Last Minute Christmas... part 2

 Following on from my previous post for Sweet Stampin's Last Minute Christmas challenge, I thought I'd share some of the other versions I made of the original design.

The first card follows the same recipe as the original card but in dark blue this time, with some of the flowers enhanced with Copic colouring.

The next card has been white heat embossed on light blue card, with Copic colouring not just on the flowers but on the leaves and stems as well using a teal-green shade.

To change things up a bit I gold heat-embossed the stamped panel on black cardstock before cutting with a wavy die.  The panel underneath has been heat embossed with the same gold powder and I've added black pearls here and there.  Just need to choose a sentiment and this one is done.

Finally I used the matching stencil and various colours of Nuvo Glitter Paste.  I gold heat-embossed a sentiment on a strip of heavyweight vellum and wrapped this round the front of the card.

I'd like to try gold glitter paste on red or black cardstock next but as I have to do my crafting in the kitchen, it may be a while before I get round to it. No one is going to appreciate glitter paste in their mince pies!

Take care and stay safe xx  

Last Minute Christmas

 Well, it's nearly here!  School is out at last and I've got a couple of days to get the last bits and pieces done.  

I'm joining in with Team Wends at Sweet Stampin' for this fortnight's challenge, which is Last Minute Christmas.  Here's my make

I used a red rubber stamp from Simon Says Stamp with Versamark ink and gold heat embossed the image. Inspired by Yana Smakula's colouring on coloured cardstock, I used my Copic markers to add some shading to the red cardstock.

The sentiment is from Wplus9 and again, this was gold heat embossed.  I made a mat for the sentiment from slightly darker red cardstock, added some red adhesive pearls and popped the whole thing up with foam pads.

This was actually pretty quick to make, so much so that I made a few in different colours.

Hope you can play along with us in this two-week challenge.  Hop over to the Sweet Stampin' blog to check out the challenge details and the lovely inspiration projects the Sweeties have made.

Have a wonderful weekend

xx

A little more Mo!

 My Mo Manning obsession continues!  Today I'm sharing more of her Christmas images which I just couldn't resist!

I coloured the presents and tree with Copics and added sparkly detail with Sakura glitter pens.  I'd like to enter this card in the December challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil (Anything Goes).

Have a lovely evening!

xx

Christmas Critters

 I'm popping in quickly this afternoon (in between ironing and making pastry 😇) to share another Christmas card.

I love this stamp from Stamping Bella and never tire of colouring it, but opted for shades of green this time instead of my go-to red.  The DP is yet more of the Magnolia paper I bought donkeys years ago in all the colours.  I suspect it's duplicating itself in my paper drawer as there is still a stack of it left, despite me using it every year!

I thought I'd enter this is the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge Blog:  It's Got To Be Christmas

Merry Little Christmas Challenge: Anything Christmas Goes

Winter Wonderland Challenge Blog: Anything Goes

Crafty Calendar Challenge: Christmas

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

xx

Christmas Joy

 I  bought this MFT die set a while back and then didn't get round to using it straightaway.  When I did, I felt that the coloured cardstock still looked a bit flat and uninspiring.  However, while procrastinating on the computer I found Yana Smakula's "colouring on coloured cardstock" posts and out came those die cut pieces I'd put away.

My initial reservations about colouring on coloured cardstock were largely unfounded. I still wouldn't recommend it for colouring an entire scene but for shading and light layers, it's just fine.  I used the cardstock itself as my lightest colour and added depth with darker greens in the YG90 family. I found two offeset layers of the wreath worked well but you could use an extra layer if you wanted even more dimension.

I wanted the Joy diecut sentiment to have some dimension, too so I cut it 3 times and glued the layers together.  I only coloured the top one and created an ombré effect by using the same Copic colours as the wreath. I started with YG99 at the bottom of the letters, gradually fading out with lighter colours  and leaving the very top portion in the cardstock's original colour.

I wanted to keep a good amount of white space so I just dotted a few contrasting enamel dots here and there.

Possibly not something for mass production as it takes a bit of time, but I'm tempted to give this a try in non-traditional colours.  What do you think?

Stay safe xxx

Another one for the pile...

 Christmas card production is now officially in full swing at Trayner Towers.  I'm not sending nearly as many as I usually would for obvious reasons and that has taken the pressure off somewhat.

It's a cute LotV reindeer today - easy and quick to colour, perfect for last-minute makes.  I used some Magnolia paper from my stash that had already been cut out and distressed with Antique Linen ink, and when I say already, I suspect I did this several years ago!  The things you find when you decide to go through your stash drawers... and boxes... and tupperware 😉

More Marvelous Mo

 I told you I'd gone Mo Manning mad!  Here's another of her fab Christmas gnomes that I coloured with Copics and Sakura glitter pens.

I changed the colours for this one, going for R32, R35, R37, R39 for the main part of his cloak and W0, W and W3 for the trim.  All the greens are from th YG90 family and his beard was coloured with C0, C1 and C2.

Have a lovely day!

xx

Let It Snow

 We have a new challenge at Sweet Stampin' starting today and our theme is Let It Snow.  I've indulged my current Mo Manning digi obsession and coloured up these trees with Copic markers.

I used my Sakura glitter pens to colour the stars and baubles and added snow with a Posca pen.

Hop over to Sweet Stampin' to check out the challenge details and admire the fab inspiration projects the Sweeties have created. Hope you can play along with us this week!

xx

Christmassy Red and White

 I'm up particularly early and, to be honest, finding excuses to not do school work!

I thought I'd share another addition to the Christmas card pile

I still love my hAnglar & StAnglar etched rubber stamps even though I don't use them nearly as much as I used to.  They are back in business after a long break and now have new stamps plus old favourites in photopolymer. Unfortunately shipping is expensive but those stamps are so tempting!

I coloured the image with Copics, stamped, coloured and fussy cut the holly and used paper and an embellie from my stash.

I haven't entered a challenge for a while, so I'd like to enter this in the Merry Little Christmas Challenge.

Have a lovely day xx

Four weeks to go!

 I can't believe that it's only 4 weeks to Christmas.  I'm pretty much done as far as shopping is concerned but seriously behind on the cards, so it's time for a huge effort over the next couple of weekends.

I've really fallen for some of the Mo Manning digi stamps, especially the gnomes and the trees.  

I've coloured a few versions of this gnome, so there will be more to follow.

While I'm here can I give you a reminder of our latest challenge at Sweet Stampin'?  This week's theme is spots and stripes, so do play along if you can.

See you again later on this week.

Stay safe xx

Happy Birthday Sweet Stampin'... Happy Birthday to you!

 We're celebrating at Sweet Stampin'.  It's our 11th birthday today so it makes sense that this week's challenge should be all about birthdays.

I managed to buy one of the must-have Anita Jeram/Colorado Craft Company stamps and used this sweet rabbit and his balloon for my DT card

I was surprised at just how easy this little cutie was to colour with Copics.  I just addded some clear Wink of Stella to the balloon and put the image mat onto some pale blue Magnolia paper that I've had for ages.  

I didn't want to detract from the image with a sentiment and felt that everything I had was just a wee bit too big, so I put the birthday wishes on the inside with another cute critter from the same stamp set.

I really hope you can play along with us this week.  If you're looking for break from making Christmas cards, this is perfect for you!

You'll get all the challenge details and some gorgeous inspiration from the Sweeties right here.

Have a fab weekend

Tracey x

Hello, I'm back

 After a break from posting I'm back - not just on this blog but back "home" with my wonderful friends at Sweet Stampin'.  And believe me, it is so lovely to be with my teamies again.

Our challenge this fortnight is Red for Remembrance.  You don't have to make a remembrance card, but it should feature the colour red.  Not a problem for me, as it's a colour I use a lot!

Here's my DT card for the challenge, made using a digital stamp from Powerpoppy

I coloured the image with my Copics on Joanna Sheen's Elegance Satin 300gsm cardstock, my current absolute favourite card for colouring.  The cardstock holds up really well when you are colouring lots of layers, with no bleeding.  I added a computer-generated sentiment and mounted the image panel on a red mat.  I made a 5" x 7" card base using black heavyweight card and put the whole thing together.  No embellies, just nice and simple.

Please do hop over to Sweet Stampin' to check out the lovely inspiration projects from the Team Susan Sweeties and to get all of the challenge details.

Have a lovely weekend

xx

Up, up and away!

I hope you are managing to stay safe and well.

I knew it had been a while since I managed to get to my blog but even I was shocked at just how long it has been neglected.  Nothing exciting going on, just trying to teach from home and from next week, try to get my head round going back to school with a new kind of normal.

It's been near-impossible to get any card making done, but at last I've managed to actually finish something I started ages ago!

   

I stamped out this Stamping Bella image and coloured it with Copics before fussy cutting it out.  Using an MFT stencil and some Distress Ink, I created a cloudy sky background directly on the front of a tall, side folding card.

The sentiment is from one of the Altenew mini sets and was stamped in Obsidian black ink for a crisp impression.  I added some glitter to the spots on the balloon and carefully stencilled a little bit of cloudy sky on the image so that it blended in with the background.  The image was then popped up on foam pads.

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Allsorts challenge blog - Gingham/stripes/dots - 1 or all

A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes

For my mum

I made this card quite some time ago but didn't get around to posting it. 

I stamped the image (from Altenew) onto a white mat cut with a stitched square die.  I then took the Altenew Alphas die, placed the letters m and u directly over the image and cut them out.  I cut the letters again from craft foam and adhered this to the back of the image pieces.

I cut a square of patterned paper and adhered this to my card, adding a square doily on top.  I then used double sided tape to stick the main image on top of that.  The last step was to fit the letter pieces into the spaces on the card and glue them down.

I'm really quite pleased with the way this turned out.

No school for me from today, so we're trying to teach the kids remotely.  Sadly the system can't cope with the number of people using it so it's all been a bit hit and miss.  Still, much better to have the children and staff safely at home and not contributing to the spread of this dreadful virus.  Here in Scotland all non-essential shops have now been asked to close.

Stay safe and well.

CaSS - one last encore!

You might know that I stepped down from Christmas at Sweet Stampin' at the end of last year.  It's been decided that the challenge blog will go into hiatus and that Charlotte will start her own challenge in due course.

The good news, though, is that the original CaSSettes have got back together for the last challenge so that we can say "'bye for now" to our lovely followers.  I can't tell you how happy it's made me to be back with my crafty friends-for-life again!

The theme this month is CAS and here's what I made

I stamped one the cute puppies from the MFT Birdie Brown Snow Buddies Christmas 2019 release  and masked him so that I could do some ink blending over the top. I coloured the image with Copics and added snow and detail on his scarf using a Sakura white gel pen. There's also a bit of silver glitter gel pen on his nose for a frosty look! 

I took another panel of white card and from this cut a stitched circle.  After adhering the panel over the original image I stamped a greeting from MFT's Snowglobe Sentiments set. I then mounted the panel onto a light blue card base.

Do check out the inspiration projects over on the blog, where you'll also find the linky to enter challenge.  We'd love you to join us one last time!

xxx

Winter Woollies!

Talk about 4 seasons in one day!  We started with snow and black ice, then had rain followed by bright sunshine and higher temperatures than we've had since Christmas.  The forecast for tomorrow... snow again. 

No surprise, then, that this hAnglar & StAnglar stamp jumped out at me.

I coloured the little cutie with my Copic markers and kept everything quite simple by using a limited palette of green/brown/orange.

Thanks for stopping by!

xx

The card that no one wants to make

Mostly I make cards for happy occasions but there are times when we need to send our love to those who are coping with loss.

Flowers often manage to say what words can't and this lovely Mama Elephant image seemed a good choice for an unfussy card.

I stamped the image in Versamark ink and heat embossed it in white. I used watercolour pens to colour the image in a pale peachy-pink and added a sentiment onto a small  die cut panel before adhering the image onto a fog card base.

These cards are never easy to make but having a simple, pretty stamp is a huge help.

Thanks for stopping by.

xxx

My brother had a tank top like this one!

It's so nice to dig out your old stamps and show them a bit of love every now and again.  I had great fun colouring up this little chap.

The image is a red rubber hAnglar & StAnglar stamp and was coloured with Copics.  The papers are all from my stash and are ancient in crafting terms!  I suspect they were all in the same original pack and would guess that they are by My Mind's Eye, maybe.  I couldn't tell you the last time I bought patterned paper but I'm not likely to run out anytime soon!

Thanks for visiting!

xx

Is it nearly Spring yet?

I've done a fair bit of crafting over the past couple of days - finishing off, though,  rather than starting anything new.  Unfortunately the rain here has been relentless and the resulting lack of light has put a stop to any photo-taking. 

Instead I'm sharing a card I made ages ago but didn't get around to posting. 

The cheery colours in the design paper shout "Spring" to me.  I can't wait for the weather to improve so that I can get out into the garden and start sowing and planting ready for the summer months.

Will be back with another card that I made a while ago and will post this week's makes as soon as I can get some decent pictures!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

xx

Group Hug!

I hope those of you who are in the path of Storm  Dennis are safe and cosy.  It's certainly more than a little breezy here, I can tell you!

I'm here to share a card I made for a colleague a wee while ago, so it's now safe to post. 

I used an older Mama Elephant set and matching polaroid frame die and popped these up on my card base using some foam tape.  Fairly CAS and quick to make!

We have a rare couple of days half-term holiday this week so I hope to be back soon with some more crafty makes.

xxx