Cascading Christmas

At last! A few spare minutes to put up a post that should have been there Saturday morning! My only excuse is a very hectic weekend, as our swimming club ran their major event of the year, our three day open meet. I'm exhausted, never mind the swimmers!
Over at 52 {Chrismas} Card Throwdown there is a really fun challenge for Christmas cards with Fancy folds (Paper engineering, I like to call it)

Earlier this year I tried a fold (well, it's rather more of a cut!) called the cascading card technique for a challenge at Technique Time Tuesday and the entries in the challenge were fabulous.  I knew that I wanted to give this one another go (there is a tutorial on the TTT blog if this is new to you).
At the time I made a card for my daughter and it's one of the few that she's kept up all year. This time of course I've made a Christmas card

 I have chosen some pretty non-traditional colours -teal, hot pink and silver. The card does fold flat to fit in an envelope.  The snowflakes are white peel-offs, the other embellishments are heat embossed baubles or punched birds and leaves. I must say the photo doesn't really do it justice, it's a very tactile card, as you pull it open you get to see the decorations inside.
Do hop over to the 52CCT blog to look at the other cards from the rest of the DT, there are some great ideas for you to try, the hardest part will be deciding which fancy fold card you want to show us!

Halloween Tag

Well, I've really got into Halloween this year - it must be all the challenges and amazing inspirational projects from fellow crafters on the blogs. This time I've made a tag (yes, still avoiding the cards!) and it's for this week's challenge at Make My Monday. It's not really scary at all...take a look

I made the little ghosties using the Owl Punch and some googly eyes. I printed the background by adding inks to my craft sheet, spritzing and then dragging the tag through. Once dry I could add the black ink, sponged around the edges, and the other embellishments. Finally, I replaced the string with black and white ribbons, it looks a bit spidery, doesn't it? I thought it would be fun added to a goodie bag.

Several Disasters later.......

Oooohh I've had problems with this one! It's the new sketch challenge at CAS colours and sketches. Now this is nothing to do with the sketch which I'm sure you'll agree is a great, clean and simple sketch

No, my problems started when I tried to create my card.  The first attempt at embossing was a failure because I hadn't allowed for the matching up of the pattern as my Embossing folder did not fit the square card base I had chosen. Change card base- had an acetate half circle, on which the edge ripped in a non-recoverable way, my third version of this card, also with acetate,  was ready to photograph, when I noticed that the cat had obviously jumped onto my crafting table and left a whacking great muddy pawprint right in the white space of my card...aarrgghh! No more acetate left, so new idea, recycle the central panel and the butterflies, make a new card base, all going so well, photograph it.... go to edit it - my photo editing software won't let me in! It's too late to mess around so here it is with unedited pic,

Frustrated or what!! What else can go wrong?
Anyway, my fellow DT members have not had disasters, their cards are lovely and you can check them out at the blog. I'm going to bed now, scheduling this post for the morning, when if I can I will put a better photo up.

Here we go!

Moose on the Loose

I did have a lovely birthday yesterday, and enjoyed a special meal out with my extended family but life in blogland goes on and so I had to have my post ready this morning for The Male Room, where we have a brand new challenge for you

Nature

This challenge blog is all about cards for men/boys and I joined the DT team because these were the cards I found most difficult to make. I think nature is a fairly easy theme for masculine cards, so I'm expecting to visit lots of blogs to leave a comment! Here's my card

I've used some woodgrain DP and embossed a panel of Chocolate Chip cs. The wooden button comes from the recycled button box. I stenciled the aspen trees and added some shading with my aquapainter, before stamping on the moose image.  I got this stamp in Yellowstone NP Visitor centre - isn't he great? I've also coloured him in with the aquapainter.  The sentiment is from  Pennant Parade and it would be a big wish granted if I'd seen one of these magnificent creatures in the wild when I was in the US but it wasn't to be.

A CASEd Card

It's my month as hostess at Technique Time Tuesday and we are more than half way through October so it's time for some mid-month motivation as I case one of the cards already submitted in the challenge.  You may remember this month's technique is Faux Cloisonne - it's got one or two of you running to Google to find out what real cloisonne is, but to make it easy we have a complete tutorial for you over on the blog, just click here.
The card I cased is this one from Jacqueline

and here is my card

I chose another regal colour, and CASEd the shape and paper pierced border from Jacqueline's card. Instead of one large central flower (the poinsettia) I have made a bouquet, with visiting butterflies. Here's a close up of the faux cloisonne technique

The stamps are from Paisley Patterns, Reason To Smile and Butterfly Potpourrie and for my paper I used a glossy catalogue from an art gallery, which had a good weight to it as well as beautiful shiny colours- perfect for the job.

Did I mention it is my birthday today - it's a big one too, so I'll be out celebrating with all my family this evening.  I might send this card to myself, I really love it so much -thanks for the inspiration Jacqueline!

Pumkin Treat Box

OK, so I have to eat my words now because here is a Halloween project from me, only two posts ago I was saying I don't do Halloween! Anyway, it was the cue at this week's challenge for CASology that prompted my about face

I did say that I've never made a Halloween card and that hasn't changed because I've made a gift box, just right for a little treat for Halloween visitors. Not fussy, just CAS.

It was very simply made from a sheet of 12"x12" orange DP from K&Co, cut into 5/8" strips. I punched a hole in the centre of each one and threaded them onto a brad. then you fan out the strips, make another hole in each end and thread them onto another brad, strip by strip.  This gives you your pumpkin.  I've die cut some leaves and made the curly tendrils by cutting very thin strips of card. To put the treats inside you simply slide the strips over and then back again. I am also entering this week's challenge at QKR Stampede  for Halloween Fun -it was a lot of fun to make, and at Stampin' Royalty for the challenge Halloween Goodie Packaging. I must say I am rather pleased with the result, I might be making a few more of these!

Bring On The Bling

Do you remember back in the beginning of the month I told you that I had made a card for the sketch challenge, which I decided didn't quite fit the bill? You'll be pleased to hear that I didn't waste it, oh no, I upcycled it for today's 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenge..bling it up!

Can you see all that bling?  There's a glitter border, pearls, a silver embossed border, green Stickles on the trees 'outside', snow on the window sill, gems on the bauble, which hangs freely by the way.  Can you see why I started this card from the sketch ? I stamped the tree from Lovely As A Tree, over the top of some white card where I had cut this strips of post-it-note to form the window frame. Love the result this gave me.  There are more trees from the same set stamped in basic grey at the back to add depth to my scene.
I'm going to enter my card in a few challenges too. Firstly, at Christmas Cards All Year Round the theme is getting ready for Christmas - At Christmas time I always hang red baubles from the curtain rail in front of our large french window, at various heights, so this reminds me of that Then I'm also going to enter the challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is Christmas/Holiday creation and finally at Korttikarkuri -Let's get Inky where cards must feature stamping.