Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 201 - Animal Magic

Hello everyone and welcome to my bit of blog space.  

Hope you are enjoying your day so far.

It's time for another Challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers.  This time Kim is our host and the Theme is 'Animal Magic' so, we would love to see your creations based on an animal theme.
As always, you may create anything you like but please make sure your project has an animal large enough for us to see.  We are excluding insects for this one so, no bugs, butterflies or bees please.   Your project may still include them but you will also need to add an animal to meet the challenge theme.

My DT contribution is a Christmas card.
The inspiration for this card came from one created by Pamellia Johnson who is, in my humble  opinion,  a totally brilliant card maker.  If you love shabby chic you will adore her beautiful work as I do.  She also shares the most amazing wildlife photos on her posts so, if you like birds and squirrels and other assorted small, wild creatures, you will love that aspect of her work as well.  I urge you to go and take a look HERE.

 The papers used are from Craft Smiths and Kaisercraft.

 The poinsettia is handmade with a die from Poppy Crafts and the small white flower is a Cherry Blossom which is available from Megs Garden. 

The reindeer is a chipboard piece from 2Crafty Chipboard.  I originally coloured it red for use on another project but then decided to use it here and heat embossed it in gold.  I wasn't too fussy about the coverage so you can still see where some of the red shines through.

The greeting ornament is from Scrapmatts.  I used a fine texta to colour the writing but, as you can see, I obviously am hopeless at colouring in between the lines!!  LOL!!  It really stands out in a close-up but, is not quite so noticeable in RL.  Added my standard prills and micro beads!

 The inside ..

.. and the full frontal!

I hope I have given you some inspiration to join in with the Challenge.
 For more inspo and some fabulous ideas, pop on over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog and check out the projects shared by my wonderfully creative Teamies.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #201 - Animal Magic

Thank you so much for your visit and have a wonderful day!!

Take care and God Bless.

Marg oxox

A Magicals Christmas Card

Hello everyone and welcome!!  Hope you are having a wonderful day!!

A special welcome to my new followers.  Thank you so much for joining me.

Back again to share another of my Christmas cards.  

For this one, I have again created my own background using Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals, instead of using designer papers.

I cut a piece of canvas paper to the size I wanted and masked off the edges.

Sprayed water over the paper and sprinkled on Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals and then sprayed it again with water till I was happy with the way it looked.  Once it was dry, I used texture paste through a Tim Holtz Poinsettia stencil on the same area.    I really like how some of the colour still leached through the  texture paste. 

Made the poinsettia with a die from Poppy Crafts and added some prills for the center and glitter on the edges. Not really happy with the glitter .. need to find a better way to add some sparkle.

The chippie is from Scrapmatts ..

.. and the pine branch die is from Impression Obsession.

I purchased a really cheap Christmas decoration and pulled it apart so I could use the baubles on my cards.  The decoration only cost about $2AUS and I have enough baubles for about 10 cards, so I got a real bargain there.

All in all, I'm quite happy with this one.

I do still love using designer papers for my cards but am finding I really enjoy creating my own backgrounds.  Have been checking out a lot of videos and trying out some different techniques.  Unfortunately though, I have ended up with a few muddy messes and ended up throwing it in the bin but, once in a while, I make one that I like.  Hopefully, with more practice, more of them will be usable.

Thank you so much for visiting my little blogspot and do enjoy the rest of your day.

Take care and God Bless.

A Christmas Duo

Hello sweet visitors and welcome to my blog.  So pleased that you dropped in.
Hope you are having a wonderful day and that the weather is being kind to you.

I have some Christmas cards to share today.  Hope you are not getting sick of them yet as I still have quite a few to show you.  I am actually sharing two today.  You probably guessed that already by the title .. LOL!!  These two cards are very similar so I thought I would post them together.

The papers used on both these cards is from a small paper pad by Craft Smith called 'Always Christmas'.

 This first card is the feminine version .. 'cos I added a touch of lace and a strip of pearls!  LOL!!

 A fairly simple design incorporating a piece of corrugated board underneath and then bits of different papers mounted on cardstock and layered over one another.

 The poinsettia was handmade with a die from Poppy Crafts and the Pine Branch is a die from Impression Obsession.

 The chipboard bauble greeting is from Scrapmatts.  The words were grey originally, I simply traced over them with a red pen to add a bit of colour..

Card two has a more masculine look (no lace, no pearls) although the design is pretty much the same.

 Just a normal white flower instead of the poinsettia and, instead of just a bow, the gold string was first wrapped around the layers .. 

 .. and the greeting is a simple gold sticker.

And there you have it!!  Two more Christmas cards done and dusted.

As I said I still have plenty more to show you so I shall be back in a few more days to do exactly that!
Only 5 and a half weeks to go!!

Thank you so much for stopping by and, whatever your plans are for the day, make it a good one!

Take care and God Bless.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 200 - Anything but a Card

Hello and welcome!!!  So nice of you to stop by!

The new Challenge has gone live at Crafty Cardmakers and this time Angela is our hostess and the Theme is Anything but a Card!

So, you can create anything you wish, as long as it IS NOT a Card.

Well, as you can imagine, for a cardmaker like me, that is not an easy Challenge to meet.  I actually started a couple of different projects, but ended up putting them to one side, because they just were not coming together the way I wanted.  Haven't tossed them in the bin as yet as I'm hoping to go back later on and finish them off.  I had started this Art Journal page a little while ago.  All I had done was the basic background so, when nothing else worked for me, I decided to finish it off.  Wasn't really sure where I was going with this but, in the end, it came together quite nicely and I am very happy with the finished piece.

I used a piece of Canvas Paper and cut it to size so it would fit into the Art Journal I created a little while back.  I didn't want to work in the Journal itself because I didn't want any of the wet media
to soak through the page.  If you'd like to take a look at that Journal, HERE is the link.

I started by using texture paste through a Bubble stencil and then used Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals for the colour. 

The colours are Tiffanylou's Blue and Dark Chocolate Truffle.  Once the Magicals were dry I rubbed the corners with gold Twinkling H2O's.  The stamps I used are from Prima and from Lavinia Stamps.

Found this flower in my stash.  It must have been re-coloured a long time ago, so I have no idea what I sprayed it with, but the colour was perfect for my page.  The chippie frame was simply swiped with more of the gold Twinkling H2O's.

The quote I used was found through Pinterest.  It is from a Journal page by Joanne Sharpe.  It doesn't say if it was her own quote or from someone else but, the full quote says ' To be true, you must embrace the life that is calling you and listen to the whispers in your soul.'   I loved it, so I hope she won't mind me using part of it for my page.

Added lots of prills for some more texture .. and, just because I love them!

Here is the page glued down in my Journal ..

.. and a little closie!

Would love for you to pop on over to the Crafty Cardmakers Blog and take a look at the incredible creations by my Teamies.  I am sure you will be inspired to join in.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #200 - Anything but a card.
Be sure to read the rules and please take note of the 15 Challenge limit.

Thank you so much for coming by and do enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.

A Watercolour Christmas

Hello lovely visitors!!  Welcome to my blog.  Hope you are all having a wonderful day!!

I am here to share another Christmas card with you.  This one is a little different in that I created a background just using Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals and,  I must say, I am really happy with the result.  Hope you like it too.

Lately, I've been playing around a bit with paints and sprays trying to create backgrounds for my cards instead of simply using dp.  I have quite enjoyed the process even though some things I tried  haven't worked  and, consequently, ended up in the bin but, some things actually did work.  
This one worked!!  It  is very simple but I really liked it and so, turned it into a card. 

To create that little bit of background, I used Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals in Rizzo's Rowdy Red, Greased Lightning Green and Glory of the Seas Gold.

I simply laid down some water on my watercolour paper and then sprinkled the colours on one at a time, spreading the colour out with a paint brush.

Not difficult and certainly not fancy but I really love how it created those patches of colour.

Once it was dry, I simply added my cluster and some coloured prills.

The greeting is a simple gold sticker.

What I really love about these magicals, is the gorgeous gold shimmer you get from the Glory of the Seas Gold.  It is very difficult to pick up with a camera but, believe me, it is beautiful IRL and adds quite a bit of pazzazz!!

The flower was coloured with Cherry Red Dylusion S.pray

Very happy with this one.  Hoping to make some more in a similar vein!!

Thank you so much for your visit today and a huge thank you for any comment you may care to leave for me.  I love reading them and appreciate each and every one.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Take care and God Bless.

A Tartan Kind of Christmas

Hello my lovely visitors and welcome to my creative space.  

A very warm welcome too to my new followers!  Thank you so much joining me on this creative journey!  Hoping you will enjoy the ride!

A quick post to share another of my Christmas cards. 
No Masterboard this time .. just some papers and a bit of  die cutting.

The tartan paper is from a 6" x 6" Christmas paper pad I bought a little while ago by Craft Smith.  I used a Tim Holtz Thinlits die on the paper for the front of the card and, for something a little different, I outlined it with a white gel pen.

Another of my handmade flairs using a computer generated greeting and an epoxy sticker.

Used some of the scrappy bits left over from the die cut on the front of my card to decorate the inside.

 Et Voila!!

As I said, just a quick post this time.
 Have heaps more Christmas cards to make and will be posting another soon so, I hope you will come back to take another look.

I have entered this into Challenge #25 at Christmas Card Challenges
UPDATE .. My card made the top 3 .. Yayy!!!

Thank you for your visit and do enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.