Christmas Cat

I said in my last post that I wasn't going to make any more cards this week or enter any more challenges as I wanted to work on updating my blog. There are do many things  that I have not discovered how to do. How to get the winners badges on my blog for a start off.  But I just had to have a go at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown -  Christmas Animals challenge. I had this little stamp of a cat for ages now and never used it so I tried to think of a way I could use it in this challenge.  I wanted to put her sitting in front of a fire, but decided making the fire would be very time consuming and it might look rubbish at the end, so I just stamped and embossed her, masked her off and then sponged a background in fire colours, I used Stampin' Up's Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil delight.  The tree is from Stampin' Up's Lovely as a tree.  This is a lovely set and I use it often. I added a little red glitter and a bow and there we are.  Quite a cheerful little card I think and the little cat looks very pleased with herself, so perhaps it is nice and warm by the 'fire'!

Funky Flowers

I have spent this weekend making a card for the latest Colours and Sketches challenge. I decided to go bold this time and have used one of my favourite colour combinations, black, white and red.

The stamps I have used are from the Funky Floral set by Crafters Companion.  The inks are from Stampin' Up, and the background papers are just from my stash.
I don't know if I will be making any more cards for challenges this week as I want to do more to my blog and I want to try some new techniques. I am expecting some new stamp sets and I want to play with them, If I make anything interesting I will post it, but I am still having problems with downloading photos from my camera onto my computer.  Very irritating. Hope you like my Funky Flowers card, I loved making it.  Crafting is much more fun than housework!!

Oakleaves

This is the card I have made for the Make My Monday heat embossing challenge.  I love heat embossing so it was good to do it again.  I especially like triple embossing so I put a little button in the corner, triple embossed and an acorn stamped into it. Great fun.

After Rudolph's card and all the measuring I decided to get away from straight lines, so I tore the background paper instead of cutting it.  I still stuck to square layers though as I wasn't quite sure what it would look like if I randomly cut or tore all the layers.  Will have to try it sometime. The topper was a technique called wet stamping.  I love doing this because you get a lovely impressionistic finish and every time you do it it is different.I used the oak leaf stamp from Stamps Away Foliage collection, stamped it with Aged Mahogany from Distress inks on to wet paper.  The colour then runs.  When it is dry you over stamp it again in black or another colour.  The background paper is made by me.  I make a lot of my background papers as although I have a lot of beautiful card and backing papers I never seem to have exactly what I want so I make my own to co-ordinate with my image.  I rubbed over the card with Aged Mahogany and Brushed Corduroy, then stamped the oak leaf from Stampin' Up's Gently Falling collection. I stamped some leaves first with Aged Mahogany then again with Versamark and embossed the leaves in gold.  I added the little triple embossed button and ribbon at the top.  The greeting is one I had in my drawer. I have enjoyed making all these cards this week.  Great fun.  Will have to do it again next week.  The house is a tip though.  Never mind.

Rudolph blacknose

I have also  made today, a card for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. (see link at side) As I was unable to do last weeks sketch challenge, I thought I would combine the two challenges and do this weeks colours of gold, black and white and last weeks layout. So here is Rudolph, but of course I couldn't give him a red nose so he has got a black one.

The stamps are from Banana Frog and they are stamped with Versamark and heat embossed in gold.  The gold card is from my stash.  This card I found a bit more work as it involved a lot of measuring and I haven't got a very straight eye so it took a lot of fiddling to get it looking  right, but  I like the end result now.  Tomorrow I hope to make another couple of cards for more challenges. Oh dear, am I getting the bug?

Love in pink

Hooray!!!  I have spent the day crafting.  I have been unable to make cards for the last two weeks as I have been so busy and I spent a few hours at the weekend trying to put more things on my blog, like my profile, a badge from a blog I follow and a picture of my dog Merlin.  No success I'm afraid, so I am going to have to seek more help from my good friend Jacqueline or Louise.  So I decided to give up blogging for a bit and concentrate of crafting.  Here is the card I have made for the Colours and sketches challenge this week.

I have used the Everything Eleanor stamp set from Stampin' Up.  I love this set and use it a lot.  The inks are Rich Razzleberry  and Blushing Bride from Stampin' Up and a Distress ink Shabby Shutters. It was a lot of fun to make and the colours are lovely.
Thank you to everyone who has been putting comments on my blog and thank you to my followers. It is really lovely to receive all your comments and encouragement.and I will try and reply to them sometime and of course follow you.  It is so interesting seeing other peoples designs. This blogging lark is certainly a challenge in itself, but lots of fun.

Little Brown Mouse

I managed to get my kingfisher onto the Make My Monday Challenge blog, but I needed Jacqueline's help again. Thanks Jacqueline.  Just to see if I have got the idea now, and to try and cement the procedure I am going to try and submit my little brown mouse card.

Again I have used Stamps Away Wildlife series, which are lovely.  The oak leaves are Stamps Away too, which I embossed with clear embossing powder and brushed over with gold mica powder to give them a sheen. The background is coloured with Distress inks and embossed with a leaf embossing folder, gold mica powder again brushed over. The greeting is one from Stampin' Up. Hope you like it.

Kingfisher Card for Make My Monday

Well here is my first attempt at blogging on my own. My good friend Jacqueline, very kindly designed this blog for me and gave me a lot of instructions yesterday, which I wrote down and now got to try and interpret. I am very nervous in case this doesnt work.
 Here is a card I have made for Make My Monday - the challenge this week is Inspired By Nature.

I have used a stamp from Stamps Away the Pilkington Wildlife Riverside set. I used Distressed inks for the background and water colour pencils to colour in the Kingfisher. The greeting is from Stampin' Up.  
Now lets see if I can send this card to the Make My Monday challenge blog!