Purple Pick a Previous

It is the fifth Saturday in March and so, at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown we are marking the occasion with a Pick A Previous challenge and this time it's a colour challenge.  To help you the colour challenges are all in an archive on the blog, so it's easy to choose.  I had fun looking back at them all and remembering the cards I had made for each one and I finally went back to May 2012 for this one

If you have visited my blog recently you will know that I am crazy about Gorgeous Grunge and here is another experimental design, using the splodge from the stamp set to create a contempo Christmas tree, trimmed with more grunge and some rhinestones (you can never have too much bling on a Christmas card- who said that I wonder?)

whilst I was playing I actually made two cards, here is the second one

Same tree, same bling, just a different layout. I hand cut the purple pot in both cards, choosing to leave the second one plain. Which card do you prefer? I change my mind each time I look, lol. I am going to  enter the anything goes challenge at Completely Christmas with my cards too.

A Tulip from Amsterdam

At last I have found a few minutes to write a post! It's been a hectic week, first my car broke down, big time -looks like a complete new engine is needed, then I've had to work a full week to make up for the time I needed to take off to get the car sorted, my son's had his 18th birthday and I've had a quiz and 2 craft club meetings to go to.  Wow,what a week! This is my first evening at home. Enough moaning, here is my card for the sketch challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches, following this sketch

Simple, isn't it? I love this layout for CAS cards and my sample this week is ultra contemporary

I used a piece of photograph paper to make the 3 panels, the stamp is the tulip from Backyard Basics, fist time of inking up.  I coloured the bloom using promarkers, after stamping and heat embossing the outline. The sentiment is from Friendly Phrases, and went very well with my modern design, I think. See the close up of the flower...

Hope you find time to create a CAS card with the sketch.  Back tomorrow with more Christmas cards ...

Punched Poinsettias

Today, at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown the challenge is to make a card that incorporates a paper flower, not flowers on DP but a 'real' 3D paper flower.

Your flower can be die cut, folded or punched and some of you, like me, will have to get crafty if you don't have a die to hand. I found this idea on the internet, so I can't claim it as my own, and there are so many different images and tutorials to help you so I can't wait to see what everyone will do.

I used my mosaic punch to make these poinsettias, punching them out of red card stock and adding some shading and curling to each petal before sticking them together and using rhinestones to make the centres.  Have a closer look

Once the flowers were made I've glitzed it up with glitter paper and added a fussy cut sentiment from Sassy Salutations. 

Have a look at the creations from the rest of the DT over on the blog.

I'm also going to enter Completely Christmas's anything goes challenge and a challenge I haven't visited for a while, Winter Wonderland, where my poinsettias fit the challenge of 'paint the town red' .

Revved up Colour Challenge

I guess I've gone man-crazy...... man card crazy, that is, as I have another masculine card for you this morning, this time for the colour challenge at CAS-Colours and Sketches.

I am lucky because it is my turn to chose the challenges for March and so these colours are very much my choice. Funny that I chose them thinking of flowers, the sea-side and nature and then I come up with......

It's NSS-new stamp syndrome, I'm afraid, got to use it as soon as I get it! This time the stamp is All Revved Up from Stampin Up and I've combined it with Off The Grid and a sentiment from Delightful Dozen. The car is fussy cut and popped up, the banners are assorted scraps of DP. 

Masculine Vintage

The Male Room challenge blog has a new challenge this morning, bit of a difficult one for me as the theme is Vintage. Vintage cards make me think of lace, ribbon and flowers, none of which are suitable for a masculine card, so this is my best shot..

instead of ribbon, lace and flowers I've gone for washi tape,text, and animals. A couple of vintage DPs and some antique brown pearl brads and stamps from Gorgeous Grunge and another vintage sentiment from a stamp set whose name I forget.... The animals are cut out and framed from some vintage tags I picked up at a cheap superstore.

Star Shaped Card

Last week at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown one of my teamies, Jacqueline, made a shaped easel card, which was gorgeous and gave me an idea for this week's challenge,

I have a set of star-shaped nesting dies and dug them out to create this card

I used some coordinating DPs, there's no stamping at all on this card, the sentiment is a topper which I came across in my stash when I found the dies. Love those cool aqua tones.  aim going to enter in a  couple of challenges Completely Christmas where Anything Goes again this week, and Crafty  Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge where the theme is green ( hope this shade of green counts!)

Yellow Daisies

OK, so I'm very late with this post. Truth is, I made a card earlier in the week, uploaded it to the blog and then, last night decided that it really wasn't good enough to share on the CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge Blog, so I had to do this one this evening when I got home from work. I had a little inspiration from Stampin' Royalty, because I used their colour swatch.  Here's the sketch and the colour palette

 and my card...

The DPs are from a range called Sweater Weather (and is a much closer match for Pistachio Pudding IRL, but I've photographed this with a flash), the sentiment is from Delightful Dozen and the flower is from Best Of Flowers. The yellow is ink pad stamped directly onto card, must admit, I don't have So Saffron, so this is my closest match. I think this card will be of to The Netherlands for my lovely MIL, so I've kept it embellishment free and quite 'flat'.

Naughty Snowman

52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown  has a colour challenge for you today. We're even giving you a bit more choice as you have to use a minimum of three colours (not including neutrals) from our wintery colour palette but you can use them all,if you like!

 My card took a while, two evenings in a row I sat down to craft and didn't do anything I was happy with.  Then tonight, when I came home from work an idea hatched and here he is..

The stamps are all magazine freebies. I stamped the snowman and fussy cut him out.  i also stamped his clothing and cut those out too, and a little 'carrot' nose. The paper is from Sweater Weather and was an idea from my fruitless evenings (so I guess they weren't completely wasted!).  The card base is a gorgeous pearlescent red, so I think I've used 5 of the given colours!
I'm going to join in again with another Christmas challenge blog, Completely Christmas, it's only their second week so if you love Christmas challenges like I do, give it a whirl, anything Goes over there!

Baby Love

I had a bit of time to play and so created a card for two challenges, Make My Monday and Addicted to CAS.  It is nice sometimes to forget yor DT work and just craft! Both of these challenges want to see
inspired by the word 'Baby' or 'Babies'. Isn't it nice to be thinking about spring and babies, instead of all that dreary weather?

 I just love this bunny image, which I've stencilled in silver.  Polka dots always say 'baby' to me. When I was rummaging in my stash for the EF I found this washi tape too, which added a bit of colour.  Mt Stamp-A-Ma-Jig allowed me to accurately stamp the sentiment banner, using two small sentiments from Pennant Parade.  I know it's CAS but I did want to put a bow on my bunny. hope you can forgive this little extravagance. Just taken the photo and it's 5pm , so there's a bit of a blue cast, might try and re-photo tomorrow. As my EF folder is very small (had to put the card base through the Big Shot 4 times to get coverage all over) and with the sentiment, my card is definitely a class in matching up- don't look too hard for the joins!

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The Colour of Crocuses

It's my month as hostess at CAS Colours and Sketches, a clean and simple challenge blog where we alternate between colour challenges and sketch challenges.  This week, it's a colour week and I chose, for inspiration, the colours of the crocuses which are popping up in my garden

I bought the two shades of purple especially for this challenge, and I must say that I am a bit disappointed.  The Elegant Eggplant is so dark it's almost black and the perfect Plum has a re hue to the purple,not what I had in mind, so I improvised with other dark and light shades of purple I already had. I also kept with the theme of flowers, you'll not see many floral cards here, as they are not my favorite images, but I do quite like this 2 step set, Stippled Blossoms.

I stamped the detailed image on the card to make the background and used both stamps to make the focal bloom, which I fussy cut and added on dimensionals, the leaves are the crushed curry ink stamped on the yellow card. The sentiment is from Delightful Dozen, which is proving very useful! As I've made a Mothers Day card I'm going to enter this month's challenge at The Cupboard Trilogy where the theme is 'Mothers'

Tried to keep it CAS with lots of white space, but I think this type of image does lend itself to other styles better. The centres of the bloom are made with yellow liquid pearls. I think that I am the only DT member who went with flowers, so if they're not your thing either have a look at the cards from my fellow teamies.

Grunge Trees

At The Male Room, a challenge blog for cards for the men in our lives, we have a colour challenge for you this week. Three very traditional male colours too, blue, brown and green. True to my own favourite style I've kept this quite cas and contemporary and I've found yet another use for my Gorgeous Grunge stamp set -earlier in the week I used it for stars, now trees. As you can see, I was having fun with my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig too, when making the fading sentiment (don't know how I lived without this bit of kit!)
I made a couple of these cards, the one with the pale colours was actually my first attempt, but it just wasn't 'man enough' for my liking! The trees are die cut and so add a bit of texture/dimension.  I like the smaller grunge stamp used as fallen leaves or blossom, don't you?

The DT members on this challenge blog all have very different styles, so check them out to see what they did with this colour scheme, I am sure you'll find something you'll like!

I'm going to enter my card in the Anything Goes challenge for Birthday cards at Seize The Birthday too.

Starry, Starry Night

First Tuesday of the month means a brand new challenge at Technique Time Tuesday and, I must admit that it was one I'd not heard of and which I kept putting off doing because I thought it was too tricky.  Needless to say, when I got down to it it was a ball, especially with the video tutorial to help me every step of the way. Anyway, it's called Caught In Crystal and it gives a gorgeous sparkly effect and vibrant colours, which said 'Christmas' to me and so I set about making a Christmas cad, using the one seasonal silhouette stamp I have -Dasher!

I wanted a starry night background  and I stamped Gorgeous Grunge stars in Brilliance silver ink on my background, but they didn't show through (the trees are, of course, Lovely as a Tree,stamped in Early Expresso and they show through fine!) So, plan B, I stamped the stars on the card base, making one or two of them twinkle with an added rhinestone. You can see all the glittery sparkle on this picture below. I was disappointed that Dasher did not stamp 'true' - see the hole on his shoulder? But, I kind of like the arty look it gives...

So, that's my CAS take on a very non-cas technique! Above all, I did have fun, so go on, give it a try too.  If you want more inspiration, have a look at the other projects created by the DT. I'm going to enter my card into Crafty Hazelnuts Extra Christmas Challenge and a fab new Christmas challenge  blog called Completely Christmas, if you love and make Christmas cards as much as I do you should definitely check it out.  The challenge is Anything Goes,and there's a prize up for grabs so what's stopping you!

Let It Snow

Welcome March, pinch and a punch it's the first of the month (pinch of glitter and a shape punch that is, no violence here!) This morning at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown we have a sketch challenge for you, and I have to say it's rather different!

Wow, that's going to get you reaching for your circular stamps, punches and dies, I started with searching for circular stamp images, after deciding to use one of my all time fave colour combos for Christmas -Kraft, red and white.

 I have reduced the small circles to circular embellishments- a fabric brad, some large red rhinestones and some large pearls.  The Santa image is from a set I bought in The Netherlands last year and the other two are magazine freebies, they have all been heat embossed.

The vellum is polka dotted with white glittery bits, following the idea of Let It Snow,  There's a brand new Christmas Challenge Blog starting this week called Completely Christmas, where anything goes, so I've popped my card into the challenge there, hope you do too, to give them lots of support.
Remember to have a look over at the blog at the other cards from the DT at 52 CCT if you haven't already- they're fabulous! Happy Crafting!