It started off as a Twofer.........

I have been making quite a few non-Christmas cards over the last few weeks, so I'm back on the Christmas cards to join in a few challenges.

The theme for the Twofer Challenge this month is 'Holiday Greenery'.  Two cards, with different designs, using the same stamp, die or stencil.  Just for this month they can be for the same occasion. 

I chose to use a tree stamp from the Stampin' Up 'Perfectly Plaid' set of stamps on both my cards, which I stamped in Versafine ' Crimson Red'. 

I am joining in the Twofer Challenge with this pair of cards.

For my first card I covered the top half of the card blank with dark green card and added a strip of plaid patterned paper across the middle, before attaching three of the stamped trees.  The sentiment is also a stamp from the 'Perfectly Plaid' set of cards.  

On this card I cut off the tree trunk and cut the tree in half down the middle so I could use the pieces as corner embellishment.  The oval die cuts are all from the Memory Box 'Stitched Oval Layers' set of dies.

Rather than waste a spare stamped tree I had, I made a Threefer.

A quick CAS card with the stamped tree layered on Memory Box ' Stitched Square Layers' die cuts, three added pearls and a stamped sentiment. 

I'm joining in Beccy's Month of Holiday Cards Challenge with my three cards.   (I think I can only link up one as they are all on the same post.)  It's up to the letter R, so R for Red. 

Happy Birthday

A quick and easy card I made for a friend's birthday. 

As my friend enjoys gardening, I went with a floral theme.  The patterned paper is from an old paper pad.  I layered the sentiment die cut onto stitched circle die cuts and added a punched flower in the middle.

I am joining in the following challenges:

The Crafter's Cafe Challenge #231 ~ Flora and/or Fauna OR Pocket 

HLS November Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Craft Rocket Challenge Challenge #65 ~ Happy Birthday

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper November Challenge

Alphabet Challenge ~ Q is for Quick and Easy

Southern Girls Challenge ~ Anything Goes

40th Birthday

It was my birthday last Monday and my hubby organised a surprise trip for us to London for a few days.  The evening included a visit to the theatre to see The Mousetrap.  It's the world's longest running play, which was first performed in 1952.  The performance we saw was number 28,038!   We visited the Saatchi Gallery where there is a fascinating Tutankhamun exhibition and we also had a tour around the Royal Albert Hall.  It was a packed few days, so I have a lot of blog visiting to catch up on!

I'm sharing a card today which I made recently for my son's birthday.  He supports a team which plays in blue and white quarters, so I've tried to reflect this in the design.

The card shape was made with a die from the Spellbinders  'Happy Days' set.  The blue card is pearlised and embossed with a Crafts Too 'Football' embossing folder.  The numbers are dies from The Works and layered on Spellbinder die cut circles. 

I kept the blue and white quarters theme on the steps.  The footballs are peeloffs, attached to white card and fussy cut.

I am joining in the following challenges:
The Male Room Challenge Challenge #124 ~  Hobbies
Craft Rocket Challenge #65 ~ Happy Birthday
HLS November Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Begin with a 8" x 8" piece of patterned paper...........

Lest we forget

Welcome to my new follower, Carolyn of Carolyn's Crafty Blog.  Please pop over to her blog to see all her beautiful creations.

I joined in a challenge recently to make as many card designs as possible using one 8" x 8" piece of patterned paper.   We were in our caravan last week and looking at the weather forecast, I thought this would be the perfect time to make cards for the challenge.  I had a few ideas in mind, but used a 8" x 8" piece of scrap paper divided into 1" squares to draw a sketch of all the different shapes I needed to cut, using up the whole sheet.

I took the sheet of 8" x 8" patterned paper with me to the caravan, together lot of green and yellow snippets. I couldn't believe how many shades of yellow and green snippets I had!   It took a while to make sure I had all the same shade of each colour, but I wanted to avoid using whole sheets.  These are the seventeen cards I managed to make.  I used the coloured card for matting and layering, a few dies and punches and some Nuvo drops and tiny pearls.  The sentiments were stamped with Versafine 'Onyx Black' and all the cards were 4" x 4" or 5" x 5".

The patterned paper is from an old Papermania paper pad.  It had tiny flowers on and the paper could be used in any direction.

This is the sketch I drew to make sure there were no pieces of patterned paper left over which I couldn't use.  I numbered the shapes so I knew which ones were for which card and made a few notes on the sketch of how I thought I could use them.

I am joining in the following challenges:

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #365 ~ Use snippets

Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper November Challenge