Monday - here we go again, another week!

Morning readers,

Hope you all had a great weekend and that the (sometimes torrential) rain didn't spoil any plans you may have had. We were Riddick sitting whilst his peeps went to Cornwall to put up a fence and do a few other bits and pieces ... and (sadly) it was pretty wet for them too! Riddick however, didn't seem to mind walking in the rain, that was just us!

I've a make to share with you today ... and, oh look, it's NOT actually a Christmas card!!! Instead it's an occasion free card - so useful to have a couple in stock, just in case

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, C6 card and envelope
• Card in white and black, for my card front, insert and matting layer
• Using a new sticky mat (from Amazon), I laid my white card front on it and (using a Tim Holtz mini blender with domed foam) and applied layers of Distress Inks in: Bundled sage, Iced spruce and Forest moss (never my 1st pick when thinking green but it IS lush), till I was happy with the colour saturation and left it to dry. Happy to report that the sticky mat held my card front in place perfectly - YAY!
• Sunshine Designs bloom (CSD01-M and sadly much neglected ... until this project) stamped using Versafine Clair nocturne ink
• Paper Artsy splatter (from the very elderly HTPX01 - my fave splatter for SO very long but now much neglected) stamped using Versafine Clair nocturne ink
• A quick spritz of Crafters Companion Spray and Shine - to protect the water based inks
• Stardust stickles to add some sparkle

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:-

1. Love to Craft - challenge No. 94 - ANYTHING GOES
2. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - challenge No. 287 - ANYTHING GOES
3. Creative Inspiration - challenge No. 43 - ANYTHING GOES
4. Creative Fingers - challenge No. 331 - ANYTHING GOES
5. Polkadoodles - challenge No. 10 - ANYTHING GOES

Saturday and that MUST mean, it's the weekend - ENJOY!

Morning readers,

I've a make to share with you today ... a 12 Days of Christmas make - this one uses the "5 gold rings" element from the Penny Black set, it's been languishing at the back of the drawer for just too long, rather like the embossing folder too, I thought the folder worked well with the "circular" theme of my card.

Materials used:

• 250gsm, C6 card and envelope
• Card in white and red, for my card front, insert and matting layer
• Snippets of card in white and red, for my image panel, sentiment and embossed panel
• Unbranded nesting circle dies in plain and faux stitched edged - to cut my image panel and matting layer
• Penny Black "5 gold rings" image (from 12 Days of Christmas - often neglected but such a fab set) stamped using Versafine Clair nocturne ink
• Stamplorations sentiment (from "Oh Christmas tree") stamped on to a white snippet using Versafine Clair strawberry ink, fussy cut out using scissors and then attached to my card front using dimensional foam tape
• Snippet of red card run through my Big Shot inside a Sizzix/Tim Holtz circles embossing folder and then "swiped" with Brilliance galaxy gold ink to add a gold highlight sheen to the embossed sections of the strip
• Faber Castell polychromos pencils used to colour my image, the gold ring was coloured with a gold glitter gel pen
• Stardust stickles to add sparkle to the "sparkler" of the ring!

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:-

1. Penny Black Saturday challenge - October challenge - ANYTHING GOES + (optional) BRIGHT COLOURS
2. Neglected Stuff Challenge - October challenge - USE NEGLECTED STUFF
3. Paper-Rocks Scissors - challenge No. 21 - ANYTHING GOES (featuring paper and scissors)
4. Simply Clean And Simple - October challenge - TINY
5. A Cut Above - October challenge - USE A DIE/S

TGIF peeps, hope you have a great weekend to look forward to

Morning readers,

I've a make to share with you today ... yes, it's a Christmas card as I'm still playing catch up. This is another variation on a make published by Julie  Maddock - her original can be seen further down this post. I originally CASE'd it in an earlier post, in blue, and you can revisit it here, in case you missed it.

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, C6 card and envelope
• Card in white and green
• 5" x ½" piece of scrap card which I used to cut an aperture from
• With my mask taped in place and using a makeup brush, I applied Distress Inks in iced spruce and evergreen bough
• Penny Black bough (from "Joyous") stamped using Versafine Clair pinecone ink
• Aall & Create sentiment (from set #607) stamped using Versafine Clair nocturne ink
• A quick spritz of Crafters Companion Spray and Shine, to protect the water based inks
• Stardust stickles, on the bough, to add some festive sparkle

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:-

1. Penny Black Saturday Challenge - October challenge - ANYTHING GOES + (optional) BRIGHT COLOURS
2. The Holly and Ivy - challenge No. 213 - ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES
3. Peace on Earth - challenge No. 121 - ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES + (optional) MOOD BOARD
4. Merry Little Christmas - challenge No. 70 - ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES
5. Krafty Chicks - challenge No. 841 - CHRISTMAS

And the inspiration for today's make? Julie Maddock, check out her original below

Wednesday - have a good one!

Morning readers,

I've a make to share with you today ... another Christmas card .. well, it IS approaching that time of year and I am still behind with my stack of cards for the festive season! However, I AM getting there! I DID have to ink my white snippet twice as I used the pine needles ink to stamp the background sentiment and it was just too dark ... so, I tried again with the iced spruce, much better!

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, C6 card and envelope
• Card in white and red, for my card front, insert and matting layer
• Snippets of card in white and red, for my image panel
• Festive lights washi tape
• Using a makeup brush I applied Distress Inks in Bundled sage, Iced spruce and Pine needles till I was happy with the colour saturation
• See D's holiday sentiment (from 550136 - an often neglected but actually very useful set) stamped using the iced spruce ink before setting aside to dry
• Tim Holtz bough (from THMM155) stamped using Versafine Clair nocturne ink
• Stardust stickles added to give some festive sparkle

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:-

1. Merry Little Christmas - challenge No. 70 - ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES
2. Girlz Creative Christmas - challenge No. 197 - ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES 
3. Peace on Earth - challenge No. 121 - ANYTHING GOES + (optional) MOOD BOARD
4. Neglected Stuff - October challenge - USE NEGLECTED STUFF
5. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - challenge No. 287 - ANYTHING GOES

Monday - look out! Here comes another week!

Morning readers,

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend and had something nice to occupy your time. For us, it was dinner with the Surrogates on Saturday so it was all systems go ... hubby was cooking, I was in charge of cleaning prep and, once our guests arrived I was the entertainment committee too, it was a lovely evening, thanks for coming both, not forgetting Riddick, guess he made three!

I've a make to share with you today ... yes, it's another Christmas card but I still some way behind so, sadly, you're all going to be seeing more of them!

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, C6 card and envelope
• Card in white and red, for my card front, insert and matting layer
• Stamplorations sentiment (from the "Oh Christmas tree" set) stamped using Versafine Clair strawberry ink
• Stampa Rosa tree (a very ELDERLY wood mounted image ref: 221108) stamped using Versafine Clair shady lane ink
• Faber Castell polychromos pencils to colour the star and add a little shading to each side of the tree image and to add some brown to the trunk ... that's a little more obvious in real life - sorry!
• Stardust stickles to add some serious sparkle 

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:-

1. Neglected stuff challenge - October challenge - USE NEGLECTED STUFF
2. Christmas Crafts All Year Round - October challenge - LETTERS "T" and "U" - I went with "T", for TREE
3. Outlawz Christmas Challenge - October challenge - ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES
4. Merry Little Christmas - challenge No. 70 - ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES
5. CraftyCatz - challenge No. 720 - ANYTHING GOES

I was a lucky TOP3 over at Dream Valley challenges for their challenge No. 370 - thank you so much

Sunday .... I KNOW I don't NORMALLY post on a Sunday but ...

Morning readers,

I don't normally post on Sundays (just Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat) as it happens (because I'm frantically making Christmas cards) I am ahead of my posting schedule but saw a challenge I quite fancied entering so decided to push the boat out and chuck in an extra post!!!!

I've a make to share with you today ... the challenge theme of "TINY" set me thinking about this particular little quartet of robins

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, C6 card and envelope
• Card in white and red, for my card front, insert and matting layer
• Stamplorations sentiment (from "Oh Christmas tree") stamped using Versafine Clair strawberry ink
• Little Clair image (a gift in 2015 so no other details) stamped using Versafin Clair nocturne ink
• I used a red sharpie, an orange marker and Faber Castell polychromos pencils to colour
• Stardust stickles on the hats, to add some festive sparkle

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:-

1. Simply CAS - October challenge - ANYTHING CAS GOES+ (optional) "TINY"
2. D.L. Art - October challenge - ANYTHING GOES
3. Creative Inspiration - challenge No. 43 - ANYTHING GOES
4. Crafty Animals - challenge No. 110 - ANYTHING GOES (featuring an animal)
5. Critter Crazy - challenge No. 115 - ANYTHING GOES (featuring a critter)

Saturday - it's the weekend!

Morning readers,

It's the weekend and I hope you have something nice to look forward to, we have two of "the Surrogates" joining us for dinner which will be nice.

I've a make to share with you today ... another CASE'd make, this time it was Shirley Bampton for Visible Image - her glorious original is further down my post. Obviously, I didn't have many of the OP's materials - basically just the inks. It didn't start out to be a Christmas card either, but I'm on a roll and this is just how it turned out - thanks for the inspo Shirley, I hope I made it sufficiently different from your original.

Materials used:

• White, 250gsm, C6 card and envelope
• Card in white and black, for my card front, insert and matting layer
• Using Tim Holtz mini blenders I applied Distress Inks: Fossilised amber, Barn door and Aged mahogany till I was happy with the colour saturation
• MFT "swipes" (from DC.52 "Abstract art") and Tim Holtz large bottle brush tree and sentiment (from THMM173) stamped using Versafine Clair nocturne ink
• A quick spritz of Crafters Companion Spray and Shine - to protect the water based inks
• Stardust stickles to give some festive sparkle

I'll be entering the above make for the following challenges:-

1. Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday challenge - ANYTHING GOES
2. Merry Little Christmas - challenge No. 70 - ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES
3. The Outlawz Christmas challenge - October challenge - ANYTHING CHRISTMAS GOES
4. Christmas Crafts All Year Round - October challenge - LETTERS "T" or "U" - in this case I went with "T" for TREE
5. Love to Craft - challenge No. 94 - ANYTHING GOES

Want to see Shirley Bampton's fabulous original, for Visible Image?