Perfectly Preserved Thank You

Now that Christmas has been and gone it's time to send those thank you cards for all those lovely presents you have received.  My inspiration for my cards this year is the sketch over at CAS Colours and Sketches this week.  Here it is

For my card I have rotated the central shape as I wanted to use the jar and alium images from the Perfectly Preserved set. I stamped and cut out the Thank You sentiment and popped it up on dimensionals.

I used some more DSP from the Festival of Prints set - I love these papers, the only problem is deciding which side to use! Here I chose a paper which I thought complimented the stamped image best. I sponged the edges lightly with wisteria wonder
I am, of course, writing this post before Christmas as I won't have time to create any cards with all the excitement of the whole family at home. I hope that you have had a wonderful time and that Santa brought you some fab (crafting) gifts.

Charming Colour Challenge

As the big day gets closer I thought I would share something not at all seasonal.  This card was designed with the colours from Colours and Sketches in mind - So Saffron, Pool Party and Night of Navy (don't worry if you don't have these exact SU shades - I didn't!)

I used a stamp from a SU set called Charming.  First time I overstamped the image in the three colours, but this got a bit messy, rather than CAS, so then I redid it using masks. I stamped extras and fussy cut them. I matted my homemade DSP onto a white card blank and popped the extras up using dimensionals.  Finally I stamped the sentiment, from Sassy Salutations, onto more white CS, fussy cut it out and overlapped it.  I think this will be a great card in the spring time.

Cat under the Mistletoe

I made another Christmas card for the challenge at Colours and Sketches for a little mid-challenge motivation.  Actually, last week I forgot that I had made the original Pheasant Tile card and panicked, thinking that I didn't have a DT card to show you! I thought I would share my little cat card on my blog anyway before I  give it to my sister who is in every way cat crazy.

As you can see I made the card blank out of Kraft CS and stamped the cat image onto Naturals White CS. I added the mistletoe image from a set  I have borrowed from a fellow member of the DT, coloured it in using my Promarkers and added little pearl berries.  I layered this onto Lucky Limeade CS and put a banner of matching DSP to complete the sketch. The silver bow is for Christmas sparkle. Happy Christmas!

It's a Cracker!

Old joke, if you live in the UK! But this week's challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown is a cracker - literally.  We want to see your designs featuring crackers. It's our last challenge for 2012, the DT are going to take a little bit of a Christmas break, but we will be back with more Christmas card challenges in January (yes, that was January I said).
I decided to try a shaped card and used some green card stock to form the card base.  You can buy great shaped cards but I wanted to try to do it myself.

I covered the inside of the card with stripy DSP from SU and stamped a small postage stamp style sentiment. Then I added my decorations- just like decorating the real tree. They are little 3D stickers that my husband popped in my Christmas stocking last year.  Admittedly there were only 4 crackers in the packet but I've added a few stars, candy canes and a cute little gingerbread man.I matched the colours of the paper I used to the colours of the stickers. To be honest, it looks a lot like my own tree, which is decorated by the whole family with a collection of things we have amassed over the years, including spiders' webs, polar bears, birds of all sorts, beaded snowfkakes, tiny shoes, a precious reindeer which is from my childhood Christmas tree.  Do you have a tree like this?  Perhaps you  go for the colour coordinated look of matching bows and baubles?  Either way I am sure your tree looks gorgeous.
A happy and peaceful Christmas to my small but beautiful bunch of followers and to all of you crafters out there in Blogland
Louise xx

Colours and Sketches #3

It's our third week at Colours and Sketches - the new challenge blogs for lovers of the CAS style. This week it's a sketch challenge -

As you will see, I've taken a bit of a liberty and used an oval rather than the rectangle, but you can stil easily recognise the sketch.

I started with the pheasant 'tile'.  I first stamped the pheasant and grasses images onto a piece of mount board and then used distress inks to add colour, one was Moss green and the other I forget! Then, using first fine clear embossing powder and then ultra thick I built up several layers on the top, creating a ceramic tile effect. The rest was easy! Some red cardstock, and two matching DSPs from Stampin' Up.  I haven't added a sentiment as I wasn't sure whether I wanted to use this as a Christmas card or as a (male) birthday card, so I will probably stamp the required one inside at the time of sending!. Here's a close up of that tile.

Do have a look at our new challenge blog, the other members of the DT also have created some fab cards with this sketch.

All In a Row

I am always inspired by the fabulous cards at Less Is More, the DT there are so talented and the many entries each week are all inspiring. I keep trying to match the high standards and this week I've had another try at a one layer card. When I first started crafting these terrified me, but now I quite often make them, there is something very CAS about a one layer.  This is probably one of my most minimalist cards ever!

The theme is All in a Row, and this stamp image came to mind. I've not used it before but bought it because I have seven little adorable pet quails and I hadn't found a quail stamp before. I first masked off most of the card and stamped the Daddy quail in Versamark, heat embossing him in silver. Then I masked him off and stamped the whole image again. This time I heat embossed Mummy quail and the babies in copper.  I have added some shading with a Promarker.  I have thought and thought about a sentiment, but I think it just doesn't need one - I'll add something inside later. This is my favourite LIM card from my efforts so far.  Hope you like it too.

White on White

Feeling Christmassy yet?  It' s only two weeks away, today! I have so much to do but still found a little time to craft today, on my day off, and so I have a card to show you.  This time it's for the White on White Christmas challenge at Make My Monday. I really love to do white on white, but don't often get chance to do it so this was a good excuse.

I hope you can see the 'falling snow' -polka dot embossed cardstock at the top, then I've used two torn layered pieces of white card for 'drifting snow' and the bottom layer is white frosty glitter.  The three 3D baubles are stamped and heat  embossed in Snowflake White.  They are from the Ornament Keepsake set. I've just added some white ribbon hangers.  I must be dreaming of a white Christmas!

Monochrome Christmas

Colour week at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown and a bit of a monochromatic theme going on, we want to see your creations using only black white and metallic of choice.Here's a photo inspiration to help: 

I've just realised it's another tree, albeit not a traditional tree, I must have a subconscious thing with trees going on at the moment! This is one of the first stamps I bought, from Kanban and I've simply stamped it in black and added silver stickles and gems to each of the 'flowers' It really does sparkle with silver in real life, although it's difficult to see it here. I was disappointed with the quality of my black inks.  I used a variety of brands, as I'm making a few of these cards for my son's fundraising efforts, and this one- a cheap non-branded one, was the best so far.  Can anyone recommend a really black black ink stamp.  I've asked Father Christmas to pop an Adirondack one in my stocking as I've heard they are quite good. I digress. Then I stamped my favourite sentiment from Sassy Salutations and framed it with two lines of black glitter. A simple, one layer card.

Christmas Sparkle

This was one challenge I didn't want to miss- Sparkle!  I can't resist sparkle of any kind, from diamond to glitter it all does it for me!  so here's my card for the challenge this week at Casolgy;

I actually used a sketch from the Merry Monday Challenge and as this week the challenge allows you to use any of their past sketches I have entered the challenge over there too.  This is the sketch I used, although I have rotated it.

I used Naturals White card stock to make a card base and matted some deep red pearlised card onto it Then I cut a shape from gold embossed vellum and added a piece of ribbon with a sentiment on it, cream and gold to match the colours.  I cut out two Christmas tree shapes and topped them with tiny gold star beads. I still felt it needed more sparkle so I've added three die cut glitter card snowflakes.  i'm just lovin' all that bling! Still CAS though I think, well, CAS enough for me.  Hope you've got all your Christmas cards made now.  I've still got one or two more to show you over the next week, then I think I'll put all my Christmas stuff away...for about two weeks that is!!

Colours and Sketches #2

It's the second week at our new challenge blog for all you Clean and Simple fans,Colours and Sketches/ and this week its's a colour challenge.  We want to see cards with Real Red, Garden Green and Lucky Limeade. Whilst these are Stampin' Up colours we are happy for you to use other inks as long as they are similar in shade.  I've been making so many Christmas cards I went for something completely out of season so here's my very spring-like one layer card

I stamped the grassy border in the two greens and added 'flowers' in the real red. The sentiment is stamped in Lucky Limeade and it's from the Happiest Birthday wishes set.  I've added a 3D heart in the same shade and some score lines and just a couple of gems for interest.

Christmas Cat

I found this little fellow in my stash, I think I bought him in the sales last January, but I've not inked him up before today.  It was this sketch challenge over at Addicted to Stamps and More that prompted me to search for a suitable stamp, I seem to have used trees and baubles such a lot I wanted something different.

 I found some paper and matched the card stock to the paper.  I stamped the little cat onto Naturals White card, added a sentiment and Stocking from the Open Sleigh set (I've used this so much it really was a good buy!) and coloured the images using Promarkers. I used some bakers twine for some extra interest and I punched out small circles from matching paper, giving them sparkly centres with silver Stickles and popped the middle one up on a dimensional. I nearly missed the two rectangles at the 'back' but extended part of the paper to give the effect.

As I used a square card base I had to rotate the three elements in the corner to fit them on, I hope this counts as OK for the challenge. Weekend nearly over now, so I will have to leave crafting for another day.

Glitzy Trees

To start off the month of December (Yey, Christmas is nearly here now!) the DT at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown have a sketch for you to follow - looks simple doesn't it. The other members of the DT have made some gorgeous cards but I actually found it quite hard to stick to the layout, without adding too much. I know, I know, that's why it's called a challenge!
Some of you will recognise SU's Lovely As A Tree stamp at work again here, but this time I've coloured it using mica powders, trying to get a frosty look using silver and green.

To keep with the glitz of the title I matted the image onto green mirri card and then silver glitter card.  I made a matching sentiment, heat embossing the sentiment from Sassy Salutations in silver. After a few experimentations I decided that the whole thing looked much better on a black cardstock base. I am also going to enter this card in the Frosty Winter challenge at The Cupboard Trilogy challenge Blog.
This will have to be a quick post as I've so much to do..shopping, wrapping, opening the Advent calendar..