Let it Snow

Thank you to all my blogging friends who sent me a beautiful Christmas card.  Does anyone else display all the hand crafted cards they receive separately from the shop bought ones?

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

 I used a Poppystamps 'Let it Snow Channel' die in the middle of  piece of white card.  Then I die cut two rows of snowflakes with a Poppystamps 'Snowflake Channel' die at the top and the bottom of the white card.  I added two strips of matt silver paper with attached tiny, white pearls along them.  A tiny, clear gem was placed in the middle of the snowflake 'O'. The white card was then attached to a navy blue card blank. 

I am joining in the following challenges:

Poppystamps Challenge #63 ~ Merry Craftmas!

Winter Wonderland End of Year Anything Christmas Goes Challenge

Through the Purple Haze Challenge #162 ~ Let it Snow

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #410 - Happy Holidays!

Dream Valley Challenge # 215 ~ Christmas

Die Cut Divas Challenge ~ Get Ready for Winter/Christmas

HLS December Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #470 ~ Anything Christmas Goes
Allsorts Challenge - Week 551/2 ~ Anything Goes

Thank You Card

I hope you all had a Happy Christmas.  If Christmas was a difficult time for you this year, I hope it was of some comfort to know that friends were thinking of you.

We were invited to stay with my niece and her family in Devon over the festive period and it was lovely to spend time with other family members too on Christmas Day.  My niece's husband is an amazing chef and we certainly didn't go hungry!

I'm sharing a card today which thought I'd already posted on my blog until I found it in my drafts folder.

    I won the Ferns and Seeds embossing folders over in the Allsorts Challenge earlier this year and I used one of them on my card. The sentiment is die cut with one of the Sizzix 'Fancy Frames' dies, which was the other part of the Allsorts prize.  The sunflowers were made with punches.

Merry Christmas to you all!

This will be my last post before Christmas Day, so I'm sharing my favourite Christmas card of 2019 again to wish all visitors to my blog a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.

Owl Birthday Card

My granddaughter has just celebrated her 10th birthday and this is the card I made for her.

The card shape was made with a Sizzix 'Owl Label Fold-a-Long' set of dies using bright pink cardstock.  I used dotty patterned paper from an old Papermania paper pad, matt silver card for the beak and pupils and matt silver paper to back the pink wings and top of the head.

This photo shows the card open.  The inside panels are embossed with a Crafts Too 'Feathers' e/f using matt silver paper.  The sentiment is computer generated.  The patterned paper and silver card and silver paper were all snippets, so I'll be sharing my card over in The Playground.

I am joining in the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #368 ~ Use Snippets

Allsorts Challenge - Week 551/2 ~ Anything Goes

Inkspirational Challenge #202 ~ No Stamping

Crafty Animals Challenge #33 ~ Anything Goes + Include an Animal

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper December Challenge

HLS December Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Stampin' Up Workshop

Last Sunday I went to a Stampin' Up workshop.   These are the cards I made..... I love crafting with friends!

The stamp set we used was called 'Sip Sip Hooray' and the lovely thing about the workshop is that we all came home with a set of the stamps we used.  I'm sure the stamps will be useful for several different occasions. 

Help!!

I have been using the same photo editing software for nearly 20 years.  After a recent computer update, it would appear that my editing software will no longer work!   My computer has a very basic photo editing software installed and I've no idea if I can add my watermark, but I've used it to crop these photos so I can add them to my blog.  So now I'm on the lookout for a replacement photo editing software that's easy to use and will do everything I could do on my old software.  I'm wondering if Paintshop Pro would be a suitable replacement, but any advice would be appreciated. 

Edited to add: Thank you for all the advice.  I've ordered Photoshop Elements 2020.  Wish me luck working out how to use it!

Edited again to add: My new software in now installed on my laptop.  I've managed to add my watermark to the photos. Whoo hoo!  Just need to find out what else I can do with my new software. 😊

One last Christmas card, although I miscalculated how many I've already made this year, so I have a little pile of cards ready for Christmas 2020!

I saw the video for making a Double Tower card HERE and couldn't wait to try out this 'new to me' fold.  It's surprisingly easy to make.  In the video the folded card measured 7" x 5".  I wanted to make a smaller version, so changed the base card to 8" x 6" so the folded card measures 6" x 4".  The image is from the Stampin' Up 'Snowman Season' set of stamps and I covered the snowman with clear glitter pen and a touch of orange for the nose.  The sentiment is from the SU 'Christmas Gleaming' stamps and I used Memory Box 'Stitched Circle Layers' dies for matting and layering. The papers are also from SU.

This photo show the card from a different angle.

I am joining in the following challenges:

Memory Box Challenge #56 ~ Holiday Cards

Allsorts Challenge - Week 550 ~ Inspired by a Song (Frosty the Snowman)

Addicted to Stamps Challenge # 180 ~ Cold and Frosty

Stamping Sensations December Challenge ~ Anything Goes

Crafthazelnut's Christmas Challenge #468 ~ Anything Christmas Goes + Optional use the word Merry

Sweet Stampin' Challenge ~ Christmas

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper December Challenge

Winter Wonderland Challenge ~ Anything Christmas Goes

The Sisterhood of Crafters Challenge ~ Anything Christmas

Try in on Tuesday ~ Christmas is Coming
Tales From the Craft Room Challenge #11 ~ It's Christmas!

Christmas Milk Cartons

My hubby and I stayed up late yesterday evening to watch the results of the UK General Election come in.  It was the perfect opportunity to set up a craft table in front of the television for some Christmas crafting.  It also made sure I stayed awake!  I found a few templates to make mini milk cartons, so adapted one to make them the size I wanted for little chocolate gift boxes for the table on Christmas Day.  I was able to make two boxes from one A4 sheet of card.

I bought a pack of A4 kraft card several months ago, but realised when I got home that it was too thin for card blanks.  However, it was perfect for these little milk cartons.  I delved into my snippets box of patterned Christmas paper and cut out the 4cm squares and layered them on red squares, also cut from snippets.  I bought the tiny silver bulldog clips ages ago in a sale and I knew they would be useful one day!  

We stayed up until 4am, so I managed to make 15 little boxes.  I won't need them all for Christmas Day, but will use the others when I go out with friends for a Christmas meal soon.  

Scrappymo has an extra Rudolph Days Challenges this year for those crafters who have joined in with all her challenges this year, so I'll be sharing these boxes over on her blog.

I am joining in the following challenges:

Rudolph Days Extra Challenge

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #367 ~ Use Snippets

Crimbo Crackers Challenge #199 ~ Gift Boxes

The Male Room Challenge #126 ~ A Box or Bag

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #410 ~ Happy Holidays!

Try It On Tuesday Challenge ~ Christmas is Coming

Make My Monday Challenge # 111 ~ Anything Christmas

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper December 2019 Challenge

New Home

The Crafty Calendar Challenge begins today with the theme 'Anything But Christmas, But Add A Ribbon'.   Our generous sponsors for the challenge are Oddball Arts and Crafty Ribbons.

Oddball Arts kindly gave the DT digi stamps to work with and I chose to use the lovely 'Whimsical Mushroom Home'.  I coloured the image with Promarkers and the sentiment is computer generated. I used Memory Box 'Stitched Square Layers' dies for matting and layering the image.  I embossed the top half of the background and added dotty patterned paper to the bottom half.  I wanted to add a strip of the spotty ribbon across the middle of the 6" square card, but I only had a strip about 4" long.  I cut it in half and attached it just to the sides and layered the image, on foam tape, over the gap to add dimension.

The Crafty Calendar Challenge ends on the 28th December and there are lots of DT cards for inspiration over on the blog.  

The DT will choose their Top 3 and there are prizes for the randomly chosen winners from:

Oddball Arts

and Crafty Ribbons

I am joining in the following challenges:

A Gem of a Challenge - Week 24 ~ Anything Goes 

I Love Promarkers #Challenge 399 ~ Anything Goes + Optional Theme - Circles

A Perfect Time To Craft Challenge for December, #12-2019~ Anything Goes

Card for a Golfer

I'm back after a surprise trip to the Christmas markets in Berlin with my hubby and daughter.  What a wonderful city, with so many things to see and do - and the Christmas markets being an added bonus.

I made this birthday card for a friend who celebrated his birthday this week.  He is a keen golfer, so this is the theme of his card.

I used the Tonic 'Golf Ball Tee & Turf' set of dies and layered them on blue and grey stitched mats.  I embossed just the bottom half of the background with a spotty embossing folder to match the pattern on the golf ball.  The matted image is raised up on foam tape over the strip of ribbon.  The sentiments are computer generated.  All the coloured card was snippets, so I'll be off the share my card in the Playground.

I am joining in the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground Challenge #366 ~ Use Snippets

A Perfect Time To Craft Challenge for December, #12-2019 ~ Anything Goes