Happy Birthday Carol

Today I want to wish a very Happy Birthday to my dear Inkspirational team-mate Carol.  I really hope this card has beaten the Christmas post and made it across the Atlantic on time.

At this time of year I like to make birthday cards that could not be mistaken for Christmas cards! I used a squirrel stamp (new!!) from Clearly Besotted and a CB sentiment from another set. I used scraps of Cosmo Cricket paper and used just a tiny bit for some paper-piecing on the tail.

Have a great day Carol!

I'd like to enter:
Penny Black at Allsorts  anything goes with a stamp
SSS Monday just a pinch (of paper-piecing)
Creatalicious something old (paper) , something new (squirrel stamp)
Mod Squad  anything but a Christmas card

City Crafter - The Heat is On

Our new theme at CCCB is to use heat embossing.

For my DT card I used two different heat embossing techniques.

First I die-cut the Christmas tree pieces. Then I covered an embossing folder in Versamark clear ink and ran them through my Big Shot. Then I heat embossed with silver powder.

For my background, I stamped and embossed a Judikins background stamp with clear embossing powder , and then inked over it in purple.

Our guest designer is Susie Witter - please come over to the City Crafter Challenge Blog and see what our GD and DT have made. I hope you'll join in with the challenge. 
I'd like to enter:
Tis the Season photo
Eclectic Ellapu  die 
Eureka  non trad Christmas colours 

Make My Monday - Wings at Christmas

This is my DT card for our latest challenge at Make My Monday , 'Wings at Christmas'.

I used an image from A Day for Daisies - not specifically a Christmas image I don't think, but I thought the little sprigs she's holding could pass for mistletoe. I coloured her with markers, added lots of glitter to her wings and paper-pieced her dress.  I stamped the sentiment and die-cut some mistletoe with liquid pearl berries. Yes, there is a liquid pearl smudge on one of the leaves - it is hardly noticeable in real-life but seems to have caught the light in the photo!

I hope you'll join us at Make My Monday.

I'd like to enter:
Time Out  photo (colours)
Cute Card Thursday glitter
A Day For Daisies modern Christmas
Use Your Stuff  Christmas

In the meadow we can build two snowmen

glitter close-up!

I couldn't resist this image from 'From the Heart Stamps'. It was great to colour in, using blue and green markers and lots of Wink of Stella.

I'd like to enter:
Mod Squad all that glitters
Winter Wonderland snow people
Just add Ink photo - trees and minty green
Tuesday Throwdown snowflakes
Little Red Wagon   snow much fun

City Crafter - Winter (NOT Christmas)

Our challenge at City Crafter this week is to make a project on the theme of Winter - NOT Christmas.

Our guest designer is Daget Art - please come over to the City Crafter Challenge Blog and see what our GD and DT have made. I hope you'll join us.

I'd like to enter:
Time Out  Snowflakes are winter's butterflies (I have stamped this top left!)
4 Crafty Chicks winter
Unicorn Challenge  winter time
Crafty Calendar let it snow
Try it On Tuesday snow - thanks for the tip-off, Chrissie 

Make My Monday- White Christmas

Our new challenge at Make My Monday  is 'White Christmas'. You can interpret this as you like; some of the DT have made snowy cards, but I used a vintage image with a white on white design.

Rather disturbingly, this angel looks remarkably like my son's school friend.

Come and see us at Make My Monday , see the DT projects and join in our challenge.

I'd like to enter:
That's Crafty  season's greetings
Cardz 4 Galz vintage Christmas
Dream Valley  die cuts and punches

Trad Santa

Sometimes I worry that my Christmas cards don't look Christmassy enough...well not this one. It screams Christmas!

I've used a Santa digi from Sassy Cheryl, coloured with alcohol markers. I used a digital version of  Carta Bella Christmas Wonderland , which I 'print and cut' on the Silhouette. I added some gloss to the berries.

I'd like to enter:
Little Red Wagon  trad Christmas colours
Crafty Cardmakers  Twas the night before Christmas (Santa and the first line of the poem is on a red border at the bottom)
Cute Card Thursday  festive colours
Fantastic Tuesday Santa
Fab n Funky  Santa

Inkspirational Chocolate - Flake

Our new challenge at Inkspirational  is to be inspired by the word 'flake'.

I decided to make a picture of a lovely warm drink with a chocolate flake bar melting into it. I die cut the mug, snowflake and sentiment on the Silhouette electronic cutter but couldn't find a cutting file for a chocolate flake, so designed one myself. (I hope those of you who are familiar with the Cadbury's flake can recognise it!) 

Our Guest Designer at Inkspirational this time is the hugely talented Jane Willis . I hope you'll come and see what she, and the DT have made, and join in the challenge.

Edited to say: I don't know how the word 'chocolate' got into the title - I only noticed after it was published ! It should say Inkspirational Challenge!!! But I will leave it as it is funny, I think.)

I'd like to enter
ABC Challenge  wishes
Just Add Ink   add c - chocolate, cup, cocoa or coffee(you choose!)
Mod Squad recipe - pattern paper, glitter (on snowflake and steam) , die cut
Shopping Our Stash  no stamping
52CCT previous challenge - red, white and any colour (brown)

Empty Box Project #32- A Cheep Card

This card uses two items from my Empty Box Project box .  Both the banner and the bird were (different) magazine freebies.  The papers I used were freebies too and I think the brad was part of a Secret Santa gift I got at my scrapbooking group years ago. So this is a cheep card! (Yes, I can spell - it's a pun!)

The bird isn't actually a Christmas stamp,so I paper-pieced it to make it look more Christmassy. But, although the paper pack says it's Christmas, when I think about it, this paper could easily be used for other occasions. Thank goodness I've got the words 'Christmas Wishes' on it, or you may not know it was a Chritmas card! 

I'd like to enter:

Crafty Boots spots or dots

The Challenge  non trad Christmas card 

Naughty or Nice  wing 

Merry Monday  bird 

City Crafter Challenge Blog - 123 Tag!

This is my DT project for this week's challenge at City Crafter , where the challenge is:

Create 3 different tags, it can be Christmas gift tags or for any occasion, but have to be 3 different design and not making 3 tags of the same design.

These clean and 'simple' tags were a bit of a mare.....luckily I cut lots of base tags on my Silhouette, as at least ten of them ended up in the bin for one reason or another.  

The dogs and their accessories (which I paper-pieced) are from Memory Box and the 'do not open' stamp is an unknown wooden stamp. 

This week we have Mac  as our guest designer, so please come and check out the City Crafter  blog and join in.

I'd like to enter:
Eureka Stamps  Christmas tags
Crafting when we can  don't forget the animals
Animal Friends Christmas
Memory Box season's greetings