Decking the Halls

Hi everyone. I hope you are all having a lovely weekend with plenty of crafting time to look forward too.  :-)

I have been busy with my Cardio Stamps and spent a happy afternoon a couple of weeks ago stamping out lots of images to make up in to some clean and simple cards.

The thing I like about this style of stamping is that you don't have to be precise and fading and irregularity all adds to the overall effect…in other words you really can't go wrong! It is really quite liberating to just let yourself go and just stamp away without having to worry about smudging or colouring something in wrong.

Here's one of the cards that i made using a couple of packs of stamps that I have. The owner of Card-io has inspired me with her use of black ink as a main colour this year as it really seems to tick a box in terms of cards that you could give to a man…something that I often stubble with (although why they don't like cute little bears, and whimsical little girls and boys, I really can't imagine!!)

If I am honest, this card probably took about 5 minutes to stamp out….instant gratification. Probably the longest part of the process was the matting and layering part, but I had a kind of manufacturing process for that and sat sticking together a bunch of cards together whilst watching something on TV, so the whole process was very relaxing.

I thought I would go ahead and enter a few challenges with this card, and here they are:

http://christmascardchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-52-inspiration-photo.html
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/welcome-to-pennys-challenge-205.html
http://cinspirations.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-291-seasons-greetings.html
http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-85.html
http://wedodoobadoo.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/29-nov-we-do-doobadoo-challenge-get.html

Thanks for stopping by today.   :-)

Sharon x

Humphrey Dressing Up

Hello everyone. Look what I found in the depths of my photo archive…a Christmas card from last year, as yet not blogged!

This is a card that I made for one of the little ones in my family, using the adorable Humphreys Corner stamps and a lovely traditional backing paper from Bearly Mine.

The colour on this is quite unusual for me as I rarely go for gold on my cards and the paper has a distinctlyVictorian Vintage feel…..again a step out of my usual comfort zone.

My cute littles Ellies in their dress up suits we both clouded with Spectrum Noirs so they are looking lovely and vibrant, and of course I couldn't resist throwing a splash of colour in there!

Hopefully I will have time to load up a few more recent Christmas efforts this weekend, but in the mean time I hope this one floats your Christmas boat  :-)

Here are some lovely challenges that I would like to enter today:

http://ribbongirls.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/november-colour-challenge.html
http://lovetocreatechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-142-make-it-for-christmas.html
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/pennys-challenge-202-and-challenge-203.html
http://thepapershelter.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-183-card-for-child.html
http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-84.html
http://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/crafty-calendar-november-challenge-its.htmlhttp://buckwellscraftychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/buckwells-crafty-challenge-2-use-ribbon.html

Thanks for visiting today.

Sharon

Keeping things simple…….

Today I thought I would post a very CAS card, focusing on a lovely…..and quite large Poinsettia stamp from Stamp Addicts.

This is a 6 x 6 card so you can see that the stamp is more than 3 inches wide - a focal point indeed.

So for this card I kept to the traditional flower colours and coloured this in using my promarkfers before layering the flower so that it stood a little proud.

The matting and layering couldn't be simpler really. I created the dotty background using one of my embossing folders and matted on to bright red card before adding a scrap of ribbon as a balancing accent.

So in summary - very clean and VERY simple!

Before I go, I would just like to enter a few challenges, and here they are:

http://polkadoodle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/week-46-clean-and-simple-polkadoodles.html
http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-83.html
http://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/crafty-calendar-november-challenge-its.html
http://buckwellscraftychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/buckwells-crafty-challenge-2-use-ribbon.html
http://christmascardsallyearround.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/hello-everyone-and-welcome-to-our.html
http://ribbongirls.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/november-colour-challenge.html
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/chnc-challenge-extra-for-november-2014.html
http://paulaholifieldcrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/albc-cas-or-clean-and-simple.html
http://a-crafty-mess.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/introducing-team_31.html
http://lovetocreatechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-142-make-it-for-christmas.html
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/welcome-to-pennys-challenge-204.html

Thanks for visiting today.

Sharon x

A little extra baggage

There are times when you just want to make something other than a card and as I managed to get my hands on some 6x6 plain white bags a few weeks back, I had it in mind that I would throw together a few gift bags.

This one was made using a gorgeous stamp from the Party Paws Xmas range  and my lovely Spectrum Noir pens.

The image is quite detailed and took a while to colour but not that hard to do as it turned out. I seem to have found a good batch of colours to colour black areas, which give the appearance of black without losing the contrast (it was a variety of shades from the IG range). I was a bit worried about colouring the tree but this turned out to be really easy in the end as I just used a light base colour to colour all over and the 'blobbed' a mid and dark shade here and there to get a bit of shading in.

You can also just about see a bit of sparkle in there - this was achieved using a Graph It glitter pen which has a very subtle sparkle.

As you can see, I went to town a bit with the dies on this one, and they were all cut from white card originally, before colouring them with my Spectrums to get a perfect colour match.

So that's my little gift bag which I hope you like :-)

I now have lots of lovely Christmassy challenges to enter and here they all are:

http://lovetocreatechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-141-anything-goes.html
http://cutiepiechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-81-festive-furry-friends.html
http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/2-or-4-legs.html
http://nutcrafters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-81anything-but-card.html
http://cinspirations.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-289-anything-goes-option-of.html
http://trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-285-13th-of-november-christmas.html
http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-83.html
http://wedodoobadoo.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-19-christmaswe-do-doobadoo.html
http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/week-285-anything-but-card.html
http://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/crafty-calendar-november-challenge-its.html
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/chnc-challenge-extra-for-november-2014.html
http://a-crafty-mess.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/challenge-2.html
https://www.facebook.com/SpectrumNoir?v=app_375772462579359&app_data=gaReferrerOverride%3D

Thanks for visiting me today and a happy Sunday to you all.

Sharon x

No Patterned Papers…..honest!

Well, since we are suddenly seeing lists of adverts containing snowy scenes and heart felt moments, there can be no denying that Christmas is on it's way, now that Halloween and Bonfire Night are over!

So of course most of my cards will be of a Christmassy nature and this one is no exception.

This card is made entirely out of stamp work using some small Denami Fern and Pine Cone stamps to create the backing layer and also the festive garland.

The stocking is from Stamp Addicts and I stamped and decoupaged it three times, to 'hang' them on the garland.

I have to say, stamping away very randomly with the little stamps is really fun and you quickly see a pattern building up so it is very rewarding - I highly recommend it!

In line with the coming season there are some great Christmas challenges out there, so here are some that I would like to enter today.

http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/anything-goes.html
http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/challenge-82.html
http://a-crafty-mess.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/challenge-2.html
http://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/crafty-calendar-november-challenge-its.html
http://christmascardsallyearround.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/hello-everyone-and-welcome-to-our.html
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/chnc-challenge-extra-for-november-2014.html

Thanks for visiting today.

Sharon x

Anything But Square at Crafty Little Fairies

It's time for a new monthly challenge over at Crafty Little Fairies and this month our theme is Anything But Square.

My first thought was to make a circle card but, as I do that quite often, I thought I would do something a little different and I came up with this instead.

How do you like the cute die? I am sure my blogging friend and prior team leader for Crafty Little Fairies would approve as it contains two of her favourite things - Penguins and a Snowman! This lovely stamp is from HobbyArt and it's really fun to colour...a great way to practice a bit of 'white' colouring!

I have gone a bit mad with my dies for this card, cutting two types of trees a variety of snow flakes and a tag, but sometimes you've just got to load them on haven't you?

Well I hope you enjoyed my 'not so square' card and that you will come over to Crafty Little Fairies and join us for our latest challenge.

And on the subject of challenges, here are a few that I would like to enter:

http://squirrel10.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/its-snow-vember.html
http://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/crafty-calendar-november-challenge-its.html
http://buckwellscraftychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/buckwells-crafty-challenge-2-use-ribbon.html
http://catchthebugblog.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2014-11-02T06:00:00-05:00&max-results=20
http://ribbongirls.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/november-card-challenge.html
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/chnc-challenge-extra-for-november-2014.html
http://cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/dt-call-and-anything-goes.html
http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/anything-goes.html


Thanks for visiting, everyone!

Sharon x

Lacy Sunshine…..a little bit Downton Abbey!

I have only seen a few minutes of Downton Abbey here and there, but this image from Lacy Sunshine very much makes me think of this era.

When I was a child I was very much in to clothing through the ages. My Great Aunt had given me a wonderful book full of pictures and I decided to use that subject as a project at school. I had such a lovely time picking gorgeous dresses to draw from the book and describing them in enormous detail!

Needless to say I still love the look of those dresses today and I guess that's why this digi appeals to me so much.

I was lucky enough to receive this digi for free as I participated in a card exchange last year via Lacy Sunshine on Facebook, so I now know that one of my cards made it all the way to a lady in the USA…..such a nice feeling to know that!

I really wanted to show off the lovely image for this card so the rest is really simple. I used a cute die to create my background and a scrap of dark sky paper from one of my CDs to create the sky.

I confess to cheating a little using a ready made sentiment but I really wanted gold and I was afraid to stamp and emboss by that time as I didn't want to ruin my otherwise complete card!

A little bit of ribbon embellishment, coupled with a couple of my precious bells and my card is complete!

I have lots of lovely challenges to enter with this card and here they are:

http://promarkerchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/week-271add-some-sparkle.html
http://fabnfunkychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/challenge-235-christmas.html
http://thepapershelter.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/challenge-180-is-it-too-early-for.html
http://pennyschallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/welcome-to-pennys-challenge-201.html
http://sisteractcardchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/challenge-81.html
http://cardsgalorechallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/dt-call-and-anything-goes.html
http://craftycalendarchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/crafty-calendar-november-challenge-its.html
http://buckwellscraftychallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/buckwells-crafty-challenge-2-use-ribbon.html
http://catchthebugblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/november-anything-goes-challenge.html
http://ribbongirls.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/november-card-challenge.html
http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/chnc-challenge-extra-for-november-2014.html
http://lacysunshinechallengeblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/challenge-45-include-hat.html

Thanks for visiting today and a happy Sunday to you all.

Sharon x