Christmas Cards for 2018 #1

Hello dear friends!!  

Thank you for stopping by, I know how busy you all must be getting ready to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour.  Hope all your Christmas preparations are humming along nicely.

I'm back to just quickly share a couple more of my Christmas cards.  As I stated in my last post, here, all my cards are very similar.  Same paper collections, same embellies, just different combinations and a couple of slightly different designs.

Some cards have a vertical aspect and some are horizontal.

Card 1

Most of the sentiments I've used are taken from the paper collections.  I simply trimmed them to size where necessary and then heat embossed the edges with gold.

The flower clusters are all similar with real little pine cones (found in a Homewares Store at the very beginning of the year) and little bunches of berries.

The ends of the diecut branches have also been heat embossed in gold. 

Card 2

The flowers are different but they have all been sprayed with Cherry Pie Dylusions Ink Spray. 

I know I've mentioned it previously, but I do love the traditional colours for my Christmas cards.  I also love the touches of gold.  Adds something a bit special to them, I think.

Thank you so much for your visit I truly do appreciate it.  In a few days I will share a few more of my cards.  Hope to see you then!!

Have fun with your preparations for Christmas!  Mine are well under way but I do still have quite a bit to do.   Mostly the food though and, this year, that is not going to be too complicated.  Keeping it simple but hope it will still be enjoyable for everyone.

Have a wonderful day!
Take care and God Bless.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 224

Hello everyone!!  Thank you for stopping by.  I hope you are having a fabulous day!

The new Challenge is live at Crafty Cardmakers.  This will be our last Challenge this year (can you believe it??)  and I am happy to say I will be staying on the Team for another year!  Yayy!!
Mary is our host for this Challenge and the Theme, of course, is Christmas.
As always, you may create anything you like as long as it fits the Theme.

This is the perfect time to start showing you the Christmas cards I have created for my family and close friends this year.

Usually, the cards I make for Christmas are quite similar  to each other and, this year, I have made them even more alike.  All of the papers and the embellishments are the same, I have simply changed the combinations slightly for each card. 

I made a decision earlier this year that I wouldn't buy any more Christmas card supplies.  This year, I would make all of them with whatever I had left in my stash from previous years.  Well, that turned out to be quite a lot.  I probably have enough left still to last me for the next couple of years at least!

The papers are all from previous Kaisercraft collections.  Some from a 6 x 6 pad and some from a 12 x 12 pad and the sentiments are also, mostly, from those pads.

I will be sharing my cards over the next few days (or weeks) and I will then explain more about the embellies used.

I hope you will pop over to the CCM blog and take a peek at what the rest of the Team have created.  Lots of inspiration there to inspire you to join in with the Challenge.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #224 - Christmas

Thank you so much for your visit, I really appreciate you taking the time.  I know how busy everyone is at this time of year.

Enjoy the rest of your day!!

Take care and God Bless.

You're Tagged - A Masculine Card

Hello my dear friends and welcome to my crafty space.
Hope you're having a great day.

I'm here to show you a masculine card today.  I made this one a few months ago but never got around to sharing it.

If I remember rightly, the papers are from Kaisercraft but I have no idea which collection they are from.

I cut 4 layers of paper to fit the size of the card and then tore the two top layers diagonally across.

Created a couple of tags from another sheet, added some twine and a little stamping ..

.. and tucked them in between the torn layers.

The ruler is a piece cut from a scrap of Prima paper and the sentiment is a cut apart from Kaisercraft.

For a little added interest, I attached the twine to the card with a couple of staples, slid on a paper clip at the side, and I was done!!

That's all from me today.  Thank you so much for stopping by and for any comment you may care to leave.  I do appreciate it.

Have a fabulous day my friends.
Take care and God Bless.

In a Blue and Feminine Mood

Hello everyone and happy Monday!!  

Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

I have a card to share with you.  I haven't done a lot of crafting lately (have fallen way behind in my schedule) but, every once in a while, I feel the need to create something.  This card came together  because of that need.

I really had no specific idea in my mind when I started .. only that I wanted to make something blue (my fave colour) and feminine.

 So, I gathered some blue Kaisercraft papers together and then some white as well and worked out what layers I wanted.  Cut them to size and then tore and crumpled a few of the edges until I was happy with the arrangement.

I then went hunting for some flowers and, after trying a few different ones, decided on these.

I also tucked a blue flower in the corner and added a  touch of lace ..

.. and added some more lace in a couple of other spots just for a bit more interest.

Of course, I had to add some prills and micro beads as well.

Inserted a piece of gauze under the flowers and die cut the leaves from a scrap of Maja papers ..

.. and am quite happy with the result!

I am sharing this card with the Anything Goes Challenge # 114 at
Scrapping4funChallenges!

Thank you so much for stopping by today and I hope I have inspired you to create a little something yourself.
A special thank you for those who left such lovely comments on my last post.  You warm my heart with your kind words.

 Have a wonderful day!!
Take care and God Bless.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #210 - Birthdays

Hello lovely visitors and welcome!!  So happy that you stopped by!

Well, it's time for a new Challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers.  Lin is our host for this one and the Theme is Birthdays!!!  As always, you may create whatever you like as long as it follows the Theme.

I created another card for this Challenge.  With the Theme being Birthdays, this was the easiest option and I am really into easy at the moment.  LOL!!

I raided my stash for these papers.  They are from an older Prima Collection called Rondelle.  I was looking for something with black in it and, when I came across these papers, well, they were just  perfect!

There is a piece of gauze and some upholstery thread under the flowers for texture and I added a few die cuts as well.

This die is called Threads and Edges and is made by Altenew.  It is available at Megs Garden.
I must point out that, although I do not design for them very often any more, I am still a Guest Designer at Megs Garden and have received free items from the store as compensation in the past.   These dies were actually paid for and besides, I would not recommend anything I did not also love and use.

I've had these flowers for a while.  They are also available from Megs Garden.  If you wish to take a look, the larger one is the Burgundy/Cream open paper rose and the smaller white one is the Puffy Paper Flower.  

The Cameo Frame by Tim Holtz is a recent purchase.  I love the fact that you get the metal frame and they also include the resin sticker to fit inside it so you can make up your own Cameo using whatever paper matches your creation.  Brilliant!!

Added a strip of floral lace along one of the torn edges.

The greeting was computer generated, trimmed and then edged with a Sharpie.

Voila!!

I do hope you will take the time to pop over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog and check out the fabulous inspiration from my Teamies!   You might even be persuaded to join in!!  LOL!!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge 210 - Birthdays

Thank you so much for stopping by and special thanks to those of you who left such lovely comments on my last post.  I really appreciate your kind words.

Have a wonderful day!!
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #209 - Water

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  So happy that you stopped by.

The new Challenge is starting over at Crafty Cardmakers and the Theme this fortnight is - Water.  Josephine is our host for this one and, as always, you may create whatever you like as long as it follows the Theme.

Well, I thought I would be back full on crafting this past week or so but that obviously did not happen.  I think when I broke my wrist I also broke my enthusiasm and my mojo .. LOL!!  Just can't get back into it at the mo, but I'm quite pleased that I did manage to create something for my DT contribution even though it did take a few days to get done.

I created this very simple little card.

 This is not the first card I tried to make.  It is actually my fourth attempt.  I simply could not get the right effect for the background.  Yeah, I do think my mojo is broken or, at least, it's bent a bit!  LOL!!

The first two attempts were made with different inks and paints and didn't look very nice. So then I went back to my trusty Magicals and, although I did like the result on the third attempt, I then messed it up beause I wasn't really sure what I wanted to add to it.  Tried it with mermaids and dolphins but I  did not like how it turned out so, that one ended up in the bin as well.

I created this background by first spraying a piece of watercolour paper with water.  I mixed each of the colours with water to activate them and then put a few drops of each randomly on the page.  Then I sprayed over it with water again just to get the colours moving a bit more and this is the result.  The Magicals' colours I used on this background are Danny Zucko's Denim, Tiffany Lou's Blue, Azure Sea Asters, Sea Mint Green and Greased Lightning Green.  Don't you just love those names?? 

And I really loved how this background turned out so didn't want to mess this one up.  Still wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it though until I found this quote from the movie Finding Nemo and then I knew I had to add a  fish of some sort.

After that, it all came together quite quickly.  I found the little fish on the net, printed it out and fussy cut it. 

I edged the fish and the quote with a black Sharpie pen and popped them up  on foam tape to give a bit of dimension.  I also went around the fish with more of the Danny Zucko's Denim to give it shadow and make it stand out a bit more.

The 'seaweed' is the Garland Threads Die by Altenew and I added some pearls to represent air bubbles.  I then used more of the Danny Zucko's Denim to add the splashes.

And here it is .. all finished!!!

I did make this into a card but am not really sure what sort of occasion I could use it for so, I'm thinking, I might just pop it into my art journal.   'Cos, with that quote, it's kinda uplifting and supportive and I think it's kinda cute and, I want to keep it!  So there!  LOL!!

I hope you will pop on over to the CCM Blog and take a peek at the fabulous inspiration by my Teamies and, maybe, link up your entry.  Would love to see how you interpret this Theme. 

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 209 - Water.

Thank you so much for stopping by and for any words you may care to leave for me.  I read every one and really appreciate you taking the time.

Have a wonderful day!
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg