Yet Another Christmas in July

Edited: If you like these images the lovely Kay found the link here.

Ok so I am on a roll, I have now made three cards for Christmas and all from the same piece of patterned paper too. This is the last of the cat ones for the moment any who and I decided to break out the glitter especially. I have had this tinsel glitter from studio g for about two years and I have pots and pots of it and this is the first time I have used it, shame on me lol.

I have enjoyed making these cards and hopefully this means I will be more organised this year but I seriously doubt it lol.

Ingredients:
Image: "Fat Cat Fred" Papercraft Essentials
Cardstock: "Gumball Green" Stampin up
Sentiment: "Think Big Favourites" Papertrey Ink, ink: "scarlett jewel" papertrey ink
Paper: "Santa's Sleigh" Carina Gardiner at Jessica Sprague

Copics:
  Cat: N1, 00, R00, 11
  Tinsel: R29, 27, 24
  Baubles and star: Y35, 32, R27, 24, G24, 21


Challenges: Snippet Playground

Another Christmas in July

This is the second cat card I made on Sunday, these images are so adorable but try as I might I could not find them any longer on the paper craft essentials website, there were some adorable baby digis though.

I have enjoyed making these cards and can see me making lots more but I have a few other cards I need to make first.

Ingredients:
Image: "Fat Cat Fred" Papercraft Essentials
Cardstock: "Cherry Cobbler" Stampin up
Sentiment: Unsure of make but probably studio g, ink: "scarlett jewel" papertrey ink
Paper: "Santa's Sleigh" Carina Gardiner at Jessica Sprague

Copics:
  Cat: N1, 00, R00, 11
  Ribbon and Tag: YG25, 23, 21
  Wrapping: R39, 37, 35


Challenges: Snippet Playground

Christmas in July

So with the heat reaching 28 on most days and my craft room being a sun trap I picked this time to finally make a start on my Christmas cards, I don't know why the extreme heat has made me feel christmassy but it has and I have even bought a few gifts too, maybe I have heat stroke lol.

I have used an image that the lovely Janey used last year and I coveted it but ran out of time to use it so it is only fitting that it is the first image I use this year.

Coloured with my deloved copics and no glossy accents in sight it only needed the minimum of fuss to make this uber cas card. The cherry cobbler cardstock matches the scarlett jewel ink perfectly, I used a small piece to mat the paper and there was enough left over to make another card.

I have been using my perfect layers tools and an loving the fact that everything is even so pleased I persuaded my good friend Jane to part with them. It needs a little something in the top corner and the wrinkle sorted too but there is plenty of time before it needs to be sent out.

Ingredients:
Image: "Fat Cat Fred" Papercraft Essentials
Cardstock: "Cherry Cobbler" Stampin up
Sentiment: Unsure of make but probably studio g, ink: "scarlett jewel" papertrey ink
Paper: "Santa's Sleigh" Carina Gardiner at Jessica Sprague

Copics:
  Cat: N4, 3, 2, 1, R00, 11
  Ribbon: R39, 37, 35
  Holly: G46, 43, Y00


Challenges: Snippet Playground

Neapolitan icecream

As a child the only ice cream I remember is Neapolitan, it came in blocks and I loved it. It was always a special treat and I always ate it the same way, vanilla or white, strawberry or pink and then last was the chocolate. I hated it when the flavours mixed and couldn't understand my friends when they deliberately mixed them all in. I think looking back I have always had a touch of OCD lol

I am trying to use stuff that has been in my stash for a while and this image by Birdie Brown is one I have had for a while and this is the first time it has been coloured up. Once it was coloured I decided I wanted a neapolitan background and this is the first time that this quatrefoil plate has been used, it was easy to assemble a bit like a jigsaw and lots of fun too. I wanted to leave more spaces open but OCD sometimes gets the upper hand lol.

Ingredients
Image: "Ice cream"Birdie Brown
Dies: "Quatrefoil cover plate" Papertrey ink, "Chat bubbles" MFT stamps
Cardstock: "sweet blush" Papertrey ink, recollections Kraft, papermill ivory hammer card.
Sentiment: "because I care" Stampin up

Copics:
R11, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 29, B34, 37, 39, E40, 41, 42, E50, 51, 53, 55, E21, 23, 25, 27, 29

It's a Boy

There were two important boys born this week, one to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and one to my godson.

I have made this card for the new addition to our family who arrived on the 23rd July weighing in at 8lb 13 ounces, only an ounze less than his dad and a whole 1lb less than his cousin Lily. He was a little early and I have had his card made for a while just waiting to be able to add his name.

Now you might think that they knew they were having a boy but they didn't want to find out until he arrived, so I guessed that he was a boy and I even bought the most adorable little boy outfit, not sure what I would have done if he was a girl lol.

Ingredients:

Image: "Onesie, Twosie" Taylored Expression

Papers: "Baby Boy" Echo Park from Jessica Sprague

Cardstock: "Hawaiian Shores" Papertrey ink

Sentiment: Generated on Mac using Freehand 591 font

Exploding Box

Warning very picture heavy post.....

Ok so every year I have to top the card I made the year before but this year I was totally stumped, how do you top a twisted easel, well with an exploding box of course lol.

I followed a tutorial from Sazzle her directions and pictures helped make this a fairly easy if time consuming make.

I knew I wanted a super hero/marvel comic style but how to translate that was the question. I found a fantastic digi kit that provided all the elements, papers, city scape and words all in one place the Masked Marvels kit by Julie Billingsley at Sweet Shoppe. Next I needed a focal image for the middle layer and I remembered the retro digi stamps from Kenny k, I framed these with the frame in the digi kit.

I have taken lots of pictures but wish I had photographed the outer layer before attaching the middle one as you can't really see it in the pictures. I did however take the middle layer pictures before attaching the last layer.

You can't see easily that the cityscape matches the on both sides of the acetate or that I added the firework paper to the back of the middle layer to give a background to the buildings.

I had so much fun with this but can't see me making another one for quite some time lol.

Outside of the box

Middle layer

Inner layer with bouncy number

Ingredients:
Cardstock: Black (from Jane), Acetate (from Tracy)
Red: "Real red" Stampin up, Blue: "Pacific Blue" stampin up, Yellow: "Harvest Gold" Papertrey Ink - all from the snippet folders
Papers and embellishments: "Masked marvels" Julie Billingsley at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Images: "Smart Alec" and "Big Surprise" Kenny K
Numbers: Billionaire cartridge on cricut

Chalenges: Snippet Playground

Thanks for looking and any comments you may leave

Thinking of You

Not my favourite card to make but a necessary one nonetheless. The last time I needed one I had to buy it as was too upset to make it so although I dislike making, giving and storing them I have made a sympathy card.

I have used a stamp and die set from MFT that came free in my goody bag, I followed the same principles as the card we made in Jody's class just changed the yellow for berrylicious.

I also used a new background stamp that I bought on a recent shopping trip with my good friend Jane, she took me to Dandie crafts in Treforest, wow that shop is packed full of goodies and I am surprised I only bought one thing, although I think a return trip is in order.

Ingredients:
cardstock:
   white: anna marie
   grey and blue: "steel blue" and "berrylicious" MFT stamps
ink: "steel blue" and "berrylicious" MFT stamps
Images: "Peaceful wildflowers"MFT stamps and pergamano butterflies
Background: "Worn Paint" Inkylicious
Dies: blueprints 3 MFT stamps

Rock on

I decided to finally colour the last of the stamps from Dimension, this one was easier than I thought and the whole card came together really quickly. I made all three so my mum could choose one for my cousin but she has decided to keep all three lol and has asked me to make her a selection of male cards so she has them on hand.

This card is probably my favourite of the teenage boy cards and one I can see myself recreating again.

Ingredients:
Image: "Boys Toys" Dimension Stamps
Papers: "DCWV Extreme Boys" 300dpi (site no longer trading)
Sentiment: "boy basics rock on" Papertrey ink
Cardstock: "blueberry sky" paper trey ink
Copics:
N7, 5, 4, 3,  B01, 02, 04, G40, 43, 46,
Memento inks:  bamboo leaves, grey flannel, bermuda blue

Challenges: Snippet playground
Here come the Boys

iPhone...gotta love it

I was so scared of colouring this stamp as the image is so iconic and it is for a teenage boy that they are bound to spot any errors. I had to have my iPhone in front of me whilst I coloured it and had to search for the apps to check the colours and discovered an awful lot are blue, green or grey, how very unexciting lol.

I tried stamping the sentiment straight onto the paper but it was lost so whilst looking for the sentiment strip I found this one and thought perfect, the mini iPhone was an after thought and I wish I had done it in white or lighter colours but too late now.

I used mostly snippets on this card so am entering the snippet playground, the image was stamped on a snippet and apart from the printed paper no whole sheets were harmed in the making of this card.

Ingredients:
Image: "Boys Toys" Dimension Stamps
Papers: "DCWV Extreme Boys" 300dpi (site no longer trading)
Dies: "Speech bubbles" MFT stamps
Sentiment: "boy basics game on" Papertrey ink
Brad: "Camera accents" MFT stamps
Cardstock: Walmart
Copics:
N7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 00, B12, 14, R24, 27, Y15, G43, 46, E70, 71, 74, 77, YR04
Memento inks:  bamboo leaves, grey flannel

Challenges: Snippet playground

Teenage Boys?

I really like making male cards but teenage boys...wow are they difficult. This stamp seems to be my go to at the moment as have used pretty much all my other game images for this person already.  I have left the design simple and the embellishments I created myself with an MFT stamp, memento inks and a bit of glossy accents.

There are three stamps in this collection and this is the only one that up until now has seen ink, I decided that I needed to use all three before they went back in the draw so expect to see the others over the next few days.

The cardstock the image and brads/candy were all from the snippet folder as was the grey only the printed paper wasn't a snippet so I am off for a play on the swings at the Snippet playground.

Ingredients:
Image: "Boys Toys" Dimension Stamps
Papers: "DCWV Extreme Boys" 300dpi (site no longer trading)
Dies: "Ticket Stub" MFT stamps
Sentiment: "Masculine Graphic Tee" MFT stamps
Brads: "Masculine Graphic Tee" MFT stamps
Cardstock: "Basic gray" Stampin up
Copics:
N9, 7, 5, 4, 3, W3, 1, 0, 00, B34, R27, Y15, G14
Memento inks: ladybug, bamboo leaves, bermuda blue

Challenges: Snippet Playground

Lil pop

I don't know about anyone else but I am constantly forgetting I have stuff, I bought this image when they first came out and I knew who for too so why has it taken me so long to make the card lol.

I have again tried the cut through style and love the way this turned out, this was inspired by Mary and I can see this being a go to design for a while. These cas cards take a lot longer than my normal ones though and the ingredient list is huge too.

Ingredients
Image: "lil pop with tortoise" Digistampboutique
Paper: "Boy Crazy" Design by Dani at Jessica Sprague
Cardstock:
White: Anna Marie
Blue: "Tempting Turquiose" Stampin Up snippet
Orange: Snippet folder
Dies: "blueprints 3" MFT and "nesting stars" paper mania
Sentiment: "happy hexagons" Papertrey ink
Number: "Billionaire" cartridge on cricut
Copics:
Skin: E11, 00, 000 , R02
Hair: E71, 77
Clothes: BG45, 49, YR16, 15, 12, Y15, 13
Tortoise shell: E84, 87, 89
Tortoise body: YG93, 95, 97

Challenges: Snippet Playground

Digistamp Boutique

Video Boy case'd

My mum asked me to make this card for my cousin, she remembered a card I made for someone else way back in 2011 and asked for the same. This makes making cards for someone else so much easier even if it does mean I don't get to be as creative. I made this in under an hour in fact the glossy accents took the longest and it is already in the post.

Ingredients
Image: "Video Boy" Mo's Digital Pencil
papers: "Extreme Boys' 300dpi (sorry link is disabled)
Cardstock: "New Leaf" Papertey ink and grey from snippets
Sentiment: Pollycraft freebie and "Boy Basics Game on" Papertrey Ink

Copics:
Skin: E11, E00, E000, R02
Hair: E21, 23, 25, 27, 29
Clothes: G40, 43, 46, N1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9
Accessories: R24, 27, 29, B32, 34, 35, 37, 39, YR04, 09,

Challenges: Snippet Playground

Another Handbag card

I can't believe I made this way back in April but haven't blogged it before. I made a set of these all at the same time and really enjoyed it. Need to make a few more as they have been very handy and stopped the last minute panic makes.

Ingredients:

Image: "mini diva" pink petticoat

Paper: "bethany" Sassy designs inc

Cardstock: "dark chocolate" paper trey ink

Font: Bookworm

Gems: originally clear coloured with copics.

Another Polished to Perfection

I love this image from MFT, I have used her for quite a few cards and she is so useful and different depending on the colours used on her. Such a versatile set I can see lots more uses.

I am still using the a6 style card and am surprised by how much I am liking this style. My images seem to fit better and filling the space is much easier too.

This card isn't needed until the end of July but as she doesn't view my blog I feel safe showing it here. Since I have not been working I have found I am miles ahead with my birthday cards although I still haven't made a christmas one.

Ingredients
Image and Sentiment : "Polished to Perfection" a la mode by MFT Stamps
Paper: " love me" MME
Cardstock: "Steel Blue" MFT Stamps and Anna Marie 300gsm pro marker card
Ink: "Gray Flannel"
Dies: "blueprints 3" MFT stamps
Copics:
     Skin: E00, E11, E000, R02
     Hair: E43, E44, E47, E49
     Skirt: W5, W3, W1
     Shirt: B02, B01, B00
     Nailpolish: R37, R35, R32, 100, N9, N7