Festive Sketch

I had some time on the weekend to make a few cards, but for some reason didn't get to upload them!  I made this one on Friday night using the sketch from Festive Friday Challenge.  

I turned the sketch on it's side because I wanted to use this stamp from Tags til Christmas, I chose not to use the "to from" on the stamp so coloured it with markers and then added the Merry Christmas from the Petite Pairs stamp set. I used the new Christmas paper Be of Good Cheer DSP - I just love the Christmas paper this year, so bright and happy. Primary colours are Gumball Green and Cherry Cobbler with Very Vanilla as the neutral.  I used one of the new Vintage Faceted Designer Buttons (love these) and a small Cherry Cobbler button as my accents.  The Vintage Faceted button has a small circle of Cherry Cobbler behind it to add some colour. 

Happy Stamping

Non-Traditional Christmas

It is not often I have been able to create mid week, however tonight I was browsing through my favourite challenge blogs and came across the Festive Friday Challenge, which this week had an interesting colour combo to use. Not traditional colours at all for a Christmas card, but I liked the look of the samples done by the design team.  Then I went looking for a sketch to inspire me and came across the Just Us Girls sketch, so I combined the two challenges to create a mid-week card!

For this card I have used the Delicate Doilies stamp set for the background, stamped in Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride.  I wanted to keep a vintagey feel to the card so embossed the ornament in a mix of Dazzling Diamonds and Clear Embossing Powder then added some pearls and twine.  The sentiment is from the Curly Cute set of sentiments

Happy Stamping

Christmas Yummies

Christmas Yummies was my first thought when I saw the inspirational photo at Paper Lovin' Gals this week.  Cooking treats is one of my favourite things about Christmas, I am a little behind the cooking this Christmas, but I do have my dried fruit soaking ready to make my pudding and fruit mince pies this weekend.  Then the Rum Balls and White Christmas (the closest thing we have to snow in Australia!), my daughter and I often cook together and sing "It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas" as the aromas of baking pies and rum balls fill the air.  Anyway ... that is what this picture reminded me of ... what does it make you think of?  How does it inspire you to create? Come play along this week at Paper Lovin' Gals.

I knew I wanted to use the little snowman out of the Tags Til Christmas set, and played around with a few ideas until it came to me to use him as decoration on the icing of a cupcake!!!  The icing on the biscuits at the front of the photo reminded me of show and so I replicated this in the two snowflakes on the card.  Ever since I started playing with the Silver Glimmer paper I have not been able to put it down!  On the centre circle I have sponged the edges which I think worked quite well, though you may need to click on the photo to see it properly.

I hope you have been inspired to join in this week, if you need a bit more pop over to Paper Lovin' Gals and see what the other Design Team members have created.

Happy Stamping

Colours of Christmas

Don't you find that at this time of year time goes so fast!  It went so fast for me that I completely missed last week's challenge at Paper Lovin' Gals! This week there is a great inspirational photo to inspire creativity, a bit different to what you might see in an Aussie Christmas, although we have had some unseasonably cold weather lately.

I love inspirational photos because there is no limitations, whatever the photo inspires you to create is just fine, whether it is colours, layout, theme, or one element of the picture. Let this picture inspire you and join us in this week's challenge. I love the colours in this picture and it made me want to use my favourite Christmas colours, which just happens to be the challenge theme for Stampin Up Only Challenges. 

From the picture I was also quite taken with the windows, and wanted to recreate them in some way on my card.  I used the Lace Ribbon Border Punch to make the frame, I have seen this done with smaller border punches and just wanted to give it a go with this one.  You need to start with a 5" square piece of card stock and punch once in the middle of each side.  In the corners I have used the Postage Stamp Punch in Cherry Cobbler and then the 1" Square Punch in the centre of each.  Can you pick what I punched out?   It is the ornament punch in the Tags 'Til Christmas stamp set, isn't it cute? I also used this set to stamp the feature in the centre of the card, and backed this with a stamped doily from Delicate Doilies. I finished off with some Rhinestones to add a bit of bling.

Happy Stamping

Fancy Fold Christmas

A couple of years ago I recieved a Christmas card and the design had me intrigued, so I kept the card and recently used it as the make and take for a workshop I had with a couple of friends.  I just love cards that look a bit different, and this one is no exception.

The top picture is the card closed up, I had to put it into a bag so I could take the photo, these cards just don't like being contained!  You can see what it looks like in the bottom picture, it sits up on the front point.  You can embellish the sides of the card, or as I did, use a decorative paper as a feature.  I used the stamp from Tags til Christmas that goes with the Ornament Punch, and embossed it in gold, and embellished it with pearls.  

Here is another one I made with the Jolly Holiday DSP from last catalogue.  These cards will fit into a regular C6 envelope for easy posting.

Happy Stamping