all week, you know a few minutes here and there, I was very busy at work but managed to squeeze in some crafting before and after work. So I have made this to enter 3 challenges.... first of all The Stampman Challenge where the theme is 'Distress', the Alter it monthly challenge with a 'Rusty' theme and last but not least the 'Distress' Challenge at Sir Stampalot.

I've been wanting to use some of the rusty knobs/keyholes/keys I bought at a market in Spain so I thought I combine them with some faux rust grungeflowers. Not sure you can see the rusty flowers very well in thr picture but they are done with distress embossing powder and then inked with distress inks. Very nice effect. I then went a bit crazy at adding lots of little things like punched flowers from metal sheet that I coloured with alcohol inks. Plenty of dangly bits from chains. Rusty snaps, also from a flea market. Some memo pins filled with beads. Grungepaper leaves, a crackled birdie. I just wanted it to look all old and grungy and rusty. I used a lot of Wendy Vecchi stamps on this, they are just fab for adding a pattern to chipboard and backgrounds.

So there you go..... yet another frame to be put on my living room wall, when the living room is freshly painted that is, my OH is currently re-painting rooms bit by bit.

I better be off to work.... ta da.

Christmas and Advent Calendars.......

I'm really getting into christmas mood now that I've started making christmas cards. And I have also started buying presents for my sister's advent calendar. It's become a bit of a tradition that we get each other a load of little pressies as an advent calendar. So I've started early and almost got all of hers, hehe. Also waiting for a parcel from my parents containing tons of yummy german gingerbread!!! Oh I like christmas, or maybe the months leading up to it. Anyway.... here is some christmas card creations....

Card Patterns Challenge entry.... and I'm finally in Christmas mood

It's been a while since my last Card Patterns entry so time to get back into it. And I have finally gotten myself motivated to make christmas cards, about time. Waiting for some christmas stamps orders to come in, although unfortunately one of them has been posted to my German address and I'm now waiting for them to come back to England via my parents. Shame, I was looking forward to them stamps the most. Will have to make do without them for another week or so.

So I rustled up this little card on the left there. Always wanted to try stamping into UTEE, it works really well, but doing 3 layers of UTEE resulted in my whole living room getting covered in the stuff. Thanks god for hoovers.
It's a fun technique and I'll be playing with it a bit more on monday!

Stampman ATC Swap - The Look

Another month, another Stampman ATC swap. This month's theme is THE LOOK. I just had to use this stamp of my mum as a young girl, I think it fits the theme perfectly. I inked up an ATC, stamped the image in black, then added the words and covered the whole thing in 2 layers of clear UTEE, it makes the colours so much more vibrant. I used a similar technique on one of the other 2 ATC's in this set, again the pictures wouldnt upload the right way up, I think this is a serious problem with the blogger software and needs to be addressed. Why cant they just add a 'rotate' function, after the pictures are uploaded you can rotate them whichever way. It would make such a difference.

I have also received my TIME Atc's from last month's swap, it's great getting little pieces of art in the mail, always makes my day!

Back from my blogaholiday with my first ever twinchie.....

I seem to have taken a bit of a blogaholiday, didn't mean to but there was a severe lack of crafted things to blog about as I've been busy working on one of my stamper of the year items. It's now almost finished and I'm busy thinking up item number 2. Hard work that is. Anyone else out there taking part?
I have also (finally) started making xmas cards, about time!!! I'll be posting some designs soon.

I have also made my first ever twinchie this week. It's for the craft stamper twinchie swap and I combined it with the Compendium of curiosities challenge, grungepaper flowers! You may not be able to tell from the upside down photo on the left, but I embossed the grungepaper. Not bad for a first twinchie I reckon.

Also having a very busy two weeks at work with kids cast change happening so plenty of rehearsals, so not much time to craft. Well, I'm off to bed now! Nitey! xxx

Stamper of the year ideas - to share or not to share ..... and more moleskine notebooks

I've not posted in days, maybe due to a lack of crafted things to show, although I did make a few. It's just one of those weeks I think. I'm 24/7 thinking about the stamper of the year competition and what to make and then I make things as a little test and they are just not right and then I have to start over again. Ahhhhhhh! Lucky I still got over a month!

On top of that work gets in the way of everything fun (as usual) and at the moment I seem to be glued to my computer looking at holidays and comparing hotels. Which isn't all that bad as I'll be going on holiday in October but it's so much hard work.

Anyways, so I've been playing with more moleskine notebooks again, stealing some ideas from my sister (after she stole the idea off me and I saw it in a magazine). It's just 3 decorated and stamped little notebooks, but it makes them look so much more attractive and I love the kraft colour as a plain canvas to play with.

They can also be found in my FOLKSY SHOP.

I have also made some other bits, but I'm unsure whether to share them or not as they are similar to what I'm planning to make for the competition, what is your thought on that? Are you worried about people stealing your ideas or not?!

Back to the desk to get on with some crafting!

xxx