Greetings from the North Pole

I adore the Lili of the Valley penguins they're just so cute.  So, for this card I wanted to make them the main focus and keep it simple and clean.

I decided to colour the image Merry Christmas Penguins in black and white for a change.  My dies weren't quite big enough so I've drawn round the outside edge of one and then sketched an elongated curve to make up the shape, which I then had to hand cut.  The image is edged in black biro and finished off with some glitter to highlight the snow and some red self adhesive gems to the sign.

I've used black, white and red card stock to make up the layers and for the curved die cuts at the top of the card.  The postage stamp at the top right is from the Grunge Christmas Postmarks set.

Final touch some black and some more red self adhesive gems.

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

Lili of the Valley - Christmas

Fab n Funky - Anything with Die Cuts

Fantasy Stampers - Cute Christmas

Winter Wonderland - Dies and Punches

Totally Gorjuss - Christmas Animal

And again Happy Sunday, it's a lovely day here in Yorkshire so we might go for a walk later.

Andrea x

Seeds and greetings

I've been busy this weekend making cards - yay!!  A few of them Christmas ones as I've already sold a few so thought I'd better build up a bit more stock - yes people really do buy Christmas cards in November.  They also seem to have been buying a lot of snowmen cards so this is my first make.

I decided to try my hand at distressing again and this is what I've come up with.

Scalloped card from Hobby Craft

Stamp Seeds and Greetings - coloured with ProMarkers, cut with a die and distressed, glitter added to the snow with a DecoArt Writer

Papers from Lili of the Valley - Frosty Christmas and First Edition Gilded Winter in four layers before mounting the stamped image

Extras - from Hobby Crafty wooden snowflakes,  blue patterned scarf and some blue self adhesive gems.

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

Lili of the Valley - Christmas

Addicted to Stamps - Lots of Layers

I Love ProMarkers - Frosty the Snowman

Fab n Funky - Anything With A Die

Winter Wonderland - Dies and Punches 

Crafty Catz - Anything Goes

Deep Ocean - Shabby Chic

Happy Sunday

Andrea x

Such a cutie...

I think this has got to be my favourite card I've made so far :)  I loved him so much I wasn't sure whether to include him in my Christmas cards for sale at work.  I took him in today and he's gone straight away - Nooooooo......  Ok so I'll have to make another one.

This image Rudolf Reindeer from Make It Crafty was coloured for their 15 minute speed challenge using ProMarkers.  Once I'd entered him into the challenge I decided to finish him off by adding in some shadow to the bottom of the image.

I thought he was such a cute image I decided to do him as a CAS card so the image would be the main focus.

Used for this card

A pre-cut card to thread ribbon through from Hobby Crafty (bought on my sneaky half day holiday yesterday)

Red and black card stock

Some red sparkly ribbon from Lili of the Valley Little Bags of Ribbon - red and green mix

Black and clear self adhesive gems

A sentiment from Hobby Crafty bought last year.

I'm going to enter him into the following challenges

Christmas Cards All Year Round - No Design Paper

Totally Gorjuss - Sparkly/Blingy/Glittery

Papertake Weekly - Take Your Pick

Creative Inspirations - Seasons Greetings

Cutie Pie - Festive Furry Friends

Divas by Design - Jingle Bells

Hope you all love him as much as I do 

Andrea x

A little bit vintage

Occasionally I try my hand at something vintage and hopefully I'm improving, so any feedback is appreciated.

How I've done it......

Firstly I picked a sketch from Lili of the Valley to work with.  I then played around with papers for a bit to see what I thought would go together.  I wanted to do it in brown shades for current challenges and ended up using papers from Pressed in Time and On a High Note.  Once I got the layers on the card I set about distressing the papers.

I stamped the quote from Set 62 - Quotables - Friendship toward the middle top of the top layer.

The flowers, leaves and pearl flourishes are all from Wild Orchid Crafts.  I tried to focus them mainly to the bottom and left of the quote.  The pearlised pin, brass fan and resin bird are all from The Ribbon Girl.   I've also added some self adhesive pearlised gems to the top left and a few brass butterflies to go with the brown patterned butterfly paper. The final touch is some scattered gold glitter on the top half of the card.

I'm going to enter this card into following challenges 

Creative Inspirations - Take Your Pick - Brown and White or Vintage Style

Deep Ocean - Shabby Chic

GraphIt - Monochrome

Totally Gorjuss - Sparkly/Blingy/Glittery

Addicted to Stamps - Lots of Layers

Let me know what you think, any feedback appreciated

Thanks Andrea x

Thanks......

This is also a thanks to all the ladies who have supported me, given me advice and put some lovely comments on my blog :)

I sometimes get asked by the girls at work for thank you cards.  I haven't had any stamps I can produce them with but now I have two.  This is one if them Kraftin Kimmie's Every Day Girls - Angie.  I wanted her to look girly so I've done her in pink ProMarkers.  The image is hand cut and them mounted onto some white card and I've added some shadow with a grey Copic.

I've kept this one every simple and only used one pink paper from Solids - Bonnets and Bowties and some black card stock.

The stamped sentiment is slightly distressed to add a bit more character to the card.

The only other embellishments I've used are some self adhesive pink and black gems.

Thank you ladies

Andrea x

I'm entering this card into the following challenges 

In the Pink - Keep it Simple and Sweet

Kraftin Kimmie - Anything Goes

Papertake Weekly - So Girly

Best friend :)

I've a couple to post with my favourite colour - yes you've guessed it PINK :)

Stamping Bella have recently launched some new stamps and I was lucky enough to get my hands on this one by Mo Manning - Valerie with Snowman.  I used two different shades of Pink ProMarkers to colour it and then added I bit of glitter to the snowman and ground to highlight it.

The paper I've used is Solids - Always and Forever and some plain white card stock.  The curves were cut with a Spellbinders die.  The only other embellishments are a sentiment and some pearlised self adhesive gems to keep the card simple and to focus on the image.

Hope you all like her.

I'm entering this card junto the following challenges

Squirrel's World - It's Snow-Vember

In the Pink - Keep it Simple and Sweet

Papertake Weekly - So Girly

Crafty Catz - Winter Theme

Winter Wonderland - Lets Get Sentimental

Paradise of Stamps - Winter

Totally Gorjuss - Sparkly/Blingy/Glittery

Andrea x

Kittens in the snow

I saw this stamp on Lili of had Valleys inspiration blog a few weeks ago and bought it with my brother in law and his girlfriend in mind.  They have two cats who are very adventurous and always out hunting.  So this may be the Christmas card for them.

The stamp is Fur Cones and I've used ProMarker to colour the image monochromatic in browns.  I've added some white Americana Writer and Glamour Dust from DecoArt for the snow effects.

The image is mounted on some brown paper from Enchantment before mounting it onto the layers of papers from Solids - Always and Forever, Krafty Christmas and Enchantment.

I bought some embellishments especially for Christmas cards from The Ribbon Girl this week.  Here I've used two different sized pine comes and some rusted bells I bought from them.  The bells are tied with some brown string and attached to a craft card with a hand written sentiment.  Both of these were from Hobby Craft as were the black self adhesive gems.

The brown leaves were part of a set I got from Wild Orchid Crafts a few months ago.

I'm going to enter this card into the following challenges

Creative Card Crew - Stripes

Creative Inspirations - Brown & White or Vintage Style

Crafty Catz - Winter Theme

GraphIt - Monochrome

Wags n Whiskers - Add Some Leaves

Paradise of Stamps - Winter

Cutie Pie - Festive Furry Friends

Fantasy Stampers - Cute Christmas

Lili of the Valley - Merry Christmas

Happy Saturday :)

Andrea x