Merry Christmas!

 The month of December has arrived and there are just a matter of days until Santa arrives.  Obviously there can only be one theme for this month's: Christmas.

We'd love to see your Christmas projects, so please do play along with us - we love to see what you make.  Pop over to the Sweet Stampin' blog to check out the details and see the Sweeties' inspiration makes.

I used the very popular postage stencils for my DT card.  I went for a dark background for dramatic impact and thoroughly enjoyed putting this card together.  The stamped sentiment is from a Waffle Flower set which has matching dies that are so useful.  I also added a couple of clear droplets for a bit of extra something.  

Hope your Christmas preparations are going well and we look forward to seeing your projects over on the blog.

xxx

Christmas - Sweet Stampin' December Challenge

 In just over a couple of weeks we'll be celebrating Christmas 2023 so there can only be one challenge theme at Sweet Stampin' this month.  Our challenge will run throughout December, so keep your creations coming in!

Here's my DT card

My mojo has been AWOL for most of this year but I loved making this.  I'm hooked on Taylored Expressions Create in Quads stencils which give you 4 designs on one A4 sheet.  For this card I went for a different scheme for me (I'm usually a red and green kinda gal), using Cobalt and Stardust inks from the Stamp Market and Concord & 9th respectively, adding white pigment ink for contrast.  I stamped a sentiment from Avery Elle and heated embossed in gold.

I found some matching blue card to layer with the Lawn Fawn kraft cardstock and completed the look by adding some Glossy Accents on the Stardust stencilled dots.

It would be great if you would play along with us at Sweet Stampin' this month. All the details are on the blog along with some fabby inspiration makes from the team.

Have a lovely weekend

xxx

It's still Christmas!

 Just popping in to say a belated Merry Christmas and to give you a gentle reminder that there is still plenty of time to enter the Christmas challenge at Sweet Stampin'.

Thought I'd share another card from the not-posted-yet box!

I don't normally go for tiny stamps but this MFT set really appealed to me, so I made a few of these cards in different, non-traditional colours.  The green gems are the same colour as the glitter paper in real life but they don't look like that in my photos!

Hope everyone is having a lovely, relaxing holiday.

xxx

It's Christmas!

 Christmas will be here before we know it, so this Sweet Stampin' challenge will last for the whole month of December.  No surprises what our theme is - it's Christmas!

My crafty time in 2022 has been fairly limited due to one thing and another, so this year's cards are mostly of the CAS variety.  This has given me the opportunity to show some love to some neglected stamps as well as use up quite a bit of cardstock and design paper.

I chose one of the Pure Innocence MFT stamps for my DT card as they are pretty quick and easy to colour with my Copics.  I added glossy accents to give the lights on her antlers and her red nose a bit of shine.  I find the sentiments in these sets sit perfectly underneath the main image and are a real time-saver.  The cardstock is from my stash as is the design paper (some Magnolia paper from way back when).

It would be great if you could play along with us this month as we love to see your makes.  All the challenge details, plus DT projects from both Team Susan and Team Wends, are here.

Have a lovely weekend

xxx

Anything Christmas Goes!

 It's exam time at school and the quarter finals of Strictly take place tonight but I feel like the usual signs of the Christmas countdown have eluded me this year.  I really need to get a move on with my cards and shopping if I'm going to get everything done in time.

We're winding up our crafty year at Sweet Stampin' with the theme of Anything Goes at Christmas, so as long as there is stamping on your creation, anything Christmassy can be entered into the challenge.

I loved making this card, so much so that it lessened the guilt of paying a silly amount of postage to buy the stamp from  Simon Says Stamp in the USA.  I stamped the red rubber image onto Hero Arts black watercolour paper using Versamark ink before heat embossing in with Lawn Fawn gold powder.  I used a variety of glittery paints including Gansai Tambi  and some lovely ones I got on Etsy, plus some glitter brush pens.

The sentiment is one of my better efforts at hot foiling.  The hot foiling, it's fair to say, isn't going well with most of my attempts being tossed into the wood burner.  However, this one gave me some hope that I can eventually master this particular art.

I made an A2 card base from black cardstock and adhered the image and sentiment to cover the whole front.  Job done.

I really hope you can join in this final challenge of 2021.  All of the details are over at the Sweet Stampin' blog and you'll also find lots of lovely inspiration from my wonderful teamies.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.  Stay safe.

xxx

Use Red at Sweet Stampin'

 Happy Saturday!  The realisation that in 7 weeks it will be Christmas Day has hit me this morning.  I've done little to no crafting since I moved house 3 months ago so once again my colleagues at work will be getting cards courtesy of John Lewis or M&S.  Hopefully I'll be able to get a couple more cards made for family and besties over the next weekend or two. 

As luck would have it our new challenge at Sweet Stampin' is a lovely colour one which is perfect for Christmas - Use Red. I sometimes have to challenge myself not to use red when I'm colouring Christmas images, so this theme suited me down to the ground.

For the background I used a much-loved stamp from Wplus9 with Speckled Egg Distress Oxide ink.  I loaded up the ink quite thickly hoping that I would just have to stamp it once. At first I thought I'd have to re-do it as it gave a very uneven finish, but as it dried the ink started to look like a frosty window pane.  I do like a crafty happy accident!

I coloured my MFT skater girl with Copics using R32, R35, R37 and R39.  I wanted to keep the palette quite limited, so I went for red all over her clothes and added some detail with a white Posca pen.  A bit of silver glitter pen on the blades of her skates and I was done.

I hope you can join our challenge this fortnight over at Sweet Stampin'.  You'll find lovely inspiration projects from my Team Susan teamies over at the blog here.

Have a fabulous weekend and if the weather with you is anything like it is here, stay cosy!

xxxx

Last Minute Christmas... part 2

 Following on from my previous post for Sweet Stampin's Last Minute Christmas challenge, I thought I'd share some of the other versions I made of the original design.

The first card follows the same recipe as the original card but in dark blue this time, with some of the flowers enhanced with Copic colouring.

The next card has been white heat embossed on light blue card, with Copic colouring not just on the flowers but on the leaves and stems as well using a teal-green shade.

To change things up a bit I gold heat-embossed the stamped panel on black cardstock before cutting with a wavy die.  The panel underneath has been heat embossed with the same gold powder and I've added black pearls here and there.  Just need to choose a sentiment and this one is done.

Finally I used the matching stencil and various colours of Nuvo Glitter Paste.  I gold heat-embossed a sentiment on a strip of heavyweight vellum and wrapped this round the front of the card.

I'd like to try gold glitter paste on red or black cardstock next but as I have to do my crafting in the kitchen, it may be a while before I get round to it. No one is going to appreciate glitter paste in their mince pies!

Take care and stay safe xx  

A little more Mo!

 My Mo Manning obsession continues!  Today I'm sharing more of her Christmas images which I just couldn't resist!

I coloured the presents and tree with Copics and added sparkly detail with Sakura glitter pens.  I'd like to enter this card in the December challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil (Anything Goes).

Have a lovely evening!

xx

Christmas Joy

 I  bought this MFT die set a while back and then didn't get round to using it straightaway.  When I did, I felt that the coloured cardstock still looked a bit flat and uninspiring.  However, while procrastinating on the computer I found Yana Smakula's "colouring on coloured cardstock" posts and out came those die cut pieces I'd put away.

My initial reservations about colouring on coloured cardstock were largely unfounded. I still wouldn't recommend it for colouring an entire scene but for shading and light layers, it's just fine.  I used the cardstock itself as my lightest colour and added depth with darker greens in the YG90 family. I found two offeset layers of the wreath worked well but you could use an extra layer if you wanted even more dimension.

I wanted the Joy diecut sentiment to have some dimension, too so I cut it 3 times and glued the layers together.  I only coloured the top one and created an ombré effect by using the same Copic colours as the wreath. I started with YG99 at the bottom of the letters, gradually fading out with lighter colours  and leaving the very top portion in the cardstock's original colour.

I wanted to keep a good amount of white space so I just dotted a few contrasting enamel dots here and there.

Possibly not something for mass production as it takes a bit of time, but I'm tempted to give this a try in non-traditional colours.  What do you think?

Stay safe xxx

Another one for the pile...

 Christmas card production is now officially in full swing at Trayner Towers.  I'm not sending nearly as many as I usually would for obvious reasons and that has taken the pressure off somewhat.

It's a cute LotV reindeer today - easy and quick to colour, perfect for last-minute makes.  I used some Magnolia paper from my stash that had already been cut out and distressed with Antique Linen ink, and when I say already, I suspect I did this several years ago!  The things you find when you decide to go through your stash drawers... and boxes... and tupperware 😉

More Marvelous Mo

 I told you I'd gone Mo Manning mad!  Here's another of her fab Christmas gnomes that I coloured with Copics and Sakura glitter pens.

I changed the colours for this one, going for R32, R35, R37, R39 for the main part of his cloak and W0, W and W3 for the trim.  All the greens are from th YG90 family and his beard was coloured with C0, C1 and C2.

Have a lovely day!

xx

Christmassy Red and White

 I'm up particularly early and, to be honest, finding excuses to not do school work!

I thought I'd share another addition to the Christmas card pile

I still love my hAnglar & StAnglar etched rubber stamps even though I don't use them nearly as much as I used to.  They are back in business after a long break and now have new stamps plus old favourites in photopolymer. Unfortunately shipping is expensive but those stamps are so tempting!

I coloured the image with Copics, stamped, coloured and fussy cut the holly and used paper and an embellie from my stash.

I haven't entered a challenge for a while, so I'd like to enter this in the Merry Little Christmas Challenge.

Have a lovely day xx

Four weeks to go!

 I can't believe that it's only 4 weeks to Christmas.  I'm pretty much done as far as shopping is concerned but seriously behind on the cards, so it's time for a huge effort over the next couple of weekends.

I've really fallen for some of the Mo Manning digi stamps, especially the gnomes and the trees.  

I've coloured a few versions of this gnome, so there will be more to follow.

While I'm here can I give you a reminder of our latest challenge at Sweet Stampin'?  This week's theme is spots and stripes, so do play along if you can.

See you again later on this week.

Stay safe xx

Wishing you Peace, Love and Joy

Here's another Christmas make.  No colouring on this one, just stamping & embossing using an Altenew stamp set.

I didn't have cardstock to match the blue ink, so I rubbed the ink pad over some plain white card to get the colour I needed.  I love this sentiment and have used it loads - it's from a Wplus9/Simon Says Stamp collaboration set.

This was the first chance I had to play with this stamp set but I quite fancy trying it with gold ink on black or  navy cardstock.

Back soon with another Christmas card!

xx

Merry Christmas!

Hope you've had a lovely Christmas. I thought I'd share a box card that I made using the gorgeous MFT stamps which were released recently.

Apologies for the photos - a combination of poor light and the boxes being a bugger to photograph!

I'll be back soon with some more Christmas makes.  Enjoy the rest of the holiday.

xx

Challenges entered:  Allsorts Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
                                  Merry Little Christmas - Anything Goes
                                  Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes

A Christmas Cracker

I've been looking through a box of stamped images and came across this cute James the Bear.

I cut the mats from my new Waffle Flower dies - love these dies for getting evenly spaced cardstock layers.  I coloured James with my Copics and added white and gold Glamour Dust for some Christmas sparkle.  A touch of Glossy Accents on his nose and job done!

Have a great weekend!

Messing about

I've been experimenting with ways to use up my unloved stash of glitters and embossing powder and decided to try something different with this wood block trees stamp.

The first card features a combination of embossing powders to create an image in alternative Christmas colours.

For the second card I experimented with frantage - I've got pots of the stuff and haven't used any of it in ages.  The photo doesn't do it justice but I was pleasantly surprised at how the card turned out.

Not entirely sure what to do with the remaining ton of powder but at least this is a start!

Tracey

Colour therapy

I can only go so long without going back to my favourite colour combinations.  This little cutie from Lili of the Valley was just crying out for some bright green and pink!

My Copic YG21, YG23 and YG25 are almost always in use and I love them with the RV pinks in either the 20's or the 50's and 60's.

Another Christmas card done.  Or at least, it is now.  I forgot to colour the penguin's nose before I took the photo!

Tracey

Quick and Easy Cards Part 2

Following on from my post about using up my rub on and sticker stash,  here are a couple of cards I made with some more Anna Griffin rub ons.

I was tempted just to apply the bold sentiments directly to a card base but instead opted for a layered look and some sequins.  The Ho Ho Ho card actually features an ink-blended mat gone-wrong but the rub on covers the dodgy blending really well.

Quick, easy and perfect for a crafty fix when I'm late home from work.

Tracey

Lovely as a Tree

Some stamps just don't date.  This one, Lovely as a Tree from Stampin' Up, is one of my all-time favourites.

I love black and gold, especially for Christmas and other celebration cards.  Plus heat embossing for a CAS look is perfect when time is short and you want to get some batch card-making done.  I used Lawn Fawn gold embossing powder to emboss the tree and the Wplus9 sentiment.

And talking of batch card-making, I made some in red, too.

Have a great weekend.

Tracey