Welcome to the start of another week

Morning peeps,

Been away for the weekend, to the second Annual Happy Little Stampers retreat in Swindon. Truthfully, I'm not sure if it counts as the second or the third as Kylie did just one last year (which I attended) but offered two this year, with the other being two weeks ago, in Manchester! Either way, a great time was had by all.

Kylie set a couple of challenges, one was to produce an ATC with a Christmas theme, no problemo!

My ATC

And side on - to show the "wobbler" mechanism

Materials used:

• ATC blank
• Snippets of card in red and white
• After attaching (and trimming) the red card to the ATC blank I stamped the Precious Remembrance Shop (Sketchy Christmas) scribble image around the outer edge of the red layer using Memento tuxedo black ink
• On the white layer I applied lucky clover Distress Ink through a Stampers Anonymous stencil (Christmas words from the mini stencil set ?) using a mini blending tool and then lightly coloured the background area
• Using mowed lawn ink and the spotty stencil from the same set I inked the spots randomly on the ATC
• Using Distress Oxide in antique linen I randomly stencilled the music stencil (again, from the same set) - not expecting it to show but to give it a "texture" and colour variation once dry.
• A quick application of Crafters Companion ensured the water based inks would be waterproof but, on reflection I SHOULD have done this AFTER the next step as the ink would NOT dry!
• Using the Precious Remembrance Shop (sketchy Christmas) sentiment I stamped using Versafine onyx black which, as stated, didn't dry so ..... I sprinkled clear embossing powder, shook off the excess and heat set - job done!
• On a snippet of 300gsm white card I stamped and die cut my MFT Santa and coloured using Polychomos pencils, blending with Sansodor and a paper stump and highlighting with a Kaisercraft black glitter gel pen and stardust stickles
• Once everything was dry I attached a Hampton Arts "wobbler" and positioned Santa on to my ATC

This little chap won me a prize at the retreat and the organiser asked if she could take him home with her! YAY!, hope you all like him too

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

1. Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - challenge No. 70 - ANYTHING GOES
2. Pixie's Crafty Workshop - challenge NO. 309/310 - USE SNIPPETS
3. Delicious Doodles - November 1st challenge - TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS COLOURS
4. Kraftin' Kimmie - challenge No. 409 - CHRISTMAS

The second was a Christmas card, again ... not really a problem at this time of year AND with recent stash acquisition ...

My card

 

The front, back and inside of my card along with the front and back of my envelope

Materials used:

• White C6/A2, 300gsm, card and matching sized envelope
• Two pieces of white card, cut to fit and one of red, cut to mat
• Precious Remembrance Shop (Sketchy Christmas) scribble stamped using Memento London Fog (for the snow)
• MFT elf (Santa's Elves) stamped using Memento tuxedo black ink
• Precious Remembrance Shop (Sketchy Christmas ... rapidly becoming my fave and "go to") sentiment stamped using Versafine onyx black ink
• Faber Castell polychromos pencils used to colour  image with Kaisercraft black glitter gel pen used for hair and buttons
• Stardust stickles liberally applied to bling up the make

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

1. Happy Little Stampers - November CAS challenge - CHRISTMAS
2. Happy Little Stampers - November Christmas challenge - ANYTHING GOES (Optional TAG)
3. AAA Cards - November 26th challenge - CHRISTMAS
4. Jo's Scrap Shack - challenge No. 217 - ANYTHING GOES

   

And I even managed some crafting whilst I was away

My card

And  ... how does this represent LET IT SHINE? I hear you ask ....

A small LED light, some conductive copper tape and a 3v battery, that's how!
This pic was taken prior to colouring

Materials used:

• White A2, 300gsm, card
• White 300gsm card for image panel
• Chibitronics LED light, copper tape (to create the circuit, 3v battery to power the light
• Happy Little Stampers (Doodle flowers set) image, leaves and sentiment stamped using Memento tuxedo black ink

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

1. Simply Less Is More - challenge No. 356 - LET IT SHINE
2. Corrosive Challenge - challenge No. 11 - ANYTHING GOES
3. Crafty Friends - challenge No. 71 - ANYTHING GOES

Also took some pix whilst I was away .... it was such a fab weekend and lovely to catch up with friends old and new (mostly friends in blogland already though)

L-R: Kylie, Lilian, Sue, Sue, Val, Gay, Maryanne and Anne

View from my hotel room, complete with frost on the grass!

Have a great week