Merry Christmas!

 

Hi all, just swinging by to wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas

It's definitely one with a difference this year!  We're  lucky that mum will be coming to us for Christmas dinner and then we have a 6 week lockdown to look forward to.  But we've been through this since March and we'll get through this too!

On a very sad note, wee Ruby died this week.  She hasn't been well this past month and went very downhill at the weekend and then died on Tuesday.  So we are heartbroken and quite a few years have been shed.  She will be sorely missed.

A sad Christmas card

I've been putting this card off for ages, I just couldn't think what to make!  I was so stuck that I almost bought one from Tesco except their non-happy Christmas selection was totally non existent.  

Apologies for the dark picture, it's a pale blue background in real life - I've a new phone and haven't quite figured out how to put the flash on.  New technology and me take a while to get on together 😉 I do envy those folk who can lift a gadget and instinctively know what they're doing!

Anyway, back to regular Christmas card making now ... I was getting ahead of the game at the start of the year and then Covid stole my mojo and now I'm really behind in everything! 

• 
  Layout inspired by Try Stampin on Tuesday #486
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - die cuts
• Word Art Wednesday #468/469 - anything goes
• AAA cards #180 - made in minutes

A sloth of bears!

 

Oh dear, I can hardly believe it's been almost a month since I last uploaded anything!  I've been beavering away with my Christmas cards and cards for pressies, and had an order for 50 of these from work which kept me busy and I was glad to see the end of!I   I haven't had a tidy kitchen table for ages as there was a production line going; mind you, they're finished now and I still don't have a tidy table.

I inked up my sky with this lovely graduated stencil from Clearly Besotted that I absolutely love, then cut a snowy edge with an MFT die, added an MFT sentiment and some gold stars.    My little bear is popped up on foam pads, glitter added to his skate blades and then larger glitter flakes to the green bits of his scarf.  (The scarf is done in our company colours but I'm 100% sure that nobody but myself will notice haha) 

PS I had no idea a group of bears was called a sloth, had to Google that one ;)

• Pixie's Snippets Playground #391 - I've had such a massive pile of white cad off cuts that it was brilliant to get most of them used up on these cards :)
• Simon Says Stamp Monday - happy holidays
• Word Art Wednesday #466-467 - anything goes

Pink Christmas

 

So this is a new one for me, I don't think I've ever made a pink Christmas card before!  First outing for my new MFT stamps too, I always love their Christmas sets :). Expect to see this used a lot in the coming weeks, I definitely need to rack up my Xmas production rate!

There was a lot of masking on this so I could layer up the images and ink the sky, clear gloss added to the windows, glitter to his scarf and then white enamel for the falling snow.

• Christmas Kickstart #40 - pink Christmas
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - layer it up
• Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge #513
• NBUS #19

I haven't shared a pic of wee Ruby recently, so here she is having a sniffing good time at the seaside yesterday (Waterfoot)...  The weather men got the forecast correct for a change and delivered some lovely sunny weather for my day off :).   Though it was definitely a day for a cosy coat and hat, and no way was I brave enough to go for a paddle!   Our wee dander on the beach was followed with a visit to the chippy for fish'n chips, plenty of salt and vinegar... yummmmm they always taste so much nicer by the sea! 

Homework Day 4 - Ombre

Well I finally got my final homework done for MFT summer school - day 4 Ombre
This card has been in the making for nearly a week now!  It seemed so much easier in my head and looks better in real life than it does here LOL
I think it all got difficult when I stuck my sentiment down without planning my card properly and rather than remake the bottom section I faffed about for days trying to sort it out ;)

• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - use your favourite tool - mine has to be my old battered Cuttlebug.  The plates are well scored and the unit has a big crack in it, but Im hoping to add a new one to Santa's long list, so hopefully it lasts that long!
• Pixie's Snippets Playground - I've gotten a bit precious with my red sparkly card so keep every tiny snippet! 

Homework day 2

I had a wee trip out to Hobbycraft today as I needed some new card and basics (and treated myself to this new sentiment die too).  It was a totally different experience to the last time I was there on its launch day and it was absolutely rammed with customers.  Today there was only 20 in the shop and it was heavenly - the obligatory queue outside was definitely worth the wait!

Day 2 of the MFT Summer School is rainbows.  So out came my trusty bears and I coloured their scarves and bucket in the rainbow colours.

• I've also only just slid under the wire for DottyJo's Christmas Kickstart challenge #34 for a starry sky.  I inked up mine and then added some splatters thinking it would look like the cosmos, but it looked more like a snowy sky, so out came my silver stars.
• Hazels Christmas Card Challenge #501

Roses and snowflakes

Evening all!   I was asked to make a card for a 90 year old lady, it's not too often those requests come along!  After a LOT of deliberation I ended up using this oldie from LOTV - coloured with polychromos and sparkle added to the roses.  Luckily I had a few silver peel off stickers left and had enough letters to spell out her name.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #499
• Colour theme inspired by the picture over at Inspired By #Beach Life
• the Flower Challenge #46 - summer or winter - I've gone for summer roses - my Mum has a fab rose garden with every colour you could want (hope she doesn't mind about my 'blue' roses LOL)

And of course I couldn't post without one from my MFT bears LOL!  The sooner they bring out this year's Christmas stamps the better, hopefully I love them (I usually do!)

• Layout from CAS(e) This Sketch #382
• Word Art Wednesday #448-449 - anything goes
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas challenge #500 - anything goes

From one extreme...

Hi All!  Sorry I've been MIA again, I'd absolutely zero mojo so just gave myself a break from crafting and blogging.  But it's definitely now time for a boot up the derriere and to get on with it, mojo or no mojo!
I'm off all next week hurrah - we get Mon & Tues off for the traditional Twelfth of July holiday and then work decided to close the rest of the week.  I've lots of jobs planned but we'll see how that goes!  I can finally tick haircut off my list, got it done on Thursday so I'm a bit more ready to face civilisation again ;)

I've a really simple card and a OTT card this evening!  This one uses an old favourite monster from Whipper Snapper - coloured with polychromos and gloss/glitter added to his .... ummmm ... scales?  I've no idea what to call those bumpy bits!!

Stamping Sensations July - all creatures great and small
Seize the Birthday #194 - red, white and blue
Make My Monday #126 - stars and/or stripes
Cardz 4 guys #248 - red white and blue

I'd started making this one for last week's Sketch Saturday challenge but faffed about too much and missed the deadline.  It's a tad too busy for me, reckon it all got very complicated with that too snazzy DP.  I shoved in those snowflakes too and kinda wish I'd left well alone!  It was another faffing session trying to figure out where to put the sentiment - tried die cuts and strips of card in various shades before just stamping it down!
(that black strip is mirror card)
Not sure if I'm loving this one or not, but here you go anyway ;)

ABC Christmas - O is for Over the top
Word Art Wednesday 446-447 - anything goes

Christmas Bears and Birdies

So here we are almost at Mid-Summer's day!  It was a grey old one for us and according to Alexa it was 85% humidity!  The sooner I get my fuzzy head sorted at the hairdresser the better ;)  Roll on July!

Anyway, I'm still in Christmas mode, so here's my MFT bears again.  This is version #2 - the first one just had a totally wrong colour theme going but I managed to get my central panel scraped off almost unscathed.  A couple of wee knife marks now hidden with some snowflakes!  I'm hoping for a wee visit to Hobbycraft soon as I'm down to the scrappiest scraps of this silver sparkly card.

• Layout from MFT Wednesday sketch #494
• Pixie's Snippets Playground #380
• Word Art Wednesday #444-445 - anything goes

This Tina Wenke stamp was another of my new purchases.  If I was colouring it again I think I'd do the little birdies a slightly lighter shade of brown, they're a bit lost here.  I added sparkle to the ribbon and fine glitter to the snow and then bigger glitter flakes to the berries, so there's plenty of sparkle!  I think I need a wee 'something' for where the sentiment panel meets the image, I might have a look for a wee holly image or something.

• Moving along with the times #119 - things with wings

Christmas Bears

Oh dear, I'm not loving this new blogger interface!  Maybe it's just because my laptop is so old, but I don't see any editing toolbars at the top.  Might have to start trying to do these posts on my tablet.

I've been on the hunt for some stamps for this year's Christmas cards (and ended up blowing this year's crafty budget in the process!) and one of my purchases was these MFT winter bears.  I've tried to use up some of this DP from a never-ending unloved Christmas pad and made a little matching tag too.  I also bought some fine clear glitter, but when I add it to the gloss on his scarf it's not very sparkly, so that was a bit of a disappointing purchase.

• Christmas Kickstart #32 - care to tag along
• Craftyhazelnut's patterned paper challenge June 2020
• Your Next Stamp #140 - sparkle and shine
• Word Art Wednesday #442-443 - anything goes

Christmas baubles

Evening all, how are we today?   We had a grey damp old day here, but such a beautiful sky at sunset.  I think we were totally spoiled there with a few weeks of sunshine, hopefully that wasn't summer!

I finally got round to making another Christmas card.  At the start of lockdown I'd thought I'd get a good headstart but it hasn't quite gone to plan.
I think the thing I love most about card making is the colouring in and will happily spend a few hours in front of the telly with my pencils on a cutie like this :)   No new stash shopping for me so this stamp is an oldie from Marianne Designs that I first used back in 2012!

• Layout from CAS Colours and Sketches #368
• Tuesday Throwdown #456 - doodle something (my borders)
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes
• Your Next Stamp #137 - stripes

Rockin Robins

I'm a bit behind in my Christmas makes this year, this is Number 3, I'll need to have a better output rate than 1 per month!  I won this Clearly Besotted set a while back and thought I'd get some ink on it.  I'm sure I have some red glitter somewhere, so I'll have to hoke it out, it would have looked better with my red sparkly card.  Actually now I think about it, I could have paper pieced their bellies!

• Layout from MFT Wednesday Sketch #480
• ABC Christmas - F for freebie
• Word Art Wednesday #430/431 - anything goes

Daily Marker 30 day colouring challenge

Two old oldies!

Sunday evening already, how'd that happen so quickly!  Time definitely goes quicker at the weekend!

I've two real oldies this evening - the date on this Whipper Snapper kitty stamp was 2008 so it's lasting well!  Coloured with polychromos and popped up on foam pads. Clear gloss added to his nose and thermometer.

• Layout from MFT Sketch #472
• Papercraft challenge #54 - use 2 DPs

And this stamp from Anita's is even older with a date stamp on it of 2002!  I think it was maybe one of the first Christmas stamps I ever bought and I still ink it up now and then.  He comes with a load of stars round him but I masked them off and then inked up my sky.  I hadn't intended to add so many stars but I made a bit of a hash inking the sky and needed to take the focus off it!  

• AAA Cards #157 - one layer + polar animal
• ABC Christmas - A is for Any Christmas
• Christmas Cards All Year Round January - anything Christmas

Love bunny and a confused penguin

Such a bright beautiful winter's day we had today, the sun was splitting the trees, so it was nice to get all wrapped up and get to the local park for a dander.  I couldn't believe how much their daffodils are up already! It was Ruby's first outing after a surprise visit to the vets on Thursday to get 4 teeth out, poor wee thing. But she's back to her old self now, and woofing down her dinner :)

This first card uses some real old oldies - I'm not even entirely sure how ancient my Whipper Snapper bunny is!  I've also used a partial sentiment from an old Paper Smooches set and for some reason my MFT heart die rarely gets an outing!
Coloured with polychromos, sparkle added to the big heart and clear gloss to his nose.

• Layout based on CAS(e) This Sketch #355
• Crafty Cardmakers #248 - anything goes
• Creative Inspirations January - I've gone for the 'something old'

This card got a wee bit confused in the making!  It started off as a penguin based one for the Christmas Kickstart challenge, and this little penguin was the one I chose.  So then I thought my boozing buddy would be perfect for the 'cheers' challenge over at MFT Birthday and I thought I could make it that it could also double as a winter birthday card. But now I'm not sure it actually looks like either a Christmas card or a birthday card!!  Maybe it's more of a Thank You for after Christmas?

• Christmas Kickstart #27 - penguin parade
• MFT Birthday Project - cheers to the New Year
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - use a stencil