Altenew Weekend Doodles and Neat and Tangled Bloom Where You are Planted general card

Hello friends and welcome to the first Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge of the new year. Sadly, we have said goodbye to some great team members who are moving on to new things and I wish them great success in their new ventures. After having technical gremlins at the end of last year, our lovely leader, Kylie, has managed to sort things out and hopefully things will run smoothly from now on.

For this challenge we want you to 'make your mark' in any way you choose. In case you are new to the challenge, the rules say

Make your Mark - your entry MUST contain the use of anything that can make a mark - Stampin' Write, Copics, Promarkers, Painting, Chalks, Watercolours, Sponges, Stencils, Masks etc etc

so that gives you plenty of scope.

I came up with this general encouragement card that can be used for many occasions depending on what I stamp inside

I used one of the flower stamps from my newAltenew Weekend Doodles set 

and stamped multiple times around the edge of a card panel to create a frame. I coloured with Copics and then cut the centre out with scissors to create the frame.

I chose some coordinating card for the background and embossed the sentiment from the Neat and Tangled Bloom stamp set in white.

To finish off I added a few clear sequins which are very useful because you can put them on any colour of card and see through to the base colour, and I winked the centre of the flowers for some subtle sparkle.

We have several new team members who have inspiration cards to show you over on the ATSM blog and it would be great if you give them a nice welcome.

I'd like to play along at

Allsorts Challenge #554 - say it with flowers

Dream Valley Challenges #216 - something new (flower stamp)

Path of Positivity Challenge #76 - I did not go for the optional twist character traits

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Carol x

Altenew Plentiful Pine Christmas card

Hello everyone and welcome to the first Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge of the year. If you are joining us for the first time, we are an anything goes as long as it's Christmas challenge, but each month we have a fun twist that you can use to give yourself some inspiration or step outside of your comfort zone. Our first optional twist is 'trim the tree' and I cheated a bit because I don't think these lovely layered trees need any trimming so I left them completely bare!

This design is particularly useful for mass production and is fairly flat for cheaper posting. I don't know about you but I was completely shocked at the total I paid for postage last year and I must be more mindful when I make cards throughout 2020. Such a shame because I love lots of dimension on cards!

As one of my crafty resolutions is to practice more with layered stamps, I used the Altenew Plentiful Pine stamp set for the trees, and the sentiment is from an old Papertrey Ink set called Trimming the Tree. I don't have the dies for this stamp set so I tried cutting them out with my Scan n Cut. I think it did a pretty good job but I've signed up for an Udemy course and hopefully, I'll get better at using it. I used the PTI Canvas and Linen Impression plate on the panel for some texture and inked around the edge to help it stand out on the card in the absence of a mat.

Why not pop over to the HLS Blog to see lots of inspiration from the team?

I'd like to play along at

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics Challenge#1 - anything festive goes

Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #202 - Tis the Season

Thanks for stopping by

Hugs

Carol x

Papertrey Ink and Tonic Studio Sending Best Wishes masculine 40th birthday card

Hello friends and welcome to the first Simply Create Too challenge of the year.

For this challenge, we'd like to see a monochrome creation for any occasion you choose.

My eldest son had a significant birthday just after Christmas so I came up with this masculine design for him. I can't believe I have a 40-year-old son - how did that happen???

I used a mix of dies for this one. The background was created using my new Tonic Studio Sending Best Wishes set. I die cut the triangles from black card and then embossed them with the embossing folder in the set. They were placed on a textured silver die-cut square, leaving a gap between them for the numbers.

The star and sentiments are from Papertrey Ink and I put them on foam tape to give some dimension.

I do hope you will visit the blog and leave my talented teammates some good cheer to start off the new year. I can't wait to see what you come up with.

I'd like to play along at

Seize the Birthday Challenge #180 - layer it

Die Cut Divas January Challenge - new things

Creative Knockouts #331 - anything goes

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Carol x

My Favorite Things Santa's Elves Christmas card

Happy New Year!

I hope you've all had a wonderful New Year celebration and there are no sore heads this morning after the night before!

We are at the start of ABC Christmas Challenges 11th Year and we have got some fabulous fun Christmas theme prompts coming to you over the next 12 months. Why not join us in keeping the Christmas spirit going and start as you mean to go on by getting your 2020 Christmas cards started.

Our themes this time are

A for Anything Christmas  goes

and

B for Bingo

Our lovely Helen is the hostess this month 

and she has a gorgeous stamp set prize for 2 winners.

I decided to go for the bingo and used the left-hand column - patterned paper - lots of layers - die-cut,  and came up with this card which will be great for the children.

I used the MFT Diagonal Sentiment Strip Cover-Up die over some red spotty paper for the background, and a sentiment from Happy Little Stampers.

The little elf is from the MFT Santa's Elves stamp set and I coloured it with Copics and a little white gel pen. That elf stamp set is one of my absolute favourites and I must make more use of it this year.

I hope you will visit my Design Teamies for some inspiration over on the blog and you can link up your entry over there.

I'd like to wish you all a very happy, healthy and crafty new year!

I'd like to play along at

Fezziwigs Festive Frolics Challenge #1 - anything festive goes.

Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #202 - Tis the Season.

Sparkles Christmas Challenge #108 - for a child

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Carol x

Top 10 Favorite cards 2019

Hello friends,

I'm back with my favourite non-Christmas cards of 2019 to share in this lull between Christmas and New Year. They are in no particular order and there is a link for each card that will take you to the original post if you want to see more information about them.

We needed several new baby cards this year and I really liked how this one turned out. It almost ended up in the bin because I messed up when colouring the cute bunny. Instead, I stamped and coloured another one which I glued at the bottom to give a bit of dimension and I was quite pleased with the 'save'!




This second card is the one I made for my Granddaughter's first birthday. She loves looking at the Very Hungry Caterpillar book so this was ideal for her. I used the Silhouette Cameo to cut the caterpillar, letters and the cloud-shaped top. I really enjoyed inking that sky!





I needed to make a big card for my friend Zoe who had a big spring birthday this year. We are in the same reading group and it needed to be big enough for all the group to sign. I used an 8x8 inch card base and the Papertrey Ink Tulip Time stamps and dies to create the bouquet which was perfect for the season, and as I need a lot of practice with layering stamps, I was pleased with how the tulips turned out.




This one is a very simple card but I was so pleased with how the inky background paper turned out. The anchor came free with a magazine and I cut it and stacked it four times before adding glossy accents to give it an enamelled look.





I made this card for my youngest son's birthday. He occasionally does some DJ work so I was delighted to find this turntable die from MFT. I made it into a DJ double deck and used double-sided card so that it will fold up to go in an envelope. I tell you, small things make me happy and I love that the records go round and the arms move off and on the record lol!





I love the WPlus9 Unforgettable stamp set with the adorable elephant in it and pulled it out again to make this new baby card. You just can't go wrong with this set and I just inked up a sky background for him to come floating from with his bunch of balloons.




I practised again with layering stamps on this Peruvian Lily get well card. The stamp set is from the Altenew Build a Flower series and this is a favourite cutting flower in my garden. I let the large flower take centre stage and just added a little inking behind it.




 I think this card is my favourite of the year. I have always wanted the Lawn Fawn Vegtastic stamp set but it was retired before I was able to get it and I haven't seen it for sale second hand either. So, I was delighted when Lawn Fawn came up with the Be Hap-pea set and I had such fun making this one. Love the background MFT All Lined up stamp too.





I don't often use patterned paper but it worked really well on this bright and cheery birthday card. I used the Simon Says Stamp Birthday Borders set and added glossy accents and glitter to the candle flames.



Now I know my final card is the same overall design as the anchor card above,
but those sweet little love birds and the hearts really please me so I had to include this one too.




Well, that is my selection for this year and my take away lesson from going through all my cards is to be more adventurous and try some new techniques. I also want to practice more with all the layering stamps I have that I just can't seem to line up properly. Oh, and I have to spend some time learning how to use the Scan n Cut. It's got to pay for itself by helping me cut down on my die purchases this year lol!

Have a Happy New Year.

Hugs
Carol xxx

Top 10 favourite Christmas cards of 2019

Hello friends,

I hope you've had a peaceful Christmas and you were on the nice list so that Santa brought you lots of crafty goodies to play with over the coming months. I was a lucky girl and got some long wanted items that I can't wait to get into.

The past few months have been very hectic for me so I haven't had as much time to craft and blog as I would want but I'd like to thank you for sticking with me. I truly appreciate your visits, comments and support, and I really value our little crafting community. In this hiatus between Christmas and New Year, I like to have a look back at my crafty year and pick my top ten favourites Christmas cards before we are sick of seeing them. Here they are, in no particular order and there is a link on each card to the original post if you want more information.

I really like the foliage from Papertrey Ink on this first card and I was pleased with how the layers of gloss on the berries turned out.

I love kraft cards and was pleased with how easy it was to die cut the Crafter's Companion Nordic birds from burlap on this one




I made this card for a particular friend who is a true doggie person and I love how it turned out. The doggie is from the My Favorite Things Pawlidays stamp set which is just gorgeous.




I love a wreath card at Christmas and I stretched my supplies by cutting some Memory Box poinsettia dies to stick onto this non-Christmas wreath from Pinkresh Studio. This one was for hand delivery because of the dimension of the flowers.




I had to have this Bright Rosa die set when I saw the designer, Paula Pascual, demonstrate it on Hochanda. I love the shape and it was a great background for one of My Favourite Things Santa's Elves.




Above, I mentioned how I value the blogging community spirit and this card is an example of it in action. I saw a card using this set on Stephanie's blog and commented on how I loved it. The set was retired but Stephanie kindly sent some of the images which she stamped for me all the way from the USA!! The cool Santa really cracks me up with his shades on and for this cardI put him on an action wobbler so his head shakes - small things make me happy lol!

I really enjoyed building up the layers of the nativity scene from Papertrey Ink's Scene it: Bethlehem set for this card, and I like how the stencilled rays set the scene.

I love the foliage again on this simple card using the Papertrey Ink Bold Borders: Yuletide die. This card is quite flat and therefore easy to post which is important when sending out a lot of cards.




I fell in love with this snowflake wreath die from Christina Griffiths and although I had some trouble cutting it from glitter card because of it's intricate nature, it went through mirror card like butter. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.





I think this final choice is my favourite Christmas card of the year. The polar bears from Penny Black are adorable and I really enjoyed colouring the image and making the sky and woodland background for them. I didn't even want to give this one away lol!




Well, that's my selection and the lessons I need to take away for this year are to
make more multiple copies whilst I have the supplies out, and to bear in mind postage costs when I'm adding embellishments with gay abandon.

I'll be back soon with my non-Christmas favourites.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs
Carol xxx

MFT Sweet Holiday Penguins and PTI Candy Cane Christmas card

Hello everyone and welcome to the last Christmas Challenge of the year from Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge. Can you believe it is only 21 sleeps to the big day? 

Our final challenge of the year is Candy Cane but of course, you can enter any Christmas card if that doesn't tickle your fancy.

I came up with this card

I cut the MFT Peekaboo Wonky Window from a panel of card and embossed it with the PTI Canvas and Linen Impression Plate.  Then I created a little snow scene to go behind it and added the Sweet Holiday Penguin which I die cut and coloured with Copics before adding some glitter to the hat. I stamped and cut the PTI Candy Canes, arranged them to create a frame around the image, and finished off with a sentiment from the penguin stamp set.

I hope you have a lovely run up with all your preparations, and if you pop over to the HLS blog, you will find lots of inspiration for your last minute cards.

Thank you for your visits and support of the challenge, we really do appreciate it.

I'd like to play along at

Cardz4guyz challenge #234 - Christmas critters

Creative Inspirations Challenge December - Festive fun

Christmas with the Cuties Challenge #33 - show us your Santa hats

Hugs

Carol x