Christmas tree of a different kind

"Step away from the cute images, step away from the promarkers" cried Marley's ghost! Well maybe not quite, but you get the gist.
Faffing with post it notes and Distress Inks is always fun, so I made a quick and easy Christmas card this afternoon - daringly undertaken whilst my small person was still awake. He did wander off with various bits of paper and rubber stamps, but luckily nothing sharp or ink based. An experiment in carfting which will need to be tried again I think.

So there it is, I used a stamp from Clarity Stamps, a couple of Distress Inks (Stormy Sky, Broken China, Wild Honey and Vintage Photo), and a plethora of post it note "masks".
First I had to stamp the trees with Vintage Photo, and heat emboss it with clear detail powder, then make a mask for each tree. Punched a 1.5 inch circle in a post it note for my moon, and then inked over the whole lot. Once I took away the masks, the trees looked a bit too stark so I added a bit of shading with Warm Greys 2 & 4. Nothing terribly difficult or even time consuming, and looks pretty cool :)
Challenges for this week:
Quirky Crafts - CAS I would like to think this is Clean & Simple?

How hard can it be?

Adventures in crafting part 754 - Vintage. 

Given my penchant for Distress inks you would think I would find vintage relatively straightforward, wouldn't you? Well no, actually, I find it incredibly painful, and still I force myself to try! Not sure what brought on the notion today, but I have surpassed myself and have managed to use just about every crafting material which normally gives me a palpitations - pearls, glitter, lace and ribbon. Honestly don't think I've ever had so much "stuff" on a card before! Yet still I feel it's not quite there. Too straight and angular? Needs more "stuff"? Not dark enough? Any suggestions gratefully received :D

Used: Vintage Photo, Victorian Velvet and Bundled Sage Distress Inks, Hatbox stamp (possibly Angel Company?), organza ribbon, lace, pearls, art institute glitter, Cover a Card script stamp (Impression Obsession) and unknown sentiment stamp and BP.
Challenges (of course):
Totally Papercrafts - Victorian
One Stop Craft Challenge - Ribbons & Lace
Crafty Emma's Store - Roses and Ribbons

Non-Cute Card, as promised....

I do believe I foolishly promised to show a card which didn't involve any cute little people, so today I finally managed it. A struggle, to be sure.

Just a bit of white card, some ink, glitter and a leaf/branch stamp and it's done - 3 hours later! I have no idea why it took me so long, think I spent more time staring at it than actually doing anything with it. But, I guess that's all part of the "Creative Process", right?

Just a couple of challenges, it would be rude not to enter.....
Fab n Funky - all white on the night
My Time to Craft - Sun, Moon and Stars

On the fifth day of Christmas...

Who needs Gold Rings when you could have five Mo Mannings? Regular viewers may have noticed my complete obsession with Christmas cards featuring Mo Manning images. Tonight is no different, so turn away now if you have had enough of my compulsion. I promise I will post a card in a day or two which features no cute girls in winter attire. (Darn, did I really just say that?)
Yesterday I was busy colouring and tonight I did the faffing with paper and sentiment, and lo and behold a set of 5 cards which are almost identical. How did that happen? Sheer laziness I expect.
Here they are in all their Quintuplet glory:

and for you added viewing pleasure here's a close up of just one, bottom right I do believe:

Lighting/photography is a bit ropey this evening so even more profuse apologies from me. I also know that Birdie will be tutting, sighing and shaking her head of the lack of glitter involved, K will be searching for ribbon, whereas P will be hunting for embellishments and gems etc. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Just can't seem to get beyond quick, easy and light on postage!
Challenges for this one is to go in are the usual suspects of:
Make it Monday - Always Anything Goes #62
OSAAT - use a digi
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Winter Wardrobe

There's always time for Cake.

My friend Anne is an expert on cupcakes, and indeed cakes in general, and let's face it, a birthday is not a birthday without cake.
Tonight's humble offering is a squidgy looking cake-y delight with oodles of icing......and a bloomin' great fairy in the middle of it! Not what you usually expect as a birthday treat.
I randomly decided I would follow a sketch, which generally causes me much pain and anguish, but tonight it actually wasn't too bad. Not enough layers on mine - but a combination of image too big and card too small made me run out of space. That's my excuse anyway :)
The sketch I followed was this weeks from Tuesday Morning Sketches and should look a little like this:

It actually looks a lot like this:

Not quite the same is it? We'll just call it Artistic Licence and it'll be fine. The image is one of the new releases from Lili of the Valley and it's not actually released until 10th Nov (I have my sources....), she's called "never too old for cake" and has been coloured in with my trusty Promarkers, and her wings glittered with ultrafine stuff. The sentiment is also from Lili of the Valley. What else can I tell you? Probably not much of interest, so I'll just go now, shall I?
Oh, of course I need to let you know which challenges I doing this week -
Make it Monday - Always Anything Goes
I love Promarkers - Glitter and Glitz
and obviously the aforementioned Tuesday Morning Sketches, or that would be just silly now, wouldn't it?