Twist and Pop Card

Making a Twist and Pop card was on my list of techniques to try in 2018 and this is the second one I've made.  This one is for my granddaughter, who turned nine just before Christmas.

All the images are Lavina stamps, stamped with Versafine 'Onyx Black'.  I've added some clear Wink of Stella to the flowers on the stamped image to add a little sparkle. The patterned papers are all from a LOTV paper pad that came as a freebie with a magazine some time ago.  The flower was made with punches.

The fairies inside the card are alI stamped on Memory Box 'Stitched Square' die cuts.  I arranged the fairies so it looks as if the single fairies are following the fairy on the snail.  The Memory Box 'Sofia Heart' die cut is inlaid on a stitched circle die cut and layered on a Spellbinder 'Scalloped Circle'. 

I am joining in the following challenges:

Butterfly Challenge #113 ~ Fairies , Gnomes, Pixies and Elves

TIME OUT Challenge #125 ~ Inspired by words - Celebrate, Family

That's Crafty Challenge ~ Anything Goes

HLS December Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Money Tag

This will be my last post before Christmas, so I would like to wish all my blog visitors a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Thank you for finding the time to stop by my blog this year and especially those who leave me a comment so I know you've visited. 

I hadn't intended making any more Christmas things today, but after wrapping all this presents this morning, I realised that I needed something to put some money in to give as a gift.  I didn't want to just put money in an envelope.  Yesterday I saw a Money Tag on Sharyn's blog HERE which I thought would be perfect for what I needed.  However, I didn't have the Pocket Tag dies, so I decided to make something similar using just a Stampin' Up 'Tag Topper Punch', a guillotine and a pair of scissors.  This is what I came up with.

Everything I used was snippets.  The patterned paper, ribbon and twine were left over from a Stampin' Up retreat I went to recently and the plain card was from my snippets drawer.  Even the sentiment was left over from making cards.  

I am joining in the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #342 ~ Use Snippets
Moving Along With the Time Challenge #87 - Anything but a Card
Country View December Challenge ~ Christmas


.....and to finish a few photos I took at the amazing Longleat Festival of Lights last week.

 

Christmas Tree

A Christmas card today to join in with a few challenges before they close. 

I've had this lovely patterned paper for ages and I thought it was time I actually used it. The image is a stamp from the Penny Black 'Wonder Collection', which I've embossed in silver.  I've used Memory Box 'Stitched Rectangle' dies for the image and mat.  The sentiment is a stamp from the same set, which I've stamped with Versafine 'Smokey Grey'.  The sentiment was punched with a scalloped circle punch and layered on a Memory Box 'Stitched Circle' die cut.   I've raised the sentiment up on foam pads to add dimension.

I am joining in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge Week 498 ~ Christmas Trees
Memory Box Challenge #44 ~  Holiday Sparkle and Shine (silver embossing)
Country View December Challenge ~ Christmas

Mod Squad Challenge ~ Christmas or Winter Theme – use a Metal Die
Use Your Stuff Challenge #341 ~ Christmas/Holidays

Alphabet Challenge ~ T is for Trees
Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #181 ~ Anything Goes
Simon Says Monday Challenge ~ Stitch It Up (stitched die cut)

Thinking of You

A card today for a friend who is going through a difficult time at the moment.  She is also a crafter and loves Lavinia stamps, so I decided to use one on my card and this image seemed appropriate for a Thinking of You card.   As I know she has received the card, I can post it on my blog.

The Lavina Stamp is called ' Fairytale' and the sentiment is from the Happy Little Stampers 'Especially For You' set of stamps.  Both are stamped with Versafine 'Onyx Black'.  The embossing folder I used is Embossalicious 'Make a wish'.

I am joining in the following challenges:
Butterfly Challenge #113 ~ include a fairy, pixie, elf or gnome
That's Crafty Anything Goes Challenge
HLS December CAS Challenge ~ Emboss
Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #181 ~ Anything Goes

Football fan

 It's ten days since I last blogged, where has the last ten days gone???   I'm sharing a birthday card today which I made for my son recently.  It's quite a CAS design, in the team colours of his favourite football team.

The football is a die I bought on eBay, cut in black and layered on a white circle of card.  The background starburst is a die that came as a magazine freebie.  I raised the football up on foam pads to add some dimension.

I am joining in the following challenges:

The Male Room Challenge #101 ~ The Colour Blue

HLS December Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Football Santa

I CASEd a card I made recently, but instead of traditional colours I used last time, this one is for a football fan with the little dachshund wearing the team kit of a blue and white quartered shirt. 

The little dog is made up with a Marianne set of dachshund die cuts and the patterned paper is from a Dovecraft paper pad, 'True Blue'.  The snowflake is a Memory Box 'Twilight Snowflake' die cut.  The dachshund is attached to the embossed panel with foam pads.  The little dog, star and embossed panel were all made with snippets, so I'll be sharing my card over in the Playground.

I am joining in the following challenges:
Inkspirational Challenge #175 ~ Anything Christmas
That's Crafty Challenge ~ Anything Goes
Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #341 ~ Use Snippets
HLS December Christmas Challenge ~ Anything Goes + Optional Twist - Snow
HLS December Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

 Sisters on the Blog Challenge #22 ~ Bingo - sentiment, white, animal

Winter Wonderland Challenge ~ Anything Christmas Goes

Moving Along with the Times ~ Anything Christmas
The Male Room Challenge #100 ~ Celebrate

Snowmen Trio

For those who read my post HERE, I'm please to report that I helped my daughter's Girl Guides make 53 Christmas cards on Monday evening to take to the residents of the nursing home next week.  They all worked really hard to get them finished and even had time to draw some little pictures inside along with the beautifully written messages.

I spent yesterday writing all my Christmas cards and discovered that I had miscounted.  I had none left for our local neighbours, so today I made twelve of this design. 

I used a pre-coloured digi stamp from Beccy's Place, die cut with Memory Box a 'Stitched Square' die.  The sentiment is computer generated and I learnt something today.  I wanted to add some musical notes to the text and found out, using google, that if you press ALT on the keyboard and type 14 using the numeric keypad, up pops a pair of quavers!  It may be that everyone else knows this already, but I thought it was pretty cool!  For the background I used a Creative Expression 'Shimmering Stars' embossing folder.  So that's all my cards made and written for this year, with a few spares in case we receive one from someone I've forgotten. 

I am joining in the following challenges:

Beccy's Place December Challenge

Cardsz 4 Guyz Challenge #209 ~Snowman
Card Mania Challenge #111 ~ Christmas
Country View December Challenge ~ Christmas
HLS December Christmas Challenge ~ Anything Goes - optional twist Snow
ABC Christmas Challenge ~ Z is for Zero embellishments

Dachshund Santa

I ran a cardmaking workshop a couple of months ago for a group of non-crafty friends and the hostess for the evening has a miniature dachshund.  At the end of the evening, she commented that wouldn't it be great if you could make Christmas cards with a dachshund on.  Well, I took that as a challenge and by chance a week or two later I was in one of my favourite craft shops and there was a Marianne Design dachshund set of dies which just happened to fall in my basket!   I used the dies for my great nephew's birthday card here, but as the set included the dies to dress the dachshund up as Santa, I knew it would be perfect for my friend's Christmas card.

The assembled dachshund is attached to the embossed panel with foam pads to add dimension.  I'm not sure of the make of the embossing folder as there is nothing written on it.  The snowflake is one of the Memory Box ' Twilight Snowflakes' dies. 

I am joining in the following challenges:

Country View Crafts December Challenge ~ Christmas

Card Mania Challenge #111 ~ Christmas

Christmas Crafts All Year Round December Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Dies R Us Challenge #110 ~ Snowflakes

Simon Says Monday Challenge ~ B is for ? .....Blue, Bones

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Plum Pudding

The last Crafty Calendar Challenge of 2018 begins today and the theme this month is 'It's Christmas Time'.  For my DT card, I made an easel card.

The image is an old wood mounted stamp, coloured with Promarkers. The plain green card was embossed with a Creative Expressions 'Frosty Swirls' e/f.  I added a panel across the front of the card, raised up on foam tape to add dimension, with a strip of the patterned paper along the top.  The holly leaves are punched, with tiny red holographic circles added for the berries.  A row of five gold Card Candi enable the easel part to stand up.

Here is a side view of the card.

This month we are generously sponsored by Lawn Fawn with a $25 Gift Voucher for the lucky, randomly drawn winner.

The challenge is open until the 28th December, so plenty of time to make a last minute Christmas card and enter the challenge.  Please pop over to the Crafty Calendar Challenge to see all the fabulous cards my teamies have made for inspiration.  Looking forward to seeing all your beautiful Christmas creations.   

I am joining in the following challenge:

Crafty Friends Challenge #98 ~ Christmas

I Love Promakers Challenge #373 ~ Anything Goes with the option of Christmas

Another Request

My daughter, Joanna, sent me a message a day or two ago to say could I come up with any ideas for her Guides to make Christmas cards on Monday.  Now my daughter is unlikely to have any card, glue, pens or crayons in her house, because if she did they would just be gathering dust.  She probably wouldn't even be able to put her hand on a pair of scissors! 😉 I tried really hard, when she was growing up, to pass on my love of being creative, but I think it skipped a generation!  What Joanna really meant was, "Help, I've no idea where to start!  Can you think of a design and what have you got in your stash that we could use?"  I came up with a few ideas, but then discovered, as they are taking the cards to a local nursing home when they go carol singing, the Guides will have about an hour to make 50 cards between them and write a message inside each one!  So, it was onto Plan B  to make a quick and easy design.  

I sent Joanna a photograph of a sample design and her response was "that's great, but how on earth did you you get all that 'writing' on the front?"  Out came my Big Shot and lots blue, red and green snippets from my snippets drawer.  I used a Cuttlebug's 'Season's Greetings' embossing folder to emboss 50 pieces (+ a few spares), trimmed the embossed card to size and attached DST to the backs.  Hopefully on Monday there will be time to take off the DST, attach the embossed card to the card blank, choose some peeloffs to embellish and write the messages.  Oh.... and although I live well over an hour away, she's invited me to run the session!!

I am joining in the following challenges:

Beccy's Place Month of Holiday Cards

Christmas Friendship

The challenge today over in Beccy's Place nearly had me stumped because it's up to the letter 'X'.  I googled 'colours being with X' and discovered that Xanthic mean yellowish, so I gave my snowman a 'Xanthic' scarf!

The image and the sentiment are both digi stamps from Beccy's Place.  I coloured the image with Promarkers, layering on mats using 'Xanthic' and green to tie in with the main colours I used on the image.  The embossed background was done with an old Crafter's Companion e/f I picked up in a bargain bucket for £1 a few years ago.  A Memory Box 'Twilight Snowflake' white glitter die cut finished off my card. 

I am joining in the following challenges:

Beccy's Place Month of Holiday Cards Challenge ~ X for Xanthic

That's Crafty Winter Wonderland Challenge

Stamping Sensations ~ Get Ready for Christmas

Artist Trading Coins

The Country View Challenge this month is Artist Trading Coins.  Having never made one before,  I thought I'd miss out on this month's challenge.  However, there's always a first time and as they are becoming more popular, I decided to have a go.  The standard size is 2 1/2" diameter, so I die cut three circles of this size using snippets of white card and thought about what I could fit in such a little space.

The backgrounds were made Adirondack inks applied with Ink Dusters, masking off the moon with a small circle of card.   For the sun, I used a circle aperture and inked it over with yellow.  All the stamps I used were from Lavina Stamps, stamped with Versafine 'Onyx Black'.  I added a few clear gems on the blue one for the stars and a little silver glitter to the purple one.  The glitter looks a lot more subtle IRL.

As Artist Trading Coins are made to give away, I hope they count for the Simon Says Monday Challenge where the theme is 'Gift It'.

I am joining in the following challenges:

Country View Crafts November Challenge ~ Artist Trading Coins

Simon Says Monday Challenge ~ Gift It

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #223 ~ Anything But a Card

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #340 ~ Use snippets

Warm Winter Wishes

I suddenly realised that it's the 25th today, the start of the last Rudolph Days Challenge for 2018 ( ....and one month until Christmas Day!).  The challenge runs until the the end of the month, so just six days to enter the challenge.  It's already Monday in Australia, so the November Christmas Card Challenge at Beccy's Place is now up to 'W'. I'm batch making this Christmas card design today, a quick and easy design on a little 4" x 4" card.  

The stamp is a Hero Arts one.  I bought it half price many years ago, but I don't think I've ever used it. I stamped the image with Versafine 'Onyx Black' and used a green Promarker to colour the scarf.  A little clear Wink of Stella glitter was added to the snow the penguin is stood on to add a little sparkle. The image is die cut with a Spellbinders circle die, layer on a red SB scalloped circle die cut.  The embossed background is matt silver, using a Cuttlebug 'Snowflakes' e/f.  I corner rounded the embossed card and card blank.

I am joining in the following challenges:

Rudolph Days November Challenge

Beccy's Place Month of Holiday Cards Challenge ~ W for Warm Winter Wishes

That's Crafty Winter Wonderland Challenge

Stamping Sensations Challenge ~ Get Ready for Christmas

ABC Christmas Challenge ~ 'W for Wishes'
Simon Says Monday Challenge ~ Let it Snow
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge ~ Baby It’s Cold Outside

Thank You

A thank you card today for the crafty friend who gave me this fabulous die for my recent birthday.

The die is Creative Expressions 'Bluebird Edger'.  I inlaid the flower centres and the bodies of butterflies with lilac card.  I added a tiny lilac pearl for the bird's eye and three lilac pearls below the sentiment.

I am joining in the following challenges:

Brown Sugar Challenge #284 ~ Thankfulness

Dies R Us Challenge #109 ~ Giving Thanks

HLS November Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Cuttlebug Mania Challenge ~ Thank You So Much

CAS Christmas Card

Another quick CAS Christmas Card today to join in with a few Challenge.

I started by using a Gummiapan 'Integrated Rectangles' die in the white card front and backing the aperture it left with a piece of a double sided adhesive sheet , leaving the aperture sticky.  The die was used again with silver mirror card and the silver frame was put in place inside the aperture.  I used the die again with two snippets of Christmas patterned paper and inlaid the pieces into the frame.  A silver peeloff sentiment finished off my card. 

I am joining in the following challenge:

1. Less is More Challenge #384 ~ Metallics

2.  Beccy's Place ~ Month of Holiday Cards Challenge ~ S for Snowmen, Santa and Silver

3. HLS November Christmas Challenge ~ Anything Goes + twist of CAS
4. Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #339 ~ Use Snippets
5. Allsorts Challenge - Week 494 ~ CAS Christmas

As promised in a previous post, here are a few photos of  my surprise birthday trip to Iceland this month.

Reykjavik Cathedral

View from the top of the cathedral.

Sunrise on my birthday.

.....and to finish, a sign which should be next door to every craft store!