Christmas Bird!

When I saw the challenge at Merry Monday Christmas Challenge I just knew I had to find the time to join in.  I love Christmas cards with birds, I especially love those red cardinal birds, I think they must be from the US since we definitely don't have them here. I'd love a stamp of one of those -I'll have to look out on ebay I guess.

My Christmas bird of choice is the penguin, this one's from Zoo Review and I've stamed him and used a mask before sponging a nice chilly scene for him, with a couple of shades of blue.  To add some Christmas sparkle and an icy touch to the 'snow' I have used silver Stickles

I used a sentiment from Merry and Type, heat embossed in silver with a couple of eyelets on the tag. A shiny blue snowflake, complete with matching gem in the centre for a little bit of Christmas bling and my card was complete.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Oh I am very pleased with the way this one turned out!I started with the challenge at Merry Monday #55, which is a bingo challenge:

I was going to go across the bottom, but then, over at Feline Playful I spotted another Christmas challenge blog and they had this super sketch, definitely NOT one layer! The challenge is called Christmas Challenges and this was the sketch, created by Janneke,Wow! What a sketch- I had to use it, and so my bingo goes through the middle: Santa, paper piercing and DP. You can't see the piercing too well on the photo, but it borders the horizontal panel. The stamps are from a store in the Netherlands, bought for me by my husband on one of his trips home to visit his parents.  First time out for Santa, but as I am about to make another card using the same set I guess you'll be seeing him again soon!

I couldn't find 2 lots of matching DPs that went with the colour combo (there are so many reds!!) so I made my own with a snowflake stamp and silver embossing powder. There is a silver glitter frame around my stamped image, and I used silver mirri card for the main panel behind the papers.
I am also going to enter my card in Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge, where the theme is Christmas songs and I can just squeeze into Crafty Hazelnuts Extra Christmas Challenge for March.

Season Of Joy in red and gold

I haven't entered the Christmas card challenge at Merry Monday for a few weeks and so this morning when I was cruisin' the blogs with a few spare hours to craft and I came across this sketch

I knew straight away that I wanted to play.

I used a couple of matching papers, added some glitter, a bow and some red gems.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment stamp from Season Of Joy and cut it out using one of my nestabilities die cuts.  I cut the same size in gold mirri card and twisted it behind the panel.  The main paper is also layered onto gold mirri card.  All in all a luxurious Christmas card ready to send out in December, and I really had fun making it..everyone wins!

Hi Ho Silver

Hi Ho Silver - that's the cry from Cas-ual Fridays challenge blog this week, whilst Merry Monday's challenge #50 is for an Elegant Christmas card. I've created a card that fits the bill for both..

 I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder to emboss the card blank with snowflakes and stamped the large ornament stamp from Merry and Type in Versamark, before heat embossing it in silver. I added gems to one of the baubles and 1 in the centre of the large one.  I matted the black card onto silver mirri card.  Finally I stamped the little oval Christmas Greeting and also heat embossed that in silver, popping it up on dimensionals.
A simple recipe, white, black and metallic -CAS and elegant I think.

Tic Tac Toe Christmas Card

This is a great idea to get lots of different ideas going, the Tic Tac Toe, or bingo, challenge from Merry Monday. I must admit it took quite a while for my project to come together and I only managed when I went round to a friend's to craft.  She showed me how to use the technique known as reducing image and I used my markers to colour in my image. Here's the bingo card

and I used the diagonal line, snow, markers and DP.

I used liquid pearls to make the snow.  The image is from Papermania, Urban Stamps range. I made a matching tag with a little sentiment and attached it using some ribbon and a peg (or clothespin). After stamping and colouring the image twice, I cut out decreasing sizes of nesting dies and then layered them back up with dimensionals. I popped the image up on some red CS and then layered it onto some beautiful DP, trying to keep the colours all matching.
I had been looking for a snowman stamp and found this one, he is rather jolly I think!

Two Birdy Cards

Hello.  I have two cards to share with you today.
The first one I am entering in a few challenges but it started out being inspired by this sketch from Make My Monday

 This is such a CAS sketch -I loved it instantly and I think I'll be using it again! This is what I did with it

I was intrigued by the theme from this week's challenge at Less Is More, which is Friends, not usually a subject for my cards but I thought of a friend that I really out to make contact with. I used the three little bird images from an SU set called Flock Together., even the name of this set puts me in mind of friendship.I had to make a sentiment as I didn't have one suitable and I used a a mask to get the two little red birds together, but other than that it was quite straight forward.. I am also entering my card into the challenge at Addicted To Stamps and More #5 for a CAS card.
As you will notice from the title of this post there are two bird cards.  Here's the second one - it's for The Merry Monday Challenge, where they want Christmas cards with birds.  If you're expecting a robin take another look!

This time I used another SU set, Nature Walk,and a little freebie hollysprig stamp. So, I can also enter this card in the Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge, where you need to use something recycled or free.  I triple time stamped this card and it's actually a case from my friend Jacqueline's Craft Club blog, you can look at her card here.

I've even decorated the inside this time.
Wow, that was a marathon post! Hope you like my cards.
February Update - just found out my 3 little birds card was chosen for top 3 at the Make My Monday , Challenge - which makes this Monday a little bit special!

A Snowy Scene

Today I have a card for you that was the result of an impulse purchase from the bargain bucket in the January sales. The stamp, from Papermania Urban Stamps, designed by Michael Powell, is not my usual style, but I've seen lots of lovely cards made using his stamps.

The stamp does produce a very crisp image, perfect for colouring with markers, as I did. I then used my circle die cuts to cut out the image and a mat from gorgeous and sparkly black cs. I used some paper with snowflakes as a background , I think it's also from Papermania a range called 'Deck The Halls' from a couple of years back. The banner is  cut out from matching paper, layered onto the same cs and I have punched out one of the black circles, popped it up on dimensionals and added some glossy accents to make it stand out. I love how the night sky complements the cs and the colors from the papers are picked up in the houses but most of all I love the image.
I used this sketch from The Merry Monday Challenge

and as I have used circle dies and punches I am entering my card in the challenge over at Make My Monday. No sentiment on the front, I have stamped the inside with a Christmas greeting. I am going to pop it into crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge  too as there are some fab prizes up for grabs!
Just got home from the cinema, I took my Mum to see Les Miserables - needless to say we are both emotionally drained!

Christmas Flag It!

I found a new challenge today,well new to me anyway and I found it because I noticed a few cards around that all looked quite similar and I liked every one! Of course they were following a sketch, this sketch actually

The challenge blog is Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge and this one is called 'Flag it'  I just love those ribbons and with a central sentiment and a focal point it is perfect for a cas kind-a-girl like me. Here's my card

I used a cream card blank and a selection of matching Christmas Papers. I made a 3D bauble using Ornament Keepsakes stamp set from SU, stamped in Raspberry Ripple and the greeting is from Sassy salutations, stamped in and matted onto Lucky Limeade. I sponged the edge of the sentiment in the same colour and added a few pearls.