A Matching Pair for Christmas

Hi everyone and welcome!  So pleased you came by and hope you are enjoying your day.

The weather here in Adelaide has been very, very hot lately.  High in the 30s (Centigrade) for the last few days and then, yesterday afternoon, it dropped by about 10C and today we are back down  in the high teens.  We had lots of rain as well yesterday  and, to the north of Adelaide, some violent storms which, luckily, missed us down here in the south.  Apparently, there are more storms on the way and they have issued flood warnings for this State (I think we've already had some flooding) and for the Eastern States as well.   Praying it won't be as bad as they predict and that everyone stays safe and sound and relatively dry!!

Ok, back to the matter at hand.  As the Post Title suggests, I'm here to share more Christmas cards.  Afraid that's about all I am creating at the moment.  I really want to get them done and dusted as we are going away for a week in December and I certainly won't be able to do anything then.

These paper are from a 6" x 6" pad by Craft Smiths.
As you can see, the design is basically the same.  I have simply changed the position of some of the elements and used a few different embellies.

The doily die is the Hopmeadow Circle by Memory Box.  I cut it in half and used a piece on each card.

The pine branch die is by Impression Obsession and the red roses by Creative Corner.  Not sure who makes the white Cherry Blossom but it is one of the lovely flowers available at Megs Garden.

The greeting bauble is by Scrapmatts and, of course, I had to add a mix of prills and micro beads.

I added a piece of plaster tape underneath the cluster for a little texture and interest.

The design of the second card is the reverse of the first.

Same doily  and same pine branch.

I used a handmade poinsettia created with a die by Poppy Crafts, added a small pine cone to the cluster and, rather than use the plaster tape again, I added a piece of lace instead.

Another Scrapmatts bauble greeting with a little added colouring ..

.. and, of course, some prills and micro beads.

There you go!  Nothing flash or fancy but, I have two more crossed off the list!

Thank you all for your visit and, for those of you who are, and have been, kind enough to leave me some sweet and lovely comments, I thank you wholeheartedly!  I really appreciate you taking the time for leaving me some love!  Mwahh!!!

Have yourselves a wonderful day and I hope that the weather is kind to you!!
Take care and stay safe everyone!!
Big hugs and God Bless.

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.