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.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #195 - Monochrome

Hello crafty friends and welcome to my blog.  So happy you dropped by.

There is a brand new Challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers.  Jackie is our host this time around, and the Theme is Monochrome!!! 

So, as usual, you don't have to make a card.  It can be anything you like as long as you follow the theme.  

Please do read the rules and take note of the 15 Challenge limit!!

Well, as is my want, I did make a card and I also did a tiny bit of stash busting or, work space clean-up really.  I had a few scraps of paper lying about on my desk and decided to use them up.  Luckily I found plenty of the same, or similar, colour and all of them are from Maja.

 There's not a lot I can tell you about making this card.  Mostly, all I used was the paper.

 I either distressed or ripped the edges and simply layered them up.

 The only embellishing I did was to stamp the greeting and heat emboss it.

 I did try to add a few bits and pieces but couldn't find anything that I was happy with ..

.. and, in the end, I decided that I liked it just as it is.

 

Another fabulous Challenge from Crafty Cardmakers!
To take a look at the wonderful inspiration by the rest of the Team and link up your entry on the Blog,  simply click the link below.

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #195 - Monochrome

Thank you so much for your visit and for leaving me a little love.
Whatever you are planning to do today, do it safe and, above all, have fun!!
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #188 - Add a Sentiment

Hello everyone and welcome to my creative space, hope you are all having a wonderful day!

The new Challenge is up at Crafty Cardmakers.
Pam is our host for this challenge and it is all about adding a sentiment.
We would like this to be more than just a tiny peel off in one corner.  It would be nice if it was the focal point on your creation but we won't insist on that.  Just make sure it is prominent on whatever you make.

Anything you wish to enter is fine, just please read the rules and remember our 15 Challenge limit.

The papers used on my card are from Maja.

Used a piece of gauze under the flower cluster for some extra texture ..

..  and randomly sprinkled some prills.

My sentiment was stamped onto a piece of white cardstock and then heat embossed ..

.. and I curled the corners of some of the papers layers for more interest.

A twine bow ..

.. a piece of lace at the side and also some stamped stitching.

Would love for you to pop on over to the Crafty Cardmakers blog and take a look at the wonderful creations by my Teamies.  I'm sure you will feel inspired to join in the fun!!!

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge # 188 - Add a Sentiment.

I am entering this card into the following Challenge

Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes




Thank you so much for stopping by to take a look and have a wonderful day!!
Take care and God Bless.
 oxox Marg

Masculine with Lots of Layers

Hello sweet crafty peeps and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are all having a fabulous day.

Sharing another of my 'man' cards today.
In my last post I shared the card I made for my oldest son's (and his wife's too of course) Anniversary.  This card was made for his birthday.  The Anniversary card was a bit  'girly' for him (although I'm sure he still liked it, LOL!!)  but he was quite happy with this one.

The papers are mostly from Maja but there are also a few scraps from other Manufacturers .. not sure which though.
Used my scissors to distress all the edges.

Hadn't used my embossing folders for ages so decided to emboss one of the paper layers to add a bit of interest.  I lightly rubbed a Charcoal VersaColor inkpad over the embossing to help it stand out a bit more.

Tiny bit of metal wire that just appeared on my work desk (not sure how, or where it came from??  Must have been lurking amongst the mess!!  LOL!!) so I added that to my card as well as a chippy from Scrapmatts.

A couple of screw top brads and a square paper clip were also included.

Added some black and white paint splatters.

The inside ..

Voila!!  All done!!

The challenge at Crafty Cardmakers is all about embossing so, I thought I would enter this one over there.

Thank you all so much for your visit and for taking a look at my creations.   Enjoy what's left of the week and have a great weekend!!!
Take care and God Bless.

Girls Day Out

Hello sweet peeps and welcome to my blog.  Hope you are all having a fabulous day.

A little while ago, I mentioned that I had a fantastic day out with four amazing ladies .. Heather Jacob, Astrid Maclean, Adriana Bolzon and Helen Wallace.   Not only are these ladies amazingly talented as scrappers but they are also the sweetest, loveliest people you could ever hope to meet.  I feel so blessed to be able to call them all 'friend' and to have been included in this wonderful day.
The main reason for this 'Girl's Day Out' was so we could meet with Astrid in person.  Heather and Astrid had already met a few years ago, but the rest of us only knew her online.  Those of you who are familiar with Astrid will know that she actually lives in Scotland but, at the moment she is in Australia visiting relatives in Melbourne.  Luckily for us, she was able to come to Adelaide for a few days and Heather arranged for all of us to get together.  We ended up in Hahndorf and had the most wonderful day just chatting .. laughing .. chatting .. eating .. shopping .. chatting (LOL!!) ..  it was awesome!!
 A kind passer-by took this photo for us.

For those of you who don't know us from right to left is Adriana Bolzon, Helen Wallace, Astrid Maclean, Heather Jacob and myself.

We also exchanged some handmade gifts and I thought I would share them with you.
 First up is this amazing card by Adriana.

I love the embossing on this card, especially the gold heat embossing on the front .. absolutely  gorgeous.  

Lots of inking and I love that sweet little swallow ..

.. and the flower cluster is so very pretty!! 

I also love the die cut words .. love, faith, hope, blessings.  Such beautiful sentiments ..

.. and the angel wings in the center.  Absolutely stunning.

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Next is a small booklet created by Astrid.
It was presented in this lovely little hessian bag.

Anyone who knows Astrid's work knows she is a master at mixed media and this little booklet was made in her distinctive style.

She blends and matches colours to perfection ..

so many different techniques and mediums used in creating this booklet .. simply awesome!

I adore the quotes Astrid used as well .. so inspiring.

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Last, but certainly not least, is this stunning tag by Heather.

Heather also presented her gifts tucked into a gift bag. 

Love the warm subtle colour with that touch of black .. and she added our initial on top of those gorgeous layers .. fabulous!

Just look at all those layers .. awesome!!

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We all wrote some personal messages on the backs of our gifts as well.

You've probably noticed that Helen didn't have a project and that's because she had been on holiday and didn't think she would be able to make it.  As it turned out, she rang Heather the day before to say she was able to join us after all.   We were all so very glad she could come along but, as it was at the last minute, we were not able to exchange gifts with her though her presence was certainly gift enough for all of us.

I created a small photo folio for the girls and I will be sharing those with you in the weeks to come.  In the meantime, here are the links so you can take a look at these 'uberly' talented ladies creations.

ADRIANA BOLZON - AB Inspirations
ASTRID MACLEAN - Astrid's Artistic Efforts
HEATHER JACOB - Art and Life
HELEN WALLACE - Textures and Tales

Here's a few more photos from a fabulous 'Day Out'.
The first one is from Heather's camera.  The last two are from mine.

Thank you so much my gorgeous friends for an absolutely wonderful day.  It was such a great  pleasure to finally meet Astrid in the flesh, so to speak, and she is even more lovely in real life than she is online.  I will treasure the memories and the beautiful gifts you all gave for always.  Love and hugs to you all.

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And thank you all so much for dropping by and making it through this very long post.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your day and that the weather is being kind to you.
Take care and God Bless.

Friends are connected heart to heart ..
Distance and time cannot break them apart.