And the winner is....

Taking my inspiration from my last card, I made this one, and I think it is fab! (Even if I do say so myself).

It is supposed to be Tone on Tone to fit with the 365 Cards - Day 258 challenge, but the embossing powder wasn't quite as clear as expected - I just got it yesterday. It's called Vanilla Ice (I hear you singing back there) which thinking on it, does suggest it should probably be white or cream. Ho Hum. I have used two different colours of kraft card/paper which is tone on tone?

I'm also going to be daring and enter it into the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge, which this week is for sparkle and shine - now I know the card probably isn't a typical sparkly card, but even though it's more subtle there is still quite a bit of sparkle from the embossing powder, the silver gel pen I've used to edge the kraft card, the sheen from the ribbon and the gems on the baubles. I've also used some silver mirri paper to mat and layer on top of the other sheet of kraft paper.

Over on Creative Inspirations the challenge is for Anything Christmassy/Winter so I'll go for that one too.

As I've heat embossed the three baubles (from a Personal Impressions stamp set, which I'm doing to death) and the sentiment, I'm also going to enter it into the Anything Goes Challenge as well.

And in second place...

Now I much prefer this card, it's made following the sketch on this weeks Clean & Simple Challenge, using the free Kaisercraft papers which came with the latest edition of Simply Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. I liked it so much I didn't do anything to it to make it fit with any other challenges.

Oh what a night...

Nothing that exciting, but I did make another 3 cards last night. Couldn't face doing all the photos etc though, and had a wee dram and a bar of chocolate instead! Ample reward for all my "hard" work.

Here's the first of my cards, and I have to say, my least favourite. It's OK, but the background embossing scares me (I never claimed to be sane, now, did I?).

I've made it following this weeks sketch on Sketch Saturday, using the colour palette of Traditional Christmas from Totally Gorjuss and the aforementioned embossing is for the Crafty Cardmakers Challenge.

An Award for Blogs with Attitude!

Note to self - buy a lottery ticket because this is my lucky week! Received a fab award from Dawn at Dawn's Crafting (it's all in the name...) who makes the most wonderful cards.

Apparently there's a gift attached to it too!!!

To qualify for the gift, a $5.00 Digi’s With Attitude! Gift Certificate! I need to tell you 3 things about myself and then pass this on to 5 other lucky bloggers.

Lastly, you must display the Blog Award Badge in your sidebar and link it back to the Digi’s With Attitude! Challenge Blog.

So here goes:

1) Today I made someone cry - with happiness, thankfully!

2) I hate horror movies, can't watch anything scary at all, or I start to cry!

3) Despite my continued best intentions, and copious amounts of planning, I'm late for everything. 

Now to pass on the award:

Samantha aka Sparkly Moo 

Loopy Lindsey 

Leann 

Claire (no, not me) 

Suzanne aka Kraftykid 

Just going to let them know, and do the sidebar thingy... 

Christmas-time, Mistletoe & Wine

I'll just have the wine, thanks...my second offering is surprise, surprise, another Christmas card! This time for the following challenges:
Fab n Funky - circles
Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
Totally Gorjuss - sketch

The papers are those Kaisercraft freebies again, and the stamp is again from Personal Impressions and coloured with promarkers. The Totally Gorjuss Sketch was more for a square card, so I'm feeling this one is a bit heavy on the left? I've added a ribbon and some faux stitching to try and balance it a bit. For the Fab N Funky challenge I've got spotty backing paper and also a couple of the sentiment thingys are punched circles.

Let it snow!

Back in the festive spirit (not)! We actually put up Christmas trees at work on Thursday. Madness! Anyway, I've been Christmas card making again and have two offerings for you this evening, the first fits in with the following challenges (which I hope are still current, as I haven't been blogging much this week!)

Fairymoon Crafts - Sketch
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Winter Snowflake
365 Cards - stamping with several colours

The snowman is a clear stamp from Personal Impressions, and I've used some free papers from this months Simply Cards & Papercraft, which were from Kaisercrafts. The snowman was stamped using a black Memento inkpad and then coloured with promarkers.

He's then been surrounded with stamped snowflakes using Broken China Distress Ink, and some Ice Stickles. I've also stamped and water brushed the holly leaves in each corner with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and added some Fired Brick for the berries. The sentiment was stamped using Poppy Brilliance Ink pad, and then embossed with clear embossing powder.

I was also chuffed to bits to win the Star Letter prize in the magazine, and I've won £50 of Hot off the Press craft goodies - can't wait til they arrive!

November Blog Candy

Some lovely Christmas-sy blog candy is up for grabs at Crafts International's blog, much green-ness. And I do like green....

Winter Weddings

I've had to restrain myself from blogging and crafting every night, couldn't get into the bathroom for the mounds of washing pouring itself out of the laundry basket. I managed to get things under some semblance of control today, so as a treat I've made a card (and eaten half a tub of Haagen Dasz).

I used Spyder's sketch from this weeks Quirky Crafts Challenge, which I enjoyed, sometimes I just can't "get" a sketch, but this one was fine. The card is for a friend who is getting married in December, and I decided (in my wisdom) that a white or ivory card is too "cold" for winter, so I picked red! I added a bit of gold too, so it works with the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge.

I've used a digi from the clipart fairy, and it does actually come already coloured, and you can get it in pink too. I printed off an extra set and layered it on top of the first. The background papers also came from a selection on the same site, and I used the computer to generate the sentiment. The ribbon is very cute and is made by East of India, I found a gift shop in Dunkeld selling loads of their things, and I wanted literally everything. My bit of gold paper was white, til I attacked it with a flourish stamp and some clear embossing powder, and again with some gold embossing powder, and again with a gold inkpad. Add a few gems and flowers, and the beast is tamed.....

Bring us some figgy pudding .....

My second card of the evening is another Christmas card, and again I've made use of some magazine freebies, this time a sample pack of papers and images from the Polka Doodles Sundae of Seasons CD, which I have also actually got.

The challenge the other day on 365 Cards was a picture of an advert to inspire us, I chose the colours of green brown and cream, which works well with these images. The challenge on Polka Doodles was to create and quick and easy Christmas card, and this one was very easy and very quick, but I still think it looks better than most shop bought ones! The last challenge I would like to enter is over on Crafty Catz which this week is to include spots and stripes. I could probably have posted just about any card I've ever made for that! However this card does include both spots and stripes so it should be just fine.

"B" is for....

Birthday? Butterfly? Brad? Border? The list goes on...

My first card of the day is a Birthday card, and as it has been raining all day, I decided to use the colour challenge on Fab N Funky to cheer things up a bit, which was pink and lime green! I also used the sketch from this weeks Clean & Simple Challenge and it should also fit the Anything Goes Challenge, which was the letter "B".

Here's my card:

I used a white A6 card blank, and made a mask for the middle of the card, then sponged Peeled Paint Distress Ink all over the edges. I used a pink and a lime green paper from MME paper pack which came free with a card mag in the summer (think it was called Quite Contrary) to make the flower, and used a sequin and a brad in the centre. I think the green butterflies came from an embellishment assortment from one of these dodgy pound shops which sell mostly tat with the occasional bargain.

November ATC's

Evening all! Tonight I've been making my ATC's for Ali's ATC Swap Shop, and coincidentally it also works with the Tuesday Taggers challenge which this week has an Oriental theme. I got the images from Mami Doodles, and I think they are adorable, they're so easy to work with and cut out, which is always a bonus! The Mami Doodles current challenge is to make anything but a card, so I'll enter it into that too.

I've coloured them in with my Promarkers, and layered them onto an oriental type background image of a bird in a japanese maple. As the theme for the ATC's was "Anything Goes as long as it's a Triptych" I've cut the image into three pieces and used all three of the oriental girls that you get in the kit. I found the quote on Google, and then just added a few gems.

I'll be making 4 in this set, (two down, two to go) and they should all be the same, unless I get bored and change the colour of the dresses on the last two!

....please put a penny in the old man's hat.

Does anyone else struggle to make up titles for their blog posts? I do, I'm always rubbish at thinking up slogans and tiebreaker thingies. I've now resorted to lines from Christmas carols. Their should be enough of those to keep me going til Christmas anyway.

My second card of the evening is following the sketch on Fairymoon Crafts, which was nice and straightforward. I have no idea where I got these little images from, they coul dhave been parcel tags from last year? But I thought they made a cute addition to the card.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.....

Not that I've ever had goose....but anyway, I digress. Couple of cards tonight and a couple of challenges. My first card was made using some magazine freebies from the Nitwits Still Joyful Hearts Collection. I cut out a load of the sentiments and arranged them onto an A6 sized card blank, some are stuck straight down others are on foam pads to add a bit of dimension. A touch of glitter glue and a couple of gems, and it makes a lovely card. I'd like to enter it into todays 365 Cards Challenge, which is to have your sentiment covering more than 50% of the card. Think I've managed that.

Another day, another Christmas card

Surely I must have enough Christmas cards by now? If not then I must know too many people.....

So, anyway, here's the card of the day:

 I made it to follow these challenges:
365 Cards - Mint (I've gone for the mint/green theme)
Pollycraft Monday Challenge - it's chill time (what's better than relaxing with a steaming hot drink on a cold winter's day?)
Crafty Cardmakers - Stitching (notice the very real and very wonky stitching around my green circle)
Sunday Sketch & Stamp (snowflakes stamped on the stripy paper, and also on the green circle)

I made the card using magazine freebies - Nitwits Still Joyful Hearts for the minty green backing paper, and Polkadoodles Sundae of Seasons for the Mug, the sentiment and the stripy paper. I used some green card from my stash, and cut nearly a full circle with my Nestie, and then stitched it to the backing paper. It's been stamped with different sized snowflakes using an Ivy Brilliance Ink Pad, which doesn't show up too well on the photo. Cut a Nestie Label 1 of the stripy paper and added a stitched line with a green gel pen (I'd fallen out with the sewing machine by this point), and then cut out the mug and stuck it on with some foam pads. Punched out the sentiment and stuck that on with foam pads, added a few teeny tiny gems, and some blue stamped snowflakes, and job done.