Fab's Christmas Challenge is Back!

Last year my freind Fab ran his Big Christmas challenge all year and joining in as many challenges as I could certainly helped me to have a stock of cards ready for Christmas just past. If like me you have made a resolution to be ready in plenty of time for Christmas 2009 then why not visit Fab's new for 2009 Christmas Challenge blog and join in this year - there is a link on the right hand side of my blog right at the top where you can't miss it - just roll over that and click or click the link in this post. I certainly plan to join in again this year and here is my first card - well 2 actually! As the colour scheme is Red and Green and the whole card is based around a the stamped greeting these also fit the terms of the current challenge over on Christmas Cards All Year Round - a twofer!

The stamp is from The Artistic Stamper and was stamped and heat embossed onto ivory pearlescent Moondust card using Green Sparkle EP on one card and Red Sparkle EP on the other. I painted in the text using gold Twinkling H2Os. These were then mounted onto foil card, using red foil card with the Green embossed stamped greeting and green foil card with the red embossed stamped greeting. I chose red card to mount these onto. For one I used a small left over piece of paper I had printed from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD, and for the other I used Versamark and Perfect Pearls to create a background using the same stamp. I think the one with the printed paper background is my favorite, but both were really quite quick cards to make.

Two Projects - "Christmas" and "Something Funny"

The 25th of September marked the start of another month in the countdown to Christmas and time once again for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge. This month the nutter's challenge would be to make nine Christmas cards. I might even make that many but most of them will be quickie cards with using stuff like, dare I say it "peel-offs" I doubt if I will be adding them to my blog or to the challenge. Whew, OK I hope nobody noticed that shame-faced admission! Anyhow here is my entry for the September's challenge, but who knows, I might manage to make another 8 cards worth blogging about before the 25th of October comes around.

This one was stamped using a lovely Christmas Wreath stamp from Hearth and Home themeplate by Elusive Images. I stamped and embossed the wreath in gold, painted it with Twinkling H2Os, added a touch of red Stickles Glitter on the holly berries and some red Sakura Glaze pen over the bow to change the colour and texture of the bow when compared to the colour of the poinsettia leaves. With my wreath all coloured I decided it would be nict to cut it out. This was mounted onto a circle of gold mirror card with foam pads and then that was mounted onto my card. The card itself is a from some cream pearlised card I bought in the Paper Mill Shop and cut to a 5 inch square card. I covered this with a lovely paper from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD leaving just a border of the cream card showing and then added some gold strip peel-off borders round the edges of the paper. More foam pads were used to mount the gold circle of card onto this for more dimension and as a finishing touch added a narrow bow of red organza ribbon to provide more contrast with the green design on the paper.

My other project was to make "Something Funny" for Florries Weekly ATC challenge on Craft Swap forum. I have a small set of mini clear stamps by Inkadinkadoo which are definately meant to be humourous so I thought this was the ideal project for giving these stamps and outing. The actual text on the stamps says "I gave up coffee, sex and chocolate" but as I had decided to make a chocolate bar for my background I only stamped the bit about chocolate.

The chocolate bar was made by inking a white ATC size piece of card with some brown ink from a Petal Point ink pad then I used the box making side of my score board to score grooves into the card to form a grid. I used the edge of the same ink pad to darken the brown colour in the grooves so as to create the appearance of more depth and a chunkier bar of chocolate. The stamps were just stamped onto some pink card with Adirondack dye in (Espresso), cut out and adhered to the chocolate bar background with foam pads.

Edit : Perhaps I ough to own up and say my comments about peel-offs were meant to be rather toungue in cheek. I do use them, mostly I use borders and/or corners, also sentiements. There are infact both a gold border peel-offs and a "Merry Christmas" sentiment on the Christmas Wreath card.

More Glitter from Foilplay

While I had my glitters out I found my mind turning to Christmas and to an old stamp, one of my very first stamps infact. It was bought for the princely sum of 99 pence from my local craft shop and has lain forgotten about until I dug out all my stamps the other week to make a catalogue of my collection. I wanted to make a some more cards for Foilplay and I also wanted to make a card for this months Fab's Big Christmas Challenge. The idea that was forming in my head seemed like it would suit both projects. I think this card made with my little cheap stamp, some heat embossing and some more of that lovely glitter from Foilplay has turned out rather well. Oddly enough as well as the stamp being a purchase from my early days, I can recall that this particular glitter was part of my first order from Foilplay! It's the lightest colour from a set of 3 shades of blue glitter.

To make my card I stamped and heat embossed the image 3 times, then applied my glitter inside the embossed outline using a Sakura Quicky Glue pen to "colour in" the area and then sprinkling on the glitter. Once the glue was dry I covered the snowflake with a layer of Glossy Accents to seal in the glitter and to give more dimension. The greeting was stamped and heat embossed with a stamp from Dimension Fourth. All the elements were inked round the edge using ink from a Petal Point Liquid Chalk pad and then mounted onto silver mirror card. The backing paper on the card is from a Crafters Companion CD and was also edged with the same ink as the snowflake and greetings elements.

I suspect most stampers have stamps like this one, cheap ones we bought when we first started out, but which we dismiss from our minds as we progress, learn more techniques and find far more interesting stamps to buy. Suddenly those early "bargain buys" are no longer deemed to be worthy. However, I think this card taught me a lesson, by dismissing those early cheap stamp purchases from my mind I am simply depriving myself of a wider range of card making opportunities. It would be fun to know if this post has inspired anyone else to go and see what they can make with old stamps they have forgotten they own.

Christmas with Elusive Images

At last I can show you some of what I made when I was away at the Graphicus Workshops. It has taken so long because my craft room could only be described as "the mother of all pigstys". I promised myself that before I touched a single stamp or inkpad I would give it a proper tidy up. Hubby was due back at work before me so we enjoyed the rest of our holiday then this week I have been busy tidying my messy room. I have also stamped most of my stamps and my freind's stamps too in order for us to have a catalogue we can share. We borrow each other's stamps and we both agreed a catalogue would be a great way to keep track of what stamps we do have in our respective collections. Anyhow enough of the drivel and onto the good stuff!

These are 2 of the 3 cards I made with Glenda during the "An Elusive Images Christmas" workshop. The card designs are Glenda's and you may have seen her demo these on Create and Craft. I did not manage to finish all 3 cards at the workshop because we were running out of time, the third card still needs to be completed, but I am not happy with the work I did on acetate at the workshop, but I have an idea for something else to complete the card and may do that.

For the card on the left we first created a backing paper using Glimmer Mists and Glimmer Screens, and a second paper by stamping a text stamp. The crowns were stamped using a resist technique, painted with Ecoline Watercolours, cut out and mounted onto small squares of papers cut from the Artylicious Seasons's Greetings CD. The stamps we used came from the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh themeplate.

To make the card on the right we used candle stamps for the main image from the Hearth and Home themeplate and could choose any stamp we wanted to make our background on the black card. I chose to use a stamp from the Snow is Falling themeplate on the background. The candles were stamped first and then we used Glossy Accents on the Candle itself to create a resist. Once the Glossy Accents were dry we used Tinkabella Inks which dry with a slight sheen to paint the design. The Glossy Accents resist the ink and allow the white of the card stock to show through.

Hopefully over the next few days I can show you the other things I was making, and also make some of the card ideas I have had floating around in my head for the last 2 weeks! I am also hoping Fab will allow me to count these cards for the July Fab's Big Christmas Challenge as the "nutter" challenge this month is to make seven Christmas cards before the 25th of August!

A Christmas Card Using Elusive Images Stamps

I loved this challenge from Glenda Waterworth - why would I not - to make a Christmas card (my favorite kind of card) using Elusive Images Stamps (my favorite make of stamps) - what more could a stamp junkie want? The stamp I chose to use is a beautiful floral spray featuring Christmas Roses with Holly and Ivy foliage, it's one of the stamps that comes on the Elusive Images "Christmas Fusion" Themeplate.

I stamped and embossed my image using gold fine detail EP, then painted it with Twinkling H2Os, allowing the white and pink paints to bleed a little into each other on the flower petals, I then mounted this onto gold foiled card. I had already selected some deep green card stock which I got in The Paper Mill Shop and a backing paper from the Artylicious "Season's Greetings" CD which carries a beautiful story of how the Christmas Rose came to be.

After edging my paper with a Gold Sakura Pentouch Pen I applied the papers to my card along with a co-ordinated Greeting from the Season's Greetings CD. Finally the finishing touches - I stamped and embossed my Christmas Rose stamp again, this time only stamping the middle bit as all I wanted was the roses. Once they were painted with the H2Os I cut them out and mounted them on foam pads as an embellishment for the front of the card and then added an organza bow below the greeting.

Oh, I should add, I used the snapshot tool in Adobe to lift the papers into my graphics programme so I could tweak the brightness and colour saturation of the paper a little - in my head I had a very exact idea of the colour I wanted and the paper as it printed was just a tad too dark.

And now that's another Christmas card I can add to my tally for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge - if you have been reading my blog you may recall I decided to attempt the "nutters" challenge this month and try to have 6 Christmas cards made before the 25th of July.

Brrrrrr......Freezing

I am still working on the "nutters" challenge for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge this month. As June is the sixth month Fab's "nutter's" challenge for June is to make not just one Christmas card as is required for the regular challenge, but six! Not sure if I will manage all six, but every card I do make just now means less pressure for me at the end of the year. Last year I found that the pressure to make enough Christmas cards was actually taking away a lot of the pleasure in making, so I am not too worried if I don't manage all 6 this month so long as I am enjoying making the ones I do make. I will be that much closer to having all the cards I need for Christmas 2008 ready in plenty of time. If you haven't started making your Christmas cards yet, why not join in with Fab's challenge, you don't have to go for the "nutter's" one, for the regular challenge all you need to do is make a single Christmas card - and you never know you might find yourself in festive mood and make more - not a bad thing to have some cards made nice and early if you always need a lot of hand made cards for family and freinds at Christmas.

Fortunately I found some more inspiration in another challenge this week. Daring Card Makers Challenge is entitled "Brrrrrr.......Freezing" and the brief is to make a card that is inspired by images, colours, embellishments - anything that makes you think of feeling cold and reminds you of winter. Anyhow here is my "chilly" card!

The Snowman stamp is from Visible Image and has been stamped in Black Archival Ink then coloured with Prismacolor pencils. The shimmery snowflake background was made by sponging blue dye based ink onto white card stock the spritzing with Gimmmer Mists. After it dried I stamped the snowflake image in Adirondack Dye ink (Denim) then spritzed some more with the Glimmer Mists. The photo really does not do justice to the gorgeous icy shimmer from those Glimmer Mists. Finally I edged the both the Snowman image and the background with a silver Sakura Pentouch pen.

The card itself is some pearlescent card stock that I picked up at the SECC in March and I have used some of the offcuts of my background to punch out small snowflakes and to make the text message. The Let It Snow text was also stamped with the Adirondack Denim ink.

Three Challenges - One Card

This card has been in my head now since I made hubby's birthday card. As the idea formed I thought great, I can make that for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge this month. It also works for the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week as the theme is "Christmas in June" and my third challenge is My Time to Craft where this weeks's theme is "Seasons".

The card was made using a limited edition stamp from Elusive Images which has been made for members of the Graphicus Guild. I stamped the image in black Archival Ink, then created masks by stamping on to scrap paper and cutting out the elements I wanted to mask. With my masks in place I was able to use my brayer to colour the hills in the background and then to colour the sky using Adirondack dye based inks. The Christmas star was stamped with a stamp from Clarity Stamp and heat embossed using a mix of gold and holographic embossing powders. I mixed them as I wanted only just a hint of sparkle. I then added snow to the tops of the hills and on the trees with a white Sakura Souffle Pen and finally added another hint of sparkle using Stickles glitter glue in "Frosted Lace". The Frosted Lace is not a very sparkly glitter so it's quite subtle. The backing paper is from the Artylicious Season's Greetings CD set and the words are from a favorite Christmas Carol - "In the Bleak Mid Winter".

Some More Skinnys

Well life conspired again to keep me away from my craft stash last week - don't you just love it when you think you have lots of free time and things just happen! Oh well that's the way the cookie crumbles, maybe this week I can have a bash at making some cards for Fab's Christmas Challenge. I want to join his "nutters" this time and try to make 6. But first I have been making more skinnys for the swap list with a floral theme which I joined. The swap is organised by Craft Swap Forum.

From the left the first skinny was made using a stamp which is a limited editon stamp from Elusive Images and made avaiable to members of the Graphicus Guild. I stamped this with Black Stazon then painted the flowers with Twinkling H2Os, allowing the colours in the flower to bleed a litte into each other. The edges are inked with some Violet ink from a Petal Point pigment ink pad.

The middle skinny was made using a brayer and masking technique. The stamp is from the Laura Ashley Contemporary Collection. First I stamped my image onto my card stock using a Kaleidacolor ink pad (Desert Heat), next I stamped the image again twice onto a post-it note and cut the images out to create masks. The masks were then placed over the original stampings and I used a brayer to create my background this time using the Fresh Greens Kaleidacolor ink Pad.

The third skinny on the right was made with some Moondust Pearlecent card - I love the shimmer on that card. First I used a sponge to blend in 2 colours of inks which would work well with the Prima Flowers from the "Stone Rose" collection. The inks were from an Adirondack Rainbow pad called Stained Glass. I used the same ink pad to ink a stamp from Clarity Stamp and stamp the leafy background. Finally I stuck on the Prima Flowers and added a gem in the center of each.

Fab's Christmas Challenge - May

Well yesterday was the 25th of May, so time once again for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge! This time I chose a Penny Black stamp called "Snowball Fun". I love the Penny Black stamps, they are good quality stamps which makes them so easy to use as they give a lovely clear impression every time. Oh, and maybe the fact I am a sucker for cute designs has something to do with this too.

I stamped my image with black Stazon ink then coloured the image with Prismacolour Pencils, blending the colour with artist's low odor white spirit. This is such an easy technique to do and very relaxing. Once I had my finished image I chose some blue cardstock and printed some lovely snowy paper from the Artylicious "Season's Greetings" CD. The image was mounted onto some silver foiled card and stuck to the card with foam pads. Finally for that bit of Christmas sparkle I added tiny dots of Stickles Glitter Glue (Star Dust).

My April Offering for Fab's Big Christmas Challenge

It seems apt to start with this card which was made for a challenge on a freind's blog. It was getting involved in that which finally made me think blog of my own might be fun.

My freind Fab started a Christmas Challenge on his blog and it's such a good idea - make one Christmas card (or more if you wish to) on the 25th of each month and that way when Christmas comes around you will have a stash of cards ready to send - no more last minute rush to make them all in December.

I made this card by stamping that lovely winter scene with a stamp from Creative Expressions. I used Adirondack ink (Denim) to stamp the image and colour it. I used a wet paintbrush to pull more shading into the image from the stamped lines an where I needed more colour or a different one I just dabbed the corner of the inkpad onto an acrylic stamp block and added some water with my paint brush and carried on painting. The finishing touch was a few sparkles of Stickles and then I mounted the image onto some lovely rich blue mirror card. The base card is a pearlescent card which has been stamped using a TAC stamp and more Adirondack ink (Stonewashed)

Click here for Fab's blog

Fab's Christmas Challenge