Snowflakes with Perfect Pearls Christmas card

Hello everyone,

I don't know why time is in such a rush these days but it's hard to believe it's been 2 weeks since our last Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge. Never mind, we only have just over 8 weeks until Christmas, and if you have been joining us this year, you will have amassed quite a stash to make things easier for you in the busy days of December. This time Cindy has given us a bingo challenge, and I decided to go with the bottom row -  die cuts, punches and pearls.

Challenge - Bingo

Ribbon	Texture	Glitter
Rhinestones	2 designer papers	Twine
Die cuts	Punches	PEARLS

We are sponsored this time by

Fred She Said

and

Stamp and Create

I used a snowflake digital cutting file from Fred She Said and cut it out on my Silhouette Cameo,

then I used this as a stencil on some black card. I pushed Versamark Ink through the snowflakes and then added blue Perfect Pearls (the pearl part of the challenge). I used an Avery Elle Die from the Custom Panels set to cut the card, and stamped and embossed a greeting on blue card through the aperture.

I punched a red heart out to finish it off.

Why not pop over to the Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge and see lots of inspiration from the Design Team.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges

Addicted to Stamps and more - holiday

Perfectly Rustics - holiday

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - snowflake

Thanks for stopping by

Hugs

Carol x

Papertrey Ink Christmas card and tag

Hello everyone, and a very warm welcome to Connie from Connie can Crop who has joined us as a new follower. You will find lots of inspiration if you pop over there to see what she has been up to.

Today it is time for the Papertrey Ink Blog hop and this time Nichole gave us lots of colour schemes to try out for a holiday card. I chose this combination

and came up with a card and tag set using the O' Tannenbaum stamp set on some kraft card.

Sorry this is short and sweet, and for the poor lighting on the photos, but I have scheduled the post because I am away this weekend with my daughter, and I look forward to hopping round when I return next week.

Thanks for hopping by.

Hugs
Carol x

Halloween Treat bag and Thank you card for Simply Create Too Challenge #73

Hello everyone,

I am honoured and thrilled to have been asked to join the Simply Create Too  Design Team, and I'm really looking forward to working with Diane and all the talented team over there. The challenge this time is to have a Halloween or Orange theme and I came up with one for each of these. For my first one I made a Halloween treat bag. I used a small sandwich bag that I embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder

I used the Papertrey Ink Mat Stack 3 dies and used the larger one to cut a black mat. When I had cut the mat, I noticed that it had a kind of pearlescent woodgrain pattern on it, which was quite a surprise as I had used plain black card!

When I investigated, I realised that the the die had been used to cut some card that I had used Perfect Pearls on for another project ages ago, and it had retained the image - cool or what! Seems a pity that it is covered up for this project.

For the focal image, I used a stamp from Little Annie Designs Hallow's Eve Set, stamped in black permanent ink on some textured card, and I then used spiced marmalade and fired brick distress inks to colour the background.

A couple of spooky cookies in the bag and some black ribbon to tie it up, finished it off.

For my next project I made a square pumpkin card.

I made a mask for the pumpkin and then stamped it three times so the first one looked as though it is in front, and then coloured them with Copic YR12, YR15 and YR18 markers. The sentiment is from Avery Elle Handwritten Notes, and I finished off the panel by making a couple of ribbon corners. This was mounted onto some orange card and a little star die cut in the corner finished it off.

If you haven't discovered the Simply Create Too challenge yet, why not pop over and join us for some autumn fun.

I'd like to enter the Halloween treat bag into the following challenges

Vintage Journey - Halloween to die for

Fussy and Fancy - orange and black

That's Crafty - spooky!

and the Pumpkin card into these challenges

Connie Can Crop - pumpkin patch

ABC Challenge - V is for Vibrant

Red Rubber Inspirationals -  # 142 pumpkin patch

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Hugs

Carol x

Papertrey Ink and Simon Says Stamps CAS birthday card

Hello everyone,

I'm sitting here with lovely sunshine pouring through the window after several very wet and gray days, so I'm a happy bunny today. It's a long time since I played along over at Addicted to CAS, and as I have lots of NBUS stencils, I wanted to jump in because the code-word this time is Stencil.

 I stamped and embossed the sentiment from Papertrey ink and then used a stencil from Simon Says stamps to scatter the stars around it. I used a white texture paste first and let it dry, and then put the stencil back on and coloured the stars with blue ink. It took quite a while to do this because I was only using little portions of the stencil and I didn't want it to smudge the ones I'd already done. The stars looked nice but were a little muted and called out for some bling, so I finished them by overlaying them with some glitter.

I got the idea for tilting the stars this way from the current sketch over at

Clean and Simple Stamping

I'd also like to enter this into 

CAS on Sunday - emboss it

Simon Says Stamps Monday Challenge - O is for overlaying colour and sparkle onto the stars

Seize the Birthday - anything goes

Virginia's View Challenge - CAS

Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy your week.

Hugs

Carol x

Papertrey Ink and Stamping Boutique Snowman card.

Hello everyone and a very warm welcome to Maarit from Violet's Corner, who is joining us as a new follower. Maarit works as a teacher in Sweden, is a member of a number of Design Teams, and her blog is full of inspirational projects. Do pop over to say hello.

It is time for another challenge over at Holly Jolly Christmas

and this time Julie is challenging us to use snowmen on a project. We are sponsored this time by 

The Stamping Boutique

and 

Bugaboo Stamps

I used an image from the Stamping Boutique called Chubby Snowman, and I decided to try a large format 8 inch by 8 inch card for a change.

 I started by colouring the image with Copic Markers and then added some chalk to enhance the snowbanks. Some glitter was put on the hat and birdhouse before I added some snow fall with a white gel pen. Some Glossy Accents on the buttons finished him off and I then matted him onto some black card. The blue card was embossed with a Cuttlebug E/F, and the Snow words were cut with a Papertrey Ink die and stamped with a snowflake background stamp. The words 'let it' were cut on mySilhouette Cameo.

 I must confess that after I challenged myself to use a larger format, I was tempted to change my mind when I had the blank card in front of me. I wondered how I would fill the space - but I'm glad I continued and might try this again!

Why not pop over to the Holly Jolly Christmas Blog and check out all the inspiration from my talented Teamies.



I'd like to enter this into the following challenges

Keep it Simple use threes - 3 snow die cuts and 3 musical notes.

The Glory of Christmas  - snowman

Kitty Bee Designs Aloha challenge - use die cuts or punches.

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - snowflakes

Addicted to Stamps and More - anything goes

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs
Carol x

Masculine Birthday card

Hello everyone,

Sorry to have been a bit lax about the blog lately but we are in the midst of decorating and it is taking much longer than we anticipated. We also celebrated my Husband's birthday last week and I overcame my fears and had a go at the dreaded masculine birthday card. I went for a kraft, cream and brown colour scheme, and a CAS style and came up with this;-

I used the Happy Banner from Papertrey Ink and placed brown letters in the aapertures. The stamp is from a NBUS set from Wplus 9 called Just Geometrics: Triangles and I stamped it with Versamark Ink and clear embossed it. As this wasn't going in the post, I added a pewter buckle from the mountain of embellishments that I now rarely use and finished off with a few tiny gold acrylic glitter spots. In fact the spots are so so subtle that I bet you have difficulty 'spotting ' them! Sorrreee - I couldn't help it. He had a lovely day and we went to see a show at the Opera House called Eric and Little Ern - it brought back so many happy memories of Christmas Morecambe and Wise Shows.

I'd like to enter this into the following challenges

Addicted to Stamps - anything goes.

Sweet Stamps Challenge - use kraft paper.

The Kraft Journal Challenge - no pattern paper.

Pinspirational Challenge - anything goes.

That's Crafty Challenge - keep it simple.

The Paper Girls Challenge - use solid cardstock

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your week.

Hugs

Carol x