Christmas Cheer

I wasn't originally going to post my christmas card makes from 2018 but I made the decision that although it might not be of interest to others this blog is also my visual record of my makes and I will never remember what I made if I can't see them. So I am going to apologise in advance if the next several posts don't interest you, I will be back with different types of makes soon.

I was determined to use this background stamp this year, its my first turnabout stamp from Concord and 9th and it works perfectly. I was a little worried when I realised I would need to make the cross on the back of the stamp and I am still wondering why it doesn't come pre-drawn.

I used a few different inks and companies to achieve the look I wanted. It was so quick to stamp each image and it came together really quickly.

Ingredients
Sentiment: "merry christmas" Tonic Studios
Card: "kraft" from the Range and "vellum" from the Works and "white" from Neenah
Embossing Powder: Fine detail from Stampendous
Inks: "olive", "parrot", "mocha" all Altenew and "pure poppy" from Papertrey Ink
Dies: Blueprints 13 from MFT

Creative Stamping Deer

This is definitely the last of this design well until next year of course lol. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone but its too late now if I have.

Ingredients
Image: "Creative Stamping 49"
Paper: "jingle all the way" First Edition
Dies: Blueprints 27 from MFT
Card: "Kraft" Recollections from Michaels 

Creative Stamping Wreath

This is almost the last of this design card, all that is left now are the one off designs. I am not sure I am going to be able to post every day as I am running out of time, designs and mojo, of course I'm not running out of stamps lol. 

Ingredients
Image: "Creative Stamping 49"
Paper: "jingle all the way" First Edition
Dies: Blueprints 27 from MFT
Card: "Kraft" Recollections from Michaels 

Creative Stamping Santa Boot

These cards have been so easy to produce and once I started I couldn't seem to stop so al;most all my christmas cards are the same. Hopefully next year this won't be the case.....I think I say that every year lol.

Ingredients
Image: "Creative Stamping 49"
Paper: "jingle all the way" First Edition
Dies: Blueprints 27 from MFT
Card: "Kraft" Recollections from Michaels 

Creative Stamping Star

This was the first design from this magazine and you can tell it wasn't the last lol. I am so shocked that I kept going with this design as normally I get bored but not this time, maybe it was because I was so disorganised lol.

Ingredients
Image: "Creative Stamping 49"
Paper: "jingle all the way" First Edition
Dies: Blueprints 27 from MFT
Card: "Kraft" Recollections from Michaels 

Creative Stamping Stockings

Third card in the Creative Stamping series, think this version is definitely my favourite and this image is the reason I bought the magazine in the first place. Of course then I was intending colouring each stocking but there is always next year.

Ingredients
Image: "Creative Stamping 49"
Paper: "jingle all the way" First Edition
Dies: Blueprints 27 from MFT
Card: "Kraft" Recollections from Michaels 

Creative Stamping Bauble

Second of the Creative Stamping cards, this time its the bauble and again I think this would look awesome white heat embossed and watercoloured. 

Not much else to say except I can't believe it is the 7th already, wow this month is flying past.

Ingredients
Image: "Creative Stamping 49"
Paper: "jingle all the way" First Edition
Dies: Blueprints 27 from MFT
Card: "Kraft" Recollections from Michaels 

Beautiful Bouquet - Ranunculus Version 2

As part of my "you have more than enough craft stuff to last two lifetimes" I have to be able to utilise any new stamp in at least three ways, so before I bought this stamp I had already thought of the ways to use it, so far I have done two of the three but its such a versatile stamp I can now visualise another few ways to use it.

My first technique was of course to copic colour so my next technique had to be very different, I was inspired by videos from Jennifer McGuire and Kelly Latevola when I made this.

I stamped the image and sentiment with versa mark and embossed with detail white embossing powder from stampendous. Next I swiped the peacock feathers ink over the paper, I was going to blend with the tool but this was much quicker and made it darker. Then I simply used a brush and water and painted over the flowers, dabbing off the colour as it lifted. I was hoping it would be lighter but for a first attempt I think it looks ok.

Ingredients

Image: "Beautiful Bouquet - Ranunculus" WPlus9

Sentiment: "brushed greetings 2" Clearly Besotted

Dies: Blueprints 24 from MFT

Distress ink: "Peacock Feathers"

Thinking of You

I still think these cards are the most difficult to make, you want to let the family know you are thinking of them but it isn't easy to make them when you are upset. This is also the one type of card I don't keep on hand and I'm not sure I want to.

Anyway the card is a simple construction, I masked the area, stamped a leaf branch from a stampin up set, white embossed and then used my distress inks to colour the background. After this was dry I used liquid platinum to heat emboss the sentiment.

Ingredients
Stamps: "hope blooms" and "curly cute" both Stampin Up
Inks:"cracked pistachio" and "peacock feathers" both Distress inks
Embossing Powders: "white" stampendous. "liquid platinum" Ranger
Dies: Blueprints 15 from MFT

A Rare Find

After I used the sketch from Kay and the "oh snap" set from lawn fawn I kept thinking of other ways to use the sketch and all the sets I own with small images so I have used the same layout just different colours and images and I think this might be my go to card layout for this christmas.

Ingredients
Image and sentiment: "yeti its cold outside" Lawn Fawn
Dies: Peek a boo trio, blueprints 1, 2 and 13 all mft and stitched hillside borders from lawn fawn
Distress inks: faded jeans and chipped sapphire
Card: "enchanted evening" paper trey ink
Paper: "winter wishes" echo park from Michelle

Copics
Trees - G99, 94
Yeti - E44, 43, 42, 41, R39, 37, W7

Watercolour Hydrangeas

Clearly besotted recently had a sale and this is a set I've been wanting for ages so I decided to go ahead and get it, I'm trying to use new stuff before I put it away as otherwise I forget I have it.

I wanted to try creating blue hydrangeas as this is my favourite flower and thought water colour would be the easiest way, I stamped the image multiple times on tim holts watercolour paper and used my distress inks to colour them, its only my second time using them this way but I had so much fun and the effect was so much better than I expected. I wet the entire image and dropped the colour onto it, the embossed lines help keep it contained.

I decided that the flowers looked a little plain with a white background so I used my diamond circles stencil and sponged on some ink, I originally used tumbled glass and shaded lilac but the background was too vivid and overtook the image so I tried MFT dye ink instead, it blended so much easier than I expected and the colours were much pales than the DI, I might try water colouring with them next time. Don't worry I didn't throw away the other background I made another card with it, hopefully you will see that one soon.

Ingredients
Image: "just fabulous" Clearly Besotted and free cb set from Simply cards
Card: Tim Holtz watercolour paper, michaels 110lb whute and Sno Cone from MFT
Dies: "just fabulous" clearly besotted, blueprints 13 and 20
Stencil: "diamond circles" Simon says stamp
Inks: Sno cone and grapesicle for the stencilled background and steel grey for the sentiment all MFT
Sentiment: "think big favourites 12" Papertrey Ink

Watercolour (all distress inks)
Leaves - mowed lawn and peeled paint
Blue Hydrangea - tumbled glass, broken china and shaded lilac
Pink Hydrangea - picked raspberry, seedless preserves and spun sugar

Art Attack

This card is one that evolved and took on a life of its own, I wanted to use the crayon from the simon says stamp set and I thought I'd seen a card using a mason jar to hold the crayons but i couldn't find it so I went my own way instead. Once I'd coloured the crayons in rainbow order I pulled out all my art stamps and discovered I have a few, and I liked the sentiment so that was sorted but the crayons looked a little lost so I scooped them up and thought I know the mason jar from lawn fawn. Originally this was going to be a completely white card but I decided to play with the abstract art set from MFT and I liked the look.

This may be hard to believe but this is my first set of spell binders nesties, I have several xcut and MFT. I bought them recently in the countryview crafts advent sale after a very good friend of mine told me what she got and I'm so glad she did as they were an absolute bargain.

Ingredients
Image: "color and sunshine" Simon says stamp and "summertime charms" lawn fawn
Sentiment: "sentimental about art" MFT
Dies: "summertime charms" lawn fawn and "a2 mat stacks rounded" spellbinders
Background: "abstract art" MFT
Inks: "blueberry sky", "pure poppy", "plum pudding" , "orange zest", "Sweet blush", "lemon tart" by paper trey ink and "berrylicious" , "sour apple" by MFT

Copics
Crayons:
Red - R89, 39, 37, 35
Orange - YR09, 07, 04, 02, 65
Yellow - Y17, 15, 13, 11
Green - YG25, 23, 21, 17
Blue - B26, 24, 23, 21
Purple - V17, 15, 12, 01
Pink - R89, 85, 83, 81

Pretty Pocket

Its been a while since I've made a birthday card with mostly dies and no coloured image at all, I have been using my dies predominantly for my christmas cards it seemed only fitting to carry on with it. I've also used a couple of die sets that have been sitting unloved for a while, in fact I don't think MFT carry the pretty pocket set anymore, which is such a shame. I even have an idea for a male card with money sticking out.

Ingredients
Dies: Blueprints 1, pretty pocket and smart phone all MFT
Stamps: pretty pocket and Friend Request all MFT
Embossing: stampendous white and stampin up cherry cobbler
Background stamps: linen and western background (denim)
Card: "enchanted evening" "ripe avocado" both papertrey ink, "raspberry ripple" stampin up

Skipping Santa

I finally used the plaid builder stamp set from MFT, I decided to try to create a more traditional christmas colour scheme, originally I was going to use a darker green but I like the fun brightness of this colour. I have ordered a grid paper pad so I can line the stamps better next time, I am a bit of a perfectionist and it bothers me that a few of them aren't  perfectly aligned lol.

The image is a digi from Birdie Brown but MFT now carry this as a stamp and die set so I didn't feel so bad posting it as I would have done if you couldn't get hold of it.

Ingredients

Image: "santa" by birdie brown

Sentiment: "hanging around" clearly besotted

Background: "plaid background builder" by MFT using "sour apple" also MFT and "pure poppy" paper trey ink

Card: 'real red" stamping up and "sour apple" MFT

Dies: "pierced flagtails" and blueprints 15 all MFT

Copics:

Skin - E11, 00, 000 R02

Black - N7, 5, 4

Red - R39, 37, 35

Hot Cocoa Ants - Doodle Pantry Challenge DPDC51

I was trying to decide if I should paper piece the mug of this image but in the end the Copics won lol. I really enjoy colouring these images, not sure if it is because my hubbie is called Ant lol.

I found this paper in my stash and decided to base the whole card around it, I love this colour scheme and it made me want a large cup of hot chocolate.

Ingredients
Image : "Hot Cocoa Ants" Doodle Pantry
Paper: "Home for Christmas" Papermania
Card: Recollections Kraft
Sentiments: studio G
Dies : blueprints 1, 2, stitched circle and circle staxs and horizontal stripes all mft

Copics:
Ants - N9, 7, 5
Marshmallows - E51, 50, 00
Cocoa - E29, 27
Ladder - E35, 34, 31
Ground - E44, 43, 42
Sky - BG10
Cup - R59, 39, 37, 35

Challenges - Doodle Pantry Challenge DPDC51

May Card Kit

I had to buy the Simon Says Stamp card kit as soon as I saw the card Nichole Magourik made with the stamp and papers, I've not quite reproduced it but I have used the elements I liked the most. I do wish I had stencilled the background now but there is always next time.

Ingredients

Image: "all boy" Simon says stamp

Paper: "be different" Fancy Pants

Card: "blueberry sour", "wax lips" both Bazzill and white from anna marie

Dies: Blueprints 15 and "curved edge" Simon Says Stamp

Copics:

N1, 2, 3, 4, R59, 46, 27, 24, 

I attended the MFT retreat in Eustis Florida at the end of May and the very talented Jodi gave a class where we made a few of her style cards, Jodi loves to decorate the insides of her cards as well as the outside, I have always made paper insets before but I am enjoying making a few special ones following her principles. So I thought I would show you the inside of this card.

Ingredients

Image: "all boy" Simon says stamp

Card: Anna Marie

Dies: Blueprints 15 

Sentiment: "wet paint" papertrey ink

Ink: "pure poppy" papertrey ink and "nightshift blue" mft stamps

Happy Everything Again

This stamp set is so fantastic to colour in every medium I have used so far, I've tried copics, stamping up markers, watercolour and now prismas. I took some of these stamped images with me on a recent trip and spent many a happy hour colouring them with my prismas, only problem was trying to match them to card or papers once I got home, next time I think I will take some papers to match with me.

I was inspired by several cards made with this set my Stephanie's fab design team, I combined a few of the elements and hopefully I have done the image justice.

Ingredients
Image and sentiment: "happy everything" Clearly Besotted
Card: white is Michaels 110lb, purple is Core'dinations
Die: "notebook" edge from mft
Ink: "lilac posies" memento and "black liquorice" hybrid ink from mft

You are Amazing

I fell for this set from pti but I was being a bit tight and only bought the dies, of course when I came to use the dies without the stamp didn't work, so of course I had to get the stamps, I sometimes wonder will I ever learn lol.

I have wanted to try the watercolour background for a while but I don't have a lot of watercolour paper to practice so I found some old papermill card and decided to give it a whirl, I have to say I'm very impressed it reacted with the water brilliantly, die cut like a dream and is now enjoying a new lease of life in my craft room.

I used three distress inks for this background, evergreen bough, salty ocean and tumbled glass. I smushed them onto my craft sheet, spritzed with water then just dropped and smushed the paper into the ink, once it was dry I pounced it back into the pools of ink to get a more concentrated colour. Such an easy process I can't believe I've not done it before.

Ingredients:
Image and sentiment: "amazing" pti
Dies: blueprints 15 by mft and amazing by pti
Card: Papermill
Embossing powder: Stampendous detail white.

Challenges: less is more

Dandelion Inkiness

I was inspired by this fabulous less is more card by Michelle from the card grotto so I decided to get my inks out and have a go. I didn't have the same stamp but I remembered a set by mft called "dandelion wishes" that had come free in my craft retreat goodies last year. Although these cards look simple they took just as long as a multi layer one, probably because every mistake shows up when using this card style.

I used the MFT blueprint 13 to cut the stitched layer, this gives a lovely effect even when the card is just layered on white. I then cut a circle using my circle stax and placed the negative over my base layer, I made some marks where the circle was going to be covered so that i could remove the mask and ensure my stamping was within the circle. I heat embossed in white and put the mask back on and used three inks to blend.

I am not sure about anyone else but I struggle with the ranger tool so whilst in Florida I bought a few large round daubers and these were so much easier to use, I think I need one for every colour now. I am going to try the new mini tool though as this looks so much easier than the rectangle one.

I was pleased with how these cards turned out and made a few more with different colours which I will show you tomorrow, I am not sure which are my favourite though. So onto the cards.

Ingredients
Image: Dandelion wishes MFT stamps
Inks: Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean all Distress inks by Tim Holtz
Dies: Circle stax, blueprints 13
Card: Recollections 110lb white
Sentiment: "Make a Wish" Pure Innocence at MFT Stamps

Ingredients
Image and Sentiment: Dandelion wishes MFT stamps
Inks: Seedless Preserves, Picked Raspberry, Worn Lipstick all Distress inks by Tim Holtz
Dies: Circle stax, blueprints 13
Card: Recollections 110lb white

Owl I want for Christmas

Still on a roll with the christmas cards with another to add to the growing pile, maybe I won't be making them on the last posting day this year. I bought the stamp last year but was a bit intimidated by the background but decided to just go for it and see what happened and I really enjoyed it, I did originally colour the yellow stocking blue but it just blended in with the background so I paper pieced a new one.

I used the new xcut hexagon to cut out the image and my perfect layers to layer it, this is such a useful bit of kit and I hadn't thought of using it on anything other than a square/rectangular before.

The red card and the white card the image is stamped on are both snippets so am off for a dip in the paddling pool over at the snippet playground.

Ingredients
Image: "Wish upon a Star" Mulberry Wood by Crafters Companion
Dies: "hexagon" papermania, "notched border" MFT stamps
Papers: "christmas in the country" papermania
Brads: Stash
Cardstock: "real red" stampin up
Copics:
    Owls: E49, 47, 44, 43, 42, 41, 40
    Tree: E79, 77, 74, G24, 46
    Stockings: Y32, 35, 38, R29, 27, 24, G46, 24, 43
    Background: B32, 34, 37, 39

Challenges: Snippet Playground